Vladimir, Stop It. Just Friggin’ Stop It !
Ok, Vladimir. Enough of the belligerence. Crimea was an outrage and eastern Ukraine doubly so. So was Georgia. Speaking for myself and possibly millions of my fellow Americans, we don’t want a renewal of one of our worst mutual eras, the Cold War.
Many of us admire and envy your history and culture. In particular, your nation’s demonstrated willingness to change and try to improve. Take your 20th century revolution, for example. You set aside many centuries of brutal oppression by your Tsars, turned them out and tried a grand experiment.
Ok, so communism didn’t serve its intended purpose and became oppressive in its own right. But one of my hero’s, Mikhail Gorbachev, had the courage to admit it wasn’t working and instituted in the same century a second major reform, Glasnost and Perestroika. We’re still waiting here for needed reforms to the failures of our economic system, capitalism. The world and many American’s hailed his guts and balls. And many members of your Union appreciated the autonomy Mikhail and his team gave them, though it has been a rough transition for many. You can be admired like that too. Through fear? Not so much.
Yes, a few mistakes were made along that path, including bringing over American’s best and brightest consultants from such institutions as Wharton and Harvard to result in privatization moves that created a Russian oligarchy of insiders that has become the envy of our own oligarchs.
But now, your mimicry of our own history of imperialistic overreach stuns the imagination. For that matter, the mimicry of your own overreach in the closing days of our grand partnership in WWII in eastern Europe causes one to wonder about why we both fail to learn the lessons of history which have so much to teach us both. That imperialism doesn’t work for anybody.
Let’s not do this. We shouldn’t make your feel hemmed in and caught in a vise with our NATO alliance. You shouldn’t begin recreating your Union in response to that vise. Let’s get together and loosen the vise and work out mutually autonomous partnerships in that region and grow the economic pie for everyone’s benefit.
Look, there’s alot of admiration over here for your huge contributions to humanity and culture. Your ballet and classical music has made the world a better place. As have your brilliant contributions to science, architecture and art. And your willingness to end our nuclear campaigns of mutual terror.
We should have learned from your admission that Afghanistan was unfixable. And many of us here are grateful for your strategic brokerage in Syria to retire their chemical stockpile without blasting an already ruined populace off the face of the earth.
Vladimir, cut Pussy Riot and the gay community there some slack. There’s much creative energy for building your democracy pent up with these folks, just waiting to be unleashed for good. Just as I, as an atheist admire your country’s willingness to allow the Orthodox Church to surface from the underground and serve some of your people who seem to need them, Russia will not be harmed by political dissidents and those with lifestyles which you might not understand. You’re better than that. Hopefully, we are too.
Finally, I have an idea. Let’s put all this crap aside and form a partnership to address the imminent catastrophe of climate change. Let’s together lead a new Union of enlightened countries possessing passionate survival instincts and use our scientific resources to redirect our huge energy interests toward limiting carbon dependence and assure our planet of clean air and water.
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The Putineer is playing to his base, seem familiar? Heard a boat load of analysis , everyone agrees what’s going on is great for Putin’s popularity at home, and a disaster for everything else. Everything thus far is a page from the KGB playbook, expect more bravado and propaganda. In the end I think they’ll keep Crimea and back off all or most of the Ukraine. Sort of a glimpse of a McCain presidency done more competently.
It’s Morning in Russia.
“and tried a grand experiment….”
Yes, quite an experiment. 20 million people paid with their lives to see the result of this “grand experiment”.
IT IS NOT REGIONS — THE Areas being affected by Russian Special forces are on the territory of Ukraine – which btw was guaranteed its’ independence, territories, by among others Russia and the US to give up Ukraine’s nuclear arsenal. What happens to the NPT- treaties and those who have this terrible weaponry – do you think that encourages nations to give them up- what happens now to Kazakstan- rearm with nuclear weapons, what about Ukraine? btw more people under the Communists than were under the Nazis
Building up your democracy ? is this a RTposting?
Progressive populist, in your and president obama’s plea to putin to back down, you guys are overlooking. One tiny little detail. In the history of the world, no bully has ever backed down simply because he was asked to. Reagan convinced gorbi to back down by proofing to him that ussr could not keep up with us economically, hence the ussr could not afford to build a missle defence system on a par with the one reagan convinced gorbi we could build
Oh yea, Rusty! We’ve got a really great missile defense system!! (pssst.. not “missle defence system”). Don’t we all feel safe now???
Or maybe your history is a little screwed up? Do you really think Saint RR did any of that??
Liberal Elite – pssst. Try actually reading the post, dingbat. He said “convinced Gorbi we could build”. Which is pretty much what happened.
Feel free to actually try to refute his point with your next post.
Pussy Riot is an insult to the millions of Christians who lost their lives to the atheist experiment called the Soviet Union.
The way things are going, America is the new Soviet Union and Russia is the new America.
“Russian Su -24 scores off against the American “USS Donald Cook”
http://indian.ruvr.ru/2014_04_21/Russian-Su-24-scores-off-against-the-American-USS-Donald-Cook-5786/
While the West is in a coma by “sainting” a pedophile protecting pope, the Orthodox Christian Church assumes global spiritual leadership. Spiritual + Political leadership is a powerful combination.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H81i-BE2wvs
P.S. It was a sad sight to see Paul McCartney at the Grammy Awards. What does it gain a man – all the riches and popular acclaim became meaningless. That’s going to be America’s epithet.
Great. Now we’re attracting Christian mouth-breathers.
Classicom is a reject from the News Journal comment section. He’s an uber-Catholic.
Look him up on Facebook and enjoy his stupidity. Or don’t.
@ abc-
Are you actually defending Ronny Ray-gun’s SDI/”Star Wars” pipe dreams?
If so, are you mentally challenged? NO ONE, not even our idiotic whores in Congress believed that shit. Why on earth would you (and Rusty) think a drunken Russian would believe it?
Oh, that’s right…your collective IQs fall far south of the 100 mark.
Thanks for bringing up the good memories of High Frontier in the 80’s. Now the Russians laugh at us and tell us to use a trampoline if we want to send an astronaut to the International Space Station.
HIGH FRONTIER – Ronald Reagan , Star Wars , SDI Publicity Film 3311
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3KZiW589nI
You Libs seem to prefer the low frontier.
@C “You Libs seem to prefer the low frontier.”
Is the low frontier reality?
We prefer things that actually can work. And if you don’t know why the High Frontier idea would never work, and will never work, then you are an idiot. It was a military industrial complex scam from day 1.
@LeBay “Why on earth would you (and Rusty) think a drunken Russian would believe it?”
I couldn’t say it better.
Here is a cool story from the local WHYY web site that shows the direction of Russia compared to USA. A new American Ipad chemistry app based on 1950’s American science lab kits was downloaded 148,000 times from Russians compared to 8100 times here in the USA. College bound high school Russian & Ukraine children get 4 years chemistry courses for college bound students
“A digital comeback for an old-fashioned science toy — just not here . ”
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/thepulse/item/67108-a-digital-comeback-for-an-old-fashioned-science-toy-just-not-here?linktype=hp_pulse