[PIF]

Russia always has and always will have a strong leader - that’s just the way it is. Russia will never have a leader like anyone in the west - it just will not. Get over it and move on.

Putin is certainly much better than the Russian leaders of the past - like the mass murderers Stalin or Khrushchev.

[elhombrelibre]

It's not for me to get over, and it's not for you to say they will always have to have a Putin. Putin hijacked their nation before it could complete an evolutionary process of moving towards the rule of law. Apparently, you favor an authoritarian government, which not an American conservative value. You may not have heard, we want liberty.

The trade off in Russia in accepting the myth that they must always have a strongman un-encombered by law is becoming quite apparent for the Russian people with their country being run into ground while Putin and his cronies continue to swindle them out of their wealth. There will be a reckoning, and no fan of authoritarian statism anywhere will be able to save Putin.