I didn't learn about how Putin initially came to power until after his invasion of Crimea, after studying up on the guy. It's one of the most unacknowledged coups out there.
He's the same killer he ever was, the difference this time was his miscalculation that he could get away with it, IMO.
I had never thought that Putin was a democrat, or really anything but an authoritarian. I just thought that he was well above average for Russia, a place that has never known popular government. His crimes, compared to, say, Stalin or Lenin or most of the Czars were retail as opposed to wholesale.
Now he's graduated to imperial conqueror with a view towards other countries. That is rather different than merely local atrocities.
If Putin had been running Sweden, it would have been terrible from the start. But Russia is a place where evil government is an art form, so it's the Rubicon-crossing that is important, not the way he acted before.
I didn't learn about how Putin initially came to power until after his invasion of Crimea, after studying up on the guy. It's one of the most unacknowledged coups out there.
He's the same killer he ever was, the difference this time was his miscalculation that he could get away with it, IMO.
I had never thought that Putin was a democrat, or really anything but an authoritarian. I just thought that he was well above average for Russia, a place that has never known popular government. His crimes, compared to, say, Stalin or Lenin or most of the Czars were retail as opposed to wholesale.
Now he's graduated to imperial conqueror with a view towards other countries. That is rather different than merely local atrocities.
If Putin had been running Sweden, it would have been terrible from the start. But Russia is a place where evil government is an art form, so it's the Rubicon-crossing that is important, not the way he acted before.