Pro Kremlin Party now has power to modify constitution

[RackMaster]

Given Putin's history of increasingly taking more control or changing things so he could stay in power; is this the next step to making him "Supreme Leader"?

Pro-Kremlin party wins big majority in Russian parliament

 

[Devildoc]

Putin wants it both ways: he understands the need to engage the west and hop on the capitalism train, but like any real Russian he is very suspicious of the west, and like all good former-Soviet leaders, he understands the need to have total reign on his government.

 

[Gunz]

Putin is extremely popular with the average Russian, both men and women. He's a macho-man to them, like a Russian version of James Bond or John Wayne. So his party has pretty firm support at the grassroots level for incremental power moves.

 

[Devildoc]

And who could not have predicted something like this?

Russia 'to revive the KGB' after Putin wins biggest majority

 

[Diamondback 2/2]

Putin is a classically trained statesman, from his early beginning with the KGB, into politics. He has been immersed in deplomacy, politics and the manipulation of such. What we are seeing is someone who has reached the mastery of his craft. I don't think the world has seen a leader of his caliber in a very long time.

It's been interesting watching him this past decade and a half. Especially how he did Georgia, Ukraine and Syria.

 

[Brill]

Putin is a classically trained statesman, from his early beginning with the KGB, into politics. He has been immersed in deplomacy, politics and the manipulation of such. What we are seeing is someone who has reached the mastery of his craft. I don't think the world has seen a leader of his caliber in a very long time.

It's been interesting watching him this past decade and a half. Especially how he did Georgia, Ukraine and Syria.

Huh? He's a state sponsored mafia boss!

I would think that negotiation skills would be part of diplomacy but Putin only threatens or steamrolls over the opposition, be they rivals, political opponents, or other countries. Russians who tried to stand up to him are either killed, jailed, or succumb due to threats or blackmail.

 

[DA SWO]

I thought Obama said Russia wasn't a threat? How could this be happening?

 

[Diamondback 2/2]

Negotiations require leverage and he is very good at the leverage part. He almost always comes from a position of power.

 

[Brill]

Negotiations require leverage and he is very good at the leverage part. He almost always comes from a position of power.

When a Russian representative is across the table, they have the leverage or they wouldn't be there.

 

[Red Flag 1]

Putin is strong across the board. Obama is weak at just about everything. At the last Economic Sumitt in China, all who attended came off their planes onto the big red carpet. Obama was the exception. As I recall, he had to exit from the rear of the aircraft onto bare tarmac. Some kind of glitch said the White House. China is all about face, and obama lost all his face in China. The world leaders have obama's number, no one more so than Putin. As @Devildoc pointed out, Putin is a trained classic statesman, obama is untrained and totally inept. For obama to not see Russia as a threat, is what Putin likes to hear; and is probably what Putin told obama. The US has very little diplomatic capital at this point.

 

[Brill]

He needs to start a major war because their economy is in major trouble.

“A year from now, the country will look different in many ways, which poses many questions both in the sphere of domestic politics and that of foreign policy,” Petrov wrote. “But, as the old saying goes, Russia is a country where everything can change in five years, and nothing in 100.”

Think Tank Outlines Possible Scenarios for Russian Collapse

 

[AWP]

If you've followed our air campaign you'd see that Russia has owned us from day one. If you've seen some of the details a few of us have, you'd know emphatically that Russia has owned us from their opening deployment. Losing that Su-24 to the Turks gave them all of the initiative and justification needed to dominate the mission. The shit we've allowed them to do is staggering and we possessed more leverage during the Cold War than we now "enjoy." They are operating globally as they see fit and this is amply demonstrated over Syria.

 

[SpitfireV]

I wouldn't say they're operating globally. You guys are still the monopoly there.

 

[Gunz]

Wolverines!

 

[Red Flag 1]

Wolverines!

With the bad guys already here, and taking innocent civilian lives.

 

[AWP]

I wouldn't say they're operating globally. You guys are still the monopoly there.

I guess you're responding to my post?

No, they are operating globally. We are their focus, true, but that is happening around the globe. The UK has intercepted bombers, ala the Cold War, and we could probably find other instances, assuming they were reported.

 

[SpitfireV]

Indeed I am.

They're not operating globally, though. Sending a couple of bombers/collection platforms/whatever over to the US or UK isn't an example of global operations.

Syria is about as far as they can project power without overextending themselves. And that's not all that far from Russia, really.

They're not operating in Africa, the Pacific or either of the Americas (at least nothing significant) Because they can't project power that far.

I'm defining operating as being projecting military power, just to be clear.

 

[AWP]

They're not operating globally, though. Sending a couple of bombers/collection platforms/whatever over to the US or UK isn't an example of global operations.

Syria is about as far as they can project power without overextending themselves. And that's not all that far from Russia, really.

They're not operating in Africa, the Pacific or either of the Americas (at least nothing significant) Because they can't project power that far.

I'm defining operating as being projecting military power, just to be clear.

You're wrong. They have operated off Somali, including the capture of pirates, the Indian Ocean including exercises in 2014 and 2016, intercepted our a/c in the Pacific, have a base on the Spanish side of Gibraltar, SAM and bomber deployments to Venezuela, and the Europe/ Baltic/ Black Sea/ Syria angle which is widely discussed.

 

[WiLLiE_DYNAMiTE410]

According to the article, 35 percent of eligible voters turned out, which suggests some manipulation of the voting process to say the least. In addition, it also says Putin has a large amount of control over television in Russia. This article reports on a study done on Russian propaganda, and how they create images of the anti-Russian political parties in Western Ukraine as "radicals, ultranationalists, etc." --- Behind Russia’s TV propaganda machine | News | DW.COM | 02.09.2015 --- I also remember reading about how Russian soldiers immediately started programming Crimean TVs to Russian channels when they came in. Politics all around the world are volatile right now

 

[Gunz]

You're wrong. They have operated off Somali, including the capture of pirates, the Indian Ocean including exercises in 2014 and 2016, intercepted our a/c in the Pacific, have a base on the Spanish side of Gibraltar, SAM and bomber deployments to Venezuela, and the Europe/ Baltic/ Black Sea/ Syria angle which is widely discussed.

Indeed. And made a show way back in '08 when they sent warships through the Panama Canal, west to east, from what was once the US Rodman Naval Base. I have always felt--and his behavior confirms to a degree--that Putin yearns for the good old days of Soviet superpower status; and that it's his intention is to regain that reputation for his country, without, of course, the reintroduction of Communism. He's trying, gradually, to rebuild a Russia that can globally compete with the West.

Given the United States' and Western leaders milk toast reactions to Putin's moves, I think he'll be fairly successful.