...gives Putin the external enemy he needs to tighten his stranglehold on Russia

Is that like saying the US creates foreign boogymen to tighten their stranglehold on the American people and force them to labor for the funds needed for foreign adventurism and luxuries for the elite?

Did anyone tell the Russian people about this stranglehold? Do the American people know that they are strangleheld?

Or does that mean, perhaps, that the Russian Presidential elections are just as corrupt and bogus as the US elections?

Or is stranglehold just a propaganda word that no one can define because it is a nothingburger?

... but crickets about both candidates meeting with Netanyahou. I guess war planning is cool if done with Israel, and accompanied by $38 billion in military aid. WTF!!!

It is a development that has flummoxed Western nations and frustrated Russia’s motley band of oppositionists. Some of them say that Russians are too scared to speak their minds to pollsters. Others claim that the poll numbers are manipulated, although most Western polling firms arrive at similar figures.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/how-to-understand-putins-jaw...

***
Western research (Pew)

Russians express increasingly negative views about the economic situation in their country. Roughly three-quarters (73%) say the Russian economy is bad, with only around a quarter (24%) saying it is good. In the months following the annexation of Crimea in 2014, positive economic attitudes had risen to 44%. But the fall in the price of oil and Western sanctions have led to a 20 percentage point drop in positive economic sentiments in the past year, despite recent signs that the economic downturn might be less severe than anticipated.

Young Russians, those ages 18 to 29, are the most likely to hold positive views about the economy, yet only 32% say it is doing well, compared with 19% of Russians ages 50 and older

*

Whether it is for his handling of relations with other countries, such as China, the U.S., Ukraine, or the European Union (EU), or for domestic issues, such as energy policy, the economy and corruption, Putin gets high marks from the Russian people. Majorities approve of his handling of each issue, and he is especially praised for his foreign policy.

Russians do not like the U.S. and other Western powers. Only 15% of Russians have a favorable view of the U.S., with 81% holding an unfavorable opinion. Similarly, only 12% of Russians have positive views of NATO. Even opinions of the EU (31% favorable) and Germany (35%) are at all-time lows. In fact, since 2011, positive views of Germany have fallen 43 percentage points. Similar drops in favorability also occurred in views of the U.S. (down 41 points), the EU (down 33) and NATO (down 25) since 2011.

Most Russians agree that Western sanctions are having an effect on the economy, but there is a split as to whether it is those sanctions or falling oil prices that are the main culprit for the economic downturn. In all, 45% of Russians say sanctions are having a major effect on the economy, with a further 41% saying they are having a minor effect. Only 8% say they are having no effect at all.

A third of Russians say that Western sanctions are causing the most harm to their economy, and another third say that falling oil prices are to blame. Only a quarter fault the economic woes on current government policies.

At the top of the list, nine-in-ten Russians approve of Putin’s handling of relations with China. The two countries have seen a marked increase in cooperation recently, as energy ties and opposition to U.S. policies have forged a common cause between the two powers. But Russians also praise Putin for his relations with the U.S. (85% approve), Ukraine (83%), and the EU (82%), even as he faces sanctions from the U.S. and EU for his actions in eastern Ukraine.

While opinions of the EU and Germany are not as bleak, majorities in Russia have negative views of these powers. Six-in-ten Russians have an unfavorable opinion of the EU, and 56% have a negative view of the EU’s largest economic power, Germany. Only around a third have positive opinions of the EU (31%) and Germany (35%).

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/06/12/6-charts-showing-how-rus...

There is NO Putin 'stranglehold', just a world getting sick of the US trying to inflict itself and its policies where they aren't needed OR wanted.

Wed, 09/28/2016 - 6:57pm — edg

And Putin, too.

Putin would love to see Hillary Clinton elected. She's pushing Cold War 2.0 very hard and that gives Putin the external enemy he needs to tighten his stranglehold on Russia and enrich his buddy oligarchs that own the Russian defense industry.

No, believe me, he wouldn't - Hillary/the Corporate Empire plans nuclear war-crimes aimed at Russia, China, Iran and apparently some other places better equipped for self-defence than the usual smaller, less wealthy but typically fossil-fuel rich victims of US Business Interest military invasion at US public expense - not that they've succeeded in killing off resistance with the world's largest military at their command.

But nothing would long survive this, not even the greed-maddened Greeds...

I meant no one in corporate media or the pundits said anything. Trump recognizes it and no one says a word.

Only observing that more and more of them are.

Clinton's been blowing through big bucks for months and still had to cheat to "beat" Sanders, and she dropped another $50 mil and keeps sinking, not even treading water. Against the Donald.

Hillary Clinton is a low-potential high achiever who keeps failing upward, like Bill's good friend George W. Bush.

Good to see that Jill Stein's alternative Democracy Now debate has reached 15 million views.