Back in March, 2012, just before the elections, Putin said that if he is elected President later that week on Sunday, all Russians can expect nothing but happiness - including higher pensions, a firm retirement age (60 for men, 55 for women) and unfettered media.
The Public Broadcasting Service (USA) will show a program tonight, on its "newsmagazine" series Frontline, a program about Putin that promises to be interesting.
If you aren't in the US or for other reasons don't have access to PBS programming, you may be able to see the program from the website, pbs.org.
Try:
http://video.pbs.org/program/frontline/episodes/
(remove any spaces from the URL, and if the Putin program is shown on the website, it won't be available until around the time it shown on TV)
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a Europe-based investigative journalists’ group that follows organized crime and corruption in government has issued a report naming Russian President Vladimir Putin its "2014 Person of the Year."
http://goo.gl/3yxtS7
We all know that he is extremely corrupt, but the article is worth reading: Putin's corruption is possibly beyond all modern precedent. Putin has made Russia's gigantic and powerful organized crime organizations into instruments of his government. It has been documented elsewhere, that Russia has delegated much of the control of Crimea to gangsters, and that many of the "separatists" in Donbass fighting against Ukraine's lawful government are local gangsters who were hired by Russia.
Some highlights:
"... editor Drew Sullivan said Putin 'has been a real innovator in working with organized crime.'
'He has created a military-industrial-political-criminal complex that furthers Russia’s and Putin’s personal interests', he said. 'I think Putin sees those interests as one and the same.'”
"'Putin began arresting most major organized crime figures in Russia several years ago, but then quietly released them,' [the announcement] said. 'That was the start of Russia’s state policy of working with organized crime. OCCRP believes Putin agreed to tolerate criminality in exchange for criminals’ support in advancing what he defined as Russian interests.'"
HOW PUTIN AND THE WEST LOOK PAST EACH OTHER, AND WHY PUTIN THINKS HE WILL WIN
http://goo.gl/RZXjvV
From "The American Interest," Walter Russell Mead, a long-time academic analyst of foreign relations, gives his picture of how Putin sees the world situation.
This picture as painted by Mead is very different from how Western leaders see the world (not surprising!).
According to Mead, both sides keep making mistakes because they misunderstand the other.
The fearless Putin scoured the length and breadth of Russia's vast territory, to search out who is best qualified to receive billions of dollars of the people's money, to build a bridge connecting Russia's lawful territory to Crimea.
And the winner: Arkady Rotenberg, Putin's childhood friend. What an amazing coincidence!
Rodan said that Putin has no intentions of building that bridge from Kerch to mainland Russia. I tend to agree with that. Russia is hurting financially. Can they afford to build a $5 Billion bridge?
While Russia is engaged in Ukraine, it would be advantageous for Moldova to expel Russian squatters and sympathizers before Moldovans get the same treatment on their own soil as the Tartars are getting in Krym.
Several public figures have been ridiculed for "comparing Putin to Hitler", including former US Secretary of State Clinton. However, Clinton didn't say that Putin was like Hitler, she said that Putin's land-grabbing was like Hitler's. That is simple truth, the historical parallels are exact.
Lots of ordinary joes do make the Putin = Hitler equation, but of course the differences between the policies of the two men are vast, so making such statements makes one look foolish.
But here's an interesting quote I found today:
"If he were killing a mouse he would know how to make it seem like a dragon."
Ukraine's military is a mouse compared to Russia's, but Putin has convinced millions of Russians that he is saving them from a second wave of Nazi extermination.
These quoted words were written by George Orwell, about a certain Adolf Hitler.
Hitler referred to the Slavic people as "subhuman" (Unter menschlichen). He equated the Jews to like rodents. Rodents are to be exterminated. Subhumans are to be made slaves to serve the "superior" humans. The Jews should the ones who would be more concerned about a second wave of Nazi extermination. Political opponents (like the Communists) were also to be exterminated since they harbor the "wrong" political ideas.
"Indeed, Putin's remarkable domestic approval ratings are almost the mirror image of his remarkable disapproval in countries such as Spain, Poland and France.