Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
yes. It's probably easier for yourself and me to have a positive view of Putin since we are not affected by any of his internal politics or any potential problems with the elections or the democracy process in Russia... And Lavrov, he's just sharp and very together.

I had zero respect for Russia and it's leaders in the 90s... and Gorbachev might have had good intentions, but he certainly messed up and let everyone down. Before that... well it's a different story, not worth bringing up, and I dont have strong views on it anyway.

But today; Russia is being pretty cool when it comes to foreign policy. I think it's showing integrity, adherence to principles and loyalty to its friends. Hope it ends up paying off.

Imagine if this initiative with the CMs actually stops the Syria war. It would go down in history as classic top notch diplomacy and people will eventually study it in Political Science classes at uni.

---- how interesting about the American Christians and their politically twisted bible. Never knew. Seriously they almost make me lose my faith.
The 90's were exactly the kind of mess I would expect, considering that the Soviet Union and its entire economy collapsed. The 90's were a time of horrible economic fallout from that, a time of anarchy and corruption. But what I admire is the strength and resilience of the Russian people who have managed to build their country back up in such a short time! Twenty years is not really such a long time for all that has been achieved there. I remember how dire things were right after the collapse of the Soviet Union, since I was living there when it happened and working за рублей. So when I see how much Russia has grown, it actually fills me with a kind of awe and pride. Those are my friends who achieved that!

The only things I do not like is how far the pendulum has swung in favor of oligarchy and capitalism. There was a lot of corruption in the old USSR, but there was also a lot of good - such as the guarantee every student was educated, free of charge, and then placed in a career afterwards. One downfall of capitalism, among many others, is that student debt becomes the norm and job placement is no longer guaranteed. It's a huge problem here in the US, where students owe tens of thousands of dollars upon graduation, yet the only work they can find is at Starbuck's or McDonald's and some of them will be burdened with their college loans for the rest of their lives.

There are ups and downs with every system we devise. I'd like to see us start holding on to all the ups and throwing out all the downs, rather than throwing out entire systems. So many in the US hate socialism, when they really know nothing about it or how it works. And at the same time they embrace capitalism and believe in nonsense like "trickle down economics" - the idea that if we give more money to those who are already so wealthy it's almost beyond reckoning, that somehow the wealthy will put all that money back into the economy and it will "trickle down" to the poor via job creation. It's a bullshit theory. What really happens is that the wealthy HOARD the money. They do not use it to create jobs. They use it to create more money for themselves. So we see the middle class shrinking, while the gap between rich and poor grows exponentially. America's top CEO's make more than 400 times the median salary! It's almost impossible to imagine the vast amount of wealth which has been accumulated in the hands of such a small group of people. And for what? They do not give back, and they fight tooth and nail against having to contribute their fair share.