How the West Lost the Hearts and Minds of the People, of the People of the Middle East
... other…who hell was Mr. Putin? No one had ever really heard of him. Not even Russian people had really heard too much about him. The country, at that time, was an economic mess, heavily in debt and it was still groping its way out of the ruble crisis of August 1998, which saw people’s bank accounts frozen – to try to stem the run on the banks and the ruble had been devalued. Vladimir Putin set about restoring some faith back into Russia. It was an uphill task. The Russian people ...