Well, in Russia they have a flat tax of 13%. May not be so bad after all, plus all of those hot Russian and Ukrainian women...
I think I would prefer the Russians...
Obama messaged him thru Medvedev that he’d “be more flexible after the election.” So now they are testing his flexibility...
Part of it is bluster for his Russian subjects....Russia is still a Second World economy with a male population either drunk or dying from alcoholism.
Part of it is also Putin knowing full well that Obama is a weak leader....with an even weaker GOP refusing to act like an opposition party. Putin knows he is not dealing with a Ronald Reagan
My gut instinct agrees with you. Putin doesn't like obomas arrogance. I think he likes tweaking him. It's fun. We should all do it (because "The devil, the proud spirit, cannot endure to be mocked" ).
From what I’ve seen in the news, Putin has never struck me as stupid.
I actually have not derived any idea of what his core beliefs are, or his goals or intentions. Just that he is a savvy politician.
I think he can easily outmaneuver Obama, and that worries me as an American.
He seems to hold his cards pretty close to his vest, whereas Obamna’s are face-up on the table for any observer. Not a very effective poker strategy.
Does anyone have a guess at to what cards Putin is holding?
For instance, if he maintains Russia’s military and diplomatic strength, while the U.S.’s wanes under Obama, and if Putin were to forge an understanding with Israel, where would that leave us?
I often kicked around the idea of rewriting Red Dawn where the Russians come to help us. B-P B-)
I think we should offer Putin a trade. He can have DC and most of the Northeast, plus California, if he supplies the South, Plains, MidWest and Western Basin with MiGs, Hinds, training and supplies.
I think it’s a fair trade.
Well, at least we’ll still have traditional marriage.
Our politicians are intimidated by math and shadows.
I hope Putin doesn’t send a strongly worded letter. Obama would surrender.
A leader of Russia has certain perpetual dilemmas, on top of new and pressing ones. A lot of Americans think that if they were in charge of Russia, they would do things the American way, without knowing that it is not only *not* what the Russian people want and need, but that they would hate every bit of it and fight it every inch of the way.
There is an old German saying that “Russia remains Russia”, and it is quite true. So Putin’s quest is to give Russia what it needs and wants, but in the Russian way, by a Russian leader.
For example, Russia has a split personality, at times wanting to be like westerners, especially Europeans; but at other times they become Slavophilic and Asian, seeking the freedom of the vast, open countryside and the Asian way of doing things. Russians love both, but are uncomfortable being in one way or the other for too long.
Right now they are in a Slavophilic cycle, but Putin knows they cannot be isolationist, that Russia has a chance to still matter in world affairs.
And while Putin is all in favor of cherry picking what he likes from Russian history, be it Tsarist or Soviet, he must steer Russia away from either, because on its current path it is dying.
He wants a tightly controlled democracy, and while he will borrow from the Soviets, he realizes that socialism is an utter disaster; and a dangerous one, enough that he does not want the US taking that path. He realizes that a “Soviet America” would be a huge disaster for the world.
Ideally he would prefer a multipolar world with no nation totally dominant. A balance of power.
And the difference between a Russian-led government and an Obama-led government is...??
(fairer media coverage maybe?)
While we, on the other hand, get president apology tour.
“Russia is making threats and threatened to overthrow our government.”
I thought that was Obama’s job!
Could be the Russkies are preparing the population for a war. A lot of people here are sympathizing with them, but Putin is part of the invisible (yet strangely visible) Communist structure that still rules in Russia today. They’ve simply turned in their Communist credentials and have embraced capitalism, but its the same people with the same ultimate agenda.
Anatoliy Golitysn, a KGB defector, revealed this strategy and predicted the surface-level breakup of Communism. After the United States disarms itself, the end of the plan is East-West convergence under Communist terms.
Not many people truly understand how bloodthirsty these people are, as they have plans in place to wipe out the entire population of the United States. First, through false-flag attacks like Al-Qaeda, (Alexander Litvinenko, the fellow who was poisoned by the FSB with Polonium 210, alleged that Al-Qaeda’s number two guy was trained by the FSB), EMP strikes, followed up by nuclear attacks, biological and chemical attacks, all done suddenly, starting off with countries like Iran or North Korea taking the blame.
The International Communist movement is alive and well, and its agents have long been planted into our institutions for the sole purpose of weakening us from within so they can strike from the outside.
They are still the evil I grew up with.
Sadly, it would be an upgrade from what we have now.
I think he may already have. We have a Muslim-Russian for president.