Quote Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai View Post
IMO Dmitri Medvedev was a puppet.
Putin has made way too many enemies to give up the protection of his power.
IMO he represents the biggest danger to the Russian people. He is the ball and chain on the leg of Russian development. All of these Russian satellite states share with Russia , a history, common culture , and language. they have all the ingredients for a successful federation . except for the fear of the Putin Kleptocracy. The Russian government shows all the hallmarks of organized crime.
None of this is actually true but I understand why you think that being only exposed to the US media. Mikhail Gorbachev lives comfortably in Moscow to this day. He lost the Russian empire. Boris Yeltsin bankrupted Russia in 1998. He lived comfortably in Moscow too. Putin rebuilt the nation from the ground up. He will be fine.

The bigest tech start-up in all of Europe is Yandex. The 5th biggest search engine in the world. Russian company.

The most popular antivirus in all of Europe is Kasperski. A Russian company.

One of the top 3 Internet server companies in the world is Ngnx. A Russian company. Telegram is one of the biggest social media platforms in Europe. A Russian company.

Tell me one economic metric that makes you believe that Putin is holding up Russian development.