they absolutely love Putin for “standing up” to the west. Whatever that means.
Before Putin took power, the west’s guy, Yeltsin, was in power, selling the copper from the walls. People remember conditions going from slightly behind the west to a third world country being ravaged by famine, alcoholism overnight as soviet industry was eviscerated by Russia’s new national bourgeois, working with the west.
While Putin was one of those oligarchs, people saw him slow the bleeding by stopping the very worst excesses; standing up to the west.
Before Putin took power, the west’s guy, Yeltsin, was in power, selling the copper from the walls. People remember conditions going from slightly behind the west to a third world country being ravaged by famine, alcoholism overnight as soviet industry was eviscerated by Russia’s new national bourgeois, working with the west.
While Putin was one of those oligarchs, people saw him slow the bleeding by stopping the very worst excesses; standing up to the west.
But that was 25 years ago.