Posted on 12/16/2011 12:58:51 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday expressed regret that the leaders of the USSR did not fight to the last to prevent its collapse two decades ago.
"The USSR should have started timely economic reforms and changes as well as reforms to strengthen democratic change in the country," ex-KGB agent Putin told Russian television viewers in a phone-in.
"They should have consistently, fearlessly and steadfastly -- without burying their heads in the sand or waving their arses in the air -- fought for the territorial integrity of our country," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at expatica.ru ...
What they want is freedom to determine for themselves what is best for them, and the freedom to pursue it without interference from a tyrannical government.
Putin is getting bold. When the EU falls apart, I shudder to think what actions he may choose to take.
If that were true, Obama's approval ratings would be in the low teens.
He just wants to correct the "mistake" of the Soviet collapse.
Once a communist always a communist.
LLS
He’s just the latest Tsar. They always go megalomaniac if they aren’t toppled within the first decade or so.
And his analysis is absurd: there was no functional way the USSR could continue. The reach of trying to hold onto the peripheral countries finally exceeded the grasp of the central republic and they had to be let go. Russia is better off without them.
I’m sad to see stupid delusional analysis coming out of non-American mouths. We get enough of it here, to see it elsewhere implies the whole political planet is populated with fools and idiots.
“They should have...fought for the territorial integrity of (the USSR)”
Seems to me Putin is making a case to reconquer a lot of countries that are free these days. No wonder he doesn’t want NATO in former Soviet Republics.
That’s right Vlad. Tens of millions of people wanted to live under your boot West and South of what your nation is today. Lots of airline passengers wanted to be shot down over the pacific. The Polish and Chechs just loved your tanks rolling in. Who knew?
What a blithering idiot.
“Fight to it’s last” against who? Their own people?
Putin doesn’t realize that the USSR did not lose — we did.
Look what, or who, we have in the White Hut and what the Democrat Party has become, and what financial shape the country is in.
I don’t see a victory.
“Putin doesn’t realize that the USSR did not lose — we did.”
We both did; they lost territory but found capitalism, while we lost capitalism and found communism. The US has never had its stuff together as much as during the Cold War (speaking as someone born shortly before the end of the Vietnam War). We lost our way when the USSR collapsed, as evidenced by the election of BJ Clinton (the first post-collapse president), and starting looking for boogeymen in our own borders (gun owners, Christians, etc.).
I knew that, if we waited long enough, Putin would come up with something that he, Hillary and Barack could all agree on.
If the USSR hadn’t fallen, Vlad, your career prospects would have been limited to (maybe) the top job at the KGB. As things sit, you and your cronies have managed to rape the Russian economy, taking everything that wasn’t nailed down. This is especially true of the mineral wealth.
So yeah, I imagine that when you are sitting in your dacha alone by a roaring fire you thank your _____ for allowing the Soviet Union to collapse!
"The USSR should have started timely economic reforms and changes as well as reforms to strengthen democratic change in the country," ex-KGB agent Putin told Russian television viewers in a phone-in.Oh, I see now. Putin's just telling a baldfaced lie. This helps us understand Russian policy toward Iran and Syria.
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