The late John Pilger on Putin's popularity within Russia
The late John Pilger on Putin's popularity within Russia
The late John Pilger on Putin's popularity within Russia
Let’s clarify why the USA launched destabilization operations all across ex-Warsaw Pact member states and in Russia starting around 2004-2005:
Russia was supposed to be Saudi Arabia 2.0, but Putin rejected Western control of Russian oil output in 2003, and arrested or exiled West-friendly oligarchs like Khodorkovsky, Gusinsky, Berezovsky. Look up the Exxon-Yukos affair (Steve Coll’s book on Exxon covers some of this in the Russia chapter).
Before then Putin was lauded in the US press, visited the GW Bush ranch in Texas (Saudi princelings do that too), and then all of a sudden he was a bad guy dictator.
Putin instead used the oil money to improve Russian quality of life and its industrial base, which is a big no-no for neoliberal imperialists, the IMF/World Bank system, etc.