On the Continent, only Russia has a larger military than Ukraine’s.
“Putin’s popularity is at a historic low; he needs a foreign policy success and cannot wait too long,” Van Herpen said.
Posted on 05/04/2019 2:21:12 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Less than a week after he won Ukraine’s presidential election, 41-year-old comedian Volodymyr Zelensky proved he has the chops to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the world stage.
Putin signed a decree on April 24 that expedited Russian passport applications for Ukrainians living in the two war-torn, Russian-sponsored breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine. Then, on April 27, Putin upped the ante, floating the possible extension of the passport offer to all Ukrainians.
With the ball in his court, Zelensky—a TV star with no political experience—responded to the Russian president with a zinger.
“We are perfectly aware of what a Russian passport actually provides. This is the right to be arrested for peaceful protest,” Zelensky wrote in a social media post, adding that a Russian passport also offers the “the right to have no free and competitive elections,” and “the right to completely forget about natural human rights and freedoms.”
Then, Zelensky turned the table on Putin, offering “protection, asylum, and Ukrainian citizenship to all who are ready to fight for freedom.”
“We will provide asylum and assistance to anyone—anyone who is ready to fight alongside us for our and your freedom,” Zelensky wrote.
“It is clear that Putin only feels contempt for the actor and humorist,” said Marcel Van Herpen, director of the Cicero Foundation, a Dutch think tank that specializes in Russian and European affairs.
“But let us not forget that Ronald Reagan was an actor, too, and the way in which he handled the Kremlin—he did a wonderful job,” Van Herpen added.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...
On the Continent, only Russia has a larger military than Ukraine’s.
“Putin’s popularity is at a historic low; he needs a foreign policy success and cannot wait too long,” Van Herpen said.
They seem to be paying attention to OUR president.
I even hear they have evidence to share.
Here's what Our President said yesterday...
DJT: “I’m going to be allowing declassification pretty soon...”
“I’m going to be doing it very soon, far more than you
would have even thought...”
“I will be declassifying yes, everything.”
(DO you think Our President is rubbing off on some folks?
Giving them ideas?)
“Putin’s popularity is at a historic low;
Yes it is and it has nothing to do with his foreign policy failure imo.
If you remember back a few months Putin got involved with s young woman in some kind of a martial arts competition. I am sure the whole thing was staged and choreographed, but something went wrong and the woman put Putin on the mat.
Most people and the Russians moreso want to see indomitable strength in their leaders and this exhibition showed him not only being beaten but beaten by a woman.
Ever since then he has been more the tough guy in an effort to regain his lost image.
Maybe after Putin better relations will follow.
I truly hope for the best for Ukraine but I’m sure Pukin is shaking in his size 7 boots.
correct, Puttie Pooh has Napolean’s short mans complex.
So he overcompensates to seem a big man.
Pretty nice response to Pukey. It’s almost Trump perfect.
They fought against both the Soviets and Nazis.
Millions killed when the Nazis rolled through Ukraine.
Both you and Zelensky need to take the log out of your eye.
And Poles.
——only Russia has a larger military than Ukraine’s——
Therein lies Putin’s problem. Mother Russia is burdened with larger military than she can suckle. The military drains her vitality.
Russia is barely above third world status except for s a few urban areas. The GDP is based on oil and weapons. The overall economy lacks the capability to produce any thing worth a damn to the rest of the world.
It is becoming obvious that Putin is failing in his most important task.....to restore the health and vitality to Mother Russia
Yup gator, that’s part of the region history: invasion city.
Spare me the old trope calling everyone Nazis there. We get enough of that here.
They have free elections in Ukraine, unlike others. Shoot, the US 2016 election faced overthrow.
For a Ukrainian having to make a choice between Hitler and Stalin, Hitler was the lesser evil.
There's nothing old or trope-ish about this photo, it was taken in Lvov a couple of weeks ago at a government approved ceremony honoring the 'sacrifice' of their Nazi ancestors.
There are dedications and ceremonies like this popping up all over Ukraine too.
We're not talking about choices made 75 years ago, but rather choices made in 2019.
No excuses!
Arguing that the Ukrainians are "Nazis" is silly when 73% of Ukrainian voters, voted to elect a Jewish President.
Nice straw man...I'm sure those guys who dressed up as Waffen-SS last week and paraded themselves around Lviv would all agree with you.
Not hard to tell where the Ukrainian Nazis hang out though...just check any map of the 2019 election results.
Couple things: first; “historic” lows for Putin is way higher than what any US President is used to. Second, that Judo incident was shown on TV (including state TV) and everyone had a laugh. I wouldn’t say it affected anyone’s perception negatively. If I had to identify one thing that dented his approval rating, I would say it was the raising of the pension age (which was previously the lowest in the world, due to historically low life expectancy which now isn’t the case). Lots of older people who were born under Communism aren’t happy that their retirement got pushed back a bit (even though it was staged).
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