Objective view on Vladimir Putin?

lumphammer2

First of all I want to note I am not a supporter of Putin .. and 100% agree that he does not deserve to hold onto power as of 2022 due to what he has done in Ukraine and in Iran, Belarus, Georgia, etc. ... he and the puppets he helps in the other places are keeping people down ... and as of 2022 it is clear he is the new Slobodan Milosevic.

... but are there any positives about Putin? Let's see ...

During the Iraq war era I have got to admit that I thought Putin then made sense ... he was ironically one of the strongest opponents of a stupid economy destroying war that the West STILL does not blame for the financial crisis it caused and for the ISIS mess that it spawned.

Sure Putin had launched a war in Chechnya ... but so did his predecessor Yeltsin. He also went to war briefly in Georgia ... but that was overshadowed by the horrors coming out of Iraq.

It was clear that circa 2003-2013 that Putin was often the least bad guy when compared to the Republican Party who invaded Iraq .. and the ISIS who took over Iraq. By 2014 it was clear Putin was becoming more of a problem. He had turned Russia into a dictatorship by refusing to stand down after a set amount of terms in office and was killing Russian opponents of him in and out of Russia. He then annexed Crimea. But ISIS, then another despot called Trump, Brexit and Covid all took attention away from Putin.

Ukraine was not the only country Putin has annexed ... he set up a puppet regime in Chechnya lead by Ramzan Kadyrov who is like ISIS but working for Putin. Putin also made sure his servant Ebrahim Raisi won an election in Iran with the help of his pal Trump destroying the popularly elected Rouhani administration ... and Iran's king Ali Khamenei making sure Putin's man got in as head of government. Now Iranians have to put up with a far worse regime than ever before .. seemingly constructed to keep the people, esp. women down. Putin also has clients in breakaway regions of Moldova and Georgia and the Kazathstan and Belarus regimes are more puppets similar to the Iranian one and the pre-Zelensky Ukraine one. Putin fought another war in Syria ... while it destroyed ISIS it cemented the Assads another Putin puppet. It all shows Putin will go to war if he has to in order to protect his clients.

Putin's worst oppression apart from war is felt on the streets of Tehran and Grozny where ISIS types oppress the local population on his behalf. He controls vital oil rich regions incl. the Arctic Ocean, Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea. He also wants to dominate the pipelines in Ukraine ... his aim is to be the dominant energy power in the world.

Because the world depends on the resources in Russia and its puppet states Putin may well get away with what he is at. He has always said if the sanctions go the oil flows ... it is hard to see people put up with misery and Putin knows this. Putin may win sanctions relief ...

... but what next? If the current puppet in Tehran keeps rolling back freedom in Persian lands ... whose people are educated and know what is going on and know it is Russia not Iran that is controlling them deliberately to keep them down ... expect a massive revolution. If Russia continue their war even if sanctions are gone expect it to become unpopular akin to how WW1 and Afghanistan became unpopular and changed Russia's system to the USSR first and Russian Federation second.

All in all ... objectively ... Putin is a bad guy. He may have had a purpose early on esp. during the Iraq war times. He may have helped defeat the worst of the ISIS regime ... but what he does in Ukraine, in Iran, in Georgia, in Belarus (Lukashenko is another lovely guy!!) and within his own borders negates any positives ...

893bet

A massive kunt

Gregor Samsa

Putin’s done a lot of pretty bad things, but at least he never posted a CA/IMHO thread in AH. It’s one line he’ll never cross.

Jequ0n

I’m neither a Putin supporter nor hater, but you got to admit that he is a lot smarter than the average Western politicians who keep shackling themselves.

Gusser09

All i have to do is look at my esb bill to confirm what knut he is.

ancapailldorcha

Just another sad old tyrant who can't accept that the world is changing and that the rancid, oppressive, decaying empire he grew up in has rightfully been consigned to the dustbin of history.

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058262460/objective-view-on-vladimir-putin

For people who can't be bothered.

TLDR: He's a murdering bastard.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119588126#Comment_119588126

Smarter? not really. He is just more willing to murder anybody that stands in his way.

Jequ0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119588699#Comment_119588699

Yes, self serving and therefore not caged by the morals of the western world.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119588946#Comment_119588946

which does not equal smart.

EOQRTL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119588126#Comment_119588126

The standard is pretty low in fairness.

fryup

he's playing a game of poker with the west and he's holding all the cards - gas, oil, etc

he's been planning this for years and he's got us by the short & curlies

One thing I always am amazed at is for such a supposedly intelligent guy why his propaganda in the West is so bad. He comes across as a cold eyed psycho in a suit.

If was a dictator I would hire the best PR in the world to make me seem like a warm, nice guy.

EOQRTL

He's full of sh1t tbh. Constantly drawing lines in the sand and does nothing when they are crossed. He warned the west not to supply weapons to Ukraine and when they did he did nothing, he's actually going crying to the UN about it now 🤣. Said any attack inside Russian territory would be an act of war and when positions inside Russia are attacked he does nothing. Thought he's take Kyiv in 3 days and had his ass handed to him. People saying he's a smart guy are deluded. Former KGB agent jesus they must have some thicks in the KGB

fryup

he doesn't want to be seen as a 'nice guy' he wants to seen as a hard ass

He's a dictatorial menace.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119588979#Comment_119588979

Because he doesn't want to be viewed as a warm, nice, guy anywhere in the world.

His whole existence is to exude strength and power, he maintains his walk/habits from his KGB days.

He rides around on horseback topless, he goes hunting with sniper rifles. They may be photo-ops/propaganda but either way, they're there to show what a 'rambo' he is.

We in the West may fall for the charming, affable, politician routine, but others fall for the OTT bravado, macho man, stuff.

dxhound2005

Some of the worst tyrants started off life in poverty. So with Putin.

https://acestoohigh.com/2022/03/02/how-vladimir-putins-childhood-is-affecting-us-all/

AlanG

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119588979#Comment_119588979

There was a study recently that showed they have focused their PR on the 75% of he world that is not Nato / Japan / Anzac. We get a very different message to Asia, South America and Africa when it comes to the war.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119588126#Comment_119588126

Oh yeah, the invasion of Ukraine was a cunning move.

Jinglejangle69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119588126#Comment_119588126

Haha Russia will be defeated on the field, in it’s economy and it’s status on the world stage.

Putin has finished Russia as a country.

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119588126#Comment_119588126

Well he's shackled himself and Russia to a war thats looking increasingly unwinnable.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119590616#Comment_119590616

Yeah, but it may be a case that he loses at a big cost to other people. As mentioned above he controls a lot of gas.

Jinglejangle69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119590631#Comment_119590631

Not really anymore.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119590643#Comment_119590643

We'll see. Winter is coming.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119589998#Comment_119589998

That's another thing I don't get. He seems to be innately suspicious of the America and the 'West' as if they want to destroy Russia. So in response he embraces the third world banana republics trying to build some grand anti-Western alliance.

I think if he looked at how America treats former enemies that became westernised, Japan, Germany, the Baltic states, he might realise that the yanks don't really want to destroy countries. On the contrary they would prefer to have good relations, open trading markets, ideally democracy etc. Not much more to be honest. His paranoia is weird. Does he actually think Nato could invade Russia?

He's made Russia regress about 30 years all in the space of 7 months.

I never really bought into the 'hardman' myth. He doesn't look that tough to me. He's one of those try hards, all posturing but no substance.

victor8600

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119589012#Comment_119589012

Putin is not a hard ass. He is just a weak old man who was put in power by the mafia. The cleptocrats in power wanted a pawn who would facilitate stealing of the state assets and to ensure that profitable corruption schemes are above the law.

The image of Putin is just that -- an image created by PR consultants. Anything that Putin says is a meta construct, it is all half truths and lies which serve a purpose of him staying in power and his cronies to get rich. Please read books by Pelevin, nothing in Russia is true, everything that Russia appears to be is an illusion to make people mistrust each other, so that they do not resist. If everything is a lie, everyone is bought, then you have no hope in fighting for your rights.

You could ask -- isn't Putin fighting the bad, decadent West and protecting ethnic Russians in Donbass from the genocide?

Lol. No.

Ukrainians are very dangerous to Putin because they keep changing presidents. Putin's goal is to keep Ukraine down so that the people in Russia see that Ukraine is weak and that changing presidents is a bad idea. Donbass/Lugansk areas were occupied by Russia since 2014. Have Putin made life better for people there? Nope, that wasn't a goal.

Another bonus for attacking Ukraine is that it keeps Ukraine from developing their own gas deposits around Crimea and in the east of the country. Anything that threatens Russia's near monopoly on gas supply to the EU is bad for Putin.

Everything else -- the threat of NATO, making Russia great again, and so on are just lies. Putin wants to keep himself and his cronies in power and rich. But he made a fatal miscalculation. Ukraine decided to fight, and Putin's head is now at risk.

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119588979#Comment_119588979

Thats exactly the planned effect!!! And as you can see, it works.

Tonesjones

He's not as crooked as Bertie and not as much of a **** stirer as Leo

He went into middle East,defeated Isis (broke all sorts human right violations along way),stemmed the tide of suicide attacks into Europe,brought some semblance of stability to middle East after 20 or so years of American led interventions......had Russia in a v.strong position in terms of geo-politics, particularly in middle East..

Decided to fcuk it all away,for Ukraine.....the yanks mustn't believe their luck,Russia burning through resources and knocked it's military back decades,is now got caught in a sunk-cost type fallacy that seemingly lacks who to extract from......the yanks don't care about Ukrainians,but are happy to tie Russia up in an endless landwar

Brought Russia out of doldrums,the 90s were awlful for em,but was utterly corrupt in doing so.......started horrendous wars with cheyna and Georgia aswell,killing thousand

jmreire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119593203#Comment_119593203

So to sum up...a bad evil barsteward !!!