Opinion of Vladimir Putin (user search)

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.

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.

Second of all, Russia-China relations have been steadily improving since Gorbachev's visit to Beijing in 1989. It would be more accurate to say Russia's Far East flank is more secure than it has ever been in Russian history. It is a far cry from the border clashes of 1969 which Richard Nixon took advantage of to drive a wedge between the two partners. If this was the 1960's or 70's, China would have been mad at the Russians for aiding the election of a US President who implemented heavy tariffs on them, but they have not done any protest, why? Because the relationship is so deep. In any case; similar to Stalin in 1941, Putin is free to focus on his Western front since he has covered his other one quite well.

Third of all, the EU is not a real power, as it is not sufficiently unified for any decisive action. While it is not Poland circa 1760, it does have many of the same weaknesses. Decisions often require unanimous agreement of 27 members, including very small states with volatile politics. It has no unified foreign policy and no unified military certainly; and even what little unity it does have is constantly threatened by a growing anti-EU movement. For defense it still relies on the United States. The EU is basically a non-power, or a vacuum. Therefore, why Putin should worry about the EU is anyone's guess. If anything, with Nordstream coming online, the EU's dependence on Russian oil, already strong enough to protect Russia from stronger sanctions after MH-17, is about to grow even stronger. Further, Russia's ties with far-right parties in Europe, extend its influence into every EU country.

In sum, Russia's geo-strategic position is very excellent, the best it has been in centuries. There is no power in the whole world which one can say is definitely hostile to it at the moment. Those who say the population is shrinking is out of date; it is now growing again. Those who say the economy is 'smaller than Italy' are not looking at GDP (PPP), by the latter measure, which adjusts for price differences, the economy is nearly equal to that of Germany, Europe's strongest economy. It is for all these reasons that Putin feels confident to intervene in places like Syria.

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