America…the answer is SIMPLE! If you don’t like something? CHANGE THE FREAKIN’ CONSTITUTION!
“Russia wraps up a vote on constitutional reforms on Wednesday that would allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in office for two more terms. The vote was originally scheduled for April 22, but authorities had to reschedule it due to the spread of the coronavirus in the country”.
“Russians were given the option of voting for or against the whole package of changes, but there’s little doubt about the outcome. The vote is widely seen as an effort to demonstrate Putin’s broad support in the country, and he’s virtually guaranteed to win the chance for two more terms in the presidency”.
I want to get “real” for a minute and back off a little from the sarcasm.
One thing that I have learned over the years; especially when looking at the aftermath of many of the conflicts that we have been involved in; is that some places don’t even exist as a Country unless 1) a Strongman is in place and/or 2) they are artificially propped up by the U.S.
Granted Putin sits atop a Stockpile of Biological and Thermonuclear Weapons…but would what we call “Russia” even exist as we know it without a Strongman in place?
I put forth the proposition to “PWI” that the answer is…“No…”
Of course not. But what would the alternatives be? I’m not savvy on Russian politics to know what other viable alternatives there are now or were in the past … what’s the saying: “The enemy you know…”?
This was expected for the last 10 years or so, it was only a question whether Putin will continue as President of the Russian Federation or a new function of would be created for him - the President of the Russia-Belarus Federation.
The pandemic put a temporary stop to Russia pressuring Belarussian dictator Lukashenko to acquiesce to a federation and save his life, so Putin opted for constitutional changes.
No problem whatsoever.
First of all, Russian Orthodoxy has quite a lot of similarities to Islam and the Church is primarily a political organization, run by a former KGB agent.
It doesn’t concern itself with saving souls, the Bible and all that high-brow stuff but glorifying Mother Russia and more importantly it’s force of arms.
So in Russia the question “do you believe in God” is not a theological one, but a political one - it translates to “do you believe that we are an imperial power that should rule a significant part of the world”
So to conclude “faith in God” = “faith in the Russian Empire”
As for “traditional family values”, Russia has an epidemic of absentee fathers similar to inner cities in the US.
Putin decided to address this by largely decriminalizing domestic violence. Apparently, they believe that men are less likely to leave their families if they can beat their spouses.
I don’t know much about Russian politics, so I’ll be just as eager as everyone else to find if he wins the next election.
I’m mostly amazed at how Putin has looked exactly the same for my entire adult life. Bare-chested bathing in Siberian rivers must be good for the skin.
Sure there’s that, but there’s also the fire that burns in the heart of short dudes who go out of their way to be macho. That keeps you young and winning elections by astonishing margins.
Very true! Crimea is about as Russian as the Sudentenland was German, but imo it’s pretty important for a country to own piece of land one of its major naval ports is on.
Since this thread also touches upon the Worker’s Paradise, here’s a very racist but accurate Soviet police sketchbook for identifying various ethnicities of the USSR that is making the rounds on social media.
Lenin looked suspiciously “uzbek” and Stalin looked suspiciously “Azerbaijanian”
Khrushchev and Gorbachev were both too fat to be soviet and Brezhnev’s eyebrows clearly indicate he’s an alien.
Andropov and Cherenenko don’t matter, so why bother assessing their ethnicity
