Posted on 03/18/2014 10:53:20 AM PDT by goldstategop
(Reuters) - To thunderous applause, cheers and even tears, Vladimir Putin delivered a fiercely patriotic speech on Tuesday that laid claim to Crimea and set out a vision of a Greater Russia that could define his third term as President.
In a 47-minute address to his loyal political and business elite that was interrupted by clapping at least 30 times, Putin described a deeply conservative world view in which Russia hankered after land lost when the Soviet Union collapsed.
Presenting himself as the guardian of the nation and of Russians everywhere, the former KGB spy spat defiance at the West and charted an inward-looking course that underlined the shift in his thinking since he first rose to power 14 years ago.
"In the hearts and minds of people, Crimea has always been and remains an inseparable part of Russia," Putin said in a passionate address, delivered from a lectern in the Kremlin's glittering St George Hall two days after Crimea voted in a disputed referendum to become part of Russia.
Two years after mass protests in Moscow and other big cities that briefly shook his grip on power, this was the Putin of old - confident, defiant and steely, and, for many Russians, at his best in a crisis.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Amen.
I can’t find one reason to like our own President and I find myself respecting his nemesis.
Welcome to our new reality!
I can see the libs using this, big time. Equating conservatives and Tea Party folks to “evil Putin” and his taking over of other countries.
They will try to scare people into thinking if they vote conservative, you will vote for mean people who will take everythign away from you. A new spin on an old lie.
RE Putin:
Many out here have a positive opinion of him. I believe it’s mainly because we have such a lousy contrast of our own to point to. This guy, at the very least, loves his own country. No denying that. And people respect that idea. But there is also no denying that the guy IS “The Boss”, brooks no dissent, and sees himself that way. That is NOT an American value, nor is it one we should look up to.
I would liken it to - maybe sort of how many viewed Rommel in WWII...
They watched Rommel take apart British armies in the Desert one after another, disgracing Wavell and Auchinleck in the process and then he took us apart at Kasserine Pass; all Allied commanders were very aware of his abilities, and they respected what he was capable of and respected his skills. Yet Monty finally beat at El Alamien (in ‘42, with overwhelming numerical odds), and Patton beat him at El Guettar (in ‘43), and ultimately we drove the Afrika Corps out of the middle east.
In other words - You respected the general and his abilities as an adversary... but he was nevertheless an adversary to be defeated.
Make sense?
Definitely an OCD headline. Rooters apparently can't publish anything without committing an act of defamation against conservatives.
I think it makes sense.
Countries have different values and cultures and no conservative in our country has ever said we want to be like Russia.
I want America to remain America.
Wouldn’t have to go farther than this thread to find comments to support that assertion.
Rooters is gonna have to transfer to ever get out of the Principal's office.
The "Conservative" reference is character assassination of American Conservatives by conflation rather than an acknowledgment of effective policy by Putin.
If Putin wants to speak to Rooters about this, he can find "em on their knee pads in front of Obama.
Socialism with a nationalist bent to unite the people. Sounds like the Nazi approach to me.
Kleptocracy and totalitarianism are now “conservative?”
Huh. Whoda guessed?
Let’s put the Obama-loving MSM on knee pads in front of Putin.
Khrushchev is the reason we’re in this mess in the first place.
I feel like good Germans must have felt in Germany after Hitler took over... like they were stuck behind enemy lines.
What do you do when the country you love becomes a force for evil in the world? Does nationalism trump your ethics? does you blind belief in a system which has been corrupted allow you to stand by while it actively promotes evil in the world?
You still think this is going to end with Crimea?
You cannot view Russia through the prism of the US....Russians think differently than we do, and our style of government simply will not work over there.
Agreed. We’re judging Russia through our prism.
But Russia is not part of the West and will never be.
This isn’t over yet despite the actions of the Duma. There will be some difficulties, I suspect.
Its a done deal.
Unless Putin moves into eastern Ukraine, it ends here. The West is not going to accept his move to annex Crimea as legitimate but it can live with it.
“If we want to be a great country, we mus be feared.”
Now you are showing your true nature and why you are an apologist and propagandist for totalitarian dictators. You must have been a great fan of Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Saddam Hussein.
Will you defend Putin if he moves on Eastern Ukraine?
Feared by our enemies, Respected by our friends.
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