The internet anecdote about Putin:"Over 60% of US students can't find Russia on a map. So I am making it bigger. And easier to find. You don't 'visit' Russia, or I'll 'visit' you :-)".
Putin called hypocritical the use of human's rights issue to cover for the state coup in Ukraine. The vicious circle that started with Molotov cocktails thrown at riot police in Kiev in November 2013 and ousting legitimately elected President (http://m.rusvesna.su/english/1408753217 ) has now gone to ballistic missiles launched at Ukrainian cities instead of allowing federalization as a mean of peaceful outcome of the huge humanitarian crisis in the eastern part of the country where Ukrainian junta decided to launch military assault on the south-eastern parts of Ukraine where predominately Russian speaking population lives. While federalization is very common in the other countries, including Russia, USA, Germany, Switzerland, etc.
And the dreadful recent events of Ukrainian army attacks (with ballistic missiles) on the eastern Ukrainian cities where many civilians were killed support the righteous movement of Crimea's peaceful and legitimate (after referendum results of Crimea population) return home, back to Russia. More than 4,300 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine in what the West and the Ukrainian government says is a conflict fueled by Russian money. See how Ukraine bombed its own citizens in the eastern part of Ukraine: http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=052_1401738430&comments=1 - Dying woman in shock begs to call her relatives after Ukrainian aircraft attack. Even Hitler didn't bombed German cities!
Putin also mentioned in his speech "American friends, as they have always been influencing our relations with neighbors directly or behind-the-scenes”. "US regime-change operation in Ukraine exposed in leaked diplomatic phone call showing the anti-democratic and colonialist character of the Obama administration’s intervention in the former Soviet republic and during this phone discussion between the two officials everybody can follow a detailed review of which right-wing opposition figures Washington is working to install in office, and how it is using the United Nations to rubber-stamp the operation.
While Germany and other European powers have worked closely with the Obama administration in promoting the violent protests against President Viktor Yanukovych, the leaked phone call reveals tensions between the imperialist powers. At one point Nuland tells Pyatt, “F*ck the EU.” The discussion, posted anonymously on YouTube ( "F*ck the EU! - Exactly!" - Victoria Nuland & Geoffrey Pyatt, underscores the thoroughly cynical character of Washington’s public diplomacy.
The Obama administration’s rhetoric about “democracy” and the Ukrainian people’s right to determine their own future is a charade, concocted for public consumption. Behind the scenes, government officials speak frankly with one another about the real agenda—advancing Washington’s geo-strategic and economic interests in Eastern Europe by installing pro-US and anti-Russian puppet figures in the Ukrainian capital: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/02/07/ukra-f07.html )
Since 2002, when the US abandoned the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, there's been a threat of strategic dis-balance in the world, and it's bad even for the US itself, Vladimir Putin said. "I think this is harmful for the United States as well, because it creates the dangerous illusion of invincibility,” Putin said. Although Russia is boosting its national defense budget Putin said it is not going to get involved in an expensive arms race. He said unspecified "unusual solutions" are at the nation's disposal. "No one will succeed in defeating Russia militarily," mentioned Putin. Russia, he said, would not enter an "expensive arms race" but would provide its own security.
Watch This Reaction: "Putin Laughs Right In This Journalist's Face"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjmiyOgO66g
Putin said: "There is no doubt they would have loved to see the Yugoslavia scenario of collapse and dismemberment for us - with all the tragic consequences it would have for the peoples of Russia. This has not happened. We did not allow it." The president added that Russia has nonstandard solutions. It's useless to try talking to Russia from position of strength. "We remember the countries that supported the terrorists in Russia ...and those people make trouble today in Chechnya," Putin said. The terrorists, according to the president, still receive support from abroad. "Those countries want the Yugoslavian scenario to happen in Russia, he said. Putin noted they will fail just as Hitler failed with his misanthropic idea.
Watch this video "PUTIN TELLS THE NEW WORLD ORDER FU%$ OFF!" - huge masses of Russians in the center of Moscow supporting Putinhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US20HV0maKI Russians are now not the same naive people as they were before disintegration of their former country - USSR. They understand that the West has not the best interest for them. That is why in masses they support Putin. You can read interesting article: "Russia's Privatization: A Financial Crime of the Century? How America Built the New Russian Oligarchy" by Anne Williamson http://www.truthinmedia.org/Bulletins/tim98-3-8.html
Putin also said that national pride and sovereignty are "a necessary condition for survival" of Russia. “If some European countries have forgotten about their national pride long ago and are considering sovereignty to be a great luxury, real state sovereignty is an absolutely essential condition for Russia’s existence,” Putin said. "I want to stress: either we will be sovereign, or we will dissolve in the world. And, of course, other nations must understand this as well."
Falling oil prices have affected Russia because of the country's reliance on energy exports. Russia's estimate of the cost of sanctions and falling oil prices is $140 bl a year. Mr Putin foresaw budget cuts of at least 5% over the next three years but hoped to see a return to above-average economic growth within "three to four years". Stressing that Russia remained "open for the world", Mr Putin suggested Western sanctions should be seen as a stimulus. "We have a huge internal market and resources... capable, intelligent people," he said. "Our people have demonstrated national strength, patriotism - and the difficulties we are facing create new opportunities".
Condemning the "pure cynicism" of the West, he suggested that even if Crimea had not been annexed, the West would have come up with a different pretext to impose sanctions to contain Russia's resurgence. “Of course, sanctions are harmful, but they are harmful for everyone, including for those who initiate them,” Putin stressed. Sanctions and restrictions motivate to reach the set aims. Putin said he's sure that the sanctions are not just a “nervous reaction of the United States and its allies” to Russia’s behavior in connection with events in Ukraine and not due to “the Crimean spring.” “The policy of containment was not invented yesterday. It has been carried out against this country for many and many years — always, if one can say. For decades if not centuries,” Putin said. “Each time when someone believes that Russia has become too strong, independent, these tools are used immediately,” the Russian leader said.
Russia isn't going to stop relations with Europe or America. Besides, Putin said, Russia has many strategic friends and partners in the world. The country will be open for the world and for attracting investments from abroad for joint projects, the president said. He sets a task of increasing the investment in the Russian economy to 25% of the GDP by 2018.
In 1999 after Yeltsin Russia had 192 billion dollar GDP. In 2002, Putin comes to power. Now, GDP stands at 2.4 trillion and rising with 4.2 trillion dollar PPP (Purchase Power Parity). Russian revenues were 10% larger than expenses as of May 2014. Export was at 17% bigger than import. In 1999 Russian debt was at 87%+, recently it was at 7.4% and was dropping with new trade arrangements with China and South America. Gold reserves were at 12.1 billion dollars worth, and recently they were at 514 billion dollars and Putin (government) keeps investing in gold like China. Pensions had a rise of more than 10 times! Non working status has dropped considerately. BRICS was formed, after which all nations which were in recession recently were showing bigger revenues than expenses, and they have their own emergency funds which are filled by 4% of GDP per nation for 1 year. Central bank is steadily in making for BRICS alone, trade between them has skyrocketed, joint military drills are made almost daily. Russia supplies BRICS nations with far more affordable military tech, and receives far cheaper produce from Brazil (dairy products, meats, fruits and vegetables) as of 2014. Now it signed a 400 billion dollar oil trade deal with China and many more I have no time nor space to mention. Russians say: "If you like Putin, than you are not nationalistic, rather patriotic - a virtue unlike nationalism"
I will try to give some facts on Russian economy and capable and intelligent contemporary Russian politicians (be they corrupt or not) who have made drastic changes for the economy, whilst USSR was only brute strength based nation with structure that had far too many flaws when it was ran by Stalin (Georgian) who had no big knowledge of economy, rather he was somewhat of a military strategist. Khrushchev reversed some allowable before economic activities making them illegal and introduced taxes on fruit trees, for example, so peasants started to eliminate fruit trees from their plots and Khrushchev prohibited peasants to sell their produce on the farmers markets limiting their freedom (only collective farms could sell their products on the markets). "The policy of discriminating against private holdings underestimated the importance of personal ownership to the collective farmer and the importance of private holdings in peasant consumption. Thus reducing private holdings simply increased demand for meat and milk through the state and co-operative network without there being a comparable increase in productive resources. Khrushchev's attack on the private sector was arguably the most serious error in his agricultural policy". (Munting 148-149)http://econc10.bu.edu/economic_systems/Economics/Economic_History/FSU/khruschev.htm. So life became more difficult for the people. Not to mention that it was Gorbachev's naive thinking about the West as a friend that started to bring Russia to collapse and disintegration (that is how Russians today see the events of those period and they think of Gorbachev as a Traitor ("Mikhail Gorbachev should be prosecuted for treason" http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/10/russian-mps-say-mikhail-gorbachev-should-prosecuted-treason ), and Yeltsin's prostitution to the west that finished the rotting of the USSR. But things have changed since that time.
Russia is no more a nation based on military expansion and aggressive approach towards the west, rather a defensive one. The current Ruble drop is a normal thing - western 'friendly' sanctions are to blame, but wait a couple of years until Russia establishes new ties, and we will see the difference.
Anyway, to predict the outcome would be difficult, but things have changed a lot in Russia. Russia started to orient to many other sources of income unlike the previous time when it was only oil and gas. It seems Russians are looking to build a better future for themselves and always look to what comes next, while Americans and westerners stay in the past with a Cold war state of mind pestered by their mass media and involved in constant wars.
The process of Western ascension involved violence against other parts of the world. European colonization of the Americas involved the extermination, marginalization or conquest of its indigenous populations. THE NATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA WERE SYSTEMATICALLY EXTERMINATED with Death Toll of 95,000,000 to 114,000,000. Hitler’s concept of concentration camps as well as the practicality of genocide owed much, so he claimed, to his studies of English and United States history. He admired the camps for Boer prisoners in South Africa and for the Indians in the wild west; and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America’s extermination – by starvation and uneven combat – of the red savages who could not be tamed by captivity.”– P. 202, “Adolph Hitler” by John Toland. Read the article "The American Indian Holocaust, known as the “500 year war” and the “World’s Longest Holocaust In The History Of Mankind And Loss Of Human Lives”http://espressostalinist.com/genocide/native-american-genocide/ That what we should be talking about nowadays, because the school programs in America do not mention so huge numbers of exterminated American Indians to the students and teach more or less 'easier version' of the gruesome history.
"European contact with Africa was for three centuries concentrated on the slave trade. There were European wars with Asian countries from the mid–eighteenth to the mid–twentieth century designed to establish or maintain colonies and trading privileges. However, Western economic advance also involved devastating wars and beggar–your–neighbor policies. Venetian advance provoked conflicts with Genoa, Portugal clashed with the Dutch. The Netherlands was involved in an 80 year struggle for independence from Spain, four wars with Britain and more with France. The United Kingdom was involved in over 60 years of war with other West European countries from 1688 to 1815, and another ten years from 1914 to 1945."http://www.theworldeconomy.org/impact/The_Impact_of_Western_Development_on_the_Rest_of_the_World_1000_1950.html
Russophobia in the west is implemented by the western propaganda machine which follows script of (ignorant to the blood of innocent civilians) their governments' foreign policy makers. Russians know this and the perception of Americans, for example, started to deteriorate after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The common world now describing Americans between Russians is "Pendosy". This term was borrowed from Serbian and means "penguins". The matter is that an US soldier does not receive insurance if he is wounded while he does not wear full military equipment. So US soldiers always wear their full equipment (a flak jacket, a flash-light, radio transmitter and so on), and that's why they walk like penguins. You see, it was Bosnian who called US soldiers "pendosy" the first time, and Russians just liked this word and borrowed it. It really sounds not very pleasantly, at least for Russian ear. And the USA nowadays is called "Pendostan" (the place where 'pendosy' live) among Russians.
As far as I know majority of Russians are very conservative either Orthodox Christians or Muslims (the next large segment of population in Russian Federation). Many Russians are religious and faith filled. Most Americans were propagandized to the point that they believe Russians are atheists, and are generally Godless. As anyone with even a passing education should know, both Russia and the US are incredibly diverse places with many different types of people and so generalities will not work, as they are of no value in most places.
So, Russians are getting sick of degrading western culture with the LGBT agenda supported on all levels of the western world by implementation of so called 'tolerantantism' to all the immoral actions of the people (see the explanation in this video: "БЕЛАЯ" ЕВРОПА ВЫМИРАЕТ ВМЕСТЕ С МОРАЛЬЮ - "WHITE EUROPE IS DYING OUT TOGETHER WITH MORALITY" SEE 1:00http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHGYwVJjQOk ), their songs, movies, shows and any other type of media showing Russians as evil while western governments covertly support massacre of children ("Ukraine crisis: Children die in Donetsk shelling" http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29912055 "Civilian deaths mount in eastern Ukraine - children among those killedhttp://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/07/civilian-deaths-mount-eastern-ukraine-201472991336801151.html ) and rape ("The Congo Still Ravaged by U.S.-Funded Conflict and Plunder" http://yourworldnews.org/blog/?p=4354) all the world for profits for their corporations and are responsible for tens of millions of deaths after WWII ("Deaths In Other Nations Since WW II Due To US Interventions"http://www.countercurrents.org/lucas240407.htm. ). That serves as an example of the 'western friendship' for Russians.
Westerners keep believing Russians are outdated, with rotting military...keep underestimating and bashing them, but one day, not very far of, they will be very surprised as to what the world actually is, rather to what Hollywood and media has made them to believe. Recently Putin mentioned about this huge problem in the West: "Putin Discusses White Genocide" = WHITES ARE DYING OUT IN EUROPE:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZPYOhrmFR4
Google the Kaufmann, Morgenthau and Hooton plans - three detailed plans for the Extermination of the German people. Sterilization and Immigration are the methods described. See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skf5o9Lex38 This should cure a bunch of racism in the USA. The Christians DID NOT head up the slavery of African Americans. Michael Jackson warned us before his death "your history books are wrong, you need to know this", he said.
See this historical video: "Diversity" = White Genocidehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmrfqU7JLSk According to scientists' prediction soon European civilization which was built for many thousands of years will disappear in the form we know it.
President Putin remains popular not only among Russians. See: "Putin named Times’ International Person of the Year" (2013) http://rt.com/news/putin-times-person-year-979/ and "Person of the Year 2007 Vladimir Putin"http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/personoftheyear/
Today, as Russia faces increasing international isolation over its military involvement in neighboring Ukraine and its economy nose-dives toward recession, Putin still maintains an 85% approval rating of running the country.Read this article: "Why Putin's popularity defies logic"http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/12/03/voices-putin-russia-popularity-defies-logic/19831943/
"Russia is, once again, a major world power and a force to be reckoned with. It's star is steadily rising just as America's has begun to wane. This may explain why Putin is despised by the West. Freud might call it “petroleum envy”, but it's deeper than that. Putin has charted a course for social change that conflicts with basic tenets of organized greed, which are the principles which govern US foreign policy. He is not a member of the corporate-banking brotherhood which believes the wealth of the world should be divided among themselves regardless of the suffering or destruction it may cause. Putin's primary focus is Russia; Russia's welfare, Russia's sovereignty and Russia's place in the world. He is not a globalist.
That is why the Bush administration has encircled Russia with military bases, toppled neighboring regimes with its comical “color-coded” revolutions, (which were organized by US NGOs and intelligence services) intervened in Russian elections, and (threatened) to deploy a nuclear weapons system in Eastern Europe. Russia is seen as a potential rival to US imperial ambitions and must be contained or destroyed. In the early years of his presidency, it was believed that Putin would comply with western demands and accept a subordinate role in the US-EU-Israel centric system. But it hasn't worked out that way. Putin has wisely resisted integration and consistently defended Russian independence.
The tectonic plates of geopolitical power are shifting eastward. That's why the US has joined in “The Great Game” and is trying to put down roots in Eurasia. Still, it's easy to imagine a scenario in which America's access to the last great oil and natural gas reserves on the planet--the three trillion barrels of oil and natural gas located in the Caspian Basin---could be completely blocked by a resurgent Russian superpower.
The most powerful of the Washington think tanks, the Council on Foreign relations, recognized this problem early on and decided that US policy towards Russia had to be reworked entirely. John Edwards and Jack Kemp were appointed to lead a CFR task force which concocted the basic pretext for an all-out assault on the Putin. This is where the idea that Putin is “rolling back democracy” began. In their article “Russia’s Wrong Direction”, Edwards and Kemp state that a “strategic partnership” with Russia is no longer possible. They note that the government has become increasingly “authoritarian” and that the society is growing less “open and pluralistic”.
Kemp and Edwards provided the ideological foundation upon which the entire public relations campaign against Putin has been built. And it is quite an impressive campaign. A Google News search shows roughly 1,400 articles from the various news services on Putin. Virtually all of them contain exactly the same rhetoric, the same buzzwords, the same spurious claims, the same slanders. It is impossible to find even one article out of 1,400 that diverges the slightest bit from the talking points which originated at the Council on foreign Relations.
Readers should check this out for themselves. Its interesting to see to what extent the media is nothing more than a propaganda bullhorn for the national security state. Putin's personal approval ratings already confirm his enormous popularity, (85%) but the media continues to treat him like he's a tyrant. It is completely incongruous.In most articles, Putin is disparaged as “anti democratic”; a charge that is never leveled at the Saudi Royal family even though women are forbidden to drive, they must by fully-covered at all times, and can be stoned to death if they are found to be unfaithful. Also, in Saudi Arabia, beheading is still the punishment of choice for capital crimes.
When Saudi King Abdullah visits the US, he is not heaped with scorn for his regimes' repressive treatment of his people. Instead he's rewarded with flattering photos of he and George Bush strolling arm-n-arm through the Crawford sage.
Why is Putin blasted for “rolling back democracy” when American stooge, Mikhail Saakashvili, arbitrarily declares martial law and deploys his truncheon wielding Robo-cops to beat protesters senseless before dragging them off to the Georgia gulag? The pictures of Saakashvili's bloody crackdown appeared In the foreign press, but not in the US where the media had all its camera lenses focused on Garry Kasparov (contributing editor to the Wall Street Journal and right-wing loony) as he was led off to the Moscow hoosegow in handcuffs for protesting without a permit. Poor, abused Garry.
What American wouldn't prefer a leader who stuck up their national interests rather than the interests of global Capital? Has Putin repealed habeas corpus, due process and the presumption of innocence? Has Putin abducted innocent suspects from the streets of foreign capitals and taken them to black sites where they've been tortured, water-boarded and sometimes killed? Has Putin initiated war's of aggression on defenseless countries killing and maiming a million or so civilians on “a pack of lies”? Has Putin created 4 million refugees and a humanitarian crisis which is likely to erupt into a region-wide conflagration?
Those aren't Vladimir Putin's Daisy Cutters and cluster bombs falling on Samara, Falluja and Tal Afar. That isn't Putin's armada in the Gulf off the coast of Iran. Those aren't Putin's intelligence agents and mercenaries executing covert operations in Mogadishu, Beirut and Islamabad. Putin's crime is that he rejects Washington's “uni-polar” world model. As he said in Munich:“The uni-polar world refers to a world in which there is one master, one sovereign; one center of authority, one center of force, one center of decision-making. At the end of the day this is pernicious not only for all those within this system, but also for the sovereign itself because it destroys itself from within. What is even more important is that the model itself is flawed because at its basis there is and can be NO MORAL FOUNDATIONS FOR MODERN CIVILIZATION.”
Watch this video: "Putin' speech for the 43rd Munich Security Conference" (2007)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frDYKeP1hnM The Russian president Vladimir Putin on the world geopolitical situation and the world dominance of the United States. He speaks out against the political oppression of the United States. According to Putin, the world dominance of the US is not only unacceptable, but also impossible in today's world. A dominant force in the world will, from time to time, lead to military interventions and illegitimate actions, resulting in human tragedies and new centers of tension in the world. Under this video there is an interesting comment: "So much respect to this man. I have seen this speech several times (even though youtube keep taking it down). I believe in this guy having followed the events in Ukraine from Independent and main stream news sources for the last 8 months. I believe he is far far more honest than the Zionist elite media trying to destroy him. Remember one thing also. Putin has already called out the "unipolar" global financial system (Rothschild banks) and said it's days are numbered - no wonder the world's Zionist lead press are doing everything in their power to discredit and destroy him. Don't believe the hype. This man should be listened to and given a chance by all of us who genuinely care for world peace."
Putin said in his recent speech: "We are seeing a greater and greater disdain for the basic principles of international law....We are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force – military force – in international relations, force that is plunging the world into an abyss of permanent conflicts. I am convinced that we have reached that decisive moment when we must seriously think about the architecture of global security.”
Well said... " - from the article "Vladimir Putin: “The world's most popular leader”?" By Mike Whitney http://www.informationclearinghouse.info