Russia announces food ban from western countries

[zahratustra]

Except for the bit about US and European jihadists flocking to IS' "summer camps" and coming back more radicalized and better trained? Besides, IS is a cancer. Once (and if) it devours Iraq it will keep spreading.

 

[azarhal]

And, if you check the opinion polls, he is a damn Russian hero right now!

Is his sarcasm? All dictators have close to 95-100% approval rating…

 

[zahratustra]

Is his sarcasm? All dictators have close to 95-100% approval rating…

No sarcasm. Your run of the mill dictators/totalitarians create those approval ratings by false accounting. Putin is genuinely popular in Russia right now. It seems that a lot of Russians want their country to be a superpower again and if it takes somebody like Putin to achieve this - so be it.

 

[Hexprone]

This seeming bravado actually reveals Russian timidity and dependence on the west.

Their big leverage if they chose to use it would be natural gas -- but they dare not cut that off because Putin needs the money.

So instead they make a lot of noise about a gesture that will have very limited effects on any nation.

 

[azarhal]

No sarcasm. Your run of the mill dictators/totalitarians create those approval ratings by false accounting. Putin is genuinely popular in Russia right now. It seems that a lot of Russians want their country to be a superpower again and if it takes somebody like Putin to achieve this - so be it.

So when every other dictators do it, it is false accounting, but when Russia does it, it is genuine?

No dictator will ever render public their real approval rating (if they are even aware of it). It would destroy their public image has "savior".

 

[zahratustra]

And you think that I'm naive enough to rely on Putin's own figures? Read articles of any of the foreign reporters based in Russia or reports of any of the West based Eastern European affairs think tanks and you will hear the very same story. In fact, I would challenge you to find a story/report which does say that Putin isn't a popular figure in his own country.

 

[Kostas]

The fact that the Putin is a dictator rhetoric is treated as a given in here is quite amusing.

 

[zahratustra]

I don't consider him a dictator but I do consider him a totalitarian.

 

[Drithius]

Found this BBC article/video kind of relevant. And disturbing.
T-Shirts for Putin!

Whether the action is right or wrong, strength and confidence will always be seen as good traits.

 

[zahratustra]

I can name a score of strong and confident men (at least strong and confident to begin with) who led their countries/nations/peoples to disaster. Putin is riding a tiger right now and you do know is the problem with those sort of rides?
Besides, Russia isn't a superpower anymore (it has an economy the size of Italy based almost exclusively on oil and gas). It, most likely, can gobble up Ukraine and Baltic Republics but there will be hell to pay for that (economically speaking).

 

[Thrasher]

My concern is the kind of hell caused by nuclear weapons in the hands of irresponsible leadership.