[FredZarguna]

Putin is operating on behalf of his client state, Syria, and has been furthering the nuclear and territorial ambitions of his secret ally, Iran.

One of the unstated reasons that "our deal" with Iran was so weak is that Putin and the ChiComms had been violating the embargo all along, and were threatening to break the sanctions altogether unless we came to the table. Once there, they undermined us at every turn. We should have simply walked away.

Saudi Arabia has been waging a proxy war against its enemies in Iran throughout the Middle East for some time now, and we are at a loss for what to do; we can't come out in support of the Syrian rebel groups because they're aligned with the Saudis, which means ISIS and al Qaeda, we can't back the Russians because the Syrian regime is equally bad. Our only "good" play is to make sure the war keeps going. A victory for Assad is a victory for Iran and Russia. That is why our efforts have been ineffectual: we simply have no good play. We don't want anyone to win, because a win by either side is a loss for us. The Russians, foolishly, think they can prevail by brute force. They didn't have the muscle for that in the Middle-East the 1980's and they certainly don't now.

Vladimir Putin is a revanchist thug who wants to reestablish a Neo-Soviet Empire. Many of the people posting on FR are his paid stooges. The (wannabe) NeoSoviet Empire® still sees America as "The Main Enemy" and always has. NOTHING about that has changed, nor will change as long as an ex-KGB dictator or one of his puppets is in control of the country.

[dp0622]

That was good.

How much can a person change?

ex KGB. hmm.

It’s like if America became communist and I decided i liked it. Ain’t happening at 48.

Better chance of me not using ####s on the board anymore :)

Seriously, this is bad though.

[ETL]

Vladimir Putin is a revanchist thug who wants to reestablish a Neo-Soviet Empire. Many of the people posting on FR are his paid stooges. The (wannabe) NeoSoviet Empire® still sees America as "The Main Enemy" and always has. NOTHING about that has changed, nor will change as long as an ex-KGB dictator or one of his puppets is in control of the country.

________________________________

Documents Show How Russia's Troll Army Hit America:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/documents-show-how-russias-troll-army-hit-america
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Kremlin pays internet trolls to flatter Putin
Ben Hoyle - Moscow
October 11 2013

Russian investigative journalists and bloggers have uncovered an army of internet trolls paid to pour invective on the Kremlin's opponents and heap praise on President Putin.

Posing as job applicants, the reporters discovered the government hacks working at a small company called the St Petersburg Internet Research Agency. ..."

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/asia/article3891720.ece

[ETL]

Russian Propaganda Is Taking Over Online Comment Boards

Pamela Engel
May 4, 2014

British newspaper The Guardian notes that recently, readers have been complaining of pro-Russia propaganda being posted in the comments section of articles about Russia and Ukraine.

One reader wrote to The Guardian:

"One need only pick a Ukraine article at random, pick any point in the comments at random, and they will find themselves in a sea of incredibly aggressive and hostile users (the most obvious have accounts created since February 2014 ... but there also exist those who registered with the Guardian before the high point of the crisis) who post the most biased, inciteful [sic] pro-Kremlin, anti-western propaganda that seems as if it's taken from a template, so repetitive are the statements. Furthermore, these comments are consistently capturing inordinate numbers of 'recommends', sometimes on the order of 10 to 12 times what pro-Ukrainian comments receive."

Guardian comment moderators believe this is an orchestrated campaign.

Russia has worked hard to make people believe that the country is supporting the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine and defending those people against some type of threat. These "comment mills" play into that strategy.

Last year, The Atlantic wrote about how the Russian government apparently pays people to "sit in a room, surf the Internet, and leave sometimes hundreds of postings a day that criticize the country's opposition and promote Kremlin-backed policymakers."

This practice isn't new, according to The Atlantic. But it can stifle open discussion about political issues in Russia, giving a louder voice to those who support the Kremlin.

http://www.businessinsider.com/putin-paying-people-to-post-pro-russia-propaganda-in-comments-2014-5

[ETL]

Vladimir Putin is a revanchist thug who wants to reestablish a Neo-Soviet Empire. Many of the people posting on FR are his paid stooges. The (wannabe) NeoSoviet Empire® still sees America as "The Main Enemy" and always has. NOTHING about that has changed, nor will change as long as an ex-KGB dictator or one of his puppets is in control of the country.

________________________________

"Putin said Stalin deserves statues in his honor"

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131219/185734707/Putin-Says-Stalin-No-Worse-Than-Cunning-Oliver-Cromwell.html
______________________________________

"the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century" -Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the collapse of the Soviet Union...

"World democratic opinion has yet to realize the alarming implications of President Vladimir Putin's State of the Union speech on April 25, 2005, in which he said that the collapse of the Soviet Union represented the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.'..."

"The more I see and read about Mr. Putin, in power since 1999, and his 'managed democracy,' the more apprehensive I become about the future of Russia and the safety of its neighbors.

If Putin believes that the dissolution of the Soviet Union into 15 independent states represents the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century,' then it follows that Putin might well believe he should do something to repair the loss..."

http://web.archive.org/web/20090415000000*/http://www.hooverdigest.org/053/beichman.html
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"The demise of the Soviet Union was the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century'," Putin said in 2005.

http://www.thetrumpet.com/article/11102.30640.0.0/asia/moscow-puts-the-soviet-squeeze-on-neighbor-nations
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"'The Black Book of Communism,'; a scholarly accounting of communism's crimes, counts about 94 million murdered by the supposed champions of the common man (20 million for the Soviets alone), and some say that number is too low."

Forgetting the Evils of Communism: The amnesia bites a little deeper
By Jonah Goldberg, August 2008:
http://web.archive.org/web/20100711090651/http://article.nationalreview.com/365528/forgetting-the-evils-of-communism/jonah-goldberg
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"The demise of the Soviet Union was the 'greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century'," Putin said in 2005.

"Putin said Stalin deserves statues in his honor"