I don't like him, but I see him as a cunning adversary to be taken seriously. He absolutely outclassed and outmaneuvered Obozo every time. With President Trump, the Democratic party is Putin's ally in the US.

Tony.

Like, trust, respect? No way in hell. He is a brutal (smart) thug who can only be trusted to do what is best for Putin first, Russia a very distant second. The United States is the main external threat to him personally and to Russia. He is not our friend.

I believe that Putin isn’t a Communist is irrelevant to what he is.
The elite during the Soviet era (not the oxymoron it supposedly was) used the features of the Communist system to ensure their own prosperity and oppress others. Putin is using other means to accomplish the same thing.

... more than I liked Barry.

You have to give Putin his due as a shrewd political operator.

But I cannot respect him, never mind like him. He is a murderer and a taker of sovereign territory. He supports terrorists. He tries to destabilize our government. He is a bad guy.

He may keep Russia stable-ish in the short term, but in the long run, he isn't stabilizing, as he isn't creating stable systems. They are only stable because of the force of his leadership and grip on power. Eventually, that will fail, even if it is only when he dies.

More than I like Barry, Hillary, Schumer or Bernie.

quote:

Originally posted by Doc H.:
"We will bury you" was not a threat. It was a promise. One that they mean to keep if ever given the opportunity.

First, screw them all. Really. I'm sure there are many lovely, peaceful, Russian people, but every version of that government is and has been our enemy for ages, and shall remain such I'd wager.

Second, I read that even Khrushchev himself was quoted late in life as thinking most exaggerate the quote and take it out of context, and that he was basically just paraphrasing a common tenent of the Manifesto.

Again, screw them and their Manifesfo and Communism in general, but it seems that quote isn't what it's often bandied about as being. I wouid think, had he meant it, he wouldn't be walking it back...

fwiw.

I like him in the same way that I like:

Australian Brown Snakes
Black Mambas
Coral Snakes
Great White Sharks
Sarin, Soman, and VX nerve agents
Uncontrolled high intensity emissions of gamma ray radiation
Black Holes
Brown Recluse Spiders
Black Widow Spiders
Gila Monsters
Plasmodium falciparum

The best discussion and description of Khrushchev’s actual statements I have found are in a 1962 CIA document that was later released to the public. It was claimed by him and others that whatever his actual words were, they were intended to merely say that “socialism” (Soviet Communism) would overtake western capitalism. LINK

But regardless of what one Soviet leader said or meant by a particular statement, there is absolutely no doubt about their actions against their own people, their actions against the subjugated people of the countries they conquered by force, or what they attempted against the U.S. and other countries of the West throughout the entire history of that truly Evil Empire. A representative and recommended reading list:

KGB: The Secret Work Of Soviet Agents; John Barron
KGB Today: The Hidden Hand; John Barron
Special Tasks (murder and espionage by the KGB); Pavel Sudoplatov
The Haunted Wood (espionage in the US); Weinstein & Vassiliev
Spies (the rise and fall of the KGB in America); Haynes, Klehr & Vassiliev
* Mao; Chang & Halliday
* Reds (Communism and McCarthyism); Ted Morgan
* The Strange Death of the Soviet Empire; David Pryce-Jones
* The Forsaken: An American Tragedy in Stalin’s Russia; Tim Tzouliadis
The Sword and the Shield; (archival history of the KGB); Andrew & Mitrokhin
* The World Was Going Our Way (archival history of the KGB); Andrew & Mitrokhin
Alger Hiss: Why He Chose Treason; Christina Shelton
* Black April (the fall of South Vietnam); George Veith
Circle of Treason (espionage by Aldridge Ames); Grimes & Vertefeuille
* Iron Curtain (the “crushing” of Eastern Europe); Anne Applebaum
* Why We Were in Vietnam; Norman Podhoretz
* The Soviet Biological Weapons Program; Leitenberg & Zilinskas
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal; Ben Macintyre
A Very Expensive Poison (murder of Alexander Litvinenko); Luke Harding
* The Soviet Tragedy: A History of Socialism in Russia, 1917-1991; Martin Malia
Bureau of Spies; Steven Usdin
VENONA: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America; John Haynes and Harvey Klehr
Trinity: The Treachery and Pursuit of the Most Dangerous Spy in History; Frank Close
Betrayal in Berlin; Steve Vogel
In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage; John Haynes and Harvey Klehr
The Bureau and the Mole: The Unmasking of Robert Philip Hanssen, the Most Dangerous Double Agent in FBI History; David A. Vise

* Most of the books listed are about espionage, but the ones with asterisks are more about Communist socialism in general. And although it’s a novel based on her personal experiences, the true classic is We the Living by Ayn Rand. I read that long ago shortly after Atlas Shrugged, but when I tried rereading it a few years ago it was so depressing that I gave up after a few pages.

quote:

Originally posted by Woodman:
Knowing little of current Russia and its politics, Putin none-the-less strikes me as an all-right guy. He appears to satisfy most of his people most of the time. I'd like to see him remain in power.

Is this to be taken seriously?

Just because the guy twisted the stick of #44, doesn't mean he's a swell guy. Putin is a criminal, just like the rest of his cronies. For them, stability at home, means instability everywhere else. The Russian MO is to de-stablize their surroundings so, their internal institutions benefit.

Watch the Netflix show Occupied, it's about Norway getting invaded by Russia, it'll provide some insight into the Russian mindset when dealing with its neighbors and how it deals with things on a grand scale. The large thug stereotype is not hyperbole.

I don't really care for him. But before I retired I worked with a girl from Russia. OH MY GOD. Did she hate Putin!!!

I have to say yes. If not I may end up in the Gulag.