Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday criticized U.S. plans for space-based weapons, saying it was the reason behind a recent Chinese anti-satellite weapons test. ................ U.S. President George W. Bush signed an order in October tacitly asserting the U.S. right to space weapons and opposing the development of treaties or other measures restricting them. Bush has also pushed an ambitious program of space-based missile defense and the Pentagon is working on missiles, ground lasers and other technology to shoot down satellites, the AP reports. ............................... http://english.pravda.ru/news/russia/25-01-2007/86783-space_based-0 We can't expect others to sit idle. How can anyone in the world BE SURE U.S. will play fair game? What if an alcoholic or drug addict or a serial executioner gets elected for a president of the U.S. and decides to overrun them?
Putin may be right (or not, I haven't thought about it deeply enough yet), but to hold the U.S. to the following standard vis-a-vis Putin or his regime, for example, -is laughable in the extreme. Putin is a snake, and his nascent "democracy" is an absolute sham. His corrupt regime potentially poses a grave threat to world stability, in my opinion, due to the looseness with which "former" apparatchiks are apparently doing business (you know, the little items - nuclear weapons, that kind of thing) with anyone willing to pay.
Putin is just as much as crook as some of the other leaders in that region of the world...I believe he was behind that recent spy poisoning as well, although we will never get enough evidence to say that he was behind it.
You are denying the truth here. Putin compared to Bush is like comparing success to failure. "Poll: Vladimir Putin receives 85% approval rating: http://newsfromrussia.com/main/2004/02/02/52110.html Bush's disapproval rating is above 70% "WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush's approval rating stands at 30 percent in the latest Newsweek poll,......http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2007/01/bushs-approval-sags-to-record-low-in.html " How come the Russians are that confident in Putin if "his regime" is sooo corrupt? Every Russian remembers Elcin (the American boy) and his corrupt government. Remember it was our government that sponsored Elcin's presidential campaign.His approval rating was at about 9%. Russians are not that stupid to see who is good and who is not. Just in case you don't know the average Russian has higher IQ than the average American. http://www.dailyhaha.com/linkout.asp?linkID=3590&cat=news Speak the truth and don't be bias. You'll benefit more in the long run by doing so.
Wiki is considering this for deletion as the datasets it used weren't reliable. Just an FYI http://www.nature.com/hdy/journal/v92/n4/full/6800418a.html
Ah, not another "truth" thread.... I have rarely, if ever, seen an unqualified "truth" in the world of politics and social movement; I do the best to seek the truth, to not be biased in doing so, and to cop to it when I am wrong. I form my impressions based on the best information I have. Based on this, I stand by my earlier comments. With respect to your "popularity" data - Hitler also enjoyed an immense popularity rating, for example - does this mean we are to attribute a great character to him? I am not a fan of this president, nor Putin; drawing conclusions on both from available evidence. Oh, and Elcin, the "American Boy." Not sure where you're getting your datapoints, but what I have paints a very different view. Looking at his presidential campaign alone, his rating was anywhere from 70%, compared to 14% for Gorbachev, (Source: US News and World Report, 8 April 1991, 38-39) to close to 80% ("Results of the vote on the USSR Referendum 17 March 1991" and "Results of the vote on the RSFSR Referendum 17 March 1991", Central Election Commission, Moscow, 1991). Beyond, Yeltsin was the only one to come forward to talk with the burgeoning Baltic independent states, rather than shoot on them for acting on something explicitly guaranteed under the Soviet constitution, namely the right to national self determination. A courageous stand, and for that I will always be grateful, as one married to an Estonian woman. So, these are just two of my sources. You have made several broad claims. Sources, please?
According to Dr Richard Lynn, Russia have a national IQ of 96 while US have around 98. However, North Korea appears to have 105, which was quite surprising to me. These theories should all be taken with a grain of salt, but in big numbers, they make sense. It's well known that East Asians generally have a high IQ.