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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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To: kabar

Your comments are full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.


181 posted on 03/19/2014 12:09:18 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: little jeremiah
You failed to answer my questions. Do you support the violent overthrow of this Administration since they are "enemy combatants?"

Your comments are full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Obviously this describes you. Are you afraid to back up your tough talk with action?

182 posted on 03/19/2014 12:35:35 PM PDT by kabar
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To: quadrant

The speech was made without prior coordination or consultation with Wilson’s counterparts in Europe. Clemenceau, upon hearing of the Fourteen points, was said to have sarcastically claimed The good Lord only had ten!


183 posted on 03/19/2014 12:38:35 PM PDT by kabar
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To: kabar

Did I even suggest a violent overthrow? What are you, an agent provocateur or something?

PS - I don’t waste my valuable human life dithering with people who are so angry they can’t think straight, use straw men, try to provoke others, have ulterior motives, and/or a host of other character flaws.


184 posted on 03/19/2014 12:47:45 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: kabar

“are full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”

You haven’t recognized W.Shakespeare’s quote?
I guess not.

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.

— Macbeth


185 posted on 03/19/2014 12:50:02 PM PDT by Marguerite (When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm even better)
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To: kabar

I am in disbelief that you are calling this “free speech” and a “civil liberty”.

People do not have the right to break into a church, disrupt people praying, shouting obscenities, blasting rock music, mocking the believers and breaking into the sanctuary with the altar. You realize they did this in a cathedral?

That is a criminal act and absolutely deserves prison time.

Do you not understand or respect the concept of a holy place?

Would you call it “free speech” if they did this to your church?

Really not interested in discussing it further.


186 posted on 03/19/2014 12:56:42 PM PDT by Mount Athos (A Giant luxury mega-mansion for Gore, a Government Green EcoShack made of poo for you)
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To: rbmillerjr
"The West has surpassed the Soviets/Russians in every category"

Indeed. The Crimea population had the choice to express their choice in a referendum. Crimea was not "annexed", as a republic it asked to join the Russian Federation, where there are many other regions affiliated.

The Hawaii population never had that chance. They were simply annexed , by a vote of the US Congress... To refresh your failing memory, when you preach moral superiority:

"The Hawaiian islands were the clear choice to for bases during the Spanish-American War in 1898, and this time Congress moved to annex the Hawaiian islands by Joint Resolution, a process requiring only a simple majority in both houses of Congress. On July 12, 1898, the Joint Resolution passed and the Hawaiian islands were officially annexed by the United States."

--National Archives website

187 posted on 03/19/2014 1:00:36 PM PDT by Marguerite (When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm even better)
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To: little jeremiah
Did I even suggest a violent overthrow? What are you, an agent provocateur or something?

You are frightened, little boy. Here are some of things you said that indicate you consider the current administration to be the enemy and more dangerous than any other enemy we have:

Secondly, and this is vital, the current administration in our country is headed by an enemy combatant and everyone hired or appointed by this enemy combatant is similarly an enemy of Constitution and all that is good in America.

The fedgov at this point is so removed from representing my interests, or the interests of any sane or moral American, that they are much more dangerous to the interests of the USA than any other foreign country.

What happens in my country is my business and if We the People don’t do something soon, we’re going to have a replay of Stalinist type slaughter and repression in the future.

I am concerned about the human rights and Constitution violations that are increasing pedal to the metal in the USA, and the commie/moslem/faggot/racist/thug who is illegally in the WH and vigorously destroying our country along with all the Dems, with the Rs acting for the most part, as passive enablers.

So frightened little Jerry, what do you propose we do about the "commie/moslem/faggot/racist/thug who is illegally in the WH.?"

Crickets....

188 posted on 03/19/2014 1:04:45 PM PDT by kabar
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To: Mount Athos
That is a criminal act and absolutely deserves prison time.

We will just agree to disagree. It doesn't deserve two years in prison.

FYI: I have been to Mount Athos.

189 posted on 03/19/2014 1:08:21 PM PDT by kabar
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To: kabar

I’m not a masochist; go find another fool to attack.


190 posted on 03/19/2014 1:41:19 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: kabar

Yeah, well Clemenceau deserves a lot of the blame for WWII.


191 posted on 03/19/2014 1:43:20 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: little jeremiah
I’m not a masochist; go find another fool to attack.

One fool at a time is enough.

192 posted on 03/19/2014 2:06:23 PM PDT by kabar
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To: dfwgator
Yeah, well Clemenceau deserves a lot of the blame for WWII.

Do you mean France?

I think most of the blame still goes to Hitler and Germany in Europe and Japan in the Far East.

193 posted on 03/19/2014 2:09:21 PM PDT by kabar
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To: dfwgator; Mount Athos
"And Hitler wasn’t German" =========================>

He was an Austrian Born - German.

For all practical purposes, he was German, though sometimes people (elders) say he was Austrian.

He was German through and through. Some Germans (elders) still try to say he wasn't German - he was.

194 posted on 03/19/2014 2:16:03 PM PDT by hummingbird (Mark Levin and Article 5. Period.)
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To: hummingbird

Austria - Still trying to convince the world that Beethoven was Austrian, and that Hitler was German.


195 posted on 03/19/2014 2:17:21 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Girlene; KOZ.
"There is nothing to admire in Putin. He is a KGB thug who has somehow managed to acquire great wealth during his “reign”. He is a narcissistic fool running around pretending to save people from attacking tigers, etc. He is an unconvincing liar claiming that he is saving Crimea/Ukraine Russians from fascists as he invades a sovereign nation."

"People may admire Putin because he is decisive, he knows how to use his power/influence. The same could be said for any number of powerful leaders - Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, etc."

----------------------------------------------->

I would not be surprised if he goes further than Crimea.

He is a Sneaky Pete.

You can take a man out of the KGB...

...but you can't take the KGB out of the man.

I'd like to be wrong, but I am not really optimistic at this point.

Girlene, love your tag!

196 posted on 03/19/2014 2:31:27 PM PDT by hummingbird (Mark Levin and Article 5. Period.)
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To: kabar

I wised up.


197 posted on 03/19/2014 2:34:54 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: hummingbird
I would count on him attempting to go farther. He's ambitious and hasn't paid much of a price for his current moves. Sounds like he's putting the moves on Estonia. Russia has been using "influence operations" there for some time.
198 posted on 03/19/2014 2:53:01 PM PDT by Girlene (Hey, NSA!)
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To: arthurus
"Well, you know what happened when they managed to get into the appropriate positions in the seminaries."

----------------------------------------------->

The Purple Seminaries.

Many worthy seminarians opted out of their calling so rampart were the Purple Seminaries.

Really tragic. A debasement of our culture.

199 posted on 03/19/2014 4:51:07 PM PDT by hummingbird (Mark Levin and Article 5. Period.)
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To: Marguerite
"Poland meanwhile, imports about 70% of its gas from Russia, as well as Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It’s been like that since the existence of Warsaw block, and it hasn’t changed in 25 years, only increased."

--------------------------->

Couldn't that pipeline be opened here? Could we sell gas to Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia and still have enough for US?

200 posted on 03/19/2014 5:05:41 PM PDT by hummingbird (Mark Levin and Article 5. Period.)
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