Would You Buy a Car From This Man?

Vlad must lie 🕵️‍♂️

In 2000 I was very enthusiastic about Vladimir Putin. He was 47 then, fit, and had a cool background (not just KGB) – Boris Yeltsin’s reincarnation into the 21^st century, his successor in building up a country strong, democratic and opened to the world. It turned out to be Yeltsin’s biggest mistake. It was my mistake, too.

Now, in 2018, the only thing between today’s Putin and the Putin of 2000 is the name. No more hopes of modernization, democratization, partnership with the West and, the most important, ‘dictatorship of the law’ as he claimed in 2000 when he took power. Putin’s Russia is surrounded by enemies, it is opposing America for the sake of opposing and talking funny stuff like ‘we don’t need a world without Russia’ – his recent quotation while presenting some nuclear warheads hitting Florida. What a joke!

What have got now? The man is trying hard to stick to power till he dies. I’d call him the ‘white Robert Mugabe’. He is about to appoint himself to serve his fifth term (including Dmitry Medvedev’s fake presidency). There was something about two terms in the Russian constitution. His friends are billionaires now. Some opposition leaders, like Boris Nemtsov, are killed. Others, like Alexey Navalny, are illegally not allowed to run for presidency. When asked at a press conference about Navalny’s chances to run, Putin frankly said: “I don’t want such people to make trouble.” He also said in a recent NBC interview that Navalny doesn’t have a positive agenda. Who the f*ck is he to decide who has and who doesn’t have a positive agenda? I am naïve enough to believe it is up to the Russian people, not to the Russian man.

Unlike his macho public image, Vlad seems to be a boxer who wins by simply not allowing his opponent to step into the ring. He was so afraid of Alexey Navalny’s presidential perspectives that he  plainly didn’t let him run. Navalny’s numerous anti-corruption investigations sting him like a bee.

Ok, he is Russia’s Robert Mugabe, but why shouldn’t we trust him? Simply because he is a certified liar.

He lied about the Kursk submarine disaster back in 2000. He constantly lies about the Ukraine and Georgia. He lies about NATO. He lied about the Malaysian MH370 disappearance. He lies about those shameful doping scandals. He even lied about his wife, Lyudmila, when he said publicly he wouldn’t divorce her and then he, did saying that he is married to Russia. Yes, it is absolutely his own business but then don’t talk about it. There is a Russian proverb: ‘He lies as he breathes’.

Putin probably sincerely thinks that he acts in Russia’s best interest. His sycophants claim that ‘Putin is Russia’. But the trick is that the guy messes up his own interest with the national interest. As long as he controls TV he can rule forever with Dr. Goebbels-like propaganda. In his case, ‘War is peace’.

What I give him credit for is that he feels the Russian people’s desperate demands for being great after the shake up of the 90s. He is the Great Manipulator and his KGB experience is invaluable here. The easiest way to calm people down when they’re poor is to tell them that they’re great and very spiritual as a nation. We fight soulless America for whatever reason. We took over Crimea because we certainly know NATO would’ve taken it instead of us. We went in first there, bingo! We spend 50 billion bucks to hold the Winter Olympics in Sochi making it the most expensive Games in history. We then win it with the help of a state-supported doping system. We finally deny all official accusations because it is all made up by the West. We’re innocent lambs in case you forgot it. And, yes, we are so great!

I was always thinking a great country is a country with the rule of law and no corruption as a system. A great country has an economy not so dependent on oil prices. It has strong allies. It has great roads. An effective healthcare system. Decent pensions for the elderly, too. This is what I call greatness.

We are actually paying for Putin’s desire to be great already. Just recently Americans wiped out dozens or even hundreds of Russian combatants in Syria. Make no mistake: that private military unit was coordinated by the Russian MoD. These adventurers knew they were attacking American positions trying to get oil fields there. What did mighty Vladimir Putin say about it? He lied again: he said they had no relation to the Russian military. Oh yeah: no formal relation but they’ve been trained at the Russian army bases before going to Syria and there are strong rumors that Russian military hospitals are filled with the wounded… This is Putin’s style: you gamble and then you’re a paper tiger once you face a real opponent such as Jim Mattis.

So Vlad may chat whatever about Russia’s greatness but his only goal is to stay in power as long as he can. Otherwise, he’s got a good chance to eventually end up just like Pinochet did.

He must lie to survive. Why trust the liar?

Putin – can we trust him? 😎

No, never have, still don’t, and never will.

As I have written in a previous blog, I feel that when Britain should have accepted Russia as a changed animal after the fall of the USSR, we instead assumed they would be like they had always been in our lifetime. We never gave them a chance. So guess what? They became, like we had always assumed they would always be, the same malevolent, self-satisfying, lying, cheating, and ultimately, once-again-powerful shit of a nation called Russia. Our fault.

But to me, the most salient fact is that we are not dealing with a nation whose sole instinct is to behave according to its national interest, but we are dealing, instead, with a sole person – a Hitler, a Stalin, a Pol-Pot if you will. His name is Putin.

He couldn’t give a fuck about his own people, most of whom find life is still as crap as it always has been – no, he only cares about what he can achieve, how great he can become, and how wonderful a legacy he will leave – all about him. He literally hates the rest of the world, probably most of his own country, and only creates alliances that he feels will do him good.

The very worst type of leader, historically speaking.

There is increasing evidence that Russia is interfering in Western democracy through using things like disinformation and cybercrime. This could well have had a huge negative influence in both the USA and UK, and is now reaching out into other nations.

Putin controls his media, his military, and his police. Not because he is a great politician who commands respect and influence, but because he is a terrorist who is quite prepared to kill innocent people, even if they are Russian. He tries to destroy, and cause unbelievable cruel hardships in the Ukraine, in Syria, and other places. Don’t ever forget he supports another Hitler, Assad, the moron who is in charge of Syria, who as we know is perfectly content to destroy hospital and residential areas in his own fucking country.

Putin knows that the UK, with whom relations are maybe at their worst since the cold war, can do nothing about the recent revelations of Russian-made nerve gas being used on UK soil to commit attempted murders. Getting rid of diplomats? Tit-for-tat. Financial freezes and travel embargoes? Thank you, these Russians have taken their money to the UK instead of keeping it in mother-Russia, thank you, you have done us a favour. After all, he knows that our political parties have happily guzzled up Russian dosh, with guaranteed anonymity for investors in London.

In a recent comment, one of Putin’s henchwomen suggested that us Brits have only ourselves to blame for any Russian aggression – “don’t have a go at us, and we won’t bomb you.”

Yes, I know there are people who will go on about who bombed Yugoslavia in 1999 (not Russia), invaded Iraq in 2003 (not Russia) and bombed Libya in 2011 (I know you’ll never guess, it wasn’t Russia), and there must be several other examples – but this missive is about whether we should trust him, that shit of a human being called Putin.

He has been proven to act only in his own personal interests, so I can safely say, no, he cannot be trusted at all. Ever.

And when my level-headed big brother messages me with this: “I see horribly similar circumstances unfolding in Russia to 1930s Germany – very worrying” – I know I am right.

Go Vlad! 🤠

Its funny how easy it is to see the flaws in others. Vladimir Vladimirovich is interesting because of how he is perceived differently by different groups.

To most Russians, he is saviour and protector. He brought his people out of a very bad place and into a world where Russia counts again. #MRGA!!!

To most Westerners, he’s a former spy, reliving the 90s with little vision beyond his personal circle. An individual with authoritarian tendencies on a quest for power.

The fact is both statements are true. He used oil money to finance Russia’s recovery and has grown into a completely different person then he was fifteen years ago. There are Russians who seriously believe that Putin may have died and there is a body double making appearances now.

Do I trust Putin? Is that even a question on either side of the Russian border? He enjoys an approval rating of around eighty per cent inside the country and I imagine his disapproval numbers outside Russia are almost as high.

Here is the thing WE can learn from Vladimir: his use of the media has resulted in these approval numbers. Recep Erdoğan, of Turkey, has a similar political/demographic profile. His base is smaller. Trump, Le Pen and company want to attend the same school.

The problem these Western leaders have is that they cannot gain control of most of the press. This results in a loud, angry opposition. The best these wannabe’s can do is say negative reports are not true and present “alternative facts”. The scared and angry are only too happy to believe what they are told because that story fits in better with their us vs. them view of the world. These leaders need to sow fear and hate:

• Putin – Europe & USA
• Le Pen & Co. – Immigrants
• Trump – Muslims
• Erdoğan – Gülen & followers

You can wave the flag and rally the people more easily if barbarians are at the gate.

I don’t really care about Putin that much, it’s the press that bothers me. The ability to manipulate the gullible into believing we are under siege appears to be all too easy. Putin didn’t invent it, nor did he perfect it, but he sure can use it. To quote our Putin wannabe: “I think he’s done really a great job of outsmarting our country.”