| bouzane said: ''The guy before him was Boris Yeltsen. Putin I believe is more popular, though it's not that much of a differnece since they're essentially two peas in a pod.'' WHAT?!?!? They're the polar opposites. Yeltsen was pro-democracy, friendly to the West and led Russia to absolute financial ruin whereas Putin has consolodated power, stood up to America and restored some semblance of economic well-being within his nation. Personally, I am utterly perplexed that there is any opposition to Putin within Russia, it's like people forgot the extreme hardship thrust upon them by the incompetents who formerly ran the country into the ground. |
Yelstsen and He are equally as corrupt.
And though he was scapegoated for the economy, there isn't anyone who was going to end up doing well in that transition.
Putin was only benefiting from coming in at the end of the process after the pain from transitioning came about and market transitions were complete. He's only gotten in the way of Russias economy.
http://www.iie.com/publications/papers/paper.cfm?ResearchID=974
