Opinion of Vladimir Putin

[America Needs R'hllor]

Ultra mega super etc HP, both from a Russian and a Westerner prespective.

[America Needs R'hllor]

LOL at Westerners who probably like Gorby and Yeltsin. No; Freedom Fighter (R) for making Russia great again.

Beet, this is a joke right? Otherwise, this seems like trolling to me. Why would you admire someone making Russia great again (actually he is weakening it and making is sh**t*y again, but I digress) via using execrable means? Why would it seem good to you to have Russia be great again, given who you are?  When was Russia "great" in your view? During the Stalin era?

Would you say it was trolling if I said Gorbachev and Yeltsin were great? Are we only allowed to approve of Russian leaders who presided over dismantlement and economic depression, unemployment, suicide, drug addiction, and oligarchy? Torie, I am trying to look at this from the Russian perspective. When Putin came to power, Russia was on its knees. Now it has even our national security establishment on the run. Reagan and FDR did excretable things yet we consider them good leaders. I don't like him personally but I don't think his high approval ratings are made up.

Frankly on this Beet is absolutely right.

I guess he is in a way. I mean, Gorbachev's 1996 presidential run tells you enough about what the Russian people think about him. And let's not even begin about Yeltsin's record in the 1990s lol. But we can't really ignore the terrible things Putin has been doing, and I guess it's quite ironic for someone from the West to back Putin who's quite frankly really antagonistic towards transatlantic alliances. I'm not sure whether Putin will have been good for Russia in the long-term though. The Crimea stuff obviously was meant to distract people from a stagnating economy. It has worked out well so far, but Russia has some long-term economic problems and I wonder whether Putin can adress them.

Well, there are several things Putin has done or is doing that I don't like (say Russia's influence in Moldova for example), but Russia under him has been in the best shape it's been in probably in its entire history. And for better or worse, I believe Putin is doing what he thinks is best for Russia; while Western leaders have not acted in their countries' best interests in decades. On top of that, while he could do it in a better way (say by not being mean to the LGBT community, as they're doing nothing wrong), he's one of the rare leaders of Christendom who's trying to reverse his country's moral and cultural decline, along with the decline of Christianity, which to the contrary in the West our elites are encouraging, aiding and abetting the decline in the West. So even if I don't like everything he's done, I respect Putin just for that, and will give him a "tilt ff" rating like Bagel did.

This is a stupid take, even from a 'realist Christian nationalist perspective' - which Putin doesn't actually believe in by the way, he just uses it to gain sympathy from paleonationalists. To put it frankly, Russia under Putin is in the weakest state on the world stage it has been in literal centuries. Its economy is smaller than Italy's, its population is small and declining, and it relies completely on an export economy. It is bordered on east and west by powers which are hugely superior to it, militarily and economically - the EU and China. So what does he do in this situation? He deliberately antagonizes the West, suppresses political and economic freedom for personal material gain, and spends what little the country has on a conventional military to bully the few weaker neighbors he still has for cheap shots of domestic jingoism to prop up his leech of a government. Given Russia's position, this can only lead to them becoming either a failed state or a puppet of the Chinese.

He's the sort of HP who is so H that he can be used as a litmus test as to the Hness (or ignorance) of the person being asked.

This exactly.

I just love it when people say that Putin "makes Russia great " or "actually centrist in Russia " or "a good Christian ". Really? Care to tell that to the LGBTQ people who were murdered by his Chechen puppet in literal concentration camps? How about the journalists he murdered? And the political opponents he threw in jail under false charges? How about the thousands of Georgians and Ukrainians who died in his unnecessary wars to show how alpha he is?

I'd go as far as saying that calling Putin a FF because he "makes Russia greater" is as bad and illogical as calling pre-WW2 Hitler a FF for "improving Germany".

BTW, he's not "being mean to the LGBTQ community". That's a ridiculous way to frame it. He's actively and ruthlessly oppressing their most basic human rights, and freely lets his goons perform the beginning of a genocide on them. It's nice to sit on the perch of safe straightness and dismiss that as unimportant because "at least he's being a good Christian".

[America Needs R'hllor]

Isn't his government investigating what's going on in Chechnya? I agree what the Chechnyan Government is doing is disgusting and is a crime against humanity. Someone has to do something to stop it.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-chechnya-gay-men-killing-torture-vladimir-putin-dmitry-peskov-chechen-leader-ramzan-kadyrov-a7693291.html

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/13/world/europe/un-chechnya-gay-men-killing-abuse.html

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Yes, Putin "backed an investigation" after Macron and Merkel (not "pro-LGBT Trump", btw) pushed him to do it. But an investigation by Putin is laughable and weak- if he doesn't throw his Chechen monster into a cell or give him to the Hague High Court, I'm not excusing him. Putin himself has been directly legitimizing these terrible actions by passing his own anti-gay laws in all of Russia, such as the "propaganda" law. Anyone thinking this didn't empower the Chechens is turning a blind eye to a monstrous regime's actions. I hope Putin suffers for his actions.

[America Needs R'hllor]

First of all Putin doesn't antagonize the West, the West antagonizes Putin. Remember, it was Victoria 'F the EU' Nuland who incited an illegal and anti-democratic coup in Ukraine, removing the duly elected president by a vote in the Ukrainian parliament without sufficient quorum. The rebels, who by the way, are backed by fascists, then seized Kiev's institutions by force.

>Sit in a safe home in Washington, D.C.
>Decide that you're bored and want to troll.
>Insult the people of Estonia, Georgia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine that sit on a dangerous border with a powerful, bloodthirsty regime constantly making threatening moves against their sovereignity and freedom.
>Keep sitting in a safe home in Washington, D.C. and trolling while heroic Estonians prepare to defend their homes from the dictator you now pretend to like.

[America Needs R'hllor]

First of all Putin doesn't antagonize the West, the West antagonizes Putin. Remember, it was Victoria 'F the EU' Nuland who incited an illegal and anti-democratic coup in Ukraine, removing the duly elected president by a vote in the Ukrainian parliament without sufficient quorum. The rebels, who by the way, are backed by fascists, then seized Kiev's institutions by force.

>Sit in a safe home in Washington, D.C.
>Decide that you're bored and want to troll.
>Insult the people of Estonia, Georgia, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine that sit on a dangerous border with a powerful, bloodthirsty regime constantly making threatening moves against their sovereignity and freedom.
>Keep sitting in a safe home in Washington, D.C. and trolling while heroic Estonians prepare to defend their homes from the dictator you now pretend to like.

> Doesn't reply to the points I made.

Most importantly, the duly elected leader of Ukraine was removed by an unconstitutional process. Then, people accuse Putin of being the hostile one.

> Launches on an unrelated personal attack.

Somehow, I doubt Putin is going to attack Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, or any of those other countries. Well, maybe he will if the West orchestrates an unconstitutional coup d'etat.

Because your point is moot- the Ukrainian people wanted a President who establishes good relations with the healthy Western economies rather than the weak Russian one. And in any case, whatever the rebels did in Ukraine to remove the President pales in comparison to what Putin does to his political opponents and to innocent Russian citizens. Putin is and has always been the aggressor, and the reason I pointed out your own residence is that, knowing people from these countries, I find it infuriating that someone would insult their danger from his safe perch on another continent.

But I feel like I'm engaging someone's second personality and it feels odd so I shall stop now.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Tremendous leader. FF.

And why is it you say this?

Seconded. I'd love to hear what are the reasons that a man who murders journalists and political opponents, and allows the murder of homosexuals, is a tremendous leader. It can't just be the wish to say "FF" and sound edgy, can it?

[America Needs R'hllor]

Tremendous leader. FF.

And why is it you say this?

Seconded. I'd love to hear what are the reasons that a man who murders journalists and political opponents, and allows the murder of homosexuals, is a tremendous leader. It can't just be the wish to say "FF" and sound edgy, can it?

"Alt-right Sanchez" should give it away...

I believe that he's better than that, no matter what kind of right he is