Wow. My knee-jerk pre-conceptions about Vladimir Putin are getting some re-evaluations - but it took someone of the stature of Alexander Solzhenitsyn to do it.

Erica Alini has an interesting post over on Passport (a blog by the editors of Foreign Policy magazine) that got me thinking about the Philippines.

The post notes how “the freedom fighter become the apologist for dictatorship, while the spy became the dissident.”

A twist. But a further twist is what if Solzhenitsyn were Filipino - what would he be saying about Arroyo? Could it be that Putin and Arroyo are opposites?

A quote from Solzhenitsyn:

“Putin inherited a ransacked and bewildered country, with a poor and demoralized people. And he started to do what was possible … In any case, one is hard pressed to find examples in history when steps by one country to restore its strength were met favorably by other governments.“

I find that last sentence very extremely intriguing.

Arroyo’s agenda (although maybe not its execution) is being met enthusiastically by other governments. This is the opposite from Russia.