In the minds of some people, opposition to Putin cannot be because he’s a warmongering, self-aggrandizing, former KGB Colonel turned President for Life who hijacked his country as it was becoming free. It cannot be out of principle. It has to be because Putin’s made some public anti-fag statements. And of course Putin runs the Russian Orthodox Church now, so he must be a good conservative, since these types of conservatives think a former communist turned pseudo conservative should run churches. Plus when it comes to being against abortion, Putin could stop them in his country since he has so much power, and he’s STRONG, something these folks admire in a country’s leader. But for some reason Putin doesn’t use his power to save lives by stopping abortions. He uses his power to whip up paranoid propaganda, annex nearby countries, and to restore the Soviet/Russian empire into a Third Reich.
Excellent summary of some of the Putin cheerleaders on FR (who claim "I'm not defending Putin" while defending him tooth and nail by starting a whisper campaign that anyone who disagrees with Vlad is pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage)
Ironically, Russia has one of the highest abortion rates in the world (In 2001, 1.31 million children were born in Russia, while 2.11 million abortions were performed). I've never seen Putin even claim to be "pro-life" or make a statement that abortion should be illegal, though he may have given some lip service about reducing abortions. The only thing that be definitely shown about the Russian government is that Prime Minister Medvedev's WIFE Svetlana Medvedeva publicly identifies as "pro-life" , but of course, the same can be said of Harry Reid.
Putin's never claimed to be "conservative" either, and his political party, United Russia, describes themselves as "centrist" on the political spectrum. He's to the right of Obama, but again, since we're talking about Obama, just about everyone in Russia besides outright communists is to Obama's right.
The Russian Orthodox Church is, of course, "pro-life" and "pro-traditional marriage" on paper, but they're also in bed with the Russia government, and has been so for centuries, long before Putin, and even the USSR, they were in bed with the corrupt Czars. There's even talk of making Ivan the Terrible a "saint" in the Russian Orthodox Church. During the communist era, any Russian priest or bishop who didn't tow the party line was liquidated and whole churches were shut down. Although they're "officially" divorced from the Communist Party today, Communists continue to remain inside the ROC and influence the government.
It's interesting how Vlad claims to support "religious freedom" for Christians be such a good Christian in public, while bullying and oppressing other Christians in neighboring countries and trying to force them to join Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church. It's a well known fact that the ROC has been trying to eliminate the Ukrainian Catholic Church for decades (again, especially in the Soviet era, since they were under papal rule and not communist puppets like the ROC was at the time). Anyone who is not a member of the ROC gets discriminated against. And the Christian leaders in the Ukraine that Friendofgeorge "speculated" about being pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage are actually some of the most outspoken church leaders in eastern Europe for traditional values.
Saying Putin comes across as more of a leader than Obama is one thing. Sympathizing with the KGB thug because he gives lip service about traditional marriage (which, a decade ago, EVERY politician did) is beyond the pale.
He should stop this pretense of being the “President” and just crown himself Tsar. It still cracks me up when I think about Bush saying he “looked into his soul”
Poor Russia will never be free.