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More on the oil for food scandal at the UN
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Posted by: wchever

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...ns__report_says

Posted by: wavetossed

Yet another piece of jingistic American propoganda.

What do we learn from this? That in Russia, with a population of 140 million people, there are criminals and shady individuals. And these individuals try to get important positions in the government as well as doing backroom shady business deals.

So what! The same thing happens in the USA and every other developped country. This does not mean that the government of Russia sanctions such behavior or benefits from it. In fact, Vladimir Zhirinovskiy who was mentioned in the article is probably the most anti-Kremlin anti-Putin politician in Russia today.

Quite frankly, the American press is being exploited by political forces within Russia and they are not always the kind of political forces that America would want to be associated with. These Russians feed the American press with a warped view of affairs withing Russia because America's so-called experts are unable to read Russian and therefore they haven't got a clue what is really going on in the country.

This becomes glaringly obvious if you learn Russian, read a variety of Russian media, and visit Russia to talk to the people who live there. If America wants to make a new enemy and re-ignite the cold war, then just keep bashing Russia and the moderate Russian leaders like Putin. You will succeed in putting extremists in place and they will rebuild the Soviet Union along the lines of an empire rather than the European Union model favoured by Putin and other moderates.

Make no mistake about it, Russia is and will always be a world power. If Russia's regional influence is weakened, then eventually the EU will swallow it up. And shortly thereafter, Russia will be the dominant force in the EU and the EU will be the greatest military and economic power the earth has ever seen.

Moderates in Russia prefer a different model where Russia leads the formation of a seperate union, following similar democratic models as the EU, but independent of the EU. This is what America should be supporting because it balances power within the world. The EU, USA and CIS counterbalance each other in a system of global checks and balances.

Posted by: BradIL

Quote:

Originally posted by wavetossed: Yet another piece of jingistic American propoganda...So what! The same thing happens in the USA and every other developped country. This does not mean that the government of Russia sanctions such behavior or benefits from it. In fact, Vladimir Zhirinovskiy who was mentioned in the article is probably the most anti-Kremlin anti-Putin politician in Russia today.

But the article is instructive as to Russia's hesistancy to enforce the UN resolutions that compelled Saddam's compliance with weapons inspections programs. The US analysis in the article does prompt questions about Russia's resistance to joining the coalition that took Saddam out of power.

If Andy Card, chief staff to President Bush, was swapped with Putin's COS, I am certain the reaction would be quite different. That political leaders across much of Russia's political establishment 'cashed in' on Saddam's effort to weaken the UN oil sale sanctions is VERY IMPORTANT!

In America... anyone involved in helping Saddam evade the sanctions can reasonably expect to be indicted, or at least sweat out nerve-wracking testimony before a grand jury. Will that happen in Russia, or elsewhere?

Quote:

wavetossed also writes: This is what America should be supporting because it balances power within the world. The EU, USA and CIS counterbalance each other in a system of global checks and balances.

Sure wavetossed that theory could be valid, but consider one other thing. Two of the world's most populous countries also have very fast-growing economies, I'm referring to India & China. Both are in the nuclear club. Its very easy to overestimate the stability provided by a stable, balanced relationship between the US-Europe and Russia.