- Location
- Beragh, Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51120166
Russian government resigns as Vladimir Putin plans future
Russian government resigns as Vladimir Putin plans future
Russian government resigns as Vladimir Putin plans future
- Thread starter nivilla1982
- Start date
Exfarmer
Member
- Location
- Bury St Edmunds
What , he is getting rid of the ministry of arse licking?
Danllan
Member
- Location
- Sir Gar / Carms
I know a fair number of Russians, over here and over there. Most over here, don't like Putin and will say - privately - that Russian 'democracy' is a joke. All who live in Russia say - privately - that Russian democracy is a joke, but that they like the security they feel under Putin and don't find themselves suffering.
I'll make two points in reference to that last bit. Firstly, that those I know are mostly what we would term upper-middle-class, which means pretty rich by Russian standards. Secondly, that, providing he doesn't raise his voice politically, they average Russian isn't oppressed and is more or less as free as we are here in the UK and in fact, in some ways, he is more free.
Not that any of the above would justify or validate a virtual dictatorship to me. But I didn't live through the end of the USSR and then the chaos and national humiliation that followed with Yeltsin and Co..
Without excusing the dishonesty, criminality, hypocrisy and cruelty of Putin, I think it highly likely that the West really did miss a trick when the USSR fell, and this does - at the least - in great part explain how Putin has managed to get and keep power there.
I'll make two points in reference to that last bit. Firstly, that those I know are mostly what we would term upper-middle-class, which means pretty rich by Russian standards. Secondly, that, providing he doesn't raise his voice politically, they average Russian isn't oppressed and is more or less as free as we are here in the UK and in fact, in some ways, he is more free.
Not that any of the above would justify or validate a virtual dictatorship to me. But I didn't live through the end of the USSR and then the chaos and national humiliation that followed with Yeltsin and Co..
Without excusing the dishonesty, criminality, hypocrisy and cruelty of Putin, I think it highly likely that the West really did miss a trick when the USSR fell, and this does - at the least - in great part explain how Putin has managed to get and keep power there.