FoxxyBrown1111 said:
No doubt about that. But I always chose the least evil.
...Last time I checked, Putin strongly spoke against the islam. So besides fighting the fight against imperialists, he also sees the clear dangers of the future.
actually, it is an interesting and far from a simple question - what is vlad's attitudes and policies towards islam ?
having been convinced for a while now that the western msm is virtually useless towards composing an objective picture, i did some of my own research attempting to answer the question...
i came to the conclusion that vlad's views on islam are highly pragmatic (to the point of being cynical) and, as is typical of most of his moves, are part of a long-term calculus...
to begin with, russland has a high proportion of muslims (all sunnis) who's birthrate, as in europe, is x times above the slav's b. rate..that concerns him and the orthodox church (which became a de facto state appendix) greatly. the biggest difference btwn the western european muslims and the russland's ones is that
they are indigenous and more (like the bashkirs and kazan tatars) or less (like chechens) have learned to coexist.
in some cases the co-existence is a true and productive cooperation - as the local muslims are essentially russified and the timid islam only returned 20 yo ago. this is the case with millions of kazan tatars who, in addition, are enjoying the highest standard of living b/c vlad wisely allowed them to keep their oil proceeds..
this is NOT the case with chechens, dagestanis and the other north caucasian tribes who had to be pacified by the force of arms (chechen wars etc) or other means. they are ardent believers and use their own languages. the way vlad deals with them is a mix of classic carrot and stick. plus generous, outright bribes, wise selection of local zhars and a very watchful kgb.
the current chechen king ramzan kadyrov is a good example. at one point, he and his (slain) father were rebel/independence whatever fighters. vlad had turned them via implementing a simple and effective policy. he said, 'you rule your subject anyway you wish. all i want is a 100% loyalty... i destroyed your capital, here's tens of billion to rebuild it...you want prayer houses ? you decide how many, here's more tens of billions. the bottom line, its not exactly a shariah law, but in kadyrov's fiefdom men can have as many wives as they decide (ramzan has 4), women are supposed to behave in a strict tradition, dress etc. above all, the whole fiefdom prays all day long, sometimes televised by the moscow tv across russia. the result ? kadyrov has become vlad's spearhead internally and a mouth piece with other islam rulers. the french cartoons are strictly forbidden (not just in chenen) but across the country. ramzan has brought to the street 1 million of his subject to protest the 'perverted' westren values...news24 and rt televised it...and it is not an exaggeration that ramzan is immensely popular with his subjects.
whats' more interesting is that outside vlad's domain, kadyrov is literally the best armed fist a ruler could ever have...not only hundreds of his loyal fighters are in eastern ukraine, they also hunt and kill HIS and vlad's personal enemies all over middle east. isis included... al caida included...soud and kuwait and jordan and lebanon etc included.
i could go on, but it's time to wrap up the rant..briefly, in dealing with all muslim leaders, vlad has a no-brainer message -'i am a conservative of my own, religiously inspired brand and i understand you'. where the ears are receptive, the message is, 'i am tired of the west's domination and tricks too...'. vlad's pragmatism has no bounds. he's cozy with the turks and their sworn enemy armenians. he plays Iranians (and they play him too to an extent) against israel with which he has EXCELLENT relations...he just started supplying weapons to p
akistan while signing new weapons agreements with their sworn enemy india last month....
in one word, the west is yet to produce a politician equal to vlad's ability of understanding and playing islam.