Putin Rollin'
Posted in International News
Aug. 11, 2008 at 12:28
by BrendaBee
Soon after Vladimir Putin came on the scene in the mid 1990's I saw him on TV and told my husband that the majority of the Russian people have finally gotten back what they had lost when the Berlin Wall fell. They had gotten back their cradle to grave security.Of course for this security there is a huge price that must be paid in freedom and dignity, but the Russian population had had 70 years of this lifestyle and they really didn't want anything else. Most little people once they have lost their ability to face life on their own two feet haven't the courage to stand up again. The few in Russia who yearned for freedom to make their own way did prosper, but the slackers, the dullards, the lazy, the cheats didn't do as well. You see they were required to work for a living for the first time in their lives. A privately owned business expects their employees to earn their pay or they are replaced. The state owned businesses on the other hand accepted the inferior products and productivity of the "employed for life" workers.
You might point out just how much Vladimir Putin has done for the Russian people. Russia fell because the Communist system of government doesn't work and the state was finally bankrupt. This of course precipitated terrible hardships on most of the population who due to the bare essentials provided from Communist Russia had no resources to carry them thru the difficulty. As stated above, those who were enterprising found ways to survive and prosper, but most did not. Then of course the criminals and mobs took over and the weakened state could not control the crime.
Vladimir Putin had been Head of the KGB so he knew what to do to control the criminals and he did. Then he concentrated on running the state own businesses more efficiently. Then came the kicker: he took over all the privately own businesses that had come about to supply the needs no longer supplied by the state.
During his eight years as President of Russia he has been very popular with the Russian people because he was the man who "saved" them. The economy skyrocketed because of the measures he took, wages increased from an average of $80 a month to $640 (of course so did prices! but people just feel richer with more money to spent just ask us Americans). Best of all, poverty was cut in half. Poverty of those who hadn't been able to stand on their own two feet after the bankruptcy of the state run system. Poverty that happen when the state no longer provided jobs because any good comunist will tell you there was no poverty before the Berlin Wall fell.
So while Putin was violating every single human rights issue in his own country the majority of his country men were praising him.
In the meantime, other countries that had once been under the hard heel of Communist Russia had managed to prosper under their own forms of capitalism and relatively free elections. It is these countries that Putin wants back in the fold and he has been working towards this end. Attacking Georgia is, I believe, the first step. The tanks are rolling and will continue to roll right over all the small independent countries so that Putin can recreate the Russian Empire. And there is absolutely no one to stop him.
And make no mistake, Vladimir Putin the former head of thje Communist KGB has no love for America. he has been able to keep the United States from putting in missile bases in some of the former Russian provinces. He has managed to get moist of Europe hooked on Russian oil. He is manuevering to get and keep the US and the UN tied up in the Middle East fiddling with Iran. He has watched China become a now greedy semi-capitalist country that doesn't want to shake the boat so they will look to their own interest by looking the other way while he plunders.
For a student of history it is going to be quite a show, albeit a sad show for any who love liberty. BB
Robert Kagan in today's Washington Post says it very well and gives some pertinent facts that I didn't include with my opinion:
"This war did not begin because of a miscalculation by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. It is a war that Moscow has been attempting to provoke for some time. The man who once called the collapse of the Soviet Union "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century" has reestablished a virtual czarist rule in Russia and is trying to restore the country to its once-dominant role in Eurasia and the world. Armed with wealth from oil and gas; holding a near-monopoly over the energy supply to Europe; with a million soldiers, thousands of nuclear warheads and the world's third-largest military budget, Vladimir Putin believes that now is the time to make his move. "
See the rest of this article in today's Washington Post
Headline: Putin Makes His Move
by Robert Kagan
Monday, August 11, 2008; Page A15http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/10/AR2008081001871.html?wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter&wpisrc=newsletter
Addendum: EDITORIAL: Subverting Iran sanctions
The Washington Times Wed, 13 Aug 2008 1:28 AM PDT
While the United States emphasizes the need to halt investment in Iran's energy sector, Russia and China continue to forge ahead with billions of dollars in new investments that will enable Iran to finance its military buildup and fund terrorist groups. During the past year, Washington has had some success in persuading European allies not to go forward with projects that would provide capital ...
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