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Russia, Putin, Ukraine: Some Background

Posted on 03/18/2014 9:10:05 PM PDT by varmintman

I'm not the world's foremost expert on Russia... But I believe I know enough to at least try to clear up a few of the misconceptions I see on forums and have been listening to on talk radio for the past few weeks.

A bit of Russian history for starters... Slavic farmers invited Vikings (Verangians) into what you'd now call Russia and set up the Kievan state which adopted Christianity around 988 AD so that the territory controlled by the city of Kiev was the dominant power in Russia prior to the Mongol invasion in 1236. In other words, they'd fought Polovyetski/Cumins and other nomad tribes to a sort of a standstill which appeared to be a workable state of affairs and then they got run over by a military avalanch and an empire whose military technology was 300 years ahead of the rest of the world.

Russia spent the next 140 years or so under the "Mongol Yoke" before the princes of Moscow managed to win a huge battle over the Golden Horde at Kulikovo in 1380, only to have the white and golden hordes unite a couple of years later and plow Russia under foot again where she would have remained for another century or two, nonetheless shortly thereafter Tamerlane came through and annihilated the Golden Horde. Unlike the situation with Genghis Khan who had utterly competent heirs, Tamerlane's empire began to crumble shortly after his death in the first few years of the 1400s, leaving much of Russia a sort of a shambles and Southern Russia what was called "wild fields". Jews living in what had been the remains of the Khazar kingdom prior to that time finally had enough and started moving to Poland and Germany and for a period of a century or so until Russia started to get organized again, Poland and Lithuania began to look like serious countries on maps. In those days, the Ukraine was part of Poland and one of the biggest if not THE biggest celebrations there ever was in the Ukraine was when Russia took it over in the 1700s.

The Ukrainian language is basically the language of the principality of Kiev while modern Russian is basically the language of the principality of Suzdal and the city of Moscow. At some point, the languages of the various places which comprised Russia must have fused, which is presumably why you have more than one system for verb formations and declension endings. The difference between Russian and Ukrainian is similar to the difference between our English and Chaucer's and anybody in the Ukraine who isn't retarded can speak Russian.

The city of Moscow featured the most paranoid design for a city in the history of the world, basically a system of concentric rings, each more difficult to break into than the last. That is because up to a very late date, Crimean Tatars, remnants of the Golden Horde, used to ride into the city as far as they could get, capture children and stuff them into baskets on their horses and ride off to sell them so that the word "Slav" morphed into "slave". The fact that any Crimean Tatars remain alive at all strongly indicates that Russians are an unusually tolerant people, less given to holding grudges than most.

The official title of the tsars was "Tsar of all the Russias", meaning primarily 'Great Russia' (Russia), 'White Russia' (Belorus), and 'Little Russia' (Ukraine). That is the heart of the Slavic Orthodox world and Ukraine is the breadbasket of that world. The Ukraine could feed everybody from the Volga to the Atlantic and that in fact was Hitler's plan; the idea was to build a super-gauge train to haul foodstuffs from Ukraine to Europe and, as I read it at least, to get Western Europe pretty much out of the food business altogether.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breitspurbahn

"Early plans for routes considered India and Vladivostok as the ultimate goals of the railways, but [b][i][size=150]by 1943 the planning was focused exclusively on European cities.[1] Ukraine and the Volga Basin were seen as especially important targets, as these areas were viewed as the future granaries of the Nazi empire[/size][/i][/b],[1] potentially through the "settlement strings". orSiedlungsperlen of the proposed Wehrbauer settlements within the conquered Lebensraum territories, which would also be linked by the planned easternmost reaches of theReichsautobahn freeway network.[5]...."

But you get the idea. The idea that anybody should have expected Vladimir Putin to just sit there and watch George Soros, Monsanto, and the US state department to just walk off with the Ukraine is idiotic. For that matter, the Crimea had been part and parcel of Russia for at least a couple of centuries before Khrushchev gifted it to Ukraine in 1954; it didn't seem to make much difference when everybody was a citizen of the CCCP one way or other, but expecting Russia to just let go of he Crimea under present circumstances is doubly stupid.

Moreover, there is a very big problem with language convergence. Television and the Internet are radically shrinking the world. TV has in fact killed the Southern accent in Texas so that I hear it only amongst people over 60; I expect TV and the internet to kill most of the world's languages in the next 30 years. My guess would be that languages which will still be in use by 2050 will include:

Basically, Ukrainian is a dead language walking and the idiots who just took over Kiev know that, which accounts for at least some of their irrational behavior. Ukraine has a border with Russia, their culture is tied up with that of Russia, and Russian is the main language of those which will survive, with which they are most familiar. My money says that in 20 years, Ukrainian will be spoken only amongst people over 60. The future of the Ukrainian people clearly lies with Russia.

That brings up an obvius question: what are the people in the US state department smoking? What did they expect to see happen?? Another question is, what reasons could there be for wanting to start a major war over any of this stuff?

A century or two ago the reasons for starting wars were simple: Gold, land, women, treaties... That stuff was heinous enough but it was at least comprehensible. In today's world, unfortunatley, you have to at least consider the most paranoid possibility i.e. that the LaRouche group may be right and that the idiots may actually have in mind to start a nuclear war to reduce the human population of the planet to less than one billion as per their stated ideology, for the glory of Gaea.

It turns out the sniper killings around Kiev a month ago were the work of the hoodlums WE are supporting, and not that of Yanukovich or Russians:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-05/behind-kiev-snipers-it-was-somebody-new-coaltion-stunning-new-leak-reveals-truth

We have now seen two of these false-flag ops in the past six months (Syria and Kiev). At some point, the world has seen this **** one too many times and gets wise to it, and starts to look on Americans as a bunch of lunatics. It's hard not to get the idea that somebody in the US State Department is trying to start a major war.

Aside from that, the world can clearly see that Vladimir Putin is the best Ruler Russia has ever had since Tsar Peter, and that Bork Obunga is just as clearly the worst ruler any advanced state has ever had since Nero and may in fact be WORSE than Nero since I don't view Bork as being bright enough to play a fiddle. More likely we'll get to listen to rap while America burns.

Vladimir Putin is the main force responsible for bringing the global warming lunatics into global disrepute and disrepect. Putin apparently got a number of Russia's best hackers in a room and said something like "Guys, I'm not gonna wreck Russia's economy over a bunch of bullshit, I want you to blast your way into that East Anglia Email Database and spread to the four winds whatever you might find there", and they did that:

http://www.climategate.com

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?221759-Is-Putin-behind-the-leaked-Climategate-e-mails

In other words, aside from needing to learn how to pronounce the guy's name properly, commentators like Limbaugh and Hannity need to understand that Putin is primarily responsible for their not needing to rub sticks together to make fire.

I mean, how many times does that make that Russia has bailed our hiney's out of some really awful kind of ****? Picture living in a world in which Sweden was a major power, i.e. picture yourself cruising in a 57 Volvo:

Guy a half mile up the road had one of those when I was a teenager. The thing was so ugly that just having it parked at the curb reduced housing values within a three-block radius. Tsar Peter saved us from that ****:

I EXPECT libtards and demoKKKrats to be clueless; it's painful to listen to stupid **** coming from right of center commentaters like Limbaugh and Hannity. Again they should start by at least learning to pronounce the guy's name properly:

"vla-DEE-mir POO-Tin" The accent is on the second syllable in Vladimir and nobody swallows a T or pronounces it like a D in Russia.

There is a question of communism in the picture and the thing you have to grasp is that the Soviet state had an absolute monopoly on weapons under the CCCP so that there was no possibility of the people ever rising up and overthrowing that system. That system fell because the people running it finally realized it couldn't work and gave it up. There is zero possibility of Russia going back to socialism or communism.

They ARE however going back to their original Christian roots and aside from building some 200 Christian churches in and around Moscow, they have actually rebuilt that gigantic cathedral which the commies tore down and made into a swimming complex:

Aside from all of that, Putin and the people around him have clearly taken a hard look at the ongoing suicide of the West and determind that Russia is not going to participate in any of that happy horse-****. Not allowing gays to recruit or prosylitize in schools or allowing girl bands to desecrate a church are signs of a recovered righteousness.

I mean, if I've missed anything or left anything important out here or gotten anything wrong, somebody let me know, but this is the picture I'm seeing. I don't see anything not to like with Putin or the vision of the current Russian government.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: crimea; ibtz; putin; putinsbuttboys; russia; surrendermonkeys; ukraine; varmintspam
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1 posted on 03/18/2014 9:10:05 PM PDT by varmintman
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To: varmintman

Putin may very well have started out as a believe in Communism and the Soviet Union, but I see more someone who came to appreciate the writings of Solzhenitsyn.

Contrast with Soviet days, Solzhenitsyn is now required reading in Russian schools....and Solzhenitsyn tried to warn the West, that it was facing destruction from their decadence if they didn’t change their ways.


2 posted on 03/18/2014 9:12:47 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: varmintman

enough is enough

just sign up for obamacare and vote democrat STRAIGHT ticket with a gay heart


3 posted on 03/18/2014 9:13:56 PM PDT by bigheadfred
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To: varmintman

The gay ideology is now the ideology of the U.S. Kerry and Biden thought the Soviets were just peachy. Now they don’t.


4 posted on 03/18/2014 9:15:23 PM PDT by Luke21
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To: varmintman

A good summary of Russian history. Russians have a sense of having their own civilization, which doesn’t owe anything to any one else. While Russia has emerged from Communism in reasonably good shape - perestroika is a process that will take decades to complete. Dismantling the totalitarian system was the easy part but building a modern, humane and civilized society is very difficult.

Middle class Russians want a society with European values and having the kind of life people in the West have with the freedoms that go along with it. But other Russians fear too fast change and these people are Putin supporters. Its the typical divide between well-educated urban people and working class people in the small towns and countryside.

There are two Russias and while they both agree on Crimea there is hardly a consensus between them on anything else. And with a corrupt and inefficient political system, its remarkable that anything at all actually gets done. And reforming this system is an uphill undertaking. Putin’s policies have not really addressed where Russia needs to go in the future.


5 posted on 03/18/2014 9:28:12 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Luke21

Kerry should do well negotiating with Russia, seeing as how he know “Jengus” Khan so well. And he has personal experience with cutting off ears and wiring up genitals and such. Also pushes the joys of abortion and gay marriage. That’s a resume that’ll impress the hell out of Putin.


6 posted on 03/18/2014 9:29:32 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!!)
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To: goldstategop

The thing is, Putin knows he has to walk a fine line between those distinct two groups of Russians.

If Putin allowed Ukraine to go completely independent and take Crimea with it, Putin would have been run out of Moscow.


7 posted on 03/18/2014 9:29:56 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: varmintman

Ooops you forgot Stalin.


8 posted on 03/18/2014 9:31:52 PM PDT by FreeReign
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To: varmintman

In October 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution gave birth to the deadliest ideology in history - Communism. In less than 100 years, Communism has claimed more than 100 million victims.

Never Forget

A free people cannot afford to forget the evils and the costs of Communism. We must no allow the atrocities of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, and Castro to fade into the background of history. We must not forget the trail of blood and tears this utopian deception has left behind. How:

The Bolsheviks murdered their way into power...

Lenin destroyed hundreds of thousands of Cossacks...

The Kremlin starved to death more than six million in Ukraine...

Mao murdered tens of millions of Chinese peasants during his "Great Leap Forward"...

Ho Chi Minh sent 850,000 Vietnamese to their graves in "education camps"...

Castro buried dissenters in the infamous Isle of Pines...

The student voices of freedom were silenced at Tiananmen Square in Beijing...


9 posted on 03/18/2014 9:34:07 PM PDT by kabar
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To: dfwgator

The former hate his guts and creating a middle class is not what you want to do when you’re an autocrat.

Putin gets most of his support from small town and rural Russia.

Putin started out a liberal and fell back on Russian nationalism because that was the most effective means of mobilizing support for him and his policies.

But should the economy turn south, the mass street protests could reignite and his days in power could be numbered.


10 posted on 03/18/2014 9:36:01 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: kabar
The Kremlin starved to death more than six million in Ukraine...

Ooops poster forgot this.

11 posted on 03/18/2014 9:36:32 PM PDT by FreeReign
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To: varmintman

Ukraine existed before Russia.

That is just a fact.

Kiev was never Russian.

It is like saying the United States existed before England.

And London is an American State or City.

The differences between Russian and Ukrainian are the differences between Spanish and Italian.

Other than this temporary small echo baby boom Russia is in population decline. Russian is as dead as Portuguese.

That is some serious ball washing.

Even for a Putinista.


12 posted on 03/18/2014 9:36:35 PM PDT by Reaganez
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To: goldstategop

That’s just it, people want to think he’s Hitler, when in reality his grip on power is much more tenuous than most people realize.


13 posted on 03/18/2014 9:37:07 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: goldstategop

In fact, one could look at this as similar to Galtieri invading the Falklands, sure temporarily it caused all Argies to rally around him, and even if the Argies prevailed, eventually the novelty would wear off when the economy raised its ugly head.


14 posted on 03/18/2014 9:39:36 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: varmintman
The idea that anybody should have expected Vladimir Putin to just sit there and watch George Soros, Monsanto, and the US state department to just walk off with the Ukraine is idiotic.

IMHO, Putin is just applying the Russian version of the Monroe Doctrine. If I'm right, then Putin is a Russian James Monroe.

But suppose Putin later on sees the Baltic states as a threat, when there is no threat. And then suppose Putin decides to absorb the Baltic states back into Russia. Then Putin is a Russian Napoleon or a Russian Hitler (take your pick).

Time will tell.

15 posted on 03/18/2014 9:40:02 PM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: goldstategop

Of course, Putin doesn’t have to deal with a Thatcher, like Galtieri did.


16 posted on 03/18/2014 9:41:02 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: varmintman

Impressive post! Thanks for writing it. I learned a lot.


17 posted on 03/18/2014 9:42:22 PM PDT by MUDDOG
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To: Luke21
America has a homosexual ruling class. Most members of that class are probably not physically homosexual but they have put their power behind homosexual ideology and the homosexualization of America. At some point most of the ruling class will be homosexual men, or, rather, bisexual in practice with females gradually relegated to breeder status and men engaging with each other for Love and Romance. The Greeks did it like that 2500 years ago. Or they will tear the country apart trying to get there and how that comes out is anybody's guess.

http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles2/PragerHomosexuality.php

18 posted on 03/18/2014 9:42:45 PM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINEhttp://steshaw.org/economics-in-one-lesson/)
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To: varmintman
It turns out the sniper killings around Kiev a month ago were the work of the hoodlums WE are supporting, and not that of Yanukovich or Russians:

Sure.

In other words, aside from needing to learn how to pronounce the guy's name properly, commentators like Limbaugh and Hannity need to understand that Putin is primarily responsible for their not needing to rub sticks together to make fire.

I mean, how many times does that make that Russia has bailed our hiney's out of some really awful kind of ****?


Seriously?
19 posted on 03/18/2014 9:42:48 PM PDT by Girlene (Hey, NSA!)
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To: arthurus

I believe starting the 70s gays began an concerted effort to infiltrate the most important institutions, media, political, and education. And we were asleep at the switch until it was too late.


20 posted on 03/18/2014 9:45:07 PM PDT by dfwgator
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