[spanalot]

What a shame - Russia had the potential to join the rest of the civilized world - now its reverted back to debased thuggery.

(IBTRWC)

[MARKUSPRIME]

Russia was never in the western orbit they have always supported the worst people on earth.

[gaspar]

Russia has never, repeat never, been a part of the civilized world. Its people only think they have. The great 19th Century argument between the Slavophiles and the Westernizers was no contest. The Slavophile know-nothings won hands down. In case one is tempted to think I am too harsh, try reading the accounts of the Russian court in the 19th Century. Then follow that with the Gulag Archipelago. Then read a biography of the nasty piece of goods who is running the show now. What is happening in Russia is only to be expected, and it seems to prove that the pollyanna Condoleeza Rice learned nothing by her study of Russia and the Soviet Empire.

[The Shootist]

Give 'em time. Another generation or two should suffice. Remember neither the people nor the infrastructure has recovered from Stalin, WWII and another 40 years of statism.

Much of Russia is more like the Wild West or the Robber Baron era than it is a modern society.

[M. Espinola]

Col Putin marches on with his new "neo-Soviet Union".

[sit-rep]

Yes, but parts manufactures, domestic and foreign, are still moving American manufacturing and parts producing companies to Russia... This article don't mean squat. Saber rattling at it's finest. Arms sales will continue, and free trade will prevail as the powers that be sit on top and blast the notions of Russia selling arms...

All thrown out for public consumption my friend...while, they grease up, getting into the right positions to STICK it to you...

[Kuehn12]

We can all thank George Bush Senior and William "Slick Willey" Jefferson Clinton for losing Russia. They screw this thing up every way it could be. First by not letting Russia change be evolutionary not revolutionary. It all happen to fast and left a bitter taste in the mouths of the Russian People.
I don't know what the future holds for that country, but we maybe witnesses to the end of an entire people, some say with the demographic changes, by the middle of this century. Afterward, China will be on Europe back door step with about 2 billion people. They will have stopped their one child policy a decade or two before because why have the policy when you have 12 time zones to play with.

[bert]

Russia is a failed society and makes very little worth a damn besides weapons.

The American President working through Marc Rich plundered the strategic stock piles of aluminum and titanium.

They can sell some oil but that does not provide jobs.

Putin is using what he has to do what he can to make ends meet.

Meanwhile......Russia is dieing.