What coukd we of done in tge 90s to stop this,before it had begun.?
I think the post-soviet economic reforms (the US and other western powers basically got to call the shots on) led directly to Russian oligarchy, which is how Putin got to power.
While there is nothing the US could have done to guarantee Russian would turn into Swedish style social democracy overnight, the reforms they did insist on were basically an oligarchs charter. Ensuring the average person would get screwed and all the wealth would end up in the hands of an unscrupulous few.
The US doesn’t get to choose who runs Russia, or any other country for that matter. Russia decided Putin, who was considered a strong leader type, was the right man for the job, and for at least a few years he didn’t seem like that bad a choice. But as they say, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, and Putin was able to consolidate all power. He controlled the duma, the courts, the press, and the military, and had no problem imprisoning or poisoning anyone who publicly disagreed with him. I’m sure there are lots of people/oligarchs in Russia who think he’s the greatest leader of all time.
I suppose back in the 90s we could have tried to assassinate him and avoided all of this, but nobody could have predicted what was going to happen at the time.
Poutine’s a “genius” according to trump. But then Time magazine gave Adolf hitler “man of the year” honours in 1938. I guess everyone’s entitled to their opinions no matter how moronic.
(Bold mine.)
Have you read the history of American foreign policy in South America?
As you may be aware, Time describes their “Person of the Year” award as going to the person (or group, or object) that “for better or for worse… has done the most to influence the events of the year.” [emphasis mine]
This, of course, does not necessarily mean that that person is good, or noble, or has any positive or redeeming qualities, but simply that they have had the greatest impact in that year (as with the choice of Hitler); however, after naming the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, the magazine has decided that such controversial (if technically accurate) choices wind up costing them revenue, and so, they no longer choose “negative” figures for the title.
Sure, we’ve tried to topple a few governments here and there, but Russia isn’t one of them as far as I know.
Tried to?
My Wife’s daughter’s former husband (how is that for social political correctness?) is from Chile. I broached the subject of the Allende government and the CIA. “Oh yeah, I once heard something about him.”
How is your stepdaughter being divorced somehow “politically incorrect”?
I did not like the term stepson when Mamaplant remarried, and she doesn’t like the step term either.
I didn’t understand this at first.
have
Infanticidal time travelers. The answer to all of History’s problems.