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by droptablemain 1737 days ago
The Russian mother of someone I know here in LA has pictures of Putin all over her house. I'm fully aware this is anecdotal, but by every metric, Putin is a popular guy within Russia. He's also probably unfairly demonized by the West, so our view of him is skewed.
1 comments
reducesuffering 1737 days ago
"Unfairly demonized"

Multiple poisonings / assassination attempts, even in the UK

Election interference in the US and Europe

Donbass

Crimea

Georgia

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vkou 1737 days ago
Many Russians supporting him believe that he re-asserted Russia's influence in the world, and see Donbass and Georgia in a positive light. My grandfather is one of them. (Although he has soured on Putin himself, over the past few years. Reminds him too much of Stalin.)

I'd like to take a moment to point out that the people of any empire often see it's imperial ambitions in a positive light.

Dig just a bit, and you'll find Americans who thought Vietnam was a good idea, Frenchmen who thought Algiers was a good idea, Brits with Ireland and India, Argentinians with the Falklands, etc, etc, etc. They've all got a list of excuses as long as your arm for why they think so, and so do the Russians.

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sudosysgen 1737 days ago
That's fair demonization. But we in the West have no issue looking past assassinations, electoral interference, coups d'états, and invasions far past what even Putin has done.

That being said, I still think Putin is an evil man. I just don't think he's really worse than, say, Bush, and I can understand while I massively disagree why so many Russians like him.

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reducesuffering 1737 days ago
> we in the West have no issue looking past [...]"

Au contraire, Bush is widely panned across the West, trust in or respect to the CIA is at an all time low, and most educated westerners acknowledge those examples as having been terrible ideas.

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sudosysgen 1737 days ago
Maybe he is in your circles, he is in mine. Bush won reelection after doing all of those things, though, and even liberal media outlets began to rehabilitate him recently - see the whole Bush painting atrocity. Putin isn't universally liked in Russia either.
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droptablemain 1737 days ago
Well, assuming the intel on poisonings and assassination attempts are true. Then again, the CIA certainly isn't afraid of a little ol' assassination.

Election interference -- nobody engages in more election interference around the world than the U.S. Far beyond the scope of anything Russia has done.

Crimea -- they held a vote where like 95+ percent of residents voted to join Russia. So what's the problem?

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