In August 1991, the first coup that led was launched by a group headed by Vladimir Kryuchkov, the former chairman of the KGB. The political, military and KGB leadership behind the coup made a public statement stating that Gorbachev was sick and had been relieved of his post and appointed the sitting Prime Minister to replace him. Boris Yeltsin's intervention and the resulting protests prevented the coup from succeeding and resulted in the dismantling of the USSR.
In August 1999, the second coup occurred that ended democracy in Russia and removed Yeltsin from power replacing him with the head of the FSB (KGB) Vladimir Putin. Lessons had been learned and unlike the previous coup matters were done quietly and with the appearance of legality. Yeltsin remained in power as a figurehead for several months while Putin was installed as his Prime Minister. Several months later Yeltsin stepped down and Putin replaced him.
What followed was a return to tyranny, unity parties and government parties whose only goals were to uphold Putin's government replaced democratic parties. The political system restored totalitarian control to Moscow and turned governors into nothing more than puppets of the regime. An assault on any independent press began along with the nationalization of gas and oil supplies and an assault on wealthy businessmen who were not supporters of the new regime..
No one had been paying attention and as with the Communist takeover, there would be a high price to pay for that. Yeltsin's attempt to democratize Russia had resulted in widespread corruption, the rise of organized crime and the final disaster that ended any belief he had in being the right man to rule Russia. That was the Kosovo war. When Clinton launched the invasion and NATO bombing of the Serbs, the Russians saw it as we would if Russia had invaded and begun bombing England while we stood by and did nothing. While Americans and Europeans listened to propaganda claiming the Serbs had been committing genocide, Clinton had sealed the doom of Yeltsin's presidency and given the kiss of death to any reapproachment between Russia and the West.
The Kosovo War ended in June 1999. Two months later the coup followed and Yeltsin accepted it willingly. He had lost and the old regime had won. Putin's election returned the old KGB\Military establishment to power with a directive to suppress domestic dissent and the press, restore control over the old territories of the USSR, subvert the West, reestablish Russia's presence in the Middle East. Most of these are on their way to being accomplished.
With a background in international affairs and foreign investment, the Putin regime had leveraged Russia's nationalized oil and gas supplies to pressure and dominate its former Republics and through companies like Rosneft and Lukoil is extending its control into Europe, Israel and America.
The USSR is being recreated, not as a Communist state but as a National Socialist one, devoid of Marxist ideology but emphasizing nationalism, hatred of foreigners, nationalization of companies, territorial conquest and totalitarian rule. Without Communism, its allies on the far left have turned on it.
Where Communist Russia's brutal tyranny and foreign assassinations could expect to receive propaganda cover from Western liberals, National Socialist Russia finds them as the enemy. Russia's old Fellow Travelers in the form of the media, human rights organizations, academics, liberal politicians and think tanks have turned on it attacking Putin's human rights records and lack of democracy. They represent a loose coalition funded by such figures as George Soros and Boris Berezovsky.
Now of course once upon a time the liberal intellectuals people were thrilled to death by Lenin and Stalin's human rights record and happily journeyed to Moscow and back to write books and articles on his benevolent rule and Russia's prosperity, at a time when much of the country was on the brink of starving to death. Those who did this were no obscure figures, but the cultural titans of the period.
H.G. Wells did it with 'The New Russia' George Bernard Shaw visited Russia and lavishly praised Stalin proclaiming that reports of a famine were slander. Pulitzer prize winning New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty did little more than funnel back Soviet propaganda and openly engaged in back and forth diplomacy promoting the Soviet agenda with the FDR administration. At a time when millions were starving to death, Duranty lived in luxury with a full house staff while penning stories claiming the famine was a lie and shortages were the fault of "lazy peasants."
It is therefore important to remember that the people opposing Putin have no more interest in human rights than he does. They do not oppose Putin because he is a murderer and turning Russia into a totalitarian state. They oppose him because he is turning into a right wing totalitarian state and because Russian troops are obstructing Muslim terrorists. Real human rights activists are rarely heard from any more in Russia. The people repeatedly cited as human rights activists are leftists funded by EU money. They are not defenders of human or civil rights, but promoters of a left wing agenda.
The recent assassinations of Anna Politkovskaya and Alexander Litvinenko which gained so many headlines did so because they targeted members of that coalition who were outspoken in attacking Putin by defending the current cause celebre of liberals, Islamic terrorists, in this case Chechens. Neither of them are worth shedding any tears over. While the media ignored far more important murders, including that of the editor of the Russian Forbes magazine, they have been elevated to virtual sainthood. Their halos are in place because they were prominent figures in the leftist front that was working to defend the Chechen butchers of Beslan. All things considered, the end that found them was too kind for them. The children who were raped and murdered in Beslan by their Chechen allies suffered far more than them.
Much as in Germany in the 30's when Fascists battled Communists, Russia is seeing a purge of the left by the right. The right represented by the military\KGB dictatorship of Vladimir Putin is a good deal more evil and dangerous and if history is any guide will take a heavy toll in human life. It also represents a growing and vital danger to Israel and the West.
The left though is toxic and devoid of any better answers. Much like America and Israel's own left wing groups, it is propped up by funding from men like Soros and Berezovsky and various EU programs. Its true goals are the dismantling of whatever nation they take root in and the promotion of Islamic terrorism.
The media is presenting this as a battle between a brutal dictatorship and courageous human rights activists, the reality is it is a struggle between two evils. Personally I hope the left does manage to make inroads in Russia because a weaker Russia will be much less able to help terrorists and hold Eastern Europe and the world hostage and prove far less capable of luring Jews back to return there. But that is not because I am under any illusion as to what they represent.
Alexander Litvinenko was a top ranking officer of an organization that is one of the worst embodiments of human evil in the 20th century. He didn't switch loyalties out of morals, but because his price was paid. The only difference between him and Putin is that they serve different masters. Sooner or later when Putin's usefulness is complete to the Gang of 8 or 10 or 12 pulling the strings behind the curtain, he may well wind up perishing the same way himself.
Russia never changes. Nor do its masters.
In August 1999, the second coup occurred that ended democracy in Russia and removed Yeltsin from power replacing him with the head of the FSB (KGB) Vladimir Putin. Lessons had been learned and unlike the previous coup matters were done quietly and with the appearance of legality. Yeltsin remained in power as a figurehead for several months while Putin was installed as his Prime Minister. Several months later Yeltsin stepped down and Putin replaced him.
What followed was a return to tyranny, unity parties and government parties whose only goals were to uphold Putin's government replaced democratic parties. The political system restored totalitarian control to Moscow and turned governors into nothing more than puppets of the regime. An assault on any independent press began along with the nationalization of gas and oil supplies and an assault on wealthy businessmen who were not supporters of the new regime..
No one had been paying attention and as with the Communist takeover, there would be a high price to pay for that. Yeltsin's attempt to democratize Russia had resulted in widespread corruption, the rise of organized crime and the final disaster that ended any belief he had in being the right man to rule Russia. That was the Kosovo war. When Clinton launched the invasion and NATO bombing of the Serbs, the Russians saw it as we would if Russia had invaded and begun bombing England while we stood by and did nothing. While Americans and Europeans listened to propaganda claiming the Serbs had been committing genocide, Clinton had sealed the doom of Yeltsin's presidency and given the kiss of death to any reapproachment between Russia and the West.
The Kosovo War ended in June 1999. Two months later the coup followed and Yeltsin accepted it willingly. He had lost and the old regime had won. Putin's election returned the old KGB\Military establishment to power with a directive to suppress domestic dissent and the press, restore control over the old territories of the USSR, subvert the West, reestablish Russia's presence in the Middle East. Most of these are on their way to being accomplished.
With a background in international affairs and foreign investment, the Putin regime had leveraged Russia's nationalized oil and gas supplies to pressure and dominate its former Republics and through companies like Rosneft and Lukoil is extending its control into Europe, Israel and America.
The USSR is being recreated, not as a Communist state but as a National Socialist one, devoid of Marxist ideology but emphasizing nationalism, hatred of foreigners, nationalization of companies, territorial conquest and totalitarian rule. Without Communism, its allies on the far left have turned on it.
Where Communist Russia's brutal tyranny and foreign assassinations could expect to receive propaganda cover from Western liberals, National Socialist Russia finds them as the enemy. Russia's old Fellow Travelers in the form of the media, human rights organizations, academics, liberal politicians and think tanks have turned on it attacking Putin's human rights records and lack of democracy. They represent a loose coalition funded by such figures as George Soros and Boris Berezovsky.
Now of course once upon a time the liberal intellectuals people were thrilled to death by Lenin and Stalin's human rights record and happily journeyed to Moscow and back to write books and articles on his benevolent rule and Russia's prosperity, at a time when much of the country was on the brink of starving to death. Those who did this were no obscure figures, but the cultural titans of the period.
H.G. Wells did it with 'The New Russia' George Bernard Shaw visited Russia and lavishly praised Stalin proclaiming that reports of a famine were slander. Pulitzer prize winning New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty did little more than funnel back Soviet propaganda and openly engaged in back and forth diplomacy promoting the Soviet agenda with the FDR administration. At a time when millions were starving to death, Duranty lived in luxury with a full house staff while penning stories claiming the famine was a lie and shortages were the fault of "lazy peasants."
It is therefore important to remember that the people opposing Putin have no more interest in human rights than he does. They do not oppose Putin because he is a murderer and turning Russia into a totalitarian state. They oppose him because he is turning into a right wing totalitarian state and because Russian troops are obstructing Muslim terrorists. Real human rights activists are rarely heard from any more in Russia. The people repeatedly cited as human rights activists are leftists funded by EU money. They are not defenders of human or civil rights, but promoters of a left wing agenda.
The recent assassinations of Anna Politkovskaya and Alexander Litvinenko which gained so many headlines did so because they targeted members of that coalition who were outspoken in attacking Putin by defending the current cause celebre of liberals, Islamic terrorists, in this case Chechens. Neither of them are worth shedding any tears over. While the media ignored far more important murders, including that of the editor of the Russian Forbes magazine, they have been elevated to virtual sainthood. Their halos are in place because they were prominent figures in the leftist front that was working to defend the Chechen butchers of Beslan. All things considered, the end that found them was too kind for them. The children who were raped and murdered in Beslan by their Chechen allies suffered far more than them.
Much as in Germany in the 30's when Fascists battled Communists, Russia is seeing a purge of the left by the right. The right represented by the military\KGB dictatorship of Vladimir Putin is a good deal more evil and dangerous and if history is any guide will take a heavy toll in human life. It also represents a growing and vital danger to Israel and the West.
The left though is toxic and devoid of any better answers. Much like America and Israel's own left wing groups, it is propped up by funding from men like Soros and Berezovsky and various EU programs. Its true goals are the dismantling of whatever nation they take root in and the promotion of Islamic terrorism.
The media is presenting this as a battle between a brutal dictatorship and courageous human rights activists, the reality is it is a struggle between two evils. Personally I hope the left does manage to make inroads in Russia because a weaker Russia will be much less able to help terrorists and hold Eastern Europe and the world hostage and prove far less capable of luring Jews back to return there. But that is not because I am under any illusion as to what they represent.
Alexander Litvinenko was a top ranking officer of an organization that is one of the worst embodiments of human evil in the 20th century. He didn't switch loyalties out of morals, but because his price was paid. The only difference between him and Putin is that they serve different masters. Sooner or later when Putin's usefulness is complete to the Gang of 8 or 10 or 12 pulling the strings behind the curtain, he may well wind up perishing the same way himself.
Russia never changes. Nor do its masters.
Comments
They are as dangerous as ever before.
ReplyDeleteIt seems doubtful that Russia will ever govern itself. What's better, the current regime or perhaps a return of the Romanov monarchy? Hard to tell.
ReplyDeleteI don't think russia ever stopped being dangerous.
ReplyDeletePost a Comment