Quote:
Originally Posted by icenine
Doesn't it bother you that Putin has been in power for over a decade now and appears to be fixing elections? Not to mention his "stint" as Prime Minister under Mededyev. I guess he did not want to appear too obvious like the old Kremlin leaders like Stalin and Breshnev. And who ever replaces him someday will do the same thing, and could be worse than Putin.
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I yield to extenuating circumstances.
The oligarch Boris Berezovsky and his clique which became very powerful under the drunkard Yeltsin, brought the low level KGB colonel to succeed Yeltsin, but as a puppet.
Surprise, surprise Putin did not play their game. He instituted reforms, notably taxation. The oligarchs were jolted now that they had to pay reasonable taxes, that their political clout was reduced and the free wheeling disorganized system was over.
A lot of them resisted but then had to flee...Berezovsky. Abramovich, Gusinsky etc.
This inflamed papa George Soros, who tried all types of tricks -NGOs, funny demonstrations etc. Only a man of Putin capability could survive, could rebalance the state and save it from looters with foreign tentacles.