Questions tagged [vladimir-putin]
Questions relating to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, the current President of the Russian Federation, holding the office since 7 May 2012, and before that from 2000 until 2008. He has also served as the Prime Minister in 1999-2000 and 2008-2012. Putin has effectively been the leader of Russia in some fashion since 1999. Use with the [russian-federation] tag.
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What did Putin mean by "We have [...] withdrawn almost all large and heavy weapons from the European part of Russia" in a 2008 interview?
From a 2008 press conference:
We have eliminated bases in Cam Ranh (Vietnam) and in Cuba. We have withdrawn our troops deployed in eastern Europe, and withdrawn almost all large and heavy weapons ...
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"America is a marshmallow" statement from president Putin in 2016 after Trump was elected [closed]
I am looking for more information on a quote that I heard in 2016 and barely remember.
After President Trump was elected in 2016, a reporter on a NPR news program mentioned that Putin mentioned in a ...
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Why would Putin refer to Lukashenko as Potato Moose?
I'm unsure whether my question is on-topic, but I learn Russian and got really curious when reading a Radio France Internationale article of September 2021 written in Russian and quoting a Russian ...
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How one-sided was (televised) note-taking in pre-2023 Xi-Putin meetings?
Some Western observers have made a big deal out of this regarding the televised bits of the last Xi-Putin meeting:
"The optics of the summit clearly favored Xi. Any talk of equal footing is just ...
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What evidence has the ICC relied on in ordering the arrest of the President of Russia?
A few days ago, International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan said:
Today, the Pre-Trial Chamber has issued arrest warrants in relation to the following two individuals:
Mr Vladimir Putin, ...
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Did Russia communicate President Vladimir Putin's planned Mariupol visit to Ukraine for deconfliction purposes?
When US President Biden visited Kiev, it is thought that Russia was made aware of the visit ahead of time for purposes of deconfliction - for example to avoid a Russian attack on Kiev while unaware ...
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How is the ICC warrant supposed to restrict Putin's travel abroad given that he's in possession of diplomatic immunity?
According to The Guardian:
Putin is likely to evade justice in the near future: Russia does not
recognise the court’s jurisdiction, and insisted on Friday it was not
affected by the warrants. But the ...
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What's the point of issuing an arrest warrant for Putin given that the chances of him getting arrested are effectively zero?
As per recent news:
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant
for Russian President Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes in
Ukraine, a move dismissed by Moscow as ...
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What did Scholz say about Putin's motive?
I remember reading a news article claiming that the chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, said something to this effect: "In my face-to-face meeting with Putin in February 2022, I talked with
him ...
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Did Boris Yeltsin regret his decision of choosing Putin as his successor?
In a PBS documentary, Putin's revenge, the following is said at around 10m15s by Strobe Talbott.
Before Boris Yeltsin died, he told intimates that it was a great mistake to have selected Putin as a ...
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What exactly is the Valdai Discussion Club and has it been playing a role in the current geopolitical situation?
Having briefly browsed their website, I'm still not sure what exactly the Valdai Discussion club is. Who are its members, what do they do, and what role, if any, has it been playing in the Russian ...
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Is Russia on the rise to become the new economic world power? Is the war situation paving a way towards it? [closed]
I want to understand the current stance of Russia & its future economic leadership potential. After listening to the speech by Putin at the recent Valdai Discussion Club (transcript attached), I'...
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Has NATO recently threatened to nuke Russia?
In his 2022-09-21 speech (archived copy with https here), Putin referred to
statements made by some high-ranking representatives of the leading NATO countries on the possibility and admissibility of ...
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When and why did Putin stop using his famously long tables for meetings? [closed]
Putin famously used very long tables for meetings, such as during the meeting with Macron in February 2022:
or with his own military (in Feb)
However it looks like he switched to using normal tables,...
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For how long has Putin been denying that human activity is a major contributor to climate change?
According to a 2020 DW article:
President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly denied the scientific consensus that climate change is caused by man-made emissions. Last month, in his year-end press ...
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What did Putin do to ensure that he doesn't get overthrown by a military coup or to reduce the likelihood of it?
What did Putin do to ensure that he doesn't get overthrown by a military coup or to reduce the likelihood of it?
https://www.usnews.com/news/world-report/articles/2022-05-25/new-punishments-await-...
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Russia: a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma [closed]
In 1939 Winston Churchill described Russia as:
a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma
I'm curious to try to understand Russian invasion of Ukraine from the perspective of the Russians ...
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Did Russia once want to join NATO? Does former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov refer to a serious interest in the past?
In CNN's April 15, 2022 He was once Putin's Prime Minister. Now he supports Ukraine after 05:30 former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov says (my transcription, no closed captions available):
I'...
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Whose photos are carried by Vladimir Putin and those by his side in the May 9, 2022 Moscow Victory Day Parade and what are their significance?
After 04:13, CNN's May 10, 2022 video What exactly is Putin's 'doomsday plane'? shows footage of the Russian president and those by his side carrying small placards with black and white photographic ...
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What is the point of Emmanuel Macron speaking so often with Vladimir Putin?
This article mentions the frequent discussions between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin:
French President Emmanuel Macron continues to keep his hotline open
with Russian President Vladimir Putin, ...
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Does Putin want to restore the USSR?
Joe Biden's speech in Poland has attracted much attention due to some of his off-cuff remarks (see, e.g., the discussion here). I found another curious passage:
A dictator bent on rebuilding an ...
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Minimizing civilian casualties during the siege of Mariupol?
What are the best practices of minimizing civilian casualties in cities under siege, as applied to the siege of Mariupol?
I am looking for best practices from the perspective of world civilians, ...
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Could Putin be tried and/or indicted for war crimes? [closed]
March 24,2022
Foreign Policy
As Russian forces escalate their assault on Ukraine,the prospect that
their commander in chief, Vladimir Putin will ever stand trial for the
crimes he committed may seem ...
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What exactly are the stated (political AND military) objectives of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine?
Edit:: The answers thus far show the political objectives, which are of course part of what I was asking, but what exactly are the military objectives of the invasion: like bomb certain buildings or ...
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What would Ukraine gain by disclosing intelligence information about Putin assassination plans? [closed]
These days, there have been media reports claiming that parts of the Russian elite have plans to assassinate Putin, citing Ukrainian intelligence as sources. However, I am not aware of details on how ...
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What people in Russia, if any, deliberately pushed Putin into the war with Ukraine?
Putin is considered a strong president. Probably, many Duma members who voted for war-related laws did so because Putin wanted them to. But even strong people may be influenced by others.
Are there &...
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Could Putin be impeached?
At least on paper, the Russian Federation is a constitutional democracy with the legal possibility of impeaching the President. There were three attempts to remove Yeltsin from office and Wikipedia ...
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Is Vladimir Putin surrounded by yes-men?
Context
In general, authoritarian leaders who have been in power for a long time are at risk of being misinformed: their advisors may be tempted to hide the bad news by fear of being blamed for them, ...
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Do heavy human losses put pressure on an autocratic leader like Putin?
In democratic countries, there tends to be great aversion to loss of life from military operations, and there are checks and balances that ensure a displeased populace has some capacity to vote in ...
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Why do people believe that if Putin ceases to be Russian president, the Russo-Ukraine war will cease?
It seems like quite a lot of people think that the current war in Ukraine is entirely down to Putin, and if Putin dies / is assassinated / is replaced in a coup etc, then the war will end. Examples:
...
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What is the purpose of the siege of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol by the Russian invaders?
What are the geopolitical, military and humanitarian objectives that will be achieved following a successful siege of the civilian population of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol by the Russian military ...
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Why did Putin call Ukrainian officials “drug addicts”?
Among other things, Putin has called the Ukrainian leadership a “band of drug addicts” (source) shortly before invading Ukraine in 2022.
This seems like a strange accusation. He could have simply ...
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How can Putin save face?
Former MI6 Chief, Sir Robert John Sawers, says
we need to be a little bit careful about how we do that, we must leave Putin a way out
And Yuval Noah Harari says:
Nobody could say for sure how the ...
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Who are the alleged Nazis in the Ukraine government?
One of Putin's claims is that the Ukraine govermnent is made up of Nazis and these need to be removed.
We could just write this off as propaganda, but even propaganda is often twisting of or being ...
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What are Putin's escalation options / demands that don't involve using nukes? [closed]
Not sure if this is a legit question for SE, but here goes.
Despite the loss of innocent lives & damage to infrastructure, Putin is not doing great in Ukraine. The sanctions mount as the Russian ...
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Are there systemic impediments to popular opposition candidates winning presidential elections in Russia?
Are there systemic impediments to popular opposition candidates winning presidential elections in Russia?
I'm not asking about pro-western candidates in particular.
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Why doesn't Russia object to Norway's NATO membership?
Why doesn't Russia object to Norway's NATO membership like it does to that of Finland, Ukraine, and Georgia? Is it because the border with Norway is much shorter and basically in the middle of nowhere ...
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Does Putin need the support of the Russian oligarchs in order to stay in power?
Does Putin need the support of the Russian oligarchs in order to stay in power? What power does the Russian oligarchs have over Putin? I heard a lot of the oligarchs have ties to Putin and a lot of ...
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Are sanctions on Putin more of a symbolical gesture or do they actually mean something?
US and EU have sanctioned Putin today. Although the reasons are clear, based on my limited understanding this seems more like a symbolical gesture.
Here is why it seems to me like this:
I doubt that ...
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What are the previous uses of false justifications for invasions used by Russia as used in it's so-called "playbook" from the perspective of the US?
US President Biden spoke of false justification and a Russian "playbook" in his recent statement (cf. CBS News video Biden gives updates on Russia-Ukraine crisis following call with allies | ...
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How much power does Putin have in Russia?
Does Putin have absolute power to do whatever he wants (e.g., start a nuclear war)? How powerful is he in the Russian government or does he need approval of some other body of government to do things ...
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What exactly does Putin mean by 'genocide' in Ukraine?
Today, Russia's president Vladimir Putin was talking with Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Putin referred to the situation in Ukraine's breakaway regions as a 'genocide'. What exactly is he ...
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Why did France not want Russia to get Macron's DNA?
It is stated in this Guardian article (Macron was kept away from Putin in Kremlin for ‘refusing Russian Covid test’), that Macron refused a Russian Covid test because France did not want Russia to get ...
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Why does Putin want to attack Ukraine in the early 2022? [duplicate]
It seems to be accepted that Putin wants a war in Ukraine, and in absence of any other strong allied militaries around, the only way to get that is attack by Russia itself.
The military conflict in ...
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Can a region of Ukraine secede or become part of another country lawfully?
If the population within a region of Ukraine wanted to become a
part of Russia (suppose a fair vote was 75% in favor), is there a
peaceful legal/government procedure in Ukraine to make this happen?
...
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Records of Putin calling Ukraine a 'failed state'? [closed]
Vladimir Putin personally considering Ukraine a 'failed state', or 'not really a country', is a commonly accepted fact in ukrainian media. However I don't have an exact quote, and I couldn't find any ...
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Why would Putin propose a non-interference pact?
On the news there are articles about Putin proposing the pact with the US.
First, pacts don't guarantee anything. Secondly, I didn't hear that Russia felt a lot of meddling in their own elections. And ...
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Why did Putin allow Alexey Navalny to be transferred from Russia to Germany? [closed]
Alexey Navalny, Russia's (Putin's) opposition leader, was transferred yesterday from Siberia to Berlin for emergency treatment (for a suspected poisoning).
Russian doctors permitted him to be ...
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Did Putin really write his recent article for The National Interest, written in English, on his own?
I just came across an article by Putin in The National Interest and got quite impressed by his English writing proficiency. As an undergraduate student learning English, I know how much time and ...
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"Putin enters a bar and proclaims, 'Next round's on the house!'" What's the point of this popular Russian joke?
I'm a student learning the Russian language, and I visit a popular Russian jokes website from time to time. There's a monthly rating list of new jokes on that website, and last month the top joke on ...
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