Spies from the cold - in swarms

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Camaero

I don't trust the Russians AT ALL. Putin is one bad dude.

That about sums it all up right there. Nothing else need be said.

[SUBMAN1]

More fuel for the fire:

http://www.milnet.com/opinion/Cold-War-Is-On.html

For a number of years, the hints have been apparent to those looking. In some ways, it has been apparent only as a sort of feeling of deja vu, a little like reading a few pages into a book and then realizing, "Hey, I've read this book!". That realization -- that inkling suddenly becomes a ull blown spine tingler...when you mentally put a finger on a passage and say before you've read it, "this is going to happen, you watch." And then you know. It's all happened before. In this case, we're saying there is a New Cold War in operation today, and it has been in operation for some time...

Hit the above link to read on

-S

[NefariousKoel]

Well, it seems as if our KGB buddy Putin has increasingly been running the country, along with the other factions, like they were Mafia Bosses.

[Happy Times]

Originally Posted by NefariousKoel

Well, it seems as if our KGB buddy Putin has increasingly been running the country, along with the other factions, like they were Mafia Bosses.

They are like Mafia. Only times Oligarchy hasnt excisted in Russia, is when it has turned in to Autocracy.

[Skybird]

Ironically it needed Putin to push back the Mafia in Russia that emerged - as a consequence from the country's vulnerability to exploitation of that kind when it suddenly tried to become democratic and liberal in the post-Gorbatschow and early Jeltzin-period. So: autocratic Putin's system surely is, a political oligarchy has reformed again, yes, but Mafia-like: no, I still can't see that. The Mafia was/is something else, and Putin dealt brutally with them sometimes (Yukos, for example). I never thought that western-style democracy could be the way to rule a country covering so much ground like Russia, with people of so many different ethnicities, languages, habits and backgrounds. Democracy works in small-sized communities only, the bigger the community, the more corrupting and oligarchic it becomes. I just think that he starts exaggerating it. some of Russia's aggressiveness to the West I can understand, even have predicted (the ongoing pushing of western borders to the East, the planned missile silos in Poland and Chech Republic, etc), but meanwhile it seems to lead beyond that. The Russians would be needed for many international projects and diplomatic attempts, in the security council as well as for example the decisions that need to be made concerning the future of Kosovo. Currently, the EU better forgets Kosovo, Russia will not make any more concessions (in it's perception). that with regard to the EU Russia holds the stronger position in energy-questions does not help to make them more passive again. so I welcome russia, and china as well to play agreater role in global politics, since the US has proven to be unwilling and unable to fill it's unique role after 1989 with a sense of responsebility for all the globe, not just it's own profit interests. That way, recent US policies have left the globe seriously off-balance, and obviously it takes a strong second power on the globe to reestablish sort of a balance. But that will come with a price, too. A cooling of relations may be that.

[Happy Times]

I never thought that western-style democracy could be the way to rule a country covering so much ground like Russia, with people of so many different ethnicities, languages, habits and backgrounds.

I would like to hear your analysis about US, present and future.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Happy Times

I would like to hear your analysis about US, present and future.

A plutocracy dominated by a small group of ultra-rich dynasties and economy. I'm one step ahead of Hilary accusing Bush to have established an oligarchy, ätschi-bätschi! I would even argue that even the european states are not truly democratic anymore. That impression is intentional mimicry only. for me they are aristocratic structures in which the former institution of monarchs and feudal sub-rulers have been replaced with political parties and economical lobbies. You can vote what you want, but the basic system and the deeper interests remain unaffected from that, hiding behing more and more complex administrative and bureaucratic structures and globalized economy accumulations.