[KOZ.]

Seriously!! Half of the fascist promoting putin bootlickers promote that jackass, the other half admire him.
WTH is going on around here?

[Girlene]

There is nothing to admire in Putin. He is a KGB thug who has somehow managed to acquire great wealth during his “reign”. He is a narcissistic fool running around pretending to save people from attacking tigers, etc. He is an unconvincing liar claiming that he is saving Crimea/Ukraine Russians from fascists as he invades a sovereign nation.

People may admire Putin because he is decisive, he knows how to use his power/influence. The same could be said for any number of powerful leaders - Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, etc.

[MarMema]

Here is my stance. I have kept close tabs on Putin's Russia and posted early on ( here, last week or so ) about his abuses of neighboring countries with energy - including, I have no doubt, the pipeline that burst and caused freezing Georgians to stand in line, and the fire at the plant in Lithuania. His treatment of the Ukrainians has been ghastly over the years. He deserves this backlash.

He did not deserve the heat he took for Grozny though.

On the Crimea issue, however, we just look like idiots after what we did to Serbia. That's some serious hypocrisy. And as someone recently posted, Ukraine itself broke away to become independent from the USSR. Hello separatism.

I have deep concerns about the neonazi stuff associated with the current Ukraine govt.

Finally for those who want to go to war with Putin over this, first rescue Tibet from China - or you are a hypocrite.