I DVRed it today here on Sunday February 20th 2022. Since we might be dealing with another Hitler or Stalin in Putin it's important to understand who we are facing here as Americans as well as all the democracies on earth. IT's an eerie time reminiscent of the Cuban Missile Crisis in many ways. Even though it is a different kind of standoff where we are not leading with nuclear weapons, it still must be understood that both sides still have them including Russia, the U.S., England, France, Germany, Israel, Pakistan, India and China and North Korea (and many more could also secretly have nuclear weapons that they bought from North Korea or Pakistan which both sell nuclear weapons to interested parties.
For example, from Law School Putin was assigned to the KGB and sent to East Germany in the 1980s as a Colonel of the KGB there. So, according to him this was chosen not by him. However, he did say this is what he wanted (whether this last statement is true or not is debatable) at least when he graduated Law school in Leningrad.) Or he needs to say this for some reason that we might not understand at this point. At this point likely every step that brought him to be the head of Russia shouldn't be underestimated in his journey upward into the Russian Government would be useful to him in getting him to be the leader of Russia that he presently is. In my lifetime I think there is no leader of Russia who has been the head of Russia longer than Putin. So, that is really saying something about how very skilled the KGB was in training him originally.
Another interesting point that I never would have guessed because I grew up in the U.S. was that when Yeltsin wanted to appoint him as acting Prime Minister he didn't want to do it. His reason was interesting.
What he said was that if he served as acting Prime Minister and was fired by Yeltsin (whose health was failing) for any reason that he and his children could be killed by any factions because he would no longer have bodyguards protecting he and his children. I found this an amazing admission and this told me a lot about how brave (or foolhardy) he had to be to accept the job as Prime Minister while Yeltsin was dying basically from Alcohol poisoning because Yeltsin was an alcoholic. So, you can see just how dangerous it was for him to allow himself to be appointed Acting prime minister before Yeltsin died. Putin has been prime minister of Russia basically (in one form or another) since January 1st 2000 AD.
He also said that his philosophy of life is summed up by the philosophy of Judo (the martial art) of which Putin is a practitioner.
by the way:
Judo means the “Gentle Way” in Japanese. “Maximum Efficiency with Minimum Effort,”
Another interesting thing Putin said is that Russian government debt is about 12 percent of their GDP whereas U.S. national debt is at 100% of GDP per year which might not be sustainable much longer. So, is Putin attacking Ukraine to try to bankrupt the U.S.? This might be an interesting question in itself.
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