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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Red Storm Rising
2006-12-26
Note: The original article has numerous embedded links to substantiate the points being made. I'm to lazy to replicate them all, er, any.
Since taking office in 2000, former KGB chief-turned Russian President Vladimir Putin has built strong personal, political and military ties to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.Putin has sold Iran and North Korea billions of dollars worth of arms and even nuclear technology. He is arming America's worst enemies for war, and in so doing, Russia has joined the "Axis of Evil." Yet on this critical issue, official Washington seems to be in a true state of denial.

In December 2005, Russia signed a $1 billion arms deal with Iran, providing the radical Islamic regime in Tehran high-speed missile and other high-tech weaponry, despite Ahmadinejad's call to annihilate the U.S. and Israel two months earlier. Russia is building nuclear facilities for Iran, has trained over 1,000 Iranian nuclear scientists, and running political interference for Iran at the U.N. to prevent us for imposing economic sanctions that could slow down Ahmadinejad's feverish bid for nuclear weapons.
Posted by:.com

#8  Didn't PUTIN read NEWSMAX Xmas weekend > the "Father of [revolutionary] Russian Socialism" is more akin to FASCISM = NAZI GERMANY than Stalinist, Leninist, or Troskyite Communism. As before, CLINTONISM > NEW COMMUNISM, at least until America is defeated + suborned under OWG, or de facto destroyed. *FREEREPUBLIC/OTHER > PAKISTAN's "FRONTIER POST" NEWS > WHICH [Muslim/Islamist]NATION [Nations?]WILL SUPPLANT AMERICA article. Move along boyz, obviously no war for survival = war to the death of the USA-West here.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2006-12-26 22:18  

#7  Shouldn't the title be The Empire Strikes Back?
Posted by: gromgoru   2006-12-26 17:40  

#6  The only difference is that, as always, Russia treats this situation as a zero-sum equation while we don't necessarily do so.
Posted by: Zenster   2006-12-26 12:37  

#5  From Putin's point of view, making Russia the world's #1 power is his main goal. To do this he has to increase Russia's power and decrease the US's, and maybe China's. Or at least increase the realpolitik by enabling the military rise of other powers.

Think of it as "anti-globalization".

Putin hopes that by arming Nork, he will weaken the US in the Pacific, and by arming Iran, he will weaken the US in the ME. He has the full support of Chirac in doing this, as he wants the same thing; except on behalf of France.

Importantly, he thinks the US is trying to do this to Russia, too!

Despite Russian protests, the US was all over Central Asia after the Soviet Union broke up. From the Russian point of view, this was the US expanding its power at Russia's expense. And this is why Russia is so pissy about the Ukraine and Georgia--they think we plotted the overthrow of their governments to make them more pro-western.

Actually, we may have been involved more than a little bit in that.

So the bottom line might well be that the world powers are still playing the game that was well played in the 19th Century, before and after.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2006-12-26 11:54  

#4  "Have the rooskies joined (rejoined?) the Axis of Evil or are they just in "We'll sell our grandmothers for hard cash" mode?"

False dilemma fallacy
Posted by: E. Brown   2006-12-26 11:04  

#3  Have the rooskies joined (rejoined?) the Axis of Evil or are they just in "We'll sell our grandmothers for hard cash" mode? Maybe we can bribe them to be nice. Buy lots of sardines or sumthin'. Or a bunch of T-34s for the Ethiopians.
Posted by: SteveS   2006-12-26 10:16  

#2  Cold War is not over! We didn't finish the job and we've just been hoping things were as they seemed.
Posted by: Jesing Ebbease3087   2006-12-26 07:03  

#1  In 2005, Putin actually personally awarded a medal of honor to the North Korean dictator who is starving his own people and threatening the world with nuclear war.

He had to give Kim something nicer than just a toaster for opening that big account.
Posted by: Zenster   2006-12-26 04:20  

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