Putin's Russia, The Return of the Iron Fist

The New American ^ | January 22, 2007 | William F. Jasper

[Fennie]

Four out of five members of Russia's political and business elite have a KGB past, according to a new study by the prestigious Russian Academy of Sciences. The study, which looked at 1.061 top Kremlin, regional, and corporate jobs, found that "78 percent of the Russian elite" are what are known in Russia as "siloviki," which is to say, former members of the KGB or its domestic successor, the FSB...

[cdcdawg]

Russia is as it always has been. There is no foundation there on which to build a free society. They may have even less to go on than many in the Middle East.

[smith288]

When the country has been behind the curtain for so long, where are the alternative thinkers going to come from? They just went from this:


to this



Everything else underneath is the same.

[Red6]

lol

Common knowledge for anyone with a clue. No kidding, 1/3 of a Russian embassy or consulate is devoted to their intelligence. They have huge compounds in much of Europe not because they have thousands rushing in for Visa's, passports, etc, no they have a lot of space for the extra curricular activities. A Russian consulate should be regarded as an intelligence outpost for recruiting agents, a base of operation for their operators (guys that deal with Polonium or Dioxin)...etc. Nothing has changed except perceptions in the public and the intensity and magnitude of our clashes. Today we are dealing with a Russia that no longer says they will bury us, but their desire to do so is still there. Our national interests do not coincide, the same old Communist block heads are still in power, and their methods of operating have not changed nor is there any true transparency and freedom in this society. That simple.

[Red6]

ROFLAO

[Thunder90]

But, Russia is well on the way to returning to this