[GBA]

"Rarely has Russia's leadership been so widely reviled in the West, yet rarely has the West needed Russia's friendship more."

How does one get beyond that statement? Does the leadership of the former Soviet Union count as Russian?

[Jaysun]

The Russians aren't to be trusted. And to the extent that we do we'll pay a price.

[RKV]

"for the past three centuries, the Russian elite has identified itself wholeheartedly with European culture and values" - not so sure about that. Russian wants western technology and aspires to western power, not to western values. It wants eastern values - namely despotism, at least the elites in Russia, do. The long suffering people of Russia haven't done too well by the arrangement.

[GSlob]

In cases of maniacal delusions: stop alcohol consumption immediately.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

A related posted article:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1787991/posts.

[alloysteel]

Russia is nation on the verge of becoming a Muslim-dominated country.

It is not necessary for Muslims to be a majority within a territory to be thrust under shari'a law. Their moral superiority is such, that perhaps only twenty to twenty-five percent of a population need be Muslim, for Islam to exert its ideology. Everybody else simply becomes dhimmi, and the non-conformists are executed, again not a new concept in Russia.

The practicing cadre of Communists was FAR smaller than that, and they effectively held control in the Soviet Union for most of the previous century.

[AliVeritas]

They're kidding right?

[spanalot]

"The most obvious reason the West needs Russia is the latter's abundance of natural resources,"

F Russia and their abundant "natural" resources like nuclear plants and AAA missiles and dioxin and polonium.

[steel_resolve]

it becomes hard for even such an ardent Europhile as President Vladimir Putin

Is this the same Europhile that turned off gas supplies to Western EUrope WITHOUT WARNING and also is threatening Poland and The Czech Republic? Europhile my ass...

[WesternCulture]

Just like other Orthodox Christians, Russians are prone to exaggeration.

When I visited Athens, Greece some years ago, the former pope happened to do likewise and this friendly, routine like call got lots of Greeks taking to the streets, shouting and demonstrating about the Catholics trying to implement plans of brainwashing Orthodox Christians into subjugation.

Certain developments in today's Russia are criticized by Western Europeans because many Europeans, just like several US Americans, find these facts disturbing:

"The Committee to Protect Journalists asserted in 2006 that "Russia is the third deadliest country in the world for journalists over the past 15 years, behind only the conflict-ridden countries of Iraq and Algeria". According to CPJ, 44 journalists were killed in Russia in 1992-2006, 13 of them since the start of Putin's first term." (Source: Wikipedia's article on Russia).

These circumstances deserve global attention and ought to be discussed by friends of democracy. Thinking so doesn't automatically turn one into an enemy of Russia.

What's all this whining about?

I'm Swedish and as far as I'm concerned, Any Russian, American or other non Swede is free to criticize Sweden and the Swedish government.

Let's bury hatred of the past and get Western Civilization going.

From Sweden With Love.