Out of Control?

Masha Gessen has been reading the transcript of President Putin's three-hour question-and-answer call-in show on Tuesday, and has some reflections on the curiously passive and impersonal quality of the language used by the president. This leads her to some further speculation:

The only time Putin used the first-person singular with confidence and even gusto was when he answered a question about his frequent forays into the armed services -- all those plane-flying and submarine-commanding shenanigans.The rest of the time he sounded meek, evasive and even scared. I first noticed this tendency in Putin in May 2003, when he gave an address that launched his second presidential campaign. I thought his strategy was to frighten people by conveying a picture of a country very close to being out of control. But after his telethon, I am starting to suspect something else: Maybe it is out of control.