Putin protests too much.

• Author: Clinton, Kate
• Position: Unplugged - Vladimir Putin - Column

Unlike Sovietologists, I do not claim a deep knowledge of Russian history. But I took no pleasure watching vaunted Sovietologists like Condoleezza Rice being blindsided by the implosion of communist Russia. (OK, a tiny bit.)

Nor did I revel in watching as American anti-communists tried to cover their gaffe by recreating a secretly governed, heavily surveilled, undemocratic America.

Nor was I thrilled to watch Russian former communists impose an oligarchic capitalism that threw average Russian people deeper into grinding poverty.

Still, my knowledge of Russia and its people is not even "I'll take Tsars for $400" deep, but blinithin, a hybrid goulash of Doctor Zhivago (mostly Julie Christie), Boris and Natasha, and tiny preternaturally pretzel-like gymnasts who never, ever fell off the balance beam. And you knew if they did, it was next stop Siberia.

My history with Russia is fall-out shelter, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and wild man Khrushchev hammering his shoe on a U.N. table. As a child I did not learn about Russia in history class. I prayed for Russia at mass.

Just before the priest concluded the proceedings with, "Go in peace, the mass is ended," he would intone, "Savior of the World," followed by the hearty, one-voiced response of the congregation, "Save Russia."

Russia needed to be saved because they were godless atheists. Every last one of them. My elementary Sisters of Charity used the godlessness of children our age whenever the Lives of the Child Martyrs stories were not having the desired effect on our behavior: "In Russia, children are taken from their families and put in preschool! .... Russian children snitch on their own parents!" and "Russian children eat their beets!"

Like the space race, our belief became quite competitive. Catholicism vs. Atheism, game on. We children were going to twist ourselves into such a belief in God that we wouldn't have time to be very good in science, math, or nailing our landings. The notion that you could not believe in God was both perplexing and...