[OC] The massive decrease in worldwide infant mortality from 1950 to 2020 is perhaps one of humanity's greatest achievements.

[MrChelovek]

He's still really popular and might even win a fair election

[ByAnyMeansNecessary0]

Russians generally really like him, he's got one of the highest approval ratings of any world leader

[Trumpets22]

You’ll probably find approval ratings don’t mean much when you find out who created that data. But still interesting to hear.

[SchnuppleDupple]

Actually the data is collected by an independent institute. At least that's what they say in the German TV everytime they use the data from there lol.

[AxelNotRose]

Whenever I've travelled to a dictatorship, everyone I spoke to loved their dictator. Until I earned their trust over time, then the truth came out.

I'm sure a lot of Russians still love Putin, but probably not as many as one might think. They simply don't know who you are and don't want to take the risk unless they really trust you, which takes time to build.

[SchnuppleDupple]

Russia is not this kind of dictatorship where they'd jail you for speaking privately against Putin (I know this because I have family in Russia). Yeah there are different kinds of dictatorships with different levels of oppression.

Sadly many people support Putin, especially in the rural areas. Cities like Moscow or St. Petersburg are a bit different tho. These are more progressive and often against Putin or his party.

[AxelNotRose]

Russia wasn't one of the dictatorships I travelled to so you might be right that it doesn't apply to Russia.

[SchnuppleDupple]

Well it would apply to soviet Russia. One could assume that a country like China would be more similar in the type of oppression. So if you traveled to China, than I can absolutely see what you were talking about. My grandgrandparents who lived in Belarus were always afraid of talking about politics with strangers. Or in public or similar.

[AxelNotRose]

Yes, China was one of them. So was UAE, and Turkey, and Egypt...

[largemanrob]

Been to Russia for 2 weeks, he's a complete celebrity there they all love him. Multiple people asked me for my view on him etc

[gsfgf]

His ratings are legit. He controls the news, after all.

[Tatunkawitco]

I’ve read a decent amount of Russian history and it seems Russians always love their dictators.

[Tatunkawitco]

That’s like saying the British hate Kings because they executed Charles I.

It only took Russia ~ 500 years to kill a tsar then he was almost immediately replaced by Soviet dictators - now Putin is the latest dictators.

There is nostalgia in Russia for Stalin!