Okay, so its been a while since I've had a political post. But current world events have gotten me increasingly concerned. And no, this has nothing to do with Iraq. I'm talking about Russia's current slide into a dictatorship.

The Bush administrations response?

"This is a domestic matter for the Russian people,'' said a White House official who asked to remain anonymous. "It is important for Russia to continue along the pathway of democracy and economic reform.''

Naturally, there have been other responses from the administration:

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, said Putin's planned changes were "pulling back on some of the democratic reforms". He pledged to raise his concerns with the Russian leadership.

It remains to be seen whether or not Powell's concerns will actually get raised, or listened to. Most of the European community is outraged about this, but we know how much good that will do them without the full support of the U.S. Can we all agree yet that unilateralism has opened the door to some particularly bad actors?