[Renfield]

I think this assessment might be overly-optimistic, but I hope it is correct.

[ken21]

it’s a good article.

putin is a thug.

[Rapscallion]

RE Putin. What would you do if all you had was a KGB education and you faced rebuilding a country that had imploded seven years ago, was found to have had its nukes embezzled, was found to have wrecked its oil-producing wealth, had debased its currency, had become infiltrated by thousands of criminal “families....what COULD you do?

[JohnA]

In their anger against Russia and aggressive support for Bush administration hard-liners, they are inclined to forget that Putin's Russia is the only Russia they - and the rest of us - have. It's the one that has to be dealt with, whatever it is, or becomes.

W Pfaff - IHT

[Brilliant]

No. Oil is power. And they’ve got lots of it.

Like I’ve said many times... He who has the last barrel of oil will rule the world.

[Melchior]

While former Warsaw Pact members and Soviet republics strive desperately to join the West, Russia continues a tradtion of existing on the margin of Europe, seeking none of its benefits from the intellectual to the economic. Thus, unlike the Ukraine which is rushing pell-mell into the 21st century, Russia is stuck in the 20th and remains truly an Asian despotism. One wonders how long the Russian core of 100 million people will be able to hold on to its periphery (Siberia, the Caucasus).

[Freelance Warrior]

since it is a vital transit point for drug smuggling, a major source of cash for Putin, his fellow nationalists, and their criminal allies.

If Putin benefits from drug trade, why wouldn't he grow/make narcotics on the Russian territory? That's way cheaper and handy than all this North-Caucasusean mess.

The whole article is nothing more than ridiculous. The one who wrote it knows nothing of the history and the present situation of/in the former USSR. Unfortunately it's too long and there's no time to answer all its pieces of rubbish.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Russia’s criminal occupation forces must be driven from Ukraine, Georgia and and Moldova.

[Badeye]

I think its one of the most accurate assessments available today.

I’m constantly amazed at how many Communigroupies still exist, touting Putin and Russia even today. And how they act as though nothing has changed since the fall of the Soviet ‘empire’.

Then again, every time you run across one of these Communigroupies, they also express to you that Bush has caused all the worlds ills, and they can’t wait to vote for a Democrat for President - any Democrat - in 2008.

Funny how history repeats itself.