For Russia's Putin, knockabout with Obama is just the ticket

AFP ^

[Chet 99]

MOSCOW (AFP) — Still Russia's dominant politician, Vladimir Putin can only relish the prospect of a new bout of Russian-US rivalry with American leader-in-waiting Barack Obama, say analysts.

While much of the world celebrated Obama's US presidential win, a stony-faced Russian reaction was a reminder of Cold War-style tensions between Washington and Moscow.

On the Internet, Russian bloggers portrayed the victory of a black candidate as evidence of American decline. On an official level, President Dmitry Medvedev chose the day of Obama's win to announce the deployment of short-range missiles to Kaliningrad, a Russian outpost in Europe.

Numerous analysts said Medvedev's response was clearly authored by Putin, no longer president himself but powerful in the prime minister's post and long the spearhead of Russian attacks on the United States.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“The Russians see black people as inferior.”

When the Russians started moving into Brighton Beach in the 70’s, the first order of business was to chase the blacks and hispanics out. Within a year, they were all gone.

It was a ethnic cleansing, but without the killing.

[FarRightFanatic]

Obama will be Putin and Medvedev’s lapdog. They have nothing to fear from him at all.

Can you imagine the press conferences with this doofus Hussein and one of the Russians? “Ummm....errr....uhhhh...American-Russian cooperation....uhhhh...no need to deploy a missile shield....errrr....counterproductive.....” The Russians are salivating at the prospect of someone so green in the White House.

God, help us.

[kabar]

The Russians see black people as inferior.

The Japanese and the Chinese feel the same way. And so do the Arabs.

[silverleaf]

The Russian have a thick file on Obama and will watch carefully who he chooses as advisors. Many will be black mailable. Even Obama himself has many secrets, I believe the Russians could use to destroy him and with him, the US democrat party.

But I believe they will not play this hand to Obama’s face- but to his inner close circle of advisors they know will advise Obama to acquiesce in what they want, to protect Obama and themselves. The Russians will find Obamas “critical nodes” in decisionmaking - the Chinese will help.

Then they will stroke and manipulate Obama and appeal to his sense of megalomania as a world leader and bringer of peace. They will flatter him into thinking that mutual agreements to do away with the star wars/missile shield and other troublesome US acts of the Reagan/Bush years- will help him achieve his goal. Many toasts. Many warm perestroika gatherings. They will agree to give up more nuke weapons.

That is because they are developing new ones and countermeasures against ours anyway.

Then, when the opportunity is prepared, they will reveal that they have deceived him and expose their plans to back us and our allies against a wall, with their new generation of nuke weapons (as ours age and become increasingly unreliable and ineffective). We and our allies will seek a “diplomatic solution” ( ie, sue for peace) because our people will be defenseless hostages and because, gee, we've become such good friends anyway, with youth exchanges and military “cooperatioon” and drawdowns and all.

In this world I think this will occur sooner rather than later, so that wild cards such as Israel and Taiwan can be dealt with once and for all.

Just my guess!

[fishtank]

“The street term for Africans studying or working in in Russia is “apes” or the like.”

Would that be “obyezyana” (ape, monkey)?

I listen to a lot of Russian radio, and I lived there a while, so I’m just wondering.

[Zechariah_8_13]

What your average Russian thinks about black people would make your average southerner look like a NYT liberal.

There are good and bad people everywhere, but I've seen and experienced FAR more racism in blue states and major blue cities than I've EVER experienced anywhere (including the large cities) in the South.

[silverleaf]

You would not hear derogatory terms against blacks on the radio. My sources of the “ape” term were African students who studied in Russia and got to know the prejudices of the common people up close and personal.

I don’t know what term they use for gypsies- they hate them too. And other minorities even within the FSU.

My own adopted biracial (Russian-Chinese) child was just referred to by orphanage workers as the product of “mixing” -— with a faintly sour look that showed what they thought of her.

[Deo et Patria]

Look at the pictures of Putin in these articles that are coming out now. He looks at Obama and sees a coddled punk from the ivory tower of academia who muses about “redistribution”, and he salivates over the prospect of negotiating with him personally, “on a man-to-man basis”. Putin knows all about real “redistribution”, he remembers the stories that his uncles told him about life under Josef Stalin and being taken out to the fields at 3 a.m. to “confess” your crimes and sign over all of your property to the state if you weren’t careful in how you chose your words.

Putin knows all about the fragility of life, and he knows what it feels like to wake up in the middle of the night in a ruthless, pitiless country, wondering if a cold assassin is waiting in his hallway with a silencer. He looks at our President-elect and sees a soft loser who is big on fancy words and symbolism but woefully inadequate when the rubber meets the road.

Vlad is convinced he will “crush” him.

Maybe that “seasoned” bumbler of a Vice President, Joe Biden, will help Obama when the going gets tough with Vlad. Biden is nothing more than Uncle Billy from “It’s a Wonderful Life”— a guy you can laugh and have a good time with when the alcohol is flowing, but whom you rely on at your peril.

[americasfuture]

so after that, the American people will vote for another President and then what do you think the Russians will do then ?

[silverleaf]

It is perfectly fine with the Russians if we continue to elect US presidents as long as those presidents and those they wield authority over, recognize and accept without meaningful challenge, Russia as a dominant world power, with free rein in her areas of interest.

Increasingly, this is including the western hemisphere. We could soon see Russian exploitation of Venezuelan (and Cuban?) oil resources under guard by Russian assisted military forces. They would also be in position to control the Panama Canal (perhaps in cooperation with China) and world commerce in our hemisphere.