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Saakashvili: Ukraine is 'first geopolitical revolution of the 21st century'
csmonitor.com ^ | January 30, 2014 | Mike Eckel

Posted on 01/30/2014 7:45:19 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe

To say there’s no love lost between Mikheil Saakashvili and Vladimir Putin would be an understatement.

The way Mr. Saakashvili remembers it, the last meeting the two presidents were both in attendance – a February 2008 summit of post-Soviet leaders – Mr. Putin talked openly about wanting to hang Saakashvili by various body parts. Saakashvili, who stands over 6 feet tall, once mocked Putin’s own diminutive height, drawing from Jonathan Swift’s satirical writings to dub him “Lily-Putin.”

These days, Saakashvili, the US-trained lawyer who stepped down as president of the tiny Caucasus nation of Georgia last year, is a “senior statesman” at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. But he is still inclined to call Putin a “thug” and a “godfather” for, among other things, what’s happening in former Soviet republics like Ukraine.

The streets of Kiev don’t resemble an urban battlefield merely because Ukrainians are disaffected, venting about their government, Saakashvili insists: they’re a battleground between East and West. Under Putin, the Kremlin is trying to rebuild an empire.

Ukraine “is the first geopolitical revolution of the 21st century,” he tells the Monitor.

“We are seeing people out in the streets again. They’re fighting against corruption among other things, but they’re also fully united against Moscow,” he says. “For them, [Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovych is the principle source of this, but it is the Kremlin that’s basically symbolizes this way of life.”

(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: russia; ukraine

1 posted on 01/30/2014 7:45:19 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Phew! I thought you meant John Shalikashvili!
2 posted on 01/30/2014 8:23:00 PM PST by golux
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Not sure about the credentials of people who want to be part of the socialist, politically correct western European Paradise.


3 posted on 01/30/2014 8:24:29 PM PST by ZULU (Magua is sitting in the Oval Office. Ted Cruz/Phil Robertson in 2016.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Crikey...they get Putin & Saakashvili.

Whadda we get?! Obama!


4 posted on 01/30/2014 8:29:02 PM PST by ReaganÜberAlles
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To: ZULU

Putinist Russia is so repulsive it makes western Europe seem like a paradise.


5 posted on 01/30/2014 8:33:24 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Not sure I agree with you. At least it still has some connections to Christianity and appears to oppose moral decay - unlike the lemmings of degenerate western socialist states which are more like collections of Eloi waiting for the Morlocks from North Africa to eat them up.


6 posted on 01/30/2014 8:35:44 PM PST by ZULU (Magua is sitting in the Oval Office. Ted Cruz/Phil Robertson in 2016.)
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To: ZULU
The Russian state has no official connection to Christianity and Putin's United Russia Party of crooks and thieves certainly does not represent Christianity, unlike Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. I don't think it's right to lump all of western Europe together. Merkel has turned out to be a halfway decent leader. She certainly has more moral authority than the savage and brutal mass-murderer and war criminal KGB Putin who dropped cluster bombs on innocent Christian women and children in Georgia to punish them for befriending America.

As far as the islamic cave dwellers Russia is infested with them with a 17% muslim population and two million muslims in Moscow alone. Putin commands battalions of Chechen jihadists who he ordered to attack Georgia and massacre Christians. Putin appointed the son of the Chechen mufti as dictator of Chechnya for life. Putin doesn't just kiss muslim ass he arms them against Christians and Israel and builds them nuclear reactors and supplies nuclear fuel to make a bomb to wipe Israel off the map.

7 posted on 01/30/2014 9:11:33 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe

I thought Germany was infested with Turks.


8 posted on 01/30/2014 9:13:01 PM PST by ZULU (Magua is sitting in the Oval Office. Ted Cruz/Phil Robertson in 2016.)
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To: ZULU
They have a few million Turks, about four to five percent of the population. Russia has over twenty three million muslims, 17 percent of the population. And yet most Germans oppose Turkish membership in the EU. Instead the Germans want the Christian Ukrainians in the EU.

Erdogan criticizes Germany, France for blocking Turkey's EU bid - June 26, 2009 - "Turkey cannot accept the position of Germany and France."

Putin's "Eurasian Union" is mostly muslim-majority countries! Why would Ukraine want to be part of that? They should want to be allies with Crapistan and Cacastan instead of Germany and the USA? I think not.

9 posted on 01/30/2014 9:33:04 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Putin commands battalions of Chechen jihadists who he ordered to attack Georgia and massacre Christians. Putin appointed the son of the Chechen mufti as dictator of Chechnya for life. Putin doesn't just kiss muslim ass he arms them against Christians and Israel and builds them nuclear reactors and supplies nuclear fuel to make a bomb to wipe Israel off the map.

Agreed.

What I can't figure is that Moscow turned Grozny into a moonscape, then (apparently?) rebuilt it. Google "Grozny" and look at it--it's more neon that Las Vegas, and more modern than any city in America.

Or was that Islamic money?

The Chechens were the ones that brought the Beslan Massacre. I think Russia is running scared of 'em, and rebuilt Grozny out of fear, but perhaps it was pan-Islamic $$ that rebuilt it. Dunno.

Anyone know?

10 posted on 01/30/2014 10:04:44 PM PST by sauron ("Truth is hate to those who hate Truth" --unknown)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
Putin commands battalions of Chechen jihadists who he ordered to attack Georgia and massacre Christians. Putin appointed the son of the Chechen mufti as dictator of Chechnya for life. Putin doesn't just kiss muslim ass he arms them against Christians and Israel and builds them nuclear reactors and supplies nuclear fuel to make a bomb to wipe Israel off the map.

Agreed.

What I can't figure is that Moscow turned Grozny into a moonscape, then (apparently?) rebuilt it. Google "Grozny" and look at it--it's more neon that Las Vegas, and more modern than any city in America.

Or was that Islamic money?

The Chechens were the ones that brought the Beslan Massacre. I think Russia is running scared of 'em, and rebuilt Grozny out of fear, but perhaps it was pan-Islamic $$ that rebuilt it. Dunno.

Anyone know?

11 posted on 01/30/2014 10:06:03 PM PST by sauron ("Truth is hate to those who hate Truth" --unknown)
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To: sauron

Yes Putin has spent billions rebuilding Chechnya, essentially tribute money to the Chechen warlord. Putin also allowed Turks to build in Chechnya the largest mosque in Europe. Putin represents the multi-culti diversity of the multiethnic Soviet Union. He forces Russians to pay dearly so they can have the privelege of living in the same country as millions of non-Russians. The Russian people lose their freedom so that Putin can reign over a non-Russian Neo-Soviet empire.


12 posted on 01/30/2014 10:41:42 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe; ZULU; sauron; All
From the Christian Science Monitor:

I survived the Georgian war. Here's what I saw.

Mikheil Saakashvili is a peach alright, he and Georgia got what they deserved for producing their hero Joe Stalin.

13 posted on 01/31/2014 1:18:01 AM PST by Navy Patriot (Join the Democrats, it's not Fascism when WE do it, and the Constitution and law mean what WE say.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

I’m not sure how relevant is the opinion of such a failure as Saakashvili.


14 posted on 01/31/2014 9:50:08 AM PST by DagnyTaggar (Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them.)
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