Why the right in the US support Putin

@ElwoodBlues that last point was actually a fair one for Tucker to make. Lol

@SteelHands Do you know what cherry-picking is? It means picking just a few items that present a terribly slanted picture. You may not know much about Putin's last 20 years, but as as "newsman" it's Tucker's job. You thought the invasion of Ukraine showed a new side of Putin? Think again.
[b]https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2022/03/02/putin-grozny-chechen-ukraine-russia-military-past[/b]

Prior to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, in addition to Grozny, we all knew Putin had stashed billions in offshore bank accounts, had many political opponents jailed or killed, and presided over a failing kleptocracy. Strange numbers of his opponents died in unsolved Moscow explosions blamed on Chechen militants. Then there was the invasion of Georgia in 2008. All these things happened YEARS before Ukraine, and it's Tucker's JOB to know.

If this is the kind of guy Tucker Carlsky is fond of, it just underlines what a shitt Tucker is.

@ElwoodBlues G..Washington said, "i cannot tell a lie, it was I who chopped down that cherry tree. "

Little did he know how soon it could regrow.

Everybody's got one. An axe to grind, that is.

@SteelHands If this is the kind of guy Tucker Carlsky is fond of, it just underlines what a shitt Tucker is.

@ElwoodBlues Who catalyzed the destabilization of Ukraine from the start? Tucker isn't in chg of US foreign policy, as far as I know.

@SteelHands Putin for one, and his oligarchs for a few others.

Ask yourself: why did the people of Ukraine have such huge and ongoing protests against Yanukovych, even after dozens of protesters were killed? Do you seriously believe you can pay people to get themselves killed?

Here's why they protested:

In Feb 2013, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) had voted overwhelmingly (315 out of 349 =90%) to approve finalizing a political association and free trade agreement with the European Union (EU);
[b]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union%E2%80%93Ukraine_Association_Agreement[/b]

In November 2013, a wave of large-scale protests (known as Euromaidan) emerged in response to President Yanukovych's sudden decision not to sign the EU agreement; instead trying to establish closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. The people smelled a rat with Yanukovych's change of heart.

Those protests grew and grew with deadly battles between protesters and the Birkut "special riot police." From Wikipedia:
[quote]On 21 February [2014], an agreement between President Yanukovych and the leaders of the parliamentary opposition was signed that called for the formation of an interim unity government, constitutional reforms and early elections.[31] The following day, police withdrew from central Kyiv, which came under effective control of the protesters. Yanukovych fled the city and then the country.[32] That day, the Ukrainian parliament voted to remove Yanukovych from office by 328 to 0 (72.8% of the parliament's 450 members)[/quote]

BTW, regardless of Putin's propaganda about an "illegal government," the elections after Yanukovych's overthrow, elections of 25 May 2014, resulting in Petro Poroshenko's presidency, were 100% legal. And so were the two rounds of elections in 2019 (31 March & 21 April) that resulted in Zelenski's victory. Sorry, you can't turn the clock back and pretend the last eight years of Ukrainian government didn't happen.