I think people are seriously tired of that argument, though with Putin I'll admit it has more validity than in most cases.
You see, Venezuela had a "socalist revolution" followed by a slight misinterpretation of Marxism, and ... let's just call it "dictatorship of billionnaires", and ignore that for more than a decade this was enormously supported and pushed by leftists worldwide:
https://marxist.com/a-tribute-to-hugo-chavez.htm
Now Venezuela is a state run through criminal gangs with a billionaire dictator on top. You know, doesn't quite satisfy the definition of socialism or communism. Yet socialism is what got them there.
Therefore ... can you call Chavez a socialist? Why? He certainly had the chance to implement socialism, even communism ... and did the exact opposite. Kim Jong Il or his father? Xi Jingping? Khomeini or Khamenei of Iran? All gathered power as communists, none can be said to be even remotely communist once they got to power.
So same can be said of Iran, North Korea, China, Vietnam, Soviet Union and many others. It'd be very inaccurate to call any of these places communist (except the Soviet Union), or even socialist. Most of them never even tried (in fact it surprised me quite a bit that the mullahs actually really tried to be communist)
Even many leaders in the west started their careers as communists, only to betray every communist and socialist principle once they got any amount of power, for example, the best paid politician in the world, Antonio Guterrez. Can you call them communists? They're about as communist as I am canine.
And in a roundabout way, the same goes for Putin. He came into power as an extreme version of Guterrez: they both climbed the ladder to power using violence to push communism. They both totally betrayed communism once they had even a small amount of power, and frankly Putin's the more honorable of the two: the choice to betray communism was made for him, whereas Guterrez betrayed communism out of free will in trade for power. And there's so many of these guys. Jose Manuel Barrosso, violent communist, non-executive chairman and senior adviser of Goldman Sachs International, after ... let's say "helping" that firm in 2007. Yes, really.
So is Putin a communist? You can be cynical and simply state the truth: Putin is an incredibly successful communist. The most successful communist in the world today, except perhaps for Xi Jinping. And, like all successful communists, he isn't the least bit communist.
You see, Venezuela had a "socalist revolution" followed by a slight misinterpretation of Marxism, and ... let's just call it "dictatorship of billionnaires", and ignore that for more than a decade this was enormously supported and pushed by leftists worldwide:
https://marxist.com/a-tribute-to-hugo-chavez.htm
Now Venezuela is a state run through criminal gangs with a billionaire dictator on top. You know, doesn't quite satisfy the definition of socialism or communism. Yet socialism is what got them there.
Therefore ... can you call Chavez a socialist? Why? He certainly had the chance to implement socialism, even communism ... and did the exact opposite. Kim Jong Il or his father? Xi Jingping? Khomeini or Khamenei of Iran? All gathered power as communists, none can be said to be even remotely communist once they got to power.
So same can be said of Iran, North Korea, China, Vietnam, Soviet Union and many others. It'd be very inaccurate to call any of these places communist (except the Soviet Union), or even socialist. Most of them never even tried (in fact it surprised me quite a bit that the mullahs actually really tried to be communist)
Even many leaders in the west started their careers as communists, only to betray every communist and socialist principle once they got any amount of power, for example, the best paid politician in the world, Antonio Guterrez. Can you call them communists? They're about as communist as I am canine.
And in a roundabout way, the same goes for Putin. He came into power as an extreme version of Guterrez: they both climbed the ladder to power using violence to push communism. They both totally betrayed communism once they had even a small amount of power, and frankly Putin's the more honorable of the two: the choice to betray communism was made for him, whereas Guterrez betrayed communism out of free will in trade for power. And there's so many of these guys. Jose Manuel Barrosso, violent communist, non-executive chairman and senior adviser of Goldman Sachs International, after ... let's say "helping" that firm in 2007. Yes, really.
So is Putin a communist? You can be cynical and simply state the truth: Putin is an incredibly successful communist. The most successful communist in the world today, except perhaps for Xi Jinping. And, like all successful communists, he isn't the least bit communist.