BlueBloggin

President Vladimir Putin’s decision to suspend Russia’s participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe, or CFE, treaty is a potent political signal.

It is yet another sign of the worsening relationship between Moscow and the West.

…this relationship was not improved in any substantial way by the informal meeting at the start of this month between the US and Russian presidents at the Bush family’s holiday home at Kennebunkport in Maine.

… another diplomatic warning shot from Mr Putin across the bows of the Bush administration.   

The Russians threaten to suspend their participation in the CFE treaty … emergency meetings in mid-June made little if any progress.

The CFE treaty of 1990 was one of the most significant arms control agreements of the Cold War years. Mr Putin demonstrates, what Americans can do in the name of their vital interests, Russia can also threaten in the name of its national interest.   

Sir Rodric Braithwaite: British ambassador in Moscow from 1988 to 1992 has written a book on the failed Soviet engagement in Afghanistan.

“After 1991, Russia fell flat on its back. We took it for granted and felt that what was good for us was good for them.”

“Russia now has to be taken into account. It has a lot of levers after years of weakness. It has come back quickly from the depth of humiliation and this makes Russians feel better.”

“The most sensible way to look at Russia is not as an appendage of the West but, as someone put it recently, as a substantial non-aligned country like China or India. “

“We do not worry when those countries define their interests differently from ours. And of course Russia was right to be different over Iraq. “

“Russia now has huge interests in the West and wants to invest more. That is, after all, what we told it to do. And it needs our money as much as we need its oil and gas.”

Russia’s Cossacks rise again  

The BBC’s Steven Eke reports on the Cossacks, who have emerged as an influential political group in the Southern Russia, strongly supportive of Vladimir Putin and his idea of Russia’s “greatness”.  

The Cossacks play an increasingly important role in Russia. Their disciplined way of life, patriotism, large families and commitment to work, are seen by many politicians as a model that could help resolve many of Russia’s problems. For this, they receive support from the very top.

Cossack family values are simple, rigid, and to a Western eye, seem to come from another era. The men build the home and provide an income; the women cook, clean and give birth to children. Traditional Russian values, culture, and Orthodoxy form the bedrock of their beliefs.

Cossack values are deeply conservative, a mix of self-reliance, fervent patriotism and belief in discipline and authority. … would like to see the Tsar return to Russia.

BossKitty thinks the US has really over estimated it’s own importance and under-estimated emerging rivals. US Diplomacy has suffered such great setbacks that the next leader of this country will inherit a catastrophe. It will take years to undo the stain left on US credibility. There is no easy fix, no 30 second sound bite that can establish balance. Recovery is the best anyone can hope for. Alienation is not a foreign policy. Bullies are avoided until someone becomes strong enough to take them down. Russia, China and several smaller countries have had enough. They practice their own war games to prepare for perceived confrontation with the US. They may be prepared to sacrifice their economic investment in the US just to defend their right to be. The Americanization of the world is as bad as Hitler trying to impose the Nazi Fascist regime onto the world.  

Rice encourages Russian activists    

The US has accused President Vladimir Putin of rolling back democracy and trampling rights, charges he denies.

One of the activists who met Ms Rice told the BBC she wanted the United States to condemn what she called the Kremlin’s stifling of democratic society.

The activist said she would tell the secretary of state that Russia is sliding towards an authoritarian regime, where constitutional and human rights are constantly violated.

Ms Rice told the activists she wanted to support them, but was also very careful to point out that the US is not interfering in Russian domestic politics but supporting organisations that are entirely indigenous to Russia, the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports from Moscow.

The mercenary/missionary role promoted by this dysfunctional administration has classed the US as the world bully. What’s mine is mine and whats your is mine is classic bully thinking. Do as I say and not as I do falls into the same category.

Russia and China are ready to take the US on and we keep pushing them. Bush’s death wish in the guise of Armageddon, is as sick as they come. What the hell are we doing about this? Obviously the US media is instructed to ignore the signs and consequences of US behavior. Keeping the public distracted by hollywood morons and little white, blond victims is plenty for the American couch potato.

US media coverage is so poor that anyone wanting to know what is really happening around the world must look to europe and asia for real news. That’s why the BBC, CBC, AlJazeera, Pakistan, Australia, Singapore and Tokyo are more credible news sources. They watch the US closer than we do and see implications much faster than we do. They see the coming of a new Russian Tsar and Chinese Emperor as potent but necessary adversaries to the US.

Posted by bosskitty October 13th, 2007 | Category: Euro-Asia Continent, Europe, Politics, Prophesy, Proxy War, Putin, Rice, Russia, empire, escalation | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL