Posted on 05/24/2013 5:33:38 PM PDT by cunning_fish
Why the hysteria about Russia? From the tone of what passes for policy discourse in Washington, one would think that Russian troops were massing on the country’s western border and that opposition activists were being executed by the hundreds. Some realities in Russia are indeed disturbing, but a sense of perspective is needed. If Moscow were really the capital of a brutally authoritarian anti-American state, things could be far worse — and profoundly damaging to U.S. national interests. But demonizing Russia doesn’t change conditions there and only undermines our ability to get what we want and need.
Domestically, Russia is a corrupt and semi-authoritarian country where citizens lack many of the protections in the Bill of Rights and elections are not fair. That said, it is no longer the Russia where dissidents were routinely sent to psychiatric hospitals (as happened in the 1970s), shipped en masse to Siberian labor camps (the 1960s) or shot after show trials —real show trials, in which the accused confessed after torture and threats to their families (the 1930s).
assistance to their clients and were in combat, as during the U.S. war in Vietnam and the Soviet war in Afghanistan. Russia is trying to prevent a very nasty regime from collapsing in a conflict with more than a few pretty nasty people on the other side — some of whom are receiving arms from U.S. allies. Bashar al-Assad must go, but ending the conflict in Syria requires persuading Russia to halt its support rather than encouraging all sides to escalate.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
They need another...either Catherine or Peter...the great.
...and we need another Jefferson or Madison.
“Russia is a corrupt and semi-authoritarian country where citizens lack many of the protections in the Bill of Rights and elections are not fair”
Pot,,meet Kettle. I cannot believe that line was actually written without the slightest sense of irony.
“Russia is a corrupt and semi-authoritarian country where citizens lack many of the protections in the Bill of Rights and elections are not fair”
Im so lucky that we have no corruption and our government has hot become semi-authoritarian. And of course, our bill of rights is SACRED to our government. And who could ever say US elections are not fair?
It really is time to lose the weird obsession with Russia until our own government is reined in damned hard.
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