Putin will be Russia's leader for life.

[BigmanPigman]

He will never give up his desire to be the leader of the world. He is already the richest man in the world and that will be used to buy the rest of the corrupt people. What can other countries do to stop this? Greed and power is the driving force and always has been.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. He kills his opponents when necessary, so yes.

[politicaljunkie41910]

12. He kills his opponents as all authoritarians do, or imprisons them, and staying in power

is to guarantee his own continued survival. If he were to step down from power in a free and fair election, what would stop his successor from putting him on trial for his previous crimes against the citizens of his nation. I know that's what despots do, but in Putin's case, he will have earned it.

[kimbutgar]

2. America will become his next empire when twitler hands it over

With Bolton agreeing to give up cyber security the writing is in the wall.

[thegoose]

3. Its already over

With idiot Orange Julius Caesar in the White House and the rest of the Repukes implicit. He'll be able to do whatever he wants without anyone to stop him.

[elfin]

4. Didn't Trump invite him for a visit?

I think he said "in the near future." But I can't remember when he said, or possibly tweeted that.

[BigmanPigman]

7. We only hear about what the moron said to Putin

through RT or other Russian controlled media. So who knows what was actually said since the moron lies like a rug.

[XRubicon]

5. He will be done in the next few years

After we get rid of trump.

[BlueDog22]

6. Not Surprised

[Corgigal]

8. If his ass misses a payment

to the oligarchs, life longevity will be adjusted. Poor regular people of Russia.

[BigmanPigman]

10. He controls the oligarchs.

Apparently he seizes their money and throws them in jail (or throws them out of the country permanently or kills them) if they don't do what he wants. When he rose to power all the politics and businesses merged into one which he controls. Meanwhile the average Russian is worse off than we are as far as income goes. They may get education and medical paid for but a lot of them still live in small places shared with other people.

[Corgigal]

11. Live and learn.

I knew Putin has thrown some in jail. probably killed some oligarchs too.

Thought it was more American like, the politician serves the master. I knew the average Russian has a hard life, which is what Trump wants to do to our middle class.

[XRubicon]

13. After drump is gone and we have Americans back in charge

The CIA will be doing regime change in russia as retaliation for them trying to overthrow our government.

He will wind up like Qaddafi.

[BigmanPigman]

14. Man, I hope you're right!!!

[meow2u3]

19. From your mouth to God's ears

And may they facilitate the election of Alexei Navalny or even Garry Kasparov.

[Volaris]

16. It's this. What was the quote the oligarchs tell each other?

'Putin is the Czar, and you are his serf.'
The money they have belongs first to the State, cause that's where it was looted from. Putin IS The State, and so they're just using HIS money for a while. And they all know it.

[Hortensis]

9. You guys are joking, right, pretending to be bots?

Putin's not just attacking, trying to bring down nearly two dozen nations on Russia's border, but all of Europe, many nations on other continents, and of course the U.S.

And Russia itself is just a pissant underdeveloped nation with an economy smaller than California's, poverty everywhere, a populace that mostly hugs the subservience to authoritarian government that's all they've really ever known, mostly sitting around while the kleptocrats loot the wealth of Russia that used to belong to them, and a massive inferiority complex because no other nation has ever respected their ridiculously grandiose notions of Russia's greatness.

We can't know Putin'll be taken down as we put a stop to what he and the Kremlin are doing, but it's not unlikely. Russia's a kleptocracy. His partners allow him to stay in power as long as it's profitable for them. And they're already worrying that he vastly overreached when he brought all this trouble on us.

If this isn't just a joke I've fallen for, you might also remember what happened to the billionaire who was Russia's wealthiest before Putin. They were quite nice to him, considering. Maybe because he'd been one of them and they didn't have to kill him, perhaps to set an example in case it happened to them. In any case, they threw him in prison and took and divided his billions among themselves, but eventually they let him out to go find the small fortune he was allowed to retain.

[jes06c]

15. I'm sure people used to say that about Nicholas II too

until he wasn't

[DavidDvorkin]

17. Russia has had many, many leaders for life

But their terms in office were often short.

[smirkymonkey]

18. He can't live forever.

Neither can Trump. That is what I tell myself when it all feels hopeless. They are mortal. Every day that passes they are one day closer to death. They are two of the most hated people in the world. I just hope that the rest of us outlive them.

[BigmanPigman]

20. I don't have that long so they had better

step on it. If the moron keeps up with his diet/exercise plan maybe he will have a stroke or heart attack but Putin is pretty healthy. He has been in charge (counting the puppet regime in between stints as their "elected" president) for about 20 years and he is 65 so he could easily last another 15-20. Not a good thing!