Sounds like Putin respects Trump. I don't know if the same can be said about Obama.

Sounds like Putin respects Trump. I don't know if the same can be said about Obama.

 

Putin doesn't respect either of them. He wants a leader that he knows won't know what they're doing. While I know many say that about Obama, Trump has even less knowledge of international politics.

 

I didn't vote Obama and under no circumstances will I ever vote Trump.

 

Putin is grandstanding and trying to make Russia look stronger than it is because their economy is tanking. Betweem economic sanctions over Ukraine and the plummeting cost of oil and natural gas Russia is hurting. They are getting involved internationally and in the Ukraine because Putin needed an external threat to unite the country so he could consolidate power and weaken any opposition. That is why he has been, suddenly out of nowhere, appealing to nationalism and "traditional values," because in a time of uncertainty people rally to those concepts. He has been alienating and borderline persecuting homosexuals and has gained more control over the media in the process. He really is turning Russia into kind of the Diet Soviet Union. Same great flavor, only half the freedoms.

 

Trump wouldn't handle him well and would likely insult our allies in Western Europe in the process. Obama screwed up by not taking him seriously enough earlier on.

 

Honestly the only ones that I think would handle Putin well would be Bush, Rubio, Clinton, or maybe Cruz. I was a big Paul fan, but sometimes his more isolationist style can be a hindrance in these scenarios.

 

Whoever our next president is needs to be stronger on foreign policy because to focus too far inward right now is to ignore how international issues have impacted us domestically.

^ agree about Obama didn't handle Putin the way that he should have, but it goes back to the early 2000's, we could have stopped him. Anyone could have seen this coming, a former KGB agent as their leader and administrations didn't see this as a bad thing?

^ agree about Obama didn't handle Putin the way that he should have, but it goes back to the early 2000's, we could have stopped him. Anyone could have seen this coming, a former KGB agent as their leader and administrations didn't see this as a bad thing?

 

Like any country, the history of Russia has turned on several critical moments that could have gone one way or another. We knew Yeltsin would be a reformer and it was easy to support him. Unfortunately, his reformist tendencies did not translate into effective leadership as president.

 

It's hard to even tell who's a reformer and who isn't and opposition has now been so effectively stamped out that there aren't many left living there with enough influence to bring Putin down.

 

As long ago as 2004, Grigory Yavlinsky (the economist who wrote the unfortunately-ignored "500 Days" plan to slowly transition from communism to open markets) declined to run for president a second time because even in 2004 he believed that Putin had rigged the elections to such a degree that there was no point in his making a run at it.

 

September 11, 2001 really changed our thinking. Through the entire previous decade we'd been dealing with Yeltsin, who was an avowed reformer but not an effective leader. When our focus shifted so heavily to stopping terrorism, we in the West collectively lost sight of what was going on in Russia (or didn't care). We didn't put enough pressure on them back then and by the time Putin had been president his first time around, things were so fixed it was hard to see a way out.

We knew Yeltsin would be a reformer and it was easy to support him. Unfortunately, his reformist tendencies did not translate into effective leadership as president.

 

Neither did his alcoholism. :lol2:

Neither did his alcoholism. :lol2:

 

True.

 

And like I said above... maybe hindsight is 20/20, but his failure to adopt the 500 Days plan and instead put the country though "shock therapy" in 1992 is one of the major reasons that the liberalizing reforms ultimately failed. The chaos that ensued allowed for the rise of the oligarchs who needed men like Putin to hold on to their massive wealth and influence.