Trump Says Putin 'a Leader Far More Than Our President'

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2016-37303057

Just in case there is anybody left that thinks that Trump would make an wonderful President, here he is heaping praise on Putin !

Putin......the man that ordered the annexation of part of the Ukraine, and is now busy helping his blood-thirsty mate, Assad, with bombing women and children in Syria.

Is Trump really that deluded that he thinks his support Putin will help him into the White House ?

[Jackdaw33]

Strictly speaking Trump is right. In terms of support Putin is a far better leader of his country than Obama is of his.

[ichkeria]

"Annexed in 1783 by the Russian Empire" - I somehow missed that but out. Hence history repeating itself :-)

[ichkeria]

"In terms of support Putin is a far better leader of his country than Obama is of his."

Oh please. Don't the bottoms of barrels have rights too :-)
Interestingly there are elections coming up in Russia soon tho you wouldn't think so, as the govt seems to be trying not to mention them at all.
The Levada centre was recently effectively banned for publishing an unflattering opinion poll. Which does make you wonder.
Yes Putin is still not wildly unpopular, despite the strikes you never hear about, and the unrest in Siberia, and the pensioners complaining about the effective pension freeze. But Russia has a different social and political culture to the US: people are used to being shafted and put up with a lot more

[anotheoldgit]

We have much to fear from that Clinton woman.

/// In little noticed comments last week, Hillary Clinton suggested that the US should start preparing “military” responses to cyber-attacks allegedly perpetrated by Russia on the DNC and voter registration files. And her campaign has also spent the last few weeks ratcheting up the fear-mongering that the Trump campaign is secretly a Russian plant of some sort. ///

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/08/almost-everyone-gets-russia-wrong-apart-from-obama

[ichkeria]

Trevor Timm is partly right and partly wrong: Russia IS weak, and Putin DOES act out of desperation. Ukraine,, for one, has gone spectacularly wrong for him, and his Syria policy is hamfisted, brutal and not really appearing to work (and that is before you look at the disastrous domestic policies) , and it is quite true that there is no global military threat from Russia, but there is definitely a threat.
And desperate people sometimes do very bad things: you don't have to see Putin as some arch svengali to see that he needs to be treated as an enemy and not as a friend

[Khandro]

ichy; //Crimea, in fact, if we're talking "Russia" was only ever really Russian from the time of the Crimean war until 1917,//

I'm afraid you are talking nonsense, read my post again, 12:08

[ichkeria]

Why is it nonsense khandro?
You seem to be missing the irony of the fact that Crimea ostensibly became "Russian" when it was, er, annexed by the Russians :-)
They annexed it, but it only became truly "Russian" ironically, after they lost the Crimean War, when Sevastopol was restored to them and it was a Soviet Republic for much of its life.
But regardless of who annexed what in the past, and who gave away what in a haze of vodka, does not excuse the blatant act of piracy for which Russia is now rightly being punished by Obama, the EU and others.
You could present similar arguments to justify any campaign of terror such as that by the IRA, ETA etc etc

Russia's sentimental attraction to Crimea is more to do with hazy ideas of imperial glory and the chance of a cheap sun tan in Koktebel than anything else :-) And Prince Vladimir was baptised there, but then St George wasn't exactly born in Dorking, nor St Patrick in Skibbereen.

[ichkeria]

Russia could have pursued a perfectly honourable, constitutional approach to the question on Crimea, abiding by International law. They could have negotiated with the Ukraine government for a referendum (opinion polls in Crimea over the years showed a clear majority for remaining in Ukraine, although a campaign of agitation and propaganda had served to undermine that somewhat in recent times) In fact in the mid-nineties even the majority of residents of Sevastopol stated a preference for the status quo.
It wasn't even as it they'd lost Crimea in some similar "struggle". And they were signatories to a treaty guaranteeing the terrotorial integrity of the country to which Crimea found itself part in 1991.
But no, they choose the criminal path, as criminals tend to.

But I digress :-)