is Putin a Communist ?

[JI7]

i know he was a communist and part of the soviet union and kgb. but do you think his views are the same as then ?

[remrem]

1. What is Putin

Well we know he's incompetent. We saw that in full force with the hostage situation. Whether an ex KGB thug or a mental patient gone sour, this guy can't get things right. He has an economy he doesn't know what to do with and his hard lines approach to the Chechens has blown up in his face, all the while trying to cover up news and evidence that's bound to get out (was getting out just not on Russian tv). He's really digging himself a hole. Maybe he'll closely align himself with America and fight "the war on terror," and use all the same excuses are current president has.

[JI7]

2. wasn't he involved in some russian submarine accident a few years ago

he refused help and all of the people in there ended up dying.

[arcos]

5. Kursk? n/t

[Nobody]

8. Remember when Bush saw into his soul?

It's because he and Bush are very much alike.

[Eye and Monkey]

10. "I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be..."

"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul."

I dunno how much alike they are, 'cept in the power-and-corruption-thing. I think Putin actually worked his way up, perhaps by getting his hands dirty.

http://abcnews.go.com/reference/bios/putin.html

Putin rose from a relatively obscure position as a Soviet spy during the Cold War.
After graduating from law school in 1975, he began a 15-year career with the KGB’s foreign intelligence arm, stationed in Leningrad and East Germany. With the Soviet Union facing collapse, Putin retired from the KGB at the rank of colonel and quickly began a political career.
His rise during the 1990s was fast, so he has more limited political experience than might be expected of a prime minister. In one of his rare public comments, Putin acknowledged he is “not a politician.”
In the early 1990s, Putin began working in St. Petersburg’s local government, rising to the post of vice mayor by 1994. In 1996, Yeltsin’s inner circle brought him to Moscow and named him deputy chief Kremlin administrator.
Putin was named the Kremin’s official in charge of relations with the Russia’s diverse regions, then, in 1998, head of the Federal Security Service and in March secretary of the presidential Security Council.

[DavidFL]

3. Not sure, but...

it appears he's been consolidating his power to prevent Russia's hydrocarbon assets from being appropriated by the neocons. Most, if not all, the screeching in the media about Putin turning back to communism has been neocon-generated propaganda. Google "The Jamestown Foundation" to see what I mean and check out who sits on the foundation's board. In terms of the big picture, I see what's going on in Russia as a process of countries aligning themselves should Bush and the neocons provoke WWIII.

[arcos]

4. I think he has pushed for an open economy and free market...

so, no, he would be nearer fascism than communism, since he has been centralizing power.

[prodigal_green]

6. beat me to it.

He has no interest in having the state provide for the Russian people, nor in full employment for the population.

[mikehiggins]

7. Nationalist

IMHO Putin is a Russian nationalist who considers himself a success if the whole thing doesn't fall to pieces around his ears. It hardly seems he's getting much help from anybody else in the world, many of whom understand that a Russia in collapse is much more easily raped than one still struggling to survive.

If you recall the stories about how his crackdown on an oil magnate was a sign of Putin's authoritarianism, two things to consider. First, the guy busted was arrested, not picked up in the middle of the night and disappeared. Second, the guy busted was using his money to interfere with whatever sort of chaos passes for politics in Moscow. Homey don't play that, when it comes to Putin. All he has to do is look at W to see where that game winds up.

So, I think the guy is a nationalist, maybe even a patriot, even though he's certainly no walk in the park for people who are looking to see a true democracy come into being on the Vulga.

[Eye and Monkey]

9. I suspect that, at the end of the day, he is a Putinist.

[Hubert Flottz]

11. Ask Bush, he looked into Putin's eyes and saw into his soul!

Is a Communist really authorized to have a "SOUL"? Was Bush's peek into Putin's "soul" another massive intelligence failure? How can we advise other nations on human rights, after Iraq? How can we advise other nations on Civil Rights, after the "Patriot Act"? How can we advise other nations on aggressive occupations and invasion of other nations, after Iraq? How can we advise other nations on humane treatment of POWs, after Iraq?

We have gone from the "Moral High Ground" to the status of a rogue nation, in the eyes of the world and half of people in America, in four short years! Are we better off now?

[Eye and Monkey]

12. Safer, more secure. Secret plan to win the war. Misunderstimated.

At risk means they can't learn. Mares-eat-oats-and-does-eat-oats - and pretzels. Lotsa pretzels. Big time.

[Hubert Flottz]

13. Does the Pope shit in the woods?

At least Putin can ride his little RED bike!

[TheLastMohican]

14. Putin is certainly much clever than the stupid dimwit

For the record, he doesn't always tell in public what he has in mind which is a skill few people can master. With a lot of patience and public support he will transform Russia into something better than what it was in the drunk Yeltsin days. But that doesn't sit well with WH neocons, a weak Russia with drunkard Yeltsin in charge was a rather predictable entity, with Putin it is not. That's why you hear all this garbage about democracy lost in Russia and so on. But watch who is making most of the noise, the old usual Straussian guard with names like Perle, Armitage and other well-known PNAC folks.

And, yes, I think he is a patriot first of all.

[jmags]

17. You can't be serious.

So when he took over all independent media, canceled gubernatorial elections, concocted phony parties with Putin-loyalists to divide the vote against him in the elections, took over the largest Russian oil company just as Khodorkovsky becomes active in politics (on the wrong side of Putin of course), this was all because he was a patriot for Russian democracy?

[theboss]

15. Putin is a nationalistic autocrat

There were very few true believers in charge during the last days of the USSR (or frankly at any point during the history of the USSR). I think Putin's ultimate goal is to have something resembling China's current system when he is done.

[rman]

16. Putin is a despot, like Bush.

Putin is no more a communist then Stalin was a communist, or then Hitler was a socialist, or then Bush is compassionate.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

18. The Russian Communist Party opposes Putin.

Putin is an authoritarian nationalist. His connection to the KGB has little, if anything, to do with being a Communist. Sort of like describing J. Edgar Hoover as Democrat.