With all the money going into the Ukraine war and other ventures since Putin came to power, I imagine there’s a lot of stuff he could’ve done to make the world a better place and Russia a formidable world power.

        • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          The Moscow apartment bombings were carried out in 1999. Putin used them, along with the invasion of Dagestan, to launch the Second Chechen War.

          Alexander Litvinenko blamed Putin and the FSB for the bombings. For that he was infamously assassinated with radioactive polonium.

          If Putin were a “good guy” then none of that would’ve happened either, so he might not have won the 2000 election.

          • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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            3 days ago

            He was the heir apparent to Yeltsin, which might have given him enough power to win the election by himself.

            I agree Putin didn’t start off as a good guy, but I focused more on his continued presence in power and there was a peaceful transition of power between the two Presidents.

            • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              Heir apparent is one way to put it. I would argue that he used the Moscow Apartment Bombings as a false flag to install himself, just as Hitler did with the Reichstag Fire.

              Both leaders (Putin and Hitler) already had a lot of power prior to the false flags but those attacks cemented their rule as dictators.