Damn, I like this Putin fellow...

[PDittie]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he "cannot imagine" how genuinely free and fair elections could be held as planned in Iraq next month given the fact that the country is under "total occupation" by foreign forces.

"I cannot imagine how elections can be organized in conditions of total occupation of the country by foreign troops," Putin said Tuesday, as he met visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi at the Kremlin.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20041207/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_russia_politics_vote_041207164342

Do you suppose he could teach Boosh some of this "truth"?

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. .

[MessiahRp]

2. Anyone else starting to worry a bit?

First Bush sticks his nose in the Ukraine elections and in the most hypocritical act ever talks about election fraud and the need to hear the will of the people (funny how it is the opposite when you're not the thief).

Then Putin makes sure to sound off on Iraq's elections, knowing it will piss off Bush.

Anyone worried this escalation is just the start of what could be Cold War II?

Rp

[Kahuna]

11. I also see "Cold War Redux," as a possibility.

Bush is an ass. He makes Jethro Bodine look like a rocket scientist.

[Hippo_Tron]

22. Russia's economy is in the shitter

Under the neocons we have been building a military force not to target the problems of the 21st century but one with a cold war mentality in mind. Russia knows this and doubtfully would cross the US in any way that would cause a conflict of cold war proportions.

[ignatius 2]

26. I hear you. I saw an article Saturday,sorry I don't have a link, which

said Putin is approving pre-emptive strikes against other nations who pose as potential threats. Sounds like Putin is taking a stand against the class bully but,unfortunately, a lot of innocent students will be caught in the middle. Let's hope this doesn't get past the mouthing off stage.

[IrateCitizen]

3. I don't like him...

Just because he's questioning Bush doesn't make him a particularly good guy. IIRC, Kim Jong Il does his fair share of questioning Bush, and it doesn't make him a good guy.

Putin is an authoritarian despot-in-making. Almost all of his actions over the past 2 years have been around consolidating power in Moscow. He is sharp as a tack, I'll readily admit. And I also like the way in which he's approached Europe about forging a better partnership. But I wouldn't say that I have a great deal of admiration for the man.

[PDittie]

18. No disagreement here

He seems like one of the old guard, Soviet-style rulers.

But he doesn't buy into (or take any of) the bullshit coming from Bush, and he's about the only fellow on the planet right now speaking up about it.

THAT I like.

[Lone Pawn]

23. So the best measure of quality in foreign leaders...

is not how they further democratic ideals or treat humanity at large--or even their own citizenry--but rather whether or not they say things that attack individual policies of our administration after endorsing the reelection of that same administration?

Right.

[PDittie]

24. Uh...no

[Lucky Luciano]

4. He can't help b*sh

Putin is as corrupt (and as much a dictator) as they come.

Putin has that pot-kettle thing going...

[Old and In the Way]

5. Talk about role reversal.

so sad..

[russian33]

6. Putin is speaking up, because Bush has gotten too close for comfort

He doesn't want a CIA stooge president of Ukraine, right under his nose, and Bush has been very vocal about Ukraine elections (talk about pot and kettle).

Say what you want about Putin, but he has stabilized the country. I've gone there a few times, and have family and friends there, and the country was in free-fall during Yeltsin's binge...Puting turned it around, and stabilized it.

[Lucky Luciano]

7. Dictators always stabilize their country...

It wouldn't be particularly dictatorial otherwise!

Remember B Franklin's quote - "Those who give up essential freedom and liberty in the name of security deserve neither."

I agree.

[russian33]

9. We're starting to get in the mindset of the cold war

And I've told people time and time again...it wasn't bad living in the USSR, I know, cause I lived there. But it seems that this twisted view of Russia will always stick. If the people are happy, if they're getting their pension/salary on time...who are we to sit and say..'Bad Putin!'

[Buzz Clik]

8. Putin is a murdering bastard.

I wouldn't trust him no matter what Shrub thought he saw in his eyes.

[GreenPartyVoter]

12. Ayuh. Cut from the same cloth, those two.

-------------------------------------
Would Jesus love a liberal? You bet!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/

[knight_of_the_star]

21. Not quite

Bush doesn't have two brain cells to rub together, Putin has more than enough.

[SmokingJacket]

27. What's worse: a dumb despot, or a smart one?

I don't know.

[Merrick]

10. Funny coming from a guy who got like 90% of the vote last Russian election

and whose using the threat of terrorism as a pretext to abolishing regional elections in favor of his own Presidential appointments.

[Menshevik]

13. Like Putin can talk about free and fair elections

According to the monitoring center set up by nationalist Sergei Glazyev, liberal Irina Khakamada and Communist Nikolai Kharitonov, patients in Moscow's Psychiatric Clinic No. 4 received their ballots already marked for Putin.

When two patients asked for blank ballots instead, they were told there were no others available.

...
At the monitoring center a Khakamada campaign staffer played an undated video, shot by a hidden camera, showing a teacher in St. Petersburg encouraging a group of her pupils' parents to vote for Putin.

"I ask, even insist, that you vote at the polling station here at the school," the teacher said on the video. "And logically, your children's grades will depend on how actively you vote. And if you vote for Putin, we will get money from the district administration for computers. Otherwise, we will get nothing. Believe me, this kind of chance comes but rarely."

...

In a telephone interview Monday, Golos spokeswoman Olga Botkina said Golos received reports that students at an aerospace university in Samara faced the dilemma of either casting their ballot or being thrown out of their dormitories. The Defense Ministry cabled officers in a local military unit, Botkina said, advising them to report when they and their family members had voted.

http://rusland.startkabel.nl/forum/?id=111

[tjdee]

14. "I saw into his eyes" Putin? Putin played George, he's no dummy.

Putin is a very, very smart man--and I say that having a lot of problems with him.

Even when he was Pootie Poot, Vlad wasn't taking bunk from the likes of Fake Cowboy.

[UpsideDownFlag]

15. you know the world has gone mad when we like putin, compared to our own.nt

[Lone Pawn]

16. Um, he endorsed Bush.

He wants to phase out the direct election of governors in Russia and begin hand-picking them personally. He supported the rigged elections in Ukraine. He fights a brutal, indiscriminate war against pro-independence factions in Chechnya. He's all but entirely nationalized the Russian media.

Still like him?

[PDittie]

19. See #18 n/t

[liberalpragmatist]

17. In other news, DU'ers proclaim Stalin, "pretty cool"

Stalin and the USSR protested "imperialist" US policies and segregation.

Just b/c somebody criticizes Bush doesn't automatically make them a good guy.

Putin is a dictator-in-waiting. He's contemptuous of democracy and is attempting to revive the USSR, meddling in the internal affairs of other countries in order to control them and creating a fascist political structure.

I'd be a bit hesitant to declare my admiration of him. :eyes:

[PDittie]

20. Please also see #18

hope that meets with your approval now :eyes:

[liberalpragmatist]

25. Okay, I can see where you're coming from

I still think we should refrain from merely latching onto someone b/c they say one good thing.

But sorry for my snarkiness. It's not the best week for me.