Syria crisis: Massive Russian air strikes on 'IS targets'

BBC News ^ | November 20,2015 | Staff

[marvel5]

• “Vladimir Putin — yes, he was an officer of the intelligence services, but he was not a KGB investigator, nor was he the head of a camp in the gulag. As for service in foreign intelligence, that is not a negative in any country — sometimes it even draws praise. George Bush Sr. was not much criticized for being the ex-head of the CIA, for example.”

“Putin inherited a ransacked and bewildered country, with a poor and demoralized people. And he started to do what was possible — a slow and gradual restoration. These efforts were not noticed, nor appreciated, immediately. In any case, one is hard pressed to find examples in history when steps by one country to restore its strength were met favorably by other governments.”

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, author of “The Gulag Archipelago,” now required reading in Russian schools.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/spiegel-interview-with-alexander-solzhenitsyn-i-am-not-afraid-of-death-a-496211.html

[Ohioan]

You have a right to take exception to the policy of friend or foe. But you have no moral right to publish silly nonsense, as fact.

Putin has restored the role of religion in Russia--a total contradiction of Communist dogma & purpose. Putin has reconnected Russia to her ancient heritage, restored aspects of Czarist culture, and pride in history--that is hardly Communistic.

The KGB served an evil Government; but it was primarily a technocratic or functional rather than an ideological apparatus. Putin deserves to be judged by what has done since; whether you or I like all, most or any of it.

And he should be Blessed for doing what no one else has dared to do with respect to the present crisis.

[PIF]

Russia is in the process of systematically reducing Raqqa to rubble - no ROEs - civilians are a bonus to them.

[dp0622]

I hate it that i like what he’s doing with his country and his military. Soros must be dying as is obummer. he knows his legacy is a disaster so he is trying to get as many muzzies in to kill whitey.

I would have probably been considered moderately right before this board. Now i’m so far right you can’t see me.

I guess people do change.

Either that or Jim and FR should be in charge of reeducation for anyone under 40 :)

[Jim Robinson]

Probably just as well that hes staying clear of the Russian imposed no fly zone.

[jwalsh07]

[jwalsh07]

I’ll get to you and the murdering pluralist Putin later.

[Chgogal]

You are right. Sad thing, Putin makes Obama look like a steamy smelly pile of pig crap. That is the tragedy.

[marvel5]

“RUSSIAN COMMIE presence?” The Cold War ended 25 years ago!

Which country today do you think is more communistic?

PUTIN/RUSSIA v. OBAMA/US

Putin FLAT INCOME TAX of 13% in Russia (instituted in 2001) v. US Marxist progressive income tax up to 38%.
http://rense.com/general36/flat.htm

Putin NO ESTATE TAX in Russia (abolished in 2006) v. US Marxist Estate Tax up to 40%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inheritance_tax

Putin CORPORATE TAX in Russia half that of US (20% v. 40%).
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/corporate-tax-rate

Putin Russia NATIONAL DEBT TO GDP RATIO 18% v. 101% for US
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/government-debt-to-gdp

Putin on ECONOMIC POLICY: “Look at their trade balance, their debt, and budget. They turn on the printing press and flood the entire dollar zone — in other words, the whole world — with government bonds. There is no way we will act this way anytime soon. We don’t have the luxury of such hooliganism.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/04/20/putin-u-s-monetary-policy-is-hooliganism/

Putin on WELFARE SPENDING: “European countries have been “living beyond their means” and are now “witnessing the rise of a dependency mentality … [that] endangers not only the economy but the moral foundation of society,” Putin said. “It is no secret that many citizens of less developed countries come to Europe specifically to live on social welfare.”
http://sputniknews.com/russia/20130614/181653890/Russia-Wont-Embrace-Europes-Inefficient-Welfare-Model—Putin.html#ixzz3n4o6GEe6

Putin on STATE INTERVENTION IN THE ECONOMY: “Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said the US should take a lesson from the pages of Russian history and not exercise “excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence.”

“In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute,” Putin said during a speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.”

Sounding more like Barry Goldwater than the former head of the KGB, Putin said, “Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors, and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/02/putin_warns_us_to_eschew_socia.html

Putin is said to consider GLOBAL WARMING a fraud. “Russia’s official view appears to have changed little since 2003, when Putin told an international climate conference that warmer temperatures would mean Russians “spend less on fur coats” while “agricultural specialists say our grain production will increase, and thank God for that.” http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/10/30/russian-president-climate-change-is-fraud/

Putin on IMMIGRATION POLICY: “Putin said those who break Russian immigration laws would be banned from entering the country again for between three and 10 years depending on the seriousness of their offenses, the Moscow Times reported.
The Russian leader also vowed that authorities would take forcible action to limit the stays of immigrants who linger in Russia without demonstrating a clear intent to find work.”
http://www.newsmax.com/World/GlobalTalk/russia-putin-immigrants-ultranationalists/2013/12/13/id/541629/

Putin on ABORTION: (1) abortion banned after twelve weeks of pregnancy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in Russia; (2) abortion advertising banned.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/russia-chooses-life-bans-all-abortion-advertising;
(3) baby bonus to couples of $9,000 for second and each subsequent child to encourage live births. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_bonus#Russia; new partnership between state and Russian Orthodox Church for anti-abortion counseling. http://www.nationalrighttolifenews.org/news/2015/07/russia-church-and-state-sign-agreement-to-prevent-abortion/#.VhrVWxaFOxA

Putin on HOMSEXUALITY: gay propaganda aimed at minors banned; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_LGBT_propaganda_law “Many Euro-Atlantic countries have moved away from their roots, including Christian values… Policies are being pursued that place on the same level a multi-child family and a same-sex partnership, a faith in God and a belief in Satan. This is the path to degradation.” http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jan/28/whos-godless-now-russia-says-its-us/?page=all

Putin on RADICAL FEMINISM: jailed “Pussy Riot” for desecrating Moscow cathedral: “They got what they asked for.” “One must not erode our moral foundation and undermine the country. What would be left then?” the president wondered. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/oct/08/putin-backs-pussy-riot-conviction

Putin on MULTICULTURALISM.: “Multiculturalism “elevates the (idea of the) ‘right of minorities to be different’ to the absolute and, at the same time, insufficiently balances this right with civil, behavioral, and cultural obligations in regard to the indigenous population and society as a whole,” Putin argues. .” http://islamversuseurope.blogspot.com/2012/01/putin-multiculturalism-has-failed.html

Putin on CHRISTIANITY. “We can see how many of the Euro-Atlantic countries are actually rejecting their historic roots, including the Christian values that constitute the very basis of Western civilization>
The excesses of political correctness have reached the point where people are seriously talking about registering political parties whose aim is to promote pedophilia.
People in many European countries are embarrassed or afraid to talk about their religious affiliations. Holidays are abolished or even called something different; their essence is hidden away, as is their moral foundation.
And people are aggressively trying to export this model all over the world.
Today almost all developed nations are no longer able to reproduce themselves, even with the help of unlawful migration.

Without the values embedded in Christianity, without the standards of morality that have taken shape over millennia, people will inevitably lose their human dignity.” http://kiresearch.org/2015/04/how-russia-came-to-be-a-christian-nation/

ALSO: “Russia’s turn to Christianity is a virtually unknown phenomenon in the United States…Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev go to Church frequently…and seek political and moral counsel from the Russian Orthodox clergy…Putin wears a Christian cross with him at all times.”
https://www.truthtellers.org/alerts/Russian-Revival-Gives-Hope-for-America.html

Putin: RELIGIOUS EDUCATION now mandatory Russian schools. http://www.christianpost.com/news/russia-makes-religious-education-mandatory-in-schools-87634/

Putin REBUILDS CHURCHES. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/01/us-russia-kremlin-putin-idUSKBN0G13QL20140801

Putin DEFENDS CHRISTIANITY worldwide. “After delivering the facts, Metropolitan Hilarion asked Putin to make protection and defense of Christianity around the globe a major part of his foreign policy.
And, as reported by Interfax, Putin replied, “You needn’t have any doubt that that’s the way it will be,” assuring Hilarion that Russian foreign policy would defend Christians from persecution abroad.”
http://www.christianpost.com/news/vladimir-putin-vows-to-defend-christianity-worldwide-69002/

Russian court bans internet PORNOGRAPHY. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/internet-porn-is-now-illegal-in-russia-2015-04-14

[Chgogal]

Putin does this while Kerry rationalizes terrorism on French soil and Obama bitches about republicans bitching about allowing more refugees into the US who are empathetic to Islamic extremists.

[05 Mustang GT Rocks]

Putin is restoring, all right, or trying to restore the former USSR, as far as being KGB officer, regardless where he served he served and evil and murderous regime. And his being stationed in East Germany to wine and dine the arriving Soviet dignitaries is hardly a foreign intelligence service. That should answer the Putinista that posted right after your post that somehow the KGB was just technocratic or functional. Tell that to the millions that perished in the Gulags.
Regretfully, at the end of his life Solzhenitsyn went full bore pro-regime.

[05 Mustang GT Rocks]

http://euromaidanpress.com/2015/04/29/former-kgb-colleague-putin-isnt-going-to-start-a-nuclear-war-but-may-destroy-russia/#arvlbdata

[05 Mustang GT Rocks]

Obama is a steamy smelly pile, no one can make him look like what he already is.

[marvel5]

I think Solzhenitsyn who had a little more “direct experience” with the KGB than I presume you have is a better judge of the relevance of Putin’s background. If Solzhentisyn became “pro-regime” maybe that’s because he recognized that communism had ended in the country as he had long ago predicted it would - in his own lifetime.

Putin was indeed an intelligence officer in Dresden for most of his career.

[Hugin]

Putin seems to me to be an old school Russian ruler. There’s a saying that what’s important is not how things are the same, but how they are different. Putin is different than the system he came out of because he’s a nationalist, not a Marxist. When he made his statement about the fall of the USSR being the greatest disaster of he 20th century he was talking about 50 million Russians no longer being part of Russia, not lamenting the demise of Communism. Without the mission to spread Marxist revolution around the whole world Russia isn’t and won’t be the threat the USSR was.

[marvel5]

Ukrainian propaganda.

“Like its Soviet predecessor, Shvets continues, the Putin elite is terrified of the possibility that there will be a popular revolt, one that would sweep them from power and lead to its members being hanged from lamp posts “as it was in Budapest during the anti-Soviet uprising in 1956.”

The man has a 90% approval rating yet he is “terrified” of being swept from power? LOL

No Russian “invasion” of Ukraine according to

Ukraine’s own military chief of staff.
http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150129/1017514425.html

German intelligence
http://russia-insider.com/en/2015/03/09/4261

French intelligence
https://www.rt.com/news/248877-france-ukraine-russian-military/

Former NATO general
http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/06/former-nato-general-doubts-russian.html

OSCE
http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150806/1025453919.html

[marvel5]

Very well said.

[tshaun]

Meanwhile Obama condemned the French for not obeying the leash law.

[dp0622]

Good points. He’ll never become a democracy lover, but a stable nationalist we can live with.

[DesertRhino]

Very true. And there is that old saying about people getting more conservative as they get older, if they have a brain.
It is getting very hard to support any efforts of the US government. Many people have a hard time understanding that places like FR are the nucleus of American samizdat. And that cheerleading is fully supporting evil.