Posted on 05/16/2012 1:13:52 PM PDT by ravager
He has completed two terms as president and a third as prime minister. Theoretically, he could be leading his country until 2024, which would make him the longest-serving Russian or Soviet leader since Stalin. Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin last week generated a wave of commentary, which generally concluded that what was, is, and will be.
Putin 4.0, like the previous versions, believes that Russia still hasn't recovered from its crash in the 1990s, so it's not yet ripe for pluralistic democracy. Putin 4.0 believes the world is dangerous, chaotic and hostile. He will therefore roll back the political reforms his predecessor initiated, strengthen the nationalist spirit, stress his anti-Western reflexes and abandon the "reset" policy that enhanced the relationship between Dmitry Medvedev's Russia and Barack Obama's America.
(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...
Hopefully this time they didn’t agree to carve up Poland.
Not surprising. Every nation but one looks after its own interests and knows that nations do not have “friends” but other other nations who for a time have common interests. In the US, conservatives are often as bad as liberals in this regard.
I wouldn’t mind if they carve up Turkey instead.
“I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.” - Winston Churchill
The Russians never embraced the reset policy, they’ve been laughing at it since day one.
Reports that Putin has decided to make Israel one of his first foreign destinations after being sworn in has of course contributed to the debate. Former Israeli ambassador to Russia Zvi Magen has written that the Middle East has once again become an arena of competition between Russia and Western powers, and that Moscow seeks to enhance its relationship with Israel - in part to blunt the growing assertiveness of Turkey, which sees the Caucasus as its backyard.
The Turkish threat, he says, and the gas fields recently discovered in the eastern Mediterranean are behind a Russian initiative to establish a bloc with Israel, Cyprus and Greece.
Including the oil and gas, and there you have it. Russia WILL control the energy to Western Europe and Israel will help them. Both have much more in common interest than with antisemitic, anti Slav, Western Europe.
Russia will keep her enemies closer (Iran), and control them to her benefit. A threat (or suggestion) from Putin means something to Iran, and Russia has China's backing along with several other nations.
The times, they are a changin'.
THanks ravager, sidebar:
Putin: ‘Israel will take care of Iran,’ Khameni: Clash between Iran, US and Israel ‘inevitable’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2884458/posts
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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lol. That is funny
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