Klompen
Active member
Putin is certainly a dangerous man. I wouldn't argue otherwise. He's a very different character than G.H.W. Bush though. The biggest irony about Putin is that he was selected to lead because he was considered a mousy bureaucrat with a solid reputation that those in power believed could be controlled. Boy did they peg him wrong!
Its a common misconception that Putin was head of the KGB. He was not. Instead, he was head of the FSB, which is the agency that was created as the Soviet Union was dissolved and the Russian Federation was created instead. There are significant functional differences, but its certainly fair to say its not entirely different either. Definitely a huge difference in missions though. At the time in which Putin was in charge though, the Russian Federation was basically completely obedient to Bill Clinton(Clinton had an inexplicable amount of control over Yeltsin). The Cold War antagonism between the Russian intelligence services and the USA was at an all-time calm level. Putin literally oversaw the most US-friendly FSB that there ever was. In many ways he seemed like he was going to be very friendly to the West. Then Kosovo happened. That was the catalyst of changes that really ruined our relationship with Russia.
I am definitely frustrated to see how easy Russia is gaining influence in the world in general. I am not frustrated to see them making friends, but I am frustrated to see how we've set things up so all that Putin really needs to do is be honest with his allies and to keep his word when it comes to protecting them. That's it, because we've set the bar so incredibly low. China is making similar inroads in places like Africa thanks to the US government wrecking all good will toward us internationally for the last 30 years.
I work really hard all the time, but even I would have a hard time explaining to anyone exactly what I should be described as professionally..... The world in general has no idea how much botany I engage in 
