Originally posted by ofiann:
Has anyone been watching this documentary shown on the beeb?

I`ll say one thng about putin, he`s no puppet anyways!!

Originally posted by ofiann:
Has anyone been watching this documentary shown on the beeb?

I`ll say one thng about putin, he`s no puppet anyways!!

Originally posted by clangera:


He isnt a puppet alright - he`s the puppet master!

Putin has done reasonably well domestically thanks to high oil prices flooding the state coffers. You have to remember that during Yeltsin`s time oil was almost worthless   ($5 a barrel  )  . Putin has had oil at at least $30 a barrel and often much more. This has allowed him to pay salaries and pensions, something Yeltsin had to almost continuously borrow to do - and often he couldnt do that. Also by the time Putin took charge the rouble had found its real value against the dollar and Russians were buying local rather than mass importing. Yeltsin   (and I am no fan of his either  )   hadnt this stability. Pundits like to credit Putin with stability, but I think Yelstin, by accident rather than designh, had achieved that by 1999.

Putin sadly equals the lowest common denominator in Russia. anti-Western, anti-Chechen, tough talking/foul language and autocratic. Most Russians sadly are endeared by these lame qualities, with the end result being a President   (mow Prime Minister  )   who can do and say what he wants. Russia vetoeing the UNSC on Syria was simply an effort to give two fingers to the west, act like a tough guy at home and please the plebs. It was however a new low even by Russia`s rock-bottom standards of international decency and diplomacy. Russia is no longer a world power but Putin thinks that using the veto and hammering the Georgians makes them so. It would be laughable if it werent so sad and pathetic and have such serious implications.

Originally posted by Conorto:


Saw the first one. Seems abit anti Russia to me. You would wonder about the murky world of national security watching some of it.

Was funny when it showed the inauguration of the president of Georgia and the bold Brian Cowen was there in the middle of it.

Originally posted by clangera:
oil prices flooding the state coffers. You have to remember that during Yeltsin`s time oil was almost worthless   ($5 a barrel  )  . Putin has had oil at at least $30 a barrel and often much more.

Originally posted by Proposition Joe:


Did I hear right last night that it was $130-odd a barrell at one stage. I thought Putin going into the factories after the crash to whip the owners into shape and calling them cockroaches was amusing.

I also found it interesting how Putin and Medvedev could openly talk about how they hadn`t decided which one would be in power after the next election - mad.

Interesting and brilliant programme, i`m only gutted I missed the very first one.

Originally posted by Yojimbo:

When the `arrangement` was announced in 2007, it sounded like Medvedev was Putin`s puppet, but with all the people he dismissed that were described as having thrived under Putin, you`d have to wonder whether he was just being duplicitous all along.
In the first programme there was a similar scene, as with the factory owners in last night`s programme, where Putin was facing down the oligarchs and effectively telling them there could be only one winner

Originally posted by Proposition Joe:


He fairly humiliated one of the oligarchs on last night`s show. Deripovsky or something like that, singling him out and making him sign the agreement put to them. Deripovsky trundled up to Putin`s desk like a bold child in school and trotted back tail between his legs. I`m not sure how much was for television, but I found it amazing how he could scold grown men like that and not have a peep said to him in response.

Originally posted by clangera:


Oleg Deripaska??

Who owns, above all things, Aughanish Alumina in Askeaton:-  )   It belongs to RusAl, whcih he owns.

Putin is full of \\, as usual. Scowlding in public, it couldnt be any more lame. Corruption at ground level has gotten much worse since Putin took power. That was a real challenge and he has failed miserably to deal with it. It has actually flourished during his tenure.

Originally posted by clangera:

Oleg Deripaska??