Posted on 11/17/2015 8:53:31 AM PST by Trumpinator
Vladimir Putin: from pariah to powerbroker in one year
At the 2014 G20 summit in Brisbane, the Russian president was browbeaten by western leaders. But now they know they need him
Simon Tisdall
Tuesday 17 November 2015 07.58 EST
What a difference a war makes. Twelve months ago, Vladimir Putin was on the menu at the G20 summit in Brisbane. Western leaders queued up hungrily for a piece of Russia’s president following his armed intervention in Ukraine and illegal annexation of Crimea.
Barack Obama warned Putin he was isolated internationally; David Cameron said he did not trust the Russian leader; Stephen Harper, Canada’s then prime minister, told Putin bluntly: “Get out of Ukraine.â€
Vladimir Putin leaves G20 after leaders line up to browbeat him over Ukraine
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Reacting angrily to the imposition of sanctions, Putin said western leaders had switched off their brains and were making matters worse by punishing Moscow. But the criticism continued unabated and he left the meeting early in a huff.
Fast-forward to this week’s G20 summit in Turkey and everything, it seems, has changed. Putin was pictured in a friendly huddle, chatting animatedly to Obama and the US national security adviser Susan Rice. He also held reportedly productive talks with Cameron and other leaders. No longer ostracised and browbeaten, Putin was the man everybody wanted to meet.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
It’s easy to look brilliant in foreign policy when 0bama and Kerry are sitting across the table.
Whatever strategies and tactics Putin used to get where he is now...he owes a huge debt of gratitude to Obama...
Putin is the luckiest Russian leader ever, having Obama and Jarret in the White House. Putin isn’t just good, he’s lucky!
Well General Lee was lucky to have fought Burnside and Hooker before a Grant showed up also.
Looks like there’s a little bit more luck in this conquering stuff than one might think.
Putin unleashed the most brilliant execution of foreign policy gambits since Nixon the Great in my humble opinion.
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I think Reagan bankrupting the USSR with the immediate result of the dissolution of the USSR trumps both Nixon and Putin.
JMO.
“Why hasn’t anyone killed him yet?â€
“Dumb luck,†Wit said. “In that I’m lucky you’re all so dumb.â€
― Brandon Sanderson, Words of Radiance
It's not just Obama and Jarrett, most all the Western European heads of state lined up with the Zero and have repeatedly acted against the best interests of their citizens, while handing Obolo the Noobl Pieces Prize.
They have been equally traitorous to their own countries for a couple of decades.
Reagan kind of stumbled into a policy really. What I mean is he had a policy based on heart but not on strategy. All the indications I have read says Reagan was not building up to an arms race to bankrupt the USSR - he thought we were way behind and needed to catch up.
You said a whole lot right there henkster.
Hands down, Reagan was the man!
The thing is, Bush wanted to rub the Russians’ nose in it after it fell, for the benefit of his Saudi masters. I think Reagan would have tried something akin to The Marshall Plan to try to stabilize Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.
That was Bill Clinton, not Bush (senior). Bush went to the Ukraine and urged them not to leave the USSR because it would destabilize the region and make them poorer - he was right. Bush also promised not to expand NATO eastward - which Clinton did. W embraced the Clinton foreign policy (which is something no one wants to hear about W.Bush but it is true - see Kosovo).
The one thing that Putin is doing brilliantly is wiping out the non-ISIS opposition to Assad first. Since they are weak anyway, it can be done easily and quickly. Then the only opposition to Assad is ISIS and the whole world will support him when he goes after them. In the end, Assad survives, Russia has a secure client state in the Middle East, has enormous military, diplomatic and political capital in the region, and is loved by world for getting it.
“They have been equally traitorous to their own countries for a couple of decades.”
Bush 1’s NWO. Same thing as Soros’ transnational united (under a tiny leftist elite) world. Their treachery to their nations is their loyalty to One World ideology.
The only nation states remaining which can stand their ground against this juggernaut are Russia and China, unless the citizenry in Western nations can purge their corrupted governments of NWO sedition.
He’s playing Chess, while Obama is playing Tiddly-Winks (he isn’t even qualified to play Checkers)
Agree on all points.
Reagan kind of stumbled into a policy really.
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And a person with no interest in casting Reagan’s policy in a lesser light than Putin’s might suggest that Reagan took advantage of the world situation he was faced with when he took office.
Putin (because we don’t have the benefit of hindsight yet) could still make quite a hash of the ME.
I’ll wait a while before proclaiming Putin anything other than the ex-KGB thug I know he has been.
And I called Nixon more brilliant than Putin.
You have most certainly got that right. Reagan (plus Thatcher plus John Paul II) not only brought down the USSR, they freed eastern Europe.
One can only hope that, some day, history will give those three full credit for all that they did.
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