Former KGB agent Vladimir Putin was hand-picked by Boris Yeltsin as his successor. Yeltsin was a drunk, and he miscalculated badly in picking Putin. Instead of building democratic norms and institutions, Putin embarked on a long-term plan to restore the USSR. After serving as president of Russia from 2000-2008, he was succeeded by a puppet (Dimitri Medvedev), then resumed the presidency in 2012. The national legislature extended his term to 2036. Anyone who seriously threatens him ends up in prison or dead.
In a startling development, one of Putin’s most strident sycophants abruptly turned against him. Ilya Remeslo, a lawyer, was known as a reliable lapdog for Putin. He regularly testified in trials against Alexei Navalny.
Pjotr Sauer wrote in The Guardian:
For years, Ilya Remeslo was a reliable pro-Kremlin operator, going after critics of the regime and smearing independent journalists, bloggers and opposition politicians.
Then the 42-year-old lawyer abruptly turned on the country’s most powerful man. Late on Tuesday, Remeslo posted a manifesto to his 90,000 Telegram followers titled: “Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin.”
In it, he accused the “illegitimate” Russian president of waging a “failing war” in Ukraine that had caused millions of casualties and wrecked the economy, and argued that Putin’s more than two decades in power illustrated how “absolute power corrupts”, calling on him to step aside….
Doubling down on his earlier remarks, he told the Guardian on Wednesday from his flat in St Petersburg: “Vladimir Putin should resign and be put on trial as a war criminal. His personalised, corrupt system is doomed to collapse, as we’re seeing now with the war in Ukraine and elsewhere.
“The army isn’t advancing in Ukraine, and the war is going nowhere. There are massive losses. We are fighting over tiny territories that will ultimately give Russia nothing.”
He went on to criticise Putin’s authoritarian rule, the state of the economy and Moscow’s recent push to shut down internet access. “This man [Putin] has destroyed everything he could lay his hands on. The country is literally falling apart,” Remeslo said.
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
What would Yeltsin know about democratic norms? He opened the country to be plundered by western powers, leaving his own people in poverty and misery. I’ll keep saying it – Putin reversing that is why he’s popular in Russia – their standard of living is now the best it’s ever been.
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Oh those lucky Russians!
To have a guy like Putin in charge!
Invaded Ukraine, four years ago, but don’t call it a “war,” or you will be locked up as a criminal.
Don’t try to read a newspaper that is independent. They have all been shuttered.
Don’t criticize Putin. You will be arrested.
No wonder he is so “popular!”
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Among other wildly popular moves by Putin is his “special action” in Ukraine, which has cost the lives of at least 250,000-300,000 Russians, with over 1 million casualties. That does not include deaths of friendly North Korean troops who “volunteered” to help their Russian brethren “denazify” Ukraine.
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” their standard of living is now the best it’s ever been.” Oh? Would you care to grace this claim with the silly formality of, you know, evidence?
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Putin says so. That’s evidence!
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Russian enjoys nearly full employment and housing as well as universal single-payer healthcare, none of which they had under Yeltsin who allowed the rape of the country (and, incidentally, none of which Americans have).
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Putin and Yeltsin both created billionaire oligarchs. If they make the mistake of criticizing Dear Leader, they lose their fortune and their life.
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I remind you that I don’t post your insults directed at me.
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Recently, I saw a video online demonstrating how itsy bitsy the apartments in Russia are today. UGH, they were very cramped and truly awful –while Putin is living in the lap of luxury… (Not sure exactly where I saw it all but I think it was YouTube, so I suggest searching there.)
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At least they have apartments. Two million Americans don’t.
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BTW, the Clintons, the Bushes, the Obamas, the Bidens and the Trumps all live in the lap of luxury too.
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Oh, and sorry to keep spamming, but I also have to point out that about 2 million Americans have very small “apartments” – otherwise known as prison cells or shared detention space such as ICE detention. We have one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world, substantially higher than Russia’s (541 per 100,000, compared to Russia’s 300, according to Wikipedia). Russia may be an authoritarian country, but pot, kettle.
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Russia is like heaven, as you describe it. If only we were as advanced as Russia and as humane. Of course, the 250,000-300,000 Russian soldiers who died trying to conquer Ukraine don’t need even a cell. Just a hole in the ground.
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About the same number of Ukrainian soldiers that we are funding also only need a hole in the ground.
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Russian war deaths vastly exceed Ukrainian war deaths.
The Ukrainians are fighting for the survival of their country and their culture.
The Russians are fighting to subjugate Ukraine.
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Only if you believe U.S. propaganda.
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You believe Russian propaganda and swallow it whole.
I have no hesitation criticizing the U.S. government and its leader. I can oppose Trump and American policy without fear that I will be arrested, imprisoned and possibly murdered.
You are incapable of saying a critical word about Putin, who has power for 26 years and has another 19 years to go. And you seem to think that Russia is a paradise under the wise leadership of Putin the Great.
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You’re only willing to criticize the current U.S. government and leader. You rarely have a negative word for the Democrats because you’re part of their cult.
And the idea of “Russian propaganda” is risible. Where would this propaganda be coming from? Pravda, RT, Sputnik and other Russian sources are nearly impossible to find here. What you’ve been marinating in all your life is American, anti-communist propaganda. It’s baked into every newscast, newspaper, TV show, movie, nearly every shred of media and entertainment. Do you think you just spontaneously care about some random Russian “dissident” because it popped into your head independently? Or could it be because you’ve been fed a narrative? Same with Maria Corina Machado, whose rallies attracted maybe tens of thousands while Maduro’s rallies attracted millions. But you’ve been trained to believe that Maduro is a “hated dictator” and Machado is a “fearless resistance leader”. These portrayals go back all the way through post-WWII history – the U.S. always tries to prop up some marginal character and present them as the “leader” of the “resistance”.
BTW, how far through KILLING HOPE are you by now? THE JAKARTA METHOD? THE DEVIL’S CHESSBOARD? Would love to discuss them with you.
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Dienne,
You have swallowed Putin propaganda whole.
I criticized Obama whenever I thought he was wrong, and his education policies were disastrous. He was also wrong to let Putin seize Crimea, which was part of Ukraine.
I worked in the first George H.W. Bush administration, not the act of a member of a Democratic “cult.”
I love this country. I love the Constitution.
I have traveled in the Soviet Union and in Soviet satellite states. I traveled in Cambodia, Vietnam and China.
Our system is far superior to what they had and what they have.
Putin is the rotten remnant of a disastrous political system. Communism failed. It facilitated the rise of corrupt and vicious dictators like Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao, Castro, and Putin.
I despise Trump because he is undermining the Constitution, because he has chosen unqualified people to lead government agencies, because he is ignorant and corrupt. If I were in Russia and said the same about Putin, I would be arrested.
Your hatred for America is sad.
Of course, you are free to disagree and continue hating America. You couldn’t do the same in Russia.
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Communism didn’t “fail”, it was actively destroyed anytime even a hint of it popped up anywhere. Soviet “communism” was what it was because the U.S. undermined it from 1917 onwards. Stalin did a lot of what he did (which I will admit was monstrous) because the U.S. deliberately provoked him to paranoia (and just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.) Again, if you have an open mind, I encourage you to read any of the books I have recommended, especially KILLING HOPE. The U.S. has always been about protecting corporate “rights” to resources, including and especially those belonging to other countries. Whenever any country has tried to protect its citizens and hold onto its own resources, the U.S. has crushed them.
And, free advice, worth every penny: give up the “Putin propaganda” nonsense. It just makes you look bad.
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Communism failed by every measure.
No free elections. No fair trials. No rule of law. No free speech.
Stalin was a brutal dictator. He murdered millions of his citizens.
Mao was a brutal dictator. He murdered millions of his citizens.
Pol Pot was a brutal dictator. He murdered millions of his citizens.
Communism was a massive failure. The elites had special stores where they could buy whatever they wanted. The ordinary people stood in long lines hoping to buy a tomato or a banana.
No more conversation on this topic, Dienne. You are woefully uneducated and you spout nonsense.
I visited Russia when it was the USSR; also Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, East Germany, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Cuba. Did you?
Please read “The Black Book of Communism,” written by French historians.
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One of the reasons that Putin silenced and murdered Alexei Navalny was that Navalny and his team of investigators documented Outin’s wealth and luxurious lifestyle. He is a multibillionaire, thanks to the generosity of Russian oligarchs who cut him in on their profits.
Navalny’s film is called “Putin’s Palace.” The palace cost over $1 billion to construct and is one of the most obscenely luxurious compounds in the world.
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dienne77’s nasty comments here are really beyond the pale.
You called her out on her refusal to criticize ANYTHING Putin does, while she attacks you because you don’t criticize Democrats “enough” – the way she does BECAUSE she was completely confident that she would not be poisoned or thrown out of a window or imprisoned because she called Democrats baby killers.
Has dienne77 been ranting about Trump being a baby killer because of the US attacks on Iran? She seems to believe that the worst atrocities are not worth criticizing if a Democrat or Israel can’t be blamed for them.
Are you sure this account wasn’t taken over by a right wing or Russia troll? They can be identified by their not being allowed to say anything negative about Putin or Trump (except to criticize their personalties or looks). And their over the top attacks on Dems, especially to always change the subject when a Republican or Putin atrocity is being criticized which always seems to bother her a lot more than the atrocity itself.
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FYI to our resident Putin-fan:
If a politician is actually POPULAR, they don’t have to violently repress people who criticize them.
Did you think the most violent bully was “popular” with all the people being bullied because none of them were willing to speak out?
There is no way to know how popular someone is if people who might not like them are too terrified to speak out. You are fearless in saying the nastiest things about Democrats – eagerly calling them babykillers (a term you never use to characterize Trump or Putin — are you too scared to do that?)
Books like The Chocolate War used to teach that some forms of “popularity” are just about people knowing that saying anything about critical about those with power leads to direct harm on themselves and their families. But no worries, with your help, the US will soon be in that place, and as in Russia, your view will be very very “popular” with those who want to remain alive.
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I assume he is somewhere in the EU. Or has been diagnosed with a terminal illness.
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A day after his comments he was placed in a psychiatric ward!!!! When does he commit “suicide,” cough, cough?
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He knew what he was doing and the risks.
Waiting to see what the charges are.
Maybe “concern” for his mental health. Locked away forever or until his mysterious death.
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Wow, does Remeslo have a death wish or is something else going on below the surface that we are not aware of. Such as a possible coup by Putin’s enemies or the military? Maybe the military leadership is ready to revolt?
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Phew. I hope this doesn’t, either metaphorically or literally, turn into a one-way trip to Lubyanka Square for this civic-minded man.
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Any supposed good that Putin has done (which I seriously doubt) is totally negated by his evil and malignant dictatorial rule through fear, imprisonment, and death to anyone who challenges his royal highness. Even those who flee Russia are not safe, Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London. Dienne breezes right by the fact that Putin is a vicious tyrant and ruthless murderer, not to mention war monger. Oh but he makes the trains run on time.
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