No, he has represented his party, United Russia before. Yes, Putin has been genuinely popular. But Russian democracy is manipulated in much more direct ways than democracy in the West. For example, in Russia they don't have live debates on television between the incumbent and the opposition candidates. Putin is in the habit of answering questions from the public in televised sessions that last hours but think the questions are quite heavily screened beforehand.
Putin seems like a smart guy with a very high verbal IQ and a sharp sense of humour who is in good physical and mental shape but he is also quite cynical.
Yes, this is true. But I think he does that because he does not want the west to control his country.
The west for a while now have been trying to control countries.
Are there no other patriots in Russia? How come have dozens of countries been able to have long histories of open and fair democratic processes without foreign intervention?
I don't really know, but maybe those other countries were influenced by the west, but they just allowed the west to influence them, but Putin does not want that I guess.
No, he has represented his party, United Russia before. Yes, Putin has been genuinely popular. But Russian democracy is manipulated in much more direct ways than democracy in the West. For example, in Russia they don't have live debates on television between the incumbent and the opposition candidates. Putin is in the habit of answering questions from the public in televised sessions that last hours but think the questions are quite heavily screened beforehand.
Putin seems like a smart guy with a very high verbal IQ and a sharp sense of humour who is in good physical and mental shape but he is also quite cynical.
Yes, this is true. But I think he does that because he does not want the west to control his country.
The west for a while now have been trying to control countries.
Are there no other patriots in Russia? How come have dozens of countries been able to have long histories of open and fair democratic processes without foreign intervention?
I don't really know, but maybe those other countries were influenced by the west, but they just allowed the west to influence them, but Putin does not want that I guess.