[Boogieman]

“Really? Russia under Lenin and Stalin was one armed death camp.”

What about under Brezhnev, or Gorbachev?

You have to selectively pick one single period of the USSR in order to make the comparison seem silly. If we compare the Russia of today with the Russia of the 1980s, say, then the comparison doesn’t look very ridiculous at all.

[Trumpinator]

What about under Brezhnev, or Gorbachev? As police state like Russia is right now - Russia under Putin is both freer now and richer for the average Russian (personal freedom and wealth) than any time in Russia's history and that includes the time of the Czars.

This is a golden age for Russians compared to what they had under Gorby, Brez, or Peter The Great or even Ivan the Terrible.

I will let you ponder that for a while.

[Mariner]

The last Gulag closed in 1988, but Nathan Shcharansky says some were in operation until the early 90’s.