To be frightened of Vladimir Putin.

[riverwalk]

He seems so unyielding and very war like. Obviously I'm scared of the whole world situation the way it is right now, but Putin has such an uncaring face iyswim. Just scary looking.

[Darvany]

As well as having a vampire's name, he was also very sinister in House of Cards.

[wuckfit]

Putin looks soulless behind the eyes !! Scary !! he has an aura about him

[BlueJug]

He is scary but some of it just cultural. As BiscuitMillionaire said it is expected of him. We expect our politicians to wear suits and have families and be "caring" but firm. The Russian leaders have to be macho and full of bravado.

That doesn't mean he isn't dangerous. And I can't imagine why anyone would want to piss him off either. The whole situation is very worrying indeed.

[wuckfit]

Awaiting mass hysteria ......

[Missyaggravation]

I'm pretty sure we are not on the brink of Ww3, Putin is guilty of looking after Russian interests and lots more besides I imagine. As are all of the leaders, chill your boots, actual ww3 ala threads is so unlikely to happen its unreal, how would a barren irradiated earth benefit the elite?

[Happfeet2911]

This is war, believe me, and unless we stand up for ourselves and blow these bastards into history we will live to regret it.

[Comingfoccacia]

Yanbu. I reckon he could kill you with bare hands. Shudder.

[Happfeet2911]

No mass hysteria honey, you can't reason with people like that, all you can do is eliminate them, simple!

[wuckfit]

I neither agreed or disagreed

[nightsky010]

Happfeet2911 I'm just so bored of trolling!

[MadeMan]

"but the Turks shooting down a Russian fighter jet is inordinately stupid."

Yep, you might get away with beating Putin at chess, or spill his vodka over, but for Pete's sake don't deliberately shoot his planes down!!! [facepalm]

[nightsky010]

Hapfeet2911 oh, wait, or are you just a republican xenophobe!? Collateral damage in war is fine, is it!? Well

[travellinglighter]

He is a dangerous individual but the Russian military are a bit of a paper tiger. He’s trying to reverse years of military neglect, upgrading and updating his army, navy and airforce but he isn’t there yet. The russian army are a bunch of badly paid conscripts who are routinely abused by a hard core of regulars. He can bully his neighbours through sheer weight of numbers but he’s outclassed by nato when it comes to arms and equipment.

The international hard man act is purely for domestic consumption. It’s probably a nav error by either the Turkish or Russian pilots. Most likely to be the Russian because there sat nav system isn’t quite as clever as the American sat nav. American sat nav system doesn’t work in war zones to stop unfriendly forces from using it.

[nightsky010]

I still suspect Trump if elected may be more of a danger than Putin, though it's a close call. Both are batshit crazy warmongering bigots, but Trump would have more power and might be more stupid than Putin?

[OddSocksHighHeels]

Happ have you actually just said that "collateral damage" is ok? Or have I read that wrong?

[DirtyBlonde]

Russia's 'sat nav' may well be far better than anything the West has, because Russia has a more extensive space programme.

[noclueses]

I do wonder what are these 'serious consequences' going to be? towards Turks? but Turkey is absolutely full of russian tourists. If not towards Turks, what else - or is it just bravado?

[Hillfarmer]

Putin is truly scary. He wants a fight. And if his conventional armed forces are ragged and not up to much, then that is all the more incentive for him to go nuclear. Moving in on Crimea was a true sign of his belligerence and it is not merely posturing if you go that far. That was his 'C'mon if you're hard enough!' to Europe and NATO generally, and he got his answer.

He wants a nationalistic, expansionist Russia. He is an Imperialist at heart and power has corrupted him. I think of him like Mugabe with nuclear weapons - now that's scary.

He hates the EU because it creates a solid bloc at his border. Countries that are threatened by Russia are desperate to join the EU as a consequence. Look why Ukraine/Crimea kicked off - because Ukraine was trying to speed up efforts to join the EU. Putin wasn't having that.

That's one of the main reasons I support being part of the EU - as its founding mission was to create a defensive pact of countries to prevent war in Europe. And Putin is desperate to undermine it. It is one of those things where if you chew on your pencil long enough, you think "Why does Putin hate the EU?" Then you realise he hates it because it is a defensively strong, democratic, freedom-building powerhouse. Of course he doesn't like it! I wouldn't be surprised if Britain's 'Leave EU' campaigns got some mysterious donations. He wants to seed instability and doubt. He doesn't want strong neighbours. In classic MN style - he is showing us who he is. Believe him.

[noclueses]

Dirty, well it was not good in this case if despite 10 warnings in 5min they still didn't navigate properly! They aer either arrogant thinking they aer the main force in syria and can do whatever they like, or it was to provoke nato but in the circs not as likely.

[CatMilkMan]

Ugh only on mumsnet can "I'm scared of his face iyswim" can be used in such a political way.

[nightsky010]

OddSocksHighHeels yes, (s)he actually said that! I can only assume she is trolling or is an extremist.

[aquashiv]

We are conditioned to hate him.
I think we can be pretty war mongering too.
When the fuck is every one going to stop fighting.

[Katarzyna79]

OP I think YABU do you think the likes of Blair and Cameron look like mother Theresa in other countries, especially those they are attacking? We see it as defence most of the time (not Iraq though), they see it as war mongers and tyrants under the guise of democracy.

Saucyjack because we are always fed negatives about Russia ive never heard anything positive, doesn't mean I believe it all though I take everything with a pinch of salt. I'm sure if we lived there we would wear a different pair of lens to view through.

[OddSocksHighHeels]

nightsky I was hoping I'd read wrong. Collateral damage, when you're talking about the lives of actual innocent people, is absolutely fucking disgusting.