Quote Originally Posted by Zeus
Quote Originally Posted by bad manners
Strangely, the same argument when applied to Stalin becomes: "have you seen the recently confirmed charts of those arrested and executed when Stalin was in power? Of course he was in power and so he was responsible. So one can simply blame him for everything."
Where did I say that? Any governor is responsible, more that anyone else. But the responsibility and blame are different things. And in both cases (Yeltsin, Stalin, whoever) it is ridiculous to blame for everything.
Thank you for admitting that. I did not mean you in a particular, I was remarking on the general tendencies.

However, one little, but principal difference does exist. Yeltsin has been elected in 1991 directly by people (let's set aside 1996, it's another story). So the nation bears direct responsibility for its choice and fate.
Correct. The only problem with that "responsibility" argument is that by 1991 the nation had no idea what they were up to. It was a nation so politically naive that any charlatan could have been elected. One actually was. Had it had a smaller scale, it could have been qualified as a fraud, and any criminal code treats that irrespectively of the victim's "responsibility". Yet I agree that they can only blame themselves for this choice. As well as for the choice to extend Yeltsin's immunity infinitely.

In case of Stalin it is not so simple, although my general point is that eventually it is nation's responsibility, too.
Agreed, too.