Posted on 12/23/2013 12:49:30 AM PST by cunning_fish
A very merry Christmas to Pussy Riot, Greenpeace and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, not to say to Vladimir Putin. At his somewhat bizarre annual press conference, with 1,300 journalist waving flags to capture his attention, Putin announced that Khodorkovsky, like the others, would be released from prison. Putin may not be a very lovable or gentle creature, but yet again he has shown himself to be unusually cunning, for all that he has been not only derided but consistently underrated.
Since the implosion of the Soviet Union, more than 20 years ago, the west has made every conceivable mistake in dealing with Russia. In what was meant to be the End of History, with the universal triumph of liberal democracy and market capitalism, American zealots attempted to impose free markets on Russia after more than 70 years of what had passed for socialism. The unhappy outcome should have been no surprise.
This is not a defence of Putin's in many ways unlovely regime. No journalist can feel much fondness for a country where troublesome investigative reporters have a habit of turning up dead. But external policy is a quite different matter, even if the inability to distinguish between the internal character of the Russian regime and its foreign concerns is a very old story. Successive generations of starry-eyed people in the west were enchanted by the Soviet myth, and then disenchanted by what Malcolm Muggeridge sarcastically called "the left's stations of the cross": the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in 1939; the Czech putsch in 1948; the suppression of Hungary in 1956.....
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Somewhere in the Kremlin is a white-board that has the whole strategy plotted out for five years. You have to admire the guy....other than the WWE-wrestling crowd...no one has ever planned out such an agenda so successfully.
I support the idea that the Olympics have been the real reason.
Maybe you and some other misguided souls here have to admire Putin. I find nothing to admire in that "former" KGB thug. A guy who's regime supported or supports darn every enemy America has had during his time. A regime behind hit attempts on foreign leaders, such as the poisoning of the pro-US former president of the Ukraine, and quite possibly the 'elimination' of nearly the entire leadership of Poland in that mysterious plane crash a few years ago. A regime where countless journalists critical of Putin turn up either dead or missing. A regime who continues to stand behind Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, other Latin American Marxist dictatorships, and the increasingly worrisome ChiComs. A regime who supported and aided Saddam Hussein even after the war began. Who reportedly helped move his WMDs out of Iraq and into Syria in the days leading up to the 2nd Gulf War.
misguided? they admire him because he is a real man. not because of his actions or who putin supports. it’s because he does whatever it takes to make HIS COUNTRY strong. not bowing and selling out to the highest bidder, and selling Russia behind the backs of Russian people. Like OBama does. Too bad we don’t have someone like Putin in the WH.
Also, the fact that it’s easy to admire a leader like Putin when your leader is a limp wristed, drug addled, closet homo, ghetto project trash who has zero allegiance to anyone but himself, and all the people that have propped him up. While Obama loots the treasury and destroys America socially and economically. Putin makes Russia, and Russian interests stronger.
You've brought up several points to show that Putin isn't a friend of the USA, rather, an enemy. But some people respect their enemies, if they're able, smart and loyal to their cause. Like in Medieval Europe. Probably, the message you've answered was about that type of respect.
You can say the same about any number of ruthless thugs who have ruled throughout history. You actually ADMIRE these types solely based on their doing "whatever it takes" to make their country stronger?
I can't, for the life of me, understand why these pro-Putin imbeciles are allowed to remain on FR to push their crap on younger and other comparatively uninformed FReepers.
This world neither deserves the Olympics nor do the Olympics deserve what the left has turned them into. Just kill the entire thing again... maybe man will deserve them in another 200 years.
LOL. Did you catch his/her tagline?
FreedomStar3028 (Evil must be punished.)
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I respect him as a formidable foe. That he is without a doubt.
The Russians are known to be great chess players. Most of us, unfortunately, suck at simple checkers.
“a limp wristed, drug addled, closet homo, ghetto project trash who has zero allegiance to anyone but himself, and all the people that have propped him up. While Obama loots the treasury and destroys America socially and economically.”
Well, at least we agree 100% on Obama. But I would never want a gang leader like KGB Putin running the US.
The murder of internationally renowned Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in early October 2006 was yet another troubling sign of Russia’s retreat into its totalitarian past. Today Frontpage Symposium has gathered a distinguished panel of experts to discuss why Anna Politkovskaya was killed and what the tragic loss of her life symbolizes about the direction in which Vladimir Putin’s Russia is heading.
http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=1490
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'PUTIN'S RUSSIA' by Anna Politkovskaya:
http://www.amazon.com/PUTINS-RUSSIA-ANNA-POLITKOVSKAYA/dp/1843430509
Come 2016 we may, come 2016 we may.
Mr Yushchenko before and after the poisoning
"Mr [Viktor] Yushchenko, a pro-European politician who wanted to bring his country out of Russia's shadow, fell seriously ill on September 6, 2004 as he was competing in presidential elections against a pro-Moscow candidate, Viktor Yanukovich, now prime minister.
After months of tests in an Austrian clinic, it was determined that he had ingested a massive amount of the poison dioxin.
Although he survived, his face was left bloated and pockmarked, and he has had to undergo regular treatment to rid his body of the toxin.
In an interview with Le Figaro he said he believed the dioxin used to disfigure him was made in a Russian lab.
Mr Yushchenko did not directly accuse the Russian government of being behind his poisoning, but he did say he had 'practically put all the pieces together' and the attempt against him 'was not a private action'. ..."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1562838/Yushchenko-Russia-blocking-poisoning-probe.html
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"Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko (born February 23, 1954) [was] the third and [former] President of Ukraine". He took office on January 23, 2005.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko
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(Ukraine) Hunt starts for Yushchenko's poisoner:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/1478922/Hunt-starts-for-Yushchenko%27s-poisoner.html
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pro-Moscow Viktor Yanukovich, new president of the Ukraine
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