Warsaw -- Mikhail Kasyanov, a former Russian Prime Minister and one of the leaders of the Russian opposition, met with the Polish intelligentsia in Warsaw. According to Kasyanov, a significant worsening of the economic situation in Russia will take place already by the end of the year, and the next 1,5-2 years will be decisive for the political future of the entire Russian Federation. To hold onto his power in this difficult situation Putin needs an external enemy. Kremlin has selected Ukraine to fill this position of the enemy, Kasyanov said.
When talking about the current situation in Russia in Warsaw, Mikhail Kasyanov dedicated a signifiant part of his speech to the situation in Ukraine. According to him, Putin received a mandate of sorts for aggression against Ukraine in 2008, after the war with Georgia. According to the Russian opposition leader, the West's toothless policies de-facto untied Putin's hands. Kasyanov poses a rhetorical question as to the reasons for Russian aggression against Ukraine: “What is Putin's goal in Ukraine? Without doubt, his main goal is to retain power inside the country. In order to preserve power, he needs an external enemy and victories in war.”
Kasyanov says that in the given situation the biggest help to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia would be the unity of the EU, the U.S. and Canada. These countries, says the politician, should consecutively maintain that the annex of Crimea had been illegal, and demand that all Russian troops retreat from Ukraine.
Putin is shocked by Western sanctions
Kasyanov claims that Putin is shocked by the sanctions imposed by western states. He says the Kremlin hoped that the West would silently swallow aggression against Ukraine, just like it happened with the war against Georgia. The Russian President, taught by the KGB, thinks that everything in this world can be bought. He does not believe that values such as human rights, freedom and democracy are really important for western politicians.
“Putin does not believe in this. He is very worried and he is in a state of shock because even Angela Merkel in Germany, to whom he dedicated so much of his attention, giving very profitable contracts to German companies, signed the sanctions,” explains the Russian opposition leader.
According to Kasyanov, Putin has an advantage over the West as he is unpredictable, he is a tyrant of sorts. The Russian President considers western politicians weak, as in contrast to himself, they have to consult and accord their decisions.
“De facto we see that there are given characteristics of a regime which is being transformed from an authoritarian regime into a regime with elements of fascism. It is very reminiscent of the regimes of Mussolini and Franco,” notes Kasyanov.
When talking about the possible scenarios of how events would unfold in Russia, Kasyanov names two of those he finds most probable.
“One of them, which I find to be the most terrible and unacceptable is the deepening of the fascist regime characteristics in Russia. I hope this doesn't happen. As to the second scenario, I think Putin is not a madman and he should be aware that he lost in his bluffing and these maneuvers, who he should seek a strategy to escape the situation,” says Mikhail Kasyanov.
According to him, at the end of the current year, occurrences will already be visible in the Russian economy which would later cause a collapse. Western sanctions serve to speed up the deep economic crisis in the Russian Federation. Throughout the next 1,5-2 years the fate of the Russian state will be decided, in which one can anticipate tendencies of the federation's separation.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
09/20/2014 8:57 Comments ||
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#4
Reads like Polish propaganda mixed with enormous amounts of wishful thinking. Putin is a Russian Nixon in that he scares people - sometimes his own. This, however is a foreign policy plus!
[DAWN] IT'S easy to spot the entitled Pak VIP from a mile away: his head, sitting on a stiff neck, is tilted up so his gaze doesn't have to linger on the poverty around him; an underling carries his briefcase; and a frown of disapproval is perpetually fixed on his face.
Whether it is a senior bureaucrat, a politician, a military officer, a feudal or an industrialist, this is the expression and attitude that distinguishes him from ordinary mortals. Anybody daring to question him is met with a withering look and the angry question: "Don't you know who I am?"
[DAWN] LIFE comes cheap on Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... 's streets. Despite the authorities' tall claims that the ongoing law-enforcement operation has produced results, the near daily dose of killings in the metropolis exposes such rhetoric. It also seems that the killers don't discriminate: from working-class victims such as small-time shopkeepers and mechanics to professionals such as doctors and academics, anyone in Karachi can fall prey to the assassin's bullet.
Take the brutal slaying of Prof Dr Shakeel Auj, who served as dean of the University of Karachi's Faculty of Islamic Studies, on Thursday. The highly accomplished, soft-spoken academic received a bullet in the head, mowed down in a drive-by shooting while on the way to attend an award ceremony in his honour on one of the city's busiest thoroughfares. In this chaotic city, one can be killed for one's religion, ethnicity or political affiliation, while life can also be cut short if one dares resist armed criminals. It is unclear what the motive behind Dr Auj's murder was. What is true is that in the vast majority of cases the killers are never caught. The police will file the murder in the 'assassination' cabinet, or sweep it aside as the result of 'personal enmity'. The victim will soon be forgotten and become just another statistic in this city's rising crime graph.
Police are looking at two possible motives for Dr Auj's murder. Firstly, the scholar had received threatening text messages in the past and some in orthodox religious circles were not happy with his academic work and opinions. Secondly, the late professor had been vocal about the alleged racket of fake degrees. Without pointing fingers, we must remember that in today's Pakistain both these activities -- holding religious views that differ even slightly from orthodoxy, as well as exposing corrupt practices -- can have lethal consequences. While it would be a futile exercise to speculate about who was responsible for Dr Auj's murder, the police must probe all angles to unveil the culprits and bring them to justice. Also, the authorities need to seriously consider what efficacy -- if any -- the 'operation' has had in Karachi if killers can carry on with their trade unhindered. It is sad that while murderers, bully boyz and fanatics roam freely, ordinary citizens in the city fear for their lives. It is up to the administration and law-enforcement czars to explain why this is the twisted norm in Karachi.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/20/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
on the way to attend an award ceremony in his honour on one of the city's busiest thoroughfares
I would have thought the ceremony would be held in an auditorium or something.
#2
Pakistan's academic elites
Have dispensed with hall, dais, and seats.
They attend seminars
In their cycles and cars
And engage in debate on the streets.
They count on Barack Obama quitting the Iraq/Syria campaign just as he quit Iraq and Libya in 2011 and is in the process of leaving Afghanistan now. And this goes beyond Obama. They see a post-9/11 pattern: America experiences shock and outrage and demands action. Then, seeing no quick resolution, it tires and seeks out leaders who will order the retreat. In Obama, they found the quintessential such leader.
As for the short run, the Islamic State knows it will be pounded from the air. But it deems that price worth paying, given its gains in propaganda and prestige -- translated into renown and recruiting -- from these public executions.
We tend to forget that at this stage in its career, the Islamic State's principal fight is intramural. It seeks to supersede and supplant its jihadi rivals -- from al-Qaeda in Pakistan, to Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria, to the various franchises throughout North Africa -- to emerge as champion of the one true jihad.
The strategy is simple: Draw in the world's great superpower, create the ultimate foil and thus instantly achieve supreme stature in radical Islam as America's nemesis.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
09/20/2014 00:00 ||
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[3 views]
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#1
The strategy is simple: Draw in the world's great superpower, create the ultimate foil and thus instantly achieve supreme stature in radical Islam as America's nemesis.
Difficult to employ this strategy if they cease to exist. IMO Many Muslims would like to see the threat of ISIS go away.
#2
The problem with Islam is that the great mass of Moslems do not differentiate between the pronouncements of a well educated scholar and some ignorant, illiterate goat-herding Imam. Hence, with their cultural paranoia cultivated by the Quran, Moslems have been cultivated by their leadership since WWII to knee jerk on anything smacking of Western interference.
The best and brightest of Islam can cheer for the death of ISIL and one degenerate toothless goon can issue a fatwa against the US bombing ISIL and you will have riots in the streets of London in favor of ISIL.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
09/20/2014 12:45 Comments ||
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#3
The Muslims are already protesting the U.S. presence in Iraq and the so-called intervention regarding ISIS. We should give them something to really bitch about.
The problem with Islam is that the great mass of Moslems do not differentiate between the pronouncements of a well educated scholar and some ignorant, illiterate goat-herding Imam.
To be fair, there is no difference between them.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
09/20/2014 23:32 Comments ||
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h/t Gates of Vienna
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's trip to New York next week will be a welcome relief for the Iranian leader. Finally, he'll be somewhere where he's appreciated, even loved.
Ahead of his trip to America, the US media continued its practice of presenting Rouhani as a moderate, and a natural ally for the US. NBC News' Anne Curry interviewed Rouhani in Tehran, focusing her attention on his dim view of Islamic State.
Rouhani told Curry, "From the viewpoint of the Islamic tenets and culture, killing an innocent people equals the killing of the whole humanity. And therefore, the killing and beheading of innocent people in fact is a matter of shame for them and it's the matter of concern and sorrow for all the human and all the mankind."
The US media and political establishment's willingness to take Rouhani at his word when he says that he's a moderate is one of the reasons that Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz was in such a desolate mood on Wednesday.
#1
Anne Curry tries to re-establish her position--sort of like Dan Rather interviewing Saddam? Rouhani has a dim view of the Islamic State? According to the ONE, they are not Islamic or a State.
Rouhani told Curry, “From the viewpoint of the Islamic tenets and culture, killing an innocent people equals the killing of the whole humanity. And therefore, the killing and beheading of innocent people in fact is a matter of shame for them and it’s the matter of concern and sorrow for all the human and all the mankind.”
Kumbaya. Probably, too many Shia are being killed. Is he trying to get the evil West to kill off his problem?
#4
Isn't being a Muslim a requirement of being considered "innocent" for all Islam?
But one has to be the right variety of Muslim, and then pious enough, and the members of the household have to be visibly equally pious... in the end only people like us qualify, where us are the guys holding the guns.
#5
tw, which would be an argument in favor of the 2nd amendment, to my mind.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/20/2014 15:39 Comments ||
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#6
Agreed, Rambler. Although plenty of people in the Middle East manage to acquire guns despite the distinct lack of either a Constitution or any amentdments thereto.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Article by: Yury Savitsky
