Posted on 06/15/2007 10:25:07 PM PDT by neverdem
It was but all a dream to ever believe Russia would be benign and peaceful under Putin. Deplorably, numerous people in strategic posts misjudged Russia.
Today the Kremlin is on the offensive. It has positioned military and ex-security service personal in charge of Russian industry and all key governmental posts. It is liquidating its adversaries even across international borders, has gagged the media, suppressed civil liberties, harassed foreign diplomats, intimidated businessmen and NGOs, it's threatened to target Europe with ABM missiles, it carried out intense cyber attacks against its neighbor, Estonia and it's using pipeline power to shake down its near abroad and wrest the rest of Europe into line. As if that weren't enough, an even more sinister development has arisen.
Putin has created a very sophisticated youth movement made up of over 100,000 volunteers called "Nashi", much like a clone of the Nazi youth movement. It is a well-equipped, fanatical, nationalistic private army that is hostile to foreigners and to any political group opposing the Kremlin leadership. Their aggressive behavior is not only tolerated by the authorities but also even encouraged. They help re-enforce local police; wearing black attire, they aggressively beat anyone they consider hooligans or insurrectionist.
They have been taught to believe that the United States is actively preparing a pro-western revolution in their country and that they will thwart it. They have developed high-level recruiting and training camps right across the expanse of Russia. Not only are they schooled in a variety of military issues, they also have orientation courses in such esoteric subjects as gestalt therapy, to help them to survive under extreme conditions.
This newly created, virtual army needs to be closely monitored and taken very seriously as it could well get out of hand and take on an even more menacing function.
What might come as a surprise to some readers is that the average citizen is not pleased with the way Putin has carried out his mandate and conducted his administration. The official approval rating of 81% is not an accurate figure, nor an up to date indication of his popularity; just consider where a poll would be coming from today, how objective it could be now with the media so effectively muzzled. Opposition candidate's rights to address the media and television stations have been eliminated, making it nearly impossible to get exposure.
Putin has already abused the spirit of the Russian constitution by making it so difficult for an opposition party, or an individual, to present itself/himself for elections; it is only another small step towards remaining in office for another term over some convenient pretext. Does this country really deserve G-8 status? Makes one wonder.
Partialy true. Russians supported in 1821 Greek independancy from Muslim Turkish empire.
Russian policy on Balkan was support of Christians (Slavs/Latins/Greeks) against Muslim opressors.
And Western policy was support of Islam against Christians, just to counter Russia...
“They are two of a kind, the wrong kind”
Boy, are you going to get flamed for that one. Serbs have vicious tempers. My battle buddy in the Army was a Serb (name Yuric). Most of the time we were best of friends but if I said the slightest thing to p@@$ him off, he went nuclear, cursing, shouting, threatening. Then - poof - the rage evaporated, and it was “Now, what were we talking about?”
Anyway, Russia going fascist should have been expected.
They are not, repeat, not a Western people. And Serbs, like Bulgarians, are Russian wannabes.
Am I on a Democrat forum here? :-)
I spend half my time in Russia. I have never seen any of these “Nashis” and the word is foreign to me although I speak the language more fluently than most Americans who aren’t Russian.
Putin cannot stand Left Wingers and won’t give them a chance. I don’t have a problem with that.
It is not as if our Left Wingers are giving us a chance.
They control the media in the US.
So why would we carry water for them when they complain that right wingers control the media in Russia?
It doesn’t make sense.
If you see a left wing western newspaper condemning Putin’s “control of the media”...you have to see that as a good thing. Putin’s popularity rises with me everytime I see some left wing columnist condemning him.
Let’s win back the media in our own country first, before we talk about how the media is biased in Russia (lets also win back Fox News which is owned by someone who purportedly wants Hillary to win in 2008).
I get the sense that a lot of FReepers have never tried to make an issue publicized in the American media that went against the grain of radical lefty progressiveness.
If they had, they would see that the articles that were already written and ready to publish by sympathetic journalists, are squelched by lefty editors or rewritten.
These dishonest people would take us out back behind the barn and shoot us if they could. Heck, they openly wish for the days of the commie dictatorship in the Soviet Union.
I can write a book on how the Iron Curtain has been rebuilt by the American left, not Putin.
Did you know that, in Russia and the Ukraine, it is entirely possible to buy a cell phone number (SIM card) within 10 seconds without an ID?
You just pop it into a $30 phone and voila, you are anonymous and easily reachable anywhere in the world.
Since when are Americans, in the land of the “free”, allowed to do that?
I know, one might say, that would allow terrorists to chatter with each other anonymously.
Maybe so...but if you spent even 1 month in Russia and experienced that kind of freedom (and this is just one example), you won’t exactly be lauding the US as being so much “free” as being “regulated”.
When it comes down to it, the US is best defined as “prosperous”.
It is good to be American because we stand for economic efficiency...and the wars we’ve fought all served the purpose of freeing things up enough so we can get on with our business lives and get married and have healthy kids, etc. The WOT allows us to congregate in cities to do business and see a baseball game without fear of nukes going off unexpectedly.
But freedom? The jury is out on whether Russia is more free than the US.
Now about the 80% popularity: I believe it because even young women, who in the west mostly vote left wing, are very proud of Putin in Russia.
They are not brainwashed. Instead, they remember or have been told by their parents about the LEFT WING dictatorship that was imposed on them for 73 years.
Unlike 66% of their American counterparts, the young women there know that leftism = poverty.
Like the Jews with the Nazis, they say “Nikogda bolshe” (Never Again).
Why would anyone in Russia trust a left winger to say boo after what they went through for 73 years?
Why should Gorbachev be allowed to blow his nose after being their dictator for so long?
We American Republicans chose to be proud of having allowed Michael Moore to make $300Million encouraging the Iraqi Insurgency 3 years ago (kickstarting the murder of 3500 American servicemen).
We proudly say “this is democracy” and we mean it.
The Russians deal with such traitors differently.
Take it or leave it. Russians are not going to let liberals run the show the way Americans do.
Don’t even begin to think the Russians view us as progressive.
Zdravstvutiye, brat!
I haven’t been to Russia, but I was deployed to Uzbekistan 2003-04. Older Uzbeks admired Russian culture but not the CCCP. But Uzbek young people were positively nostalgic for communism; they believed things were better then.
Is there any doubt that the former KahGehBeshnik Putin is squeezing the life out of Russian democracy?
Russians probably do not base their opinions of America upon qualitiative comparisons of the conditions of liberty. Instead, the U.S. is once more being regarded as “glavni vrag” (the main enemy) as in Soviet times.
On the other hand, look at Russia’s growing accomodation with the PRC.
Optimism for the future? Nyevozmozhnii!
Clinton has squandered Cold war victory. We are seeing the result now.
Sadly, neocoins do not understand why the cold war was won. They should learn one word missing in their ex-marxist dictionary: geopolitics.
Soviet Union lost because it chose adversary's weapon of choice. (missiles are today's equivalent of gunboats). Physically encircling Russia (requiring massive land forces) will work the same way.
This is historical lesson lost on neocons.
Russia did not suport Serbia in 1878 on Berlin congress, did not supoert Serbia in 1908, did not suport Serbia when Hitler attacked Yugoslavia in April 1941, did not support Serbia when Clinton attacked Serbia in 1999. Russian interests in the Balkans are not lineated with Serbia. CIA operated from Belgrade, KGB operated from Zagreb.
You are strong on hatred of Orthodox Christians and weak on the facts.
Excuse me, but your Serbophobic racism is showing!
How dare you!
How many real Americans have ever stated they love Islamofascists, the same killers that smashed jumbo jets into the Twin Towers, murdering thousands? You claim the USA loves Islamofascists, (which is a obvious, vicious lie and you know it.) yet you have the nerve to come on here, plus scores of other FR Russian related threads, supporting Putin's neo-Stalinist, Evil Empire-part II.
Russia's KGB dictator, also makes typical Soviet era, Pravda style, anti-American and anti-Western speeches - very similar to your anti-American bashing, which should no longer be tolerated.
"Last time I checked, Russians havent burned any churches."
Now the Putin dictatorship makes sure their anti-Western 'friends', Iran and Syria, are supplied with enough weapons to continue murdering American & Coalition troops in Iraq. Russia is fully aware Syria butchers government officials in Lebanon, and is also preparing for all out war against Israel with ongoing shipments of Russian weapon systems, weapons which are also supplied to Hezballah. Who supports Islamo-nazis? Your pals the Russians.
Today the Kremlin sends neo-Soviet Nashi youth cult thugs storming into other countries Moscow-based embassies, vandalizing & terrorizing the ambassadors of small eastern European nations which refuse to be subservient to Moscow's continuous threats & economic blackmail. Officials from other nation's embassies attempting to defend the intended diplomatic corp victims also swiftly received Putin's wrath through his KGB-bribed street punks, Nashi, to harangue & stalk foreign diplomats on the street, ignoring every decent idea of international relations.
"In April Nashi deployed thousands of volunteers across Moscow to hand out brochures and 10,000 specially made SIM cards for mobile phones. Recipients were told they would get special text messages in case of a Ukraine-style uprising. "Now people have a chance to receive precise instructions what to do to save their motherland if there is a pro-Western revolution," says Nashi activist Tatyana Matiash, 22. Meanwhile, they can bully neighboring countries for daring to defy the Kremlin's will."source
"The continuing cyber-attacks against Estonia bear evidence of Russian involvement. Computer experts have traced some of the attacks to Russian government and presidential computers," he said.
Officials in Estonia, including Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, have claimed that some of the cyber-attacks, came from Russian government computers, including in the office of President Vladimir Putin.
The cyber-assaults forced the authorities in the Baltic state to temporarily shut down websites.
Russian officials have denied involvement, but Estonian Defence Ministry spokesman Madis Mikko insisted Friday that "a large amount of the attacks came from computers in Russia, including within the Russian administration."source
Estonia Expels Two Russian Citizens
The Horror of Russia's "Nashi" Youth Cult, Revealed in English
Today Putin's neo-Soviet henchmen also utilize a new tool of revenge - Internet terrorism, targeting the formerly Soviet captive Baltic nation of Estonia, crashing the Estonian governments main servers, fully disrupting Estonia's cyber communications, deliberately targeting her citizens. For weeks Russia's cyber retaliation continued and is possibly still underway. Putin has already alarmingly demonstrated his energy blackmail, and now his use of high-tech savagery, thus in the future if the Kremlin goes on a very public anti-American rampage, Wall Street's computer servers could also be attacked, in addition to numerous other 'enemy' countries on Moscow's retaliation or destruction list, selectively crashing financial & national security Internet infrastructures around the globe.
Coming attractions for history's first cyberwar
Estonian Attacks Raise Concern Over Cyber 'Nuclear Winter'
RUSSIA BEGINS CYBER ATTACKS AGAINST ESTONIAN GOVERNMENT
Russian Communism murdered 60 - 90 million people. The Russian Orthodox church hierarchy was controlled by communist collaborators, coupled with being a front for the KGB. Outspoken real Christians took one way trips to the Siberian gulag.
During the 70 years of Moscow's atheistic communism, which in the post 1945 era enslaved even more conquered Eastern European nations. The Russians communist overlords did indeed commit abominable crimes against entire populations, and anyone who attempted to maintained his religion, not bowing to the god of communism, paid the highest price.
Next you will claim Europe's last & 'former' Serbian communist dictator, Slobodan Milosevic, was simply misunderstood and there really wasn't any Serbian policy of "ethnic cleansing" (planned genocide) in the former Yugoslavia - it's all "Western lies & propaganda". Is that so?
Peddle your twisted anti-American, pro-Putin propaganda elsewhere.
A reversal is underway in blogging. We have to read the essay, regardless of whether the essay would get a passing grade in English composition class, to get the context where the headline or title would have any meaning.
Russia has a lot of problems. They are not a friend of the West. The Soviet Union never died, it’s just lying dormant, waiting for Putin to resurrect it.
But has anyone noticed that several of these things going on in Russia sound frighteningly similar to what’s going on with the American Left? Control of the media—the Left controls the media and flavors it with their propaganda, just as Putin’s cronies do in Russia. Squashing opposition candidates—a liberal newspaper in Texas refused to print an article endorsing Bush around the 2004 election. So much for freedom of the press. Brainwashing youth—what do think public schools do? The “Young Democrat”-type clubs are youth organizations supporting liberals formed after these kids have been indoctrinated in public school. The fact is, the US is going down the same path, and if the good people here don’t do something about it we too will become like Russia, because we have people here doing the exact same things as what’s going on in Russia. Their progress with it isn’t as pronounced as Russia’s is, because we have the conservatives here to taper its effect, but communists are at work in this nation, it’s no longer a TRUE land of the free.
Do you know why Russia did not support their Serbia in April of 1941, because they were too busy carving up Poland with the Nazis under the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, also known by the 'The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact' which backfired on the communist Russians, since the Nazis invaded in late June of 41. So much for deals made with Russian commies and German Nazis.
"Russia...did not support Serbia when Clinton attacked Serbia in 1999."
Do you feel Russia's armed forces should have fully supported Serbia in 1999, and also protected Serbia's communist tyrant MiloÂević from being tired for inciting war crimes?
During the Yugoslav wars Russian mercenaries were fighting right along side the Serbs, against Serbia's enemy's.
"Russian interests in the Balkans are not lineated with Serbia."
I am not sure what you mean on that last one. However Serbian Slavs do voice approval of being linked to their Russian Slavic 'brothers'. As in, what's best for the interests of the greater family.
Well, no one can accuse NG of not being "real American." Yet, this "real Americans", American National Guard trains terrorists (KLA/KPC) in Kosovo, even after it was discovered that KPC use that knowledge for terrorist attacks on UN and civilians. NG continues to train terrorists, alies of OBL. That's a fact. I have not heard of single unit of NG who refused to train terrorists in Kosovo and requested to be brought home.
Under X-42 it was even worse. CIA's cargo fleet hauled Iranian weapons to arm Islamofascists in Bosnia. This was in contravention of UN Embargo. American banks were used to launder money earmarked for OBL terrorist activities via Bosnia Relief Fund operated by Douglas Feith. In a sense, 9/11 was made possible because of that.
And so on. Should I continue with the examples of Liberal and Neocon Americans love for Islamofascists, or you got the point?
I do not say that all freedom loving Americans love Islamofascists. But they are mostly silent when it comes to exposing Americans-Islamofascist allies.
AMEN BROTHER! Russia is currently supplying Iran and Syria with Arms that ended up in Hezbollah hands. Particulary anti tank missiles that cut into merkavas, and various other conventional weapons. Russia continues to be the thorn in the side of the world and vetos UN on actions aginst genocide in Africa. Russia also supplies the largest terrorist network (iran) with a Nuclear Reator, missiles and other such weapons of death. Russia has always been on the side of evil, and their pals the serbs have been right along their side. Lets not forget who butchered non muslims in croatia and that man is on trial as we speak, a Serbian.
Putin has created a very sophisticated youth movement made up of over 100,000 volunteers called "Nashi", much like a clone of the Nazi youth movement.
And here they are, the clone of Die Jugend:
They sure do look ruthless. Why is this movement any different than, say, Otpor was in Serbia? Oh, Otpor was created by the U.S. So, it was democratic; a "genuine people's movement." Yet Nashi isn't?
For example, like Gen. Draa Mihailovic who was awarded the Legion of Merit (by President Truman in 1948) for coming to assistance of US crewman who were shot down while on bombing raids during WWII.
I get the point you are not an American and sound identical to the Iranian Islamofascists with you insane non-stop American bashing.
You have repeatedly & falsely smeared millions people in the U.S. Where are you originally from and where to you live now?
Russian Orthodox 15-20%, Muslim 10-15%, other Christian 2% (2006 est.) note: estimates are of practicing worshipers; Russia has large populations of non-practicing believers and non-believers, a legacy of over seven decades of Soviet rule
Muslim 47%, Russian Orthodox 44%, Protestant 2%, other 7%
Muslim 75%, Russian Orthodox 20%, other 5%
Sunni Muslim 85%, Shi'a Muslim 5%, other 10% (2003 est.)
Religions: Muslim 88% (mostly Sunnis), Eastern Orthodox 9%, other 3%
Eastern Orthodox 80%, other (including Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim) 20% (1997 est.)
Armenian Apostolic 94.7%, other Christian 4%, Yezidi (monotheist with elements of nature worship) 1.3%
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