Anyone else getting a bit nervous about Putin?
 

Now there's talk of him changing the Russian constitution so he can remain in power.

He's ex-KGB.. you surprised? ;)

Mixed in with the number of recent incidents of russian planes appearing in UK air space and being chased off........ hmmm

Pfft - We'd kick Russias arse. Their military is in an even worse state of repair than ours, and our defence busget is twice thiers.

But yes, Putin is obviously power mad, he is going to become Prime Minister, which means, under the constition he can become premier again. He just reverts between the two roles ad infinitum.

Also, the polonium 210 chap whose name escapes me (Lugovoi?) has been voted inot the the russian parliament - and under Russian constitution all russian "MP's" are exempt from prosecution.

personally I'm still more scared of dubya

personally I'm still more scared of Bush ;)

Personally I'm still more scared of heights ;)

changing the law so he can stay in power? Bush did this not so long ago. In fact he signed over the power so that he is in charge of the world and thus can interfere legally in any quibble anywhere, anytime. Look it up. Makes me very nervous indeed..

I must of missed something, Bush is gone at the end of next year, Putin's here for the foreseeable

He "scarey" ^^^ :D

The Russians like a strong leader, even if he is verging on being a dictator and will no doubt use Russia's oil reserves for leverage against us when it suits him ! They couldn't see the fuss when Clinton got into a spot of bother as a result of his wayward willy - they just thought that him more of a "man" ! :lol1:

To be fair, I couldn't see the fuss really either ;) But then you have got the hypocritical religious right to deal with in the US.

Putin has enforced a whole bunch of dodgy laws in order to maintain the United Russia Parties grip on power; even the Communist Party leader stated that it was the most corrupt election since.. err.. the Communists were last in power (which made me chuckle a little!). The owner of Chelsea FC who happens to be a Governor of a Russian Administrative area even offered up mobile phones as prizes to those who were going to go vote.. morally ambiguous at best. Now the belief is that with his recent statements, Putin has got some odd "Father of the Nation" idea going on - we could be looking at Putin setting himself up as a leader for life. Chechnya and North Ossetia (where Beslan is) had 99% and 98% turn-outs respectively.. now if that isn't dubious I don't know what is!!

The guy is a serious threat to UK national interests however you look at it. :Suspiciou

Thats all right, our government offers benefits and houses to lazy work shy scum and they vote in their droves! :D

China is the super-power to be scared of.

No martin, what i meant to say was, that the executive order has been put in place for whatever president comes after him. Basically the president of the us runs the world. Im sure i heard he was attempting to to change the law so he could remain in power also though

Putin, we should all worry, Bush we should all worry, Brown we should all worry, Ava dinner jacket we should all worry ......................

To be honest, it is difficult to think of a world leader who can be trusted any more. No one seems to do the job for the sake of improving the lives of the electorate any more. No 1 is always the most important these days.

Les :(

Good post, Prasius. I'm not sure that he's sees the UK as an "enemy" per se, but if he we got in the way and he had the capacity( note the gas supplies from Russia), he'd crush us like a bug without a second thought !

I think we should stop following USA like sheep.

Nick

I agree

Les

I've had too many people agree with me lately..

I need to say something contentious..

The new impreza is REALLY good looking. :)

..

Anyhow, back to topic! The most worrying thing about Russia is the Russian psyche - they have always had a bit of a victim complex, thinking that everyone is plotting against them. Obviously the UK's major concern at the minute is the control that Russia has over energy supplies - it wasn't that long ago that the Russian Government effectively closed all foreign involvement out of Oil and Gas exploitation activities in Russia, and they've already used the control of oil and gas as a 'weapon' against Belarus, in order to retain Russian military forces in the country beyond the agreed time limit. The expansion of NATO only puts further emphasis on the Russian belief they're being picked on - and Bush shutting out Russia from involvement in the strategic missile defence program was massively short sighted (even if Putin knew that was the line Bush would take - it was a very shrewd political move of Putin to offer anyhow!).

Russia now simply has the stinking rich, and abysmally poor, and cleverly, Putin appeals to both. The rich want to get richer, and the poor - as they do in these types of situations - swings to the nationalist desire for their country to be seen as strong.

There's some of my random thoughts on Russia anyhow. I know people think China is a threat, but honestly, I think China knows where its breads buttered.. so to speak - China is a threat economically I believe, but not militarily/politically. Russia on the other hand..