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 ...
LOL
And here's to the contining decline of the Russian economy. May it drop forevermore.
We should immediately counter by introducing a resolution condemning colonialism.
how about trying diplomacy first with georgia, then go to the UN, and if all else fale then take military action
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.
There are severe financial consequences for scaring the crap out of investors.
Gotta love the NYT for putting on their hammer and sickle uniform complete with pompoms when it comes to evil dictators.
He comes out with now after the poles are changing for McCain because when McCain looks in your eyes he sees the KGB.
listen barak, russia controls the UN and is uninterested in talk. Take off your rose colored glasses and get a clue.
btw, if you were referencing russia, then apologies
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Perhaps so."
Poor Puti... what will he do if Obamie doesn’t win???
Wasn’t the Russian “Reaction Force” already moving south before anything had happened except for their surrogotes shelling “Georgian” villages in S.O.?
You got it.
I don't know about that but they certainly had the exact plan in place with the exact forces in place to accomplish the exact mission that they wanted before the Georgian pres tripped the wire.
Ah the old hippie song, “Whatever happened to peace, love and understanding....”
Vlad, you ol’ flower child, you.
No, silly. It was Barack H. Obama threatening to take Russa to the U.N. Security Council.
I remember all the talk of Ronald Reagan and the Rapture. Supposedly Reagan shared some fundamentalist belief that if there were a nuclear war Christians would be protected by the rapture - though I can't find where he ever mentioned it in any of his speeches and it doesn't appear in the two books of his letters that I've read. After 25 years I still can't figure out whether it was our disinformation campaign or theirs.
It made some of the nuclear freeze types down right twitchy.
What am I saying, of course it must have been theirs. We never had any disinformation campaigns.
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