Vladimir Putin

1. 61

   RonPriceposted 16 years ago

   Three weeks after I retired from full-time work as a teacher, Vladimir Putin became the Prime Minister of Russia(9/8/’99).  I left my lecturing job in Western Australia and drove with my wife across Australia to Tasmania for a sea-change, as they havecome to call a move, usually later in life, to a place removed from urban life and often near the sea.  Instead of living on the edge of the Indian Ocean where I had lived for fourteen years(1986-1999),I came to live on the edge of the Great Southern Ocean. 
   
   I moved into my home in George Town Tasmania on 23 September 1999.  During the weeks before my arrival in this my sea-change town, the Second Chechen War began(26/8/’99).  Ten days after I moved into my house in south George Town on the Tamar River, three kms from the Bass Strait,  Putin declared the Chechen government illegitimate and the Second Chechen War moved into a new stage. "Unprecedented barbarities”(1) were to be committed in the months and years ahead. 
   
   As I settled into a life of writing and independent scholarship in this place of retirement in my last years of middle age(55 to 60), Vladimir Putin settled into the role of President with his managed democracy and his  managed self-image--everything to everyone as this SBS(French) doco expressed it in their visual-voice over analysis. -Ron Price with thanks to (1)“The Putin System,” SBS TV, 14 September 2008, 11:00-12:00 p.m.
   
   I, too, managed my new democracy:
   my freedom “from,” my freedom “to.”
   But I had to work in a new system,
   much simpler than the multiplicity of
   relationships, a system of only my
   wife and I—a dyad—retirement "with"
   and "in" its own difficulties as we
   managed our world with its new battles,
   parameters, boundaries, eccentricities,
   paradoxes, contradictions, confusions,
   seemingly endless concerns with trivia:
   garbage and dishes to dust and cleaning
   basins with Gumption; and with its learning
   and the cultural attainments of the mind,
   writing’s fascinating fusion of trifles and
   some of the most profound questions in
   the world of existence as the future came
   to look brighter than it ever had before.(1)
   
   (1) The Universal House of Justice, 24 May 2001.
   
   Ron Price
   22 September 2008

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2. 69

   Make Moneyposted 16 years ago

   Hi Ron
   
   After reading your post I had to do a bit of research on The Putin System.  Most think Russia is now a democracy but it is Putin's democracy that looks more like the former USSR.  I found this video titled The Putin System.  The KGB false flag operation of blaming the Chechen rebels sounded eerily similar.   
   http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid … 2644118846
   
   Then I watched a series of videos about the rise and fall of the Russian Oligarchs to learn how Putin used the Russian Oligarchs to gain power then destroy them.
   http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2cnpj … r_politics
   
   It's clear where the former KGB officer's loyalties lie.

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3. 60

   knolyourselfposted 16 years ago

   "Putin used the Russian Oligarchs to gain power then destroy them" "Putin used the Russian Oligarchs" who stole the russian government economic system for a song by bribery "to gain power then destroy them" Yes dastardly. "It's clear where the former KGB officer's loyalties lie" like to russia maybe.

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4. 69

   Make Moneyposted 16 years ago

   True the Russian Oligarchs gained power dastardly.  But I would have to say Putin's loyalties are with the Russian Communist Party rather than with the Russian people.

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5. 60

   knolyourselfposted 16 years ago

   "Throughout his presidential terms and into his second term as Prime Minister, Putin has enjoyed high approval ratings amongst the Russian public. During his eight years in office, the economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase six-fold (72% in PPP), poverty cut more than half and average monthly salaries increase from $80 to $640, or by 150% in real rates." From Wikipedia. My guess is the anti-Putin propaganda
   is as great in canada as it is in the us. Some say he is not a communist. The truth the us tried to take over their oil companies, and because they could not he is a demon.

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6. 69

   Make Moneyposted 16 years ago

   knolyourself I am not saying that the US is not trying to divert oil and gas from going through Russia with new pipelines.  In fact that is what the problem in Georgia is about.  And after reading this study of the geopolitics of oil pipelines in Central Asia I have no doubt that is what Afghanistan is mostly about as well.
   http://www.sras.org/geopolitics_of_oil_ … ntral_asia
   
   All I'm saying is not to get fooled that communism is dead in Russia.

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   1. 66

      Mishaposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Mike, communism is definitely dead in Russia, and will not come back at least for several generations. What made you thinking it is coming back?

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7. 60

   knolyourselfposted 16 years ago

   In answer to your postings looked it up. I had thought it was dead. But apparently it has made a big come back. And assume that is by elections. Go figure.

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8. 69

   Make Moneyposted 16 years ago

   Communism is not dead in Russia according to the Russians that talk in the videos above Misha.

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9. 66

   Mishaposted 16 years ago

   I did not see videos there Mike. In fact, I returned and double-checked - and still did not find any...

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10. 66

    Mishaposted 16 years ago

    Ah, got ya! It's not the last link, it's a couple a few posts earlier. Sorry for the confusion.
    
    And sorry, I don't have time to watch through several hours of videos to see what some random Russians might think about communism return to Russia. I go there regularly, my parents, older son, and many more relatives and friends live there, and I have a pretty good idea on what is going on over there - and it has nothing to do with communism, and has everything to do with wild capitalism

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11. 59

    Vladimir Uhriposted 16 years ago

    What does it mean forum serves only for community? Can I interpret it as collectivism?
    I believe if someone say real truth about something and someone is offended it is his problem.
    
    Communism in Russia is not dead. It is only regrouping. We know 15 "Perestrojkas". Last one was significant. But in former Soviet block changes did not change the hearts of communists and it is a trouble. People really do not know to live without government. Communists made all possible to make chaos as they were all the time trained. The chaos has a purpose to reclaim the "order".
    
    The same technique is used by US communistic liberals.

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    VENUGOPAL SIVAGNAposted 16 years ago

    Let it be communism, or capitalism, or oligarchy, or even despotism... it is better to  see the previous Soviet Union again... and retrieve the balance of power, upset in 1991, with the fall of communism in Russia.

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13. 61

    RonPriceposted 14 years ago

    Thanks for all your responses to my original post here some 17 months ago back in mid-2008. As the HubPages organizers have suggested it seems best to close this forum and, with this post, I hope to formally close it on behalf of the site organizers here at HubPages.-Ron Price, Australia

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