I don’t mind. I am honored that you felt my jeremiad was worthy enough to post.

2008voter,

Превед? \o/

Wazzup? (\o/ = Russian Bear with arms raised – very trendy with the younger Russians.)

Yes, I read and speak Russian, as does Ronin, my co-administrator. I was initially taught Russian while in the Military and have pereginated through Russia on several occasions.

I have added you and “Golos-The Voice” to my blogroll.

Cheers

P.S. – I have yet to read your ameliorations to my comments, but I will take a gander.

Cheers

I hope you do not mind, I was so impressed by this comment of yours, I posted it full length — with ALL proper crediting to YOU , of course, with links to your blog — on my blog. I also added you into my blogroll. You can see how it looks at here .

If for any reason you would like me to remove this, please leave a comment there (do not use email written under my account – it is bogus) and I will remove it instantly.

Thank you!
-armilnov

One must unabashedly concede that Putin has accomplished a remarkable feat in revitalizing the sagging Russian economy by emendating and implementing the old school Soviet program of brinkmanship. Basically, if Putin can create unrest and military imbalances in already unstable regions throughout the world while maintaining an air of amicability, Russia itself will be poised to sell weapons and technology to just about every country and terrorist group involved in the ensuing conflicts.

In order for brinkmanship to work, it behooves Putin to oppose the United States at every possible junction – even when it is obviously politically incorrect and seemingly disadvantageous for him to do so. This gives an anti-American perception of Russian policy to countries that are on unfavorable footing with the United States and other western countries – thus boosting Russia’s eminency in 3rd world countries. Ultimately, this translates into financial gain for Russia through increased commerce with said countries.

Admittedly, Putin knows how to play the game. He even has President Bush convinced that he is a Christian and an ally of America. To use an old adage – with friends like that, who needs enemies?

Also, the younger generation of Russians (those who were not yet born during Soviet rule) are fanatical in their support of Putin. They have no idea of how evil he truly is, as most of the news that they listen to is extremely pro-Putin. Of course, it helps that Putin controls all of the major television news services in Russia, along with most of the radio stations. As for the newspapers, he just has the reporters mysteriously killed whenever they begin to question his policies. This is also an essential part of brinkmanship, as it enables the Kremlin to control public perception in Russia, thus maintaining governmental stability while engaging in questionable politics.

I once posted an article on my website where I opined that Putin was evil. For almost two months, I was flooded with over 1000 pieces of hate mail and all mannerisms of vile comments from a group of young Russian hackers that I traced to Moscow and the Kremlin. When I started posting back to them in Russian and on their own Russian hacker websites that they had carelessly exposed by linking to my article, they became exceedingly obstreperous! Finally, I had to close the comments section of that particular article, as there is just no reasoning with a group of foul-mouthed robots that have been indoctrinated by Putin’s propaganda machine.

And, therein lies the crux of the problem. Putin controls the minds of the Russian youth through rigid regulation of the Russian media, just as Hamas is manipulating the minds of impressionable Palestinian children in preparing them for Jihad against Israel.

If the older generation of Russian citizens do not wrestle back control of their media from the Kremlin, this newest generation of brainwashed Russians will all too soon be involved in an Apocalyptic war with the U.S. and Israel.

Anyway, that is how I see it.

Cheers