Russia's slide back into a dictatorship -- and how the West is now paying the price for allowing it to happen. The ascension of Vladimir Putin -- a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB -- to the presidency of Russia in 1999 was a strong signal that Russia was headed away from democracy. In the intervening years -- as America and the world's other leading powers have continued to appease him -- Putin has grown not only into a dictator but an international threat. With his vast resources and nuclear arsenal, Putin is at the center of a worldwide assault on political liberty and the modern world order. Garry Kasparov has been a vocal critic of Putin for over a decade, even leading the pro-democracy opposition to him in the farcical 2008 presidential election. Yet years of seeing his prophecies about Putin's intentions fulfilled have left Kasparov with a darker truth: Putin's Russia, like ISIS or Al Qaeda, defines itself in opposition to the free countries of the world ...