Posted on 11/15/2014 8:07:53 AM PST by Tailgunner Joe
This year, several Russian lawmakers called for an investigation against Mr. Gorbachev, charging him with having caused the collapse of the Soviet Union. To accuse someone of having brought about the end of a state responsible for the murder of millions, the imprisonment of tens of millions and the oppression of hundreds of millions is a bit like accusing someone of having brought down Nazism. But the people who run post-Soviet Russia don’t see it that way.
Mr. Putin saw a regime – the regime he served – unwilling to maintain power by force. Unlike the Chinese communists, who in the summer of 1989 decided that the only way to stay in power was to send the tanks into Tiananmen Square, Mr. Gorbachev seems to have believed that Soviet communism could govern by means other than the barrel of a gun. He was mistaken. ....
Mr. Gorbachev’s decision to take a different route from his colleagues in Beijing opened the door to the freedom of Eastern Europe. In the West, that’s cause for celebration. But the outcome achieved by the final generation of Soviet leaders – the failure of their leadership, and the end of the country they led – is not the outcome that most people in power would be expected to choose. It isn’t even what Mr. Gorbachev wanted. What happened was a happy accident. But in Mr. Putin’s universe, it was just an accident, and a cause for reflection on how to avoid a repeat.
It turns out that in 1989 the Wall was not destroyed. It was put into storage for a while, and then re-erected several hundred kilometres to the east. It now stands somewhere west of the internationally recognized Ukraine-Russia border, on the outskirts of Donetsk.
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
Obama sees America as an “evil Empire” and sees himself as another Gorbachev.
No, he wouldn’t want to be another Gorbachev. Gorbachev is way too soft for BO.
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
We need another Ronald Reagan, albeit that his words alone did not result in the wall being taken down, but his actions before hand did qualify his order to Gorbachev.
We have such a man right now—his name is Ted Cruz.
Vote for Cruz.
In some ways, Putin seems a bit analogous to Hitler. Both of them, in their youth, were shaped by the shame of a national disaster, and seem to have decided to pursue power in order to try and reverse the failures. For Hitler, it was Germany’s defeat in WWI and subsequent economic collapse due to the terms of the peace treaty, and for Putin it was Russia’s defeat in the Cold War and subsequent upheavals due to the independence movements and attempts at economic reform.
Putin’s just about at the point Hitler was before WWII. His power is nearly unassailable in his own country, and while he still makes a show of wanting to peacefully cooperate with other nations, he schemes and maneuvers covertly to subvert neighboring countries and, if not annex them, turn them back into client states. If he follows this pattern, then the weaker our responses are to his aggressions, the bolder he will become.
It is not the first time this part of the world revolted against Gorbatchev, seeking to incarcerate him
However I smell deception in this article because Gorby does not have the west’s best interests.
Is the author suggesting we have an alternative to Putin in gorby?
God forbid.
Colonel Putin is indeed very much like Corporal Shicklgruber in many ways. Both men showed great political genius in rising from obscurity to seize power over their own shattered and crippled nations, only to delude themselves into believing that their political prowess could be turned into military mastery. Putin’s delusions are if anything even worse than Hitler’s in this respect, having never fought in any war, Putin the secret policeman’s talents lie not in defeating foreign enemies, but in oppressing and subjugating his own people. That is why Putin’s terrorist army in Ukraine can’t seem to gain any ground and indeed have shown serious problems in even holding onto the territory they started off with.
I saw this article a few weeks back
http://www.businesspundit.com/10-richest-heads-of-state-in-the-world/
It’s about the richest leaders in the world and guess who was on top with ~$40B stashed away- Mr. rasPUTIN.
Most of the argument about how much Putin has amassed is whether it is 40 billion or 70 billion.
I thought Putin was the richest man in the world and nobody was sure how much he was worth, just that he had the most.
I think he falls short of the wealthiest and it is all difficult to pin down with certainty.
“How Vladimir Putin Stashed Away A Secret $70 Billion Personal Fortune”
http://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/celebrity/how-vladimir-putin-stashed-away-a-secret-70-billion-personal-fortune/
“Numbers are thrown around suggesting that Mr. Putin may control $40 billion or even $70 billion, in theory making him the richest head of state in world history.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/world/sanctions-revive-search-for-secret-putin-fortune.html?_r=0
A dictator cannot hold power without many, many people who are willing to commit murder on his behalf.
Once no one is willing to commit murder for him, he falls in an instant.
Thar ya go.
Tyranny, corruption, and evil pays- A real model for youngsters everywhere. /sarc
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