Quote :

"Vladimir Putin regained his seat as President of Russia, reformists have taken to the street in growing numbers to protest against an election they believe was fraudulent and a government they believe is corrupt."

Interesting.

5/17/2012 1:36:19 AM

I find your source and your source's source to be trustworthy informants and would like to subscribe to your podcast.

5/17/2012 8:17:52 AM

Aren't these threads for people who ostensibly have some nonnegative amount of credibility to begin with?

5/17/2012 10:06:57 AM

5/17/2012 10:26:32 AM

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/09/03/mccain-to-russia-bring-back-the-super-bowl-ring/?hpt=hp_t2

Quote :

"Russian President Vladimir Putin tried on the ring when Kraft met with him during a visit to St. Petersburg in 2005. Kraft said at an event this summer that Putin put it in his pocket and kept it, and that he wants to see it returned, according to the New York Post. The Patriots' owner said in 2005 he received a call from the White House telling him it would be in the best interest of U.S.-Russian relations to claim it was a gift to Putin, the Post reported. Kraft said in June that he played along. A few days after the 2005 incident, amid confusion as to whether the ring was a present or was kept by mistake, Kraft issued a statement saying it was a gift. That's the way Putin sees it, too, the president's spokesman said in June. "What Mr. Kraft is saying now is weird," Dmitry Peskov said. "I was standing 20 centimeters away from him and Mr. Putin and saw and heard how Mr. Kraft gave this ring as a gift.""

9/3/2013 12:35:47 PM

Quote :

"Gingrich: Remember, Vladimir Putin is not an American"

http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/16/opinion/gingrich-putin-history/index.html?hpt=hp_t4



[Edited on September 16, 2013 at 2:56 PM. Reason : ]

9/16/2013 2:56:16 PM

Quote :

"On a bipartisan basis, American politicians seemed surprised. If American leaders would spend a little time studying Russian history they would understand Vladimir Putin. He is a Russian nationalist and seen in that tradition is very understandable and even predictable. "

This is just nothing more than a version of Newt attempting to posistion himself as one of the few conservative leaders with worldly acumen and a sence of rationale. He is trying to distance himself from what is sure to be an embarrasing politically medley in the next couple fo months.

[Edited on September 16, 2013 at 4:08 PM. Reason : f]

9/16/2013 4:08:27 PM

9/24/2013 1:57:06 PM

I'm seein double here. FOUR Vladimir Putins!

9/24/2013 1:58:38 PM

not putin, but one of his many dictator friends.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/67021/this-corrupt-dictator-released-voting-results-showing-he-won-before-the-election-even-happened

10/12/2013 2:34:06 PM

still credible

10/12/2013 3:40:04 PM

He should have won the Nobel Peace Prize... no seriously.

(before you jump on me, look at the some of the other assholes who have won it before)

10/12/2013 6:21:16 PM

Putin tightening his grip on the media

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/09/us-russia-media-idUSBRE9B80I120131209

Quote :

"President Vladimir Putin tightened his control over Russia's media on Monday by dissolving the main state news agency and replacing it with an [conservative] organization that is to promote Moscow's image abroad."

12/9/2013 4:07:20 PM

http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/03/05/putin-nominated-nobel-peace-prize

Putin nominated for Nobel Peace Prize.

3/5/2014 7:31:46 PM

I hope he gets it. That'll show Obama and all his worshipers!

3/5/2014 8:39:43 PM

3d printed Putin butt plug

3/7/2014 2:50:29 PM

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/19/opinion/motyl-putin-speech/index.html?hpt=hp_t4

You Lie!

3/19/2014 4:48:56 PM

Vlad playing the piano and singing Blueberry Hill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV4IjHz2yIo

7/8/2014 8:01:14 PM

http://nypost.com/2014/07/21/biden-told-putin-to-his-face-i-dont-think-you-have-a-so

7/22/2014 9:32:53 AM

^Because that link is dead:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/21/us-usa-russia-biden-idUSKBN0FQ1CU20140721

7/22/2014 10:23:03 PM

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/29/us-ukraine-crisis-putin-analysis-idUSKBN0FY1AC20140729

Quote :

"Vladimir Putin risks becoming an international pariah over the Ukraine crisis but the Russian president is battening down the hatches for the gathering economic and political storm. The United States and the European Union saw the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 as a chance for Putin to distance himself from pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine and seal the border across which they say arms are reaching the rebels. Instead Putin has stood firm, blamed the crash on his pro-Western protagonists in Kiev and signalled no change in his stance, leaving Russia facing the threat of much tougher international sanctions and economic and political isolation."

[Edited on July 29, 2014 at 1:30 PM. Reason : ]

7/29/2014 1:29:59 PM

He is going to isolate russia badly. I seriously think has grown ill.

8/2/2014 6:50:05 PM

So someone help me out here...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/06/us-ukraine-crisis-idUSKBN0G61K220140806

Putin bans imports of EU and US food in response to Western sanctions. Wtf? Yeah we sell a lot of food to Russia, but won't this also alienate his own population? I can't imagine they're going to be happy when the fresh fruits, vegetables, poultry and grain disappear from the shelves.

Out of all the things he could have done to punish the west for our sanctions, this doesn't seem like the smartest response?

8/7/2014 8:56:05 AM

Breeding resentment for the West in your populace is a winning strategy for staying in power.

8/7/2014 9:39:14 AM

Yeah, I imagine that the media will tell the populace that it was our idea for them to not have fresh bread and produce.

8/7/2014 10:01:20 AM

according to Fox News, this is what leadership looks like

8/7/2014 10:02:58 AM

with the loads of propaganda going on in the Russian media right now, guaranteed they are blaming the US and EU for stopping the imports on their own doing as punishment.

8/7/2014 11:40:20 AM

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/putins-way/

1/14/2015 10:50:06 PM

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-has-aspergers-pentagon-report-says/ar-AA90Ztn

AHAHAHA

2/5/2015 11:24:46 AM

Whats funny about having a mental health issue? Personally, I think it would be weird to want to control / regulate the actions of millions of people and NOT have a mental health issue

Quote :

"The research was conducted by the Office of Net Assessment and is based solely on videos of Mr Putin dating bafck to 2000. According to the report, his "neurological development was significantly interrupted in infancy". The study suggests Mr Putin's mother may have had a stroke while pregnant with him and that he suffered an "insult" to his brain. The researchers believed this may have affected the way he thinks and moves the right side of his body. "His primary form of compensation for his disorder is extreme control and this is reflected in his decision style and how he governs," the report says. It quotes Dr Stephen Porges, now a University of North Carolina psychiatry professor, as concluding Mr Putin "carries a form of autism"."

Sounds like psychiatry classes don't require any work over there either

I'm Krallum and I approved this message.

2/5/2015 1:41:52 PM

His existence insults my brain.

2/6/2015 2:26:14 AM

http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/02/05/canada-urges-russia-to-back-off-in-ukraine-as-nato-adds-command-posts-in-eastern-europe/
You know someone is fucking up when Canada is handing out warnings..

2/6/2015 7:51:46 AM

Maybe, just maybe NATO, which was founded as an anti-Soviet (and has undoubtedly morphed into an anti-Russian) organization should stop trying to fuck with Russia. Honestly, if the US wasn't a NATO member I think the Europe would be a lot less dismissive of the Russians. For years western Europe has been pissing on Russia and telling them that it's rain. Now Russia has gotten its shit together, has an extreme nationalist in power who has largely galvanized the people and you're seeing the inevitable backlash.

I don't think Europe wants to recognize that they would lose in any kind of war with the Russians. Maybe stop spitting in their eye, maybe don't support a coup and depose a democratically elected government because you don't like who they ally themselves with. How long did we really think the Russians would put up with Western Europe telling them to go pound sand when it came to how things were going to be in Eastern Europe?

If we weren't a NATO member I think there's a good chance that Russia would be in Latvia tomorrow, and frankly it's getting to the point that they might go in there anyway because they think, and they're probably right, that the average Brit, Italian, or American isn't willing to risk a nuke hitting London to maintain the sovereignty of say... Romania.

The level of willful blindness towards this situation is astonishing.

I'm honestly beginning to feel like as the greatest generation dies off we are left with fewer people who realize how horrific a general war is and thus we are moving closer to the outbreak of another one.

2/21/2015 7:28:48 PM

so do they want to re-form the soviet union or what? imagine the world-wide response if the US forcibly annexed Chihuahua or Alberta...

2/21/2015 7:50:29 PM

moron says annex baja

2/21/2015 8:08:22 PM

I think part of what they want is to be respected as a first rate power again. To not have the west destabilizing countries on their border as we did in Ukraine. They want the west to stop conducting military drills next door to them, they want us to recognize that they are once again too powerful a country to be cowed by economic sanctions. In fact they're teaching Europe this lesson now by cutting off/restricting natural gas exports.

We've lived in a world without a strong russia for 20+ years now and we're not doing a very good job of adjusting to a world in which that is no longer the case.

I don't think they want to reform the USSR or annex a bunch of their neighbors, but they very much want to be able to wield influence in that part of the world much like they used to. Or, to be blunt, with the impunity that we do.

Quote :

"so do they want to re-form the soviet union or what? imagine the world-wide response if the US forcibly annexed Chihuahua or Alberta..."

If we annexed Chihuaha tomorrow world wide response would be condemnation followed by a whole lot of nothing. What is the rest of the world going to do? Stop trading with us, launch military interventions there? It's kind of the same thing. What are we going to do if they do decide to take Lithuania? Are you ready to launch WW3 over a country you can't even find on a map? If NATO went to war with Russia undoubtedly we'd win, but Europe would be decimated and we would lose several major cities as well. So stop spitting in Russia's eye already.

Nuclear arms allow you to operate with a certain level of freedom that non-nuclear powers cannot. It's why places like N. Korea and Iran are so desperate to acquire them and why those who already have them are so concerned with making sure nobody else acquires them.

2/21/2015 8:17:18 PM

Wanting the US to change it's policy of going out of it's way to fuck over anyone we don't like simply because we don't like them? You don't like your wishes to come true, do you?

2/21/2015 8:59:47 PM

Eh, we kind of did it for like 50 years when the world was in a two super power state. I mean, we still fucked about, but we didn't do it with complete impunity because we knew there could be direct repercussions.

The problem is that the people in power now were all in college or had very little influence or experience when that was the case and don't know how to deal with it today. I mean, we're not far from having a 3 or 4 superpower situation with the US, Russia, China, and maybe India. How are people who never experienced a world that was not totally dominated by the USA going to navigate those waters?

It wouldn't be nearly as big a problem if our leaders were elected based on merit instead of how good they are at demagoguery, but sadly we're stuck with the government we deserve not the one we want.

2/21/2015 9:05:18 PM

Quote :

"Now Russia has gotten its shit together"

That is a stretch at most.

Also, DPRK already is a nuclear power and has been for a while, and while the world is most definitely becoming less unipolar in economic/military/etc terms, neither China, India, nor Russia are poised to really rival us in the near future. I think that China, and to a lesser extent, Russia, will have increasingly more ability to challenge us, but not to rival us.

I agree with much of what you are saying on some levels, but in my opinion, you're a little tainted by the libertarian lens. Again, broadly, I agree with you in general direction, though not in degree and not even in direction on a few specifics, but I don't think you're being 100% objective.

Interesting points on the generational challenges, where we will not have many people experienced in operating without global hegemonic impunity, and fewer still anywhere in society with direct experience of the horror of a global, total war.

2/21/2015 10:46:07 PM

True, but the norks don't actually have effective use of their nuclear capabilities unless I'm very much mistaken. I guess maybe I should have said ICBMs rather than strictly nuclear capability.

Yeah, I'm sure I'm not being wholly objective, but there's little doubt in my mind that we're making some colossal diplomatic and foreign policy blunders. We need to seriously consider who our friends should be and how involved we choose to be outside of our actual sphere of influence.

I truly worry that we could slip into a global crisis because of what's happening in Ukraine, and I'm amazed that more people aren't talking about it.

2/21/2015 11:19:59 PM

yeah Ukraine is a pretty big deal. Still, lay the blame on Russia there.

and yeah, NK doesn't have ICBM capability or anything, but they don't really need it. They are basically wholly concerned with ROK/outside intervention through ROK, and their nuclear capability exists in order to threaten to turn Seoul into a smoking hole.

2/21/2015 11:52:36 PM

Oh, for sure Putin is a bad, bad guy and Russia shouldn't be fomenting revolution and annexing land from former soviet states, but maybe if we hadn't gone in and helped to oust a pro-russian government in Ukraine this might not have erupted the way it did.

I'm personally hopeful that China will neutralize NK for us. I think they're going to grow tired of having millions of potential refugees at their border and tolerating a destabilizing nutbar dictator. I could see China quietly toppling that regime and either putting a total puppet government in place or just asking via back channels if anybody would have a problem with them annexing it.

I truly don't understand NK and can't see them lasting more than another decade or so in their current form.

2/22/2015 12:36:16 AM

Ukraine is the fault of all sides.

I agree that the West has largely pissed in the face of Russian interests since the collapse of the Soviet Union and that we were both blind and willfully ignorant towards the potential outcomes of getting entangled in the so-called "coup". However, Russia was equally as blind and willfully ignorant if they thought the West would just sit quietly while a originally west-leaning, pro-European Ukraine was suddenly hijacked and overnight returned to Russia's orbit by Putin's puppet. And the Ukrainians are idiots for thinking that their country was going to remain whole through all this.

Ukraine should have been split in two back when they ran Yanukovych out of the country and Russia grabbed Crimea. At this rate, it's probably going to be the end result anyway, just now with a lot of help from the Russians.

I do think it's deeply hypocritical for the U.S. to bitch about Russia going into a country and providing military aid to "their side" when that's been our brand of democracy for the better part of 60 years.

At the same time I think it's equally as hypocritical and more so disturbing the level of propaganda and point blank lies disseminated by the Kremlin to justify their position in all this. The whole world knows it was Russia's little green men in Crimea, and their infantry and heavy weapons in eastern Ukraine. Yet they still won't own up to it, and public ally claim they've done nothing to provoke any response from the West.

But don't get sucked too deep into the situation in Eastern Europe that you think Russia is a military equivalent to the U.S. Portions of their Army may be well trained and equipped, but that's a small minority. The Russian navy is a pale, pale shadow to what it once was, and their Air Force is struggling to bridge the technology gap opened up by the U.S. since the end of the Cold War. They've recently had to go to China and India to look for partners for their next-gen fighters because they don't have the money, and in some cases expertise, to produce the platform 100% domestically.

The best thing that could have possibly happened in the last year happened when OPEC said Fuck-It and opened the taps. Russia is basically a big kleptocratic petroleum exporting company, with a CEO and Board of Directors hell bent on company pride. If the world wants to continue to minimize the threat of a strong Russia, we need to continue to grow our reliance on non-fossil fuel based energy, and do everything in our power to minimize the cost of oil.

2/22/2015 8:33:45 AM

Yes, but problematically they just signed a huge deal to provide china with gas and oil, and ultimately Europe needs Russian gas more than Russia needs the European gas market. Economic sanctions are not going to cause them to return Crimea and come begging, hat in hand for an end to the sanctions.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/russia-opec-jostle-to-meet-china-oil-demand-1421987738

I don't think anywhere I implied they were our military equivalent, but they are still a more powerful land force than all of Europe combined and they have more nukes than us (possible more than the rest of the world combined). Like I said, the West would win a war against Russia, but it would devastate Europe and cost millions of US lives as well. War with Russia is not an option to even consider putting on the table as an option.

I'm not sure what's ultimately going to happen, but the West having a policy of doing whatever we want and then looking at Russia and saying, "what are you going to do about it" has resulted in them getting fed up and doing the same in return.

2/22/2015 3:56:38 PM

Pack this in your Conspiracy Theory pipe and light up: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31669061?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_breaking&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_central

Putin knocking off opposition? Another actor instigating?

Cue the unprobable explaination of 4 men getting out of a car and assassinating an opposition political antagonist in broad daylight and also in spitting distance of the Kremlin then getting away...

[Edited on February 27, 2015 at 10:37 PM. Reason : .]

2/27/2015 10:36:12 PM

a russian conspiracy theory isnt really a thing

2/28/2015 5:28:56 PM

He's missing.

http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/putin-has-vanished-but-rumors-are-poppin-up-everywhere-746508

3/14/2015 8:40:02 AM

I suspect he is training to be on the next Soyuz mission to transport astronauts/cosmonauts to the International Space Station which is launching March 27th.

3/14/2015 1:53:50 PM

i suspect he got eaten by a bear

3/14/2015 5:21:54 PM

He's training for the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight.

3/14/2015 6:47:19 PM