Posted on 04/28/2006 5:34:44 PM PDT by blam
Solzhenitsyn accuses the West of plotting to surround and undermine Russia
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
(Filed: 29/04/2006)
Alexander Solzhenitsyn has accused the United States of launching a military campaign to encircle Russia and turn it into a Nato chattel. The Nobel laureate also delivered his strongest endorsement yet of President Vladimir Putin, surprising Kremlin critics who argue that the country is growing more authoritarian.
Replying in writing to questions from the weekly Moscow News, the 87-year-old former Soviet dissident said military action by the United States in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan underlined the menace to Russian sovereignty.
"Though it is clear that present-day Russia poses no threat to it whatsoever, Nato is methodically and persistently expanding its military apparatus in the east of Europe and is implementing an encirclement of Russia from the South," he wrote.
He also attacked western support for recent revolutions that toppled Moscow-backed regimes in Ukraine and Georgia.
"All this leaves no doubt that they are preparing a complete encirclement of Russia which will be followed by the deprivation of her sovereignty," he said.
Russia, he suggested, was all that stood between Nato and the "downfall of Christian civilisation".
He praised the efforts of Mr Putin "to salvage the state from failure". Arrested in 1945, Solzhenitsyn was a prisoner in both an elite laboratory for captive scientists and a labour camp in Central Asia.
After his release his One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was the first work to draw attention to the camps in the Soviet Union. His longer The Gulag Archipelago provoked a furore abroad, prompting his deportation to the West in 1974. Solzhenitsyn returned to post-Soviet Russia in 1994.
Huh?
Buck up Alex! Summer is almost here and besides, it's China we're surrounding.
Wow, Alexander has been in the diesel vodka again.
He's right. Orthodox church is seeing a rebound in Russia, whilst materialism and creeping liberalism is destroying churches in the West.
He's 87. You get crotchety at that age.
His historical reputation is secure, for Gulag Archipelago and, to a lesser degree, his other books. His current views on foreign affairs can be discounted.
I think you would talk differently if you went through what that man endured under the USSR. How about reading some of his books?
Russia is not being set upon.
They simply haven't learned the second part of "If you can't beat them, join them."
Surely there is an equivalent russian proverb...
You assume (wrongly) that I have not read his works, such as "Gulag Archipelago." I fully understand what he went through, which is why I find it fantastical, ludicrous, ironic, bizarre, freakish, amazing, and altogether unbelievable that he would make this statement and tie it in with support of an ex-KGB'er.
So no, I will not talk differently. How about reading what the Communists did to what was once Russia.
Russians have historically been a very insecure people, this seems like another symptom of that insecurity.
Somebody needs to tell him about the Muslims.
He knows about the Muslims and has spoken out against them before. Solzhenitsyn is a monarchist, a pan-slavist, or if you prefer, a person who pines for the times of the tsarist empire. As an avowed foe of communists, he sees in Putin a return to the Tsarist way of life. That's what a lot of people on here get confused about. Putin isn't trying to turn Russia back into the commie days - he's trying to make it an "empire" again like in the Tsarist days. Having said that, his latest string of foreign (regional and international) policy mistakes (Ukraine, Moldova, Iran, Hamas, etc) are not going to help him in his goal. Neither is his continued support of Sergej Ivanov in his post of Minister of Defense - the Russian Army continues to decay and Ivanov has done nothing to reverse this trend.
"He also attacked western support for recent revolutions that toppled Moscow-backed regimes in Ukraine and Georgia."
Back to the Gulag!
No Russia isn't being set upon, but this is the current and constant theme in the "power elite." Putin, who probably doesn't really believe NATO is threatening Russia, is hamstrung because he has to balance his movements between being cooperative with the West and placating those in the power ministries (FSB, MOD, MVD, etc.) who still are convinced the West wants to destroy them. These people in Russia are the equivalent to what I see from some on FR who worship at the alter of the false prophet named Golytsyn.
It's not a Golitsyn, it's Chonkin.
Don't go all Voinovich on me now! ;)
Thanks for getting me up to speed.
I have very little knowledge of current Russian politics.
Why? Here's your chance to write the third book.
They've got a loooong way to go before they're an actual and real threat (militarily) to us.
I have noticed an interesting trend of late on the government sponsored Russian television channels that has left me wondering what is going on:
They've started toning down their criticisms of America (in Iraq, vis-a-vis Iran) and actually have run some extremely favorable reports on President Bush - one showed him helping build a house in Louisiana (I searched high and low on American tv for that report and couldn't find it).
I have no basis for thinking this, but with the G8 Summit coming up in St. Pete, I'm wondering if Putin and co are softening the "Russian people" up for a major concession to us?
I think he's done everything he could do with Chonkin -besides the quite awful play they put on in Moscow based on Voinovich's works.
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