Comments by blake123

The title to this article "Back in the Kremlin" is absolutely incorrect to describe Putin's (AHEM) "election" to the presidency. The Chekist pencil pusher Putin never left. As if Medvedev was ever really in charge of Russia? One would have to be a fool to believe this.

Putin has been running the country since 2000 and will continue probably for another 12 years - as long as it takes to ensure the personal enrichment and empowerment he and his siloviki brethren have obtained remains untouched and he won't end up behind bars as long as he lives.

As for Medvedev resuming his career, this is joke. Medvedev's career never began and he is a simple phoney as Lilia Shevstova and David Kramer have written in the journal "Foreign Policy". He accomplished absolutely Nothing of Note and is scared of Putin. How exactly did Medvedev combat the "legal nihilism" of the Russian legal system? If even the host of a show on the english-language Kremlin mouthpiece network RT can state that no big fish have really faced consequences for corruption, just small guys, it says something as to how corrupt the Putin system remains.

The only reason Putin chose Medvedev as his prime ministerial towel boy/marionetka was on the same basis Stalin chose people like Yezhov and Beria - they are shorter than the Dictator. Medvedev is shorter than Putin and, hence, to Putin/Botox irreplaceable. Please enough of these unfounded beliefs in the power of the badminton twittering Medvedev.

And BOTOX works for VladimirPutin as well.

Seven838, what planet in our solar system to you reside in? You know nothing it seems of the USA or Russia except what your own delusions tell you.

You think the only alternative to Putin is the communist party and that any anti-Putin pro-democracy comments must be coming from Israel (as if Avigdor Lieberman didn't praise Putin) - I mean how deluded are you? You probably cannot even comprehend there may be ethnic Russians opposed to Putin who despise the communists equally - or is it all some great conspiracy from Tel Aviv or men from Mars in your book.

There are legitimate democratic free-thinking opponents to Putin, but Putin has repressed them all and allowed the Russian population only the alternative of the communists or the clown Zhirinovsky. The system is utterly corrupt but it has its slavish proponents who believe in wacky conspiracies such as yourself.

You know Didomyk, Putin never cared or gave a worry about the kids of the people he repressed. Even the late Sergei Magnitsky's family is being sued by Putin's police state now, AFTER Sergei is already dead and buried because he exposed the utter legal nihilism and corruption of Putin's mafia state. An honest young Russian like Magnitsky is dead, yet his family continues to be harassed by Putin's state apparatus.

And what of the kids of all the journalists murdered in Putin's Russia. As if Putin really cared about Politkovskaya's kids or did he really care about the elderly like Liudmilla Alekseyeva who was repressed by the Soviet communists and now gets beaten up by Putin's OMON forces and has swastikas painted over her image in Putin's fascist Nashi youth camps. Or did Putin mind Kashin being beat up by pro-Putin thugs. No, torture and repression are all Putin understands from his days in the KGB. Putin was a thug as a kid, admittedly, and he and his parents in all likelihood (according to Masha Gessen) were snitches for the Soviet KGB, ratting on their neigbours.

No, Putin and his banda of FSB siloviki have destroyed too many families. I haven't threatened anything but wish people to understand how vain and corrupt Putin the man is.

How old are you Aztechnocrat? You like warlords? Absolute power rocks in your childish naive view does it? Well, Adolph Hitler and Josef Stalin were also absolute rulers. Aztechnocrat do you also think Hitler and Stalin were great and "ROCKED" too. Please, go back to your video games.

Hilarious that miniature czar Putin puts his hand on the Russian Constitution for the presidential oath, the same constitution which he ignores and despises when it comes to upholding the rights to freedom of assembly, expression (press), etc. The only organizations guaranteed freedom of assembly are Putin's fascists in Nashi, Molodaya Gvardiya and the new organization he's created for his cult of personality.

Not only are these pro-Putin rallies provided (at state expense, admin-resurs) with venues and music, but employers and schools are forced to bring in their workers and students to these pro-Putin rallies to cheer on the KGB sub-colonel who controls the Russian press. Even Putin's Gazprom is getting its hands on independent media radio like Ekho Moskvi. Putin is a sadistic autocrat who uses phony elections to attempt to legitimate his rule.

Glad to see that most democracies' leaders boycotted attending Putin's self-coronation.

Also nice to see that Putin dragged his poor wife out of the cage he keeps her in until he needs her by his side to appear the caring family man. Why doesn't Mrs. Putin just file for divorce and hope an independent judge would then have to investigate all of Putin's personal wealth, palaces, yacht(s) so Russians can know how much wealth Putin has personally taken from the Russian people for himself and his siloviki mafia brethren.

Why does miniature tsar Putin have to close down the roads in Moscow for an expensive "inauguration" (too afraid of protest signs ruining his billion dollar ruling of his mafia state)? I mean the elections were not elections but a sham! The Russian presidential elections were like the scene from the new movie the Dictator where the Dictator runs in a 100 meter sprint and carries the shot gun to begin the race and then goes on to shoot all the competitors with the shotgun. The Dictator finishes the race alone and becomes the winner, just like Putin.

When Putin plays hockey with Fetisov and the boys in the plush suburbs of Moscow hockey rink with his playboys, Putin is allowed to score goals as if he was a great hockey player. (And Putin is so brainwashed in thinking he is god and embodies Russia that he believes his own praise). Just like Lukashenka in Belarus wins all the athletic competitions in Belarus when he plays because everyone is scared of the dictator losing. Why not have svoloch like Lukashenka and Putin race each other - both can try to kill each other to victory.

I note the Russian press on TV was slightly free after the initial protests against the corrupt vain KGB czar Putin but now state TV has begun again showing paeans to Putin like Soviet TV did for Brezhnev.

Putin could have saved the Russian people millions of dollars by just crowning himself President instead of going through the whole staged fiasco of a real "election" and inauguration. Putin looks likely to surpass Stalin in the length of rule of Russia which is all the same because both were sadistic, vain paranoiacs, and way too many Russians admire such characteristics in their leaders whether in the 16th century under Ivan Grozny or now under polonium-poisoning-loving Putin.

Very nice picture of the KGB sub-colonel Putin being greeted by the KGB codenamed Mikhailov Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. An icon of Soviet secret police heroes Andropov and Dzerzhinksy should be placed above the two comrades. I guess Kiril's expensive watch has disappeared, but Putin's palace will still remain as should Kiril's "residence".

Glad to see Putin has taken to arresting people with white ribbons. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un can learn from Putin.

Wow, looks like a Putinoid Sovok named Vodkin got to comment on the article first.

Vodkin, the article is about Russia not Mexico. If you think this article propaganda, I am sure that your worldview probably thinks all TV news in Russia is independent of the Kremlin. There is not one single negative piece on Putin on Russian TV. But hey, why would Russians want a free press, huh?

Well be happy Vodkin Russia has a Czar named Putin now and he may rule for another 12 years.

Well, the current Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kiril was already in cahoots with the KGB back in the early 1970s when he took orders from the then communist Kremlin and represented the Soviet-controlled Russian Church at the World Council of Churches. Kiril lived high on the hog while other Christians were imprisoned by the Soviet Kremlin. Kiril still has some nice villa.

Putin only started working with the KGB later than Kiril but even he, because of his lack of intelligence, could only get posted to Communist East Germany because Putin's German was so-Russian accented. He was a pencil pusher in the KGB who bemoaned the downfall of East Germany's hated Stasi, but to mask his insecurities Putin took up judo. Now he has taken up poisoning political opponents and blaming every problem Russia faces now not on himself and his FSB kleptocracy but on America as did Putin's forerunners in the KGB.

Patriarch Kiril enriched himself quite well with the Russian cigarette and alcohol trade he engaged in after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Putin himself has also gotten quite rich with villas and accounts he has taken without accountability in his Vertical political system.

They - Kiril and Putin - share a past of dealing with the Soviet KGB and of enriching themselves like unaccountable rulers. Russian Orthodox bishops seem to praise Putin more than propagate the need for human dignity in Russia for every Russian, not just the fat siloviki cats who built their own little Russian Orthodox church in the FSB headquarters. You know the place where Andropov's plaque gets pride of place and Dzerzhinsky worshipped. Yes, Yuri Andropov, Dzerzhinsky and Jesus Christ - they all go together in the church dedicated to the FSB by the Lubyanka. Does Patriarch Kiril also participate in the annual day of the Chekist Secret Policemen that Putin has restarted from Soviet days. Do they bloody launder dirty money there?

Poor Russia :its national moral compasses have become Patriarch Kiril and his KGB cohort Putin. With these two beacons of goodness, moral and legal nihilism will reign in Russia.

Congratulations Tsar Putin! Your paranoid personality and inferiority complex made sure that only those candidates you could control were allowed to run against you and you still resorted to falsifications and ballot stuffing - you Genius Homo Sovieticus Putin, Tsar of All the Russias! General Secretary of the Empire! King Sovok!
All the monies you and your friends made as leaders, the mansions, the villas since 2000 - they are all still safe, Oh Heavenly Ruler! You all get to keep all those traffic lanes for yourselves in your luxurious cars with sirens screaming! You can continue to hound any independent press and don't be too shy on killing and beating up journalists which seems to be a hobby of yours Comrade Chekist Putin.
Just think, Oh Holy Tsar, of all the fun you can still have in your little KGB laboratories with polonium and dioxin and other poisons! A dream come true for the Tsar of All Botoxdom! Head Comrade of Nashi, Molodaya Gvardiya, and Stal. Blame all that is wrong in Russia on the West just as your North Korean friend Kim Jong-un does. That tactic works really well on the feeble-minded.
And you magnificent bastard: you even got 107% of the votes in some regions this election. That's even better than Stalin's miserable 99% ! Oh, that poor Stalin is nothing compared to you, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

The billionaire whom you mention who ran against Putin, his name is Prokhorov, was only allowed to run in the elections after Putin allowed it. He, like all the other dufus' who ran against Putin (Zhirinovsky, Zyuganov) was only allowed to run so some steam could be let off and people could think there was a democratic choice.
The whole idea of this billionaire running was originally hatched by Putin's erstwhile political technologist Vladislav Surkov. Go look up Surkov.
Any other person who tried to run, like Yabloko's Yavlinsky (who would not win) or Nemstov was refused entry into the race so scared was little KGB corporal Putin. Navalny wouldn't run because he already knew Putin would win as Putin did himself in 2008.
The only choice the Russian people had in the elections was the choice Putin gave them and he still engaged in falsifications. 107% for Putin in some areas!
And as for speculators and jackals - Putin is the biggest of them all with some 50 mansions and reputedly billions. And Putin has no problem with oligarchs, only those oligarchs who entered into the political arena. Oligarchs like Abramovitch who didn't are fine in Putin's book.
You should see how Putin's siloviki friends live like. Not even in New York or London do you have separate lanes on roads where the upper class - Putin and his cronies and favourites - get to speed down at top speed past all the little people. These guys even kill people on roads such is their lack of care and in Putin's Russia, where the courts are subservient to the Kremlin, they are not even held accountable for their car accidents.

semetria, I hope Nashi or Molodaya Gvardiya pays you to post such inane comments. If you want to engage in stupidity, at least get paid for it.

Ekho Moskvy? Yes, they had to get rid of somebody lately under pressure from Putin right. And if you think one radio station can fight all the lies that Putin's state-controlled TV stations incessantly post, you're confused.

Novaya Gazeta? Kommersant? No pressure on them either right? No they just have their journalists get killed or beaten up by Putin-supported fascist thugs. What happened to journalist Kashin? Do you know who tried to beat him up? As if they don't suffer from the Kremlin's pressure.

You mention Medvedev. Medvedev is just a spineless puppet as should be clear by now, no matter who he hangs around. Medvedev himself bemoaned Russia's "legal nihilism" and what did he do to combat it? Nothing ! When a journalist got killed from Novaya Gazeta, Medvedev stayed quiet and showed up secretly later to Novaya Gazeta's offices to give the editor his sympathies. But that was it. Medvedev the puppet is scared of the Chekist with the inferiority complex Putin.

"A greater pallet of views than in America". You know nothing of the West and what you may is obviously coloured by being brainwashed in the ways of a Putinoid Sovok. Just like you, certain people in North Korea think they are freer than people in the West. You would make a great North Korean subject.

Please don't bring Ukraine into this. The story is about Russia and how many Russians, appears like you, find it incredibly difficult to think or decide things for themselves and hence, as you say, there is no democracy and "people are happy with that". Well, O.K. you've explained the viewpoint of the 21st century Russian serf who gets whipped with 20 lashes by his Czar and then bows before him and kisses his hand: "Sbasibo Batiushka". Well, Jubus you have your Czar now to do all your thinking for you. Homo Sovieticus is the same as Russian serf. You live in Russia Jubus?
You look favourably on lack of democracy so go ahead, please explain to us how wonderful North Korea is. They throw Stalinist military goose-stepping parades too - so superior to human rights and democracy.
Well, congratulations Jubus you have your Queen Bee and you are the happy unthinking worker bee. Putin is your Queen Bee, lol. Go build him some more wonderful hives and mansions for all his billions in wealth and his judo-club buddies.

Most western countries have presidential debates and opponents don't have halls or gatherings broken up, as Nemstov and Kasparov did in just starting a movement. The point is if you allow political freedom, people can build democratic parties from the ground up. In the USSR, I mean today's Russia, you can't. You honestly believe Zhirinovsky has more right to run than a Russian democrat?
Regardless what you think of Yavlinsky, it's absolutely hilarious that Putin even prevented him from running. So scared that little Putin.
Why not just be done with the whole charade of elections to the Duma and presidency and not declare Putin a monarch for life - that's basically what you seem to support now. Were you actually happy that Putin said he and Medvedev had already decided in 2008 who would run the country in 2012? If the majority wish to be serfs and let Putin do all the thinking for them, one can only bemoan the downward spiral Russia and Russians are now entering.

Bad math - you didn't count all the parties and leaders whom authoritarian Putin did not let run on technicalities in his managed democracy: liberals like Yabloko's Yashin or Yavlinsky, or anti-corruption activist Navalny, or Kasparov or Kasyanov or many others who cannot even establish pro-democratic parties because Putin would repress them.
You're doing the math with only the parties Putin has allowed - a sham democracy. Be honest - any honest democratic opponents to Putin couldn't even get any honest press coverage on Putin's state-controlled TV stations.

Obviously too difficult for you to answer my question so you resort to the ad hominem. Instead of resorting to character assassination just say you cannot answer the question as it is too difficult for you.

Putin runs a kleptocratic system - how many villas does he have and how exactly did his judo club buddies become billionaires? Boy in the 21st century non-stop Kremlin propaganda about the good czar Putin still works on some Russians doesn't it.

It is a siloviki kleptocracy now in Russia under Putin.

Let Muscovites be able to elect their own mayor. All those posters who live in the West and post anti-Western tirades under Economist articles for Russia should ask themselves whether in their cities and towns they get to elect their mayors or throw them out.

You see, in Russia, in Moscow, Putin basically now appoints the mayor. If you are fond of a political system where the federal autocrat gets to appoint one of his cronies to run the capital then Putin is your man. If you are fond of him sending in secret police and OMON forces to disperse peaceful protest, Putin is your man. If you are fond of all TV basically being forced to play pro-Putin propaganda non-stop, then Putin is your man. Putin the coward was even afraid of a liberal has-been like Yavlinksy running against him. Some choice in the election.

I would have loved to see Navalny be allowed to run for President and seen how much he would get. Of course, unlike in the West, Putin did not debate a single presidential candidate, even though Zhirinovsky is his puppet and Putin made the communists the only opposition to him.

Why don't all the posters from Europe, North America who bitch about the West on here move to Russia then and see how well their independent opinions are treated?

And any Russian Putinoids on here, please explain why you believe Putin should not just control the political system but should also appoint your city's mayors. People like My-Key, please explain why you would be terrified to be able to vote for your own mayor but wish Tsar Putin to make all the important decisions for you.

Voting for mayors would be a start in truncating the unlimited corrupt power in the Kremlin and having a true division of some power since the judiciary is clearly controlled by Putin.

the term "Russian Democracy" is an oxymoron. It has been for 800 years since the beginning of Muscovy. Just Khans, Emperors, Czars, General Secretaries - all authoritarian patrimonial despots.

Congratulations to all who have supported Putin and here's hoping that may the new Czar, same as the old Czar, add another 50 mansions and villas to the 50 he already has and that he never loses his love affair for polonium and dioxin poisoning of opponents or having his opponents, especially pesky journalists, killed or butchered.

The problem with a pyramidal society like Putinstan with one man at the top of the vertical power is what happens if something happens to that man and the succession struggle thereafter. What if Putin accidentally dies during his next scheduled plastic surgery operation paid for by the Russian taxpayer? It will become the Botox Succession Time of Troubles again for Russia.