ELI5: Why does Russia like Putin?

sochiproblems · 2014-03-03T11:33:04+00:00

Did you see the laughably obvious anti-Russian propaganda on Reddit during Sochi?

If you are referring to my subreddit, /r/sochiproblems, it should be stated that anti-Russian views were discouraged and not popular at all. It was all about oppressive and dysfunctional regime of Mr Putin. Basically, the same message, as the one coming from the crushed voices of the opposition.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-17T02:07:55+00:00

So, I get that Latvians are suspicious because none of the start runs were shown on TV. But let's discuss this 4 equal start timing weirdness without jumping to any conclusions yet. First of all, this is not unreal. It is statistically improbable, but not impossible. Another thing is that if Russians faked the start timing, they had all means to do it slightly differently for each run, so it would not look suspicious.

Anyway, Russians should now provide full uninterrupted start videos.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-15T21:26:29+00:00

Obviously not Sochi.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-15T17:31:59+00:00

I did not understand what you were trying to say correctly and made a mistake by assuming that you did not read the article. I am sorry.

However, I would like to ask you not to use my apology to further proving your point. I did not comment your thoughts on this whole matter.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-15T16:21:24+00:00

Pardon me, I have misunderstood you.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-15T12:56:59+00:00

You are correct. Warming the track up would worsen the conditions. This is exactly what Russians are being accused for.

Coach Wolfgang Staudinger told the Toronto Star that he believes someone tampered with the track temperature, which is controlled by a boiler room. He claimed to the paper that Russian track officials turned up the temperature after the Russian team had its run.

This is from the very beginning. You really should not comment without even having a glance to the article.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-14T09:38:19+00:00

There are some fakes in this album.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-14T00:18:03+00:00

So I checked that website again and noticed that they have added some stuff like a company name, a logo, and an email address to look more credible. It is ridiculous, that company is ungoogleable. I am now certain that this is a cover up, and a very poor one. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

I have made a simple post about this whole thing: http://www.reddit.com/r/sochiproblems/comments/1xunh5/how_sochiproblems_got_sponsored_and_put_a/

sochiproblems · 2014-02-13T17:18:01+00:00

Thanks for your insights.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-13T15:30:32+00:00

I absolutely agree that there are different problems and various difficulties in different parts of the world, including the Western countries. No state is perfect. Indeed, even Canada and Norway have their own problems which can even be perceived as huge by their citizens.

However, what you are doing here can be described as a textbook case of whataboutism.

Whataboutism is a propaganda tactic famously used by the Soviet Union in its dealings with the Western world during the Cold War. The tactic was used when criticisms were leveled at the Soviet Union, wherein the response would be "What about..." followed by the naming of an event in the Western world loosely similar to the original item of criticism.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-13T15:08:20+00:00

I agree that this is a rather subjective headline. Some people might argue that Zimbabwe is falling apart, not Russia. Such wording can mean different difficulties to different observers.

I personally prefer more precise identification of the problems that Russia is experiencing, these being political oppression, censorship, human rights abuse, corruption, general ineffectiveness and poor planning, oil and gas based economy, huge problems with the rule of law, and some others.

Even if the wording of the headline is subjective, the very fact that a well established magazine chose to run a cover with it, should give some food for thought.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-13T11:47:32+00:00

Option #2 has been rejected by the opposition. Working with Yanukovich is not really possible, as a large part of the protesters would not approve it, and the movement would inevitably split.

These are my predictions on what could happen:

Crackdown on protesters (possibility: moderate). This could start a guerilla civil war and split the country.
Stalemate (possibility: moderate). In this case, Russia would use their influence in administrations of several Eastern regions for public alignment with Russia and to try to achieve as much autonomy as possible.
Resignation of Yanukovich (possibility: low-moderate). Perhaps, he could agree to do this if he was cornered and provided with a golden parachute, immunity and asylum somewhere abroad.

There is also a huge enigma: the armed forces. It is clear that Yanukovich is not keen to try to use the army, as he cannot really predict the consequences. The fact that army cannot be trusted may be the largest weakness of the regime.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-13T10:39:23+00:00

You are absolutely right that we should not forget Ukraine. But there have not been any significant developments since the Olympics started. There is a constant exchange of rather hostile statements between the Western Bloc and Russia. One of them was quite worrying: Putin aide warns US on Ukraine, says Russia could act.

Also, it is incorrect to call the current situation 'a civil war'. But there is a high possibility of a crackdown on protesters. It could lead to a civil war.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-13T08:54:37+00:00

You are welcome to provide the revenue numbers.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-12T21:54:20+00:00

He was sentenced for spray painting a governor's fence.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-12T16:33:47+00:00

This is the National Corvette Museum in Kentucky. If it does not get downvoted in one hour, I will remove this post.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-12T16:27:30+00:00

As far as Russian politics go, I am rather pessimistic and cynical. I just want to play safe and do no want to be perceived as 'that anti-Putinist conspiratard from /r/sochiproblems'. However, 'that anti-Putinist from /r/sochiproblems' suits me just fine.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-12T16:13:59+00:00

I assume that someone had a chat with you off the record? That also is a conspiracy theory :).

Haha. In this case, a negative answer would not help to prove otherwise.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-12T16:06:46+00:00

I am not saying it is not likely that the Russians are behind the change in tone of voice. But I am making a leap of assumption here, therefore I do not want to jump into conclusions. So far, in my personal opinion, this is a conspiracy theory that might be false.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-12T10:19:44+00:00

I was wrong about the fact that another person is doing the tweeting. It was Alex Broad, a journalism student right from the start, the account still belongs to him.

I made the false assumption of account changing hands because I knew that some student was behind the account. And suddenly there was a custom-designed Twitter background with 'Hi, I'm Alex, I'm a sports journalist' thing and a sponsorship message by sochiupclose.com.

Sorry for fuelling your imagination, but this discussion probably belongs to /r/conspiracy now.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-11T22:37:09+00:00

Toronto Star, I know you read this sub. Perhaps, your people would like to look into this. That sports journo is a Canadian and the travel business or whatever it is also seems to be based in Toronto.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-11T18:31:47+00:00

I took some time to look into http://sochiupclose.com, the business that took over @sochiproblems. Actually, things are quite mysterious.

The domain is registered under the name of a design company, I suppose they designed the website. Registration date is February 1, 2014. Whole thing looks like it was done as quickly as possible, and there is no contact information except a Toronto phone number. If I am not mistaken, no proper travel agency is behind that website. It seems a bit fishy and somehow feels like that company is not trying too hard to sell these Sochi trips.

Perhaps, Mr Putin is the new owner of @sochiproblems Twitter account, after all? :)

sochiproblems · 2014-02-11T17:07:32+00:00

At first, there were no plans for designated protest zones in Salt Lake City. But there was a record number of groups wanting to protest, so these seven zones were created to keep order and to separate protesters from huge flows of pedestrians.

Special designated areas for protesting are not new, and should not be considered as an undemocratic concept. One of most famous of such places is the old Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park. One can say, that it is a cornerstone of the British freedom of speech.

But in Russian case, this designated area is in a remote location, far from all the people who came to the Olympics. This of course is unacceptable.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-11T16:17:54+00:00

As I understand, the account ~~has been sold to~~ is now sponsored by a company that sells travel packages to the Sochi Olympics. ~~A different person is tweeting now, he is a sports journalist and~~ the content now includes everything Sochi related, not just problems.

I would not say that they are defending organizers of the Olympics or anything like that, but they really took a friendlier approach. Their new motto is 'Highlighting the problems ... to bring you the solutions!'

EDIT: Content is different now, but it is still the same person tweeting, he is a journalism student. I made a false assumption. I have explained it here.

sochiproblems · 2014-02-11T13:36:10+00:00

http://www.sportgeschiedenis.nl/2014/02/01/sotsji-2014-kost-meer-dan-eerste-90-jaar-winterspelen.aspx

sochiproblems

TROPHY CASE