Posted on 03/05/2006 12:37:00 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
Prior to the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Primakov was President Mikhail Gorbachev's special representative to Saddam.
Gorbachev was out, Yeltsin was in and Primakov continued to prosper. He became Yeltsin's head of the KGB successor, the FSB, and remained there, a true hard-liner, until 1996 when he was made foreign minister. Two years later he was named prime minister, a job that, to the surprise of many, he kept for a whole year. Then, not retirement but the presidency of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry -- and the full trust of Vladimir Putin -- came Primakov's way. This opened a whole range of secret missions in the Islamic world.
Globally, the Kremlin has re-evaluated its expectations of Washington. Military cooperation in Central Asia has been replaced by rivalry, over-security and oil supplies. The United States is pulling out of Afghanistan with the Taliban in resurgence, ready and willing to assist the Chechens; radical Islamists are spreading terror from Chechnya deep into the North Caucus; and the "color" revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine were defeats for Moscow.
To the former communists now cozying up to China, living in a world with 25 million Muslims in their population, the "war of civilizations" may be beginning and they don't know which side they are on. However, Yevgeny Primakov and
Vladimir Putin, both disciples of Yuri Andropov, who led the KGB in the 1980s, know.
Primakov now is working on plans to defuse suspicions around Iran's intent to obtain a nuclear bomb and to encourage Tehran to send its spent nuclear fuel to Russia. He is behind President Putin's opening of a political dialogue with Hamas, which refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist. He pushed Russia into joining the Organization of Islamic Conferences -- its only European member.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
I wonder what the relationships are between Putin, Gorbachev and Primakov. Same goes for Yeltsin.
On February 1st 2006, Yeltsin celebrated his 75th birthday. He used this occasion as an opportunity to criticize a "monopolistic" US foreign policy, and to state that Vladimir Putin was the right choice for Russia. He also discraded the accusation of corruption and the term "Family" as complete nonsense.
"'The U.S. has gotten stuck there and now it can't justify what it has done in Iraq. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and now they are looking for way to explain that they had been there.' - Yevgeny Primakov"
No WMD hmmmmm?? You should have read the whole article [here's another short excerpt]:
"The Shaw team confirmed what many suspected. WMDs existed and were moved in trucks by Russian Special Forces, dressed in civilian clothing, who had been ordered into Iraq to move the weapons and destroy all evidence that would prove their existence. [Saddam's general - who wrote "Saddam's Secrets" - said it was Russian special forces in plain clothes. I guess this would confirm that?]
"This investigative team has records of scores of trucks entering Syria and of two Russian ships leaving Basra for the Indian Ocean just before the war by the allied coalition against Iraq began. It is reported that an agreement had been signed between Iraq and Russia that the ships carrying chemical/bio weapons would be burned or "lost at sea" to avoid potential capture.
"The Russian mission to mislead was accomplished. Well, almost.
"Some of the Russians were slow. Their trucks, packed with papers, were caught by a U.S. Air Force sortie on the Iraq side of the border [and confirmed as such by Israli satellite photos which Powell showed at the UN]. Trucks and their contents were shot up and burned. The Russians scattered. For days a diplomatic row festered but was overshadowed by events.
"Some analysts believe that among the Russians scattered by the strafing probably was the most dangerous man in Moscow, an old mentor and friend of Saddam's, Gen. Yevgeny Maksimovich Primakov, their most experienced and highest-ranking Middle East operative."
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See there .. you should have kept reading! Looks like the left's NO WMD has blown up in their faces .. just like I knew it would. They have placed their whole mantra of Bush lied us into Iraq and no wmd - and now it's all being proven that BUSH WAS RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING.
But .. I don't expect this to be highlighted in the old media any day soon.
Or as Pete Townshend said "Meet the new boss - Same as the old boss".
What you say is true but don't think for a moment that TGJ isn't way ahead of you! He was setting up a straw man, not advocating that point of view.
Fine! But please allow him to speak for himself! thank you
Exactly Communists have no qualms about murdering 1+ billion plus muslims.. after they've taken over.. no qualms at all..
Are communists(russian and chinese and others) helping the Islamo-terrorists?.. Count on it.. Only non communists are afraid of Islamo-terrorists.. Commies USE them.. like everything else they touch.. Genocide is not a bad thing to commies.. Liquidating 1+ billion Muzzies is no big deal to a commie.. Actually they may enjoy it at the proper time.. The Muzzies are being used like a rented donkey..
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Democracy is the road to socialism. Karl Marx
Democracy is indispensable to socialism. The goal of socialism is communism. V.I. Lenin
The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.- Karl Marx
It makes a good story. It would also make a cracking film. Amazing what people will believe?
"good story"
And .. what is your evidence to support that it's just "a good story" ..??
Your presentation reads like a Tom Clancy novel. I served in the Coalition. It makes a very good story for Hollywood, but does not link to actual events. For example the claim of an Israeli satellite photo shown at the UN. All nice and cosy and all ends tied up. No doubt you'll also tie up the Israeli air strike on Ayn Shahab, Syria as the location of the WMDs transported out? No doubt some Hollywood producer will pick up on it!
We should be careful not to overreact. Other countries have different interests from ours. That doesn't necessarily make them enemies. Otherwise everyone would be the enemy unless they always did exactly what America told them to.
We should of course be careful and be able to stand up for our own interests, but we should be willing to have strong bilateral relations with any country that wants to even if they disagree with us a lot.
Where does the idea that the US is "pulling out of Afganistan" come from? Someone's as...?
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