Posted on 12/30/2004 11:09:24 AM PST by lizol
I wonder if Putin is aiming to become Czar Vladimir the Great?
Supposedly he's our ally in the War on Terror, but he's a wimp IMO because he did NOTHING to defend Russia after the Beslan horror.
This article was already posted at least twice on FR. That said, I have to ask if you know who runs Freedom House. You will find Steve Forbes and another conservative on the board, but basically they are an African-American left wing group.
Liberals, i.e. useful idiots, are likened to canaries in that when they start to complain about the troubles in other countries it means they fear the leaders or the system in place which means they are more ruthless than the liberal mind commenting on the subject and thus should be taken seriously non the less.
And your point being ????? Freedom House is not the only source that has verified this information. Putin is trying to rebuild the Soviet Union. He rigged his own election, the referendum in Belarus and the first Ukraine election. He has put all his KGB buddies in positions of power, suspended elections of Governors, brought back the red star and the Soviet anthem. And something else for you to chew on, Russia and China plan on doing joint military exercises next year. The last ones they had in 1999 had the scenario of China attacking Taiwan, the U.S. responding and Russia starting an all out nuclear war against U.S. troops. He needs to be watched carefully.
"Actually, he's almost become a czar, just witout using this name. The range of his today's power and influence in Russia is - in fact - almost the same like czar's."
I heard he changed the laws so all of the governors of Russia's provinces are now appointed by him instead of elected. With all the things he's doing, I wonder why he has a 73% approval rating?
"Supposedly he's our ally in the War on Terror".
Good you've added "supposedly"."
He's a pretty weird guy. First he endorses Bush during the 2004 election, and he's helped Bush before too. I remember a while back he had a news conference where he said that Russian intelligence had told Bush that Iraq had WMDs, at a time when all our liberals were whining about the missing WMDs.
Then, during the Ukraine election, he started talking about plots by the West to meddle in Russian affairs, etc.
Personally, I think Putin is a decent person, though autocratic, but we'll have to wait and see.
Apparently Putin and Bush are close friends, despite Putin's anti-western remarks.
"And something else for you to chew on, Russia and China plan on doing joint military exercises next year. The last ones they had in 1999 had the scenario of China attacking Taiwan, the U.S. responding and Russia starting an all out nuclear war against U.S. troops. He needs to be watched carefully."
Scary stuff, especially in today's world. Putin does need to be watched. Remember what Reagan said "trust, but verify"
Although in the nuclear war scenario, I wonder how many of Russia's nuclear missiles actually still work. I'm guessing, not very many, considering the state of the Russian armed forces.
Why scary? And if scary is Walmart and all those others that support making China so wealthy traitors?
"The KGB is no more, and Putin is not a member, but rather is a professing Christian. It's only natural for him to put into positions of authority men he trusts. NOT EVERBODY IN THE KGB WAS EVIL. Furthermore, the words to the International were replaced, the tune remained the same."
Putin seems like a nice person, but when he is looking after the interests of his country, he needs to be watched. Russia has lost pretty much all of it's former WARPACT nations, many to the EU or Nato. The only nation still allied with Russia is Belarus.
Putin's weak, [read nonexistant] response to the Beslan massacre caused me to lose a lot of respect for him. I thought he was a hardliner. But he did pretty much nothing after Beslan.
I mean come on, the terrorists killed BABIES, raped TEENAGE girls in front of their classmates, and then blew hundreds of people up, and what did Putin do? NOTHING!
The least he could have done was nuked Chechnya, or at least a massive artillery bombardment to do to Grozny what the Romans did to Carthage.
"Why scary? And if scary is Walmart and all those others that support making China so wealthy traitors?"
Well, not traitors, because the government has let them manufacture in China.
What the govt needs to do is sanction China like North Korea, and move American manufacturers to other nations like Thailand or Honduras or India, where there are still millions of cheap laborers. We dont need China, but they need us. Without American capitalist $$$ their economy would collapse in 2 weeks.
Remember, China is using it's money to buy advanced weapons from Russia. We need to deny them the money to do this. That means sanctioning China.
So you are in favor of a command economy?
Putin Moves to Centralize Authority Plan Would Restrict Elections in Russia
Putin's unchallenged imperialism moves to Ukraine (Re: rigged Belarus referendum)
Questionable Elections (Putin intimidates opposition, controls media to win election)
Putin's men of power in the Kremlin share KGB link
PUTIN FUELS FEARS FOR RETURN OF SOVIET UNION
"So you are in favor of a command economy?"
hell no, but the gov't does make some of the rules, for example, it's illegal, i believe, for a US company to open factories in NOrth Korea.
We have to squeeze China somehow.
I give them a lot of credit for giving Cuba the lowest score possible and giving Israel the only "Free" ranking in the Middle East.
I have read all of that dribble a long time ago. May I suggest you learn the differnce between opinion and fact.
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