"Russia will soon be a one party state"

[Adalbertus]

Isn't *not* getting into a major hot war with the Turks for 80 years enough of an achievement?

[Arrian]

If we replace
Putin = Bush
Evil West = Terrorists
Russians = Americans
will the quote still be accurate?

For the record, yeah, pretty much. This excuses Putin how?

-Arrian

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov
Your petty US hatred makes you a boring one trick pony.

hmmm criticism = hate?

[DinoDoc]

You can't deny that you are boring though.

[Arrian]

[Sirotnikov]

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov
I forget where are all the great greek achievements in the last 2000 years?

They did throw off the Ottomans, which is clearly an achievement.

[Dinner]

But if they hadn't screwed up and lost constantinople they wouldn't have had to.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


They did throw off the Ottomans, which is clearly an achievement.

They had a bit of help, actually.

[Cort Haus]

Rather than comparing Putin with Bush, would it not be more interesting and worthwhile to compare him to Boris "I may not win the election, but I certainly will not lose" Yeltsin?

Did people in the west care how democratic or otherwise things were in that era, when the on-message Yeltsin was in charge?

http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/oct96herman.htm

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
They had a bit of help, actually.

But surely you wouldn't take it away from them entirely just for the sake of trolling Mark.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Rather than comparing Putin with Bush, would it not be more interesting and worthwhile to compare him to Boris "I may not win the election, but I certainly will not lose" Yeltsin?

Did people in the west care how democratic or otherwise things were in that era, when the on-message Yeltsin was in charge?

http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/oct96herman.htm

Yes, we did actually, especially in combination with Yeltsin's shift from the liberals to the party of power, which presaged his appointment of Putin as his successor.

Alot of folks (Im thinking of you Strobe Talbott) were willing to look the other way, cause it WAS only 5 years since the fall of the USSR, and since things WERE so much better (democratically speaking) than under the USSR, and cause increasingly it looked like there werent better alternatives. Others were advocating distancing from Yeltsin.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Cort Haus


But surely you wouldn't take it away from them entirely just for the sake of trolling Mark.

Like Marks post, wasnt a troll, Haus

[Arrian]

I'm no particular fan of Yeltsin. He earned some goodwill (from me) for opposing the attempted coup back in '91 (?), but then sqandered it by governing badly/corruptly.

Putin has the advantage of clearly being more competant. I'll give him points for that. It doesn't mean I have to ignore his undemocratic moves (just like if Bush did something I liked, I wouldn't give him a pass on Iraq).

-Arrian

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
They did throw off the Ottomans, which is clearly an achievement.

We also stopped "Team USA"

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/games/2006-09-01-fiba-usa-greece_x.htm