Does Putin promote theocracy? Across Russia, popular affection for Putin turns to religious worship. In Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg, a proliferation of posters show Putin as an angel, with one hand extended, blessing the city's inhabitants. Putin's face is mounted on a photo of the cherubim crowning the city's Peter and Paul Cathedral.
There are many churches of Saint Putin all over Russia! Mother Fotina declares Putin is the reincarnation of Saint Paul and he has the spirit of a czar in him! Golden butterflies and cherubs adorn her homemade altar. Fotina swings a smoking censer before an icon of Saint Putin! Mother Fotina believes God has sent Putin to Russia to prepare the world for the second coming of Jesus Christ!
The electoral game Putin is playing is castling in chess – a saint and a czar swapping places, in order to shore up the defense. There might be defense at the heart of the strategy, but Putin's ruling party, United Russia, is still the only game in Moscow. Vladimir Putin is the most powerful man in the world. His success is all the more venerable when one considers that Putin is leader of a country of nearly 150 million people — and at the helm of the one of the world's most important economies.
The current double-headed eagle of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has become increasingly authoritarian. Despite numerous commitments under international law, the government has tightened controls on political life, civil society, and the media. Disruption of political opposition's activities, restricting access to state-controlled TV, human right violations, such as the beating of demonstrators who support the Russian constitution, murder of journalists and anti-corruption activists, disappearance and torture, abuse of the legal system for monetary and political gain, all illustrate this negative trend. Putin, a former penniless KGB agent, is now billionaire, thanks to kickbacks! http://venitism.blogspot.com
Welcome to Putlandia, where the president and prime minister swap jobs at will, where the constitution is an empty shell and all power rests with Vladimir Putin. The deal between him and President Dmitry Medvedev is a farce. The proud Russian nation resembles a modern grand duchy.
Moscow's Kremlin, a fortress of red walls and high battlements, has been a symbol of strict hierarchy and absolute power since the Middle Ages. Tsars and General Secretaries ruled from here -- followed, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, by presidents whom the Russian constitution endowed with even greater powers than the American head of state.
Putin and his men proudly declare that they have returned the Russian state to strength. In truth, they have hijacked it. Russia's constitution is little more than an empty shell that does a poor job of concealing the neo-feudal regime of Prince Putin.
Faced with a simmering, underground opposition, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expanded the powers of the country's Federal Security Service (FSB). The security services issue individuals of whom they are suspicious with official warnings, inviting them to precautionary talks with the FSB to prevent the possibility of the citizen committing a criminal act against the country's security in the future. Refusing or failing to attend these precautionary talks lead to a fine of 1,500 euros or detention for as long as 15 days.
There is a big difference between the Soviet era and today's Russia. The Soviet state spread the atmosphere of fear to prevent emergence of politics and people's participation in it. Today, the key for the state authorities is to make sure people are not interested in politics. A person who doesn't care about politics or the situation with human rights in Russia may live a comfortable life without ever encountering an FSB officer. What suffers the most is democracy in Russia; the Kremlin is interested in stability, not democracy. http://venitism.blogspot.com
Igor Sechin, a former Soviet military interpreter, is the leader of the siloviki clan of nationalist, exmilitary and security service officers fighting to maintain a big state role in the Russian economy. Sechin is now a deputy prime minister overseeing Russia's vast energy and metals sectors, the world's biggest, and oligarchs snap to attention in his presence.
Russia cultivates ties with terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah and provides military and diplomatic support for rogue states such as Syria, North Korea, and Venezuela. Russia is in non-compliance with the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological Weapons Convention. The Strategic Posture Commission asserts Russia is no longer in compliance with its Presidential Nuclear Initiatives commitments. Moscow's tactical nuclear weapons arsenal is four times larger than that of the U.S.
Eurokleptocrats are in cahoots with Orthodox mafias and Orthodox oligarchs. The three main Orthodox mafias are the Tambov gang from St. Petersburg and Izmaylovskaya gang and Solntsevskaya Brotherhood from Moscow. Their activities focus on political corruption, church corruption, protection money, blackmail, drugs trade, shipping, commodity trade, and natural resources. Orthodoxy's circle of tycoons, such as aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska, banking magnate Vitaly Malkin, and shipping magnates, have been investigated by Europol for involvement in crimes of Eurokleptocrats. Russokleptocrats use the Orthodox Church to control Russians and influence Orthodox Christians all over the world.
Medvedev's bear seems now to be a very different animal. The snarling statist bear with a statist head has been replaced by a lovable bear, and while it may not be ready now to roll over and have its belly tickled, Russia will not take a bite out of its rivals. Uncle Sam (US) and Uncle Ken (UK) now like to pet this bear! http://venitism.blogspot.com
In order to modernize Russia's economy and industry, Russia needs cooperation partners from abroad, and those modernization partners are to be found mostly in USA and Fourth Reich. That's the logic that lies beneath Russia's new softer foreign policy towards the West. It shows that external policy is seen as an instrument for internal development and modernization.
Having given in on Iran sanctions, Russia has forced itself into a corner. It will now have to toe the U.S. line on every question pertaining to Iran. Medvedev's decision on Iran reflects his ideological affinity of Igor Yurgens, chairman of the management board of the Institute of Contemporary Development think tank, of which Medvedev is chairman of the board. Both Medvedev and Yurgens are driven by a desire to join the Western countries and occupy an honored position at the G8 table.
Siberia increasingly is to Russia what Russia is to the world, a supplier of raw materials that those who are consuming them take without much thought to what is happening at their source economically or ecologically, a pattern that Siberians find increasingly unacceptable. The Kremlin uses its neighbors and Europe's dependence on Russian natural gas as a foreign policy tool to pressure states. In 2009, Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine and to Europe by extension, causing the International Energy Agency to deem them an unreliable supplier. http://venitism.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.