Vladimir Putin. You probably read that in a heavy Russian accent. Now, I don’t have anything against Russians, but whenever I see this Putin in the news I can’t help but receive flashbacks to an old James Bond film villain. Putin became the president of Russia after he assumed office in May 2012. But if you looked him up, you would see he practically has been in power of the Motherland since 1999. You see, he first took presidency in 1999 and left after two terms in 2008. But he didn’t really leave, he was then Prime Minister up until last year, and now we’ve got him back as President. Kinda like when Arnold Schwarzenegger stated in Terminator 2 “I’ll be back.”
Recently, President Putin released an op-ed piece to the New York Times, where he decided to speak with us, the American people. Though I agree with a peaceful resolution to any conflict, his plan with Syria to simply ‘hand over’ the chemical weapons sounds a bit off to me. Mainly because I find it hard to trust the Syrian or Russian government, especially when it comes to military actions. It’s no doubt that the United States and Russia have had a rough history, but Vladimir Putin doesn’t look like a great path we should be taking. Someone could make the same argument against Obama, however, I don’t believe he has ever gone out of his way to criticize the Russian people. Which Vladimir kind of passively did in his piece when he stated “Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan ‘you’re either with us or against us.’” I really wish Mr. Putin would separate the American government from the American people because often times these two are not the same; like every country, including his. I know our president isn’t perfect, I disagree with many of his policies, but Obama has yet to drastically make me reconsider his legitimacy. I honestly don’t believe that Vladimir Putin is for Russia’s best interests or the world’s. But that’s just my opinion.
