When Vladimir Putin ascended to the Russian presidency at the end of 1999, the country was struggling to get off its knees after a decade of post-communist chaos. The government had defaulted on its debt just a year before, triggering a deep recession, and was still drawing standby loans from the International Monetary Fund. Russian troops were mired in a brutal and seemingly endless conflict in Chechnya. Putin, an austere martial arts master and former KGB spy, exhorted Russians to sacrifice in the name of restoring national dignity. Today, as Putin prepares to hand the presidency to his protégé, Dmitry Medvedev, the overwhelming favorite in the March 2 presidential election, Russia stands transformed. An oil-fueled boom has raised economic output by more than two thirds over the past eight years, boosting per capita income to more than $8,000 on a purchasing power parity basis — ahead of Turkey and Brazil...