Putin's Rule Turns 20: Many Russians Find Stability; A New Generation Sees Stagnation

Ruslan Parshutin was just a teenager, but he still remembers New Year's Eve 20 years ago.

Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first president, flickered on TV screens, speaking slowly and deliberately. Eight years of political and economic turmoil following the collapse of the Soviet Union had taken its toll on him. Yeltsin announced his resignation and handed over power to his energetic 47-year-old prime minister, Vladimir Putin.

"We had hopes that there would be changes for the better," says Parshutin, now an engineer. "And those hopes were justified — that's obvious. It's just enough to look at our city and see how much it has changed."

Parshutin, 35, stands in the new riverside park in Tula, an industrial city 100 miles south of Moscow. For Russians like him who lived through the.