The anti-Putin paranoia.

[frankbit]

And what is the number of migrants from Turkmenistan in Russia? Probably in Moscow there is not any one Russian janitor. Let me remind you that the Turkmens are Muslims.

Turkmenistan is a very rich country (thanks to huge deposits of natural gas) and they don't need to send their working age adults to Russia. Most of the immigrants to Russia are from poverty-ridden countries such as Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Tajikistan, Moldova, and Kyrgyzstan.

And you want to say that Russian citizens live well? Reserves of Russian gas and oil much more than in Turkmenistan. It seems to me that the welfare of citizens depends not on fossil fuels, but from the corrupt government.

PER CAPITA. Turkmenistan is indeed very wealthy given its historical status as backwater. Russia has 30x more population. Like comparing poorer parts of United States to Norway for example.

I dont think there are many people, who can claim with straight face that their particular government is not corrupt at all. However it is worth mention, that United States spend more on its military than is entire state budget of Russian federation (yes, including welfare, schooling and infrastructure costs).

This is because in America there are so many thieves in power. Putin himself is a thief and has surrounded himself with the same people as he did. Moreover it destroys any dissent. So Russian will be a very long time to live in squalor.

Let me rephrase the argument then.

Can you cite any, and I mean ANY era where people inhabiting Russia enjoyed better living standarts than today? You can link sources and numbers, so we can make this more interesting.

Because I can bet with you, that you wont find it.

Also as far as "America" goes, I believe you mean specifically United States, not rest of the wide continent - it is fine. Corrupt perhaps, but due to geopolitics and protestant mentality of the founders, you enjoy perhaps highest living standarts in the world while still retaining freedoms that are unheard of else where. Russia cannot compare, but not because it would be even more corrupt, but because its past and quite long history has been so much more turbulent.

Since Soviet times in Russia compared with the yield of 1912. I do not know now, but the Soviet Union never reached such a result. Additionally, if you compare the nutritional status of the population of the USSR, people consumed much more meat and milk. Besides Russia is a very big difference in income between inhabitants of cities and villages. Put the correct question.

[Sithara007]

This is because in America there are so many thieves in power. Putin himself is a thief and has surrounded himself with the same people as he did. Moreover it destroys any dissent. So Russian will be a very long time to live in squalor.

The Russians doesn't care whether Putin steals or not. His predecessor (Boris Yeltsin) was the worst thief ever known to the human race. Putin managed to end the looting of national assets by Yeltsin and his oligarch friends such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Boris Berezovsky.

[Xester]

"The anti-Putin paranoia here is astonishing.

That he is a killer, a KGB thug, a murderer, is part of the daily rant of John McCain. At the Munich Security Conference this last weekend, Sen. Lindsey Graham promised, “2017 is going to be a year of kicking Russia in the ass in Congress.” How’s that for statesmanship.

But how does a president negotiate a modus vivendi with a rival great power when the leaders of his own party are sabotaging him and his efforts?

As for the mainstream media, they appear bent upon the ruin of Trump, and the stick with which they mean to beat him to death is this narrative:

Trump is the Siberian Candidate, the creature of Putin and the Kremlin. His ties to the Russians are old and deep. It was to help Trump that Russia hacked the DNC and the computer of Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, and saw to it WikiLeaks got the emails out to the American people during the campaign. Trump’s people secretly collaborated with Russian agents.

Believing Putin robbed Hillary Clinton of the presidency, Democrats are bent on revenge—on Putin and Trump.

And the epidemic of Russophobia makes it almost impossible to pursue normal relations. Indeed, in reaction to the constant attacks on them as poodles of Putin, the White House seems to be toughening up toward Russia."

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/buchanan/is-a-trump-putin-detente-dead/

Look at the history of Russia before Putin took the position as the president the economic of Russia is in the verge of collapse and in short it is experiencing a economic crisis or turmoil. But when Putin became the president he work very hard so that Russia can climb up again from economic crisis and now they are doing well again and a giant in economy. Let us say the he is a killer, A KGB Thug but he is not corrupt and selfish and works   generously for the betterment of his country.

[Alexzap]

This is because in America there are so many thieves in power. Putin himself is a thief and has surrounded himself with the same people as he did. Moreover it destroys any dissent. So Russian will be a very long time to live in squalor.

The Russians doesn't care whether Putin steals or not. His predecessor (Boris Yeltsin) was the worst thief ever known to the human race. Putin managed to end the looting of national assets by Yeltsin and his oligarch friends such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Boris Berezovsky.

Putin is a thief. He's just removed from the trough the old guard of Yeltsin, and they put their people. If you need an example please - Nikolay Tokarev,Gennady Timchenko,Alexei Miller,Vladimir Yakunin,Sergei Chemezov,Igor Sechin (who is the second person in Russia after President Vladimir Putin in terms of influence),Arkady Rotenberg,Yuriy Kovalchuk,Sergey Roldugin need more thieves?

[bitbunnni]

Putin is not our friend, to say the least.

Perhaps that is true. But I don't think that he is the enemy as well. The real enemy for the European civilization is the hordes of immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa. Russia and Putin is not a threat to the European culture.

Depends on how great he wants to make russia again.
The biggest difference of putins politics to any other is that he has time (see the gleichschaltung of the russian media which took around a decade).
He can reign for next 50 years if he can stop the economic meltdown of russia.

I also think that he want to rule Russia like new Stalin or czar Peter the Great, as dictator.
His ambition is obviously to restore USSR and to become first global super power, like in the old days, during cold war.
It seems that ordinary Russians like such vision and even are willing to sacrifice their own lives, have a worse standard of living, if this means that their country will be great again.
Russian national pride and desire for former greatness are great and Putin is the best president in such conditions and circumstances.

I agree. Putin is a very ambitious and purposeful leader. He wants to create the most powerful power, to restore the USSR. It seems to me that many residents of the former USSR support his aspiration.

[darklus123]

Who cares. They are an idiots i dont like trump but putin is just as real as he is. Unlike those assholes trying to pretend that they care for their nation. I agree they should move to other party

[JavaLove]

I think everyone has, at some point, realized that Putin is NOT a very good individual as he carries out totalitarian policies in his countries (sort of the after effects of the communist days).

However, the left in America has turned Russia into a buzzword, rather than being a serious issue.

Everyone believes that, because Trump never really criticized the Kremlin during the campaign, that he is forever in debt to Putin and that his sole goal as President is to flirt with the Russians. Every SNL has got Trump making out with Putin (the joke's a little stale now), and watch MSNBC for 5 minutes and you will hear the same false narratives that Trump has been gifting cash to the Russians. I even saw Rachel Maddow claim Trump purposely sold one of his properties to a Russian oligarch for over double his money because, when he became President he could easily fork out cash. Of course this was all speculation.

She never once mentioned that Hillary and Bill's foundation, the Clinton foundation, have colluded with Saudi Arabia and Russia. However, these unsubstantiated claims come from a sore DNC bearing a large lose.

The truth is that Russia is an economic and security threat. We must take it seriously, but we cannot be so tough against it that we go to war. We both have super nuclear powers that can obliterate the entire planet, and we saw how that turned out during the cold war. In fact, what is the problem with getting along with your biggest enemy?

There is no evidence of Trump colluding with Russians. We must all be vigilant of each of his moves, as with ALL presidents either D or R, but we cannot choose a random country, that happens to be a huge super power in the world, and start bashing them, claiming they're the reasons for all our problems.

[Sithara007]

This is because in America there are so many thieves in power. Putin himself is a thief and has surrounded himself with the same people as he did. Moreover it destroys any dissent. So Russian will be a very long time to live in squalor.

The Russians doesn't care whether Putin steals or not. His predecessor (Boris Yeltsin) was the worst thief ever known to the human race. Putin managed to end the looting of national assets by Yeltsin and his oligarch friends such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Boris Berezovsky.

Putin is a thief. He's just removed from the trough the old guard of Yeltsin, and they put their people. If you need an example please - Nikolay Tokarev,Gennady Timchenko,Alexei Miller,Vladimir Yakunin,Sergei Chemezov,Igor Sechin (who is the second person in Russia after President Vladimir Putin in terms of influence),Arkady Rotenberg,Yuriy Kovalchuk,Sergey Roldugin need more thieves?

Out of this list, some (Alexei Miller, Igor Sechin.etc) are not oligarchs. Their net worth is even below what requires to be classified as UHNW individuals. Others such as Gennady Timchenko and Arkady Rotenberg became rich during the Yeltsin era, and increased their wealth during the last 10-15 years.