Vladimir Putin, long time president of Russia and a corrupt former KGB officer is facing a lot of scrutiny at home after he had his goons try to poison Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader.
Twitter is trending with the protests.
It’s on all the networks, like CNN.
Putin has enriched himself and worked with the oligarchs that used their Soviet era power to grab ownership of large industries and businesses. Why were their so many billionaires in Russia as soon as the Communist, private property shunning U.S.S.R. collapsed? One word: Corruption.
Putin also has visions of growing Russia and maintaining the former influence and borders of the U.S.S.R which expanded beyond the bounds of the former Russian Empire. Those in power in the Soviet Union also grabbed wealth and orchestrated influence and control.
Putin has expanded into Ukraine. Putin is aided in his expansionist dreams by the policy of the Tsars and Commissars to spread ethnic Russians across the landmass. These “citizen ‘boots on the ground'” help assert claims to the land where they live. Similar to how Israel builds settlements in Palestinian territory to back their claim that that land is part of Israel.
Putin dreams of the power and influence like that once held by the rulers of the Soviet Union. His ability to lead Trump around by the nose has allowed him to influence nations allied and friendly to the U.S. to break down former trust and unity. Putin must be laughing all the way to more entrenched power at home due to the ways Trump just let him have his way.
Syria is a mess, refugees and opposition to the Assad regime were abandoned and slaughtered. Iraq is a mess. Afghanistan is a mess and we’re just leaving. Iran is at a heightened state of tension with the U.S. North Korea is still North Korea and continued doing their dynasty entrenching regime building at the expense of the bulk of the population.
China let the COVID-19 virus out and withheld facts so that the rest of the world is in terrible shape from it.
Nuclear Treaties were allowed to lapse, or just cancelled.
I grew up in the Cold War and the thought of dying from the aftershocks of nuclear war were ever present, most likely radiation poisoning, or starvation due to nuclear winter.
The break up of the Soviet Union and the rise of unfettered terrorist organizations reacting to the meddling of superpowers in local affairs brought us to the world of today.
We need to build trust and help instill hope for a better future to best combat terrorism. Russia, China, the U.S. and all other powerful countries must stop official actions and the actions of private citizens and businesses from cheating whole nations while making the leaders of those nations more corrupt and more wealthy.
All nations need to hold their leaders accountable. Trump was voted out and his schemes of wealth and power appear to be crumbling with his defeat. His businesses are losing money and he has lots of real estate loans due in the next few years. If he and his family lose the bulk of their wealth and influence, maybe it will serve as a warning to others.
Senators, representatives, and all elected officials should not leave office more wealthy than they started. Only their blind trusts should allow their wealth to increase. No elected leader should be able to profit from their knowledge of secret intel, like some did with COVID-19.
In Russia, the people need to rise up and break up the political machine Putin has co-opted from the Soviet years. He has allowed the illusion of democracy and voting matters. Unlike the claims about the 2020 Presidential Election being rigged, the claims about Putin’s re-elections are definitely rigged. He traded offices with someone due to constitutional limits, then had the constitutional limits changed, and is back to the office he was once limited from keeping.
One should not trust Putin or any other politician who seeks to stay in power beyond purposeful limits on power. Those persons are liars, thugs, and dangerous to peace in the world.
Other countries can’t do much to limit Putin beyond sanctions, and acts of war. Rogue actions like assassination are extremely bad options as it risks creating a martyr or a worse person coming to power in the chaos. It also risks war. Only the people rising up en masse can stand a chance to make a change.
Thankfully, in the U.S. the nut jobs that ate up the nonsense Trump & cronies spewed, have fallen victim to internal debates when their incitement to further insurrection got their organizational platforms to block them or were shut down. We need some way to weed out crazy conspiracy theories and prevent them from gaining traction. Internet companies have all the data. They can stop the crazy.
Anti-vaxers & anti-maskers used to be the most dangerous, but insurrectionists who think they are defending democracy by ignoring a truly fair election are even worse. All the anti-science, anti-truth loons need their “drug supply” of lies and lunacy cut off so they can hopefully detox and regain their senses.