you are forgiven minion

I did not "defend" anyone as you charge. I was just awed by the absolute, boastful certainty of your opinion and was stunned by corresponding with someone so obviously important and so high up on the information line. I would never presume to question your superior position .please forgive my insolence and audacity.

and your sarcasm is noted ... You just changed the subject from pukeon being a thief, dictator, criminal etc to talking about USA politicians who are bad BUT certainly not anywhere to the same degree. Defend pukon if you;d like, THEN we cn debate USA politicians

To think like Putin mix Orthodox mysticism with communist ideology pragmatism and totalitarian experience with visions of lost glory (false) and you can think like Putin. Castro is just switch catholic for Orthodox but keep communist orthordoxy. Putin has never experienced anything but totalitarian power to take and destroy over individuals . The Russian people are unaware of the idea of individual sovereignty and cowed into submission. Nuts to Hillsdale's whitewash.

Hear, Hear!

Thanks for the insight!

The author forgot to take into consideration who the Russians are ethnically, spiritually and historically. Putin demonstrates himself as a true Slav. He wants to unite all the the Slavic states into one super-state. He not only supports the Orthodox Church but also Pagan music bands and Pagan Spiritual groups tied to ancient Slavic Mythology. It's not only Russian sovereignty plus the Slavic Mythos that drives Putin.

Apparently you are privy to special info . You apparently don't like him. American politicians are very special because they are all above the law and never hurt a soul. We are very lucky to be blessed with such saints.. Hope your info serves you well.,

The maniacal midget is worse than anything you can imagine , and your attempt at sarcasm is ridiculous. Pukeon blatantly assassinates people who cross him.

I'm sitting by Maidan in downtown Kyiv as I write this. I have seen what he and his henchman do to this country. The hacking of utilities, the draining of a trillion dollars from the economy because Ukraine has to protect itself from the midget's aggression.

Not to mention the 10,000 people killed by his invasion of Eastern Ukraine in a war that has continued for 3 years now.
http://liveuamap.com/

The midget is not one of the wealthiest, if not the weathiest man in the world because of his salary as leader of the muscovites.

Thanks, please see above.

Thanks AJ, I will do so. haven't read any of her stuff beyond Atlas Shrugged and The Fountain Head, but now I certainly will.

I don't know President Putin as well as you obviously do and know for certain that no politician in our virgin pure system has ever committed any crime. That's why we are so smug and superior. Being best is fun even if it's only make believe.Look how much our last organizer helped our community. Get real!

pukeon and the musovites are looters and thugs ...nothing less

I know she denied that her novel We the Living was a biography, but the insight to the fundamental turning of a nation to soviet communism was too detailed not have been experienced. If you haven't read We the Living by Ayn Rand I strongly suggest it. The very personal level of betrayal at every level was profound.

Why did she leave Russia? Because she knew that she could never survive under Communism or any political state like it. She knew early on that she would never get to get all the education she wanted. She got a degree, but only just. Her father had his pharmacy seized by the government. If you want an idea of what she felt about Russia, read We the Living, the most autobiographical of her novels.

From my point of view knowing where I live the best way to think of Putin is with a nine milimeter hole in his head.

Thanks for the clarification.

Yes, even Pol Pot or Hitler himself.

'The evidence that he murders his opposition is circumstantial but merits scrutiny.'
Nothing to see here. Moving on.

Are we all just sheep to be led down any well-spoken road.
Would it change your minds if we could prove he ordered those people dead?
Or would you just come up with an American parallel and say that's the way power moves.
---
Remember being outraged when Obama was caught live-mic telling Putin he could be more flexible after the 2012 election.
Do we owe him an apology now? Perhaps some accolade for being ahead of the curve?

But you'd choose Putin over Hilary.

Me, I'd still vote for a lying thief over a murderous thug.
But that's just me.

Not that she's wonderful, but versus "anyone or anything?"
Pol Pot? A planet-killer asteroid?

The MSM "newscasts" are appropriately called by the MSM itself as "shows." Which they are - TASS-style, but more entertaining. More exactly, they should be called propaganda shows. As to Caldwell, my reading of him shows a confused pseudo-intellectual (one who has read and studied a lot, but incapable of independent, logical reasoning), and his article displays the confusion. Of course, some things he says are true - for example, that Putin is acting in his and his country's best interests. But so does everyone else (except Obama, who clearly acted with intentional malice toward the US). But of your question as to the reason for the Left-wing media's (or the Left pseudo-intellectuals) fascination with Putin, it is my opinion that they project onto him what they wish for themselves - unlimited power of "their" elites, unlimited feeding at the government troth, government enforcement of their "morality" and elimination of the opposition by any means - a Liberal/Progressive/Leftist/Elitist Paradise.

The reason I posted this was not to put Putin on a pedestal, but to post an alternative viewpoint and discussion material. Does not one wonder why the left-wing media are attempting to cast Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin as coming from the same mold and yet both being tyrants? All we hear in the left-wing media is this story. The problem is that the left-wing media is always totally biased and more often dead wrong than even partially right. So an article that runs counter to this narrative is (IMHO) one worth investigating. It may be - as you say - totally devoid of fact.

I don't think anyone here is attempting to promote Putin's motives as intellectually valid or that the man himself is an advocate of liberty and personal rights. But I think that it may equally be as wrong to paint him as a dictator/tyrant given the situation. I do not put Mr. Putin as a saint, but the author makes several interesting observations and forwards an alternative line of thinking to Mr. Putin's motives which deserve at least some semblance of investigation.

Don't be afraid to post your reasons in detail here. To me, the politics between nations depends much on history and background and to attempt to gloss over or over-simplify does an injustice to impartiality.

Ladies and Gentlemen, dear members of the Gulch,

I am quite surprised, not so much by the errors of Christopher Caldwell in his Imprimis piece on Putin, but more so by the general agreement with him by this distinguished audience. First, let me put Mr. Caldwell into a proper perspective. Harvard educated, writer for several left-wing publications in addition to being a senior editor of the Weekly Standard, Mr. Caldwell appears to be somewhat confused as which camp he wants to belong to. Wanting to be an intellectual and possessing logic, yet unwilling to break away from the Progressive Intellectual establishment, he tries to be on the fence, as evidenced by his other articles where he criticizes Obama, but very carefully, never touching the basis of Obama's socialist evil..

Now, closer to the subject on hand – Putin and Russia. The article has numerous factual errors, which I can list, but that would make my comments rather boring and long-winded. OK, I'll list a few – such as his claim that Russia has recently been frequently humiliated, robbed and misled (as in, by whom? Unless he means by its own ruling class...), or that the country was defenseless back in 2000 (never mind the largest nuclear arsenal in the world backed by a huge army (admittedly weaker than before) and the largest landmass), or that he "disciplined his country's plutocrats" – well, he kind of did – there were multiple mafias and multiple bosses – now there is one Mafia and one Boss. Swallowing Yukos was a symbol of the One Mafia. If one is to be intellectually honest, what should he say about Putin's grab of the Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, or a piece of Georgia? Oh, yes, he reined in Chechnya – really? The Islamic State of Chechnya is today an essentially independent region where slavery (real, hardcore Islamic slavery) is alive and well, with Sharia and their own military. No, of course American "intellectuals" do not like to talk about any other slavery but the American slavery. And finally, Mr. Caldwell sounds very sympathetic to Putin's regret of the former "republics" breaking away – never mind that those were brutally conquered countries that were seized, annexed and sometimes almost exterminated by Russia (czarist or communist, either way).

But the interesting issue here is trying to understand American Intellectuals' view of Putin's Russia. On the one hand, they like what they see – a strong State, autocratic rule with the Party as being always right. The Intellectuals' dream come true – whether it is achieved through communism, socialism or "democratic socialism(!!)" - the Party always wins and in order to be at the feeding troth the Intellectual just needs to join the Party. On the other hand, there is the natural tension between similar systems competing for the leadership role. This is the basis of the Communists hating the Nazis and the Nazis hating the Communists. This is the reason the Democrats hate Trump and Trump hates the Democrats. So, we have this article here, by Mr. Caldwell, that is simultaneously full of sympathy and criticism of Putin, while basing the reasoning for both on perverted facts and twisted logic.

pukeon is a maniacal midget who is conducting the best hybrid war in the world... using Ukraine as his testing grounds ..

Is it 11 or 12 people he has assassinated in the last several years?

There is not a single positive thing anyone should ever say about this thug with a napoleon complex. If odummy had the guts to stand up to him (as we had promised the Ukrainians when they gave up their nukes), the midget would have ran away and cried like all muscovite bullies do.

10,000 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine and in the takeover of Crimea. Oil fields in eastern Ukraine and off shore wells in Crimea (and of course the bases). And the world stood by and let it happen and believed the Pravda bs.

Certainly a first missed opportunity By Bush .