Leading Russian publicist and conservative populist politician Nikolai Starikov mauls liberal opponents in TV debate (2 minute excerpt)
Excellent translation
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
The elephant in the room of Russian politics is that a handful of shysters basically stole Russia's most valuable companies in the 90s, minting a small handful of mega-billionaires, while the rest of the country ate dirt.
The ace up Putin's sleeve if ever he were in need of a popularity boost, would be to strip said shysters of their ill-gotten gains, and redistribute shares to the people.
The temptation to rectify the injustice is just too large for it not to happen, so it really is only a matter of time.
One can hear the prelude of this sort of thing in outbursts like the one below.
Nikolai Starikov is a very popular conservative populist, who among other things is a great admirer of Stalin.
He smells blood.
Translated by Vladimir Gavryushin for Russia Insider
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
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