Just how big of a hypocrite is Putin?

[Hugabear]

Putin had been claiming that Ukraine should back off on going after separatists within Ukrainian territory, even when those separatists had conducted acts of violence.

Let's not forget he also intervened militarily to back separatists in Georgia.

This coming from a man who led a brutal crackdown against Chechen separatists.

[Igel]

1. He's not.

He doesn't have one set of ideals for others and carves out exceptions for himself.

His ideals are openly biased. Kill Chechens to spare Russians and fight secession from Russia, good. Kill Ukrainians to spare Russians and fight for secession from Ukraine and more Russians in Russia, good.

It's biased, one-sided, manipulative, supremacist, imperialistic, colonialistic, hegemonistic, messianic, militaristic, chauvinistic, ego-centric. It's many things. But somehow he's quite clear that his rising above the rules for everybody else isn't some sort of exceptional carve out, but part-and-parcel of the principle itself. Russia is a special people with a special culture and is there to save the West from decadence and to save the East from something (I always forget that part, so call me self-centered) and he is the leader that will achieve greatness for Russia. Anything that helps Russia is good; anything that hurts Russia is bad, which when translated to politically charged Russian is, oddly, "fashistskii" or "fascist."

He can say that things are getting worse in Ukraine when his side is losing; they're getting better when his side is winning. It has nothing to do with violence and killing, it's a question of *who* is killing and getting killed. The morality is entirely consistent.

He can be for human rights when it gives Russia an advantage. He's for oppression and such when it gives Russia an advantage. Hurting another country to clear space for Russia is good for Russia.

I don't see the hypocrisy. He'd be happy for me to kill Ukrainians if it helped Russia.