Putin’s Power: Why Russians Adore Their Bare-Chested Reagan

Time Magazine ^ | July 22, 2014 | Josh Weil

[2ndDivisionVet]

The history of strongmen leaders helps fuel a passion for capitalism—even if there's a cost.

There he is, the President of Russia, riding bare-back and bare-chested astride a galloping steed; spending $50 billion on a resort town most Russians will never see; seizing Crimea, instigating unrest in Ukraine; maybe even making himself indirectly responsible for the murder of nearly 300 innocents aboard a downed passenger plane: Vladimir Putin, shaking his fist in the face of a West that often seems unable to do more than avert its eyes.

When we in The West do look, it can seem perplexing: How can Russians buy into such blatant bravado? How can a country that is (at least nominally) democratic support such near-authoritarian power? And why does Putin remain so popular?

“Why,” Russians might ask us in return, “do you support a system of government that is so weak?” In 2010, traveling through Russia to research a novel, I was asked this a lot...

[ansel12]

How did such a gentle and humble soul amass personal wealth of 70 billion dollars and total power of the collapsed USSR?

[Kozak]

Putins net wealth 70 Billion.

Not bad for a mediocre KGB officer eh?

http://www.therichest.com/celebnetworth/politician/president/vladimir-putin-net-worth/

Oh, and Germans ADORED Hitler. for awhile.

[ilovesarah2012]

$70b? Source?

[ansel12]

How Vladimir Putin Stashed Away A Secret $70 Billion Personal Fortune
http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/celebrity/how-vladimir-putin-stashed-away-a-secret-70-billion-personal-fortune/