As some of you may know, Putin was a KGB operative in East Germany before the collapse of the USSR. Of course he needed something to do, so out of nowhere he maneuvered himself into making himself deputy mayor of St. Petersburg. From there to Moscow and ever higher.

The KGB turned into the FSB. During the transition in between, a remarkable amount of files were open for scrutiny for maybe a year, but that’s another story.

Late 90’s saw those 4 apartment buildings blown up with a thousand killed. The Chechens were blamed for it, and then the big war really got under way.

Interesting that people in a 5th building found a big load of explosives and detonators in their basement that never went off. The materiel was all professional military quality, not home grown. No investigation was done at all, likely because, well, it might as well been all put there by the FSB or similar anyway. Gee whiz, this stunt has never been done before…….or since………..

Because of Russian media control (and in spite of some opposition), a large number of Russians think Putin is great.

Putin fun facts:

Worth 40 billion dollars. He got a good start when, while still in St. Petersburg as a deputy mayor, he and his buddies stole $125 million earmarked for emergency food supplies during a disaster. After leaving St. Petersburg to go to Moscow, he made sure the mayor was protected.

Yeltsin’s crew was in trouble. Putin did some wheeling and dealing to advance himself while Yeltsin was still in power. In return, Yeltsin was protected later.

After in power, ordered a $10 million dollar mansion for himself. By the time it was done, somehow it magically transformed into a $250 million palace. Of course he didn’t pay for it himself.

Any Russian leader like Putin needs to stay in power indefinitely so no one can come after him later after he leaves power. Currently, he is scheduled to be in power until at least 2024 (or 2026), in spite of the Russian constitution.

My informed opinion:

Putin has said he’s really worried about the shrinking Russian population. People aren’t procreating for a bunch of reasons besides economics. Women regard only half the men as suitable partners because the rest are abusive and/or drunks. Many of the mail order brides from Ukraine and Russia are professional women with very good educations, some speak some English. Ages from 20-50 mostly, many 30-45. Some have a kid. The first ideal place to find a husband is the U.S., as American men are regarded as the ultimate catch, because relative to the rest of the world, they treat women very well. Second place is Sweden, third is Germany or Italy.

News report over the past year:

Princeton University along with some other research entities did an analysis of our political system. Result? We don’t live in a democracy, it’s an oligarchy. Granted, it’s a nicer one than Russia.