Re: Vladimir Putin's Speech.
Originally Posted by
The Artful Todger
->
That's OK - I'm obviously biased for a variety of reasons. For one thing my family associations, for another I like Russia, especially the Northern region but stopping short of Siberia! OK for a long weekend but that's about all. Same with JAO. Bit too far in the sticks.
What I will repeat though is that the MSM mostly present a totally distorted picture about Russia and also about Vlad and how the guy in the street feel about him ---- he
likes him.
I do realise, Todger, that we have to make a distinction between the people of a country and its government. I don't know what Russian people are like, so I wouldn't make any assertions about them. Putin, on the other hand, is a ruthless, power-hungry tyrant. Even if we discount 90% of what we hear about him, that is still obvious.
And to say that we demonise him doesn't really wash. After some of the stunts he's pulled, we would be fully justified in imposing the most extreme sanctions we can get away with -whatever they might be
. But we don't. We just make feeble complaints, which Putin probably forgets about as soon as he's stopped laughing.
The situation with China isn't much different.