Posted on 05/04/2006 5:36:51 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Dick Cheney charges Vladimir Putin with limiting freedom and intimidating former Soviet satellites. A sure sign he's right: Russia's last communist premier, Mikhail Gorbachev, cries "provocation."
The most dishonest news story of the 20th century was the cover-up of the Soviet Union's forced famine in the Ukraine in the 1930s by New York Times Moscow correspondent Walter Duranty. The Stalin sympathizer knew as many as 10 million Ukrainians died, yet he wrote that famine was not happening. Disgracefully, his Pulitzer Prize was never revoked and his photo still has a place of honor in the Times' offices.
In a reminder of that horrific past, Russia was starving the Ukraine of natural gas last winter. Speaking Thursday to the pro-democracy Vilnius Conference in Lithuania, Vice President Cheney said: "No legitimate interest is served when oil and gas become tools of intimidation or blackmail. . . . And no one can justify actions that undermine the territorial integrity of a neighbor, or interfere with democratic movements."
Gazprom, a Russian state-owned monopoly, supplies Ukraine with 80% of its natural gas and Europe with about a quarter of its gas. In January, Gazprom cut off supplies...
Like the Ukrainian peasants who were starved for opposing Stalin's collectivization, 21st century Ukrainian voters are being punished for their own defiance of Moscow. Gorbachev's blast-from-the-past reaction that "Cheney's speech looks like a provocation and interference in Russia's internal affairs in terms of its content, form and place" betrays a Soviet-era mind-set: Ukraine hasn't been an "internal" Russian matter for 14 years.
President Putin's government seems more and more reminiscent of the Soviet Union. Its inexcusable assistance to Iran's nuclear program, for instance, reeks of the communist regime's determination in the 20th century to help U.S. enemies everywhere...
Putin is encouraging separatist movements in Georgia, Moldova and Azerbaijan.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Maybe he should invite Putin on a hunting trip....
"In a reminder of that horrific past, Russia was starving the Ukraine of natural gas last winter. Speaking Thursday to the pro-democracy Vilnius Conference in Lithuania, Vice President Cheney said: "No legitimate interest is served when oil and gas become tools of intimidation or blackmail. . . . And no one can justify actions that undermine the territorial integrity of a neighbor, or interfere with democratic movements."
Nonsense, Nonsense... from what I hear the Ukraine isnt paying market price for the gas, and Yulia timoshenko, the now fired PM of Ukraine made billions selling stolen RUSSIAN gas.
In my book, no-account deadbeats get the meters switched off!
ping
Putin...Joseph Stalin with a make-over and professional image team.
Putin is a communist with a makeover and an image team.
Ping
Great Post - why dont Cheney take Putie pheasant hunting.
and ............ IBTRWC
Frigen Walter Duranty. Hmmm. Haven't heard that commies name mentioned in some time.
We'll see where this all goes.
Russia under Putin has tried to regain influence and reestablish itself as a regional hegemony. The states surrounding Russia are all feeling this reality.
Ukraine
Republic of Georgia
Republics that host US troops are pressured to ask us to leave.
Russia’s support of a pseudo dictator in Belarus…… But he's in their rear pocket so they back him.
The author only hits on a small part of a much larger picture in the last few years.
Backing Hamas
Backing Iran
Backing Syria
What Russia is trying to do is gain influence with these moves. Russia economically gains by it's moves in the Middle East and politically gains as well. They are trying to expand their influence in this region as well as in their former republics.
The hiring of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder by the state run Gazprom…….. KGB tactics that are reminiscent of the Cold War (Dioxin for Ukraine president, blackmail of foreign diplomats using staged sexual encounters to get this material…).
Russia is playing it both ways. They want the GWOT and support it to a degree, but at the same time they want to profiteer for the situation and politically and economically gain ground and they at the same time try in certain situation to sabotage us. They want the US to deplete its resources. They want the US to get worn down, but at the same time they enjoy the US killing even Chechen fighters in Iraq.
Is Russia the threat of past? No- They don’t have the mass alone and the Warsaw Pact is gone. But are they an ally? No.
Russia who blamed the US as having ulterior oil motives in Iraq turned out to be the one profiteering from the Food for Oil Program and was the nation (along side France –Total and Fina) that had the majority of oil contracts in Iraq. Russia is an energy giant and while they finger point, and say “No blood for oil” (Echoed by many of the people in our allied countries even, it is in reality they that control a major share of the worlds oil supply and even if it is not they that own the real estate, it is their firms that are developing these oil/gas reserves.
I guess what is most disturbing about this situation is how indifferent our own media is to this issue, how poorly informed the public is and how apathetic our allies in Europe (who have the most to loose) are reacting to this.
Russia is a threat once again. They are a threat in that they are willing to accept a nuclear Iran to advance their ambitions of power base expansion.
Other than Vincente Fox, he means.
Like Walter Duranty, the Stalinists dream dies hard.
Listen to the shrill voices and hear their howls for blood.
Whoever said Communism is dead hasn't looked inside the Kremlin.
The KGB pals of Putin are running roughshed all over the country.
Even if not on the payroll, you can hear the howls for flesh here.
A country that is accustomed to nationalist socialism (including communism in Russia) of any kind won't easily be convinced of a better way. Such socialism through Russia's government owned media has been ground into the Russian psyche for a long time.
pong
What a nonsense.
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