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Inside Putin's Circle

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Re: Inside Putin's Circle

#81

Post by AnimalMuppet »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #61

"I believe, however, that Putin and the siloviki (though not many in the wider elites) welcome this isolation [from the west]. They are becoming impressed with the Chinese model: a tremendously dynamic economy, a disciplined society and a growing military superpower ruled over with iron control by a hereditary elite that combines huge wealth with deep patriotism, promoting the idea of China as a separate and superior…

But Putin and Co don't seem to have the tools to create a dynamic economy or a disciplined society. They may admire China; they can't follow the pattern.

Re: Inside Putin's Circle

#82

Post by benatkin »

watwut wrote: post #19
thanatos519 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"other organization with a dress code that requires a gun" ⇒ mafia.

Not all mafia have dress code. Some do, but it is not norm or anything.

A dress code could require wearing a gun (i. e. wearing both a gun and a holster - when someone puts a vest on you say they're wearing a vest even if the vest only touches the shirt - ditto shoes and long socks) and nothing else and it would still be a dress code. I would even say that a policy that you can wear anything is a dress code in the same way the unlicense is a license.

I think that undercover or plainclothes in most cases has enough rules that it constitutes a dress code, even if you think a dress code needs to have rules about more than one article of clothing to be considered a dress code.

Re: Inside Putin's Circle

#83

Post by worik »

Animats wrote: post #41

That's a very useful and important article. So that's who Putin talks to. A very small group who share his worldview: It is the manifest destiny of Mother Russia to have an empire in Eastern Europe. A key point that has emerged from a number of sources is that Putin's crowd has no plan B. This isn't considered by Russia's leadership to be just a military adventure - if it works, great, if it doesn't work, pull back a…

> Historically, this sort of thing ends only when the leader is killed.

Or Russia wins

Re: Inside Putin's Circle

#84

Post by stjohnswarts »

mekkkkkk wrote: post #28

I read an incredibly thorough book about Putin a year or so ago, and what stuck with me is how political his career in the KGB was. In those final years of the USSR, everything was in shambles, and any position of power became so through-and-through political. That makes his rise so interesting and frightening. He has been forged in a dark web of covert slush funds, power projection and kompramat. He was obviously ve…

Seems to me like he has lost that and becoming just an angry old man playing with people's lives because he can.

Re: Inside Putin's Circle

#85

Post by yborg »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #61

"I believe, however, that Putin and the siloviki (though not many in the wider elites) welcome this isolation [from the west]. They are becoming impressed with the Chinese model: a tremendously dynamic economy, a disciplined society and a growing military superpower ruled over with iron control by a hereditary elite that combines huge wealth with deep patriotism, promoting the idea of China as a separate and superior…

The "Chinese model" is as old as civilization and has been implemented and collapsed many times in China itself. If Putin establishes a new czarist dynasty in Russia, it will end up just like the last one.

Re: Inside Putin's Circle

#86

Post by stjohnswarts »

worik wrote: post #83
Animats wrote: post #41

That's a very useful and important article. So that's who Putin talks to. A very small group who share his worldview: It is the manifest destiny of Mother Russia to have an empire in Eastern Europe. A key point that has emerged from a number of sources is that Putin's crowd has no plan B. This isn't considered by Russia's leadership to be just a military adventure - if it works, great, if it doesn't work, pull back a…

> Historically, this sort of thing ends only when the leader is killed. Or Russia wins

that's not going to happen. When they try to take a NATO country it's over for them. Possibly over for all of us.

Re: Inside Putin's Circle

#87

Post by worik »

geoka9 wrote: post #56
DamnYuppie wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Business, despite all its press and media to the contrary, isn't war. People are not dying and suffering and you don't really face any repercussions from your actions. War is a totally different thing so asking people to "move fast and break things" doesn't really make sense in that context especially when there are actual physical repercussions. Also why should the people on this site really care? Honestly I get it…

> Also why should the people on this site really care? This war is the closest we've been to a nuclear war since the Caribbean Crisis in 1962. Especially if Russia wins.

We will be much closer if Russia cannot win

Re: Inside Putin's Circle

#88

Post by AnimalMuppet »

Animats wrote: post #41

That's a very useful and important article. So that's who Putin talks to. A very small group who share his worldview: It is the manifest destiny of Mother Russia to have an empire in Eastern Europe. A key point that has emerged from a number of sources is that Putin's crowd has no plan B. This isn't considered by Russia's leadership to be just a military adventure - if it works, great, if it doesn't work, pull back a…

> Historically, this sort of thing ends only when the leader is killed.

Sometimes not even then. If the person who takes over is also a true believer in this manifest destiny, it can go on until all the believers in the inner circle die off.

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