Vladimir Putin (RIA Novosti / Alexei Druzhinin)
Russia’s Vladimir Putin Keeps Westerners Guessing On His Strategies, Intentions -- Washington Times
Strength quietly lifted former KGB yes-man to leader
MOSCOW — When ailing Russian President Boris Yeltsin named his little-known prime minister, Vladimir Putin, as his “heir” to the Kremlin in 1999, few understood much — if anything — about the motivations and ambitions of the former KGB officer.
Mr. Putin may be vastly more famous as president almost 15 years later, but the world still struggles to figure out his strategies and intentions. As Russia and the West engage in a Cold War-style crisis over Ukraine, U.S. analysts acknowledge that they often have little idea what Mr. Putin is planning.
“We don’t even know what game he’s playing, much less his strategy. That’s why he’s outplaying us,” said Clifford Gady, a Russia researcher at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
The answer is simple to many Russians who credit Mr. Putin, 61, with dragging their country from the post-Soviet abyss and restoring some of its international prestige.
Read more ....
My Comment: This Washington Times post only covers less than one percent on the who and what Putin is .... and if I was to do a post it will take me about a year and approximately 500 pages ... and I will still only cover about 10 percent. Suffice it to say that he is not like any other Russian leader in the past century .... and I predict that bearing ill health, he will stay in office until he dies while keeping Westerners guessing on what are his strategies and intentions in the interim.
3 comments:
They underestimated this guy big time and he's giving them a big dose of reality that they don't know what to do with. By the time of the Syrian red line and gas affair Putin knew that the West and Obama are all bluff and laid his plans accordingly. A telling part in the above article is recounting his KGB posting to East Germany as essentially pedestrian. That was Stasi's Marcus Wolf's territory, the KGB would never send anyone "average" to serve there.
You are right about his East German posting .... guys who were amateurs were never posted there. As to his rise to power .... all the credit has to go to Yeltsin. He spotted Putin when he was young, and he liked his uncompromising pro-Russian stance. More to the point .... and here is some inside baseball .... both Putin and Yeltsin were never accepted by the "elites" in Russia .... it is Putin's anti-establishment creds that Yeltsin liked more than anything else, and it was his way of giving them the finger when they pushed him out.
Flash forward to today .... Putin has still not been accepted by the elites .... and this .... more than anything else .... is still the biggest threat to his rule. But he has been consistent in making them rich .... and he leaves them alone as long as they leave alone.
Russian - Kremlin politics is quite a study .... if you take the trouble and time to learn.
"both Putin and Yeltsin were never accepted by the "elites" in Russia .... it is Putin's anti-establishment creds that Yeltsin liked more than anything else, and it was his way of giving them the finger when they pushed him out. " Didn't know that one, a lot of things now make sense.
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