The paradox of Vladimir Putin

[Crumpets]

Democrats like to point to the US as a country where center-right is center-left and right-wing is center-right. This may or may not be the case, but in Russia it is absolutely the case and extremely so. All of the liberal icons in Russia such as Mikhail Prokhorov and Pussy Riot are still very religious, anti-socialist, and generally on the right of what most Europeans and Americans would consider "center." Putin is definitely to the right of Merkel or Cameron, but he is very much in the center of Russian political opinion.

[Crumpets]

There is a great deal of total bullsh**t in this thread, but by far the most bizarre thing was whoever called Pussy Riot religious and anti-socialist. They are anti-religious and socialist, in fact.

They are opposed to the Russian Orthodox Church which they see as a corrupted arm of the Putin regime, but the individual members of Pussy Riot all at least claim to be devout Christians.