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This is from the most respected and independent pollster in Russia, The Levada Center, which is similar to the Pew Research Center in the United States. Hence this poll can't be easily dismissed as some government manipulated propaganda. The 80% rating is just 5 points behind Putin's all time record approval rating of 85% during the March 2008 Presidential elections.
Putin has always been popular in Russia but the latest ratings surge took off after the successful Sochi Olympics and got on boosters over his handling of the Crimea. As the West tries to apply pressure the vast majority of Russia has consolidated behind Putin (even some of his traditional political adversaries). It's a rally behind the flag moment for Russia like what we saw here in the United States shortly after 9/11. This may partly explain why Putin has been so resolute in his actions.
This from the Moscow Times:
But the world was with us after 9/11. Not too many countries are siding with Russia.
Big deal. Many other tyrannical dictators have had approval ratings in the 80s or approaching 80. Take King Obama, for instance. His was near that in the first few months of his regime.
The thing that's unique about Putin is that he's been consistently popular in Russia throughout his very, very long time in office. Dictator Bush had a 90% fluke at one point after 9/11 and still turned out to the worst President in US history. Another thing to note is that Bush got down to 20% in the waning days of his disastrous years in office. Obama barely got below 40% at his lowest point.
Crimea and Iraq are two vastly different scenarios. Crimea was actually apart of Russia for several hundred years before been artificially tacked on to Ukraine by a Ukrainian born Soviet commissar (Khrushchev). The people of Crimea are overwhelmingly Russian and welcomed Russia's intervention. They've always wanted to be re-united back with the rest of Russia. They were genuinely afraid of the new regime in Kiev and essentially welcomed the Russians as liberators. This is why the Russian 'invasion' has been so smooth, swift, and virtually bloodless. They didn't meet any resistance from the Crimeans. In fact about 2/3 of the Ukraine soldiers in Crimea has defected over to the Russian side.
On the other hand the US had no real dog to fight for in Iraq. We went there looking for non-existent WMDs, got rid of Saddam and was left with an intractable insurgency that quickly bogged us down then the war spiraled into something that seemed to have no real aim and purpose costing hundreds of thousands of lives along the way. To this day no one can formulate a good reason for why we went into Iraq, a country half a world away that had absolutely nothing to do with us.
I didn't say Iraq and Crimea are the same.
I only wrote that the invasion of Iraq was very popular with the American public and gave GWBush a surge in popularity until it went sideways. Now imagine someone saying hey the Iraqi war was this popular back in 2003 and GWBush's approval rating was this high after the Iraqi War started and people not getting how irrelevant those things are to the long view of the Iraq War.
If this Crimea thing goes sideways on Russia then trust, the surge in popularity for Putin will be just as irrelevant.
Thus, my viewpoint that it is not where these things start out, but where they end that determines how the public feels about it and how historians write about it.
The thing that's unique about Putin is that he's been consistently popular in Russia throughout his very, very long time in office. Dictator Bush had a 90% fluke at one point after 9/11 and still turned out to the worst President in US history. Another thing to note is that Bush got down to 20% in the waning days of his disastrous years in office. Obama barely got below 40% at his lowest point.
King Obama's reign of terror isn't over yet, so we don't know how low his approval will be yet. The main reason it hasn't gotten lower than that is due to an extremely loyal and government-dependent Democrat base of lemmings and sock puppets, which has the collective IQ of a cabbage patch family.
The thing that's unique about Putin is that he's been consistently popular in Russia throughout his very, very long time in office. Dictator Bush had a 90% fluke at one point after 9/11 and still turned out to the worst President in US history. Another thing to note is that Bush got down to 20% in the waning days of his disastrous years in office. Obama barely got below 40% at his lowest point.
Because Mother Russia told you so? Considering their economic slump and their methods of oppression, I don['t see how that is possible.
King Obama's reign of terror isn't over yet, so we don't know how low his approval will be yet. The main reason it hasn't gotten lower than that is due to an extremely loyal and government-dependent Democrat base of lemmings and sock puppets, which has the collective IQ of a cabbage patch family.
It's not nice to talk about your family like that.
King Obama's reign of terror isn't over yet, so we don't know how low his approval will be yet. The main reason it hasn't gotten lower than that is due to an extremely loyal and government-dependent Democrat base of lemmings and sock puppets, which has the collective IQ of a cabbage patch family.
You can only dream. The Republicans hold the honor of gracing America with her two worst Presidents in History: George W. Bush and Richard Nixon. You guys tried desperately hard to sabotage Clinton and he still left office the most popular President in modern times. You have gone into overdrive against Obama and he is still standing. As the economy continue to improve and Obamacare takes hold across America it's possible that Obama could leave office even more popular than Clinton.
Because Mother Russia told you so? Considering their economic slump and their methods of oppression, I don['t see how that is possible.
What economic slump? I'm am one of those who love to research facts on my own without depending on propaganda. Russia currently holds one of the largest foreign currency reserves in the world behind China, has one of the lowest debt to GDP ratios of any industrialized nation and an unemployment rate that currently sits at 5.6% plus they are projected to post a budget surplus this year.
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