Putin needs to be careful here...he’s picking friends for the short term and it will come back to bite him.
I think I dissagree with you. I am hesitant because there is more information here for me to digest than I currently know about it.
That said, I believe there is a significant political power grab going on in Russia. They are stearing away from capitalism. I question the motives. Like America, it could be as simple as a handful of power hungary politicians unfettered in a weak democracy.
More “blame America first” garbage from Lenora Fulani’s toady, Pat Buchanan.
Looks like they were right.
Given that Pat Buchanan wrote this piece, I'm guessing the Jews.
Oh, I forgot... this article is nonsense.
The US did not conquer these nations. Now that they were independent they requested admission to NATO. Does Pat think the Bear should have a permanent veto over the actions of its former subject states?
Who restarted the Cold War? Bush and the braying hegemonists he brought with him to power.
The Wall fell in 1989, 18 years ago. Bush has been president for 7 of those years. Why is it all his fault?
Putin was a KGB thug long before GWB was elected.
“Once KGB, always KGB”, the quote I heard 5 years ago from a Russian coworker, refering to Putin.
As promised, the Soviet Union is reawaking after “going to sleep” in 1991.
And Pat is old bitter fool.
Putin has been trying to move Russia back to the “glory” days of the USSR from the outset.
Sounds like someone else finally noticed!
That said, most of the rhetoric coming from Russia is geared for their own internal consumption. It needs to be remembered that elections are coming soon! What has changed is the global aspect of the media today. That’s why you have this surge of stupidity with Russian flags being stuck in mud under Arctic Ice, or them resuming bomber missions flying into NATO areas with prop driven Bear bombers. For the Russian audience this stuff though largely crap goes over well. It’s no different than an Obama saying he’d bomb Pakistan.
In the end, Russia is no friend, but they are also no longer the enemy they once were. In some areas we even have mutual interests and for some time their has been cooperation between our nations on some of these issues. We won't nuke each other tomorrow, but we're also no buddies. That's also the position of the Department of State.
In the future when you post anything by Pat Buchanan, please put his name in the title so I can skip even wasting my time to click in.
Russia is merely reasserting its sphere of influence after being missing for a generation. Iran is a minor player.
I have no great sympathy for the state that Putin has erected.
I do not ignore the high degree to which the mob-related corruption, that is so obvious under Putin, was present almost immediately upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union and was co-equal with many factors that have impeded the development of both Russian democratic institutions and a less corrupt economic sector.
Yet, those elements seem to be literally and intentionally lifted up, in every American venue - academia and the think tanks, official foreign policy and the media - with regard to Russia, while equally or even more disturbing elements about China are ignored, played down or suggested as not worrisome under the myth that “capitalism” will eventually bring democracy to China.
Russia’s state-sponsored, state-controlled, state-co-opted economy is overt through the direct confluence of the government authorities and managers obtaining direct personal control of “private” corporations, in their own names often and without any pretense that it is “for the party”.
China’s state-sponsored, state-controlled, state-co-opted economy is more overt using the appearance of “markets” and equity shareholders to obscure how dominant are Chinese party and/or government officials, government entities and agencies as “senior partners”, controlling board members, 51% owners, etc., etc. in every major Chinese “private” enterprise and a dominating presence in mid-cap ones as well. The party has spread itself into the commercial sector, with no diminishment of its role. For instance, it is respectfully considered that 2/3 of the China-based travel industry has controlling interests from the Peoples Army.
Second: Something of this same dichotomy seem to appear to me from the beginning. While Russia was apparently seeking to gain in development of democratic processes, U.S. efforts in support of it always seemed limp at best. But, with absolutely zero democratization process in China, it was enthusiastically embraced.
In spite of my lack of enthusiasm for Buchanan on many fronts (I rarely agree with him much anymore), I think he may at least be not inaccurate in viewing things as would not be inconceivable or in error to many Russians; whether those Russian views of U.S. intentions are correct or whether U.S. errors have given them legitimacy, when that was not our intentions.
Are you sure this hasn’t been the Russian game plan, all along?
As in, since Andropov?...
While Moscow removed its military bases from Cuba and all over the Third World, we have sought permanent military bases in Russia's backyard of Central Asia.
PErmanent? Who called for permanent? Try temporary after 9-11, with the approval of Putin!
We dissolved the Nixon-Brezhnev ABM treaty and announced we would put a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
And Russia has ignored the treaty with defenses around Moscow forever! Besides the current impetus is the Iranian nuclear program, which Putin faciltates. If Putin worked with us on Iran and North Korea, we would be in a hurry.
Under presidents Clinton and Bush, the United States financed a pipeline for Caspian Sea oil to transit Azerbaijan and Georgia to the Black Sea and Turkey, cutting Russia out of the action.
So we must pay homage Russian Revanchism and communist leanings?
With the end of the Cold War, the KGB was abolished and the Comintern disappeared. But the National Endowment for Democracy, Freedom House and other Cold War agencies, funded with tens of millions in tax-exempt and tax dollars, engineered the ouster of pro-Russian regimes in Serbia, Ukraine and Georgia, and sought the ouster of the regime in Minsk.
Pro-Russia. Oh, you mean COMMUNIST.
At the Cold War's end, the United States was given one of the great opportunities of history: to embrace Russia, largest nation on earth, as partner, friend, ally. Our mutual interests meshed almost perfectly. There was no ideological, territorial, historic or economic quarrel between us, once communist ideology was interred.
We blew it.
Earth to Buchanan. Communism isn't dead. It has blending with Russian nationalism and Slavophilia.
The wrong Bush is held to account. Bush I and Clinton should have demanded Nuremberg hearings. That would have killed communism. Instaed it has mutated and gained allies like Buchanan.
Ping.
Pat's way off.
Putin needs high oil prices to retain power. Putin needs an unstable Middle East to keep oil prices high.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the Russians expected us to be lulled to sleep. They expected us to be fooled into a false sense of security and disarm ourselves. Instead we took their retreat as an opportunity to advance our own interests in the world. Now they are unhappy that we gained from their loss of power. Too bad for them.