Boris Nemtsov (Putin Critic) killed in the center of Moscow

originally posted by: DJW001

FEAR.

originally posted by: AVoiceOfReason
a reply to: JonStone

what does that have to do with me correcting your objectively false statement that Putin somehow made the Russian people love him through fear?

"Do you approve of Putin?" Most are going to say Yes, especially after seeing what happens to people who do NOT approve of Putin.

originally posted by: AVoiceOfReason
a reply to: DJW001

who is going to get scared? people are going to be mad yes. but scared? no.

you implied that people supported Putin because they were scared, and yet Putin wasn't supported by the majority until a short time ago.

well his approval rating dropped below 50% just last year...

Painting yourself as a paternalistic keeper of the nation's future is a little easier, of course, when you have scrubbed out every potential rival.
Asked why they support Mr Putin, many Russians answer, "Who else?"
Ever since he came to power in 2000, Mr Putin's lieutenants have worked diligently to sideline, prosecute, discredit, co-opt or otherwise neutralise political opponents.
In 2011 and 2012, mass street protests shot Alexei Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner, onto the Moscow stage as a credible rival.

He was soon faced with a flurry of dubious criminal cases against him and has struggled to maintain momentum beyond a hardcore of younger, liberal supporters in the capital and other big cities despite a strong showing in mayoral elections.
Mr Navalny stood apart from seasoned but marginal opposition figures because of his nationalist streak. That appeal was blunted when Mr Putin seized Crimea and marched into eastern Ukraine this year. Mr Navalny admits that although he would not have launched the takeover, he would not give Crimea back to Ukraine if he came to power.
Other more radical opponents of Mr Putin's rule like the veteran Eduard Limonov are now vocal supporters of the war in Donetsk and Luhansk, organising volunteer militia to go and fight there.
Press unfreedom
One of Mr Putin's greatest tools is his ability to manipulate public sentiment through a stranglehold on Russia's most influential media.
A Levada survey in May found that 94 per cent of those polled depended on domestic television networks – which are state-dominated – to follow news from Crimea and Ukraine.
The Kremlin may have a point that Western reporting has its own slant, but Russian state media is a tide of Putin-worship, nationalist diatribe and outright falsehoods.
Alternative voices are increasingly scarce. Last month, Mr Putin signed off on new legislation that will limit foreign ownership in Russian media assets to 20 per cent. The law will likely see two of the country's biggest independent outlets, Vedomosti and Forbes Russia, ushered toward Kremlin-friendly control.
Surveying the pollsters
The polls say Putin is adored, but can they be trusted?
The Levada Centre has struggled to maintain its independence and last year prosecutors threatened it with inclusion on a government list of "foreign agents" – NGOs that receive foreign funding and are therefore seen as potential fifth columnists for western states.
Political surveys conducted by telephone in a country where people fear retribution for criticising the authorities may not be the best test of sentiment. Saying you love the leader is the safest thing, just in case someone is listening in or noting down your name.
Interestingly, the state-linked WCIOM polling agency puts Mr Putin's popularity lower than Levada. It found his personal approval rating down from 85.9 per cent in May to 62.5 per cent in October.

“I wasn’t very far away and a friend phoned, I arrived and I saw the body,” said opposition leader Ilya Yashin at the scene a little after 1am.
“My last meeting with him was the day before yesterday… he was preparing to write a report called ‘Putin and War’ and he said he had information proving the participation of the Russian military and Russian soldiers in the Ukrainian conflict,” according to friend and colleague Yashin, who was visibly shocked.