--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> >
> I can't count the number of times I've been hanging
> with a group of
> lefties and say that Putin's pretty good, all things
> considered. They
> look at me like I'm a vicious nut.
Why? What's he done besides drop the poverty rate in half and crush the stranglehold of big business over the state? I had thought these were lefty causes. Has Chavez halved the poverty rate yet? Don't these people read Stephen Cohen? ;) (BTW, why, given who Cohen is, are his wife's Russia-related Nation pieces so seemingly ignorant? It makes no sense.) Actually I doubt they are aware that the poverty rate has been halved, or that Russian consumption has recovered from the economic crash that it now exceeds the Soviet level.
I suggest a survey: the next time this happens, ask the people involved who and what started the Second Chechen War. See how many answer "Khattab and Basaev, the jihadi invasion of Dagestan" and how many say "Putin" (who BTW wasn't president yet).
Incidentally, I'm flying to the US for the first time in four years next week -- stopping over in NYC and then on to Connecticut. Are there any cultural shocks I should be bracing myself for? :)
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