Contrary to what many in Washington are suggesting, understanding the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, was never difficult. Three U.S. administrations failed to do it not because of a lack of evidence of his criminality but rather because facing that reality did not fit into their plans.

Putin came to power as the result of an act of terror, the bombing of four Russian apartment buildings in 1999 that claimed 300 lives. It was this act that galvanized Russians behind a new war in Chechnya and turned a former head of the FSB who had never run for office into a national savior. A fifth bomb in the basement of a building in the city of Ryazan, however, was discovered and the persons who planted it were caught. They proved to be not Chechen terrorists but agents of the Federal Security Service (FSB).