Posted on 07/08/2018 6:27:45 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
(President Bush ascends the reviewing stand in Red Square on May 9 for ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany.)
Although communism was the moral nadir of modern Russian history it was also the period when Russia was at the height of its power...Vladimir Putin in a speech last year referred to the breakup of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.”
This type of nostalgia is not harmless. Not only does it ignore the fact that the Soviet Union was just as terroristic as Nazi Germany. It also reflects what Hannah Arendt referred to as a “pervasive, public stupidity.” This is the failure to understand that the truth about the past is not irrelevant. It is the best hope for a decent future.
When the Soviet Union fell, the new Russian state did not break irrevocably with its communist heritage. To do this, it needed to define the communist regime as criminal and the Soviet period as illegitimate, open the archives, including the list of informers and find and commemorate all mass burial grounds and execution sites. Unfortunately, none of this was done.
The result is that former communist leaders in Russia are viewed as leaders first and criminals second (if at all). Under these circumstances, Russians frequently lack the conviction, intrinsic to free men, that an individual answers for his actions no matter what the external conditions.
Authorities made no serious attempt to find and memorialize the mass graves and execution sites that cover the country.
The common graves are marked off with ropes. Until recently, the area was choked with weeds and used as a garbage dump. The number of visitors is miniscule, about 4,000 a year, mostly Orthodox believers and relatives of those buried there...
(Excerpt) Read more at hudson.org ...
Japan never acknowledged their atrocities. They see themselves as a victim.
Not only did they slaughter tens of millions of innocent people, but they had 15 thousand megatons in their nuclear arsenal poised to slaughter a billion more. These were not defensive but aggressive weapons, since expansion was their goal.
These are primarily for outward consumption.
There will be no significant internal change within the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes.
Our purpose is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep".
-- Mikhial Gorbachev, former President of the Soviet Union, to the Politburo in November of 1987.
Old communists never die; they just change the names of their party and front organizations.
Mike Pence on Putin and Russia:
(from the VP debate on Oct 5, 2016)
-snip-
“What we’re dealing with is the — you know, there’s an old proverb that says the Russian bear never dies, it just hibernates.
And the truth of the matter is, the weak and feckless foreign policy of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has awakened an aggression in Russia that first appeared a few years ago with their move in Georgia, now their move into Crimea, now their move into the wider Middle East.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/us/politics/vice-president-transcript.html
How Russia arms America’s southern neighbors
Ioan Grillo, May 9, 2014
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Russia’s push into Ukraine has put many on edge. But less known is that Russia is also strengthening its military links south of the Rio Grande and re-establishing itself as a power in the region.
Vladimir Putin has been strengthening military links here, and Russia is now the largest arms dealer to governments in Latin America, surpassing the United States.
Russia has even floated the possibility of building new military bases in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, and putting its warships permanently in the Caribbean.
In the midst of the Ukraine crisis, Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov recently visited Cuba, Peru, Chile, and Nicaragua, where he announced that Russia would also pour money into the new Central American canal project. ...”
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/140508/russian-arms-military-trade-latin-america
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Russia Boosts Arms, Training for Leftist Latin Militaries
Moscow defense minister inks deals with Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua for joint exercises
BY: Bill Gertz
February 20, 2015
Russia agreed to provide military training for three leftist regimes in Latin America and increase military visits and exercises following a visit last week to the region by Moscow’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu, Pentagon officials said.
Shoygu met with defense and military leaders in Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua and signed several agreements on warship visits and military training during the visit, which ran from Feb. 11 to 14. It is not clear whether any new arms deals were completed during the visit.
Defense officials said the Russian leader is seeking bases in the region for strategic bomber flights that Shoygu recently promised would include flights over the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean.
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russia-boosts-arms-training-for-leftist-latin-militaries/
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KGB/FSB Putin very much wants a ‘unified Korea’...under communist NK rule...
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Russia and North Korea declare 2015 a ‘year of friendship’
“The biggest cause for concern is the growing military alliance between Russia and North Korea, with the two regimes recently announcing plans to conduct a series of joint army, navy and air force exercises this year.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/11463265/Russia-and-North-Korea-declare-2015-a-year-of-friendship.html
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Russia steps up North Korea support to constrain US
May 17, 2017
“Despite efforts by the United Nations to impose isolating sanctions on North Korea in response to the country’s continued development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles, trade between Russia and North Korea soared more than 85 percent in the first four months of the year.”
http://www.dw.com/en/russia-steps-up-north-korea-support-to-constrain-us/a-38867861
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Sept 5, 2017
North Korea nuclear crisis: Putin calls sanctions useless
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said pursuing further sanctions against North Korea is “useless”, saying “they’d rather eat grass than give up their nuclear programme”.
The US said on Monday it would table a new UN resolution on tougher sanctions in the wake of the latest test of a nuclear bomb by the North on Sunday.
Mr Putin also said that the ramping up of “military hysteria” could lead to global catastrophe.
He said diplomacy was the only answer.
China, the North’s main ally, has also called for a return to negotiations. ...”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41158281
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From the Sino-Russian Joint Statement of April 23, 1997:
“The two sides [China and Russia] shall, in the spirit of partnership, strive to promote the multipolarization of the world and the establishment of a new international order.”
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/HI29Ag01.html
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“Joint war games are a logical outcome of the Sino-Russian Friendship and Cooperation Treaty signed in 2001, and reflect the shared worldview and growing economic ties between the two Eastern Hemisphere giants.”
http://www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2005/09/war-games-russia-china-grow-alliance
Unlike the Soviet Union, which promoted a globalist ideology, Russia has nothing to offer the world, except some business in certain commodities like gas or metals. But many countries offer that.
It can cause trouble for the USA, or anyone it feels threatens its borders, government, or nation, but we are no longer in an existential competition with Russia.
The return of the Soviet Union will be here in America if the Democrats every get control again.
The Soviet Union no longer exists.
Meanwhile China does. With for or five times the population of either America, or Russia.
China now runs a $375,000,000,000 trade deficit with America.
They are still the exact same country, they have always been.
Meanwhile for all intents and purposes, America does not trade with Russia.
But the People’s Republic of China?
An all time high, a world record, trade deficit.
And it’s getting even worse this year, just as it has gotten worse every year for the entire last generation.
Which country is behaving badly?
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
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Link to read “New Lies for Old” online:
https://archive.org/details/GolitsynAnatoleTheNewLiesForOldOnes
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Link to read “The Perestroika Deception” online:
https://archive.org/details/pdfy-TVvzZzfXiMBkMdvD
Sorry bad habit, China now runs a $375,000,000,000 trade SURPLUS with America.
Yet another all time record high.
It is currently, heading even higher this year.
> This type of nostalgia is not harmless. <
True. But it is completely understandable! What does the author want present-day Russians to do, go around whipping themselves because of past Soviet atrocities?
Look. Most people on this earth want to be proud of their nation, and their history. And they want to minimize horrors from the past. That’s true for Russians, Americans, the British, and for pretty much everyone else.
It seems to me that the author wants to demonize the Russians. Yes, the Russians are a threat, of sorts. But they are far down on the list. The Islamists and the Chinese...they are the true, immediate threats.
I’d advise the author to view the Russians as potential allies, and not as evil Stalinists plotting to reoccupy Poland.
>>What does the author want present-day Russians to do,
>>go around whipping themselves because of past Soviet atrocities?
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“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.’...”
“The more I see and read about Mr. Putin, in power since 1999, and his ‘managed democracy,’ the more apprehensive I become about the future of Russia and the safety of its neighbors.
If Putin believes that the dissolution of the Soviet Union into 15 independent states represents the ‘greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,’ then it follows that Putin might well believe he should do something to repair the loss...”
http://web.archive.org/web/20090415000000*/http://www.hooverdigest.org/053/beichman.html
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“The demise of the Soviet Union was the ‘greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century’,” Putin said in 2005.
“Putin said Stalin deserves statues in his honor”
Way too much too read there, and way too many links (I’m an old guy with a limited attention span). So please summarize.
Anyway, I’m no great admirer of Putin. But how he acting any differently from any leader - like America’s Trump or Hungary’s Orbán - who is aggressively putting his country first?
Putin regrets the fall of the Soviet Union. Okay. But many British leaders regretted the loss of British India. And many Americans regretted the loss of the Panama Canal Zone. All of these feeling are - in my mind - normal, and to be expected.
I guess my bottom line is this: Putin is a devil, but a minor one. The real danger to Western civilization comes from Islam, and from China.
What I posted was a summary. I was hoping those among us who didn't know and/or understand what modern Russia is about would be inspired to learn.
The article was written in 2005?
Lol. The russophobia nuts should have lured Bush government into believing it was Russians who masterminded the 9/11, no the lovely islamic mujahideens (Americans’ one time allies in Afghan).
We should have destroyed the Soviet Union DURING WWII by diverting the defeated and Hitler-less German military with the allies driving the a-hole Stalin to Hell.
“We should have destroyed the Soviet Union DURING WWII by diverting the defeated and Hitler-less German military with the allies driving the a-hole Stalin to Hell.”
The troops were exhausted and we,and Germany, were running out of young men to draft————who would you suggest should have barreled ahead into The Soviet Union?
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