That is a wonderful mission - interviewing 12000 Russian vets.
Now lets hear what you found out instead of what you do in 95% of your posts - acting as an apologist for Putin, to wit:
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"2) The government apparatus was huge under Yeltsin, but has been significantly cut by Putin.
3) It's easier to do business in Putin's Russia - less red tape and people who can make decisions actually attend meetings
4) Putin's flat tax brought people "out of the shadows" and put money in the coffers instead of in off-shore accoutns
5) Russians feel they are better off now then they were in the past (something they were split on during Yeltsin)
6) Putin is cracking down on corruption and Robber Barons - BUT the WEST is trying to hamper his efforts. Berezovsky? He cries anti-Semitism and claims Putin was out to get him because Berezovsky criticized him. Hogwash
Gusinsky? See Berezovsky
Khodorkovsky - Same deal. So, why would you not agree with Putin on his position vis-a-vis these men - after all, they're the types you described and he put them out of business. There's a lot more work to be done, that's for sure.
I'll say it again - I agree with Berlusconi - Putin is proudly anti-Communist. Why don't you look at what Zyuganov or Lapshin have said about Putin and then tell me how Putin is a "friend" of the Commies??"
Sadly Spanalot you do not seem to grasp the English language. Those statements in no way indicate that I am allied with Putin. They point out FACTS. Not hyped propaganda. You continue to use the communist-learned tactic of trying to twist what people actually WRITE into something they did NOT. Shame on you.
I'm still waiting for you to enumerate which of those carrying out the ukranian famine of 1933 were ethnic Russians.
"By the end of 1930s, approximately four-fifths of the Ukrainian cultural elite had been "eliminated".[22] Some, like Ukrainian writer Mykola Khvylovy, committed suicide. One of the leaders of the Ukrainian Bolsheviks, Mykola Skrypnyk, witnessing the results of his cooperation with Moscow, shot himself in the summer of 1933. " (wiki)
Who were the government officials organizing the famine?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazar_Kaganovich
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Kosior