Heartland

Putin! By the way.

For throwing in jail so many of the criminal oligarchs. Someone in Ukraine should do the same.

No idea if he's a stooge or not, but so far he's been doing nothing but the good things.

If he didn't play on at least one of the first 3 LPs, NO WAY is he a Stooge.

Oh sweet Jesus yes. That guy rocks my socks
He's evil, but more fantastically Russian than a Bond villain pickled in vodka. Who can complain?

Why is he evil?

And more to the point: Why are Bond-villains evil?

No i shouldn't turn this into a joke, no matter how tipsy i'm getting.

EDIT: There's a reason as to why western media portrayes him as evil.

Look at his eyes!

I like to think you open up his chest and there's wires.

Oh no that's Bush

itnAklipse wrote:Why is he evil?

http://www.medcartoons.ru/wall/putin.JPG

How could he be anything else?

If i knew how to use photoshop i could do the same to...erm, Olmert

And i'm NOT comparing the two!

itnAklipse wrote:Putin! By the way.

For throwing in jail so many of the criminal oligarchs.

Putin hasn't thrown all of them all in prison yet...

Sorry for farting in the bath, but that bloke is nothing but a bloody mafioso himself who has the power to disable his rivals..

eotunun wrote:Sorry for farting in the bath, but that bloke is nothing but a bloody mafioso himself who has the power to disable his rivals..

Agreed.

Former KGB isn't he? Can't be a good sign.

Tsk- all this talk about politics and no mention of Chechen or Putin's own war on 'terrorism'. He does get bonus points for running an 81% approval rating and the following from wikipedia...

In response to Bush's accusations during the press conference at the 32nd G8 summit held in July of 2006, concerning the decline of democracy in modern Russia, when Bush said that Iraq is a good example to follow, Putin stated, "We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I will tell you quite honestly."

eotunun wrote:Sorry for farting in the bath, but that bloke is nothing but a bloody mafioso himself who has the power to disable his rivals..

What's he supposed to do with his rivals - write poems for them and invite them round for tea and buns? Nikky Mac had it right when he said that it is better to be feared than loved if you cannot be both.
Couple of good articles in The Economist this week - clicky1 and clicky2

EvilBastard wrote:

eotunun wrote:Sorry for farting in the bath, but that bloke is nothing but a bloody mafioso himself who has the power to disable his rivals..

What's he supposed to do with his rivals - write poems for them and invite them round for tea and buns?

Now that would be nice!
Actually the problem starts where other mafioso are in the game as rivals of a statesman.
Call me naive, but I expect a president to keep the interests of his country in the focus of his attention, which doesn´t say the interests of some obscure paramilitarcal livery admirers or secret police like or whatsoever spooky bunch of power hungry mentals.
A president is supposed to play in a different league. But one may say thanks to Yeltzin for letting the mafioso gain as much influence on the country as they have now while he was gently floating on a wave of Vodka, which is to say that I partially agree that Putin may not play that game all voluntarily.

EvilBastard wrote:Nikky Mac had it right when he said that it is better to be feared than loved if you cannot be both.

And that quote misses the demand for briliance.
Russia is in a situation unprecedented by any nation. It has almost entirely peacefully overcome a couple of totalitarian regimes. (I enlist the GDR here. Whatever success german politicians claim here to have had, they mostly were supernumeraries in this theatre.)
In an entirely new situations you may be able to take proven methods into account when solving the problems. but a mere reto-style thinking is about as clever as ordering vintage car spares for your broken down modern one. Some spares may work, actually. Putin seems to be a very retro thinking mind.
Actually I have the impression that, like our beloved George W., he doesn´t have many ideas for Russia´s future that go far beyond showing muscles. Which is not proving his wit in any way.
Sitting on the bigger rock and grunting louder than others counts as fairly primitive as trademark of authority in my book, actually.
Very Hip-Hoppish.
Or, putting it in Fickchinesisch:

Ey Alda, mein Audi is viel geiler als dein Handy!

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economist.com wrote:....outwitted by a tiny group of opportunists, many of them Jews (not a people beloved by the KGB), who became known as the oligarchs.

Secret police, ex-militarians, myths with jews as vilains and a people with a problem about it´s self confidence.
Where have I heard that before?
Well-I don´t like the stench of that buisiness at all, EB.
Blame it on the emphasis in german history lessons at school at traits like these.

He's got bastard cheekbones though, you can't deny that.

Nothing a decent plastic surgeon couldn´t sort out..
Pfft..

He looks like he's just aching to burst out with, "No, Mistah Bond, I expect you to die!"

boudicca wrote:He's got bastard cheekbones though, you can't deny that.

Don't we know someone else with (utterly) bastard (groovy) cheekbones? Let's see now: no new material since 1992, megalomania, ruthless handling of rivals...
Um...people? I think we know what has been up to lately...

eotunun wrote:

economist.com wrote: ....outwitted by a tiny group of opportunists, many of them Jews (not a people beloved by the KGB), who became known as the oligarchs.

The full quote...

economist.com wrote: "Yet Mr Yeltsin, though he let the agency survive, did not use it as his power base. In fact, the KGB was cut off from the post-Soviet redistribution of assets. Worse still, it was upstaged and outwitted by a tiny group of opportunists, many of them Jews (not a people beloved by the KGB), who became known as the oligarchs. Between them, they grabbed most of the country's natural resources and other privatised assets. KGB officers watched the oligarchs get super-rich while they stayed cash-strapped and sometimes even unpaid."

No myth of jews as villains there, methinks, just a statement that a large number of the oligarchs are jewish - and it probably narked the KGB given that for years they were tasked with stomping on religious groups, and now they see the worm as having turned, and having been turfed out into the cold by Yeltsin.

Putin may not be the recipient of Miss Gently's Award for Nice n'Fuzzy, but we have to deal with the reality we've got, not the one we'd like. He was elected, it's up to the Russians to boot him out - but it doesn't look like they want to. After all, who wouldn't want to live in country that was as much of a force to be reckoned with as it once was?

Well, may the force be with you.
It doesn´t pay my rent, so I can do without.