ATS Poll: Tell us your opinion of Vladimir Putin.

I voted "Putin just wants the Soviet Union band back together, he's a cool dude"

Not sure about the cool dude bit but the first 1/2 is right I believe for the coal and Gas.

a reply to: Corruption Exposed

I think the OP was rather funny, but I think it was agenda driven if you look at it in detail.

The choices provided were clearly meant to cause a certain reaction. - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Agreed.

I'd like to know why we've never had polls before (I can't remember any - someone correct me if I'm wrong) yet we suddenly get one about Putin?

Why does this warrant a poll, yet other current events over the years haven't?

a reply to: WhiteAlice

Yet all that supposed 'Great KGB' training didn't help the former Soviet Union from collapsing in on itself. As far as upstaging the US/West?

That's really not that impressive of an accomplishment...

originally posted by: sheepslayer247
we got to see Putin riding a bear! That's pretty funny.

What scares me most about him is, that he is unpredictable.

He is a leader alright, but he can sit bare chested on all the horses he wants, still the KGB background can't be washed away.

originally posted by: Kram09
I'd like to know why we've never had polls before (I can't remember any - someone correct me if I'm wrong) yet we suddenly get one about Putin?

You're wrong.

Why does this warrant a poll, yet other current events over the years haven't?

One guy (The Overlord) does all the coding. We just went through a fairly large site change relatively recently so he's been busy with that and some other ventures. It 'warrants' a poll to test everything out. If you can't see the tongue-in-cheek elements of this poll, then I'm sorry but you're hereby deemed humorless and shall forthwith be relegated to posting only in the politically-themed threads (or 'Hell' as I like to call them).

Ego Puty is a secret fruity obsessed with Duty!!

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Putin is a really nice guy, he means no harm.

Afterall,



Wasn't he the Master of the Games at Sochi ?

a reply to: Corruption Exposed

I was going to post something similar but you covered all the bases man.

I agree with you 100%. I didn't like the choices provided. He's no different than the clan that is running things from our side of the pound. He is just reacting to hostile actions taken by the Western Powers.

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Too bad I didn't see a button beside a statement calling Putin a greedy megalomaniac who will push for his insane goals until he himself is pushed aside.

The Russian Monarchy is very, very dead and will stay that way.

The Soviet Union cannot regain its past glory without the blood of Eastern Europe turning the Baltic & Black Sea red. If that's what he wants, then he's crazier than I thought.

Putin has stated from the outset that he was unhappy with the break up of the Soviet Union and he would do all he could to reinstate it.

People laughed and said that he was in no position to reinstate it and never would be.

How would the U.S feel if the old Soviet Union decided to put a missile base within a few miles of their borders?

a reply to: SLAYER69

I was in the USSR before the fall and really, the primary thing that undermined it was the logistical nightmare that it had become. You had people running out of hygiene necessities from shampoo, soap to toilet paper. They were basically attempting to provide all products for a tremendous number of people while using perhaps just a few factories here and there. It was generating massive shortages and the Russian government knew it was a problem. How it "fell" was a combination of treason by the Communist party within the USSR and Yeltsin looking at other solutions for the USSR's issues. Yeltsin came to the US, hosted by the Esalen Institute, to basically meet with former presidents and business leaders on a nice relaxing trip (frequently called "hot tub diplomacy"). The story goes that Esalen took Yeltsin to an ordinary grocery store and Yeltsin burst into tears.

According to Murphy, Yeltsin went from Esalen to an ordinary supermarket, and the errand reduced him to tears. He''d been told for years by the Communist Party that such a bounty did not exist, as it did not in Russia. As Murphy tells it, Yeltsin fell apart, crying, "They lied to me. They lied to me."

Source

Who knows if the above tale is true but I will say that, when I went shopping in the USSR, it was a mess. You know you have a problem in a country when to buy a chocolate bar, you have to wait in one line to acquire a ration ticket and then wait in another long line to actually obtain the candy bar. I wouldn't be surprised if Yeltsin cried at the sight of one of our grocery stores.

To put it into better perspective, the "fall" of the USSR was more along the lines of the loss of power by the Communist party, having some states within it desiring to break away and correcting a logistical nightmare via policy change.

This is actually a pretty good old BBC documentary on the "logistical nightmare" that the USSR became. It actually jibes with what I saw within the USSR back in the late 80's:

originally posted by: WhiteAlice
To put it into better perspective, the "fall" of the USSR was more along the lines of the loss of power by the Communist party, having some states within it desiring to break away and correcting a logistical nightmare via policy change.

I agree with your information to a certain extent. There were many contributing factors to the collapse. I wonder how much longer those break away states will remain free from mother Russia?

originally posted by: SLAYER69
I wonder how much longer those break away states will remain free from mother Russia?

And I wonder how many of those states will be willing to fight for that freedom. Those who are not... well, perhaps they deserve some of 'Mom's' well-known tender mercies.

a reply to: yeahright

You're wrong.

Thank you for correcting me.

I think I took it a little too seriously. It was the first thread I saw when I logged in and I didn't see the other one until after.

Putin is controversial charachter. Russian media has made him more media attractive than he really is. The guy wants soviet union back, there are some clues wide open if you choose to see.
Russian actions in Crimea were approved by old Soviet Union friends in General Assembly of the UN: North Korea, Cuba, Syria, China, Belarus, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Armenia, Bolivia, Nigaraqua.
Travel limits are back to some people in certain occupations in Russia, restrictions are for military service personnels, police and office holders.
Freedom of speech is under threat, every blogger in Russia who has more than 3000 readers a day has to register as a press agent .
Every organization who get foreign aid or have any political activities has to register as foreign agency and this gets more strict as Russian can decide by its own which is a foreign agency regardless what the organization has to say.
The law against propaganda of non traditional sexual relationships.
Incredible results when counting votes.. voting in Crimea exceeding 96% for pro-russia.

Putin needs the old style goverment in Russia to protect his personal "new" wealth.

originally posted by: SLAYER69
a reply to: WhiteAlice

Yet all that supposed 'Great KGB' training didn't help the former Soviet Union from collapsing in on itself. As far as upstaging the US/West?

That's really not that impressive of an accomplishment...

So I've done both of the polls now... I'm sure they are very, very funny (to someone) but I don't get it really?
There's obviously a joke about Russia/Putin and ATS I'm missing.
Maybe it's just that original thread and people thinking ATS has paid shills?


Then again, people are dying over in Ukraine, being shot, beaten to death, abducted/kidnapped and are losing their homes and livelihoods.

Maybe we should do a poll on how many people will die in the clashes....

Or how long before Russia "officially" sends in troops....

There's so much more hilarity to be had over this situation.

a reply to: Kram09

Actually, I was more referring to several years ago when we did some on-site polling but as things sometimes do, it faded away after awhile. Now it's back and I'm sure we're all looking forward to seeing what the polls have in store.

No harm, no foul. I wasn't trying to beat up on you anyway, just pointing out some stuff.