With Putin talking about the orthodox church being holy and using to justify some conservative bullshit, all I can remember was the bolsheviks going around the country proudly declaring that cities were now "officially godless" and redistributing the church's gold amongst the people and using it to pay for electrification projects.

      • star_wraith [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Yeah most of the "support" I see for Putin is from the severely irony-poisoned or stupidpol types. Sure, I have very qualified support for their opposition to US imperialism, but I make sure to qualify it when I do.

      • penguin_von_doom [she/her]
        ·
        3 years ago

        No, not when opposing these imperial interests is form very reactionary point and a very similar ideological departure point. Cause then it is just elites infighting, rather than genuine opposition.

        • blobjim [he/him]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Except it's good because they help the good countries.

    • poppy_apocalypse [he/him, any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Is there? Genuine question because this is the only place I visit online and I've never seen support for him here.

    • Sen_Jen [they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      There shouldn't be. If you see any genuine support for Putin call it out, he's nothing more than a fascist

      His only merit is that Russia is a counterweight to American imperialism. But thats because they are two competing imperialist powers, not one imperialist against an anti-imperialist

    • penguin_von_doom [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Cause a lot of leftists are generally anti-West too, and only have the perspective of living in the West, and may think that situation there is the worst or something like that. I think its not that leftists in general support Putin, as they dont like his opponents. Instead of disliking both.

      • MarxMadness [comrade/them]
        ·
        3 years ago
        • Genuine anti-imperialism leads to critical support for anyone who stands up to imperialists
        • Critical support leads to ironic uncritical support on the internet
        • Ironic uncritical support gets laundered through the internet enough times to confuse some people into genuine support
    • LeninWalksTheWorld [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      well he's has issues definitely, basically just a conservative nationalist. But he also leashed all the post-soviet oligarchs, gained (or regained depending who you ask) a bunch of nice land from ukraine, isn't corrupt as shit, pisses off the EU and US, and maintains a basic free social safety net. He also gets to take credit for the recovery from the shock therapy 90s. He's popular in Russia too and people like popular people.

      Why leftists like him? Probably mostly the anti-americanism lol Russians leftists would probably be anti-Putin since the communists are the biggest opposition party.

        • LeninWalksTheWorld [any]
          ·
          3 years ago

          yah minority and political rights are pretty shit and a lot of stuff is done backdoor. Though honestly I think he could be worse economically, Russia at least makes their oligarchs pay dues to the state rather than the other way around in the west.

      • GreenDream [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        The US meddled in the Russian election of 1996 to put the drunken, corrupt Yeltsin back in office. The results were horrific. Deaths approached wartime levels. Putin deposed him and put an end to western neo-liberals in the Kremlin administering shock therapy. I ain't saying he's a good guy...but sheesh Donald Trump would look like an improvement after the utter catastrophe of 1991-1999.