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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Putin says Iraq shows Russia needs strong army: Russia wants US to set date for Iraq pullout
2007-10-19
Posted by:Fred

#15  IRAN-DAILY > PUTIN STRONGLY DEFENDS [RUSSIAN]IRAN TIES. Claims US can shoot, but can't impose/
establish order in Iraq; + MOUD > EUROPEANS SHOULD ACT INDEPENDENTLY, from USA. TIME IS NOW FOR EUROS, espec after Dubya's "WWIII" comment. PRAVDA > TWO MEN - ONE INSANE, ONE IS NOT [Insane - Dubya ala his Nuclear Iran = WWIII comment, NOT - Putin].

*IOW, Putin > GLOBAL COMMUNISM-SOCIALISM = TRUE GLOBAL PEACE???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2007-10-19 21:31  

#14  HANS SOLO to LEIA > LANDO? [Sky City]...HE's SCUM, YOU'LL LIKE HIM.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2007-10-19 20:15  

#13  PRAVDA > US PLANS TO CONDUCT WARFARE IN WORLD'S LARGEST CITIES OVER NEXT 100 YEARS. Urban operations seen as the future - role of USDARPA is to help the US Army-Marine ground warrior survive and fight successfully despite the presence of sprawling buildings. * Must be important to RUSSIA = Russ planning becuz PRAVDA DEDIC SIX PAGES TO IT. Anyhoo, as said before, CORSICANT/OWG > RISE OF THE REGION/CONTINET-CONSUMING MEGALOPOLIS CITY OR HIGHER, aka George Jetson's SKY CITY(S). Cold War-era Suburban private homeownership is slowly but surely becoming INVALID as a benchmark of the US economy, local or global, and by extens the WORLD ECON AS WELL. FIFTH ELEMENT > MILA > MUUULLLTIIIPAASSSSSSSSSSSS.........
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2007-10-19 20:13  

#12  As always, there are mitigating factors to Putin, that go to the heart of the purpose of government, and what the Russian people want.

To start with, they wanted a strong military, being more than a little bit distrustful of Muslims and everybody else. They also wanted and end to the rampant crime that existed during Yeltsin. However, they like the more efficient and prosperous economy.

For his part, Putin has gone back to the traditional model of government centralization, to a great extent because decentralizing power resulted in governors setting up little kingdoms and blowing off the federal government.

In turn, the Russian people went too strongly for Putin's party, making it too dominant. This is not unlike in the early days of America, which took about 25 years to develop into a two party system.

Putin seems to be using the French model for his domination of the media, or the domination of the US media by the left. And yes, it is onerous in all of those situations.

The acid test is who Putin chooses to be his successor. Right now, it could be either another FSB man, which would be a poor choice and indicate that he is reactionary; or it might be the head of Gazprom, which would stir things up a bit.

As a businessmen, not beholden to the FSB, the military, or the political party, he would be the first "corporate" president, like Calvin Coolidge in the US. This would recognize that while power comes from the people, a powerful nation is built by business.

Again, *if* this happens, it would be the best possible outcome for Russia, Putin having stabilized things, then his successor building on and maintaining prosperity.

No assurance of this in the least, though, because as the saying goes, "Russia makes no mistakes but the very worst."
Posted by: Anonymoose   2007-10-19 10:55  

#11  #4 Putin is nothing but a Soviet-style gangster. I'd very curious to hear what Gorbachev has to say about how Vlad and his thugs have derailed so much of Russia's progress towards democratic freedom. I doubt Mikhail would be very complimentry.

IIUC, gorbie never was a democratic reformer, he was a pure commie, handpicked to salvage the USSR, so the show could go on, with eventually, a converging of EUrope & the USSR in what he termed the "Home Europe", with the USA out. Things got out of hand, because the regime was rotten and bankrupt to the point of crumbling as soon as some openings and reforms were made without the threat of force to roll that back (unless you believe this anti-commie conspiracy theory); funnily enough, Yeltsin was the democratic reformer, though not a very effective one. gorbatchev was just a commie tasked with saving the russian empire, who failed at that, and is not much appreciated over there for that (and who is still a commie, recycled in transnational ecologism).
Posted by: anonymous5089   2007-10-19 07:51  

#10  the soviets where gangsters and still are by the looks of pootie
Posted by: sinse   2007-10-19 07:40  

#9  Just reply, "As soon as you announce your withdrawal from Chechnya, we'll talk."
Posted by: DarthVader   2007-10-19 06:58  

#8  Make it the whole turf
Posted by: twobyfour   2007-10-19 06:39  

#7  Well, yes, some of them. The Reds won and kept the turf just for themselves.
Posted by: twobyfour   2007-10-19 06:37  

#6  Soviet-style gangster? I thought one of the actual achievements of the Soviets was stamping out gangs (mostly).
Posted by: gromky   2007-10-19 05:30  

#5  Putin also told the United States to set a date for withdrawing all its troops from Iraq

Sure, Pootie. Just as soon as you start setting and sticking to dates for withdrawing all Russian troops from conflicts with terrorists.
Posted by: gorb   2007-10-19 02:47  

#4  Putin is nothing but a Soviet-style gangster. I'd very curious to hear what Gorbachev has to say about how Vlad and his thugs have derailed so much of Russia's progress towards democratic freedom. I doubt Mikhail would be very complimentry.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-10-19 02:23  

#3  Putin can just take his KGB buddies a FOAD!
Posted by: 3dc   2007-10-19 00:41  

#2  Nuts.
Posted by: newc   2007-10-19 00:30  

#1  Nuts!
Posted by: twobyfour   2007-10-19 00:07  

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