At the very beginning of his press-conference, Putin assured his listeners that the current crisis in the Russian economy is temporary because the world economy will grow. If the world economy grows, there will be a growing need for Russian oil. Russia will come out of its current crisis in two years at most. [Putin seems to believe that the US fracking gains will be exhausted sooner than everybody predicts, which is 2020, according to everybody but Putin.]
In case there is anybody who still doesn’t know it, Putin is a hard-core Milton-Friedmanist. The main idea he expressed today (and has been expressing for the past 15 years) is that the market will correct all imbalances and regulate itself. His message at the press-conference was “keep spending, stop saving because spending is good for the economy.”
The so-called Russian journalists were stellar as always. “Now that we have seen you smile a few times, Mr. President, we all feel much better,” one of them said sycophantically.
The same journalist asked if Russia was ever going to “kick the oil habit” and Putin responded that the Russian government can’t do anything about it because that’s what the world economy is like. And then he was back to his favorite idea that markets will regulate themselves. Market forces, tax holidays, private property, business, investment, and anyway the markets need to be free to regulate themselves.
The Berlin Wall never really fell, Putin said. Americans decided after 1989 that they were a new empire, the winners, and they started to rebuild a virtual Berlin Wall. Instead, Putin said, Americans should have worked to advance a system of economic freedom. [Because markets regulate themselves, in case you have forgotten.]
[To be continued. . .]
Clarissa's Blog 
I find this “let’s just do business, let’s not let ideology to get in the way of business” mantra very hypocritical as long as it is coming from people who are simultaneously advancing clearly ideological constructs of civilization war variety, “sacral importance” (of the Field of Miracles in the Land of Fools), of something and various kinds of nationalism…
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Wow, so you are not a Putinoid after all! 🙂
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I am interacting with all kinds of people, not only the pleasant ones. Sometimes it spills out here. 🙂 I am not suggesting you should interact with your former classmates, but sometimes I find it useful (even if not pleasant) to interact with those who do not validate my worldview. I prefer to know how the world really is, outside of my liberal but generally pro-Western academia bubble. 🙂
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I really need to show you my blogroll for you to see how enormously open I am to conflicting point of view. 🙂
And I’m watching Putin ‘ s press conference. You cant Get More open than that. 🙂
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You seem to be looking at those things as at the… circus of the vile freakazoids. 🙂 :). And I am sometimes looking at them, not without bias, but assuming they may occasionally have the useful pieces of the “how things actually are” puzzle. And sometimes I just like to troll Russian Patriots (TM). But then since I am an equal opportunity troll, I sometimes like to troll American Patriots (TM) too. 🙂
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You are talking to a proud long-time follower of Спутник и Погром, by the way. 🙂
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Didn’t the introduction to journalist questions start with some blanket statement that his cronies in the media were going to be allowed to ask questions first, starting with some journo (if I’m getting this right) who had either been travelling across the country “with him” or travelling across the country for some presumably related purpose?
What actually surprised me was that the questioning became considerably less soft than you might expect with a sweeping statement like that …
Also, did you actually watch the hour after hour of coverage, and more to the point, are you willing to admit in public that you’re that much of a masochist? 🙂
I’m not that much of a masochist — I just watched Putin trying to deflect attention during the “presentation” portion, mistaken in the belief that nobody would notice instead of knowing that he has rather specific “visual tells” that provide hints.
I believe it was the third journalist (a woman) who must have picked up on this, since she focused directly on several of the matters glossed over …
I thought, “Ah, but there are still a few professionals in the Russian press corps …”
🙂
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I watched about 60%. Today I’ll watch the rest. There were a few obviously scripted questions but also a few less scripted ones. Putin allowed a journalist from the only oppositional TV channel to ask a very direct and honest question. Curiously, this journalist is also the daughter of Putin ‘ s late employer and protector.
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\ You are talking to a proud long-time follower of Спутник и Погром, by the way.
Do you pay them? I visited them now and they demand money. 😦
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“Do you pay them? I visited them now and they demand money.”
The proud Aryan is grossly obese and suffers from a speech impediment. Why are these Aryans always so physically imperfect? 🙂
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\ Their leader was recently interviewed by Sobchak:
I wanted to watch, tried and :
Страница не найдена (404-я ошибка)
😦
Do you have another link?
I don’t have any luck with Russian “Aryans”
They hate me so much: 😦
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Now I have a comment which “Your comment is awaiting moderation.”
And, suddenly, if I put two lines like \\\\\\\\\\\\ to indicate when I quote somebody, only one line appears. What is going on with the Blogger?
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This isn’t Blogger. This is WordPress.
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Second attempt (to escape moderation):
\ Their leader was recently interviewed by Sobchak:
I wanted to watch, tried and :
Страница не найдена (404-я ошибка) 😦
Do you have another link?
I don’t have any luck with Russian “Aryans”
They hate me so much: 😦
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Sorry. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcjrI2D3Hrw
You are both Jewish and Ukrainian. The only thing worse for them would be if you also had some Chechen heritage.
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\ You are both Jewish and Ukrainian.
You never remember that I am half-Russian (and half-Jewish).
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Oh, in that case, they might actually be nicer to you. Yay! 🙂
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“I am zero percent Ukrainian since the father was 100% Russian (from both sides) and the mother 100% Jewish from both her sides of the family.”
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I am zero percent Ukrainian since the father was 100% Russian (from both sides) and the mother 100% Jewish from both her sides of the family.
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