On the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin shared his memories of the historic event with Russias NTV TV channel in their documentary film, The Wall.
Vladimir Putin was stationed in Dresden, GDR as an intelligence officer from 1985-1990 and personally witnessed the reunification of Germany. Mr. Putin says the Wall made an impression on him when he first saw it.
President Barack Obama has decided to scrap plans for a U.S. missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland that had deeply angered Russia, the Czech prime minister confirmed Thursday.
NATO's new chief hailed the move as "a positive step" and a Russian analyst said Obama's decision will increase the chances that Russia will cooperate more closely with the United States in the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.
Premier Jan Fischer told reporters that Obama phoned him overnight to say that "his government is pulling out of plans to build a missile defense radar on Czech territory."
"The same happened with Poland. Poland was informed in the same way about this intention," Fischer said.
He said Obama assured him that the "strategic cooperation" between the Czech Republic and the U.S. would continue, and that Washington considers the Czechs among its closest allies.
In Poland, officials declined to confirm Fischer's remarks, saying they were waiting for a formal announcement from Washington.
The plan, proposed by the Bush administration, aimed to defend the United States and its European allies against a possible missile attack from Iran or elsewhere in the Middle East. In all, 10 interceptor rockets were to have been stationed in Poland and a radar system based in the Czech Republic.
But Russia was livid over the prospect of having U.S. interceptor rockets in countries so close to its territory, and the Obama administration has sought to improve strained ties with the Kremlin.
"The U.S. president's decision is a well-thought (out) and systematic one," said Konstantin Kosachev, head of the foreign affairs committee in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. "It reflects understanding that any security measure can't be built entirely on the basis of one nation."
This is very similar to when Obama let Hugo Chavez rip America apart and then cuddled up to him.
A vintage, Soviet-style military parade has been held in Moscow to commemorate victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
Breitbart reports:
Russia on Saturday sternly warned its foes not to dare attempt any aggression against the country, as it put on a Soviet-style show of military might in Red Square including nuclear capable missiles.
The display to mark the 64th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II came amid renewed tensions with Georgia after NATO's decision to hold war games in the Caucasus country infuriated Moscow.
"We are sure that any aggression against our citizens will be given a worthy reply," President Dmitry Medvedev said in a speech in Red Square side-by-side with powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
"The victory over fascism is a great example and a great lesson for all peoples and is still current today when people are again starting military adventures," he added.
Russia's war with Georgia in August over Georgian breakaway regions sent Moscow-NATO ties to their worst level since the Cold War and tensions have flared again over the alliance's decision to go ahead with the exercises.
Moscow, which remains at loggerheads with Georgia's pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili, angrily condemned the war games that started this week as a provocation that risk stoking instability in the region.
"Protecting the motherland is our holy duty, it is a moral foundation for all generations," said Medvedev. "The future of Russia will be peaceful, happy and successful."
The war took the lives of at least 27 million Soviet people. To mark their sacrifice, memorial ceremonies and Victory Day celebrations are being held throughout Russia.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has proved to have a fair singing voice. As Russia prepares to celebrate Victory Day, he's visited a new Defense Ministry school for girls where he hit a patriotic note.
Somehow I can't see President Obama doing this; not because he can't sing (I don't know about his singing voice) but because I don't think he knows any patriotic songs! Hey O!
Obama has already surrendered to Russia over an Eastern Europe missile defense shield.
He allowed Russia to outbid the U.S. over a strategic airbase in Kyrgyzstan that the U.S. military had been using to fight terror in Afghanistan.
Hillary Clinton's "reset" blunder added to Team "O"'s amateurish administration.
The Associated Press reports:
Russian news agencies cited a top defense official Wednesday as confirming that a contract to sell powerful air-defense missiles to Iran was signed two years ago, but saying no such weapons have yet been delivered.
Russian officials have consistently denied claims the country already has provided some of the S-300 missiles to Iran. They have not said whether a contract existed.
The state-run ITAR-Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies and the independent Interfax quoted an unnamed top official in the Federal Military-Technical Cooperation Service as saying the contract was signed two years ago. Service spokesman Andrei Tarabrin told The Associated Press he could not immediately comment.
The news comes a day after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signaled a harder line in U.S.-Russian diplomacy.
MOSCOW -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev struck a Cold War tone on Tuesday, pledging to press ahead with an ambitious rearmament program in response to what he described as NATO's military expansion close to Russia's borders.
His hawkish comments come ahead of his first meeting with President Barack Obama early next month at the Group of 20 meeting, and were paired with even tougher rhetoric from Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. Mr. Serdyukov accused the U.S. of trying to push Russia out of its traditional sphere of influence -- the former Soviet Union -- in order to secure raw materials and energy supplies.
Analysts said the comments were designed to send a signal to Mr. Obama that the Kremlin wouldn't be an easy negotiating partner.
"It's more a message to America: Don't take us for granted," said Nikolai Zlobin, a senior fellow at the World Security Institute, a Washington think tank. "Medvedev is trying to create leverage and certain spaces that he can give up later, calling it a compromise."
The U.S. reaction was muted. Obama administration spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Tuesday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization "is a collective defense organization. I think to suggest that it poses an offensive military threat is simply wrong."
Mr. Gibbs said Mr. Obama "looks forward to meeting with President Medvedev in London at the beginning of the G-20 economic summit" in April.
The Obama administration has said it hopes for a qualitative improvement, or "reset," in U.S.-Russia relations, which have been severely strained in recent years. On the agenda: a key nuclear-arms control treaty, Iran's nuclear program, NATO enlargement, and a possible U.S. missile-defense shield in Eastern Europe.
Welcome to the United Socialist States Of America!
Socialism 2.0: If you can't beat 'em, let them bailout out American companies.
From The Portland Oregonian:During their recent heyday, Russian billionaires bought far-flung companies, London mansions, massive yachts and private jets.
Few of the reclusive oligarchs loomed larger than Roman Abramovich. The owner of Britain's Chelsea soccer team is one of two controlling shareholders in Evraz Group, which bought Portland-based Oregon Steel Mills for $2.35 billion in 2007.
Now some of the oligarchs, reeling from the global economic meltdown, are proposing a mega-merger -- including Evraz -- that would give the Kremlin a stake in the resulting Goliath and, hence, in Oregon Steel.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin endorsed the approach recently after bailing out Evraz and other companies for debts incurred buying businesses abroad.
"You better hope big brother's got a lot of money""Oregon is probably a viable operation long term," says Rodger Parr, sales and purchasing manager at Seaport Steel in Seattle. "But no steel mill is viable right now. You better hope big brother's got a lot of money, and big brother is behind the curtain back there."
In this case, big brother behind the former Iron Curtain is Chelsea-owner Abramovich, ranked by Forbes last year as the world's 15th-richest man at $23.5 billion. Abramovich is now reported by Moscow newspaper Izvestia to be worth $3.3 billion.
You can read all about Abramovich's bribes, blackmail, and anti-trust violations here.
This is not good. Not good at all. The Russians and Iranians are taunting Obama. They are calling his bluff. Seriously. Pay attention.
We're screwed.
MOSCOW —
In a setback to the escalating U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan , the president of Kyrgyzstan said Tuesday that his government will shut down the American air base in his country.
U.S. officials say that the Manas Air Base is vital to plans to send an additional 30,000 American troops to Afghanistan , a linchpin of President Barack Obama's efforts to pacify the country.
The announcement by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev came in Moscow , not in his own capital, and shortly after the Russian government reportedly agreed to lend Kyrgyzstan $2 billion , write off $180 million in debt and add another $150 million in aid. Although the Russian government didn't release a statement about the decision, the timing and place of the announcement indicated that the Kremlin had been involved.
The Russian government has been pushing to restore its clout in the former Soviet sphere of influence — despite deep economic problems at home — a trend that most analysts say will make Obama's dealings with Russia delicate at best.
US attempts to supply coalition troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan were in danger of suffering a major setback today after Kyrgyzstan signalled it was considering shutting down a key US military base.
The central Asian republic is contemplating closing down the US military facility near its capital Bishkek. The Manas airbase - home to 1,000 US army personnel since 2001 - is a key staging post for coalition forces fighting in nearby Afghanistan.
Both US and Nato commanders have expressed dismay at the possible closure. It comes at a time when Nato is desperately trying to expand its supply routes to Afghanistan via the northern countries of central Asia following a series of devastating attacks on truck convoys from Pakistan.
Russia has been pressuring Kyrgyzstan to evict the Americans, amid unease in Russia's military at the US's growing footprint in central Asia, an area Moscow regards as its backyard. The Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev was today in Moscow holding talks with Russia's president Dmitry Medvedev.
At least he is doing what he promised. (Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit)
"I'm the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning. And as president I will end it. Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending. I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems. And I will institute an independent "Defense Priorities Board" to ensure that the Quadrennial Defense Review is not used to justify unnecessary spending. Third, I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear weapons; I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material; and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert, and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenals."
--Barack Obama 22 October 22, 2007
The Times Online reported today that Barack Obama will cut America's nuclear arsenal by 80% and renege on the promised missile defense systems for our allies in Europe:
President Obama will convene the most ambitious arms reduction talks with Russia for a generation, aiming to slash each country’s stockpile of nuclear weapons by 80 per cent.
The radical treaty would cut the number of nuclear warheads to 1,000 each, The Times has learnt. Key to the initiative is a review of the Bush Administration’s plan for a US missile defence shield in Eastern Europe, a project fiercely opposed by Moscow. Mr Obama is to establish a non-proliferation office at the White House to oversee the talks, expected to be headed by Gary Samore, a non-proliferation negotiator in the Clinton Administration.
The talks will be driven by Hillary Clinton’s State Department. No final decision on the defence shield has been taken by Mr Obama. Yet merely delaying the placement of US missiles in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic — which if deployed would cost the US $4 billion annually — removes what has been a major impediment to Russian co-operation on arms reduction.
“Interference of the State, the belief in the omnipotence of the State: that is a reaction to market failures,” Mr Putin said in his keynote address at the opening of the four-day meeting. “There is a temptation to expand direct interference of state in economy. In the Soviet Union that became an absolute. We paid a very dear price for that.”
Vladimir Putin isn’t a “protegé” of Josef Stalin; his model is Peter the Great. Putin can look at Russia’s multitude of social problems and conclude that Russia is perishing. And his take is simple - Russia must re-aggrandize itself as the cure for those problems.
Because of this, the Russians are in a hurry - since they see themselves as being in a race against time. As an Obama Presidency began to appear likely last fall, I offered the guidepost that in terms of international problems, “Russia won’t be the worst, but they’ll be the first.”
Now, Russia has quietly announced plans to establish naval bases in Syria, Libya, and Yemen.
Russia has decided to establish naval bases in Libya, Syria and Yemen within a few years, a military official said Friday, in a sign of Moscow's growing foreign policy ambitions.
"It is difficult to say how much time it will take to create the bases for our fleet in these countries, but within a few years this will be done without question," the unidentified military official told Itar-Tass.
"The political decision on this question has been taken," the official said.
Sounds like Socialism teaches us to "hope" for the best, but "expect" the worst! It's gonna be a long 4 to 8 years...
From Breitbart:
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he had noted "positive signals" about US president-elect Barack Obama but cautioned against "big expectations."
"We have watched an election campaign with great attention and we have heard and seen the positive signals which have been directed at us," Putin told German newspaper editors and journalists in Dresden, Germany.
But he also warned of the danger of raising expectations too high.
"I am deeply convinced that the biggest disappointments are born out of big expectations," he added.
All this while Hugo Chavez says Obama has the "stench" of Bush on him and faces death threats if he follows through with his plans to change the American "empire".
And Secretary Of State Designee Hillary Clinton has already committed an international faux-pas, despite not having been officially confirmed by the US Senate.
