Saving Vlad

[luvdovz]

20 years ago, a small group of Russian business-people prevented their country from sliding back to communism. The physically and politically weak president Boris Yeltsin almost lost the election to Gennady Zyuganov back then. He was leading by a tiny 3% margin after the 1st round of the election, but then the huge financial and organizational

Comments

[dreamville_bg]

You might be giving too much credit to Putin. Most autocrats tend to reach a point where they lose touch with reality, and stop being pragmatists and become self-centered wannabe-emperors (just look at Erdogan). What I'm saying is, he might not be realizing the problems he has dragged his country towards, and therefore might opt for trying to preserve the status quo (the successor you linked about seems to strongly suggest so).

[mikeyxw]

I dunno, he has consistently taken huge risks which paid off. Either he's either more in touch with reality more than most or he's been incredibly lucky. If it was the latter, the West should just give him what he wants, there's no reason to tangle with someone that lucky.

[htpcl]

Even the luckiest runs out of luck at some point. The luckier they've been, the more painful the downfall, once it hapens.

[dreamville_bg]

If luck is his best asset, I say give him a rope long enough for him to hang himself.

[dz]

You're standing in a line of (usa paid?) guys crying "West will give a lot of money to those who will betray Putin".

Shame.

[htpcl]

Ah. The standard "you disagree with my government's talking points, therefore Soros is paying you" go-to fallacy. I've seen it regularly employed by Russian bloggers who seem kind of short in the autonomous-thinking department. It would've been almost cute in its simplicity, had it not been so disrespectful and offensive.

You WILL refrain from personally attacking people this way, though. Do not paint yourself into a cartoonish Russian-troll caricature, will you? Something tells me you know better than that. If not, well...

[ddstory]

You didn't really think you'd be spared the usual infestation from Kremlin trolls, did you. Whenever Putin gets mentioned, they're on a cue. Especially if the mention is not too flattering.

[luvdovz]

I know what to expect from these threads, don't worry.

[mahnmut]

Ha! This tag hadn't been used in ages.

[tcpip]

> The Russian interests, including the keeping of their naval base at the Mediterranean coast, could'e been defended with a peace agreement. But in fact Putin needs a continuation of this confrontation, which would allow him to excuse his power grab back home.<

It may even be too late for that. War tends to be popular initially, due to the various madness of the ape for national identity. When it drags on it becomes unpopular and I suspect there is at least some of that in Russia now.

However, I don't know whether Zyuganov can gain power. I suspect his time has past. The question is who is going to be the opposition and replacement to Putin.