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Andrei Illarionov, the lone dissenter in a Kremlin dominated by Putin’s fellow KGB veterans, was stripped of his duties as envoy to the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations earlier this year. However, he had remained Putin’s economic adviser.

Illarionov made the move after harshly criticizing the Kremlin’s course last week, when he said that political freedom in Russia has steadily declined and that government-controlled corporations have stifled competition and ignored public interests.

"It is one thing to work in a partly free country, which Russia was six years ago. It is quite another when the country has ceased to be politically free,” he said Tuesday, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.

Bush’s stay at ranch: Studying Roosevelt

CRAWFORD, Texas — Read nothing into President Bush’s current choice in books, the White House says. The president is reading "When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House,” but presidential spokesman Trent Duffy said Bush is not thinking about his post-Oval Office days.

"He is an avid reader and the president knows full well that he’s got a lot of time left in this second term and he’s going accomplish big things,” Duffy said.

Duffy said Brian Williams, anchor of "NBC Nightly News,” recommended the book to the president.

In a review, former President Jimmy Carter said author Patricia O’Toole describes Roosevelt’s later years, addressing "frustrated ambitions, Republican politics, third party strategy and top-level contention about war and peace.”

Duffy said Bush also is reading "Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground” by Robert D. Kaplan. The book is about how U.S. imperialism and the global war on terrorism are executed around the world.

"He reads books of all stripes and persuasion, and he decided to read it,” Duffy said.

It’s not known if one of these books was a Christmas present from first lady Laura Bush. Besides a book, she gave the president clothes and biking gear. He gave her jewelry and a DVD player for the ranch.

Besides reading, Bush is riding his bike at his ranch and working in two- to three-hour sessions cutting and clearing brush. He’s also receiving regular intelligence briefings and doing policy work, but has not yet met with his speechwriters about his January State of the Union address, Duffy said.