Anyone else watching this series on the BBC each Thursday night? It’s excellent. Exactly the type of series that the BBC does better than anyone.
Just watching a taping of last weeks, auld Vlad Putin is some man!
Adam Curtis has a very interesting blog post about politics in Russian.
Yea brillant series, best they have made in a long time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-NgW3Q7OYU
You can see it here before it’s pulled.
best world leader of the last decade IMO
the US and UK hate him so he must be doing something right
the oligarchs must really be pissed off that they gave him the top job
Had it recorded on UPC. Thanks UPC for truncating the last 10 mins of all my recorded shows 
Its a great show though. Putin is scary. Has he had work done on his face too?
Right time & place. Oil at $10, russia screwed. Oil at $100, russia loaded.
yeah very true
but he took the oil back into state control, and stoped russia moving in the direction of breaking into a number of smaller states
just look at what W Bush did to the US in more or less the same time frame
Very true indeed,
The Putin V Bush divide, along with the direction and decisions both made says it all.
Putin has always struck me as being incredibly intelligent.
Not exactly unprecedented in russia’s history though - he applied the mechanisms of state which he could control to ensure the oligarchs either toed the line or ate the porridge. There is an irony that those who got their wealth from pretty arbitrary decisions of the state lost most of it the same way.
Incidentally, even his ability to effectively wage war was oil price related - compare barely paid or fed soldiers of the late 90’s to the army’s resources since.
That is a rather low bar - but then again, one was elected due to popularity among americans 
Putin always struck me as typical small man syndrome strutting around the place in a puffed up way.
There was a nice scene of him and Medvedev walking in red square. Putin is about 5 6’
Medvedev is about 5 3’
Our official stance on the issue…I am 5ft 10 1/2, above average height for Russian man! In video I stoop to flatter Dmitry.
BlameGame, I fear not your insults. Why will you not fight me like man? Is it because you end up like last man to challenge Putin:
What about Alexander Litvinenko?
still dead as far as I know
I’m not saying Putin is perfect, he has had plenty of mistakes, but he was still better than most other leaders over the last 10 years
only Lula in brazil came close over the same time period
Better at what exactly?
He is a perfidious bully surely.
Do you yearn for the old days when there was a counterpoint to the American bully.
what was russia like when he took over ?
it was in danger of breaking up in the a number of smaller states, if another fool like yeltsin was president that is exactly what would have happened
it looks to me like putin understands the problems that his country faces and is actually trying to fix them
most leaders around the world work to help the richest people in their country, as far as I can see putin is not like this, the oligarchs hate him
if only the irish oligarchs hated the irish government, past and present
and no I don’t yearn for the days when there was a counterpoint to the American bully, just wish there were no bully
far too many countries had piss poor leaders overs the last 10 years, russia was not one of them
I save Russia from fascists and communists.
Russia too big for Western democracy. It need firm hand to guide it through time!
Its an interesting question; (How) will Russia deal with corruption?
Perhaps some reform of the legal system? An FBI type organisation?
It’s a country with massive potential.
reckoned by who ?
the first person I heard make the claim was boris berezovsky, as far as I can see the only evidence he has for the claim, is if he himself was russian president he would salt away billions, therefore putin must be doing the same, berezovsky was one of the oligarchs behind putins rise to power
still it could be true