Quote from: iluvbitcoins on April 24, 2016, 04:24:06 PM

Quote from: Daniel91 on April 24, 2016, 01:38:40 PM

His biggest failure?
In my opinion conflict he caused in Ukraine, and all bad results Russia received from it, including trade lost with EU.
Because of Putin all former Easter block (Poland, Ukraine etc) demanding that Nato soldiers came in their countries and protect them from Russia.
It's big strategic mistake because Russia lost their influence in this area.

He actually achieved a great victory there, he occupied Crimea, and shifted the focus towards Syria by supporting the rebels, provoking Turkey, USA etc.
When is the last time your heard something about Ukraine on the news?
Putin is a smart guy, everyone's worried about ISIS, some ships and airplanes in the middle east, completely forgetting the invasion

Umm.... What?

So, referendums as a democratic tool does not have any weight? The fact that Crimea has always, except for a 25-year long occupation by Ukraine was Russian land does not count?

As for Syria.... Supporting the rebels? Which tree did you fall off? Russia supported the Syrian state by helping fight US-financed terrorists of ISIS.
Provoking Turkey by flying in Syria? And getting a Russian plane shot over Syrian land by treaturous Turks?

And what invasion? If you allude to Ukraine - if Russia invaded, it would have been over in a matter of days. For some reason no one manages to find the grand invisible army of Russia in Ukraine... Roll Eyes

Quote from: iluvbitcoins on April 24, 2016, 04:24:06 PM

Quote from: Nemo1024 on April 24, 2016, 03:18:54 PM

Eastern block asking for NATO soldiers? (Ukraine is Russia, btw)

Since when is that?

Since about year 900, maybe earlier... Kievan Rus rings any bells? I can recommend reading the transcript of the following documentary:
http://stanislavs.org/project-ukraine-documentary-by-andrei-medvedev-with-english-subtitles/

Good. We have two trolls exposed. Or is it one with two accounts, judging by the avatar... Roll Eyes

As for the topic, I wrote the following in a commentary to my re-blog of the article:

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The Saker, an astute analyst, published not long ago an article Putins biggest failure, in which he describes the dynamics and the forces that were active in the 90s and, which are still partially present in the Russian political life. The Saker describes the continued presence of this 5th column as one of the Putins failures.

I do not entirely agree with the formulation. Rather, I view this as an event yet to happen. Observing Putins moves, one can come to a conclusion that he, like a doctor, is guided by the principal of dont do harm. If an intervention into the political system brings more harm than good, then hell wait for a more favourable time. In this case, the threat is unsettling a delicate political balance in Russia, which it just re-acquired after the Wild 90s.

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As a post-scriptum, a remark to the fragment from the above article that Russian Federation almost broke up into many small statelets. Nikolai Starikov in his videoblog #68 at 44:23 demonstrates a collection of Ural Francs money that were printed in 1991 in anticipation of the break-up of the Russian Federation into such statelets:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iQEKOMOewd0#t=2663

And that is the real reason Putin stands in high regard among the Russian people: he prevented the wholesale destruction of the country that started in the 90s, and especially after the US-facilitated coup d'etat in Russia of 1993, which disbanded the Parliament and installed Yeltsin for 7 long years of destruction.