Putin and Russia today

I got a wonderful comment on my previous posting by doctorbulldog and I was so interested with the article that I want to comment on it in a separate posting. I do not agree with some aspects of the posting by doctorbulldog and I am commenting below on the points which I think are different form how I see it but I definitely agree with general line of thinking by doctorbulldog:

doctorbulldog “One must unabashedly concede that Putin has accomplished a remarkable feat in revitalizing the sagging Russian economy by emendating and implementing the old school Soviet program of brinkmanship.”

2008 voter: “I would not give that much of credit to Putting for that , mostly for price of oil. If he would manage to boost Russian economy with oil $30 for barrel I would be impressed, otherwise it is more like a luck to be in right time in the right place.”

doctorbulldog “the younger generation of Russians (those who were not yet born during Soviet rule) are fanatical in their support of Putin. They have no idea of how evil he truly is, as most of the news that they listen to is extremely pro-Putin. Of course, it helps that Putin controls all of the major television news services in Russia, along with most of the radio stations. As for the newspapers, he just has the reporters mysteriously killed whenever they begin to question his policies. This is also an essential part of brinkmanship, as it enables the Kremlin to control public perception in Russia, thus maintaining governmental stability while engaging in questionable politics.”

2008 voter:Unfortunately success of this indoctrination was in large secured by American policy toward Russia during 90( or rather lack of any coherent policy) In the early 90s late 80s perception of US was very favorable in Russia until “Gore/ Chernomirdin” commission under supervision of Al Gore started pump blindly money into Russian economy ( read mafia) , until US bombed Belgrade and choose to support every single anti Russian move of former Russian satellites.

The public perception of Russia driven by “experts” and ignorant US media was grossly humiliating toward Russians and was basing on the amazingly stupid and obviously wrong perception that Russians are finished.

doctorbulldog “And, therein lies the crux of the problem. Putin controls the minds of the Russian youth through rigid regulation of the Russian media, just as Hamas is manipulating the minds of impressionable Palestinian children in preparing them for Jihad against Israel. “

2008 voter: Commonalities between Hamas and Russia are obvious this is why they such close friends. But please do not overlook the differences: Russia has no ideology today. It is essentially mafia state were AL Capone ( read Putin) first was assigned to the state ruling post and them after easy manipulations with criminal oppression of all opposition was “ elected” by those who survived his ruling before elections.

Hamas are Islamo-fascist ideologists. Putin is just a crook and he thinks as a crook. Interesting thing is that hamas in long term is a bigger danger for Russia than USA unless Putin’s crooks and ruled mass are considering Islam as a state religion in close future.