Posted on 12/17/2015 3:07:40 PM PST by marvel5
Have you read Gullag - all 1800 pages in three volumes?
Is Mrs. Solzhenitsyn a “neo-Bolshevik?”
Putin probably lost all respect for Obama at that point.
Gulag 2.0? Gulag: The Empire Returns? Seriously, if we are to have this discussion again, and I suspect we will . . . we should find a way to distinguish between the two versions.
PUTIN/RUSSIA v. OBAMA/US
Putin FLAT INCOME TAX of 13% in Russia (instituted in 2001) v. US Marxist progressive income tax up to 38%.
http://rense.com/general36/flat.htm
Putin NO ESTATE TAX in Russia (abolished in 2006) v. US Marxist Estate Tax up to 40%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inheritance_tax
Putin CORPORATE TAX in Russia half that of US (20% v. 40%).
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/corporate-tax-rate
Putin Russia NATIONAL DEBT TO GDP RATIO 18% v. 101% for US
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/government-debt-to-gdp
Putin on ECONOMIC POLICY: “Look at their trade balance, their debt, and budget. They turn on the printing press and flood the entire dollar zone — in other words, the whole world — with government bonds. There is no way we will act this way anytime soon. We don’t have the luxury of such hooliganism.â€
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/04/20/putin-u-s-monetary-policy-is-hooliganism/
Putin on WELFARE SPENDING: “European countries have been “living beyond their means†and are now “witnessing the rise of a dependency mentality … [that] endangers not only the economy but the moral foundation of society,†Putin said. “It is no secret that many citizens of less developed countries come to Europe specifically to live on social welfare.â€
http://sputniknews.com/russia/20130614/181653890/Russia-Wont-Embrace-Europes-Inefficient-Welfare-Model—Putin.html#ixzz3n4o6GEe6
Putin on STATE INTERVENTION IN THE ECONOMY: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said the US should take a lesson from the pages of Russian history and not exercise “excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence.â€
“In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute,†Putin said during a speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.â€
Sounding more like Barry Goldwater than the former head of the KGB, Putin said, “Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors, and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.â€
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/02/putin_warns_us_to_eschew_socia.html
Putin is said to considers GLOBAL WARMING a fraud. “Russia’s official view appears to have changed little since 2003, when Putin told an international climate conference that warmer temperatures would mean Russians “spend less on fur coats†while “agricultural specialists say our grain production will increase, and thank God for that.†http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/10/30/russian-president-climate-change-is-fraud/
Putin on IMMIGRATION POLICY “ Putin said those who break Russian immigration laws would be banned from entering the country again for between three and 10 years depending on the seriousness of their offenses, the Moscow Times reported.
The Russian leader also vowed that authorities would take forcible action to limit the stays of immigrants who linger in Russia without demonstrating a clear intent to find work.â€
http://www.newsmax.com/World/GlobalTalk/russia-putin-immigrants-ultranationalists/2013/12/13/id/541629/
Putin on ABORTION: (1) abortion banned after twelve weeks of pregnancy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in Russia; (2) abortion advertising banned.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/russia-chooses-life-bans-all-abortion-advertising;
(3) baby bonus to couples of $9,000 for second and each subsequent child to encourage live births. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_bonus#Russia; new partnership between state and Russian Orthodox Church for anti-abortion counseling. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2015/07/russia-church-and-state-sign-agreement-to-prevent-abortion/#.VhrVWxaFOxA
Putin on HOMSEXUALITY: gay propaganda aimed at minors banned; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_LGBT_propaganda_law “Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values… Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation.†http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/28/whos-godless-now-russia-says-its-us/?page=all
Putin on RADICAL FEMINISM: jailed “Pussy Riot†for desecrating Moscow cathedral: “They got what they asked for.†“One must not erode our moral foundation and undermine the country. What would be left then?” the president wondered. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/08/putin-backs-pussy-riot-conviction
Putin on MULTICULTURALISM.: “Multiculturalism “elevates the (idea of the) ‘right of minorities to be different’ to the absolute and, at the same time, insufficiently balances this right with civil, behavioral, and cultural obligations in regard to the indigenous population and society as a whole,†Putin argues. .†http://islamversuseurope.blogspot.com/2012/01/putin-multiculturalism-has-failed.html
Putin on CHRISTIANITY. “We can see how many of the Euro-Atlantic countries are actually rejecting their historic roots, including the Christian values that constitute the very basis of Western civilization>
The excesses of political correctness have reached the point where people are seriously talking about registering political parties whose aim is to promote pedophilia.
People in many European countries are embarrassed or afraid to talk about their religious affiliations. Holidays are abolished or even called something different; their essence is hidden away, as is their moral foundation.
And people are aggressively trying to export this model all over the world.
Today almost all developed nations are no longer able to reproduce themselves, even with the help of unlawful migration.
Without the values embedded in Christianity, without the standards of morality that have taken shape over millennia, people will inevitably lose their human dignity.†http://kiresearch.org/2015/04/how-russia-came-to-be-a-christian-nation/
ALSO: “Russia’s turn to Christianity is a virtually unknown phenomenon in the United States…Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev go to Church frequently…and seek political and moral counsel from the Russian Orthodox clergy…Putin wears a Christian cross with him at all times.â€
https://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/Russian-Revival-Gives-Hope-for-America.html
Putin: RELIGIOUS EDUCATION now mandatory Russian schools. http://www.christianpost.com/news/russia-makes-religious-education-mandatory-in-schools-87634/
Putin REBUILDS CHURCHES. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/01/us-russia-kremlin-putin-idUSKBN0G13QL20140801
Putin DEFENDS CHRISTIANITY worldwide. “After delivering the facts, Metropolitan Hilarion asked Putin to make protection and defense of Christianity around the globe a major part of his foreign policy.
And, as reported by Interfax, Putin replied, “You needn’t have any doubt that that’s the way it will be,” assuring Hilarion that Russian foreign policy would defend Christians from persecution abroad.â€
http://www.christianpost.com/news/vladimir-putin-vows-to-defend-christianity-worldwide-69002/
Russian court bans internet PORNOGRAPHY. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/internet-porn-is-now-illegal-in-russia-2015-04-14
He basically said that Cromwell had some negative issues as did Stalin, but he was still worthy of being honored with statues. In other words, Stalin, all things considered, should have statues in his honor, in your boy Putin's opinion.
"Asked which Soviet leader he would most like to reconstruct in the form of a statue, Vladimir Putin made an unexpected comparison between Oliver Cromwell and Joseph Stalin.
"There is no difference. Cromwell is just as much of a bloody dictator as was Stalin."
He pointed out that there is a monument to Cromwell in London (outside the House of Commons) and no one seeks to knock it down.
Thanks for the help! So you quote Putin as saying Stalin was a “bloody dictator!”
Putin clearly did not take a position on the statue issue before the Moscow City Council.
I'm pretty sure Putin knew long before that that he could count on Obama to bend over and help Russia to reemerge as a major superpower. I suspect Russia helped get Obama elected. Bill Ayers had a lot of friends in the KGB. Both Obama and Ayers were loyal supporters of the Soviet Union when they attended college mere blocks away from each other during the 80s. Ayers at Bank Street College, Obama at Columbia College, an undergrad portion of Columbia University. The two schools are within 4 or 5 blocks of each other (Bank St and Colmb Col). Both were very active in the communist-led anti-nuke movement.
Putin's a bloody dictator himself.
Only six years ago, President Vladimir Putin visited the Polish port of Gdansk, birthplace of the Solidarity movement that threw off Soviet domination, and reassured his Eastern European neighbors that Russia had only friendly intentions.
Putin spoke harshly that day of the notorious World War II-era pact that former Soviet leader Josef Stalin had signed with Adolf Hitler -- an agreement that cleared the way for the Nazi occupation of Poland and Soviet domination of the Baltics -- calling it a "collusion to solve one's problems at others' expense."
But Putin's view of history appears to have undergone a startling transformation. Last month, the Russian leader praised the 1939 nonaggression accord with Hitler as a clever maneuver that forestalled war with Germany. Stalin's 29-year reign, generally seen by Russians in recent years as a dark and bloody chapter in the nation's history, has lately been applauded by Putin and his supporters as the foundation on which the great Soviet superpower was built.
Across a resurgent Russia, Stalin lives again, at least in the minds and hearts of Russian nationalists who see Putin as heir to the former dictator's model of iron-fisted rule.
Recent tributes celebrate Stalin's military command acumen and geopolitical prowess. His ruthless repression of enemies, real and imagined, has been brushed aside by today's Kremlin leader as the cost to be paid for defeating the Nazis.
As Putin has sought to recover territory lost in the 1991 Soviet breakup, his Stalinesque claim to a right to a "sphere of influence" has allowed him to legitimize the seizure of Crimea from Ukraine and declare an obligation to defend Russians and Russian speakers beyond his nation's borders.
On May 9, the 70th anniversary of the Allied war victory was marked and Stalin's image was put on display with glorifying war films, T-shirts, billboards and posters. Framed portraits of the mustachioed generalissimo were carried by marchers in Red Square's Victory Day parade and in the million-strong civic procession that followed to honor all who fell in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War.
Putin's embrace of Stalin's power-play tactics is applauded by many Russians and other former Soviet citizens as the sort of decisive leadership they longed for while watching communism collapse around them. To the proponents of a reinvigorated Russia, reformist Mikhail Gorbachev and his successor, Boris Yeltsin, are seen as having submitted Russia to Western domination.
Over the last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin has presented dictator Josef Stalin's bloody 29-year reign as the foundation on which the Soviet superpower was built.
Stalin lives again, at least in minds and hearts.
Stalin "kept us all together, there was a friendship of nations, and without him everything fell apart," said Suliko Megrelidze, a 79-year-old native of Stalin's Georgian birthplace who sells dried fruit and spices at a farmers market. "We need someone like him if we want peace and freedom from those fascists in Europe and America."
Such sentiments are no longer confined to those with actual memories of the Stalin era. A poll this spring by the independent Levada Center found 39% of respondents had a positive opinion of Stalin. As to the millions killed, 45% of those surveyed agreed that the deaths could be justified for the greater accomplishments of winning the war, building modern industries and growing to eventually give their U.S. nemesis a battle for supremacy in the arms race and conquering outer space.
The share of Russians who look back approvingly has been increasing steadily in recent years, and the segment of those who tell pollsters they have no opinion on his place in their history has shot up even more sharply, said Denis Volkov, a sociologist with the Levada Center.
He points to this year's massive Victory Day events as the Kremlin's message to ungrateful neighbors that they owe their peace and prosperity to the wartime deaths of more than 20 million Soviet citizens.
"The figure of Stalin is being justified through the war," Volkov said. "There is an attitude now that, yes, there were repressions and, yes, there were huge losses, but we won the war after all."
Victory exonerated Stalin's excesses, just as it does Putin's "strongman" posture toward neighbors and former Soviet subjects now outside the Russian Federation's borders, Volkov said.
Stalin's standing among his countrymen has waxed and waned with the political upheavals that have wracked the Soviet Union and Russia. He was so dominant a figure in Soviet citizens' lives by the time of his death on March 5, 1953, that hundreds of thousands poured into the streets of Moscow in a chaotic outbreak of mourning when word of his passing reached a public taught to believe that life was impossible without Stalin -- the Bolshevik nom de guerre he adopted, signifying "man of steel."
Nikita Khrushchev, who finally prevailed in attaining the leadership after five years of Kremlin infighting, began a campaign of de-Stalinization in 1961, moving Stalin's embalmed remains from public display next to Vladimir Lenin's to a less prominent grave near the Kremlin wall. Stalingrad, the hero city that symbolized the Soviets' watershed battle to turn back the Nazis, was renamed Volgograd, and statues and busts were removed, and streets, institutes and schools were renamed.
But the erasure of Stalin's name and likeness served also to stifle discussion of his vast crimes: Siberian exile or death sentences for political opponents, collectivization of agriculture during which millions starved, deportation of minorities and property seizures that impoverished generations. It wasn't until Gorbachev came to power in 1985 that a candid recounting of his era was attempted.
Even Putin, earlier in his presidency, fell in line with the collective spirit of criticism of Stalin’s errors. During the visit to Poland in 2009, a year after he had sent troops to seize territory in sovereign Georgia, Putin appeared to reassure Russia's nervous neighbors that the nonaggression pact that paved the way for war and division 70 years earlier was to be remembered as immoral.
The Aug. 23, 1939, Molotov-Ribbentrop pact's secret protocols doomed Poland to Nazi occupation a week later and gave the Baltic states and parts of Finland and Romania to the Soviet Union. Millions of citizens of those betrayed territories died at Stalin's hand, in political purges, summary executions and slave labor camps.
The scope of Stalin's brutality remains a topic of heated debate. Late Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn once claimed in an interview that as many as 110 million died from the dictator's vast array of repressions between 1921 and 1959, including prisoners who succumbed long after Stalin's reign. Historian Viktor Zemkov, at the other extreme, puts the number of deaths attributable to Stalin at 1.4 million.
"The estimates of 110 million to 1.4 million speak for themselves -- a hundredfold disagreement," said Dmitry Lyskov, a state television talk-show host who mounted a failed campaign four years ago to put Stalin's visage on city buses to commemorate Victory Day.
The Russian Military-Historical Society, established by Putin in 2012, announced this year that a new Stalin museum was to open in May in the village of Khoroshevo, 140 miles northeast of Moscow. Stalin spent the night of Aug. 4, 1943, in a small wooden home there, the closest he came to visiting frontline Soviet troops during the four-year fight to defeat Germany.
The sanitized exhibits recounting Stalin's contributions to the war effort and postwar recovery were ready by the planned May 9 holiday. But the opening was postponed amid local opposition led by the Tver regional leader of Memorial, a group dedicated to shedding light on Russia's totalitarian era.
Yan Rachinsky, a leader of Memorial's Moscow chapter, calls the museum "ridiculous," and Stalin's single night there irrelevant to the war victory two years later.
The stillborn museum was one of several official efforts to honor Stalin this year: A statue was erected in the southern city of Lipetsk, and splashed with red paint the night it was unveiled. A bronze likeness of the dictator was put up to mark the February anniversary of his 1945 meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Yalta, a Black Sea resort now inaccessible to most of the world as only Russian aviation serves the contested Crimean peninsula.
Stalin has weathered more than six decades of historical revisions to maintain his standing as a rival to the West, "which is the context in which he interests Putin," said Nikolai Svanidze, a writer and historian whose grandfathers died in Stalin’s political purges.
"Just as Stalin defeated the West 70 years ago by capturing half of Europe," Svanidze said, "we are defeating the West again today. Crimea is our Berlin, our Reichstag, and there is no way it will be restored to Ukraine in the foreseeable future."
Svanidze also predicts there will be no more credible elections as long as Putin chooses to stay in power. That, he said, is another parallel with Stalin's lifetime sinecure as Soviet leader.
http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-russia-stalin-model-20150611-story.html
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