© Sputnik/ Ramil Sitdikov
Dimitri Simes, National Interest: 5 Things You Need to Know about Putin's Popularity in Russia
"Even if the West succeeds in further weakening Putin economically, it may up end up strengthening his position domestically."
Since the crisis in Ukraine erupted, there has been a growing disconnect between how Russian president Vladimir Putin is perceived in the West and at home. In the former, policymakers and media commentators have been very vocal in denouncing the Russian leader's actions in Ukraine, and the opinion of the general public in those countries is similarly critical. By contrast, the reaction of Putin's domestic audience couldn't be anymore different and Putin appears quite popular. Here are five reason why this is the case:
Update: US Magazine Unveils Secret Behind Putin's Popularity in Russia -- Sputnik
WNU Editor: The author of the above post (Dimitri Simes) has been commenting on U.S. - Russian relations for decades, and he is definitely not a supporter of Putin .... but he is spot on in this analysis. Regular readers of this blog know that every month or two I put a post on Putin's popularity (or lack of), and I do my own informal and unprofessional poll among my Russian family members, friends, and associates. Bottom line .... he is still very popular ... and I am still the only critic in my entourage.
5 comments:
I always thought to myself " Pootin's" approval rating is too good to be true
Unfortunately Andrew .... in Russia Putin is very popular. Those numbers do not reflect what people feel in the countryside .... and over there his support is even more rock solid.
"Is Russian President Putin 'High Approval Rating' In Russia For Real?"
Are approval rating in the U.S. for real?
Point 4 in the article is especially spot on. The sanctions are helping Putin. Furthermore I don't see how we or the Western Europeans can afford to keep sanctions in place. In other words, we/they are going to hurt ourselves more the longer they go on than it hurts Russia and we will be forced to remove them anyway long before they change Russia's behavior.
Point 2 is also correct. The Ukraine situation is helping Mr. Putin.
What the US should do immediately is disavow all support for the sanctions against Russia and act in word and deed to oppose them in any way we can and the US should act in word and deed to support Russia's position with regards to Ukraine in both word and deed.
I'm under no delusions that the Western Europeans would support such a position. In fact, I'd expect a vigorous pushback by them against us for ending American sanctions against Russia and supporting the Russian position with regards to the Ukrainian war. With that said the Western European pushback will be ALOT less bad than the Russian pushback against us would be. As such, supporting the world's most powerful nation in this situation when support or at least GETTING OUT OF IT has minimal to no costs and carries with it the possibility of huge benefits would seem to be an easy decision.
WNU: I have been following this blog for a long time, apparently, because I knew verbatim what your comment was going to say before I read it!
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