The Economist on how Putin and his goons are destroying Russia’s future:

…[They] have shown they can squash opposition, suborn the courts and stay in charge. But, as in all autocracies, they are acutely nervous about the future. Mr Putin’s popularity will not easily transfer even to a hand-picked successor. More generally, as ordinary Russians get richer, they may grow dissatisfied with their present masters, especially when they see them stealing and mismanaging the economy. Russia has huge problems: crime, poor infrastructure, secessionism and chaos in the north Caucasus, appalling human-rights abuses and a looming demographic catastrophe. To counterbalance these woes, the new elite may resort to even wilder forms of nationalism; and that nationalism could turn into a monster that even its creators cannot control.

In truth, the biggest threats to Russia’s future stem not from its “enemies” but from internal weaknesses, some of them self-inflicted. For a Russian ruler, or ruling class, to accept that truth would take real courage–and real patriotism.

(more…)

by Daniel Pipes*

One of the great enigmas of the modern Middle East is why, forty years ago next week, the Six-Day War took place. Neither Israel nor its Arab neighbors wanted or expected a fight in June 1967; the consensus view among historians holds that the unwanted combat resulted from a sequence of accidents.

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

Despite being decriminalized, homosexuality is still widely despised in Russia.

- AP

Now isn’t that special? Russia sure is uptight: pushing around chess players (political dissidents); picking on little countries like Estonia; and now going after gays, whom Moscow Mayor Luzhkov described as “satanic:”

Police detained gay rights activists, among them European lawmakers, as they tried to present a letter to Moscow’s mayor Sunday in a demonstration that also attracted a hostile crowd of people who punched and threw eggs at the activists. [Continues below…]

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

Russian President Vladimir Putin has prevented political dissidents from attending summit talks with the EU. He’s afraid of a former chess player? Such a tough guy, pushing around tiny nations like Estonia. Vladimir has surrounded himself with other former KGB goons, so in the Kremlin nowadays, “influence stems from the former Soviet organs of repression.” Back in the USSR? From the Beeb:

A number of leading anti-Putin activists, including the former chess champion Garry Kasparov, had passports confiscated and were detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

The authorities said they had false travel documents.

Several foreign journalists were also reportedly prevented from traveling.

False? Yeah, if you’re KGB/NKVD…

(more…)

By RA Sprinkle

A synopsis of world history paints a dark picture of humanity, or rather, of mankind’s inhumanity. The weak have never been secure, insomuch, that survival in the animal kingdom is a suitable allegory to that of the kingdom of men.

On the other hand, strength alone does not ensure peace. To the contrary, more often than not strength has been used as an oppressive force to conquer and subdue, to kill, spoil and plunder.

Whatever peace the world will know will only come by way of strength with principles, not by an equilibrium of shared power among nations, nor by agreement upon common interests, but by the power of a greater power, which, guided by principles and values exerts the proper degree of force as a counter weight to arrest hostile and aggressive forces.

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

Here we go again (again). This time it started with Estonia’s morally sound decision to dismantle a symbol of Russian/Soviet conquest and occupation of their homeland (Eesti). Every time I express support for the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia), some troll comes out of the woodwork calling me a “Nazi collaborator,” or insisting that “all” Balts were Nazi collaborators. It’s almost funny, as I’m an American-Lithuanian-Jew — try that one — and I’ve heard it from both sides: “All Jews were communists,” “All Lithuanians were Nazis,” etc. But the pro-Soviet trolls aren’t interested in the truth. I interpret their obsession with Nazi war crimes — while ignoring Soviet war crimes — as an attempt to sanitize what the Russians and their collaborators did during their occupation of the various Soviet “republics.” The trolls are also attempting to preserve the gleaming image (murderous rampage) of communism.

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

Estonians made the correct and morally sound decision. They dismantled a symbol of Russian/Soviet conquest and occupation of their Estonian homeland (Eesti). The poor baby Russian neo-imperialists are upset:

The BBC’s Richard Galpin says it [the removal of a Soviet “war memorial” in Tallinn] is being perceived as one insult too many by local ethnic Russians, after what they feel has been years of discrimination against them by the majority Estonian population.

Discrimination? Russians conquered, plundered, and subjugated every one of their neighboring countries, under czars and commissars alike. Russians should be apologizing, not unhappy.

Unhappy just like the Arab/Muslim world is with little Israel vis-à-vis the “Palestinian question.” In reality, the Arab/Muslim world resents Israel’s freedom and prosperity, while they live in squalor. It is the same with Russian resentment of the tiny Baltic States, like Estonia. Russian troops, under the flag of the Soviet “Union,” invaded Estonia during World War II, and didn’t leave until 1994.

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

I have written many times about Soviet/Russian war crimes, but the mainstream media has generally maintained silent — with a few exceptions. Regarding Estonia’s correct and morally sound decision to dismantle a symbol of Russian conquest and occupation of their homeland, the BBC weighed in:

…But the Estonians believe much of the tension is being whipped up by forces outside the country, i.e. Russia itself.

During the years of Soviet occupation after World War II, tens of thousands of Estonians were killed. And they say their country was effectively colonised with many Russians being brought in as workers and military personnel. …

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

The Estonian authorities have removed a contentious Red Army war memorial in the capital, Tallinn, despite overnight protests that left one person dead.

- BBC, 4/27/07

To this, “A [Russian] foreign ministry spokesman described the decision as ‘blasphemous and inhumane’.” The Russian government is talking like it had the “right” to annex Estonia in 1940, but Estonians haven’t forgotten what their former Russian tormentors (occupiers) did to them for 50 years. How would you like to see a Nazi “war memorial” erected in your hometown, say in Tel Aviv or Chicago? Nazi or Soviet — it’s all the same.

Yes, Stalin “helped” to defeat Hitler, but by allying ourselves with the Soviet Union in WWII, we supported a monstrous state, the Russian Empire, in killing as many or more people than the Nazis did (Stalin killed about 20 million):

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

Boris Yeltsin, former Russian President, has passed away. He led Russia out of communism (e.g., the Russian Empire) into democracy, only to see the man he appointed to succeed him, Vladimir Putin, erase his country’s evolution. Vladimir has surrounded himself with other former KGB goons, so in the Kremlin nowadays, “influence stems from the former Soviet organs of repression.”

Two events define Yeltsin’s commitment to democracy for Russia:

(more…)

by Igor Khrestin and John Elliott*

Where does Moscow stand in the fight against Islamism and the global war against terror? Facing the Chechen threat at home, the Russian government might be sympathetic to U.S. and even Israeli concerns. Not so. Despite U.S. declarations that Washington and Moscow were “increasingly united by common values” and that Russia was “a partner in the war on terror,”[1] examination of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s policy toward the Middle East suggests that Moscow has become an impediment both to the fight against Islamist terror and Washington’s desire to promote democracy in the Middle East. The 2006 U.S. National Security Strategy reinforces that U.S. policymakers should not only “encourage Russia to respect the values of freedom and democracy at home” but also cease “imped[ing] the cause of freedom and democracy” in regions vital to the war on terror.[2] While Russian officials denounce U.S. criticism, the Kremlin’s coddling of Iranian hard-liners, its reaction to the “cartoon jihad,” its invitation to Hamas to Moscow, and its flawed Chechen policy all cast doubt on Moscow’s motivations.

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

Is this a first? The word “collaborator” is being applied to traitors who helped the Russians/Soviets oppress millions of Eastern Europeans. The context involves a Polish bishop, Stanislaw Wielgus, who “confessed to collaborating with the communist police.” This is a start, but when will there be a Nuremberg-style tribunal to try all the Soviet murderers and their indigenous collaborators?

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

Even after what we knew about North Korea, and after Stalinist “fearless leader” Kim Jong-il’s detonation of a nuclear device, shooting missiles near Japan, and collusion with Iran… China and Russia are still hedging on sanctions against this most dangerous of Asian rogue states. From Reuters:

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

Can we take Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov seriously when he says “that Moscow was working with the government of North Korea to try to dissuade it from testing a nuclear weapon?” Excuse me as I decline to bubble with confidence. We know there’s evidence of Russian arms sales to North Korea, so why spoil the party now? We certainly know that appeasement doesn’t work. Remember the Clinton administration’s failed attempts to stop North Korea’s nuclear weapons program?

During a 2000 visit to Pyongyang, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright gave Kim a basketball signed by Michael Jordan, as Kim takes an interest in NBA basketball.

(more…)

By Andrew L. Jaffee

It seems that Israel and the U.S. are the only nations willing to deal with Iran. While many Westerners live their lives, oblivious to foreign affairs, Iran is developing a nuclear bomb. It may not yet be an immediate threat, but it won’t take long, especially given the belief system of Iran’s rulers. “Supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has openly called for attacks against the West (“…the great Satan is responsible. The direction of the attacks and objections should be focussed on those that benefit from these unfair remarks by the pope…”). Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged that Israel be “wiped off the map,” and denied that the Holocaust ever occurred. Ahmadinejad fervently believes in — has a “presidential obsession” with — mahdaviat, “the restorer of religion and justice who will rule before the end of the world.” Apocalyptic enough for you? Apparently not enough to spur the West into action. From the AP:

(more…)