The problem with Russia is the Russian people. This is clear from the recent events in the Ukraine which tie in with Russian history. Russians demand empire, satraps, inferiors to be managed, and glory. The Ukraine is but another chapter in that long story. It also reflects the deep paranoia Russians have about the 'West', in which they place the Ukraine.

Since the early 13^th century, Russians have fought against and defeated Western invasions: the Teutonic Knights, Poles, Lithuanians, the Swedes under Charles XII, Napoleon, the Nazis and even post-world War I a melange of Japanese, Americans, British, Canadian and Czechs who intervened in the Communist-created civil war which killed 10-15 millions. The lost episodes in the Crimea against the British, Turks and French, and the pasting by the Japanese at Port Arthur are exceptions rather than the rule. For much of their history the Russians did eventually, beat off their Western enemies.

Thus losing the Cold War was a national psychological as well as a human, economic, environmental, and spiritual disaster of enormous proportions. The Russian national-socialist system, named Communism, simply imploded. Without firing a gun the West had 'beat' the Russians, and in particular the hated Americans, lampooned by Russians, their media and their political oppressors, had somehow pushed Russia into bankruptcy. Even today, many Russians, probably a third, still believe that Communism was a great system – notwithstanding the 30 million dead, the KGB, the economic destruction, the lack of jobs, communal apartments, no free speech, no freedom, endless and quite stupid propaganda, no technology, no industry......

Russian history and culture is East-facing and deeply anti-Western, it is an Oriental brew, akin in many ways to the Arab view of the world and even of life.  Putin is a disaster because he destroys any hope of a reformation so badly needed in a psyche so deformed by history and propaganda. 

The Russian invasion of the Ukraine is not only illegal, it is rather insipid. $500 billion will leave Russia this year – roughly 40% of total GDP. This capital flight is the real 'vote' on what Putin is doing, not corrupt one-party elections or 'polls' of people constantly inundated with mindless propaganda.

For example on Russian TV it is stated as a fact, that the Malaysian passenger jet and its 298 dead innocents, was shot down by the Americans who then blame Russia. Further it is America which is financing the Ukraine and pushing it into war with Russia. America wants war it is declared, because its economy is so bad. Even more lurid are the claims that the Ukrainian government are 'fascists' killing Jews, innocent Russians and bombing villages.  Pan-shots of eradicated villages are offered, with sad faced Russian speakers offering vivid portraits of this fascism.  

So spaketh Pravda.  It is pathetic in the extreme. But the bizarre fact is that all of Russia believes this vomit of propaganda. At least 80% of Russians believe that their media – all of it state owned – are truth tellers. This is akin to someone in the West equating the BBC or BC, BS stations with news and information. Ridiculous. Until Russians begin to think for themselves and demand changes Putinism will be the norm forever.