Posted on 12/28/2021 7:35:56 AM PST by Navy Patriot
I have never understood that subset of posters on this site who admire the guy.
He was KGB, and his spots didn’t miraculously change with the fall of the wall and rise to power. He always has been, and always will be a heinous thug.
I think the images with his shirt off are humorous, but I find the adulation he receives to be disturbing.
Putin does seem to promote stability as a good thing both inside and outside Russia.
If stability means you can’t have free elections, opponents, or dissenting voices in the press....
...yeah I guess that is stability, just a more nuanced version of China.
Like Marxist Democrat America?
Oh really? Why is he still running a government full of the same old communist party members then? Why not clear out the rot if he has had some genuine change of heart?
There’s no excuse that he doesn’t have the power to remove the communists, after all, he is an authoritarian dictator. No, the communists are still in power in Russia because Putin allows it, because he is, as he has always been, a communist.
I think it is not the case anymore.
The two final nails in the coffin of Yeltsin regime were the Asian crisis of 1998 when Russia defaulted on T-bonds and his failure to stand to NATO on Yugoslavia.
Pristina dash by VDV in an attempt to relieve Serbian troops in Kosovo was an obvious military coup against Yeltsin’s policies and had enjoyed widespread public support.
Yeltsin’s sponsors realized that he was over and some “patriotic” replacement was needed or some grassroot replacement is going to produce itself.
It didn’t play out for several reasons. First, Yeltsin’s comprador oligarchy was insolvent resulting in an average monthly income of $64 for the majority of Russians, where everything was owned by two dozen people who used organized crime to suppress all sorts of economic activity, except oil export.
Putin had to do something about it for universal poverty not to allow the rise of the left.
The attacks on the Clinton-connected oligarchs and their gangs were that first produced bad press for Putin and disaffection towards him from the Western establishment.
It was also the factor of economic boom when the oligarch’s “businesses” converted to publicly traded companies which finally began to pay taxes, and the racketeers were over, where the pawn shops expanded, converting into shopping malls and supermarket chains.
On foreign policy the problem was Putin’s complicity with the NATO operation in Afghanistan. It didn’t work well with the patriotic crowd for two reasons. First, NATO military had a bunch of “Peace Corps” community organizers with them who started to indoctrinate the Central Asians that their misery is the result of “Russian enslavement” over the last 200 years. Then Bush planned missiles in Poland, said against Iran but nobody believed it. Also Putin finally pulled the military bases from Cuba and Vietnam, where NATO kept expanding towards Russia.
Last but not least the Chechen invasion of mainland Russia in 1999 and the following war, where Al-Qaeda enjoyed the support of the Washington-based ACPC chaired by Brzezinski and Heig.
In such circumstances, Putin’s administration by 2004 was in a two-front situation, with Western globalists on one side attacking his economic policies, on the other side patriots and military, disaffected over his foreign policies.
I think that between 2004-2007 he leaned to the globalists trying to explain to them his problems with the other side, but failed to reach understanding. They thought they were still in control and able to pull regime change if he fails to tow in line.
The result was Putin’s Munich speech in 2007, rejecting the Western agenda and his pivot to Asia.
Hence the Western-instigated Georgian crisis, pipeline wars, Navalny, and finally Ukraine with all the related sanctions.
Ha! You just described the deep state/big tech/mockingbird complex. (AKA American fascism)
The detail is extremely helpful.
I did know that Clinton and American Leftists intended, from the start, to allow Leftist Western Oligarchs to Loot Russian Resources and Land ownership.
I did not know that said intentions and attempts to execute them may have pushed Putin away from Socialism.
It is fascinating how Putin may have learned the necessity for all the Russian population to have an income source other than the State, have Private Property, and have more freedom of choice in the Economy.
I did know the second Chechen war signified a significant change in Putin.
I recall Putin/Russian support of US/NATO overland resupply of Afghanistan, but never looked at it in the opposite direction of the cost to Putin among Conservative Russians at home.
Thanks for all of this, I've got some thinking to do.
Let me add: in 1990s, Memorial played a positive role, documenting the fate of those who suffered during the Soviet Union.
However, in recent years the emphasis shifted toward protection and to a degree glorifying Nazi collaborators.
https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/73355/
basically taking the position that participation in Nazi war crimes during WWII was a natural reaction to Stalin. This is a borderline promotion of Nazism, which is illegal in Russia.
And yes, they view "Human Rights" as Sexual Minority Rights in the Western sense.
You’re welcome, Patriot!
Regarding the Central Asian situation:
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-was-the-tulip-revolution.html
It’s an embellishing take on “Tulip revolution” but gives an overall idea.
The original agitation was that the Russians are bad guys, and Kyrghyz aren’t doing fine due to Russian puppets who needs to be expelled.
Although the coup government failed to stick, another revolution took place and the American base finally expelled.
Basically taking the position that participation in Nazi war crimes during WWII was a natural reaction to Stalin. This is a borderline promotion of Nazism, which is illegal in Russia.
Thanks for the additional point, Mvonfr, I failed to include Nazi collaboration in my list, and indeed, it belongs there.
Thanks, Norse, I’ll add that to my reading list.
Re most Soviet KGB senior officials - you can take a KGB officer out of the Party but you can’t take the Party out of the officer!!
“Like Marxist Democrat America? “
We are going further to the Left. It’s up to us to change that.
But, suggesting that we are as bad as Putin’s Russia, is childish.
Your suggesting that present day Russian policy is anything like present day Communist Chinese policy is childish.
Putin takes his position as czar seriously.
5.56mm
I didn’t say that.
You did state you childish comparison.
Russia is a mere nuisance with little power to yield economically and in projecting power.
So, no I didn’t compare them to a real threat like China.
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