How to Think About Vladimir Putin (really excellent)

Imprimis ^ | March 2017 | Christopher Caldwell

[EarlyBird]

Thanks for posting this. It is very good.

I’m a little disappointed in the author’s short shrift given to Ukraine. I’m always hungry for more info about what Russia did there, since it was my area of “study” in the army, and I have a Ukranian girlfriend.

It seems that all the news about Ukraine is hopelessly slanted one way or another. When I read the opening to his only paragraph regarding Ukraine I was hopeful for a learned summary on these events.

But the author’s “Both of these accounts are perfectly correct...” bailout disappointed me greatly.

[Navy Patriot]

Putin has made it so Stalin and his WWII victory over Hitler is the reference point by which millenials trace their national pride and identity.

Yeah, it would be better if Hitler had won, because Millennials are ignorant, Then Putin couldn't point out how Russians are patriotic, tough and resilient.

The grandparents and parents of people my age continue to live under the weight of their traumas, secrets, and unresolved histories.

Yeah, modern Russians are snowflakes.

Archives to things related to the Gulag and other records that were burst open shortly following Glasnost/Perestroika era are locked shut under Putin.

Good thing the Russians didn't hold the Kennedy assassination records.

Lenin’s body remains unburied and lies in open display in Red Square in the manner of a saint.

So Pope Frank can visit him?

The traumas of the Soviet era are not always as obvious as Gulag imprisonment. For example, did you know that at certain points in the 60s and 70s, there were five to seven abortions for every birth among Russian women? (The Soviet Union was the first country of the modern era to legalize the practice in the 1920s give or take a few phases of restrictions.)

That really is below the belt, even for you, Putin has spoken out against abortion: Putin’s Next Target Is Russia’s Abortion Culture

Unlike American DemoRat's Planned Parenthood selling baby parts.

[OK]

Russia Announces 26 Year Old Military Spokeswoman - NATO Surrenders

http://russia-insider.com/en/russia-announces-26-year-old-military-spokeswoman-nato-surrenders/ri21639

[WatchungEagle]

The Cold War corrupted conservatism. Over time, FDR Democrats and Rockefeller Republicans who were mindlessly pro-war and basically soft imperialists drifted in and changed the conservative culture from one of nationalism and limited government to one of internationalism and statism.

We see here on FR that many of the older people are Cold War era conservatives who essentially want the Federal government to have an overseas empire and are willing to sacrifice America’s interests to get it.

[Reily]

In short - Putin is Czar!

[GoldenState_Rose]

I was pointing out that abortion culture exists and that it is a problem, and it was entrenched in profound ways due to factors stemming back to the Soviet era. And in fact, Margaret Sanger of Planned Parenthood fame was one of several Western radical feminists who got their cultural/sociological cues from their USSR travels.

Even she did not agree though, that abortion should be the first tool of contraception, which for many years it was in Russia.

Sex-education remains a controversial topic, and the current HIV rate in Russia is at a tipping point. You can look that up also. I am not saying that secular Western sex-ed is the solution to everything. I am staunchly Catholic.

The Orthodox Church’s initiatives with support from govt has made headway in lowering abortion rates, but not enough. There are a lot Western-inspired Pro Life activism groups operating in Russia also: founding crisis pregnancy centers and shelters for battered women. (Domestic violence also a major social ill, as it is more culturally accepted.) Russian proverb says: “If he beats you, he loves you.”

Fatherlessness also plagues mainstream society.

As for ballerinas and the photo you posted, some of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th Century are Soviet defectors to the West: Rudolf Nureyev, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Natalia Makarova, and the father of American ballet himself, George Balanchine.

Composers Stravinsky and Rachmaninov both spent their final years of life here in the USA and Russian artists argue climate now for culture hearkening back to the days they escaped.

Of Russia’s ballet culture today, Baryshnikov says: “it’s a damn soap opera of course, which is like everything in Russia. It’s a horrific reality and there is a non-stop ugly vaudeville.”

You can watch documentary “Bolshoi Babylon” on Netflix/Amazon one of those maybe. I saw screening on visit to Estonia. The film details the acid attack which blinded the Bolshoi artistic director in 2013, but can also serve as a peak into Russian political culture as a whole.

Also, “Icarus” is for sure on Netflix, about the state-run doping system in athletics.

Be critical of modern America all you want, but I will remain proud to represent and live in this country even with all her flaws. And if any experience cemented this even further, it was experiencing life in Putin’s Russia.

[Quality_Not_Quantity]

Had to look up “Godwin’s Law.”

Thanks for the education.

[Chgogal]

Trump = MAGA

Putin = MRGA

I have no problem with the above as long as the American POTUS is smarter and more effective than Putin.

[Navy Patriot]

I was pointing out that abortion culture exists and that it is a problem, and it was entrenched in profound ways due to factors stemming back to the Soviet era. And in fact, Margaret Sanger of Planned Parenthood fame was one of several Western radical feminists who got their cultural/sociological cues from their USSR travels.

I see, Putin is at fault for all of Russia's ongoing problems which, incidentally, predate his birth.

He just hasn't done enough, and all the Russian defectors that predate his government don't get enough of his support, unlike the praise lavished upon them by the legitimate artists of America's Hollywood entertainment Elite.

Good to know so many wise Millennials like you and Hillary's Progressives have discovered this critical flaw.

[Navy Patriot]

There is no doping or coverups outside of Putin's Russia, honest.

[x]

So why are people thinking about Putin as much as they do? Because he has become a symbol of national self-determination. Populist conservatives see him the way progressives once saw Fidel Castro, as the one person who says he won’t submit to the world that surrounds him. You didn’t have to be a Communist to appreciate the way Castro, whatever his excesses, was carving out a space of autonomy for his country.

Yo! Caldwell! You're not exactly making the case for the guy.

[GoldenState_Rose]

Don’t be too hard on America. I will end it there.

[binreadin]

I am convinced that Putin’s opposition to the gay infestation is the underpinning of the constant attempt to revile his rule.

Like many Russians, Putin’s family suffered terribly during WWII and this suffering has left a legacy we cannot comprehend. Nine million are estimated to have died from the civil war and famine, 20 million died due to Stalin’s rule and an additional 50 million Russians died during WWII. That doesn’t count the additional people who suffered and died in prison during the Communist regime after Stalin.

[The Toll]

I don’t care if Putin loves the Russian people or not.

I know for a fact Obama hated Americans.

[JohnyBoy]

>I’m a little disappointed in the author’s short shrift given to Ukraine. I’m always hungry for more info about what Russia did there, since it was my area of “study” in the army, and I have a Ukranian girlfriend.

>It seems that all the news about Ukraine is hopelessly slanted one way or another. When I read the opening to his only paragraph regarding Ukraine I was hopeful for a learned summary of these events.

What happened in the Ukraine is pretty simple: US state department overthrew the government to enrich US oligarchs and to punish Russia for Syria. Joe Biden’s son was one of the people to be immediately appointed to a state Oil Company board after the coup. Then Russia kept the Crimea which is where most of the oil and gas is located. The conflict in the Ukraine is kept going so the country can’t join NATO and thus place bases deep in the heart of Russian territory.

During the USSR Crimea and Eastern Ukraine was transferred from Russia to the Ukraine to make sure there was always a Russian majority in the Ukraine. After the breakup of the Soviet Union candidates friendly to Russia generally won the elections due to these populations.

The leader who was overthrown by the Maiden coup won mostly from votes in the Russia portions of the country. A sensible solution to the Ukraine would have been divisions along ethnic lines but all the available land and resources are in the Russian areas. There should never have been an armed conflict in the country but Obama funded the Ukraine government to launch offensive after offensive against the Russians in the east(Via the IMF) while Putin sent supplies, weapons, and eventually troops to protect the east.

Putin prefers a frozen conflict because occupying the Ukraine would cost a lot more than it’s worth (Crimea’s already a huge money sink) and US Neo-Cons favored crushing and driving out the Russian populations. The Neo-Con idea that Russia will allow that is frankly insane.

People have this idea from Marxist teachers that empires make nations rich. This isn’t true. Empires always cost more than they produce and Russia isn’t rich enough to support an empire at the moment, thus the conflict stays fronzen.

[sasportas]

Just wondering, which Navy are you in? Judging by your posts, surely not the American Navy. If it is the American, God help us is all I can say.

[fortes fortuna juvat]

>>Adolf Hitler tried to do the same for Germany... Need I continue?<<

Yes, please do continue.

[fortes fortuna juvat]

>> Don’t let their state-sponsored “Religious Renaissance” fool you: they are still primitive superstitious savages like in the days of Stalin.<<

Utter nonsense, or if not, give us some historically accurate facts to support this assertion.

[fortes fortuna juvat]

>>I’m a little disappointed in the author’s short shrift given to Ukraine. I’m always hungry for more info about what Russia did there, since it was my area of “study” in the army, and I have a Ukranian girlfriend.<<

If you want to know what Russia did to Ukraine, pick up a copy of the book entitled Execution By Hunger: The Hidden Holocaust, by the Ukrainian author Miron Dolot.

[EarlyBird]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. But how do I know your explanation is not just as slanted as the others?

Please elaborate on this:

“During the USSR Crimea and Eastern Ukraine was transferred from Russia to the Ukraine to make sure there was always a Russian majority in the Ukraine. After the breakup of the Soviet Union candidates friendly to Russia generally won the elections due to these populations.”

During the USSR, didn’t Soviet Russia already own the Ukraine? Didn’t they have about 10 motorized rifle divisions in Ukraine? Didn’t they have strategic rocket forces in Ukraine? Weren’t they already supplanting Ukranians with Russians - everywhere in Ukraine? Weren’t they replacing the Ukrainian language with Russian everywhere in Ukraine?

I think they were. And to say that there were only ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine and Krim is totally ludicrous. Ethnic Russians were everywhere in Ukraine!

So to make the excuse that they needed to protect the Russians in easstern Ukraine and Krim and that’s why they fought the proxy war, just doesn’t ring true.

To say that they were afraid of NATO bases in eastern Ukraine and Krim is a much more plausible and understandable scenario.