Good luck with that.
Posted on 03/26/2015 9:16:30 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Russian ultra-nationalist Igor Strelkov has said President Vladimir Putin could be toppled "like the last tsar" if he does not fully support pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine.
According to the Sunday Times, the former commander of the pro-Russia rebels in the disputed region speculated about Putin's removal from power when he addressed supporters last week.
Although Putin is seen as a hardliner in the West, Strelkov believes the Russian premier is too liberal, and has failed to act decisively enough in the region due to his decision not to annex Donetsk and Luhansk.
"Ukraine was, is and remains a part of Russia," he said according to the newspaper. He warned that Putin could "end up like [former Serbian leader Slobodan] Milošević who was toppled by both patriots and liberals over his policy of being neither with one group nor the other."
This sentiment was also expressed in a controversial interview with German paper Der Speigel published 18 March, in which Strelkov spoke of his longing for the re-emergence of a Russian empire led by a totalitarian leader.
Speaking with a portrait of Tsar Nicholas II – who was murdered with his family by the Bolsheviks – propped on his desk, Strelkov speculated that the "Russian world" should include Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, and possibly Central Asia.
"The real separatists," he told the newspaper, "are the ones in Kiev, because they want to split Ukraine off from Moscow."
Strelkov, whose real name is Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, first came to prominence in April 2014, when he led a group of pro-Moscow separatists into the east Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, sparking the large-scale uprising against the government in Kiev.
It later emerged that he had served with the FSB, the Russian intelligence agency that replaced the KGB, for 18 years. When he retired in 2013, he was part of the Directorate for Combating International Terrorism. Strelkov is also a veteran of both the Soviet and Russian armies, and was charged with terrorism offences by the Ukrainian authorities during the current conflict.
In November last year, Strelkov said he took responsibility for triggering war in eastern Ukraine.
He has also established the Novorossiya movement, which supports rebels in the Crimea. The group's name, meaning "New Russia", is a historical term for southern and eastern Ukraine used by the Russian Empire.
The European Union added the group to its sanctions list in February this year.
Ping.
Good luck with that.
great another commie loving authoritarian spouting off
Putin is 62 now. In Russia, that’s getting OLD...
He’ll be off the stage soon.
The real question for Russia is who/what will follow him.
That’s what I’m saying, Putin does not have absolute power in Russia, he has to please the hardliners, because they could easily remove him if he falls out of favor.
Putin is the symptom, not the disease itself, Russia’s problems are way beyond just Putin.
There is some major wrong in that headline
Strelkov is a pathetic loser. Why did he run from Donetsk?
All other vagaries notwithstanding, my money is on the Pootster.
So where is this baby his girlfriend bore that was the supposed reason he was gone for 10 days? And he’s hardly been seen since returning. So, maybe he’ll remain a figurehead but I don’t think he really has the power either, maybe there was even a bit of a behind-the-doors coup.
Well, he created this narrative to bolster his own failed domestic policies. He’s got nuts that want Alaska back and nuts that want the whole Soviet Empire back. Granted, we’ve a wicked bunch of slug lowlifes who post here in favor or Putin, Putinsim, Soviet Empire building, and all types of nutty ideas. But real American conservatives still value the rule of law, separation of powers, the US Constitution, true democracy, and the free world. We must continue to argue against Putinism and all of the malicious manifestations of it in Russia.
Previous posts you’ve written make me think you’d want Putin to have absolute power.
Not at all, just saying that getting rid of Putin won’t solve the problem.
You trust that he’ll guide Russia back to normalcy? I hope you’re wise enough to know Obama won’t, but I sure think it’s bizarre that you don’t see Putin as a rapacious statist seeking absolute power. You see Putin as the answer and not the problem.
No I don’t, Russia is always going to be a mess with or without Putin.
And just what is “normalcy” for Russia anyway? Russia has never been “normal.”
Well, it has, but you’ve always seemed so, so understanding of Putin, kind of fawning, that I didn’t think you were anti-Russian, as if it’s the fault of their culture and history that the monster Putin is in charge.
Last Czar was shot—maybe that’s the fate for Putin—But don’t worry this would be tyrant has a few aces up his sleeve.
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