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What about FDR, he served 3 terms for a total of 12 years. In comparison, Putin, if you count his four years of being prim minester, then he has been in power since 2000 and his term will be up in 2018, so a total of 18 years, if you don't count those years then it will be 14 years.
FDR was imo one of the greatest American presidents, his 3rd term was mostly a result of WW2.
I'm Russian, live in Russia. For me personally, the economic situation, nothing has changed. Putin's attitude is very good, support him in everything.
Im from the USA and I love Mr. Putin!!!
I just get a very warm feeling when I look @ him and I wanna reach out;give him a big hug!!!!!
He is not the bad guy the US media are trying to make him out to be!!! -- HE IS NOT TRYING TO DESTROY HIS COUNTRY like the idiot we have here is!!!!! He isnt trying to force his views all over the world,etc......
I just get a very warm feeling when I look @ him and I wanna reach out;give him a big hug!!!!!
He is not the bad guy the US media are trying to make him out to be!!! -- HE IS NOT TRYING TO DESTROY HIS COUNTRY like the idiot we have here is!!!!! He isnt trying to force his views all over the world,etc......
Mr. Putin is a saviour!!
I don't know if you are trying to be sarcastic or not.
Thanks for an interesting post. I am aware of the chaos after the fall of communism, and the intervention of neo-liberal economists who did indeed provide some very bad influence at a time the country was staggering, blinking into the daylight of the free market after so many decades in the dark.
Russians were not exactly "in the dark" during all those decades. The big mistake is to assume that BEFORE the revolution they somehow lived in the "light" - i.e. capitalism, and then the darkness (communist system) set in their land. This is not quite true, since capitalism ( or rather a mixture of capitalism and feudalism) was a dark chapter in their history. Capitalism didn't benefit Russia in the same manner as it benefited the countries of Western Europe, so Russian switch to "communism" actually gave them a lot of advances, particularly on initial stages. This is a totally different setting comparably to the Anglo-Saxon countries, that were the real beneficiaries of the capitalist system. Now for THEM switch to communism would really mean "decades of the dark."
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This is covered quite well in Conor O’Clery's book "The Last Day Of The Soviet Union" - which is not just about the actual last day (though it chronicles it minute by minute) but the build up and the aftermath.
The mass of the Russian population should indeed be seething at the swiping of so much of the country's wealth by the handful of oligarchs, but why they should see Putin as their re-distributionist saviour I know not. He only threatens the oligarchs if they start to get a bit political. If they do "an Abromovich" and keep their heads down, they have a quiet and ostentatious life.
There were a few reasons why Putin was regarded as a "savior" even though not necessarily the "redestributionist savior." Number one - many thought that after the "redistribution" of the nineties and all the pain that it brought, the new "redistribution" would only hurt more.
Number two - many hoped that Putin ( after establishing some kind of order after the chaos of the nineties, which has been touted as "freedom" by neo-liberals) will bring the oligarchs ( that many perceived were working in the interest of the West, while destroying Russian economy) under control. Which he did, eliminating those openly willing to sell their control of resources to Western corporations ( Berezovsky, Gusinsky, Khodorkovsky are good examples of it, but I am sure there were others.) The rest decided to cooperate with the government ( i.e. Putin) and that's where he scored big time.
Yet another point - his ( Putin's) handling of international affairs, since Russians became aware that in spite of all earlier promises NATO moved closer to Russia's borders, encircling the country and threatening its geopolitical interests.
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Putin's daughter appears to be doing quite well, by the way.
Yes, these are all well-known facts for those who care to know about such things, but a lot of people prefer to quietly accept the current situation because the threat on international scene is perceived as rather serious ( the internal squabbles in Ukraine that brought the country to a ruin, (the whole situation with Ukraine in general )is a good warning for Russians,) so they prefer to not to "rock the boat" for the time being.
Last edited by erasure; 11-19-2015 at 12:13 PM..
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(But its quite dangerous to go out in public these days and speak your mind like we do online here)
