Putin rival briefly arrested in Moscow during protest

[Dill]

(01-29-2018, 09:19 PM)michaelsean Wrote: And yet according to American reports he has 80% approval. Doesn’t make any sense to me.

No liberal tradition. No conception of judicial independence and checks and balances--except in the abstract, something hey heard the US has. Freedom of the press was new to them, appearing only briefly during the 90s, when they were suffering under a terrible depression and average income dropped way below Soviet levels.

They were also suffering from diminished identity, as they once stood toe to toe with the Americans on the world stage, and then were diminished to less importance than France, the UK or Italy, begging the IMF and World Bank for help.

Given the ethnic and political diversity of Russia, there is also a sense that a strong leader is needed to hold things together, to keep the federation from breaking apart even more.

Putin has stamped out the Chechnyan rebellion, stood up to Bush and Obama, brought the Winter Olympics and the World Cup to Russia, and retaken the Crimea.  Turkey is now a "friend" and Syria is a Middle East satellite. He has also corralled the oligarchs. The world knows that for some mysterious reason, Trump cannot criticize or oppose him, and is working to ease sanctions on Russian oil development.

He has also re-identified the Orthodox Church with Russia. When ***** Riot defiled the holiest Cathedral in Russia with their Putin Prayer video, one call from Patriach Kirill directly to Putin put three of them in prison.

And he successfully cast all opposing media as traitorous fake news out personally to get him, eventually appropriating control of ORT, NRT and TV-d6, which now pump out glowing reports of Putin driving racing cars, competing in Judo matches, and tranquilizing tigers so transmitters can be attached to them, etc.  Virtually all large media outlets now are defenders of the Kremlin, Fox News style. There are internal and external enemies of the president, but he stands up to them all for the people of Russia.

So few really miss freedom of the press when Russia is in the hands of a "strong" leader and seems to be trending upwards in terms of both the economy and world stature.