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Acknowledging a popular leader of another country is not slobbering over him or even a sign of liking the person.
Americans never loved Ho Chi Min, but the all acknowledged he was the very popular leader of North Viet Nam.
In an less extreme instance, we acknowledge Andrea Merkel's popularity in Germany, but none of us, like her or not falls into fits of slobbering over her. Our past two Presidents have not, that's for sure.
It's not hard to understand Putin's popularity; Russian men are still dying far too often in their 50s from too much booze, too many cigarettes, and too much bad living. Far too many Russian men of any age are not steadily employed as well.
Russians of both sexes and all ages are still looking back with nostalgia at the last days of the Soviet Empire, when common goods were reliably cheap, plentiful if not in wide variety, jobs were secure at any performance level, and only the politicians flaunted their wealth. The heat always worked well enough, and the lights were always on, and the sewers always did their jobs. The streets were clean, and the drunks weren't allowed to stagger around vomiting and passing out on the streets.
It took 20 years to come partially back from an enormous fall in every aspect of Russian life and culture, and it was anything but a smooth return. The Russians are a pessimistic people by nature, and this pessimism only amplifies their feelings.
Putin is sober, healthy at the age when the guy next door just died at the same age, is muscular in a nation of lard guts, and is as tough to them as Clint Eastwood is to us. He willingly projects that toughness abroad, and it's hard to beat a guy with a tough image when a nation feels it has lost all the strength, international power, and international fear and respect it once had.
Many of us Americans share exactly the same feelings about our present condition. Our feelings may not be quite as strong, but they do exist widely. And we are not as optimistic now as we once were.
How many of us want to show the world a thing or two? Russia isn't so different at all.
lol. The US has had the technology since the 1960's. Close-up imagery since the late 1980's.
Get a clue and stop swallowing propaganda.
The U.S. evidence is in the hands of the Dutch authorities. Perhaps you should be questioning why Russia's official state-owned broadcaster is releasing blatantly false "evidence".
Hell, no!
I think he's a dangerous throwback who would re-build the Soviet Empire if he could.
It wouldn't be Communist, but it would be just as autocratic if he has his way.
Understanding another culture and it's politics does NOT mean I, or anyone else, approves of that culture.
To assume understanding equals approval is pretty bone headed. The only way to triumph over an opponent is to understand him and his strengths and weaknesses.
Does he make you feel all warm inside, Feltdesginer? Lots of right wing-nuts do like the guy. Rush Limbaugh is big on him, for sure.
The cartoon is eerily like the adoration that the left has for their leader, once called "messiah", remember?
Didn't turn out to be much of a miracle worker, did he.
The oceans were going to slow their rise and the planet would begin to heal. People were dancing in the streets.
Now people of his own party want to put distance between themselves and him. He must not be doing something right. Maybe he should mirror Putin, just for the rise in polls if nothing else.
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