Peace and politics - they don't usually go together. But you don't usually have a putin at the helm of your state. We could be so lucky in Australia to have half a Putin. Alas we have pocket lining dunderheads, morons and some genuinely sociopathic compromateds. As the Western media scrambles to paint every cough and pause by Putin in the maximum possible nefariousness, at least we can look afield on occasion and get a betterer backstory: Russian political earthquake: Putin sets out plan for Kremlin departure & Medvedev resigns https://www.rt.com/op-ed/478381-russian-government-resignation-mishustin/ ... Today, the president set out the roadmap for his exit from the Kremlin, more-or-less kicking off the build-up to the transition of power. He will step down in 2024, or perhaps even earlier, and he intends to dismantle the “hyper-Presidential” system which allowed him to wield so much control in office. ... Make no mistake, Putin’s goal is to preserve the system which he inherited from Yeltsin, and then tweaked. For all its faults, after a difficult birth it has given Russians the greatest freedom and prosperity they have ever known. Even if much work remains to be done on distributing economic gains more fairly. ... One notable suggestion is that future presidents must have lived in Russia for 25 continuous years before taking office, and have never held a foreign passport or residency permit. This would bar a lot of the Western-leaning Moscow opposition from running. Not to mention a large swathe of Russian liberals, a great many of whom have lived abroad at some point. Interestingly, if this rule had existed in 2000 Vladimir Putin himself wouldn't have been able to become Russia's president. He lived in Germany from 1985-1990 (albeit on state duty). ... Thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.