Posted on 11/04/2007 1:24:01 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
MOSCOW (Reuters) - On a holiday created to unite his country, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a veiled warning that foreigners were seeking to split up the vast country and plunder its resource wealth.
"Some people are constantly insisting on the necessity to divide up our country and are trying to spread this theory," Putin told military cadets during a speech in Moscow on Sunday, Russian news agencies reported.
"There are those who would like to build a unipolar world, who would themselves like to rule all of humanity," Putin said, a phrase he has used over the past seven years of his administration to mean the United States.
Putin, who has a black belt in Judo, the Japanese martial art that stresses calm, emotionless and powerful shifts of an opponent's weight and balance against himself, also said Russia was well respected by admirers as a stabilising world factor.
"Some minor countries, under pressure from larger ones, are having a hard time figuring out how to defend their own interests. And Russia has played and will continue to play a positive, stabilising role in the world," he said.
NATIONAL UNITY
Sunday was National Unity Day, an Autumn holiday created by Putin's administration three years ago to replace October Revolution Day, formerly the most patriotic celebration in the Soviet Union, when tanks, missiles and troops filled Red Square.
Unity Day, according to Putin's own explanation of the holiday, is meant to show the power of the Russian people as a unified whole, rising up to meet the challenges of economic development and national defence.
A Levada Centre poll of adult Russians showed only a quarter of adults could correctly identify why they have Monday off from work.
A further 48 per cent had no idea whatsoever, while the remaining poll participants confused the holiday with the National Day of Reconciliation or Halloween.
To end this national confusion, this year's National Unity Day celebrations were heavily advertised on government television channels, and thousands of people across the country staged rallies, meetings and marches to show their patriotism.
"Some think we have too much resource wealth and should divide it," Putin told the cadets.
"They themselves have no wish to share their own riches, and we should take that into account."
"We maintain that the world should be multi-polar. I am fully convinced that, despite efforts made by some, the uni-polar pattern has proved itself fully unfeasible. We can rule it out as something that didnt work, an idea that cannot be put into practice, ...No world power, no matter how great it is, is able to solve all the worlds problems by itself. Nobody has enough financial, economic, material or political resources for this task. This has become obvious. The examples of Afghanistan and Iraq prove this. We suggest strengthening the status of international organisations, namely, the United Nations; strengthening the status of international law, respecting other nations sovereignty, and making decisions by achieving general consensus."
Old soviet-style multi-speak is what this sounds like!
Classic Russian xenophobia.
Next, Putin will be rolling tanks into the former USSR on the pretense of a need to buffer all those resources and all that wealth from the greedy clutches of "foreigners."
Sunday was National Unity Day which seems like a fine time to rant against uni-something.
LOL! By supporting cannibal regimes in Burma, Zimbabwe, Iran, Syria, Sudan, etc. etc.
Vlad is apparently working on his stand-up act.
Sucks to be a loser, doesn’t it?
What a pathetic excuse for a nation. Always has been.
Oh yeah, being bipolar really helps people a lot, I can see it will help the world a lot too. /sarc.
Russia had it's chance to join the free world in commerce and enjoy success. It seems they are committed to being a mediocre "also-ran" just like in the old Soviet days.
It's to bad. We could have been great partners on the same side.
The same poll found that even though there was confusion regarding the holiday, all the people polled felt the day off was a good reason to get really schnockered on Vodka.
‘”There are those who would like to build a unipolar world, who would themselves like to rule all of humanity,” Putin said, a phrase he has used over the past seven years of his administration to mean the United States.’
Translation: We’re mad that Russia doesn’t really matter anymore. Waaaaaaaaaah!
“No world power, no matter how great it is, is able to solve all the worlds problems by itself. Nobody has enough financial, economic, material or political resources for this task. This has become obvious. The examples of Afghanistan and Iraq prove this.”
If he’s looking to Afghanistan and Iraq for examples of failed American policy, well he may need to rethink his argument here pretty soon. ;-)
It’s going to be fun seeing all of those shiny Russian toys in Iran turned into smoking rubble as well.
I think “nation” should be replaced with “government” in your post. The russian people have, at times, acheived greatness in spite of their pathetic government and the afflictions caused by it. This is my opinion anyway.
True enough..
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.