What is your perception of Putin?

Im Pro Putin. He is pushed into a corner by NATO, EU & The US. The mainstream media is spinning the news like crazy.

I see him as shrewd and ruthless. Probably the most powerful leader the world has seen since WW2. Putin is definitely not the kind of opponent you want to go up against with Grandpa Simpson leading your country.

The war against Russia have been going on for years. You can say what you want about Putin but he is not the aggressor here.

I consider American Presidents who get us into multiple wars, based on lies, killing millions of people = psychopaths. Putin is a choir boy compared to US Presidents.

Seems like his philosophy is inbred in Judo. He actually never played hockey (or learned how to skate) until he was in his 50s.

There's a YouTube channel called "Russian Insight", where he goes to hospitals and visits sick kids. I know many people will think "propaganda", but it's not like anyone in Russia is a threat to him - he can be in charge for as long as he likes. Even if he were to retire in ten years (and let's assume they have a US-style election), all it would take is an endorsement. I don't think he's the retiring type, though. It seems like he's a Russian nationalist.

I like to see the other sides that are not shown to the media about EVERY leader. Even Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump. It's nice to know what their favorite music, movies, comedians, books, etc., is.. It's best to go back and read articles or anything written about them before they got too powerful to control the narrative.

Putin is angry that Russia has turned into a piece of crap country compared to the old Soviet Union. Russia isn't even in the top 10 countries of the world anymore, he's trying to grow a little more powerful by invading one of the weakest/poorest countries in the Ukraine.

The truth is Russia is a basket case of a country. I don't blame Putin for being so frustrated, he simply cannot win.

I know almost nothing about Putin, and I consider myself somewhat reasonably informed.

I really don't understand why some people really have a hard-on for him. I'm thinking it's his "unwoke" treatment of LGBTQ people, but I'll bet it's a lot safer for LGBTQ people in Russia than in most parts of the USA, especially the Bible Belt. Moscow is probably more gay friendly than New York and San Francisco, just because the Europeans in general just don't really care about this stuff like Americans do.

I frequent different message boards, and so many people are posting about Putin as some champion of liberty, fighting back against "globalists" and "the Davos crowd" and big banks and whatnot, and I am dumbfounded. Sure, a lot of them are likely Russian plants, but some of these guys I'm almost certain are not, I've known the stuff they've been posting for many many years and the "Putin Good" bit is a recent vintage.

I don't have much of an opinion on him, however, I do think it was an asshole move to invade Ukraine but in his mind, he probably felt like he had to do it for several reasons. It looks like he was certainly not anticipating the world response though. The sanctions are going to hurt Russia and their image around the world.

It will be quite interesting to see how they're treated at the next couple of UN meetings. Wow, those are going to be quite awkward to say the least.

At any rate, not too long ago, I did watch half of the Oliver Stone - Putin Interviews. It's on the Showtime app but you gotta have an account to watch it, I think it's also on Prime Video with a per episode charge. It's four episodes and each one is about an hour long.

Here's a link, I might watch the rest of them because I think it's episode 3 and 4 where he talks about Ukraine but I am not sure. https://moviechat.org/tt6840134/The-Putin-Interviews

I have no opinion of Putin. I will have an opinion of those who will stage a coup and oust him out of power in the next few years. They are the true bad guys.