Putin: collapse of Soviet Union "a catastrophe"

[Cubby]

My professor told me that Putin and his cronies hate Bush, despite all the public talk of a warm friendship. He said that their meeting in Slovakia earlier this year was quite unpleasant. Maybe the feeling is mutual.

I hate Putin too but what is the alternative to him? There is no effective opposition. His comment is terrible and shows how all he cares about is re-establishing Russia's former position as a Superpower.

I don't mean to put words in BRTD's mouth but Dazzleman we liberals did not like Soviet communism, we may have liked how it seemed theory but it obviously didn't work in practice. I am as happy as you are that the Berlin Wall came down.

[Cubby]

Of course I don't want him to be a puppet. But he is becoming a competitor to the United States, so I guess our relations will suffer either way.

I don't like him because he has technically outlawed any independent press and especially because of what he did to Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The man obviously doesn't believe in Democracy. Appointing the state governors?! This is 2005 not 1905. Putin is too authoritarian to tolerate.