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Russian Totalitarian Impulse Is A Feature, Not A Bug
investors.com ^ | July 22, 2014 | DENNIS PRAGER

Posted on 07/22/2014 8:07:38 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe

First, Vladimir Putin suppresses — sometimes violently — virtually all dissent in Russia. And most Russians are apparently entirely comfortable with it. Not just comfortable — supportive.

Second, there is widespread nostalgia among Russian citizens for Stalin. One has to wonder if there is any other example of a large body of people pining for a leader who murdered tens of millions of their own people.

Third, there is increasingly little difference between the Russian media and the Soviet media. Both were/are saturated with lies.

Anne Applebaum, foreign affairs columnist for the Washington Post, reports that "Russia's state-controlled mass media ... still constantly denigrate Ukraine and its 'Nazi' government. Just in the past week, Russian reporting on Ukraine reached a new pitch of hysteria, with fake stories about the supposed crucifixion of a child and an extraordinary documentary comparing the Ukrainian army's defense of its own country with the Rwandan genocide."

Fourth, to the widespread acclaim of the Russian people, Putin annexed part of Ukraine, and is using Russian Ukrainians to violently annex more. All evidence points to these people — supplied with Russian arms including the Russian SA-11 antiaircraft missile — as the murderers who shot down a civilian airliner with 298 people on board.

Again, the Post's Applebaum: "This plane crash is a result of the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine, an operation deliberately designed to create legal, political and military chaos. Without this chaos, a surface-to-air missile would not have been fired at a passenger plane.

"Into this ambiguous and unstable situation, the Russians cynically funneled a stream of heavy weapons: machine guns and artillery and, eventually, tanks, armed personnel carriers and anti-aircraft missiles.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Russia
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 07/22/2014 8:07:38 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe
The only thing the Rooskie understands is a strongman.
2 posted on 07/22/2014 8:22:46 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (Rip it out by the roots.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
One has to wonder if there is any other example of a large body of people pining for a leader who murdered tens of millions of their own people.

China. Mao Tse-tung. By some estimates he is responsible for the death of fifty million Chinese.

3 posted on 07/22/2014 8:26:11 PM PDT by SeeSharp
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
The only thing the Rooskie understands is a strongman.

To be fair, they also understand chaos, which is what Yeltsin gave them, and humiliation, which is what Clinton and Bush43 gave them.

4 posted on 07/22/2014 8:28:20 PM PDT by SeeSharp
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To: SeeSharp

Lol, you guys and your pro-Russia loyalties.


5 posted on 07/22/2014 8:52:22 PM PDT by ansel12 (LEGAL immigrants, 30 million 1980-2012, continues to remake the nation's electorate for democrats)
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To: Tailgunner Joe
"This plane crash is a result of the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine, an operation deliberately designed to create legal, political and military chaos. Without this chaos, a surface-to-air missile would not have been fired at a passenger plane.

And if the CIA/Soros hadn't formented a coup in Ukraine, the Russians would not have gotten involved. The political chaos is a CIA/Soros creation. The military chaos was to be expected.

That the Russians would intervene, and with a heavy hand was entirely predictable. Taking the Black Sea ports away from Russia was not going to happen peacefully.

Poke the hornet's nest and somebody will get stung.

This is just another CIA/State Department snafu, it just blew up a bit faster than most of their mistakes.

6 posted on 07/22/2014 8:59:03 PM PDT by slowhandluke (It's hard to be cynical enough in this age.)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

What’s the difference between a feature and a bug?


7 posted on 07/22/2014 9:01:23 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives)
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To: slowhandluke

Da, comrade! Is all Amerikanski plot!


8 posted on 07/22/2014 9:01:47 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe

Take a look at the photos from Donesk and Lugansk, make up your own mind.

Warning: graphic photos and dramatic war footage in a civilian setting, in Twitter links.

The Ukrainian army is hammering the separatists with artillery and heavy weapons fire every day. Hundreds are dead this week, and last, in Donetsk and Lugansk.

Separatists in Donetsk have killed Ukrainian army members and destroyed tanks there. It is a full on civil war with separatists backed by all the Russian support they want.

There are many photos of civilians, dead in the streets. It looks like a massacre.

The Pentagon is sending military aid to Kiev now. It does not seem that they really need any help.

This looks like a good argument to stay out of: better to broker peace somehow. Not sure I see any national security interests of the US at play here...

It is really a sad, violent situation with a gigantic price of civilian dead and wounded. The Cossacks in western Ukraine are paying a heavy price for being separatists, and are also fighting back against the Kiev army. What a mess.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/Lugansk?src=hash

https://twitter.com/hashtag/donetsk?src=rela


9 posted on 07/22/2014 9:09:04 PM PDT by FlyingEagle
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To: FlyingEagle

Make that Cossacks in Eastern Ukraine.


10 posted on 07/22/2014 9:10:47 PM PDT by FlyingEagle
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To: FlyingEagle

Peace will only come after the decisive defeat of the Russian enemy.


11 posted on 07/22/2014 9:18:57 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
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To: Tailgunner Joe

A similar situation in the US would be if the south Texas tejano population decided they would rather be part of Mexico, then took up arms against the US, with backing of Mexico. If the US sent tanks rolling to south TX, to shoot the tejano separatists, it would be inevitable to kill a bunch of innocent people.

It is very interesting to look at the Ukraine gas pipeline map. It explains, beyond simple ethnic differences, the stake the Russians have in the area: the major N-S gas transit pipeline that Russia wants Ukraine to no longer control near Lugansk, and other systems near Donetsk.

map here
http://mic.com/articles/84677/to-understand-what-s-really-happening-in-ukraine-follow-the-gas-lines-on-this-map


12 posted on 07/22/2014 9:31:52 PM PDT by FlyingEagle
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To: ansel12; SeeSharp

ansel —> see is correct. Yeltsin as the boozed out loser embarrassed Russia. At that time when it was transitioning, Clinton could have helped it, but he didn’t. We lost a great chance to transform Russia in the 90s and we lost it due to Clinton


13 posted on 07/23/2014 8:10:24 AM PDT by Cronos (ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: slowhandluke; Tailgunner Joe

The Cia didn’t foment any coup. The movement in Kiev was a clean movement of the people fed up with politicians. It wasn’t so much about east v.s west as people fed up with lying, thieving politicians


14 posted on 07/23/2014 8:11:40 AM PDT by Cronos (ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: Tailgunner Joe

To the Ukrainians, the Russians are not enemies. Putin is, to western Ukrainians, but not Russians


15 posted on 07/23/2014 8:12:56 AM PDT by Cronos (ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: Cronos

Yep, it was terribly unfortunate to follow Reagan/Bush with Clinton, in regards to Russia’s Warsaw Pact and evil empire, just as it was tragic that Obama followed Bush after we had done all the heavy lifting in penetrating into the heart of the Arab world.

The democrats seem to strive to help our enemies recover to the old battle lines after we have some success in breaking them up.


16 posted on 07/23/2014 9:17:13 AM PDT by ansel12 (LEGAL immigrants, 30 million 1980-2012, continues to remake the nation's electorate for democrats)
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To: ansel12

I think GW II was a mistake, but GW one was the greatest mistake made in the past 50 years as it directly led to 9/11, ISIS etc. We should have let Saddam keep Kuwait and then use the money to fight the Iranis as well as AlQaeda.


17 posted on 07/23/2014 11:11:38 PM PDT by Cronos (ObamaÂ’s dislike of Assad is not based on AssadÂ’s brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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