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.
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.
isn’t corrupt as shit
hmm
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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.
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.