[familyop]

See the links behind the following link if you missed them before you saw this thread. The only reason I don't see the situation as others do now has to do with some information from my prior Army service, some study of History on Russia (both before and after the Soviet years) and what I learned from a few Russian acquaintances. Although there are a very few values basic to all, peoples in many parts of the world actually think differently from us about quite a few matters. For example, some cultures respect pride much more than humility, and others, the transverse. And some things don't change very quickly.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1213460/posts?page=5#5

[ExSoldier]

My father was born in Moscow in 1907. Was a distant relative of the Czar. Of the four books of the czar's family, my dad's line is in #3. Yet he managed to get away just before the communist revolution, and graduate MIT at the top of his class. His eventual security clearance helped me to get mine after I got my army commission. I know what I know about that part of the world from talks with my late dad and his ummmmm "friends" who used to drop by the house frequently during the Cuban missile crisis.

Somebody else on this thread said that Putin is incompetent and that Russia is now paying for it. I don't think so. I think he's a ruthless, shrewd and calculating guy with a definite agenda that is right on track.