[Secret Agent Man]

No offense but even though he’s correct, he’s far, far, far from being a non-hyporitical source about this kind of culture.

Further hes a long-lived commie, and the commie manifesto outlined how they were actively messing up american society. You cant execute plans to mess up american society on purpose, and then sit there and cast judgment on those you deliberately caused to decay.

No noPutin, you do not have the moral high ground here. FOAD YOU COMMIE TOAD.

[dfwgator]

I think Putin would have been happier to serve the Czar. But at the time, the Commies were the only game in town.

[ProfessorGoldiloxx]

And just because he is who and what he is doesn’t mean he can’t be correct. I know he doesn’t REALLY care about us.

[noiseman]

I’m not so sure that Putin is as one-dimensional as he is portrayed. First things first, he’s obviously a ruthless autocrat who, for example, thinks nothing of risking the irradiation of a significant portion of London to kill one of his political opponents. And we know his KGB history, which always makes whatever he says suspect as possibly being intended to do nothing more than manipulate foreign public opinion for his own benefit.

However, it is my opinion that his comments on the decay of culture, particularly in the west, and on the danger posed by woke political correctness are sincerely held. I think he is motivated first and foremost by a desire to see Russia rise to prominence once again, and I believe he saw how the flood of liberal western culture that occurred after the Soviet Union’s collapse was corroding Russian society from within. It seems that he’s been on a crusade ever since to return Russia to more traditional values, including even supporting the Russian Orthodox Church.

And it really began with realization of Russia’s demographic trend line pointing toward oblivion because of low birth rates. Putin responded to that by implementing policies that favor marriage and families, and encourage child bearing. My gut feeling is that while Putin wants to restore Russia to what he perceives to have been its past greatness, that doesn’t necessarily mean he sees that greatness as the Soviet era, other than in the realm of military might. Socially and politically, I think he might idealize something closer to the Russian aristocracy than to the Bolsheviks.

What keeps coming to mind when I think of Putin is the classic mafia godfather. Someone who is ruthless and will murder his opponents at the drop of a hat, but who holds dear traditional “family” values and has a strong sense of defending that family and its culture. He’s certainly a very complex individual, and not the simplistic cartoon character that most portray him as.

[Mariner]

“No noPutin, you do not have the moral high ground here.”

Few on this site would agree.