Posted on 08/02/2014 11:59:42 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
The confusion surrounding the war in Gaza and the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine should not obscure the fact that we have at last come face to face with the real Vladimir Putin. And it is not a pretty sight.
The evidence is overwhelming that the fighting between Ukrainian forces and those of Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine is the result of an overt Russian attempt to destabilize Ukraine and bring down its government. It is that interference that brought Russian surface-to-air missiles into eastern Ukraine, which subsequently brought down the Malaysian airplane. The blame for this tragedy lies squarely with Russian President Putin, who cannot bring himself to recognize that Ukraine, a former Russian province, is an independent country. His gut instincts are not so much those of a former KGB agent in the defunct Soviet empire, but those of an old-fashioned Russian nationalist, supported by the Russian Orthodox Church, who believes in the moral superiority of Holy Mother Russia and its destiny to rule. Putin uses the tools of the 21st century, but he is rooted in the 19th. It is also clear that his crude nationalism appeals to the Russian people, humbled and humiliated for more than 20 years by the collapse of the Soviet Union. For the moment, he is their hero.
More than the ongoing tragedy in Ukraine, Putin has destroyed Russia’s chance to become a genuine democracy in the wake of the communist collapse in 1991. It is true that the chaos that prevailed in Russia under the presidency of Boris Yeltsin shattered the hopes of many Russians that their country could become as prosperous and genuinely democratic as their neighbors in Western Europe. Instead, the knives and claws came out by well-placed individuals, the so-called oligarchs, who seized control of the commanding heights of the economy, and thus of the government itself, for their own personal gain, turning Russia into a giant kleptocracy. Putin, who had risen to become mayor of St. Petersburg, was handpicked by Yeltsin to succeed him in the hopes of restoring some kind of order to the chaos that had laid waste to the land. Instead, Putin has created a land of smoke and mirrors, lies and deceit. And he is surrounded by some of the same oligarchs who rose to power under Yeltsin.
It is a story of immense cynicism. Lying has become Putin’s, and thus Moscow’s, first line of defense, just as it was in the days of the Soviet Union. Truth has no value, unless, on the odd occasion, it serves the interest of the Kremlin. The various stories put out by Moscow surrounding the shooting down of the Malaysian plane, as well as the violence in eastern Ukraine, are not so much to tell a definitive story but to cast doubt on everybody else’s story, thus shielding to an extent Moscow itself. It is a sophisticated propaganda technique, especially as television and most of the media in Russia are state controlled. Russian state television for days told a story about a 3-year-old boy crucified in Kiev, his mother dragged through the streets by the fascist Ukrainian government. The story was a total fabrication, but it was enough to revive Russian memories of the invading Nazi army in 1941 and its cruelty to the Ukrainian and Russian peoples. As a result, Putin’s popularity soared. There are no stories other than those told by Moscow. Welcome to the clouded world of deception, the world of Putin. Under his leadership, Russia has become not only a kleptocracy but a mendocracy.
Western Europe is closely tied to Russia economically, especially in the matter of gas and oil. In fact, the surge in Russia’s economy under Putin has to do with the export of energy to Europe, and it is this economic success that underpins his popularity. This week, the European Union finally got its act together over the imposition of new and tougher sanctions against Russia, including gas and oil, as long as it continues to interfere in Ukraine. Russia, in turn, has threatened a rise in the price of those exports. The key question: Will Putin risk the sale of gas and oil, on which the Russian economy is overwhelmingly dependent, to pursue his policy of interference in Ukraine? Common sense would tell us no. But then Putin is an ideologue, and common sense might not apply. If he fails, he will fail big, and in this case, the Russian people might not prove to be so forgiving.
True, and Russia would be getting some blowback assuming it is a real President, like a Ted Cruz.
Again , WHAT DO YOU PROPOSE WE DO ABOUT DEAR LEADER?
Not a damn thing, apparently.
I’m beginning to wonder if the people telling me not to worry about threats to America because of another threat to America are threats to America.
Don Corleone, will this also be published in Spanish?
The Democrats have no monopoly on The Lo-Info Voter.
What Good Can a Handgun Do Against An Army?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/2312894/posts
We had no business destabilizing the Yetsenyuk government. How would we react if Putin had succeeded in destabilizing and installing his man in Mexico. Yes it is the same thing.
By "we" you mean the Ukrainian Parliament, right?
By we I mean Nuland and the CIA.
because the CIA made that guy a crook and a wannabe dictator?
Hypothetically, how would we react if Putin had installed his putsch in Mexico with “cookies”? Damn right there would be a military response (maybe not from Obama).
How exactly did Nuland get those thousands of protestors onto the street?
She promised them pooty-tang?
As I’ve said before, the most incompetent Administration in U.S. history (probably), waved its magic-wand and sent those civilians into the street to be shot.
Not as well as good old fashioned bloody aggression is working for Russias current Fascist. I hate them both. Apparently you can’t wrap your tiny brain around the fact one CAN hate them both.
In the case of Russia, I favor directing its aggression south to turkey and Sunni Islam. It has already lined itself against sunnis. If you read Russias history from 1700 you can see that it and the wests mistake has always been to focus on the west, namely the former lands of the commonwealth. If it had not partitioned the commonwealth in 1791 then wwi would nit have happened and neither the Crimean war. And by 1860 Constantinople would have been Christian again
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