Posted on 12/20/2016 12:57:02 AM PST by elhombrelibre
MOSCOW — Dozens of people in the Siberian city of Irkutsk died after drinking cheap surrogate alcohol over the weekend, evoking memories of the poverty and social depression that came after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The tragedy was a reminder that while President Vladimir V. Putin may be taking a star turn on the world stage — dominating the war in Syria and alarming European and American leaders who fear the Kremlin is undermining democracy — Russia remains in many respects a struggling country. For all his bravado, Mr. Putin continues to wrestle with domestic economic woes, widening inequality and endemic corruption.
The economy, deeply dependent on oil revenues, was thrown into recession in 2015, after a collapse in oil prices, and is just now emerging tentatively into positive territory. The ensuing collapse of the ruble and Western economic sanctions over the Kremlin’s maneuvers in Crimea and Ukraine have hit living standards hard.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Maybe not, but Lincoln said you cannot believe everything you read on the internet. So be careful what you read.
Hey New York Times, I’d like to play.
“Hundreds of Americans have died in the last month of a deadly mix of fentanyl and heroin, feeling despair in a struggling nation after 8 years of an Obama administration.”
How’d I do?
“So be careful what you read.”
I am. That’s why I spent about two minutes establishing to my satisfaction that Franklin never wrote that.
——surrogate alcohol——
moonshine distilled with a truck radiator condenser
You miss the point. Putin’s real job is and always has been saving Mother Russia from Dying
What is portrayed as sabre rattling is actually advertising. His efforts in Syria are to show off his weapons.
His country produces nothing worth a damn for export except weapons. Aside from oil and metals, he has nothing but weapons to sell and produce jobs
http://www.geoba.se/population.php?pc=world&type=015&page=2
Back years ago, I had a hand in the construction of the US Embassy in Moscow. All of the Glaziers were women. The men were drunks and not allowed. Overtime was a no no. Quitting time came and out the gate. They could however be induced. If there was a need to work over, a pair of panty hose was palced in the foreman’s drawer for each woman needed to work over. Vice grips just disappeared. They were unknown in USSR and highly valued.
I didn’t ever visit the job site because the number of Americans was tightly controlled.
Later , after the fall, I was talked into a visit by the Tennessee Trade commission to take part in Operation Moscow. Generally it was a failure because they had no money. On the second and third trips we bought Tylenol by the gallon and put 10 tablets to a baggie. That provided all sorts of entry and good service.
Still later, I had a small input to a USAID program where churches could send stuff to churches abroad and the US Government paid the freight. I saw half a forty foot container load of panty hose be shipped to a church organization Moldova. It was at least 15 years since my first experience there and they still hadn’t mastered making panty hose. They had learned to game the system
I never made the trip
Human capital is the most valuable. Unfortunately, it’s easier to say that then it is to create it. The ethos of the Soviet Union is alive in many ways, in their habits, and in their weird love of the irrational strong man.
“Would you have the NYT spike stories that don’t seem flattering to Putin?”
No and I do not see how that idea would follow from what I said.
This article was like if some hold-my-beer hillbilly bros did something dumb and the NY Times used to to show how Trump’s America has problems and that it somehow impacts on Trump’s leadership.
It’s nonsense.
And if you think I am one of those Putin lovers, like there are so many here, I am not.
They must have been Uzbeks drinking battery fluid.
Putin wants to run a near totalitarian state. He calls the shots in Russia. He should be the one who is able to turn Russia around, if so. He doesn’t seem to be doing any better than the Soviets did, however.
They are desperate to drink in Russia due to the American media labeling them as hackers.
That’s right. They drink to forget what they read.
I am not arguing about that.
I will accept it for the sake of discussion.
Dumb Russian bubbas drinking poison doesn’t have anything to do with it and the NY Times is irrational.
Horrible.
I think he admitted putting poison in the alcohol, shooting the ambassador, and doing everything else bad that will happen to Russia between now and January 20th.
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