What happens when Putin is gone?

[WolfpackN64]

Johnw1104 said:

WolfpackN64 said:

Early 2000's? That's the start of Putin's presidency. Boris Yeltsin made so many mistakes that a western-style liberal democracy could never foster. Yeltsin himself was very anti-democratic in his mannerisms. If Yeltsin was even remotly fair in elections, the CPRF would have gottin into power and Russia would have been a very different place it is now.

I said early 2000's precisely because that was the start. Putin has accumulated power over time since then, basically establishing the Prime Minister as little more than his puppet. The picture in the early 2000's was not nearly so bleak as it is now, and I don't feel many others could have bent the system quite like Putin did.

He has been a master chess player. Constantly feeling the boundaries of where he could go with his popularity. Very far it seems. It's gone to the point he can shake off any accusation with a shrug. The question is, was Putin's rise to power a purely Russian fenomena or did outside factors also play a role. Probably both.

Anyway, he has the power, and I don't see him tripping soon. Even if the Russian economy underperforms, I think the failure of Yeltsin is still fresh in Russian minds. Whatever Putin does, he can't sink Russia as low as Yeltsin did.