You mean Zelensky, right? The guy that sold the country to foreign capital before indefinitely suspending elections, jailing any dissidents, and giving himself absolute power?

I joke of course. You can tell Putin's a dictator, because he was popularly elected multiple times by the Russian people. If Russia were a real Democracy™, he'd be broadly unpopular among every Russian demographic and chosen by an unelected cabal of wealthy party elites like in the US.

USSR/Russian Empire (which appear to be entirely interchangeable in Russian propaganda lately)

Sure man, it's Russian propaganda in which they're interchangeable. I mean, I'm sure you'd know what with all the Russian media you're busy avoiding.

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Russia is famously lacking for land and raw materials

Strategically important and tourist-attracting Crimea with a land bridge to it would be pretty useful by itself, couple that with prime agricultural land (Ukraine is a massive producer of grain), lots of coal, some oil and gas.

I joke of course. You can tell Putin’s a dictator, because he was popularly elected multiple times by the Russian people

There was not a fair presidential election in Russia since (arguably) 1996, when communists were defeated with significant use of administrative resource by Eltsin administration. Any serious political opposition began to be silenced in 2012. 2020 constitutional changes were actually unconstitutional, and as such were a soft coup. Both 2018 and 2024 elections had massive electoral fraud too.

Sure man, it’s Russian propaganda in which they’re interchangeable. I mean, I’m sure you’d know what with all the Russian media you’re busy avoiding.

I'm actually reading official and independent Russian news weekly due to Russia being my home country.

[–] Tomorrow_Farewell@hexbear.net 28 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

There was not a fair presidential election in Russia since (arguably) 1996

Imagine pretending that the 90s elections in Russia were 'fair' when NATO literally intervened in them on the side of Yeltsin.

EDIT: grammar. I seem to have mixed up both 'intervened in' and 'interfered with' when I initially made the comment.

[–] balsoft@lemmy.ml 0 points 3 months ago

I concede that elections before then were not really fair either, but definitely not as blatant as 96.