Posted on 03/19/2012 11:43:08 PM PDT by U-238
Now that Vladimir Putin has allowed the Russian electorate to rubber-stamp him back into power, he can return with redoubled purpose to his consistently regressive interference in world affairs. That nobody is surprised at his obdurate defense of the regimes in Tehran and Damascus speaks volumes. Dictators support dictators, don't they?
At this point Mr. Putin apparently doesn't mind much that anyone should include him in that category. After all, if Putinism could be defined by any single principle, if it had a formula, it would have at its core the "power now people later" approach common to all strongmen. Less than 10 years before he ordered the 2008 invasion of Georgia in order to "protect" the separatist South Ossetians, he "solved" the Chechnya problem by ordering the scorched-earth obliteration of its capital, Grozny, where more civilians were killed than at Sreberniza and Homs combined.
And yet one shouldn't suspect Mr. Putin of sentimentality. He doesn't favor dictators for mere principle's sake. Iron-hard strategic calculations underpin his support for the Syria-Iran axis.
Russia is rebuilding its Soviet-era naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus, which allows Moscow to reassert a plausible Mediterranean threat to NATO. Syria also provides Iran with a front line against Israel via Hezbollah in Lebanon, and that too can be a most effective anti-Western arrowhead for Russia. When I covered the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, I learned that a year earlier Israel had stopped providing Tbilisi with antitank and anti-aircraft missiles because the Russians had threatened to supply Hezbollah with the same.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Putin’s definately an interesting character... a throwback to the 70’s or so.
More like a Stalin incarnate.
Mysterious deaths of critics can often work better than the gulags in keeping people in line.
They meaning Russia wants to its naval base in Syria and hey are p;aying an interesting role with the eastern church. How this will play out betweeb it (the Russsian church) and Iran is an interesting question and how much influence it has with Putin will soom be discovered.
Actually Russia is a moderating force. Assad is not going to move against Israel and never had any intention of doing so and the Russians are keeping the Iraininas at bay by the role they’re playing there.
I should not drink brandy and pos at the same time.
I agree with you as always.
LOL. Drinking brandy will cloud your mind.
Melik Kaylan has an interesting pedigree, including writing for typical leftist rags like the NYT and Village Voice.
He’s also a Turk apologist who glosses over the Armenian genocide.
Putin has allowed the Russian electorate to rubber-stamp him back into power, he can return with redoubled purpose to his consistently regressive interference in world affairs.sidebars, thanks sukhoi-30mki:
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