LOSING THE COLD WAR: Putin Eliminates Elections, Will Appoint Governors..

[tom_paine]

From the Moderate Independant:

http://www.moderateindependent.com/v2i17coldwar.html

by Samuel A. Stanson

SEPTEMBER 14, 2004 – Here we go again, folks.

Almost a year ago we called it The Biggest Issue No One Is Talking About and since then, things have only gotten worse and worse, as we documented back in July in Pay Attention To Russia, Dammit!

Yet still, President Bush has done nothing about what is occurring in Russia.

Beyond doing nothing, sitting by pathetically, naively, and obliviously, the Bush camp has truly put our nation in an even worse position with regard to the situation: utter impotence.

While the Bush camp likes to brag that they were the ones who won the Cold War and make our country secure with their aggressive foreign policy, the reality is the Cold War was won by winning the hearts and minds of the Soviet and Eastern Bloc peoples. So great was their desire for American style freedom, blue jeans, and rock n’ roll that the Iron Curtain collapsed and they took to the streets demanding democracy. This was our “victory” in the Cold War, not any military battle or the like.

more...

http://www.moderateindependent.com/v2i17coldwar.html

Of course, my take on it is that Bunnypants* is not only happy with what Putin is doing, but is jealous because Putin can move so much faster using the Bushevik Playbook to dismantle Russia's embryonic Liberty far faster than our own Emperor would like to, because even at this late date, they fear waking up the Imperial Subjects of Amerika before the chains fasten tightly around our necks.

Because Russia's decade-old Liberty is so infintely weaker than Old America's 225 years of it, technically ending in Dec. 2000, though it will still be some time before Bunnypants* catches up to even where Comrade Putin is now.

Of cours, in order to maintain the charade, Bunnypants* must feign outrage at the successful near-completion of the Bushevik Plan for Amerika, even if Comrade Putin has changed a few details ("different countries, different customs").

But it has been quite phony and, naturally, hasn't been backed up with action.

Because Bunnypants* isn;t angry at Comrade Putin...he's jealous.

[russian33]

1. What can Bush/US do about what's occurring in Russia?

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Actually nothing

we have lost all moral authority to even speak out.

[russian33]

5. with Bush aside, what can US do (lets say under Pres. Kerry)?

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. It would take laedership to not only turn the tide in Russia

but the US. We first have to recover our standing in the word before we can change a thing, so the first thing Kerry has to do is start that raod towards legitimacy to the US and a plan to get out of Iraq and stop encouraging the conditions that acutally lead to terror.

I know not easy.. but forget about bush

[tom_paine]

9. Still nothing because first our stature must be restored

in the eyes of the world. And I am not sure that a simple shift to President kerry will do it, even now.

But nadin is right. And look to my post farther down to see what I think could be done if Imperial Amerika was still Old Free America.

[eaprez]

4. This is yet another example of BushCo dropping the

ball and sending mixed signals. Another foreign policy nightmare in the making. First we state its an 'internal matter' then we state we are 'alarmed'.........so which is it?

[atreides1]

6. In A Word

Nothing.

Putin is using the Bush playbook, and Russia will be transformed back to what it was before the Berlin Wall came down.

The Cold War is over but another is starting, stay tuned.

[ladjf]

12. Worse. Previously there was at least some committees of

men. Now there will be a sole dictator, free to do whatever he decides to do. In light of the fact that he will control the second largest nuclear capability in history, it shows the Iraq hoax for what it was/is.

Prior to Putin, the Russians had actually requested that we assist in the destruction of the nuclear arson el. We all but ignored the offer.
Now those weapons still exist and will be a serious threat, especially after Putin has consolidated his dictatorship.

American foreign policy has been flawed for many years. But, during the Bush administration it has degenerated into a "Chinese fire drill" of total lunacy. How have we allowed our great country to be taken over by the criminally insane? Hello America, your Country is being stolen and you are cooperating with the thieves.

[tom_paine]

7. Well, if Imperial Amerika was still free...

He could condemn, using the Moral High Ground Old America once occupied (yes, yes I am well aware that Old America was far from perfectly moral, but it was a functional democratic-republic that tried to adhere to it's Consittution generally and tried to strive for fairness and betterment, even if it always didn't succeed) to condemn the retrograde Russian behavior.

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" and so forth, not to mention the economic containment strategies and other diplomatic strategies employed previously.

Now, of course, that Imperial Amerika is just another nation, a Totalitarian Nation with a Third-World Media, Third-World Law of Orwellian Double-Standards, Third-World adherence to a Constitution, and a Third-World easily riggable voting system, among other things.

So we can't gather allies. Who would trust a nation like this or Ferdinand Marcos' Phillipines? Who believes, outside the Bushevik Sturmtruppen, that Imperial Amerika is a beacon to anyone beside Ousted Secret Police Officials who are no doubt kicking themselves saying, "Why the hell did I let Amerika and Jimmy Carter democratize my country and put me out of a job? Look, they don't even believe in people voting anymore! Call my old torturers and let's take it back like Bush*!

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Ah yes Putting is going back in time to the time of the

Romanovs or his friend Stalin, and nobody is paying attention

[ladjf]

13. He has been working on this for years while we are contemplating

whether Peterson murdered his wife, or M. Jackson fondled a kid or
Kerry lied about his Vietnam service 30 yrs ago. I'm afraid America needs to take an I.Q. test. We are showing signs of having a case of terminal stupidity.

[ladjf]

10. While we are contemplating terrorist threats

the second largest nuclear arsenal in history is falling completely into the hands of one ruthless dictator, Putin. Mr. Bush, if you really want America to be safe, you'd better start realizing that Putin is a dictator with a lethal potential, unlike the senile old idiot Saddam H.

I suggest that Putin and Bush have a tacit agreement to proceed with dual dictatorships for now. But Mr. Bush, what will you do when Putin threatens a nuclear strike against us? Considering that our forces in Iraq are unable to even win that battle, how will they deal with Russia?

When Putin completes his coup d'etat, we will be in the position of just hoping that he is sane enough not to attach us for some reason.
I don't the future of America should based on one person's sanity.

We have "sown the wind" and are reaping the "whirlwind". "Fools wallow in the fires of their own stupidity" and "He who lives by the sword will die by the sword", ancient bits of wisdom.

[russian33]

11. 'ruthless dictator' with 'lethal potential'?

I admit his policies are more hard-line, but I don't agree with you whatsoever on those statements...how do you figure he's a 'ruthless dictator'? I'd like to hear the reasoning...and please skip the 'former KGB spy' line.

[ladjf]

14. I didn't say "ruthless dictator" although maybe I should have.

But if you don't think that a dictator in charge of a huge nuclear arsenal qualifies for the term "lethal potential" then you don't understand the meaning of the term.

That fact that you are defending a man who has just declared there will be no further elections for the 89 governors and the parliament members will be appointed rather than elected suggest to me that you have some agenda other than the best interest of the U.S. and mankind in general. If you think taking over a government such as Putin has done is OK then you must think BushCo is a great outfit.

[russian33]

17. those were your words..

"falling completely into the hands of one ruthless dictator, Putin"

I'm not defending Putin, and don't put words in my mouth about 'best interest of the US and mankind in general'. If I didn't have best interests of US in my mind, I wouldn't be a member of DU.

I was born in the USSR, and I emigrated here in 1991. I lived it, I know it, and that's why I take any reporting done by US and Europe with a grain of salt. USSR didn't make it it's mission in life to destroy US, the animosity was a 2 way street. And it wasn't all that bad living behind the 'Iron Curtain', take it from me, I did it.

It is going to take a really long time for Russia to become the democracy US wants it to be (US, not Bush admin). You can't take a huge country like that, and turn it around in a few years. Yeltsin sent the country into a tail-spin and a black hole. For his job, Putin did very well in terms of stabilizing it. Russia needs a strong person to lead it, if it doesn't want another 10 years with someone like Yeltsin. While I may not agree wiht everything Putin does, as a US citizen I won't sit around and tell him what he should or should not do. If Russians aren't happy, they'll let it be known. They revolted in the 1900's, they fought of the Nazis, they can stand up for themselves.

[ladjf]

18. I hate to be narrow minded or old fashioned but dictatorships

frighten me, especially when they are militarily powerful.

[russian33]

19. you believe he's a dictator, i don't...

...you probably believe that elections in Russia were bogus, i give them my benefit of the doubt...so we'll just have to agree to disagree

[tom_paine]

20. Well, it would probbaly bolster your position if Comrade Putin hadn't

essentially announced his intentions to shift Russia to a "Managed Democracy" (his own words), which is almsot identical to the New Totalitarianism the Busheviks are imposing here more slowly.

http://www.russiajournal.com/news/cnews-article.shtml?nd=41699

So, you can believe that the man who basically announced his intentions to "manage" Russia's fledgling democracy (which is an oxymoron or some might say a piece of Orwellian-Soviet misnaming, which, admittedly, is now a full staple of life here in Imperial Amerika -- "Clear Skies Initiative" "No Child Left behind" "PATRIOT Act", all could have been dreamt of in Soviet Propaganda Mills, given they are exactly the opposite of what their nasme suggests) was not quite serious.

I choose to believe he was deadly serious, and once Amerika began to shift away from Democracy towards Tyranny, he had no reason to further delay implementation.

Was he going to worry about what Dictator Bush and his Disenfranchisers, themselves practicing "Managed Democracy" were going to say?

[amjsjc]

21. Putin has...

Generally done everything possible to concentrate political power in Russia in the office of the Russian presidency, which he, of course, now inhabits. He also has a nasty habit of imprisoning important major political rivals or government office holders (several regional directors; the CEO of Yukos) who publically stand against his policies.
It is agreed that he is legitimately popular (there was nothing, so far as I know, particularly fradulent about his election), but at the same time he's using that popularity to ensure that his grip over the country is as strong as possible.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

15. Remember, Bush looked into Putin's soul

The body language between the two appeared genuinely comfortable. Bush said the talks never digressed into "diplomatic chit chat" and that during the talks he took a measure of Putin's soul, finding the Russian leaders "straight-forward and trustworthy." June 16, 2001.

http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/06/16/bush.putin.03/

[Union Thug]

16. Why is it so hard for people to understand...

This has just as much to do with the failure of capitalism in Russia as it does holdovers from the political environement of the past.

The fact is that the common people in Russia have gained little and lost much as the system changed from faux communism to gangster capitalism. They've lost free health care, free childcare, free education. In place of their former faux communist government, where corrupt officials acted only to benefit themselves, they get a corrupt system where the Russian mafia and its brethren have hijacked the economy in the interest of 'free enterprise' and private gain. Is it any surprise that they don't really give a damn whether or not Putin consolidates power. Doesn't surprise me at all.