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May 07, 2012 | | SPECIAL REPORT Despite his populist posturing, the president has failed to pin a single top finance exec on criminal charges since the economic collapse. Are the banks too big to jail—or is Washington’s revolving door to blame? In Newsweek, Peter J. Boyer and Peter Schweizer investigate. OPPOSITION Hundreds of opposition protesters were detained in Russia Monday as Vladimir Putin was sworn in as president after serving four years as prime minister. Putin took his oath of office in a glittering former throne room in the Kremlin that included a blessing from the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. Outside, however, 20,000 people rallied in a demonstration against the former KGB spy that turned violent when protesters and police fought with batons and flagpoles. “Putin has shown his true face, how he ‘loves’ his people—with police force,” said Dmitry Gorbunov, a 35-year-old computer analyst involved in the protests. HARROWING A video showing Warren Weinstein, a 70-year-old American citizen who was kidnapped in Pakistan last year, surfaced on Islamist websites Sunday. “My life is in your hands, Mr. President,” the al Qaeda captive said in the video, addressing President Obama. “If you accept the demands, I live. If you don’t accept the demands, I die.” A development consultant who was kidnapped in the city of Lahore, Weinstein referenced his children and Obama’s daughters in the three-minute impassioned plea for help, asking that the president fulfill a list of eight demands laid out by terrorist leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. The demands include the release of any person charged with belonging to al Qaeda and the Taliban and an end to strikes in Pakistan. ABROAD President Obama has mishandled foreign policy in the Middle East, Republican Sen. John McCain said Sunday. In particular, the United States should be putting weapons in the hands of forces opposing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, McCain said. The senator dismissed the idea that rebels may then use those same weapons in attacks against friendly nations, calling the Syrian opposition a “direct repudiation of al Qaeda” that tried first to achieve regime change peacefully. “How could we not stand up for these people?” McCain said in an appearance on ABC’s This Week. “How could we sit by and watch this slaughter go on while the president of the United States is totally silent?” FIN France elected a new president Sunday in a tight race. Christopher Dickey on how the Socialist François Hollande won—and why his anti-austerity mandate may not hold up. | | 
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