Putin, one intelligent, tough SOB.

[TESLAMotors]

Say what you want about him or what you're told through the mainstream corporate media in the U.S. but Putin is someone I wouldn't fuck around with.
He really does put this BBC reporter squarely in his place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KHCNk9BYy4

 

[nottyboi]

Putin is an extremely intelligent and rational person. I welcome his action in Syria and hope that Russia can save us from the chaos the US has been spreading there. Everything he says is 100% irrefutably correct in that speech.

 

[TESLAMotors]

110% irrefutable.

This is the first video I saw of him last night and I was very impressed with his message and demeanor throughout his response.
Who created ISIS?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQuceU3x2Ww

 

[kkelso]

Say what you want about him or what you're told through the mainstream corporate media in the U.S. but Putin is someone I wouldn't fuck around with.
He really does put this BBC reporter squarely in his place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KHCNk9BYy4

I saw Condoleeza Rice speak live a few months ago. She spent a good part of her message recalling her interactions with Putin. She would agree with you as well, but contends that he is most dangerous because of his preconceptions around the greatness of the former USSR. He told her that the losses Russia suffered at the hands of Germany in WWII were nothing compared to the tragedy of the breakup of the USSR.

KK

 

[TESLAMotors]

Is it really a preconception though? Russia was very great, very formidable.

The fact that the U.S. is increasing military activity around Europe and really has been for years is somewhat telling.
Perhaps they thought they would sneak in and around the sleeping bear?
It seems like that plan isn't going to fare so well and Russia isn't going to be very pacifistic either - since it doesn't seem like the U.S. has plans to slow down anytime soon.

 

[nottyboi]

I saw Condoleeza Rice speak live a few months ago. She spent a good part of her message recalling her interactions with Putin. She would agree with you as well, but contends that he is most dangerous because of his preconceptions around the greatness of the former USSR. He told her that the losses Russia suffered at the hands of Germany in WWII were nothing compared to the tragedy of the breakup of the USSR.

KK

When you hear him explain that position and why he feels it was tragic you will understand. It makes complete sense. The dislocation and chaos it caused. And it is because of this, he has such a firm belief that chaos is to be avoided at all costs. It makes a great deal of sense. Watch his interview with Char;lie Rose. I think all this publicity and the platform he has crated for himself will go a LONG way to making people realize he is a rational person. He has said very clearly, Russia has no aspirations to be a superpower, just to protect their interests. Russia could be a great nation, but it lacks reliable commercial law and courts to make this happen. Until this framework exists, no nation can really advance to the top tier.

 

[lomotil]

Putin is a brilliant narcississtic dictator, czar for life perhaps? The Russian bear is wounded, bleeding, but not dead yet obviously and is still able to fight.

 

[james t kirk]

He is also extremely corrupt.

By most accounts, he's the richest human being in the world. Now pray tell how did a politician come to amass such a personal fortune?

The answer is very simple - he stole it. The man, like any other dictator, has never even so much as sold a pencil from a tin cup in his life, and yet, he has amassed a personal fortune greater than Bill Gates and Steve Jobs combined. (They at least came up with a product and marketed it and made their money by earning it.) VP has just raped his own country and the Russians have let him away with it.

The reality is that Russia (and Ukraine) is corrupt to the very core. One time state owned companies were sold to insiders or connected people, or just plain shrewd individuals for a millionth of what they were worth. The so called Oligarchs. How does a guy like Roman Abramovitch (who used to sell trinkets in the street) come to be worth billions on top of billions? Putin is simply the most connected and he's rigged the game so that if you want to play, you need to cut Vlad in for a cut. (No different than your average Mafioso.

If the West really wanted to shut down Putin, they would simply find his money and deny him access, but he has so much money, and it's spread so far and wide, it would end up hurting the western bankers more than it would hurt Vlad.

Although I do believe that he is correct about Syria and ISIS, he's still a crook.

 

[jcpro]

Is it really a preconception though? Russia was very great, very formidable.

The fact that the U.S. is increasing military activity around Europe and really has been for years is somewhat telling.
Perhaps they thought they would sneak in and around the sleeping bear?
It seems like that plan isn't going to fare so well and Russia isn't going to be very pacifistic either - since it doesn't seem like the U.S. has plans to slow down anytime soon.

Russia had and has a formidable nuclear arsenal, but the country itself was always a shit hole. The Soviet "glory" is just a myth. If he wants to revive it, then he's a fool.

 

[lomotil]

Russia had and has a formidable nuclear arsenal, but the country itself was always a shit hole. The Soviet "glory" is just a myth. If he wants to revive it, then he's a fool.

True, only the ultra rich oligarchs want to live in Russia, the rest want out, as the future is bleak and the only solace and temporary escape is a bottle of vodka.

 

[basketcase]

Putin is a brilliant narcississtic dictator, czar for life perhaps? The Russian bear is wounded, bleeding, but not dead yet obviously and is still able to fight.

+1. He might be very good at what he does but that doesn't mean it is a good thing (and I'm quite glad that Vlad is halfway around the world).

 

[lomotil]

+1. He might be very good at what he does but that doesn't mean it is a good thing (and I'm quite glad that Vlad is halfway around the world).

Putin is a mega billionaire strongman thug, the master of master of KGB tactics. He is the best thing working towards keeping the average Russian in servitude, apathy and bondage. Putin has not allowed for the necessary reforms to bring Russian into a free capitalist market. Karl Marx would probably laugh and cry. Putin has significantly much less to lose than America, so he can do what he is doing with Syria and Isis. As an aside, he does have a drop dead gorgeous mistress.

 

[mandrill]

True, only the ultra rich oligarchs want to live in Russia, the rest want out, as the future is bleak and the only solace and temporary escape is a bottle of vodka.

Most of those oligarchs have already moved their kids to London or New York because Russia is a shitpile which is going nowhere but down. Vlad is going to make hundreds of billions out of milking, duping and killing his own people and then he's going to bail when it all goes bad.

And the average Russian believes Russia is he greatest place in the world to live, goes to his Eastern Orthodox church and believes that Vlad is going to "protect" him from being over-run by Muslims and homosexuals and hates America when he could have ten times the money and freedom in the USA. Russians are the biggest dupes in the entire world. They'll live in squalor just because Putin tells them they're part of the greatest nation on earth and he will make it powerful again.