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originally posted by: LotToTell2
told me "tell me EVERYTHING about Putin, so that I am ready to meet him, if opportunity shows "
originally posted by: Dimithae
Where do you get that he was such a killer? All he did was push papers at the KGB.
Putin's role in the blatantly misleading information issued by the government about the Chechnya offensive also has been criticized. His talent for creating legends has been evident in his explanations about the war. For example, Putin told the writers group that the military had been open with the news media, when the military has in fact hidden information about casualties, combat events, attacks on civilians and its goals and methods.
Felix Svetov, a writer who spent time in Stalin's prison camps as a child and who lost his father in the purges, was present at the writers meeting. He said Putin's comment "does not correspond with reality." Putin is a typical KGB type, he added. "If the snow is falling, they will calmly tell you, the sun is shining."
Get real
Putin quietly played a key role for Sobchak at the moment of the 1991 Soviet coup attempt. Sobchak, in Moscow at that moment, vowed to defend Yeltsin and fight the coup, and took the risky step of flying back to his city to oppose the putsch. Putin, with good ties in the local security services, showed up at the airport with armed guards to protect Sobchak, who was potentially vulnerable as a leading democrat.
originally posted by: noeltrotsky
Tell your friend not to wear any fancy rings if he does actually meet Putin!!!
abcnews.go.com...
He was a very important part of the KGB killing machine. He wasn't just a 'paper pusher'. He was deeply involved. In the mob, who is the killer? The Godfather who orders the hit, or the button man who pulls the trigger? Answer - both.
Amid confusion over what happened, Kraft issued a statement at the time saying the ring was a gift as a sign of “friendship” with the Russian people and for appreciation of Putin’s leadership. But during his remarks last week, Kraft claims he issued the statement only after pressure from the White House, which feared the incident would become a diplomatic debacle. Last Sunday, Putin’s spokesman responded to Kraft’s claims, saying he recalls the ring was given as a gift, calling the Patriots’ owner’s claims “weird.”
Putin has accused the Ukrainian authorities of committing war crimes in eastern Ukraine, but he failed to prosecute, and in some cases, promoted and rewarded, individuals accused of war crimes in Chechnya. Putin has encouraged Kiev to negotiate with the pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, but he resolutely refused to negotiate with the Chechen separatist leadership....
Crimea is not Chechnya. Or at least, not yet. Since Russia's annexation of Crimea, Putin has begun importing his brand of authoritarian rule to the peninsula. Crimea's new Kremlin-backed authorities have cracked down on critical journalists, restricted public gatherings, and launched raids on businesses. It appears that Moscow's Chechen policy — of co-opting a local warlord into power, employed so successfully with the Kadyrov family — is being rolled out in Crimea.
Putin's role in the blatantly misleading information issued by the government about the Chechnya offensive also has been criticized. His talent for creating legends has been evident in his explanations about the war. For example, Putin told the writers group that the military had been open with the news media, when the military has in fact hidden information about casualties, combat events, attacks on civilians and its goals and methods.
Even in major European cities like London, Vienna and Berlin, opponents of the Russian state have felt little safety in exile during Putin’s tenure as President. Dissidents and their European host governments have also found that acts of murder and intimidation can be hard to prosecute when their trails seem to lead back to Russia. In August, Russian authorities formally refused to cooperate with a British public inquiry into the 2006 murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who was poisoned to death in London after he publicly accused Putin of mass murder. On his deathbed, Litvinenko said only Putin could have ordered the mission to kill him with a lethal dose of radioactive polonium, which had been slipped into the whistle-blower’s tea. The Kremlin denies any involvement in Litvinenko’s murder.