Posted on 12/31/2013 7:48:54 PM PST by RushIsMyTeddyBear
This is quite a good documentary of Putin that I ran across if anyone's interested. He, truly, is a VERY dangerous man. I know, myself, have admired his strong-arming on particular issues, but don't forget who he is and his background.
The dissident at the end is crying that he knows that Communism has returned to Russia. Heartfelt.
Putin has a definite stronghold on Europe through energy. IOW....."Who run BarterTown?"
One thing Putin has done for the United States is to provide us with an example of good government. If all you had to go on was our own last three presidents, you probably wouldn’t have any sort of an idea of what good government might look like.
Especially when we can’t even live under Jefferson’s ideas.
The state DUMA has four main political parties.
United Russia - Putin’s party, and the dominant political force. Center right on economic issues, moving further right in some aspects, but heavily corrupted by oligarch interests and such. Socially pretty conservative, apparently now moving further right on abortion which has decimated the country’s demography. This is Russia’s bread and butter. The party of the common man, the middle-tier folk.
Communist Party of the Russian Federation - Is as its name implies. The corrupt holdovers of late-era communism, radicals, and oligarchs who Putin has alienated find a place here. Many poor individuals vote for them, and they are the second largest party.
A Just Russia - I think this is what many people refer to when they say ‘the Russian opposition’, although they aren’t as big as the commies. They’re socialists, as socially liberal as you’re likely to get in Russia (voted unanimously for the anti-homosexual propaganda bill, and one of their members was the author). This is the party of the student movement, and many cosmopolitan Russians. They favor a welfare state.
Political Party LDPR - Russia’s resident ‘far right’ group, although primarily just a nationalist outfit. The home of the thriving Russian skinhead movement. They want the Chechens deported, Imperial Russia restored, and they consider the West enemy no.1
Russian politics is completely alien to our own, so it is hard to get a handle on how it all works, but I’d agree there’s just not a better alternative to Putin there, at least not for Russians. The other parties would likely implode its relatively fragile economy.
The opposition is really in no position to take on Putin either. You have two ‘left wing’ parties, but together, they don’t even come close to half of the representatives in the DUMA, since you can’t count on the highly nationalist LDPR to vote with globalist left wingers. Its like an article I read on the Hungarian elections where they accused the ‘center-right’ president of not being legitimate because the opposition got almost as many votes, failing to mention that a huge chunk of that opposition was the even further right, Jobbik party.
No, communism is still very much a thing in Russia, it’s just not Putin. The Russian Communist Party has 92 seats in the DUMA, the second largest party.
Which is exactly my view. Conservatives need to be more pragmatic when it comes to setting foot on the global stage, and I’ll be the first to put my hands up and say I have slimed Russia in the recent past with Soviet-accusations, but we need to be honest. The world is not a chess board of black and white, as it was in, say, the 1950s. It may become that way again, but right now we are dealing with countries often going through dramatic changes.
Take Assad for example. Assad and his family are cold-blooded, corrupt, murderous Giraffe-looking versions of Al Capone’s mob, but I could see from the start that they were far better than any alternative that the Syrians would vote into power.
The fact is that today, Britain and France are more communist than Russia. Just look at the 75% hate tax on high incomes under Hollande! We have the Rose Parade displaying two men spooning, while Russia has banned sodomic propaganda to minors. Which country seems to be under the thrall of Marx’ anti-family agenda more?
We are likely never going to have a friendly relationship with Russia. We desire to remain a world power, and they by virtue of their size alone, will always be a world power. That’s not a stage where you make friends. However looking back, it was dumb for Mitt Romney to say they are our ‘no.1 geopolitical foe’. China is higher up the list than Russia, and what about Iran?
On any issue, the more conservatism in the world the better, whether it is adopted by our allies or those we have more frosty relationships with. Putin is not a pure conservative by any stretch, but he has pushed conservative agendas through in Russia with more ease than Bush ever did during his tenure here. In the realm of partisan politics, I don’t think anyone would disagree we could learn a thing or two from a man who at the very least, is a skilled politician.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRgWVAfHNZM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXhHqfMFLCI
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=10742
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ux3oiWELIQ
While obumbs is conrolled by Soros - Putin issues an International arrestr warrent on hhi, Note that he refers to obabma as ‘alledged president’ - you can be he knows the trught - wish he would drop the dime...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpO3PArAoUQ
Russia’s great Cathedral, destroyed by the Communists, has been restored to glory - as well as hundreds of other cathedrals and churches in Russia
http://www.xxc.ru/english/complex/xxc/index.htm
One thing cannot be denied - Putin loves his country - would that we had a president that loved our country - and wasn’t intent on destroying it.
>>>No, communism is still very much a thing in Russia, it’s just not Putin. The Russian Communist Party has 92 seats in the DUMA, the second largest party.<<<
In fact you are overestimating. Average communist polls in Russia were about 10% and shrinking for a prolonged period of time since about 1996 when Clinton helped his pal Yeltsin in stealing elections for the commies.
It is not until the last elections when Russian communists got twice that much.
It has followed after tons of anti-Putin propaganda in Russian liberal media inspiring idiots into their version of hope and change dope and an “Occupy Moscow” event, paid by Soros and Freeedom House and celebrated by both Hillary and McCain.
I loved the lamestream media coverage of the event in late 2012 on how “the Russians are about to remove a tyrant” and McCain’s crap on “the end of neo-commie Putin”.
Both media and McCain failed to mention that both the crowd was about 10 times less numerous than reported and Lenin’s portraits and red banners carried by their anti-Putin protestors.
>>>elections for the commies.<<<=from the commies
Government (real and defacto) ownership of almost all broadcasting and industries is still true in Russia.
bflw
‘nother bflw
I know, the whole debacle last election about ‘Putin stole it!’ was ridiculous. The opposition never stood a chance in hell. McLame was just itching to have Leninists in Moscow again. I think Russia collectively laughed when he ranted in Pravda like a crazed loon recently.
That’s practically true here. Where is that marriage chart linking the WH to pretty much every media organization. Also, remember the taped coordination in 2013 with the press planning to ambush Romney. “yeah, we can really get him with this! hehe”
*2012
In fact government owns about a quarter of total Russian economy, not all of that. 25% is still high but as Viennacon said you can’t judge them by American standards. Government also makes some 40% of total investmensts in Russia which is a sign of both higher government control of economy and a crony capitalism but we are talking about a civilization which classified private enterprise as a felony just 30 years ago.
I have no doubt Yeltsin did similar to get to the top, and lets not bring up the Obama dead pool. Bill Gwatney, anyone? Putin , like 99% of global politicians is a thug, but he does have admirable qualities... something Obama lacks to the core.
A lot of those “private” companies are really under the thumb of the government too.
Indeed. I didn’t know much about Russian economics, so I read an article this morning on it. Putin has hung the economy almost entirely on natural resources, sort of as a boiler plate, since its all they have. The gas lines keep the place running, but that wont last forever and a ‘monoculture’ economy is never a good idea. Like China, Russia is sitting on underlying problems it has to address, and for the ruskies the key issue is extremely slow growth. 1% to be exact. It’s strange because with the meltdown of Europe in 2008, you’d have thought they would have poached businesses from the EU, but too many are scared off by the blatant corruption and also the flaring ethnic tensions in the country.
These bombings in Volgograd are not going to have helped, and if Putin wants to start fixing Russia’s long term economic outlook, he really does need to follow through with his promise and annihilate the Chechen terrorist threat. If anything happens in Sochi, its not Russia’s political pride that will be most bruised, it will be its economic prospects.
“Government (real and defacto) ownership of almost all broadcasting and industries is still true in Russia.”
Thank god for the American media that is free and fiercely independent of government domination. And thanks for a government that does not tap the phones of journalists or imprison them to force them to reveal sources./
If you are to look further, natural resources doesn’t make much larger share in Russian than it is in US economy. I might be mistaking but IMHO it is around 15% for either.
On the other hand, oil and gas industries are taxed heavier than other businesses, let alone individuals in Russia and that is why oil brings the most revenues for a government.
But this seems fair, as the Russian government has been helping the gas industry build pipelines into neighboring countries and such. You can bet your bottom dollar something like Keystone would be a no-brainer for Putin.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.