Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin
A New Khrushchev
Message from Moscow,
There’s a warning sign for the West in the conflict between Russia and Georgia. The 21st century version of “We will bury you”
With the U.S. thoroughly bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, and NATO anchored by complacent Western European countries that believe the threat from Russia ended with the Cold War, a military response is out of the question. At the United Nations, meanwhile, the Security Council has held five emergency sessions on the Georgia-Russia conflict in as many days, even though with Russia as a veto-wielding member, there is no chance of strong U.N. reprisals.
The U.S., believing Russia to still be the weak, demoralized country it was in the 1990s, has largely ignored Moscow’s warnings against building a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe or expanding NATO. Western Europe has been neglecting its defense spending for years, believing itself to be secure under a 21st century Pax Americana. The Kremlin, meanwhile, has used billions in oil and gas revenues to rebuild Russia’s military, even as its rule under former president and current Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin has become increasingly autocratic.
It will be a tragedy if Georgia, a fast-growing, pro-Western democracy that was flowering under Saakashvili, falls once again under the Russian boot. Yet matters could get even worse if the West’s diplomats – and generals – don’t take the conflict as a sign that they must take the rising threat from Moscow more seriously.
Comment by xoro on 13 August 2008:
WHEN WE SAY SAAKASHVILI, WE MEAN MCCAIN
Republican Party neo-cons ordered Georgia to start the war Author: Sergei Markov, director, Political Studies Institute
Neo-conservatives in the Bush Administration and John McCain’s campaign team have decided to arrange a virtual Cold War between the West and Russia. Thousands of Ossetians, along with dozens of Russians and Georgians, have already sacrificed their lives on the altar of McCain’s election campaign.
The neo-cons will make Saakashvili throw the Georgians into the furnace of McCain’s election campaign, but they seem to be promising that after the victory, the USA will help him establish full control over Abkhazia and Ossetia, and remain in power for a long time as president of Georgia. And Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko will take Ukraine to the brink of a split - apparently in exchange for promises to admit Ukraine into NATO and support widespread repression against Russians in Ukraine.
Some may read this article and call it a conspiracy theory. Yes, there is a conspiracy. It’s a conspiracy by the neo-cons with the aim of retaining their control over the world’s leading country and carrying out their plan to establish global hegemony; they make no secret of this. The neo-cons regard Obama as weak - incapable of establishing American hegemony worldwide, and thus a potential traitor to US national interests. So anything goes in their battle against Obama - up to and including a Cold War with a nuclear-armed Russia.
Everyone remembers the huge international media campaign launched by the neo-cons in the lead-up to the war in Iraq. Now the neo-cons are launching a similar campaign against Russia in the international media and the United Nations. The aim of the media campaign surrounding South Ossetia is to start a new pseudo-Cold War with Russia.
The European Union is our potential ally in this political battle, since it has no interest in a new Cold War with Russia or a victory for the miltarist neo-cons; President McCain would mean a de facto third term for Bush. Another potential ally for Russia is public opinion in the United States; most American voters hate the neo-cons and their high-risk military adventures, and want them out of power. Dick Cheney is America’s most hated politician. Thousands of Ossetians, along with dozens of Russians and Georgians, have already sacrificed their lives on the altar of McCain’s election campaign - following hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. We must not allow Cheney and McCain to kill thousands more Ukrainians and Russians. Europe must use its combined efforts to stop the mad neo-cons and prevent them from plunging our continent into a new Cold War.
Everyone has been asking why the war started on the first day of the Olympic Games. There’s a simple explanation for that. The order to start the war didn’t come from Saakashvili, whose attitude to China is neutral or positive. It came from Cheney and the neo-cons, who hate China: thus, they also disrupted the media’s celebration of the Beijing Olympics.