this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2025
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No Stupid Questions
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I was just talking with a Russian woman I know who always seemed like a decent person.
And then she uttered "there's no leader around who would be better for the Russia than Putin is". I was left gobsmacked. I've still to go back to her and ask how the hell that's supposed to be possible in her opinion. Like, what should some other leader do in order to be even worse than Putin, really? How is killing hundreds of thousands of people, spending all the money saved for the future, torturing people en masse, destroying the own country's economy, and destroying the image of the Russia as a country and Russians as a people in the eyes of other peoples not a problem?
It seems crazy. You cannot really run a country down worse than Putin has done. Or maybe you can, by being a Pol Pot. But is there really a chance that a Pol Pot would somehow manage to seize power in the Russia? Almost anybody is better than Putin. But Russians disagree. They like their Putin the best possible president they have. They say it's sad that they've got nothing better than that asshole, but they still do think he's the best available. They think that if Putin dies, somebody "worse" will replace him. That is utterly moronic.
But shortly put: They don't get their shit together because they don't feel like there is any shit to get together. They've got a leader they like. He's making the Russia strong, and that's what they want. They've got a leader that is doing what they think a Russian leader should be doing. Or, is at least doing stuff more in that direction than anybody else would.
They like Putin. If someone tried hurting him, the whole population would get their shit together to protect him.
Nah. They were much worse off under Yeltsin than Putin.
Russia's real wages climb 7.8% in 2023 as unemployment hits record low according to an anti-Putin source.
Russia went from the 9th-largest economy by GDP (PPP) in 2000 to 4th now: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_past_and_projected_GDP_(PPP). It grew from 1.5 to 6.9 trillion from 2000 to 2024, an annualised growth rate of 6.6%
Life expectancy went from 65.48 in 2000 to 72.26 in 2025
Putin is fairly well admired in the world.
Anecdotally, I've been to India, Thailand, Tanzania, and Kenya since 2022 and the people I drank with were quick to praise him.
International popularity polls: 1, 2, 3
He's restored rule-of-law and stable institutions since Yeltsin.
Basically the answer to your question "How can they support him when he's crashed the economy and ruined their reputation?" is "He didn't and he hasn't." Sounds like you've been reading NATO/antirussian sources.