THE RUSSIAN ‘SPIN’ I completely understand (a) Putin’s ambition to create an eas

THE RUSSIAN ‘SPIN’

I completely understand (a) Putin’s ambition to create an eastern trade zone, (b) his desire to restore Russia to the world stage (c) the right of people in lands that contain an ethnically Russian majority to self determination, (d) the territorial investment and historical relation with Crimea, (e) the strategic importance of the black sea ports, (f) his fear that the revolution against corruption here in Ukraine will (justly) spread to Russia and unseat him.

What I don’t get is his SPIN, and his media’s spin, that the current government is somehow not legitimate when given the extraordinary corruption here was on a scale so significant that it affected the GDP.

I mean, corruption is always immoral, but at some point its pervasive enough that it becomes not just immoral but material, and at some other point it becomes not just material but catastrophically destructive. And the corruption here is in the catastrophic category. I mean, you can’t claim that anyone conducting that level of corruption is legitimate. You simply can’t. It will backfire on you.