Tao_Equus
Interfaith Forums
Remember when words like Perestroika and Glasnost were in the news bulletins every day? When we all rejoiced at the tumbling of the Berlin wall and the divided families of east and west Germany hugged with joyous tears by the Brandenberg Gate? The Cold War was over, the perceived threat of all out nuclear war receded. Russia embraced democracy and the world suddenly felt a lot safer. Well seems like we got less than twenty years of that.
In retrospect I now wonder if Vladimir Putin was Boris Yeltsins' chosen successor or if Yeltsin himself was but a puppet of the KGB clique headed by Putin. Russian democracy, as transparently undemocratic as that which elected Bush, has put yet another small, physically unimpressive and vain man in a position of unassailable power. He has spent several years consolidating an iron grip so that he now enjoys, (and from the look of his facial expressions this enjoyment is also his sex - he must be a small man), as much power as good old uncle Joe. So what next?
Andrei Lugovoi, the Russian KGB agent wanted for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London last year, gave a press conference today in which he threw back an accusation that it was the British secret service that was behind it. A classic strategic posturing stance of cold war KGB.
Also yesterday Russia tested a new stealthy ICBM designed, they state, to beat the American SDI missile defense system currently under various stages of construction. All the treaties are crumbling. The rhetoric gets increasingly hostile. Putin, it is now widely speculated, plans to re-write the constitution to allow himself to stay in power indefinitely. Seems like we just stepped right back to where we were 30+ years ago.
There is a difference today tho. Russia has learned to exploit its vast natural resources and can fund an arms race that previously it could not sustain. Putin uses the language of the past, calling the west Imperialist and seems intent on blocking any negotiation with the European Union on energy supply guarantees. His ego is that of the classic dictator and he refuses to find compromise or negotiate with anyone that criticizes him even when it is on an entirely unrelated matter. Dark days are looming.
TE
In retrospect I now wonder if Vladimir Putin was Boris Yeltsins' chosen successor or if Yeltsin himself was but a puppet of the KGB clique headed by Putin. Russian democracy, as transparently undemocratic as that which elected Bush, has put yet another small, physically unimpressive and vain man in a position of unassailable power. He has spent several years consolidating an iron grip so that he now enjoys, (and from the look of his facial expressions this enjoyment is also his sex - he must be a small man), as much power as good old uncle Joe. So what next?
Andrei Lugovoi, the Russian KGB agent wanted for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London last year, gave a press conference today in which he threw back an accusation that it was the British secret service that was behind it. A classic strategic posturing stance of cold war KGB.
Also yesterday Russia tested a new stealthy ICBM designed, they state, to beat the American SDI missile defense system currently under various stages of construction. All the treaties are crumbling. The rhetoric gets increasingly hostile. Putin, it is now widely speculated, plans to re-write the constitution to allow himself to stay in power indefinitely. Seems like we just stepped right back to where we were 30+ years ago.
There is a difference today tho. Russia has learned to exploit its vast natural resources and can fund an arms race that previously it could not sustain. Putin uses the language of the past, calling the west Imperialist and seems intent on blocking any negotiation with the European Union on energy supply guarantees. His ego is that of the classic dictator and he refuses to find compromise or negotiate with anyone that criticizes him even when it is on an entirely unrelated matter. Dark days are looming.
TE
