Recent international focus on Russian President Vladimir Putin has caused me to reflect on this steel eyed leader raised from behind the Iron Curtain. With a purported personal net worth of $70 billion dollars USD (contrasted to Prime Minister Turnbull’s net worth of $137 million USD and President Barack Obama’s net worth of $7 million USD), Putin makes for a formidable figure.
Back in September, 2007 Putin became the first Russian leader to visit Australia. During his visit he signed a uranium trade deal, with then Prime Minister John Howard, for Australia to export $1 billion USD worth of uranium to Russia (contributing to Russia’s position as an energy superpower aiming to construct 30 nuclear power stations by 2022).
Prime Minister Howard publicly stated to President Putin at the time “We respect your modern economy, your modern nation, and I hope this visit plays a significant part in furthering the good bilateral relations that exist between our two nations.”
Last week, during a BBC interview, UKIP Leader, Nigel Farage, reiterated a point he had made back in September 2014, where he stated “Whatever we think of Mr. Assad, whatever we think of Mr. Putin (and I’m not a fan or supporter of either of their regimes) whatever we think of those people, the fact is on the bigger fight against ISIS we’re on the same side.”
Given recent actions in Syria by President Putin I foresee this being a possible military strategy down the track.
Food for thought.
