"Anyone who doesn't regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains."
"History proves that all dictatorships, all authoritarian forms of government are transient. Only democratic systems are not transient. Whatever the shortcomings, mankind has not devised anything superior."
Most of the people posting here watch CNN too much instead of trying to figure things out for themselves. The great majority of them have never even been to Russia, but feel obliged to put down the country and her people at every opportunity. Must be the public school syndrome rearing it's ugly head again.
I like Russia and Russians (the ones I've met anyway), and I'm thrilled that they threw off the chains of communism. And if Putin supported us in Iraq and would cool it with the nationalist/nostalgic rhetoric, I'd like him better as well.