Russia huh? Interesting. They seem to be the boogeyman of the west. Every time something goes wrong all I hear is Russia, Russia, Russia. I really wonder what they have to gain by antagonizing so many nations with their aggressive foreign policy and cyberattacks and whatever else they’re doing over there. Though this move by Putin is certainly quite interesting. If I were in his position I would certainly be doing everything that I can to try and remain in power, because like you said, its fairly likely that a man with power like him has made many enemies throughout his stint in office. Of course this is just some pop culture reference, but movies always have Putin and Russia as some ultimate evil while they do morally reprehensible things to their own citizens in addition to a very cutthroat political scene.
Even though Russia seems to be the western antagonizer, I still don’t believe they’ll do anything serious. They just simply can’t. They don’t have enough money, military might, and there literally exists an entire alliance of nations that exist for almost the sole purpose of an alliance against Russia. In fact, I think Putin should be much more focused about the quality of life in his nation and the fact that his nation’s GDP is so low, with many Russians on the eastern side of the vast country living in poverty. I was watching this guy on YouTube the other day while on the toilet, his channel is named bald and bankrupt I believe, where he travels to strange places sort of out of reach of most tourists. Anyway, he travels a lot around eastern Russia and former satellite states of the now disbanded USSR. What we can see from his videos is that the vast majority of these people live in quite poor conditions and are lacking basic infrastructure such as electricity and internet sometimes. There are some isolated towns that are so remote they seem to not even have been touched by the industrial revolution; they are complete farming communities that rely on their own production of food and resources.
As far as the Russian citizens go, however, I think Putin honestly does have their best interests in mind. It’s not like he’s just some selfish leader that lives a lavish life while his people suffer. I genuinely believe that he is trying to do right by his citizens and improve their lives, and if he believes he needs more power to do so, well then not only is he a political genius, but I suppose we’ll also see what else he can do for his country. There’s likely not going to be much effect on the United States in my opinion, but it’ll be interesting to see where this power takeover leads.
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