[skinkinthegrass]

Thanks for info...the liberals should be happy to see the KGB back in business...it reminds them of "the good old days of Stalin & Co."

[Warlord David]

Great article on Russia. Thanks for the info. The bible mention the battle of gog and magog Ezekiel ch:38,39. Gog is the city Moscow and magog is Russia state. With the Russian becoming freindly with Iran (old Persia)it looks like thing are taking shape for this battle. Give it another 20-25 years. By then the russian missles will be no good the fuel will have gotten to old to burn reliable. If that not already the case.

[dr_who_2]

Oil can tend to centralize power in any society except in a mature democracy such as Norway.

...a welfare state which, for all we know, may be completely controlled by standard issue European social democrat politicians who likely have strong links to the Norwegian oil industry, assuming that the Norwegian oil industry is anything of note.

[RusIvan]

Pacepa again.

[RusIvan]

Vladimir Bukovsky, a former leading Soviet dissident who spent twelve years in Soviet prisons, ==

I regret that Bukovsky tangled himself in this bunch with Pacepa and other palin russophobes. I respected that guy:(.

[apokatastasis]

For example, like Mr.Bukovsky, I am inclined at this point to believe, based on the information I've seen in David Satter's articles and books, that the Chekists were responsible for the apartment bombings that were blamed on the Chechens and provided the excuse for this most recent Chechen War.

I am rather amazed to see Woolsey endorsing such a theory, which is on a par with "Bush Knew". I guess either he's right, he's wrong, or he's cynical (doesn't believe it, but advocates it for political reasons).

This critic of Satter says that the accusations have been "kept afloat... by people close to Berezovsky". I read here that FSB head Patrushev in turn "accused Berezovsky of providing financial support to Chechen terrorists".

[nw_arizona_granny]

Ping to an old thread.

[goldstategop]

There is no chance the Soviet Union will be restored. No one in Russia wants it and Putin and Co already have their hands full keeping Russia together. The market economy and multi-party institutions cannot be undone. To restore full-fledged totalitarian rule would mean the break-up of what's left of Russia. Putin's Russia in some respects has adopted some aspects of the Soviet past but this is not a sign of a Soviet restoration. Russia does not have funds or the strength to attempt it. The secret police does play a significant role in Russia and it has always done so throughout five centuries of Russian history. My guess is the KGB under Putin and his prospective heirs would like a Russia run more to the imperatives of Russian culture than of a Western outlook but all that same the Communist past will remain the past.