Teribus, it's interesting that you seem to ascribe a lot of credibility to Putin's assertions, regarding Russian Intelligence, purportedly passed on to the US. At the same time, you also seem to easily dismiss Putin's stated belief that "the US-led invasion of Iraq violated international legislation on procedures of the use of force in international affairs" (RIA Novosti, Agence France-Presse, June 18; Moscow Times, June 21).

IMO, Putin is just throwing Bush a much needed bone. Having criticized the Republican regime, Putin would still probably much prefer to see Bush "re-elected" than any Democrat. Democrats generally tend to be very critical of Russian abuse of civil and human rights.