[Early 2000's] Putin says the idea of taking away Crimea from Ukraine will have terrible consequences for Russia
[Early 2000's] Putin says the idea of taking away Crimea from Ukraine will have terrible consequences for Russia
Early 2000's, Putin is asked "what are our main problems with Ukraine" by a journalist and categorically replies that "Russia doesn't want to take Crimea from Ukraine" and such thinking would trigg...
I mean.....he's not wrong.
Sacrifices he was willing to make
"Some of you may die..."
Yeah, he really should have listened to his younger self.
At this point we have to assume that every politician is always lying.
If we accept it as a norm there's nothing more stopping them. You can't point at one and push him/her out of politics, when it's a broadly shared assumption they all lie equally. If the cynical position becomes the norm, all trust is obliterated and the society becomes dysfunctional, unable to expect any standards, expectations of positive outcomes. This is to the benefit of the particularly cynical and corrupt in power, it is very much against the society. It also blocks any chances for a self-organised response, as instantly anyone who becomes a leader in any noticeable way, or simply a speaker for any concept or vision is expected to be as corrupt, and so there's no chance for creating or promoting an alternative.
The sad thing is you can tell it's all a vanity project for him. It's his last ditch effort to unify the USSR before he dies. All this needless death for one weak monster's ego.