re: #217 Justanotherhuman

Yes. This.

Fact is, there is widespread poverty in Russia, outside of the Moscow sphere.

In some accounts I have read, it is pure hell and there is lots of alcoholism, and drug addiction among youth. Of course, the oligarchs had to get theirs first, and in Russia, there is little to no “trickle down” at all, even.

Yeah I’ve read about the rampant problems with alcoholism and drug addiction too. Putin, I think combines a sentimentality for the old USSR combined with the Romanov dynasty with his appeals to church. Putin to me is someone without a really set ideology except for power and Pan-Russianism.