Posted on 12/02/2011 6:34:12 AM PST by wolfman23601
As prime minister for the past four years, Vladimir Putin never really went away. But his looming reincarnation as the all-powerful, executive president of Russia the country's "paramount leader" in Chinese parlance poses a stark challenge for which the US, Britain and other beleaguered western powers seem ill-prepared. As president, potentially until 2024, Putin has one overriding objective: the creation of a third, post-tsarist, post-Soviet Russian empire.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
The silver lining is that Putin doesn't have any sons to hand his kingdom over to.
It says something about how far we have fallen when a national leader focuses on making his nation strong - and we think it is odd.
I wouldn’t mind a strong Russia controlling Central Asia, and keeping it out of the hands of the Islamo-Fascists.
One important attribute about Putin that I grudgingly admire:
He cares about his country and its future. We don’t have that kind of leader now.
This is true, but he doesn’t care much about the self-determination of his people. Henry VIII, Hitler, Napolean, and most other tyranical rulers also loved their country. I wish we had a president that loved his country, but make no mistake, Putin is no George Washington or Ronald Reagan.
This is like Saddam claiming he is going to be a new Saladin or some of the bananna republic dictators in South and Central America dreaming of a Latin American empire. It ain’t happening given the sorry state Russia is in. Its still imploding demographically. Its military is a rotten shell. The former Warsaw Pact countries hate Russia more than the West does. The former Asian republics have gravitated into China’s or a Muslim orbit and will fight any attempts by Putin to do anything. He may beat up tiny Georgia but that isn’t going to amount to much, as horrible as it is. Lots of sabre-rattling but not much effect.
To be sure, I completely get that part... of course, the Russians aren't big on the self-determination thing anyway.
I found it rather interesting Putin called on Obama to stop the slide to socialism last year. Oh, the irony...
Did Communism Fake Its Own Death in 1991?
American Thinker ^ | January 16, 2010 | Jason McNew
In a [] 1984 book [New Lies for Old], ex-KGB Major Anatoliy Golitsyn predicted the liberalization of the Soviet Bloc and claimed that it would be a strategic deception. ..."
"Golitsyn's argument was that beginning in about 1960, the Soviet Union embarked on a strategy of massive long-range strategic deception which would span several decades and result in the destruction of Western capitalism and the erection of a communist world government."
"Golitsyn published his second book, The Perestroika Deception, after the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991. This book contained further analysis of the liberalization, in addition to previously classified memoranda submitted by Golitsyn to the CIA. The two books must be read together to get a complete picture of Golitsyn's thesis."
http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/did_communism_fake_its_own_dea.html
Resurgent Communism in Latin America
by Alex Newman, March 16, 2010:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/world-mainmenu-26/south-america-mainmenu-37/3122-resurgent-communism-in-latin-america?tmpl=component&print=1&layout=default&page=
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From the Russian News and Information Agency:
July 27, 2006
"'I am determined to expand relations with Russia,' Chavez, known as an outspoken critic of what he calls the United States' unilateralism, told the Russian leader, adding that his determination stemmed from their shared vision of the global order.":
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060727/51913498.html
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From the Sino-Russian Joint Statement of April 23, 1997:
"The two sides [China and Russia] shall, in the spirit of partnership, strive to promote the multipolarization of the world and the establishment of a new international order."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HI29Ag01.html
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"Joint war games are a logical outcome of the Sino-Russian Friendship and Cooperation Treaty signed in 2001, and reflect the shared worldview and growing economic ties between the two Eastern Hemisphere giants."
http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed092605a.cfm
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President Obama and Venezuela dictator Hugo
Chavez at the 2009 Summit of the Americas in Trinidad.
Note the "soul bro" handshake. (my caption)
Obama, Chavez shake hands at Americas Summit:
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/04/17/2698451-obama-chavez-shake-hands-at-americas-summit
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Russia's Medvedev hails "comrade" Obama
Associated Foreign Press (AFP) ^ | April 2, 2009 | Anna Smolchenko
"Russia's Dmitry Medvedev hailed Barack Obama as "my new comrade" Thursday after their first face-to-face talks"
http://www.france24.com/en/20090402-russias-medvedev-hails-comrade-obama
April 1, 2009:
"Obama, Medvedev pledge new era of relations":
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090401/wl_afp/usrussiadiplomacynuclear_20090401152002
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Return of the Soviet Union ping
"the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century" -Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the collapse of the Soviet Union...
"World democratic opinion has yet to realize the alarming implications of President Vladimir Putin's State of the Union speech on April 25, 2005, in which he said that the collapse of the Soviet Union represented the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.'
http://www.hooverdigest.org/053/beichman.html
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"'The Black Book of Communism,'; a scholarly accounting of communisms crimes, counts about 94 million murdered by the supposed champions of the common man (20 million for the Soviets alone), and some say that number is too low."
Forgetting the Evils of Communism: The amnesia bites a little deeper
By Jonah Goldberg, August 2008:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZmY0MjI1MDgyYjg1M2UwNDMzMTk2Mjk5YTk0ZTdlMWE=
Putin's Russia is nothing like the Soviet Union, it's closer to the old Russian Empire sans the Czars. Putin knows the Communism is a failed philosophy.
The Russians are masters of deception. They are excellent at chess, thinking many moves ahead of their opponent, while most of us, unfortunately, suck at simple checkers. In short, don’t be so quick to believe everything you read (in the useful idiot MSM and Pravda) about KGB Putin’s plans for the new Russia. He’s more than likely just throwing out a smoke screen to dupe the simple minded among us. Putin is a power hungry dictator. He was a KGB member for approximately 20 years.
Maybe he’ll be nice to us because we have a president who named his daughters Malia and Sasha. We can hope, anyway.
Putin would have served in the Czar’s police if they were still in power. He’s not about ideology.
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Yamantau mountain is a good reason we should be cautious. Larger than inside the beltway in DC, that nuclear hardened facility has been digging since the late 1970s, and they aren’t talking about it. Russia also has inherited the best civil defense system in the world, and has more nuclear weapons than we do. They are patriotic and produce more engineers than we do. We would be reckless to underestimate them.
A deceptive Russia could be our worst nightmare. As in Cold War Worst.
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