Hi Uncle!

I just wanted to share with you all of the great things that Putin is doing to better the lives of the citizens
here in Moscow. As you know, our former leader Boris Yeltsin allowed for oligarchs to plunder our state
resources. This privatization left millions of innocent citizens in poverty. Under Putin, our lives have
improved for the better. He has reduced poverty by nearly half, the economy has increased by 7% each
year, and the average monthly salary for Russians has just about tripled. In order to tame these
oligarchs, Putin revealed fraud proceedings that led the oligarch leaders either out of town like Boris
Berezovsky, or had them imprisoned like Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Putin projects his strength by appealing to his supporters. He proposes relentless propaganda through a
cult of personality. Putin is almost 60 years of age and is physically fit and tries to participate in the same
activities he did in his youth. These activities include: racing cars, hunting big game, piloting fighter jets
and riding horses with his shirt off. Putin is all for winning the support of his nation by showing them
what he will do to make Russia a better place. For example, in 2010 there were savage forest fires. As a
result, Putin personally dumbed tons of water on the forests from a water bomber military plane. This
showed his people the extremes hell go through to take care of his country.
However Uncle, Putins latest stunt was that he found an ancient urn but it turned out to be staged.
This dishonesty resulted in a drastic drop of supporters. His polls nearly decreased 50%. Many middle
class Muscovites are looking to organize protests against Putin. Underground anti-corruption blogger,
Alexey Navalny, is famous for calling United Russia Party of crooks and thieves may be a more liable
threat to Putin after all. The organization on the Anti-Putin movement under Navalny might be a larger
idea for opposition.

Hi Nephew!
In response to your letter I have a few things to share with you! I just want to compare the way Putin
runs your country and how our president would have dealt with the same situations. I dont have
anything to disagree with in the first paragraph of your letter, because what Putin did to clean up the
work of Yeltsin made a substantial change in Russias economy.
However, the ways Putin promotes himself are rather unorthodox to us here in the US. Our President,
Barack Obama, does not flatter himself the way Vladmir Putin does. As a matter of fact, most of
Obamas advertising only inform the nation of how he can do something to make it better. And Obama
certainly does not stage events that gain him popularity! If he did so, and it was proved to be false, he
would be charged with false advertising and possibly lose as many supporters as Putin did. Im not sure
if you knew this but Putins successor, Medvedev, was chosen by Putin solely for the reason that Putin
could have power for more than one term as Leader. Even as the Prime Minister, who doesnt have
much power, Putin controls just as much as he did as president. In the US the president maintains
control until it is his time to resign. In Russian the president is not allowed to run for a 2nd term, but in
the US they can.
In conclusion nephew, our countries arent very different, but the differences they have can make a
large effect on the country as whole.
P.S. happy Birthday and Ill see you at thanksgiving!