He’s all about oil. He’s power hungry. He stifles free speech. He tramples the constitution. He suppresses Democracy.

George W. Bush?

Nah, Dubya’s done none of that, no matter what the loony left (alas, much of the current Democrat party and the news media) says. No, we’re talking ’bout Time magazine’s “Person of the Year.”

Sometimes you gotta just laugh:

No one is born with a stare like Vladimir Putin’s. The Russian President’s pale blue eyes are so cool, so devoid of emotion that the stare must have begun as an affect, the gesture of someone who understood that power might be achieved by the suppression of ordinary needs, like blinking. The affect is now seamless, which makes talking to the Russian President not just exhausting but often chilling. It’s a gaze that says, I’m in charge.

While Time frets about Bush’s interpretation of presidential prerogatives, it’s found a dictator to love.

He is passionate in his belief that the dissolution of the Soviet Union was a tragedy, particularly since overnight it stranded 25 million ethnic Russians in “foreign” lands.

Well, that’s what happens when you seize said lands and then are too weak to keep them. Finders keepers, etc.

What gets Putin agitated—and he was frequently agitated during our talk—is his perception that Americans are out to interfere in Russia’s affairs. He says he wants Russia and America to be partners but feels the U.S. treats Russia like the uninvited guest at a party. “We want to be a friend of America,” he says. “Sometimes we get the impression that America does not need friends” but only “auxiliary subjects to command.”

Imagine Time’s excitement when the Tsar implied that Bush is arrogant. See!

Asked if he’d like to correct any American misconceptions about Russia, Putin leans forward and says, “I don’t believe these are misconceptions. I think this is a purposeful attempt by some to create an image of Russia based on which one could influence our internal and foreign policies. This is the reason why everybody is made to believe…[Russians] are a little bit savage still or they just climbed down from the trees, you know, and probably need to have…the dirt washed out of their beards and hair.” The veins on his forehead seem ready to pop.

No, not so much dirt in their hair, but vodka on their breath. Remember, a child born in Bangladesh today has a longer life expectancy than a child born in Russia.

After decades of slumbering underachievement, the Bear is back. Its billionaires now play on the global stage, buying up property, sports franchises, places at élite schools. Moscow exerts international influence not just with arms but also with a new arsenal of weapons: oil, gas, timber.

So Russian billionaires are good. As are “statesman” who seize power through trickery.

To achieve stability, Putin and his administration have dramatically curtailed freedoms. His government has shut down TV stations and newspapers, jailed businessmen whose wealth and influence challenged the Kremlin’s hold on power, defanged opposition political parties and arrested those who confront his rule. Yet this grand bargain—of freedom for security—appeals to his Russian subjects, who had grown cynical over earlier regimes’ promises of the magical fruits of Western-style democracy.

Magical fruits? Wha…?

The premiership is a perch that will allow him to become the longest-serving statesman among the great powers, long after such leaders as Bush and Tony Blair have faded from the scene.

Stalin lasted a long time, too.