Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
According to Putin, the fall of the Soviet Union (or Russian Empire as it really was) is the biggest catastrophe of the 20th century. I think that is what makes him so dangerous. His whole life's work has been to correct what in his mind was the worst thing to ever happen. You can't talk sense into someone like that. He knows that his time left on the Earth is finite and if he is going to avenge Russia, he has to make a move now.
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Soviet Union was a lot of things that really can't be summed up with just calling it a Russian empire.
Putin of course might see it differently, I have no idea. It's extremely difficult to know what he actually believes and what's just a show for one audience or another.
My GUESS is that Putin also has a lot of complicated opinions about the Soviet Union that can't be easily summed up.
I do think he (like many who worked in intelligence agencies), is a firm believer that politics are primarily a game of power. You play the game to get more power, and when you have power you use it to get more power. This applies to factions, individuals and nations, now and forever. It's quite possible that he doesn't really have much ideals beyond some fairly vague nationalism. He does what he does because he believes it's what you do, and he's good at it so it works for him.
Hell, he's
extremely good at that game, somewhat obviously when you consider that he very likely is the most powerful individual in the world right now.
(Putin, or at least his regime, is genuinely just amazingly good with power games, if I was in the mood I could talk quite a lot about it.)