Putin and his regime are still illegal killers, of journalists, defectors, critics, and possibly some clergymen.
You can take a person out of the Communist Party, but you can’t take the Party out of the person.
Communism was the ultimate form of state power and that’s what Putin is all about.
About 20 years ago, I knew a few lawyers who were going to the new Russia to help them write a new Constitution. That didn’t work very well, did it?
The KGB did what a Leopard couldn’t do, change its spots to FSB.
While I don’t like the Chechnians because the are extremely cruel and kill children by the hundreds, the Russians were ruthless in suppression the revolt there. I don’t think anyone won that war except the dead who got out of it the hard way.
Putin is a man of detiny in his own mind, a lot like Hitler was, Mussolini was, and Mao and Ho were. Look at the cost of their megalomania to mankind.
He has got to be reigned in if only to stop his delusional concept of being invincible(a concept that Obama also shares in but as a Second Tier Communist).
Some backbone by the Western nations when all this hit the fan months ago would have prevented what has happened and what is going to happen.
The same for Obama’s deliberately missed chances to bring down the Mullahs regime in Iran during the 2009 protests there, and the more recent protests in Syria where it might have been possible to have a moderate regime instead of the revolt becoming a training ground of Al Qaeda International and the Hezbollah boys of summer.
While Obama is “fundamentally changing America for the worst”, Putin is fundamentally changing Russia for a much stronger and important role in guiding almost all of Eastern Europe, the Baltic States (and by proximity, Scandanavia), and even doing some fancy footwork re Turkey, Iran, and anyone else in “Mr. Putin’s Neighborhood”.
Who’s going to stop him? Obama? Biden? Pelosi? Debbie Wasserman Putz? Susan Rice? Samantha Powers? Jay the asshole Carney? Gen. I’m So Pretty Dempsey, the pansy of the Marines? How about Secy of the Navy Mabus, who is more concerned about putting women and transgendered people onboard ships rather than having enough fighting ships and crews to protect us and to project us.
Who you gonna call, “Ghostbusters”? Sorry, they went out of business when Reagan retired.
If you consider Eastern Europe as being lands east of a line on the eastern borders of the Balkan states + poland + slovakia +hungary+ romania, then yes, somewhat he already controls it with the exception of Georgia (though I guess Georgia is Asian)
If you mean the former Soviet bloc, then no -- the Baltics, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians revile their time under Soviet rule