Why Russia is standing by Syria's Assad

BBC News ^ | 15 June 2012

[MinorityRepublican]

As the United Nations warns that Syria has descended into civil war, Russia continues to back President Bashar al-Assad in the face of growing international condemnation.

Konstantin von Eggert, political commentator for Kommersant FM radio in Moscow, looks at why the Kremlin is steadfastly supporting the beleaguered Syrian government.

Foreign policy analysts usually tend to explain Moscow's inflexible stance on Syria by evoking arms sales to Damascus (Bashar al-Assad's regime is said to have placed orders for Russian hardware to the tune of $3.5bn) and the Russian naval station in the Syrian port of Tartous.

But this alone does not account for Russia's seeming indifference to the adverse effect that its international advocacy of the Assad government has on its relations with the United States, the European Union and the majority of the Arab states.

The explanation has a lot to do with Russia's domestic policies and the obsessions of the Russian political class.

By standing up for Damascus, the Kremlin is telling the world that neither the UN, nor any other body or group of countries has the right to decide who should or should not govern a sovereign state.

If one looks at the Syrian crisis from this angle, many of Moscow's previously inexplicable actions take on a new, clearer meaning.

[Cronos]

Putin is hardly a "cool guy". He's a dictator, a Tsar-wannabe.

Is he "good for Russia" though?

right now, NO. But in the years from 1999-2004, probably yes.

There are many Russians who oppose him, but many who see the agony of the Yeltsin years and do not want to return to that (note also that there is no credible, viable alternative to Putin).

is Putin good for the US? No.

Is the alternative to Putin (a Russia in disarray) good for the US? Mostly, no.

[Cronos]

In the first, he, like you with Russia, was foolishly (or for some other reason) trying to dismiss them as a threat to the US.

I'm an American living in Poland -- I know the fears of Russia's expansion first hand and I repeat that Russia is not the US's enemy. It postures and huffs and puffs, but it has little actual power.

Visit Russia and see how the country is highly feudal, is inward-looking.

This is not the Bolshie world conquerors.

They threaten Poland, but in real terms could not defeat the Polish army without nukes.

[Cronos]

Putin, the ChiComs, Iran, Chavez and Obama

you're mixing up Iran with the others. And Obama is a loon.

Iran is tied in with the Sauds, Pakis etc. -- all Moslem nations who want America DEAD or islamic

Putin, the Chinese etc. want to be considered powers on-par with the USA.

China will have enough money but it's not going to get out of the middle-income trap and it's neighbors except for North Korea don't trust it.

Russia won't get there -- it's too much a resource dependent.

obama if re-elected will ruin us

If Palin comes in, we will be restored as a pre-eminent nation

[Cronos]

There’s no reason to support Assad except that one supports Assad.

you are wrong. supporting Assad makes sense because the alternative is worse.

We should let Assad keep killing his Sunni al-Aeda enemys. Let the moslems kill each other -- you have a problem with that?

I do NOT advocate the US giving weapons or indeed ANYTHING to Assad, but similarly I say we should not give ANYTHING to his opposition. Let's stay out of this. ditto for the Brits and French -- let the Moslems slaughter each other.

I said the same thing about Libya -- the best option would have been to let Ghaddafi keep slaughtering his jihadi foes. He would never have completely won, so his attention would have been away from attacking the West (or Israel) and Al-Qaeda would be tied up trying to get rid of one secular dictator

How can one be so silly not to realize that one of Al-Qaeda's stated aims is removing secular Arab leaders so that they can start up their Caliphate.

[Cronos]

Russia is our enemy, has been our enemy, and until Russia stops being our enemy, will remain our enemy.

Russia is not our enemy. Don't keep your head stuck in the cold-war. Russia is a rival, it's not a friend, but it's not an enemy either

Our enemies are clearly islam and internal communism (Obama).

[ETL]

Russia is not our enemy. Don't keep your head stuck in the cold-war.

KGB Putin has his head stuck in the days of the Soviet Union.

Putin praises Cold War moles for stealing U.S. nuclear secrets
Reuters ^ | Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:04pm EST | Steve Gutterman "Putin's remarks referred to the dawn of the Cold War more than half a century ago, but they echoed a message he has made loud and clear more recently: that the United States needs to be restrained, and Russia is the country to do it. …

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
__________________________________________________________

KGB Putin thinks the "COLLAPSE" of the mass-murdering communist Soviet Union was the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th Century"

"the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century" -Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the collapse of the Soviet Union...
"World democratic opinion has yet to realize the alarming implications of President Vladimir Putin's State of the Union speech on April 25, 2005, in which he said that the collapse of the Soviet Union represented the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.'
http://www.hooverdigest.org/053/beichman.html
____________________________________________________

"'The Black Book of Communism,'; a scholarly accounting of communism’s crimes, counts about 94 million murdered by the supposed champions of the common man (20 million for the Soviets alone), and some say that number is too low."

Forgetting the Evils of Communism: The amnesia bites a little deeper
By Jonah Goldberg, August 2008:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZmY0MjI1MDgyYjg1M2UwNDMzMTk2Mjk5YTk0ZTdlMWE=
____________________________________________________

[ETL]

Russia is not our enemy.

They're never likely to outright declare themselves our "enemy". You have to observe their actions. They've stood behind and aided open enemies of the US, such as Saddam Hussein/Iraq, Hugo Chavez/Venezuela, Kim Jung-Il/North Korea, the Castro bros/Cuba, Ahmadinejad/Iran, on and on. You know they must have silently cheered 911.

[ETL]

If Russia is truly done with Communism and are now "Capitalists", why do you suppose they still support Marxist dictatorships such as Venezuela, Cuba, other far left regimes throughout Latin America, the ChiComs and North Korea? Their criticisms of Obama being a Socialist are bogus. If they really are now opposed to Socialism/Communism they would join us (pre-Obama) in condemning these regimes, not help build them up. Again, when it comes to the chess champions Russians, don't rely on what they SAY, look at what they DO.

Did Communism Fake Its Own Death in 1991?
American Thinker ^ | January 16, 2010 | Jason McNew

In a [] 1984 book [New Lies for Old], ex-KGB Major Anatoliy Golitsyn predicted the liberalization of the Soviet Bloc and claimed that it would be a strategic deception. ..."

"Golitsyn's argument was that beginning in about 1960, the Soviet Union embarked on a strategy of massive long-range strategic deception which would span several decades and result in the destruction of Western capitalism and the erection of a communist world government."

"Golitsyn published his second book, The Perestroika Deception, after the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991. This book contained further analysis of the liberalization, in addition to previously classified memoranda submitted by Golitsyn to the CIA. The two books must be read together to get a complete picture of Golitsyn's thesis."

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/01/did_communism_fake_its_own_dea.html

[SunkenCiv]

Our internal enemies are, as they have been throughout US history, bankrolled and trained by our external enemies, and that list includes Russia, which continues to arm, train, and otherwise support our enemies, including in our own hemisphere.

[SunkenCiv]

You are wrong, and it’s interesting that you advocate support for Assad, then say, let’s not give him anything — but that makes sense from your pro-Russian perspective, since Russia is helping the Iranian mullahs prop up the Assad dynasty.

The only time a caliphate has been set up, it has been set up via conquest. The Islamic world is and was fragmented precisely because of ethnicities and national identities — not to mention the sectarian schisms — and that isn’t going to suddenly change after fourteen centuries.

The correct approach is to covertly recruit, train, and arm dozens of Islamofascist groups and direct them into war with each other, continuing this in order to shatter the regimes capable of running a nuclear weapons program or funding jihad — and continue this until the recruit pool dries up.

[SunkenCiv]

How many Americans were killed by the USSR between Lenin’s rise and the end of WWII? The answer is zero. See, the USSR wasn’t our enemy at all.

IOW, that’s not a point at all. Russia has returned to a single party state dictatorship in all but name, and its dictator is devoted to our destruction.

[ETL]

It’s really disturbing that these Putin apologists and/or propagandists are permitted to repeatedly post their BS here, particularly because it seems they’re actually convincing some of our less informed members that Russia isn’t a threat to the US. That we can basically trust them. Dangerous crap, especially in this day and age with Putin and Obama conspiring with the ChiComs, Chavez, and others, to create a “new world order” with them all being stronger and the US substantially weaker.

[SunkenCiv]

:’) Haven’t you heard?!? The atheist commie KGB leader is PROTECTOR OF THE FAITH!!! ;’)

[Cronos]

How many Americans were killed by the USSR between Lenin’s rise and the end of WWII? The answer is zero

that is incorrect. Americans were involved in anti-Bolshevik fighting during the Russian Civil war and also in the Polish-Russian war.

Communism was the enemy.

Russia is not the enemy

[Cronos]

but that makes sense from your pro-Russian perspective, since Russia is helping the Iranian mullahs prop up the Assad dynasty.

Look before you leap to wrong conclusions.

I'm not pro-Russian. Far from it. In sheer geo-political views I am anti-Muscowite

[Eleutheria5]

On the contrary. That’s why it’s a good idea to give to both sides. If you want them to slaughter each other, make sure they’re well-equipped with refurbished old crap.

[Cronos]

good point, but how to maximise the amount of damage they do to each other? the islamists opposing Assad would win over him if they had the same weapon quantity as he does (by sheer force of number). And neither do we want him to win, but we want him to have smouldering fires that never allow him to focus attention on Israel or the west.

In fact, the longer he slaughters Sunnis, the more the Sunni-shia rift widens

[ETL]

Communism was the enemy. Russia is not the enemy

When are you going to answer the question about why Russia is propping up communist regimes TODAY, 2012?

[ETL]

Russia is not the enemy

Or why they support and assist our other enemies: Iran, Iraq (under Saddam), No Korea, Chavez, on and on.

[ETL]

You describe Russia today as a “rival”, not enemy. Don’t you think one crosses the line between enemy and rival when they equip sworn enemies of ours with arms and other assistance to defeat us.