Posted on 07/23/2016 2:07:07 PM PDT by orchestra
Thanks, anyway, I'll stick with the USA.
Reminds me of a cartoon I saw years ago, a US developer, or somebody, was demonstrating some kind of gizmo to some Russians and remarked, "It's the best thing since sliced bread." The Russians exclaim in unison ( and large cartoon print,) "SLICED BREAD ?!?!?!?!"
There is absolutely no evidence that Russia shot down a commercial airliner and US intelligence admitted that within days of the MH 17 incident, but the US DID shoot down commercial airliner Iran Air 655 in 1988.
As to Putin, the Russian GDP has grown two and a half times since he took office. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Russia#/media/File:Russian_economy_since_fall_of_Soviet_Union.PNG
In addition:
Putin has (1) restricted abortion to 12 weeks, banned abortion advertising and instituted a robust maternity program; (2) denounced multiculturalism and all its works; (3) prohibited the distribution of homosexual propaganda to minors; jailed the vile Pussy Riot for desecrating the Moscow Cathedral; (4) rebuilt churches throughout Russia and placed the Russian Orthodox Church at the center of the nations cultural life; (5) tightened immigration laws and opposed the Wests open borders philosophy; (6) stood up for state sovereignty against globalism; (7) denounced excessive welfare spending in the West for drawing in immigrants and as dangerous to the moral foundation of society and generating a dependency mentality,; (8) required religious or moral education in the public schools; (9) instituted a flat income tax of 13%; (12) abolished the estate tax; (13) cut the corporate tax to 20%, half of what it is in the US; (14) paid the Russian state debt down so it is only 18% of GDP (v. 101% in the US): (15) accumulated a foreign exchange reserves of half a trillion dollars; (16) condemned Western money printing as hooliganism; (17) denounced excessive state intervention in the economy; (18) cut the Russian state budget by 10% each of the last two years.
Nor, if you study the individual cases, will you find any convincing evidence Putin has had anyone killed. And I have studied them.
As to “kleptocracy,” the former Forbes bureau chief in Moscow, Paul Klebnikov, later probably murdered by Berezonvsky, said:
“What happened is that most of the so-called oligarchs were very bad managers. As soon as President Putin came in, and after the bankruptcy of the Russian state, the devaluation of the ruble and the debt default of 1998, there was a change of tone in the Russian government and a groundswell of outrage in the Russian population. There was an understanding among the oligarchs that they would have to change their tactics. They couldnt just simply strip the assets and strip the wealth from these companies. They had done their looting, and now if they wanted to hang onto their companies, they had to suddenly act like real managers and build the companies up.
This is something that Putin made very clear when he came to power. This was unexpected. People like Berezovsky expected him to be a wishy-washy character.
But an informal deal was struck. Putin said he wouldnt look into the past and the criminal way in which the oligarchs acquired the companies, but from now on, they were going to pay taxes and stop sucking all the money out of these companies and parking it in their personal bank accounts abroad. They were going to have to take the profits from the companies and reinvest them, or at least reinvest them into the Russian economy. And those financiers that agreed to this deal started acting differently and are now acting in a more civilized manner. There were a few that did not want to make the transition and took whatever wealth they could carry and are now living abroad.
http://multinationalmonitor.org/mm2002/02jan-feb/jan-feb02interviewklebniko.html
And here is what Christopher Caldwell, senior editor of the neocon Weekly Standard, no friend of Putin, has written.
“These state-appointed billionaires, as Putin came to call them, were a conduit for looting Russia, and they were too entrenched to root out. But Putin was able to avoid an outright oligarchic takeover of the state, of the sort that happened in neighboring Ukraine. It was for reasons good and bad that Yukos oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who served ten years in prison before being released on the eve of Russias 2014 Winter Olympics, became the center of Putins crackdown. Khodorkovskys was among the most obscene of the privatizations: Myers calculates that Khodorkovsky and fellow investors paid $150 million in the 1990s for the companys main production unit, which was valued at about $20 billion by 2004.
Khodorkovsky began leveling accusations of corruption at the very Russian state from which he had appropriated one of the worlds great fortunes. Putin saw his own task as restoring to the country what had been stolen from it. In his view, here was Khodorkovsky preening before his powerful American friends, hoping they might help him consolidate his theft.” http://www.claremont.org/crb/article/the-prince/
At least he’s not a cuck like you.
for later
You can be a Nationalist, I’m a full bore Jingoist.
Thank you for that very informative post.
I also like that that Putin respects Patriarch Kirill and defends Christians (at least that’s what he says in public) unlike Obama who hates Christians.
Hillary?
If you''re Russian, then that's okay. If you're an American, then you're an embarrassment. But, we've always had a certain number of Americans who hate this country.
Here's a chart for Russian GDP:
Putin is an incompetent loser.
I see. ;-)
I prefer Russian conservative social, cultural, and economic policies to American cultural Marxist and Keynesian economic policies, yes.
My GDP chart shows the growth of GDP from the time Putin first became President in 2000; yours basically reflects the fall-off of recent years occasioned by Western sanctions and falling oil prices over which Putin had no control.
Well, I guess your preferred guy was drunken Yeltsin.
Sure, he was bound to give Russia away to the west...
Your man, eh?
Facts are facts and the fact is that Putin is an incompetent.
Yeah, Putin has done more to protect America than the last 4 Presidents combined. The globalists are a greater threat to our liberty than the followers of the paedophile profit could ever hope to be.
Your answer is Yeltsin and "Twinkie's" answer is Hillary. I don't know why you and "Twinkie" want to change the subject. Again, the facts demonstrate that Putin is an incompetent.
Finally, somebody tells it like it is.
Putin did nothing to draw sanctions. The US fostered the overthrow of the legitimate, democratically elected government in Kiev and Putin enabled the largely Russian population of Crimea to re-unite with Russia. And he enabled the people of Donbass to defend themselves against the Ukro-Nazi regime that waged war against its own people (a monstrous crime according to the US when it was Gaddafi and Saddam who were so accused).
It’s a little rich accusing Russian of “global terrorism” after the illegal bombing of Serbia, the illegal invasion of Iraq, the illegal attack against Libya, and the continuing illegal activities of the US in Syria. all of which have done nothing but empower Muslim terrorists.
I would be curious to know how many of the eighteen key social and economic policies of Putin I listed that you disagree with.
You just keep looking at the chart in post 29. That's all anyone needs to see in order to know that Putin is an incompetent. Here is a chart for United States GDP annual growth rates for the same period:
So, while the USA has been growing each year, Russia (under Putin) has been cratering. Again, I'm not saying anything controversial. I'm just pointing out that Putin is incompetent. Under stronger leadership, Russia would probably do much better.
The US economy also previously had a broader base versus Russia which relies on oil exports as the centerpiece.
We don’t “know” any such thing about MH 17. Here is a detailed fact-based update for you. https://consortiumnews.com/2016/07/17/mh-17-two-years-of-anti-russian-propaganda/
The Russian chart is meaningless because it does not encompass the entire period of Putin’s presidency nor acknowledge the impact of sanctions and falling oil prices, which of course don’t have an effect upon the US. You are the first Freeper I have seen praise the wonderful Obama economy. I presume you find Obama competent then.
But which of Putin’s actual economic policies do you find incompetent? instituting the 13 flat tax? abolishing the estate tax? halving the corporate tax rate? cutting the Russian debt to GDP ratio to 18$ (v. 101% for US)? building up foreign currency reserves of half a trillion dollars? eschewing money printing? cutting the Russian state budget by 10% each of the last two years? These are all sound conservative economic policies and the very reverse of what the US follows.
Obviously, about 85% of the Russian people do not think he is incompetent (based on both independent polling in Russia and Western polling conducted there).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.