Keeping in mind I'm well-aware more than half the Russians on here are probably Thieves, I'm seriously interested in trying to understand Russians' surprisingly widespread support of Putin/Medvedev while the Russian government continues restricting basic human rights.
I'll throw a bone in here simply put economy
Where the West wanted to make more puppet states and to expand its territory Russia came in to intervene and prevent that.
Battle of resources etc even the Ukraine is about Pipeline Politics for those that recall Crimea in the Ukraine
http://qz.com/191651/russias-invasion-of-crimea-has-caused-it-to-lose-the-latest-battle-in-the-pipeline-wars/Current battle is over the South Stream
http://journal-neo.org/2014/06/27/ukraine-and-the-battle-for-south-stream/
Once Vladimir Putin became president, the Russian economy started to grow very rapidly. Today, Russia is an economic powerhouse that is blessed with an abundance of natural resources. Their debt to GDP ratio is extremely small, they actually run a trade surplus every year, and they have the second most powerful military on the entire planet.
http://www.cogwriter.com/news/prophecy/russia-is-stronger-vladimir-putin-is-credited-and-usa-is-upset/But from this article 6 Key Points (All Cited too interestingly enough why I mentioned the Cog link ignore that Eurasian Union stuff
)
#1 Russia produces more oil than anyone else on the planet. The United States is in third place.
#2 Russia is the number two oil exporter in the world. The United States is forced to import more oil than anyone else in the world.
#3 Russia produces more natural gas than anyone else on the planet. The United States is in second place.
#4 Today, Russia supplies 34 percent of Europe’s natural gas needs.
#5 The United States has a debt to GDP ratio of 101 percent. Russia has a debt to GDP ratio of about 8 percent.
#6 The United States had a trade deficit of more than half a trillion dollars last year. Russia consistently runs a large trade surplus.
Are Russians anti-Russian or just blindly pro-KGB? -Or maybe Russians are just so pleased with the modest post-Yeltsin economic recovery, non-economic quality of life decline is able to be ignored.
On February 4th, 2013, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, addressed the Duma, (Russian Parliament), and gave a speech about the tensions with minorities in Russia:
”In Russia live Russians. Any minority, from anywhere, if it wants to live in Russia, to work and eat in Russia, should speak Russian, and should respect the Russian laws. If they prefer Sharia Law, then we advise them to go to those places where that’s the state law. Russia does not need minorities.
Minorities need Russia, and we will not grant them special privileges, or try to change our laws to fit their desires, no matter how loud they yell ‘discrimination’. We better learn from the suicides of America, England, Holland and France, if we are to survive as a nation.
The Russian customs and traditions are not compatible with the lack of culture or the primitive ways of most minorities. When this honorable legislative body thinks of creating new laws, it should have in mind the national interest first, observing that the minorities are not Russians.”
http://henrymakow.com/2013/08/putin-on-minority-rightson-feb.html#sthash.nBnJEzw4.dpufIt made a fair point on the USA
I was also taught that the old Soviet Union was overly focused on spying on its people and spying on others. But now, it is the USA that seems to have that top distinction in the world in 2013 and 2014 ^^.
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In their own words, those attending the Atlantic Council gathering describe the battle for Ukraine being fought to “complete” their socioeconomic consolidation in Europe – this includes “integrating Russia.” Secretary John Kerry at the gathering would literally state:
Our European Allies have spent more than 20 years with us working to integrate Russia into the Euro-Atlantic community.
By “integrating” Russia, of course, Kerry means overthrowing any independent national political order that exists in Moscow and replacing it with one that answers to Wall Street, London, and now Brussels. This can be seen clearly in attempts by the West to replicate its model of “color revolution” within Russian territory itself.
But Kerry and the rest of EU-NATO, recognizing that efforts to subvert and overthrow an independent political order in Russia have failed, have resorted to a policy of encirclement, containment, and confrontation, with Ukraine being only one of many battlefields the West is fighting upon. Kerry would declare Europe’s energy market as another.
He stated (emphasis added):
“…if we want a Europe that is both whole and free, then we have to do more together immediately, with a sense of urgency, to ensure that European nations are not dependent on Russia for the majority of their energy.
