[McGruff]

Odd. Putin’s approval ratings hit 89 percent, the highest they’ve ever been.

[1rudeboy]

Bah. Not even close to Saddam Hussein.

[Brad from Tennessee]

[Putin’s approval ratings hit 89 percent, the highest they’ve ever been.]

CNN:

“An opinion poll can only be conducted in a democracy with a free press,” he explained. “In a country with no free press, where people are arrested for expressing their opinions, where the truth is hidden from them, where the media even online is almost all controlled by the government — when a pollster phones people up and asks, ‘Hello, do you approve of Vladimir Putin,’ the answer is overwhelmingly yes.

“So what that opinion poll is, is not a poll of approval but it’s a poll of fear.”

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/26/europe/vladimir-putin-popularity/