> I mean, it seems like Putin wants to go back straight to Soviet era.

There were many different soviet eras, each with their own problems and strengths. Putin's doing his own thing. Just because he's becoming more authoritarian doesn't mean he's becoming Soviet.

He controls all law enforcement and mass media, restricts freedom of speech, prosecutes political competition, enables corruption and connections-with-benefits, and has everyone eat this crap because patriotism.

I struggle to recall a soviet era without these traits.

Why not rattle off every fascist and authoritarian regime, then? Why not say he's acting the corrupt autocrat, i.e. every bad guy in every civilization since pre-history.

And he's an chekist

I see him as more of a puppet to be honest, though I'm more than likely wrong, still it seems like he is just a puppet.

The current price of oil is well below the price Russia needs to sustain its economy. Depending on the source, Russia needs $100/barrel to maintain its economy. Putin was making comments that $80 is very bad. The bakkens (fracking in ND) can probably go as low as $40/barrel in some areas and still be ok.

I don't have a crystal ball, but a lot of people in Russia are worried that if Putin falls, the next one will be even worse than him. I don't even know what to hope now.

> the next one will be even worse than him

It seems to me as a distant observer that much of Putin's strength derives from a "cult of personality".[1] He's out there topless, catching fish. He's out there topless, swimming in a Siberian lake. He's out there on a tiger hunt. He's out there flying with cranes. He's out there dressed as an ice hockey player. He's out there doing judo moves. He's tough on terrorists. He's tough on breakaway republics. He stands up to "the Great Satan" (sorry, actually that's a line used by Iranian wackos). Etc.

This cult of personality takes many years, even decades to develop. Also these types of leaders hate up-and-coming competition. So there's no JV Putin out there, building up his own cult of personality. Medvedev probably doesn't have the charisma to take Putin's place. Plus, Putin was in what was probably a once-in-a-lifetime position to take over from Boris Yeltsin.

I don't think that any new leader could "be worse than" Putin without spending many years building up his own cult of personality.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality#Russia

Just to clarify: by "worse than him" they meant more extremist, nationalistic and illiberal.

My Russian friends on Facebook love Putin. Why would they overthrow him? He's given them everything they wanted: revenge on West for the cold war, bullying neighbors, a toughguy image, punishing homosexuals, and up until recently a higher oil price (coincidental of course). Sorry I just don't believe that the Russian people are interested in peace or human rights. Putin reflects the will of majority. I think Russia's culture is just broken.

I don't think a lot of Americans understand how corrupt and messed up that culture is. Ever do business there? I have. Its madness compared to the west. They're not Europeans. They're Russians. They have their own ideas of what passes for justice and international law. I'm getting a little sick of hearing how Putin doesn't reflect the average Russian's political will. Sadly, Putin does.

Isolation and sanctions are the only rational move at this point. We've gone down this road before several times and recently with Iran. Do you guys really think the average Iranian wants Ali Khamenei overthrown? Come on.

Isolation and sanctions would be acts of insane stupidity at this point. Take a dodgy regime and cut them off from the international community, mess up their economy, give everyone in the country a reason to believe the world really is out to get them, and it should be no surprise when the inevitable happens: popular opinion in the country becomes increasingly paranoid, support for the dodgy regime is solidified, and the regime itself becomes more extremist and totalitarian over time. It's the perfect way to make a bad situation worse.

This might be excusable if the situation were unprecedented, but the worst part is, the pattern is not news to us at all. Cuba, North Korea, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Iran: how many times does history have to repeat the lesson before we become willing to learn it?

But what's the alternative when Russia is tramping over the sovereignty of another country in the EU's backyard? If not isolation and sanctions, what's left? Full scale war? I don't think there will be any winners in a WWIII.

Obviously going to war would be even more insanely stupid. The alternative is to realize that just because Russia is behaving badly is not a reason the US and EU should also start behaving badly.

Maybe you didn't consider that those who have success in business in Russia are largely those who live well in a corrupt system and have a strong relationship with Putin's power. That doesn't represent the average Russian.

What revenge have they given for the Cold War? I have not noticed anything.

So basically normal humane civilization is something not part of Russian culture or at least for majority anyway.