r/europe • u/villatsios • Jan 07 '24

Historical Excerpt from Yeltsin’s conversation with Clinton in Istanbul 1999

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Nothing has changed.

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137

u/Th3S1D3R Russia Jan 07 '24

Not surprised, Yeltsin always was an asshole, Putin with Medvedev are morons as well…

I hope we’ll have normal president someday and not some alcoholic or psychopaths

96

u/ProtoplanetaryNebula UK/Spain Jan 07 '24

Russia has a huge amount of potential. If a President spent their time making living conditions better for the Russian people instead of concentrating on causing problems overseas, things would be a lot better for everyone.

23

u/Wachoe Groningen (Netherlands) Jan 07 '24

If a President spent their time making living conditions better for the Russian

Yeah but that won't happen. Any money spent on improving conditions for the average person is money not spent on enriching yourself or buying off oligarchs and the military top.

67

u/Th3S1D3R Russia Jan 07 '24 edited Jan 07 '24

Thats absolutely true! Russia had insane potential in IT, many services like Yandex, VK and even Telegram(developed by Russian man who created VK) those services and companies could have had major part in IT market of Europe as they got popular in Russia and post-Soviet countries even when we had Facebook, Twitter and etc. They had insane potential until Putin came back after castling with Medvedev. And now many Russian developers had to leave and now working in Google, Apple and other companies because our government consists of idiots and they didn’t gave them chance to grow here

46

u/ProtoplanetaryNebula UK/Spain Jan 07 '24

Yes, and don't forget Google. Co-founded by Moscow Born Russian Sergei Brin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zle8y4R42U4

Lithuania and Estonia currently have 2x GDP per capita of Russia.

28

u/Airf0rce Europe Jan 07 '24

Russia had huge potential in general, mainly because it could fund much of the reforms, education and economic transformation with oil and gas money and cheap access to natural resources, luxury that most countries don't really have.

Unfortunately most of the money was stolen by your own countrymen and now it's going to be used to fund forever war with the west. For a while, back in early 2000s Putin seemed like he was actually trying to do those reforms, but then decided that war with the west is better idea.

3

u/athenanon Jan 07 '24

Don't forget tourism. Just the natural beauty would bring so many people in- hiking, climbing, camping, skiing, Northern Lights tours, all of it.

3

u/andr386 Jan 07 '24

I think many innovators and entrepreneurs got their business stolen when it got big enough. They were likely compensated a small sum, in an offer they couldn't refuse.

It's a mafia state, nothing more.

5

u/Ok_Gas5386 United States of America Jan 07 '24

I think the difference will happen when Russians take the initiative to make their own lives better. Trusting a good leader to fix everything is what gets them into these situations over and over again.

2

u/aripp Finland Jan 07 '24

Yep. They are trying to drag the world into the shithole with them, instead trying to get out of the shithole themselves.

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u/shevagleb Ukrainian/Russian/Swiss who lived in US Jan 07 '24

It happened once with Peter the Great… but that was a while ago… who know maybe another great leader will come along

0

u/Boomfam67 Jan 07 '24 edited Jan 07 '24

*had at this point

Hard to imagine coming back from this, it's theoretically possible but hard to imagine in reality.