Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin
2nd and 4th President of Russia From: December 31, 1999 – May 7, 2008 (first) May 7, 2012 – (second)
Vice President	Dmitry Medvedev
Predecessor	Boris Yeltsin (First term), Dmitry Medvedev (Second term)
Successor	Incumbent (no successor)
Information
Party	United Russia
Religion	Russian Orthodox

Dr. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, Ph.D. (Russian: Владимир Владимирович Путин) (born October 7, 1952) affectionately know as Uncle Vova, is the socially conservative president of the Russian Federation, a position he's held since 2012, after serving as prime minister since May 8, 2008, and previously serving as president since December 31, 1999^[1] Putin holds a doctorate in economics focusing on energy and particulallry the field of oil and gas.^[2]

Vladimir Putin's decision in February 2022 to commit troops to the Ukraine was precedented by the Bush Doctrine of preventative war, the UN sanctioned doctrine of R2P (Responsibility to Protect), as articulated by Samantha Power during the 2011 Libyan war and the 1998 Clinon incursion into Kosovo, to protect civilians in the Donbas region who had endured eight years of atrocities by the U.S.-backed Maidan regime and was preparing a large scale military action against Russian-speaking civilians in early 2022,^[3] and Article 51 of the United Nations Charter which allows for collective security arrangements. According to the Biden regime, Vladimir Putin sabotaged the production of baby milk formula in the United States in 2021, more than year in advance of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine.^[4]

Despite Western propaganda and calls for an uprising to overthrow Vladimir Putin, more than 1 million people turned out in the streets of Moscow for the 2022 Victory Day celebrations of the Immortal Regiment for which Vladimir Putin was the featured honored speaker.^[5]

Putin had increased Russia's stature in international affairs despite its weak economic position.^[6] As a result of the economic sanctions leveled against Putin, he was booted out of the World Economic Forum.^[7] As of March 2022 however, Putin still maintained a Twitter account, although not very often used. According to Kremlin press spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin considers it dishonest to allow staff and media consultants to script twitter messages in his name.^[8]

A baptized Russian Orthodox Christian who quotes the Bible,^[9] Putin leads the increasingly conservative Russia against the homosexual agenda, transgenderism, and towards the pro-life side. Abortion and other leftist values had virtually wiped out natural population growth in Soviet times, and left an indelible scar on culture. Liberals criticize Putin and Russia because they disagree with him on social issues. Obama even refused to attend the Winter Olympic games held in Russia in 2014. Putin has also criticized liberal values as "against nature" and out of touch with a more traditional population.^[10] Putin may privately seek to issue a new era of Orthodox Christendom with Moscow as the Third Rome. Under this view, Moscow would succeed Constantinople as the center of Orthodoxy after nearly 1700 years.

Putin was invited to speak at Keren Heyesod's annual gathering in 2019,^[11] and in 2020 Israel invited him to participate in the “Remembering The Holocaust: Fighting Anti-Semitism” forum.^[12] Former Prime Minister Bennett praised him in October 2021 as “a very close and true friend of the State of Israel.”^[13]

(Second from left) Actor, puppet, cocaine addict and commander-in-chief of Ukrainian armed forces Volodymyr Zelensky, chest exposed, tight leather pants, wearing high heels depicted as the "modern Churchill" in Western psyops;[14] (right) President Vladimir Putin receives intelligence briefing on the person, character, and business connections of Volodymyr Zelensky.

Background[edit]

Putin was born in Leningrad on October 7, 1952. His parents were survivors the Siege of Leningrad, however his 1-year-old brother, Igor, was not, and is buried along with 500,000 other victims in a public park. Putin's father had six brothers, and five of them died in the war. Some of his mother's relatives were also killed in the conflict. Putin said that his parents had no hatred for the German soldiers. “How can anyone hate those soldiers? They were ordinary people and they also died in battle....They are laborers, just like us. They were sent to the front too,” his mother told him.^[15]

Putin writes of his father during the war,

According to a made-for-television documentary entitled, The second baptism of Rus, Putin told a personal story how his mother had him secretly baptized in the Russian Orthodox church as his father, who was a member of the Communist Party organization in the factory where he worked, would have faced serious problems.^[17] Putin was a judo champion in his youth.^[18] He was educated in law and economics at Leningrad State University before being assigned to work in the KGB.^[19] After five years in East Germany, he took up various political positions before becoming prime minister in 1999.

Putin at an conference

He was married to Lyudmila Putina, a former stewardess with Aeroflot, from July 28, 1983, until 2014, when the two divorced. They have two daughters.

The legend of Putin began the night of the Fall of the Wall in Germany. Putin was stationed in the consulate in Dresden. A mob had raided the East German Stasi headquarters and moved on to the Soviet consulate. In the chaos, communication with Moscow was cut off. Putin, acting alone without instructions and armed only with a pistol, stared down the mob and told them if they took one more step, they would be shot. The mob retreated and returned to continue pillaging the Stasi headquarters.

As the 1990s progressed, Western capital and corporate raiders flooded into Russia to buy up Soviet assets at bargain basement prices. Prior to the collapse, Soviet enterprises did not operate on the profit motive and received government subsidies, keeping outmoded factories and industries alive while operating at a loss to keep workers employed. When the subsidies and transfers of wealth perished with the Soviet government, the country fell into a deep recession. People were not very enamored toward the transition to capitalism as foreign investors took control of the nation's economy.^[20] As in the Dresden incident, Putin's reputation of instinctively standing up to foreign intruders in defense of his country propelled his political rise.

Putin became the brunt of much globalist snarling, typically answered with the words of Barack Obama, "The 80s are calling. They want their foreign policy back".^[21] Putin is known for his quick-witted sense of humor.

Domestic policy[edit]

A Christian himself, Putin governs a nation that is rapidly becoming more Christian and more conservative, and his snubbing of liberal Obama in May 2012 suggests that Putin is well aware of how conservative his country is becoming. On social issues and taxation, Russia under Putin is more conservative today than the Western Europe.

In terms of achievements, Putin has successfully opposed the homosexual agenda and has supported pro-life reforms. He has also stabilized the Russian economy and restored Russia's national pride, largely by politically exploiting the financial windfall of Europe's need for Russian oil and gas. Russians were enthusiastic that he ended the social chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the subsequent pell-mell privatization of the state-owned economy. Many Russians have been mesmerized by the new glitter of Moscow and the restored glamour of St. Petersburg. Russia's revived self-pride follows the humiliation of the chaos after 1991 and the incompetence of his predecessor Boris Yeltsin. Russians have a long history of authoritarian governments and a strong distaste for anarchy. They have little experience with freedom. The Russian mafia, which is more sophisticated than its counterparts elsewhere, controls more than 40 percent of the total economy. Their control is thought to be even greater in certain areas, such as banking, real estate, and consumer markets.^[22] In November 2014, Putin started allowing his citizens to own concealed firearms for self-defense, but under certain restrictions.^[23] Russia under Putin made it illegal for foreigners without a permit to preach, and banned cults that are harmful to families (Jehovah's Witnesses and Scientology engage in family shunning while Falun Gong, whose founder lives in a luxurious property, prevents family members from seeking medical treatment).^[24] Not having a permit is why a Baptist pastor got heavily fined.^[25] Like many parts of Europe, blasphemy against the church is also illegal.^[26][27]

In May 2019, Putin signed a bill into law ordering the creation of "a national internet network that would be able to operate independently from the rest of the world."^[28][29] Russia began testing this network.^[30]

While not generally recognized as an outstanding public speaker before crowds, Putin is known for heart-to-heart talks, somewhat akin to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's fireside chats, on a wide range of topics and issues of interest and concern to the Russian people his using the television format.

Russian demography has long been an existential issue to Vladimir Putin[edit]

See also: Russia's fertility rate

Russia's fertility rate of 1.58 births per woman is one of the lowest fertility rates in the world.^[31] It's fertility rate is below the replacement rate of 2.1 births per woman.

Russian demography has long been an existential issue to Vladimir Putin. In 2021, he declared “saving the people of Russia is our top national priority".^[32]

Bne IntelliNews indicated in 2022:

Demographers estimate Russia will fall from being the 9th most populous country in the world to being the 17th by 2050.^[31] And estimates indicate that Russia's population will drop from 2014's 142 million to 128 million by 2050.^[31]

Political career[edit]

In the Yeltsin years during the transition to capitalism, corrupt foreign and domestic oligarchs took control of the country. Putin's rise to power as a populist was by taxing and driving out corrupt foreign oligarchs whom the public viewed as looting the country, and throwing in jail corrupt domestic oligarchs as tax cheats. The oligarchs were his political enemies. Putin's success as a leader in Russia came about by reigning in the power of oligarchs. He allowed them to run the Russian economy provided that they stay out of politics, unlike Western so-called "democracies". Contrary to Western and CIA propaganda, Putin is not a friend of or controlled by oligarchs; rather, the oligarchs bow to his instructions and demands.

Putin has many controversial statements on Communism and has a good attitude toward the Muslim minorities living in the Russian Federation. Alexander Dugin argues:^[33]

Putin is mainly backed by the United Russia (Единая Россия) party, which currently holds a majority in the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, known as the Duma. As a centrist party, it usually reflects the political views of Putin, which are that of authoritarian statism and nationalism. On March 14, 2004, he was elected to a second term as president with 71% of the vote. Barred from a third consecutive term by the Russian constitution, Putin ceded the presidency to Dmitry Medvedev on May 7, 2008, and became Prime Minister, at the time-sharing power with the more moderate Medvedev. Medvedev did not run for a second term, and, as a result, Putin was re-elected in 2012. Putin was again re-elected in 2018, facing little real opposition.

After his 2018 victory, Putin's approval ratings fell significantly due to public disapproval of some of his domestic policies.^[34]

Political views[edit]

Putin has been accused of employing the United States Democratic party tactic of illegal surveillance, harassment, investigation, arrest, and jailing political opponents and dissidents, ostensibly as agents of a foreign power or domestic terrorists.

Learning from the mistakes of USSR in the Eastern Bloc, he made clear that taking countries against their right to self-determination is counterproductive and drains resources.^[35]

Relations with NATO[edit]

In an interview with David Frost broadcast on the BBC on March 13, 2000, Putin expressed his desire to see Russia join NATO:^[36]

Putin lays a wreath a the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the anniversary of the German invasion of the Soviet Union.

Within hours after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Vladimir Putin was the first foreign leader to call President George W. Bush and offer sympathy and support for what became the first invocation of NATO Article V, "an attack against one is an attack against all."^[37] Putin announced a five-point plan to support the war on terror, pledging that the Russian government would (1) share intelligence with their American counterparts, (2) open Russian airspace for flights providing humanitarian assistance (3) cooperate with Russia's Central Asian allies in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to provide similar kinds of airspace access to American flights, (4) participate in international search and rescue efforts, and (5) increase direct assistance -humanitarian as well as military assistance—to the Afghan Northern Alliance. The intelligence Putin shared, including data that helped American forces find their way around Kabul and logistical information about Afghanistan's topography and caves, contributed to the success of operation and rout of the Taliban. Two weeks after the attacks, Putin was invited to make a speech to a Special Session of the Bundestag, the first ever by a Russian head of state to the German parliament.^[38] Among the numerous subjects Putin addressed in fluent German was peace and stability in the common European home:

In 2004 the Baltic states - Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia joined NATO in violation of assurances made to Russian leaders when German Unification occurred. The provocative action created for the first time a common border between the Russian Federation and a NATO state. Three years later, at the Munich Security Conference, Putin declared, “We have the right to ask: against whom is this [NATO] expansion intended? And what happened to the assurances our western partners made after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact? Where are those declarations today? No one even remembers them.”^[39] In 2008 NATO said Ukraine and Georgia would become members. Four other Eastern European states joined NATO in 2009.

In the face of the NATO onslaught, Putin repeatedly warned the West with the refrain of a made popular by Yulia Chicherina during the ongoing NATO-funded Donbas war,^[40] "we have nowhere to retreat."^[41] Putin told the nation in a televised address on February 24, 2022 “I am referring to the eastward expansion of NATO, which is moving its military infrastructure ever closer to the Russian border. It is a fact that over the past thirty years we have been patiently trying to come to an agreement with the leading NATO countries …In response, we invariably faced either cynical deception and lies or attempts at pressure and blackmail."

Relations with the EU[edit]

Anti-Putin Russophobia in the West, 2022.

In 2014 Putin founded the Eurasian Economic Union to counter European Union meddling in Eastern European nation's affairs.

After Crimea was returned to Russia, the European Union imposed sanctions against Putin and the Russian government.^[42]

The relations within the EU are different and divided, it is mainly the following countries advocating namely a critical attitude towards the Russian government: the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) Poland, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany, France and the United Kingdom,^[43][44] while the following countries have a less hostile attitude or want to maintain a better relationship: Hungary, Italy and Czech Republic.

Also, multiple nationalist parties in the EU appreciate Putin's policies against the Leftist liberal dominance in Europe, like Marine Le Pen's National Front.

Despite EU sanctions, Russia under cooperation between Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel continued expanding economically into Western Europe.^[45]

Relations under George W. Bush[edit]

Initially relations between George W. Bush and Putin were good, with Putin lending support to Bush's war on global terror. Putin was restrained from giving much assistance outside the Russian Federation, being pre-occupied with the Islamist movements waging jihad inside his own borders.

In Bush's late second term, Putin was concerned about jihadist infiltration from Turkey and Syria through the Republic of Georgia, and intervened. Former members of the Warsaw Pact, who were more supportive of the war on terror than even the US population, then asked for deployment of missile defense systems on their territories, which the Bush administration was inclined to favor as a reward for their help. Russia considered missile defense deployment on their borders overt acts of hostility. Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, in competition to outdo each other, condemned George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice by sidling up to the Russians and Islamists whom the Democrats portrayed as oppressed victims of a global neocon conspiracy.

Relations under Barack Obama[edit]

Targetted Sanctions, from a Moscow art exhibition.

President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton initially cozied up to Putin, charging the Bush administration was intent on reigniting the Cold War. However once the Rosatom-Uranium One deal was completed and the Clinton Foundation pocketed millions of dollars from Putin cronies in donations and speaking fees, relations began to sour as the Obama administration could no longer ignore geopolitical realities. Putin had protested the Obama administrations illegal drone strikes, and the administration placed sanctions on Russian leaders ostensibly in retaliation for the Crimean referendum.^[46]

President Obama's decision to move an anti-missile defense system to Romania during the 2016 US Presidential election only heightened tensions. Putin, who had repeatedly assailed the antimissile system as a grave danger to Russia's security, called Obama's decision dangerous. This coupled with Obama's implementation of sanctions rather than honor the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances negotiated by the Clinton administration, displaying it as an empty promise to guarantee Ukrainian independence, only further exposed the befuddlement and inability of the Obama administration to stand by US commitments and the weaknesses of NATO.

In September 2013, Putin gave a speech stating the need to strengthen Russian culture with traditional values and the Orthodox Christian church. Also, he condemned Western nations and their godless pursuit of political correctness and homosexuality.^[47]

In early September 2013, Putin expressly observed that liberal John Kerry is a liar.

Forbes ranked Putin as the most powerful man in the world as of December 2016, while Obama was ranked #48. Putin gains popularity every time he challenges the U.S. or Europe, or sends troops into a former Soviet Republic.^[48]

According to former Obama Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, candidate Donald Trump was a Putin asset - a lie which gained widespread liberal media circulation in the United States perpetrated by paid FBI informants and other subversive elements of the Democratic party working in the United States civil service system.

Obama/Biden Maidan coup[edit]

See also: Maidan coup

Russian victims of the Obama-backed "Revolution of Dignity."^[49]

Putin is seen as an antagonist by liberals in the West, who are angry about their inability to push the homosexual agenda and pro-abortion policies on Russia. Putin views NATO enlargement by absorbing former Soviet client states as a potential threat to the Russian Federation. Putin has proposed a policy of "Findlandization", i.e., making permanently neutral the Ukraine and Georgia and not incorporating them into NATO under the US's Partners for Peace program. Putin's alleged rigged election system, nuclear energy contracts and military alliance with Iran have heightened tensions. According to mainstream media, the decline of human rights in Russia has been dramatic; for example, Russian riot police beat a number of protesters and journalists at an anti-Putin rally at Pushkin Square in Moscow,^[50] and Putin rigged national elections for his party ^[51]

Putin has even exercised power over the Russian supreme court. Justice Vladimir Yaroslavtsev was forced to resign after warning that Russian security agencies now control the country as they did in Soviet times and expressing alarm over their lack of accountability. Justice Anatoly Kononov was likewise forced out after defending Yaroslavtsev.^[52]

Many who have reported or protested such things have found themselves being repressed - or killed.^[53][54] Journalist Anna Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of Putin, was assassinated in 2006,^[55] and it is widely believed that the Russian government had some involvement in this death. There were 13 journalists killed in contract-style slayings during Vladimir Putin's eight-year presidency.^[56]

Despite these negatives – or perhaps because of the strong hand they reveal – Putin remains popular in Russia.^[57] Since coming to power, Putin has expanded Russia's economy and reduced inflation. The majority of Russians are relatively uninterested in politics outside of issues affecting their personal prosperity,^[50] and journalist Anna Politkovskaya argued that the Russian people, as a whole, have been willing to tolerate violence in the name of "comfort and peace and quiet".^[58]

Relations under Donald Trump[edit]

President Donald Trump accused Putin of taking Crimea by force and asked whether Obama was too soft on Russia.^[59] In March 2017 the US department of state strongly condemned the arrests of hundreds of protesters against Vladimir Putin's government.^[60] The US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that US sanctions against Russia will remain in place until Moscow "reverses the actions" it has taken in Ukraine.^[61]

In response to the April, 4 chemical attack on Khan Shaykhun in Syria, President Trump launched 59-Tomahawk rockets on a Syrian Air base nearby, tensions led up with Russia, Syria's ally, Putin has called that the US attack was an "illegal act of aggression",^[62] and answered this attack by sending a frigate to the military base in Syria.^[63] In April 2017 Putin explained that the US-Russia relations have gotten worse under Trump, contrary to narratives put out by the liberal mainstream media that Trump is too "soft" to Putin and is Putin's 'puppet' .^[64]

In December 2017 Putin warned President Trump because of his decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and stated that he was "deeply concerned".^[65] Putin also opposed Trump's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and told that Russia would continue to honor its obligations under this deal.^[66]

In March 2018, Putin unveiled his revamped nuclear missile program, which was a response to the NATO challenge.^[67]

Relations with Joe Biden[edit]

See also: Biden/Harris regime foreign policy#Ukraine

When Joe Biden fell off his bike in the summer of 2022, social media users wanted to know how Putin could have done it.^[68]

As vice-president in 2011, Putin snubbed Joe Biden in a face-to-face meeting. Sitting across a conference table Putin, Biden attempted to lecture Putin. Biden said, "I’ve been around a long time. The first time I was here…” and in mid-sentence his microphone was cut off,^[69] the lights for the TV cameras went off, and the press was told to leave. The press exited quickly and quietly. Videocameras were disassembled from tripods and still photographers stopped shooting. Portable lights came down from retractable poles. No one spoke and no one lingered. Putin baited Biden, pulled the plug, stole Biden's audience, and rendered him speechless. Putin and the Russian delegation sat as their American counterparts realized Biden's big moment had been stolen right out from under him. Putin had neither fear nor respect for Biden, and Biden was humiliated.^[70]

The Biden family is on the payroll of the Ukrainian firm Burisma, while many Ukrainian operatives in the U.S.^[71] and abroad are inimically hostile toward Russia.

In 2014 Hunter Biden colluded with and received $3.5 million from Elena Baturina, the richest woman in Russia and widow of former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov as payment to establish an American bank account for her.^[72] In late 2019 Baturina was declared a fugitive from Russian justice.^[73]

According to 51 former United States national security "professionals", the Hunter Biden Laptop from Hell was Putin disinformation - a proven lie by a coterie of former American civil servants who conspired to rig the 2020 presidential election.

In 2021, American socialist leader Joe Biden colluded with Putin to raise gasoline prices and home heating bills.^[74] Biden cozied up to by Putin by rescinding the Trump-era opposition to the Nord Stream II pipeline.^[75] The Russian project is designed to ship gas and oil directly from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Russia has attempted to pressure Ukraine numerous time since the break-up of the Soviet Union to abandon its bid to join NATO by cutting off oil and gas supplies. In doing so, Russia inadvertently also cuts off supplies to Germany, a very rich and large customer. The Nordtream pipeline is intended to counter this collateral effect, while pressuring Ukraine, Poland and Hungary to remain in the Russian orbit. The pipeline itself is a massive scandal in Germany, with for Democratic Socialist Gerhard Schroeder chancellor heading the Nordstram pipeline company and a major stockholders.^[76]

Newsweek reported three weeks after Operation Denazification in Ukraine began that Putin's Approval Ratings in Russia rose from 60% before the operation to 71%.^[77]

Empire of Lies speech[edit]

On February 24, 2022, Putin delivered an anti-woke speech condemning the United States promotion, both domestically and among its allies, values that are "contrary to human nature":

Putin's "My Pet Goat" moment: Putin being briefed on Volodoymr Zelensky's transvestism and wearing high heels.^[78]

Donbas war[edit]

Putin opposes U.S. and NATO-backed Nazis who led the Maidan coup and have killed thousands of people since 2014.

See also: Donbas war

Putin, when meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympic games, committed himself on a policy course which sees Russia, together with China, rejecting the "rules based order" that defines the vision of a unipolar world dominated by the United States as the world's policeman, and instead replaces it with a multi-polar “law based international order” grounded in the United Nations Charter.

Grand Mufti of All Russia Ravil Gainutdinov stated: “The entire Islamic world, the Arab world, treats our president’s decision with understanding...They are looking for the victory of Russian politics, and they have absolutely no interest in the hegemony of one country, in the creation of a unipolar world...That is why no country in the Arab world imposed any sanctions on Russia...This is very important...Even as NATO members, even being under pressure, they refrain from imposing sanctions against our country...This means that the Islamic world has deep respect to our country and our Muslims”.^[81]

Responsibility to protect, preventative action, and collective self-defense[edit]

See also: Russia-Ukraine war

Vladimir Putin set forth a claim under the doctrine of 'anticipatory collective self-defense' which was devised originally by the Clinton administration and NATO in regard to the 1998 Kosovo conflict,^[82] as it applies to Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.^[83] The unilateral declarations of independence by the Donbas republics are completely legal and precedented by the West's successful demands for Kosovo to be recognized as independent from Serbia, and adjudicated as such by the International Courts.^[84]

Stalin (left) with Harry Truman (right). Truman is considered by presidential historians as one of America's greatest presidents because he used nuclear weapons to spare American soldiers lives and end a war from dragging on.^[85][86]

The Organization of World Peace reported in 2021, “according to Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Decree no. 117/2021, Ukraine has committed to putting all options on the table to taking back control over the Russian annexed Crimea region. Signed on March 24th, President Zelensky has committed the country to pursue strategies that . . . ‘will prepare and implement measures to ensure the de-occupation and reintegration of the peninsula.’”^[87] Given that the residents of Crimea, most of whom are ethnic Russians, are quite happy with the current state of affairs under Russian governance – this, according to a 2020 Washington Post report – Zelensky’s threat in this regard was not only a threat against Russia itself but was also a threat of potentially massive bloodshed against a people who do not want to go back to Ukraine.^[88] The Donbas war represents a much more compelling case for justifying Russian intervention under the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine which has been advocated by such Western ‘humanitarians’ as Hillary Clinton, Samantha Power, and Susan Rice, and which was relied upon to justify the NATO interventions in countries like the former Yugoslavia and Libya.

In 1998, Kosovo was not a member of the United Nations, so the right of collective self-defense of member states was challenged. Kosovo was forcibly severed from a member state, Serbia, by NATO and given legal status later. Residents of Kosovo never voted by referendum to declare independence from Serbia. By established international precedents, in 2014 the residents of the Donetsk Republic, the Lugansk Republic, and Crimea voted to separate from Ukraine. The Russian State Duma recognized the decision of the voters and change in international borders, annexed Crimea and in 2022 signed collective security agreements with the Donetsk and Lugansk republics.

On February 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin addressed the nation and made clear the objective of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine was not regime change:

Partial mobilization[edit]

For the first time since World War II, Putin announced on September 21, 2022, announced a partial mobilization of military reserves:

Additionally all military service contracts currently in force (usually 3 to 12 months) were extended indefinitely. Putin said that the current conflict was instigated by the West, noting that the Western countries seek the destruction and disintegration of Russia. He said that the West had been supporting international terrorists, promoted the infrastructure of the NATO offensive close to Russia's borders and fostered Russophobia.

Putin continued:

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that 300,000 reservist will be mobilized. Conscripts and people currently studying will not be send to Ukraine. He also said that, so far, 5,937 Russian soldiers have died during the war in Ukraine. (This number does not include the militia of the DPR and LPR, or the Wagner group, who have done most of the frontline work and thus have had higher losses.) Shoigu puts Ukrainian losses at some 62,000 killed and some 50,000 wounded.^[90] Russia's total military reserve, people who have previously gone through military training, is 25 million.^[91] It also has the equipment to arm those forces.

St. Petersburg International Economic Forum speech[edit]

Vladimir Putin delivered a speech to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on June 17, 2022.^[92] Zerohedge reported:

Meeting with State Duma leadership and heads of factions[edit]

See also: NATO aggression in the Russia-Ukraine war

On July 7, 2022, President Putin met with a group of Russian State Duma parliamentarians to brief them on the Special Military Operation on the territory of Ukraine. In the course of the briefing, Putin noted:

Remarks on the golden billion[edit]

The 'golden billion' has become a euphemism for the privileged population on the NATO states in North America and Europe, or what is sometimes called 'the collective West' which include Australia, New Zealand. Speaking to the Strong Ideas for a New Time forum in Moscow on July 19, 2022, Putin said, "The model of the total dominance of the so-called golden billion is unjust...Why should this 'golden billion' among the planet's population dominate others, impose its own rules of conduct?...Based on the illusion of 'exclusivity', this model divides people into first and second class status, and is therefore racist and neo-colonial in its essence…And the globalist, supposedly liberal ideology which underlies it, is increasingly acquiring the features of totalitarianism, holding back creative pursuit and free historical creation...No matter how much the West and the supranational elite strive to preserve the existing order, a new era and a new stage in world history are coming. Only genuinely sovereign states are in a position to ensure a high growth dynamic and become a role model for others in terms of standards of living and quality of life, the protection of traditional values and high humanistic ideals, and development models where an individual is not a means, but the ultimate goal.”^[95]

10th Moscow Conference on International Security[edit]

Addressing the 10th Moscow Conference on International Security on August 16, 2022, Putin observed: "Western globalist elites are provoking chaos by rekindling old and inciting new conflicts, implementing a policy of so-called containment, while in fact undermining any alternative, sovereign paths of development. Thus, they are desperately trying to preserve the hegemony and power that are slipping out of their grasp, trying to keep countries and peoples in the grip of a neo-colonial order. Any means are used. The United States and its vassals rudely interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign states by organizing provocations, coup d'état and civil wars. Threats, blackmail and pressure are resorted to in a bid to force independent states to submit to their will. The so-called collective West is purposefully destroying the European security system, putting together new military alliances. The NATO bloc is expanding East, building up its military infrastructure, deploying missile defense systems and increasing the strike capabilities of its offensive forces. Implementing the “anti-Russia” project, they turned a blind eye to the spread of neo-Nazi ideology, the massacres of the inhabitants of Donbass, while continuously pumping the Kiev regime with weapons, including heavy armaments....The United States has set the role of cannon fodder for Ukrainians, and the situation in Ukraine demonstrates that the United States is trying to prolong this conflict."

Signing of treaties of accession of Donbas Republics speech[edit]

The Ron Paul Institute described Putin's speech at the ceremony marking the treaties of accession for the Lugansk, Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Kherson as Russia playing "a leading role against the Deep State that ultimately runs the West and which uses all available tools - including military, economic, cultural, and social – in its attempt to preserve unipolar world domination....Putin’s scathing attack against the West is a multi-headed weapon as it rallied to the conservative segments of a population dismayed by globalism imposing a deeply disturbing agenda that goes against traditional views on family, marriage and sex, but it also has leftist tones, as his criticism also goes against the same globalism that is worsening wealth disparity, and even a libertarian appeal as he referred to the imposition of states of emergency, media control and sanctions on other societies as examples of Western made totalitarianism."^[96] Putin noted:

Russian Energy Week forum[edit]

Putin spoke at the plenary session of the Russian Energy Week International Forum on October 12, 2022. The topic of the panel discussion was Global Energy in a Multipolar World.

Comments on the Ukrainian nuclear dirty bomb[edit]

On October 26, 2022, President Putin held a working meeting, via videoconference, with the permanent members of the Security Council of Russia. President Putin noted in that meeting:

2022 Valdai Club speech[edit]

Addressing the 2022 Valdai Club Conference,^[100] President Putin said:

Fundamentals of State Policy for the Preservation and Strengthening of Traditional Russian Spiritual and Moral Values[edit]

On November 9, 2022, President Putin signed the decree “On Approval of the Fundamentals of State Policy for the Preservation and Strengthening of Traditional Russian Spiritual and Moral Values”,^[101] wherein it declared:

2023 News Year message[edit]

Speech commemorating the 80th anniversary of victory at Stalingrad[edit]

See also: Battle of Stalingrad

Vladimir Putin made a speech at the commemorative activities on the 80th anniversary of the defeat of the German forces by the Red Army in the Battle of Stalingrad.^[103]

Views on abortion[edit]

Putin rejects any constitutional right to abortion, as exists in the United States, but is not ready to ban abortion from Russia either. Instead, Putin has supported and enforced pro-life laws in Russian which would be invalidated by pro-abortion courts in the United States. In 2017, he said that he will allow societal (including church) views to guide him on the issue:^[105]

“In the modern world, the decision is up to the woman herself,” Putin said, and indicated that additional pro-life proposals “must be careful, considered and based on the general mood in society and the moral and ethical norms that have developed in society.”

Putin's "the decision" is an ambiguous phrase that could include the decision to have the pregnancy in the first place. Also, Putin is very pro-Russia and if thinks abortion is lowering the birth rate in a harmful way, then he could abolish it based on national interests.

Views on wokism[edit]

Putin told the Valdai Club in October 2021,^[106]

Vladimir Putin's Popularity rating rose to 83% during the Russia-Ukraine war.^[107]

Views on communism and the Soviet Union[edit]

Russian President Vladimir Putin presents human rights activist Alexander Solzhenitsyn with an award. Solzhenitsyn set in motion the movement that toppled Soviet communism.

Putin famously said, "Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart. Whoever wants it back has no brain."^[109]

Putin has before called the Bolsheviks traitors for Russia's defeat in the First World War.^[110] However, he has also expressed that "[he] liked Communist and socialist ideas very much and [he] like[s] them still." and compared the Soviet code of conduct to the Bible.^[111][112] Putin also has compared communism with Christianity.^[113] Putin has been accused by Western media of embracing the tactics of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.^[114] In addition, he implies in an interview with Larry King dated September 8, 2000 that his Christianity isn't actually sincere by stating in Russian that he "believes in the power of man" or "I believe in human beings." Though a few years later, his faith became more genuine.^[115] Furthermore, around October 2017, he hosted the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students Communist event and gave a speech that strongly implied that he adhered to Communism.^[116][117]

Since passage of Sen. John McCain's Magnitsky Act, also known as the Russia sanctions bill which was signed into law by Barack Obama in an attempt to cripple the Russian Federation, Russia has been driven back into competition with the military-industrial complex It has provided arms and materiel to various communist groups, including Angola, and has voiced a desire to reconnect with Latin America shortly before the FSLN regained power in Nicaragua and has supported Nicaragua via foreign aid, shipping tanks, and even posting a GLONASS tracking station on the Caribbean coast, alongside similar arming of North Korea.^[118][119] Putin is a close ally of the Venezuela's Marxist Dictator Nicolás Maduro which he defends internationally.^[120][121] He also indicated that he still keeps his KGB card while citing his contemporaries within the KGB had discarded theirs after the USSR's fall.^[122]

Views on Islam[edit]

In January 2018 Putin said that "[t]raditional Islam is an integral part of the Russian cultural code". He also vowed to support Islamic religious education.^[123]

Putin has openly endorsed the right of the Chechen people to cultural hegemony in the Chechen Federated Republic of the Russian Federation under Ramzan Kadyrov.^[124] Kadyrov has de facto established Islamic rule in the region and was condemned by the international community for slaughtering gay citizens.^[125] Chechen authorities have imposed a compulsory Islamic dresscode for women.^[126]

Criticism[edit]

According to Western propaganda sources, "Putin's Russia is an authoritarian system, with restricted capitalism, a rubber stamp parliament, compliant media, imprisoned or exiled oligarchs, harassed NGOs, marginalized pro-Western democratic parties, and a foreign policy based on confronting Western hypocrisy, double standards, and cultural decadence, all based on money from oil and gas."^[127][128] Corporate media television host Sean Hannity claims that Putin is a thug and a "bad actor" who cannot be trusted.^[129]

Putin critics allege many political opponents have been "Epsteined" or Arkancided. However many of his countrymen credit Putin with cleaning up corruption, particularly among Western oligarchs and looters. Robert Kraft, an NFL plantation master^[130] who was arrested on a morals charge in Florida, accused Putin of stealing Kraft's Super Bowl ring. Putin responded that Kraft gave it to him as a gift.

Quotes[edit]

• "Anyone who doesn't regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains."^[131]

• “I think all sober-minded people who really are involved in politics understand that the idea of a Russian threat to, for example, the Baltics is complete madness. Are we really about to fight NATO? How many people are there in the NATO countries? About 600 million, correct? There are 146 million people in Russia. Yes, we're the biggest nuclear power. But do you really think that we're about to conquer the Baltics using nuclear weapons? What is this madness?”

• If nukes head towards Russia we are going to Paradise, but they won't have time to repent."^[132]

• "Hitler tried to destroy Russia. Everyone needs to remember how that ended."

• "If you try to bite Russia, we'll knock your teeth out."

• "Berlusconi is being tried because he lives with women. If he were homosexual, no one would lift a finger against him."^[133]

• "There is also the so-called liberal idea, which has outlived its purpose. Our Western partners have admitted that some elements of the liberal idea, such as multiculturalism, are no longer tenable."^[134]

• "Parent number one' and 'parent number two': 'birth parent' instead of 'mother', banning the use of the phrase 'breast milk' and replacing it with 'human milk' so that people who are insecure about their gender will not be upset...This is nothing new...In the 1920s the Soviet so-called kulturträgers also invented the so-called ‘newspeak’, proposing that in this way they could create a new consciousness and change society's values”.^[135]

• "We all hear about the so-called ‘Putin price hike’ in the West. When I see this, I wonder who they expect would buy this stupidity – people who cannot read or write, maybe. Anyone literate enough to read would understand what is actually happening. - Vladimir Putin, June 17, 2022.

• "First, they [the West] jumped ahead, and then, after cutting off Russian gas supplies, returned to everything that was reviled...And if you jump ahead, get cheap Russian gas, and then cut off the supply of this gas yourself and immediately switch back to everything that was previously condemned, including coal-fired generation, this, of course, is not the best option for solving global problems”. - September 5, 2022.

• "I have the impression – and this is particularly true for European countries – that these former colonial powers are still living in the paradigm of colonial philosophy, and they are used to living at the expense of others. They still fail to get rid of this paradigm in their daily policies. But it is time to draw certain conclusions and act differently, in a more civilised manner." - September 16, 2022.^[136]

• "The cost of food on the world market has returned to the levels of the beginning of the year, and it is currently 40 percent higher than in 2020...This is a direct consequence - without any exaggeration - of the predatory policy pursued by the world’s richest countries, which continue to actively buy food using, among other things, the printing of money, which they are constantly carrying out.”

• "There’s a lot of noise right now about our strikes against the energy infrastructure of the neighboring country...Yes we are doing it, but who started it?...Who struck the Crimean bridge?...Who blew up the power lines of the Kursk Nuclear Power Station?...Who is not providing water to Donetsk?...Not providing water to a city of one million is an act of genocide...No one said a word about it anywhere...At all...Complete silence...Just as we make a move, do something in response...Noise and crackle start from the whole universe...This will not stop us from completing military objectives.”

• "Now they are persistently trying to convince you that all your difficulties are the result of some hostile actions of Russia, that you have to pay for the fight against the mythical Russian threat from your own wallet. All this is a lie. And the truth is that the current problems that millions of people in the West face are the result of many years of actions by the ruling elites of their states, their mistakes, myopia and ambitions. Well, how can this be printed in the West?”

• “Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind. It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict. Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world.”

See also[edit]

• Dmitri Medvedev
• Crisis in Ukraine
• Russophobia
• Oleg Deripaska
• Yelena Baturina

Further reading[edit]

• Baker, Peter, and Susan Glasser. Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin's Russia and the End of Revolution (2nd ed. 2007); excerpt and text search
• Goldman, Marshall I. Petrostate: Putin, Power, and the New Russia (2008) excerpt and text search
• Lucas, Edward. The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West (2009) excerpt and text search
• Stuermer, Michael. Putin and the Rise of Russia (2009)
• Wegren, Stephen K., and Dale R. Herspring, eds. After Putin's Russia: Past Imperfect, Future Uncertain (4th ed. 2009) excerpt and text search
• Poleev, Andrej. Putinism: A Phenomenological and Prototypical Investigation. (2012-2021).

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official Putin Website
• Official President of Russia Website
• Horowitz, David, Putin and the shadow of the KGB on the Glazov Gang, Sherman Oaks, California: David Horowitz Freedom Center, Published April 5, 2013.
• WATCH and LISTEN: Putin Sings Russian National Anthem With 130,000 People! (Subtitles and lyrics in closed captioning)
• Vladimir Pozner: How the United States Created Vladimir Putin, YaleUniversity, Oct. 2, 2018. YouTube
• Operation Liberation: In-depth look at the special operation in Ukraine | DIG DEEP DOCUMENTARY, Jun 5, 2022. youtube.com
• Putin 'not a bluff' speech
• PUTIN Is Our Everything. Literally. Do U Want To Know What Inside Putin's Mind? Experience PUTIN AI.
• Portrait of Power: Demystifying Vladimir Putin, by Sean McMeekin, Claremont Review of Books, summer 2022 essays.