Posted on 09/11/2008 10:05:10 PM PDT by neverdem
MOSCOW — For three and a half hours on Thursday, in tones that were alternately pugilistic and needy, Vladimir V. Putin tried to explain himself.
More than a month has passed since Russia sent columns of armor into Georgia, asserting its sphere of influence with a confidence not seen since the days of the Soviet Union. But since the first hours of this crisis, Russian leaders have been asking the same question with mounting frustration: Why is everyone blaming us for this?
Mr. Putin, Russia’s prime minister, made his case on Thursday in Sochi, Russia, before the Valdai Discussion Club, a collection of Russia experts from around the world. Comments aimed at the West were, at times, rueful — he said he liked President Bush more than many Americans do — and even respectful, as when he asked for a moment of silence in honor of the victims of Sept. 11.
As for the criticism that has cascaded down on his government, Mr. Putin expressed only bafflement that those in the West did not accept Russia’s explanation that it had simply acted in defense of its citizens. How did they expect Russia to respond to the shelling of its peacekeepers in Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, he asked — with “slingshots?” Did they expect him to “brandish a penknife?”
“What else could we do?” the Interfax news agency reported him as saying. “Do you think we should have wiped the bloody snot away and hung our heads?”
His plea was serious. This week, Russia’s diplomatic relations with Europe frayed badly during negotiations about a withdrawal of troops from Georgia. President Dmitri A. Medvedev’s decision to recognize the enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia has made even longtime allies like China and Serbia wary of standing with Russia...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Because some of us happen to know about the terrorist training camps, and that Russia has been planning and organizing this invasion for over three years.
For the past two decades, we've been bending over backwards to suppress information that makes the Russians look bad, on the hopes that if we treated them like civilized humans they would start to behave like civilized humans. No such luck.
Putin should be thankful that we don't talk about the fact that he has personally stolen billions of dollars, and that we don't discuss where the mass graves of the people he personally ordered murdered in Chechnya are.
Right, I understand you’d bet on $200 oil.
“Don’t blink”
:-)
“Putin is sincerely sorry that the Russian equities portion of his stock portfolio has tanked so badly. Invade a neighbor, trigger a capital flight. That is not a bad lesson for a KGB thug dictator to learn.”
that’s why it’s so much easier to be a communist dictator
I can't recall the exact chronology. All or most of the units of the Russian 58th Army just completed a scheduled training exercise in the Caucases near the end of July, but they didn't return to their barracks. They lingered not far from Georgia. Most of the Georgian Army were set up for trouble in Abkhazia when the S. Ossetian militias started attacks on Georgian villages in S. Ossetia in the first week of August almost simultaneously evacuating S. Ossetian civilians from their province. The Georgian artillery finally retaliated on the S. Ossetian capitol. Nearby Russian "peacekeepers" probably confirmed that the Georgians took the bait, and the Russians attacked.
Any corrections will be appreciated.
Cue up Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.”
"And here's to the contining decline of the Russian economy. May it drop forevermore."
Shades of 1980 after Reagan won the election.
Russia has a long history of subjugating its neighbors. Those neighbors have every right to not live under Russia's thumb.
Poor Puty. He’s thought the cost for Georgia would be bascially nothing and now he’s finding out it is very costly and blubbering about the bill.
I’m waiting President Dmitri the Dancing Bear to to fire his Prime Minister, Mad Vlad, over this major international faux pas. I will not hold my breath.
The idea that the little states never liked their vassal status is amazing news to the Russians. The idea that they might want to secure their independence from Russian domination verges on heresy.
The former Soviet Republics have much to gain from economic ties with Russia, but their memories of centuries of domination make them keep Russia at arm's length. When Russia understands these memories and feelings and start consistently to act as a good neighbor, they will be fit to live among the family of nations, and they will get the respect they deserve.
Crowing about a victory in a war against a country of 4.6 million people, in a war instigated by Russian provocation, disgusts the world.
Anyone with a penny invested in any venture in russia should take their money out and invest it elsewhere.
Many have done just that and it has hurt russias economy.
So a fine way to make russia pay for its bullying is through the wallet.
Hey puttie f-you kgb fool.
If this is so, then our own MSM led me astray in comprehending that it was Putin running the military/Medvedev running the economy -- when, reading the above, it appears it is just the opposite.
Now, things make MUCH more sense to me. If Putin is indeed more in charge of those matters Economic, as covered in the remainder of the article, Medvedev has royally mucked up Russia's economy through his orders to invade Georgia.
I got it. The above, as worded is SPIN by the NY times. As manager of the economy, why wouldn't Putin want to assess the damages and the monies which may be necessary to "fix" things. I don't think were I he, I'd be trusting a General or So Ossetian to give me the damage assessments.
Yes, NY Times has spun the above. This tells me that someone, somewhere at the NYT wouldn't mind at all seeing another Cold War.
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