Putin Makes His Move
Washington Post …for complete article
The man who once called the collapse of the Soviet Union “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century” has reestablished a virtual czarist rule in Russia and is trying to restore the country to its once-dominant role in Eurasia and the world. Armed with wealth from oil and gas; holding a near-monopoly over the energy supply to Europe; with a million soldiers, thousands of nuclear warheads and the world’s third-largest military budget, Vladimir Putin believes that now is the time to make his move…..
His war against Georgia is part of this grand strategy. Putin cares no more about a few thousand South Ossetians than he does about Kosovo’s Serbs. Claims of pan-Slavic sympathy are pretexts designed to fan Russian great-power nationalism at home and to expand Russia’s power abroad.
Unfortunately, such tactics always seem to work. While Russian bombers attack Georgian ports and bases, Europeans and Americans, including very senior officials in the Bush administration, blame the West for pushing Russia too hard on too many issues.
It is true that many Russians were humiliated by the way the Cold War ended, and Putin has persuaded many to blame Boris Yeltsin and Russian democrats for this surrender to the West. The mood is reminiscent of Germany after World War I, when Germans complained about the “shameful Versailles diktat” imposed on a prostrate Germany by the victorious powers and about the corrupt politicians who stabbed the nation in the back. …
Now, as then… they are being manipulated to justify autocracy at home and to convince Western powers that accommodation — or to use the once-respectable term, appeasement — is the best policy.
But the reality is that on most of these issues it is Russia, not the West or little Georgia, that is doing the pushing.
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Wild Thing’s comment………….
“Europeans and Americans, including very senior officials in the Bush administration, blame the West for pushing Russia too hard on too many issues.”
This is BS! The Russians are to blame for their own actions and no one else. I am tired of our country being blamed for things we did not start.
Russia is not just standing by doing nothing, they are ACTIVELY trying to thwart us, causing the deaths of our troops, and HELPING Iran get the bomb.
And with Putin, they have drifted massively backwards to becoming almost what they were before.
We didn’t do anything to them, so they should stop blaming us! Puddin pants wants the soviet bloc back because he was KGB and it’s all he knows. He’s lost without it. I just wish the Russian people would stand up to him and toss his sorry butt in Lake Baikal (the world’s deepest lake).
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev is Putins push toy– I don’t even get this – except that Putin is trying to show the world he is the big bad wolf!! Bunch a BS killing innocent people for no reason other than the fact that they want Democracy- Putin needs to be taken out!! Medvedev needs to get some balls– ha fat chance!!
Next Obama will try turn this into a political opportunity for himself- HA!! We all know what a clusterfuck that would be! He thinks he can play with the big boys!!- he can’t even make a statement that makes sense!!!! We all just need to stand up for AMERICA and know GOD is in control of the World!!!
Obama keeps waiting for McCain to make a statement then they get their ‘boy’ to come out and say something that’s more or less parroting what McCain said.
Reportedly, the Soviets have stopped their offensive. This just by itself sounds fishy. The russian president said, Georgia has been punished enough. Who are the Russians to punish anybody, and what was the crime ?
This invasion has been planned for months. Anyone above the rank of private knows you just don’t move that many troops and Armoured units over night into a coordinated attack.
Reading blogs from the UK, they seem to be ok with this invasion of Georgia and think it is Russia’s business. I was thinking this was 40 years all over again, but it is closer to 70 years all over again. when the Germans invaded the Sudetenland, claiming Ethnic Germans were going to be slaughtered by the Checks. Again the Europeans have buried their heads in the sand again and want nothing more than to appease the communists.
This ought to tell the morons who are all for World Government that it aint gonna work when you have a rogue nation like the one Putin is building.
I wonder if these star gazers and (13)Quatrain readers can find anything about ‘pukin’ . In Nostradamas’ predictions. They always seem to find someone’s name after the fact.
This isn’t over yet.
The blame America crowd is at it again, once more we as Americans are conveniently held at fault for Communist aggression by not only Europe but our own Americans. I won’t call them fellow Americans because they are not, they fall into that category of the same ilk as the Obama tripe.
Don’t rely on the Russian people to re-right their train wreck, they’ve had over 90 years of indoctrination, they believe.
Russia and China have been behind nearly every act of aggression against the west and it’s allies since 1945, sugar coat it any way you want but that is the fact. Proxie wars fought in Korea, Vietnam the Sudan and Iraq, brought on by Russian and Chinese agitation, supplied by arms, materiel and their collective ‘advisors’.
The Russian and Iran, Syria and Lebanon pacts, their invasion of Afghanistan, were and are moves to break the western economies by controlling the world’s oil and it supply routes.
Where were Russian allegiances during WWI and WWII and up to now? Not for that UN world order, not for peacekeeping, only for their expansion. They always play for keeps, human life means nothing in their quest for dominance, they are as implacable as their muzzy handmaidens.
Stalin wasn’t the only Russian Communist with blood red hands, they had help from the Yalta and Potsdam accords and the same old enemies from within, the same ones who kept a cadaverous figure head in power well past his ability to function and think for himself. Look no further than Pelosi, Reid….. Durbin, ad infinitum , ad nauseam!!! As Mark notes, it’s closer to 70 years ago all over again.
Lynn, yes that would be great, I wonder how the Russian people feel about all of this. I have read how the Georgians feel but not much so far on Russians. Maybe from fear they are not to vocal about it all. Not sure.
Cheryl, yes Obama will try as he stumbles and stammers and uh’s.
Mark, LOL your so right, what a joke Obama is…….
“Obama keeps waiting for McCain to make a statement then they get their ‘boy’ to come out and say something that’s more or less parroting what McCain said.”
Mark, thank you for the information about the UK blogs. That is amazing to me, I have to wonder if their heads are on straight. They have suffered from apathy regarding Islam and now they don’t mind what Russia is doing, that sure shows a problem with clear thinking and knowing what Russia is capable of if they keep getting their way.
Jack, yes I’ve been listening to the news today and they are working over time in the media to try and somehow say it is the fault of America.