this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
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With all the money going into the Ukraine war and other ventures since Putin came to power, I imagine there's a lot of stuff he could've done to make the world a better place and Russia a formidable world power.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 18 hours ago

Have a look at Gorbachev. A big loss, that.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Cracked down on corruption and entered russia into the eu

[–] [email protected] 3 points 18 hours ago

Joining the EU? Would that have even been possible?

I mean, I think it would've been awesome to be able travel to Russia without a VISA and just start working there...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 22 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 57 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He would have stepped down in 2008 per constitutional limits.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

When was the last safe transition of power in Russia?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The Moscow apartment bombings were carried out in 1999. Putin used them, along with the invasion of Dagestan, to launch the Second Chechen War.

Alexander Litvinenko blamed Putin and the FSB for the bombings. For that he was infamously assassinated with radioactive polonium.

If Putin were a “good guy” then none of that would’ve happened either, so he might not have won the 2000 election.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He was the heir apparent to Yeltsin, which might have given him enough power to win the election by himself.

I agree Putin didn't start off as a good guy, but I focused more on his continued presence in power and there was a peaceful transition of power between the two Presidents.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Heir apparent is one way to put it. I would argue that he used the Moscow Apartment Bombings as a false flag to install himself, just as Hitler did with the Reichstag Fire.

Both leaders (Putin and Hitler) already had a lot of power prior to the false flags but those attacks cemented their rule as dictators.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago

That one was hardly legal, not sure about "safe".

[–] [email protected] 75 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The amount of minable materials in the vast area of Siberia could have set russia up as an economic powerhouse. That's why China is helping them run themselves into the meat grinder in Ukraine. The inevitable collapse will allow them to scoop up the area.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

in addition to mineral deposits they also have natural gas and historically a good amount of people in the developed cities well trained in math, programming, and technical sciences.

They could have been an economic powerhouse in 21st century if they weren’t beholden to Putin and oligarchy.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Almost every single country with an extraction-based economy is either a dictatorship or a failed state. The single exception is Norway, which discovered oil after it was already an advanced democracy. A country with natural resources does not need to invest in its human capital, or worry about democracy.

Russia's natural resources are its curse.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

There is actually a good video by CGP grey on why this is. https://youtu.be/rStL7niR7gs

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Remove the tracker from that url https://youtu.be/rStL7niR7gs

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The Netherlands is also wealthy because of their natural gas.

So it is definitely possible to not be a dictatorship, and a good Putin would make it so.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The Netherlands is absolutely not wealthy because of its natural gas. The Netherlands is a manufacturing center, a farming powerhouse (it's literally the world's number 2 food exporter). It was Europe's original trading empire. Today it contains the closest thing Europe has to Silicon Valley, with world-class universities and the super-high-tech ASML. It's been a wealthy country for centuries because it has invested in its people. The natural gas is an anecdote.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

ASML Holding, a Dutch company that supplies photolithography systems for the semiconductor industry

You're one search away from the truth, my friend

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

holding? so looks like i will be going on the wikipedia app today

edit: hmm it truly is, must've confused ARM.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

You're thinking of ARM

[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 day ago (1 children)

He'd accidentally fall out of a window long before he'd have the chance.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Absolutely this. Their commitment to corruption would not tolerate a "good guy" whatever tf that actually means.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't think the definition of a good guy has changed recently...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 23 hours ago

I dunno, apparently someone can support a genocide and still be considered a good guy these days.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)
  • Established Moscow as an international hub for commerce and industry
  • Waged economical war with China to be the largest economy in Asia
  • Buried the hatchet with Japan over the northern islands
  • Created a direct competitor for BRICS (BICS) and tried to tie his own Asian coalition with the European Union.
  • Rebooted the Russian space program to compete with NASA/SpaceX

Watching For All Mankind makes me feel bad for present-day Russians because even those Soviet Russians have it better.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

Watching For All Mankind makes me feel bad for present-day Russians because even those Soviet Russians have it better.

I just started watching the series and I'm in season 2. I'm loving it so far, and couldn't agree more.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Try to establish a proper western-style liberal democratic system and culture in Russia. They have a constitution that is nominally liberal democratic, but they are so used to authoritarian rule that they can't really manage to keep it that way.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Scary is that in a few years the USA could have that exact description

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago

Retired after 2 terms in office

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Use the vast resources to invest in the country such as building green energy, public transportation, plant agriculture, housing, manufacturing and education to try to outcompete the other European nations in metrics such as the democracy index, human happiness index, corruption index.

Allow the regions to leave any time they want and if that does happen take it as a lesson for his leadership.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

The smartest thing any leader could do at this point is educate the next generation.

He could have opened a lot of colleges and invited scholars from all over the world to come and learn for free.

Push the US, Europe and China to invest in asteroid mining and space colonization.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

I don't like the question because Putin being a good guy is unthinkable to me. Good guys aren't in Russian politics, or at least not for long. But let's say Russia had a halfway decent leadership where smart guys don't fall out of windows. With their vast landmass, resources and workforce, they could easily be the third largest economy in the world again instead of not even making it into the top ten on their way to fall behind Mexico.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

He would have united the globe, and then been isekai'd to another world where his only goal is to ride every creature in said world.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

Abdicate years ago instead of bending the laws that prevented him from ruling indefinitely

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

He could've sold all the nuclear warheads in exchange for goods which could be used as a foundation to get the ball rolling for the economic situation.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

If he was a good guy he probably wouldn't have come to power in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Good Putin was able to shoot himself in the head like 30 times.