Putin to those waiting for Russia's decline: "the only thing we are worried about is catching a cold at your funeral" - "He's not the Messiah, he's just a very naughty Russian!" - [ENJOY] [PEACE]

[Zenaan Harkness]

One thing we can be sure of folks, Putin is in no doubt as to the nature of his opposition (which sadly comprises most of the "Western world").

The Saker graciously provides an initial transcript of Putin's 17th Valdai Club talk and subsequent Q&A.

It's long, just a couple of extracts below.  Enjoy,


   Russian President Putin Delivers Speech at Valdai Discussion Club -2020 – Update
   http://thesaker.is/russian-president-putin-delivers-speech-at-valdai-discussion-club-2020/

      .. the post-war world order was established by three victorious countries:
      the Soviet Union, the United States and Great Britain. The role of Britain
      has changed since then; the Soviet Union no longer exists, while some try to
      dismiss Russia altogether.

      Let me assure you, dear friends, that we are objectively assessing our
      potentialities: our intellectual, territorial, economic and military
      potential. I am referring to our current options, our overall potential.
      Consolidating this country and looking at what is happening in the world, in
      other countries I would like to tell those who are still waiting for
      Russia’s strength to gradually wane, the only thing we are worried about is
      catching a cold at your funeral.
      ..

      [Re socialism, market economy, future?]:
      .. When everything is fine, and the macro economic indicators are stable,
      various funds are building up their assets, consumption is on the rise
      and so on. In such times, you hear more and more that the state only
      stands in the way, and that a pure market economy would be more
      effective. But as soon as crises and challenges arise, everyone turns to
      the state, calling for the reinforcement of its supervisory functions.
      This goes on and on, like a sinusoidal curve. This is what happened
      during the preceding crises, including the recent ones, like in 2008.

      I remember very well how the key shareholders of Russia’s largest
      corporations that are also major European and global players came to me
      proposing that the state buy their assets for one dollar or one ruble.
      They were afraid of assuming responsibility for their employees,
      pressured by margin calls, and the like. This time, our businesses have
      acted differently. No one is seeking to evade responsibility. On the
      contrary, they are even using their own funds, and are quite generous in
      doing so. The responses may differ, but overall, businesses have been
      really committed to social responsibility, for which I am grateful to
      these people, and I want them to know this.
      ..



On Fri, Oct 23, 2020 at 08:53:06PM +1100, Zenaan Harkness wrote:
> This is only humorous in the magnitude of Western moronicity.
> 
> Even just lightly perusing this utterly link packed, succinct, dated, summary of Russia ever failing, Russia and Putin collapsing, Russia the greatest threat, Putin the world's most powerful man and the ultimate threat for many years to the "Rules-based international order" and powerful interferer in most of the major Western elections - this little article evidently took quite a bit of effort to collate, and may well be useful in the future due to how jam packed it is.  Enjoy over malt on ice:
> 
>    Russophrenia... Or How A Collapsing Country Runs The World
>       Patrick Armstrong via The Strategic Culture Foundation
>    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/10/20/russophrenia-or-how-a-collapsing-country-runs-the-world/
>    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russophrenia-or-how-collapsing-country-runs-world
> 
>       ...
>       Russophrenics are unaffected by reality. Russia’s success? Forget
>       maleficence and try competence.
>       https://patrickarmstrong.ca/2017/04/06/why-russia-ran-rings-around-the-usa-in-the-obama-years/
>       Its military is designed to defend the country, not rule the world:
>       https://patrickarmstrong.ca/2019/08/06/enough-and-not-too-much/
>       a less expensive and attainable aim.
> 
>       Its economy – thanks to Western sanctions – has made it probably the only
>       autarky in the world.
>       https://www.awaragroup.com/blog/with-global-recession-looming-russia-looks-strong/
>       Election interference is a falsehood designed to damage Trump and
>       exculpate Clinton which has been picked up by Washington’s puppies. But
>       don’t bother with mere evidence; As the author of this New Yorker piece
>       explains:
> 
>          Such externally guided operations exist, but to exaggerate their
>          prevalence and potency ends up eroding the idea of genuine bottom-up
>          protest—in a way that, ironically, is entirely congenial to Putin’s
>          conspiratorial world view.
>          https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/09/14/is-russian-meddling-as-dangerous-as-we-think
> 
>       [Scott Adams cartoon not attached]
>       ...
>