ATS Poll: Tell us your opinion of Vladimir Putin.

Yer Putin me off my cereal!

Very bad poll choices. As many others have already said you need to add one that is something like "Putin wants to step back thirty years and put the world on the brink of war" or something along those lines anyhow. The choices you've given lend him support in some fashion or another IMO. Maybe this was by design . . .

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Until someone has sat down with a cup of tea, or really spent some time with a person like Putin, you can really truly never know, myself, I served in the military around the same time Putin was in the KGB, and part of the cat and mouse game was, ducking spetznatz and Soviet Military Liason Mission vehicles and personnel, to me Putin probably is like any old dog, you cannot teach them new tricks and his thinking and what is at the core of what makes him tick, is a product of his experiences and training and also witnessed the fall of the Soviet Union, utterly destroyed economy, and rebuilding.

I think he does a good job at putting an image out there, that somehow fools many into either feeling sorry for him, or even worse what has happened recently many U.S. citizens think he is somehow a great leader and is only doing the right things as what he did in Crimea or even worse some would choose him as their president.

For the generation that saw nothing of the cold war, or maybe were born say in the late 80's to them Russia is completely different than the people that actually experienced the cold war years, so I think their opinion might be empathy for Putin, that generation has no knowledge of the Warsaw pact and the tension that existed outside of a history class, it is a completely different world.

Critics of Russia or American politicians that quickly show much caution when dealing with Russia are more apt to be seen as making a fuss about nothing to someone that has zero knowledge of the history of what led up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and what was referred to as the Iron Curtain and the history of the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

I really have no opinion on Putin, I can't get inside of his head and even more important he was one of highest ranking individuals in the Russian Intelligence services and his whole world view has been formed as a result of being cut from that cloth, he feels slighted by the breakup of the Soviet Union, that is an axe he definitely might have to grind, and something that would be a plus for him to restore to some extent, as bad as west does not want that situation.

Putin is a puppet, just like EVERY other "President"; ruled by a shadow government!

a reply to: phinubian

You Russo skeptics make a lot of assumptions about the Russian people, and what makes them and their government tick. Think more carefully about the Russia vs West situation... Russia has been a super power since before the cold war, since before it became a soviet republic, but its people have suffered devastating hardship for centuries in the harsh climate. Millions of people going hungry on a regular basis due to low crop yields, while in western Europe yields were increasing and their countries were becoming industrialised.

"1891-2, a famine occurred in an area of around 900,000 square miles in the fertile areas around the River Volga. It affected between 14 and 20 million people, and killed an estimated 400,000. Though many of these casualties occurred as a result of disease, a study of this famine (and of many others in Russian history) leads the historian to an inescapable conclusion. Any study of the geography and climate of Russia through its recent incarnations reminds Western students of a kind of distress which they will probably never experience. It is important to realise and to remember that, because of natural geography and climate, Russia’s people have struggled to feed themselves adequately. This kind of perpetual, fundamental concern for such a large proportion of the country’s population is perhaps one explanation why Russia’s rulers have found it relatively easy to exert such strict control over their people."
www.historytoday.com...

a reply to: funkadeliaaaa
I didn't make any assumptions about the Russian people, I spoke my ideas about Putin, that would be a mistake, akin to using Obama or Bush as the prototype for how Americans are or think.

That would not be so nice as to put people in that box, I am speaking on my own experiences as I said from actually being in the U.S. Army during the period of time in Europe being privy to intelligence services and their main function to dismantle the operations I was involved in as their number priority, and knowing the roles of KGB ans spies back then.

I understand a lot about the history going back to Bolshevism as well and some of the history of the Russian people , Tolstoy's American ties as well as outside influence and agendas, so do not discount that, in assuming that negative commentary about Putin also answer feelings about the Russian people, that was not my intention.

a reply to: phinubian
OK, I'm sorry for putting you in a box if that's how you felt I responded.( Probably a little bit unfair.) I do not doubt your insight, its the scope of your understanding that I have a problem with... Historically