| Reconstituting the Russian empire, one nibble at a time. The Little Father is so good to his children... |
...Second President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he is the current Prime Minister of Russia. His sock puppet, Dmitry Medvedev, was installed in the 2008 presidential elections. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...on Monday said he was in favor of Russia and its western neighbor Belarus uniting into a single state, as in the days of the Soviet Union.
"This is possible and very desirable," said Putin, when asked at a pro-Kremlin youth camp on Russia's Lake Seliger if Russia and Belarus could merge into one entity.
| What is this European custom of political parties treating children to summer camp and proselytizing? There's time enough for serious thoughts when they become callow university students, surely. |
Putin's surprise remarks come as Belarus battles a massive economic crisis which has seen Russia extend a bailout loan to its neighbor and eye some of its most prized economic assets.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is also pressing on with an unprecedented crackdown against the opposition following his controversial re-election in December which has seen opponents set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock and protests brutally broken up.
Economists have blamed Lukashenko for doing little to reform an outdated economic model which has seen Belarus develop one of the biggest current account deficits in the world.
But Putin lavished praise on the man who has ruled Belarus for the last 17 years and was once dubbed Europe's last dictator by the United States.
"Despite the problems that spring up from time to time -- like the economy, energy, the rows with gas -- you need to give respect to the leadership of the country and Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko, who has consistently followed a path of integration with Russia," Putin said.
Russia and Belarus are members of a customs union and also a so-called "unified state" that brings their cabinets together for joint meetings at regular intervals.
But until now, the two states have maintained separate systems with attempts at further unity ending in failure.
In the 1990s Lukashenko was an impassioned proponent of a full union of Belarus and Russia, with some observers believing he had his eye on occupying the Kremlin as president of such a country.
But his pro-Russian rhetoric cooled once Putin entered the Kremlin in 2000, and he has since sought to portray himself as the defender of the ordinary Belarusian.
Meanwhile,
...back at the shattered spaceship, Fffflirgoll the Arcturan slithered stealthily toward the control room, where the humans had barricaded themselves...
Putin also indicated he would not be against the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia becoming part of Russia, if its people were in favor.
Russia recognized South Ossetia as independent following Moscow's 2008 war with Tbilisi over Georgian rebel regions.
"The future will depend on the Ossetian people," Putin said. "You know Russia's position -- when Georgia engaged in military action, Russia supported South Ossetia."