Posted by
Brenda Bee on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 1:22:44 PM
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
Monday, August 11, 2008; Page A15
http://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 ...