If you have questions about Russia - come here! (Poll added!)

[famousringo]

Sharu said:

kowenicki said:
How did those oligarchs get away with stealing all the assets of the russian people? I mean, obviously they paid corrupt politicians or were friends of theirs... but why did the russian people roll over and accept it?

Its a hard question. When they was stealing the country our people was cheated by our authorities, and then was too weak. You know, when your main problem is where to get money for food - you don't think about politics. 90s was a very hard times for our country. Then in the start of 2000 everything start getting better. And still getting better - maybe not so good as we want but still! )

It's been my impression that the general Russian population knows their top officials are corrupt, authoritarian thugs who are supressing freedom, but they put up with it because whenever they try to get rid of the corrupt authoritarians, things get worse. So it was with the Czars, the bolsheviks, and now under Putin's regime. The reason Russia likes its strongmen is because those strongmen generally bring more prosperity to the average Russian than the chaos which reigns between authoritarian regimes.

Is that more or less an accurate assessment?