@CB with a list of accomplishments, like Putin's, but without identifying country or person, many people in our pseudo-democracies would be screaming for such a candidate. The Bear is going to put us in a bear hug. Take a deep breath.

The following is why the Atlanticists hate Putin with a passion that knows no bounds. Russia was to have degenerated and disintegrated after the collapse of the USSR. Despite the outright rape and pillage of the nation in the 90's, Putin gathered the people and the few resources that had been left and rebuilt the country. It is now a proud and viable nation, strong and free, that puts many in the west to shame.

The Man Who Made Russia Great Again

In the discussion of the results of the Presidential elections in Russia, Sen. John McCain claimed the result was an insult to all Russians. Israel Shamir on the pages of The Unz Review claimed they were rigged just a little. Some pro-Western Russian critics argued that that the very fact that Putin received over 75 per cent of the vote proved that the election results was not normal, because in normal countries there usually are two candidates who run in close proximity and then follow in a run-off. In the view of this speaker, that in itself is proof of the democratic nature of elections.

The overall reaction of Western media is disbelief, suspicion of foul play or at best reluctant and cold reception of the fact. The smashing victory this landslide shows exactly the opposite. Russia is normal, rallied around its leader, and the West is in a deep domestic crisis. The run-off in France or close results in the USA or Germany or Italy are symptoms of a serious malaise or as one political scientist put it, turbulence in Western Democracy as a system.
...
When they were in power, the Westernizers, the friends of America, the free marketers, in the early 1990s, they plunged the country into shock therapy: prices skyrocketed, people lost their life savings. Factories closed, salaries were not paid, and starvation and poverty hit the country. Criminal gangs divided up the peoples’ property. A bunch of oligarchs privatized what was built over the Soviet years. Suddenly, there appeared huge corporations with Western participation that began to own Russian natural resources: Russian aluminum, steel, everything. Tens of billions of stolen assets were moved overseas through a myriad of off shore schemes. The Westernizer rulers of Russia proved themselves to be stooges of Western companies, thieves and robbers of natural resources. Elections showed a dozen parties of all kinds including for example the Love beer party. In the provinces, power was usurped by mafia bosses, criminal gangs, who terrorized opponents, killed journalists, turned kindergartens into private mansions, created private armies that disregarded local police. In some places they turned police into auxiliary criminal force.

The country descended into chaos, rape, murder skyrocketed, birthrate fell, pensions unpaid, education collapsed, army was taken over by a selling spree on a worldwide scale. Military plants stayed idle, and so many talented engineers left the country.
...
What Putin has accomplished or what Russia has accomplished since 2000 is astonishing. It amounts to a political, economic, and moral revolution. Any aspect of Russia’s existence you take, you see measurable progress. The standard of living has grown, pensions are payed, factories are working, and unemployment is lower than in most European countries. Life expectancy has steadily increased, birth rates have increased, and incomes have increased. Education is back, Russian research and development is back again, one of the best in the world and not staffed by foreigners who flock to Silicon valley, but staffed by Russians educated in Russia.

Military technology made a breakthrough of historical significance. For the first time ever Russia has weapons superior to those of the US, not to mention Britain, France and Germany combined.
...
So Russia under Vladimir the Savior has accomplished unimaginable. When I was young in the 1970s Soviet Union we dreamed of a Russia free from aging gerontocracy of Soviet regime, free from censorship, a country of freedom, prosperity and democracy. Well now the dream is pretty much come true. Russia is free and sovereign and proud and strong, everything one can dream of. One has to be either stupid or blind not to see it.

@CB

... Russia is free and sovereign and proud and strong, everything one can dream of. ...

The following is why the Atlanticists hate Putin with a passion that knows no bounds. Russia was to have degenerated and disintegrated after the collapse of the USSR. Despite the outright rape and pillage of the nation in the 90's, Putin gathered the people and the few resources that had been left and rebuilt the country. It is now a proud and viable nation, strong and free, that puts many in the west to shame.

The Man Who Made Russia Great Again

In the discussion of the results of the Presidential elections in Russia, Sen. John McCain claimed the result was an insult to all Russians. Israel Shamir on the pages of The Unz Review claimed they were rigged just a little. Some pro-Western Russian critics argued that that the very fact that Putin received over 75 per cent of the vote proved that the election results was not normal, because in normal countries there usually are two candidates who run in close proximity and then follow in a run-off. In the view of this speaker, that in itself is proof of the democratic nature of elections.

The overall reaction of Western media is disbelief, suspicion of foul play or at best reluctant and cold reception of the fact. The smashing victory this landslide shows exactly the opposite. Russia is normal, rallied around its leader, and the West is in a deep domestic crisis. The run-off in France or close results in the USA or Germany or Italy are symptoms of a serious malaise or as one political scientist put it, turbulence in Western Democracy as a system.
...
When they were in power, the Westernizers, the friends of America, the free marketers, in the early 1990s, they plunged the country into shock therapy: prices skyrocketed, people lost their life savings. Factories closed, salaries were not paid, and starvation and poverty hit the country. Criminal gangs divided up the peoples’ property. A bunch of oligarchs privatized what was built over the Soviet years. Suddenly, there appeared huge corporations with Western participation that began to own Russian natural resources: Russian aluminum, steel, everything. Tens of billions of stolen assets were moved overseas through a myriad of off shore schemes. The Westernizer rulers of Russia proved themselves to be stooges of Western companies, thieves and robbers of natural resources. Elections showed a dozen parties of all kinds including for example the Love beer party. In the provinces, power was usurped by mafia bosses, criminal gangs, who terrorized opponents, killed journalists, turned kindergartens into private mansions, created private armies that disregarded local police. In some places they turned police into auxiliary criminal force.

The country descended into chaos, rape, murder skyrocketed, birthrate fell, pensions unpaid, education collapsed, army was taken over by a selling spree on a worldwide scale. Military plants stayed idle, and so many talented engineers left the country.
...
What Putin has accomplished or what Russia has accomplished since 2000 is astonishing. It amounts to a political, economic, and moral revolution. Any aspect of Russia’s existence you take, you see measurable progress. The standard of living has grown, pensions are payed, factories are working, and unemployment is lower than in most European countries. Life expectancy has steadily increased, birth rates have increased, and incomes have increased. Education is back, Russian research and development is back again, one of the best in the world and not staffed by foreigners who flock to Silicon valley, but staffed by Russians educated in Russia.

Military technology made a breakthrough of historical significance. For the first time ever Russia has weapons superior to those of the US, not to mention Britain, France and Germany combined.
...
So Russia under Vladimir the Savior has accomplished unimaginable. When I was young in the 1970s Soviet Union we dreamed of a Russia free from aging gerontocracy of Soviet regime, free from censorship, a country of freedom, prosperity and democracy. Well now the dream is pretty much come true. Russia is free and sovereign and proud and strong, everything one can dream of. One has to be either stupid or blind not to see it.