Putin wouldn’t have the Obamalon for lunch.... heck, he’d not even consider it a snack.
What is it about the Bushes that makes them naive about their enemies, foreign and domestic?
Some of those lines are word-for-word identical to those in Michael Reagan’s article discussing Putin.
Peters is right. Putin’s ruthlessness and grand strategy have been first-class.
Putin ran circles around the west, including the USA.
If he decides to confront the US over the long term, it'll be a dangerous time for all of us.
"Evil Genius" is apt.
I like Ralph Peters in general but ...
This piece is a bit like Chris Matthews saying Obama makes his leg tingle in its gushing admiration for Pootie-pute.
We weren’t going to fight a land war in Asia over a place whose name most Americans associate with peaches and a baseball team.
And sizing up the Georgian leader? Just what the hell was HE going to do when faced with the Russian tank columns?
Putin is ruthless and all the rest, but do we have to call him an “evil genius”? Can’t we just say he’s an opportunist and ruthless and leave it at that?
When the Berlin wall came down and we had a new openness, she said “Don't buy it for a minute. This is the beginning of a new era of misery. They just let the dogs loose.”
This is painful, but true.
Putin ping, if you ever look here any more.
In an interview with the Guardian, Belkovsky repeated his claims that Putin owns vast holdings in three Russian oil and gas companies, concealed behind a “non-transparent network of offshore trusts”.
Putin “effectively” controls 37% of the shares of Surgutneftegaz, an oil exploration company and Russia's third biggest oil producer, worth $20bn, he says. He also owns 4.5% of Gazprom, and “at least 75%” of Gunvor, a mysterious Swiss-based oil trader, founded by Gennady Timchenko, a friend of the president's, Belkovsky alleges.
Asked how much Putin was worth, Belkovsky said: “At least $40bn. Maximum we cannot know. I suspect there are some businesses I know nothing about.” He added: “It may be more. It may be much more.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/dec/21/russia.topstories3
Even if he has 10 %, or 1 %, of the above it is serious money.
Russia's economy: Yes, the Russians are currently awash with money (which is why it is interesting to read people on FR still referring to 'rusty ships.' However, that is because it is an energy exporter that also happens to have the world's largest natural gas reserves. With the current price regime for energy, all the 'brains' one needs is to not flush the money down the drain! That doesn't require genius ....just discipline. Furthermore, Russians who are in business are quite hardworking, thus they are responsible for their own success and hence it should not be attributed to Putin. What Putin did is actually let the economy function rather than expose it to 'experiments' (the Chinese have done the same thing, and their economy is also doing much better than anyone could have ever dreamed of 15 years ago)
The military victory in Georgia: What is so amazing about that? It was inevitable that the Russians would defeat the Georgians. After all, Russia had a significant quantitative and qualitative edge, and it appears like the Georgians rushed in without thinking too hard about things. There is nothing amazing about the success in Georgia, and nothing to make Putin into a genius. As a matter of fact, Putin acted in a stupid manner when he rolled past South Ossetia into Georgia proper. Had he merely stayed in SO there would have been no global condemnation, but the moment he started moving into the rest of Georgia it was inevitable that a reaction would arise that would not be to Russia's best interest. Thus, it was not genius but rather rashness.
Playing Georgia's president: Again, another even that doesn't make Putin a genius. Georgia's president is an emotionally volatile character, and the moment the S.Ossetians started shelling Georgian positions it was inevitable that he would overreact. That doesn't make Putin a genius ....all it means is that the Georgian president should lay off the coffee and think several steps ahead.
Europe's non-reaction: Also NOT genius. It was obvious that Western Europe would not do anything since they are too dependent on Russia's natural gas supplies. That just needs someone to be observant ...even Ahmadenijad is 'smart' enough to know that.
Bush's non-reaction: Well, it is obvious that Putin was VERY wrong here. Bush reacted, and did so in a very presidential manner.
Anyways, Putin is shrewd. However I have yet to see the 'genius' aspect of any of this. In my opinion the guy won the battle in Georgia, but in the process lost East and Central Europe.
That is not smart.
Czar Vladimir the Great.
Should be "Vlad The Impaler".
LOL. Is Ralph Peters part Polish? ;-)
The article's last sentence is a chiller. McCain is the only one who has read Putin correctly from the start. When it comes to people-judging skills, Bush is like the Obama-ites......he only sees what he wants to see..... thus we get "good soul" Putin, Freedom Medal winners Tenet & Bremer, AG Gonzales, Justice Myers, Spokesman Scott McClellan, and ol' "Good-Job" Brownie.
Why doesn't this surprise me (that being a former Intel officer finding himself awestruck).
I like Peters, regarding much, but he is spouting alot of hyperbole nonsense in this one.......(just as he was 2 years back saying Iraq was lost)....
Things are looking like the run up to WW-II, only things are happening faster, as most things do these days.
And we are going to be stuck with an old man with a reputation as a hothead, or a very useful idiot. Useful to Putin that is.
Along with a Congress full of leftover hippies and peaceniks.
Jolly.
I smell a future Time Man of the Year issue coming on....
Ouch is right.
Will Obama have coffee with Putin? He will be squished like a bug and we will go down under him.
Good post.