The 10 Big Myths of Russia, Its Leader, And Its New Power

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  • Posted By: parismarc @ 09/09/2008 6:37:50 PM

    Clearly the author of this article does not understand Russia nor the geopolitical scene today.

  • Posted By: poirot @ 09/09/2008 5:43:25 PM

    I never liked simplistic slogans. This article with the myth series is full of them. It seems to me that the author is not even near to understanding of what is happening in the world. Russia is not seeking and is not respecting anymore the EU and G7 (or G8, whatever). Both the EU and the US are loosing the positions as the industrial centers of the world to the Far East. Russia is inclined to reroute it's pipes to China and India.
    'The cutting of oil or gas supplies is a nuclear weapon not even Arab states have dared...'. That is exactly it. Russia is not ' even Arab states '. Russia has nukes, can annihilate the Globe and it would not care of 'nuclear weapon' degree of perception of oil problems in Europe. Please, do not invent childish myths and then discuss them. The realities a far more serious and interesting.

  • Posted By: streetwise @ 09/09/2008 5:07:28 PM

    Comment: Encirceling Russia and weakening Russia is the key to US dominance in the region. It is US policy in the region, Brzezinski wrote "the grand chessboard" on this topic.
    Does the author of this article know that most of the population lives in the West (euro-russia)...? they cant be encircled? I hope Russia expands their military alliance and build Russian army bases all over latin america, places missile defence system on cuba, and then we can see what US thinks about every nations right to join a military alliance.

    Remember Grenada....

  • Posted By: aortizsedano @ 09/09/2008 9:06:41 AM

    I'm not justifying Russia, but there are some facts that, at least for me, aren't clear.

    I don't know how much EU is united against Russia, everywhere the press states that the leaders of Europe are divided in the subject.

    AS for the comparison between Ossetia and Kosovo, well is the best comparison.... Ossetia and Kosovo were autonomous provinces, and as such integarl parts of their countries. AS for MOntenegro, whether Russia pushed for its independence or not doesn't matter, because Montenegro was part of a Federal Governement as a republic with the chance for independence via referendum.

  • Posted By: Glenno @ 09/09/2008 2:35:45 AM

    Encirceling Russia and weakening Russia is the key to US dominance in the region. It is US policy in the region, Brzezinski wrote "the grand chessboard" on this topic.
    Does the author of this article know that most of the population lives in the West (euro-russia)...? they cant be encircled? I hope Russia expands their military alliance and build Russian army bases all over latin america, places missile defence system on cuba, and then we can see what US thinks about every nations right to join a military alliance.

  • Posted By: 489222 @ 09/08/2008 2:08:31 PM

    ha-ha-ha
    http://forum.inosmi.ru/forum//themes/viewthread?thread=40276

  • Posted By: 489222 @ 09/08/2008 2:08:11 PM

    ha-ha-ha
    http://forum.inosmi.ru/forum//themes/viewthread?thread=40276

  • Posted By: vfend @ 09/07/2008 6:02:15 PM

    For 5 years US and Israel sharpened the
    georgian military teeth to intimidate and humiliate Russia.Now Russia pulled the teeth out. What's wrong with that?

    • Posted By: Markov1918 @ 09/08/2008 1:50:09 PM

      As if Georgia could ever intimidate Russia. The US was helping the Georgians in response to Russian help to Ossetian separatists. Israel was simply selling weapons like they do to a number of other nations.
      Russia does an awesome job of humiliating itself, it does not need anyone's help in that regard.

    • Posted By: Markov1918 @ 09/08/2008 1:47:43 PM

      Yeah, like Georgia can or ever could intimidate or humiliate Russia. Russia was and is still supporting Ossetian militants so US was helping Georgia. Israel simply sold their equipment, just like they do to tens of other clients. Russia humiliates itself.

  • Posted By: conformist @ 09/08/2008 12:46:12 PM

    Comment: "The big game will end when all players die" (R.Kipling). There can be no ultimate winners in the Big Game.

  • Posted By: dparkins3 @ 09/06/2008 6:49:53 PM

    Wow! a top 10 list from A British parliamentarian for a dumbed down public only capable of digesting top 10 lists.. It would be more aptly named "top 10 lies about Russia" I guess he repeats these "myths" to himself before bedtime in an attempt to ease the pain of the crumbling British economy. Virtually every hypothesis of Mr McShane is incorrect and not supported by fact. In truth, the entire populace of Asia and the middle east supports Russia and observes in amusement at Western moralizing and hypocrisy. Russia has put an end to Western Unilaterilsim/naked aggression and now the politicains/media are whining, how pathetic. It's analogous to a spoiled baby throwing a fit after being made to share its favorite toy. What's even more striking is the disconnect between the way the west views itself and how they are viewed by the rest of the world, this points to a society in severe decline as it is incapable of seeing its problems and correcting them. More importantly Western industrial capitalist societies are in big trouble as they have exhausted their resources and energy prices will continue to climb(or demand & economies collapse). They are pinning their hopes on "alternative energy" as if it is possible to replace oil&gas formed over hundreds of millions of year under extreme heat and pressure with an instant solution. Physics please! Do our politicians not understand the relation between coal&oil utlization and GDP/population growth? There certainly will be more wars as a desperate west seeks to secure oil&gas. I guess there is also a bit of jealousy underlying Mr. MacShane's rant as Russia with it vast oil and gas reserves is capable of maintaining an industrial society for centuries while britain sold the bulk of its North sea oil for 10$ a barrel. In addition there is frustration that Russia has refused to "open for investment" its vast reserves so they can be exploited by the west while Russia recieves worthless paper currencies in exchange. Does the west think Russia does not understand that the longer gas sits in the ground the more it is worth? It is also interesting to note that since the Georgia war Russia has signed major energy deals with Uzbekistan,Turkmenistan,Nigeria and Iran while Cheney was rebuffed in Azerbaijan. Nabucco is dead. Money talks and bull**** walks.

    • Posted By: stringed @ 09/07/2008 7:28:35 AM

      The Soviet apologists are emerging from thew woodwork. But this time the world might be a little more sophisticated. Russia - with its 'vast' oil and gas resources couldn't extract same without the technology of the despised capitalist West. The USSR stole EVERY bit of technology it now uses to intimidate the west - especially the countries which have the misfortune to surround it. From the H bomb to its inferior jet fighters which - when stacked against Israeli F 15s, lost 82-0 above Syrian skies in '82. The nest of economic as well as political spies Russia deploys is a measure of its

      Europe and China are re-evaluating their relationships with the paranoid, belligerent and bullying nation. This time, maybe the former satellite nations and the rest of Europe will re-evaluate their energy contracts with a bullying country which uses its economic agreements as a bludgeon to intimidate its clients into submission.

      dparkins3, despite your hopes to the contrary, the era of the Soviet Union is over! It ain't gonna happen again. Russia will wither away as those over whom it intends to resume its hegemony are far wiser this time around. They won't sit there and be allowed to freeze this winter while Putin closes the gas valves on whim and send troops into sovereign countries, blaming the USA to get other countries to quake in his shadow. Sorry, my closet-commie...history will not repeat.

      • Posted By: conformist @ 09/08/2008 12:32:21 PM

        "The big game will end when all players die" (R.Kipling). There can be no ultimate winners in the Big Game.

      • Posted By: mazur49 @ 09/07/2008 8:07:09 AM

        People like your are much more valuable for Russians than anyone else. Keep it like that. Hate them, despise them, lie. It would definitely make them so weak that you would never need to do something real. Real, reality. Sorry, I forgot that for people gifted so alternatively reality and ground facts don't matter.

    • Posted By: stringed @ 09/07/2008 7:28:36 AM

      The Soviet apologists are emerging from thew woodwork. But this time the world might be a little more sophisticated. Russia - with its 'vast' oil and gas resources couldn't extract same without the technology of the despised capitalist West. The USSR stole EVERY bit of technology it now uses to intimidate the west - especially the countries which have the misfortune to surround it. From the H bomb to its inferior jet fighters which - when stacked against Israeli F 15s, lost 82-0 above Syrian skies in '82. The nest of economic as well as political spies Russia deploys is a measure of its

      Europe and China are re-evaluating their relationships with the paranoid, belligerent and bullying nation. This time, maybe the former satellite nations and the rest of Europe will re-evaluate their energy contracts with a bullying country which uses its economic agreements as a bludgeon to intimidate its clients into submission.

      dparkins3, despite your hopes to the contrary, the era of the Soviet Union is over! It ain't gonna happen again. Russia will wither away as those over whom it intends to resume its hegemony are far wiser this time around. They won't sit there and be allowed to freeze this winter while Putin closes the gas valves on whim and send troops into sovereign countries, blaming the USA to get other countries to quake in his shadow. Sorry, my closet-commie...history will not repeat.

      • Posted By: dparkins @ 09/07/2008 8:43:44 AM

        stringed,

        If denigrating Russia improves your self-esteem, have at it! Your wishful thinking won't change reality. Russia has locked up virtually all gas supplies external to Europe and their technology is as every bit as good as the west where it counts. In the future it would be wise to post on a topic that you have firsthand experience in. Regurgitating mainstream media myths indicates that you have not developed your critical thinking skills and is quite Orwellian. You are easily manipulated and controlled. As the Patron saint of the conservative movement Ayn Rand stated: you can divine the truth by assuming the opposite of the media opinion. For example, their is hysteria in the main stream media about Russia wanting to reconstitute the Soviet Union. Now ask yourself what is the benefit for Russia? After researching the Soviet Union you will find that Russia sent its oil,gas,timber and minerals to Central and Eastern Europe at vastly subsidized prices and when the Soviet Union collapsed these countries were hugely in debt, and this was subsequently canceled. Now Russia has become fabulously wealthy selling its oil&gas at fantastic prices and accumalted 1/2 trillion in reserves. Why would they want to go back to the Soviet Union? Secondly, why would Russia subject itself to guerilla warfare like the USA&UK have for their aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan? This would bleed their budget and devastate their economy, while creating civil unrest. Stringed, you need to do more research and be less emotional.

      • Posted By: dparkins @ 09/07/2008 8:41:58 AM

        stringed,

        If denigrating Russia improves your self-esteem, go right ahead. Your wishful thinking won't change reality. Russia has locked up virtually all gas supplies external to Europe and their technology is as every bit as good as the west where it counts. In the future it would be wise to post on a topic that you have firsthand experience in. Regurgitating mainstream media myths indicates that you have not developed your critical thinking skills and is quite Orwellian. You are easily manipulated and controlled. As the Patron saint of the conservative movement Ayn Rand stated: you can divine the truth by assuming the opposite of the media opinion. For example, their is hysteria in the main stream media about Russia wanting to reconstitute the Soviet Union. Now ask yourself what is the benefit for Russia? After researching the Soviet Union you will find that Russia sent its oil,gas,timber and minerals to Central and Eastern Europe at vastly subsidized prices and when the Soviet Union collapsed these countries were hugely in debt, and this was subsequently canceled. Now Russia has become fabulously wealthy selling its oil&gas at fantastic prices and accumalted 1/2 trillion in reserves. Why would they want to go back to the Soviet Union? Secondly, why would Russia subject itself to guerilla warfare like the USA&UK have for their aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan? This would bleed their budget and devastate their economy, while creating civil unrest. Stringed, you need to do more research and be less emotional.

  • Posted By: Savo @ 09/08/2008 11:20:05 AM

    MacShane, unfortunately your explanation of myths is based on your own myths.
    Who cares who made which move in Kremlin? I would not mind if Shaw or you suggested some good policy instead of Brown.
    EU should be pushed by 3 Baltic states (with black years in their history) and Poland (happy to be bombed instead of USA?), or by childish thinking of Saakashvili, or by desperate thinking of Yuschenko, or by NATO's wish to exist.
    It is not myth that every country should respect the international laws and the UN. The world without that will become jungle. Worst offenders are USA and UK and their actions caused a lot of reactions.
    The guilty ones are now crying, that they do not like something what they did only few months ago (example Kosovo).
    The only way to make it right is to admit mistakes and to say 'let's make the new rules for this world'.

  • Posted By: l_ynx @ 09/08/2008 11:15:04 AM

    Mr MacShane is just a paranoic hater of Russia. Probably grown in the US and sponsored from the same source as so called "New Democracies" in post-Soviet territories, which are created to weaken the only country that resists US influence around the globe. People like him are cinical and can justify any murder in the run for oil and energy. We've seen it in Iraq, Serbia, Kosovo and now Caucasus. What's next, Mr MacShame? What are you going to say when I see american flag from my window in my hometown in Russia? Would that flag appear in my home country to save me from lepers in your head, or will you be sound enough to confess that this would be to ensure that new generation of americans would be able to drive their 6-Liter engines SUVs?

  • Posted By: l_ynx @ 09/08/2008 11:14:49 AM

    Mr MacShane is just a paranoic hater of Russia. Probably grown in the US and sponsored from the same source as so called "New Democracies" in post-Soviet territories, which are created to weaken the only country that resists US influence around the globe. People like him are cinical and can justify any murder in the run for oil and energy. We've seen it in Iraq, Serbia, Kosovo and now Caucasus. What's next, Mr MacShame? What are you going to say when I see american flag from my window in my hometown in Russia? Would that flag appear in my home country to save me from lepers in your head, or will you be sound enough to confess that this would be to ensure that new generation of americans would be able to drive their 6-Liter engines SUVs?

  • Posted By: threev @ 09/08/2008 10:50:40 AM

    sounds like the author doesn't know what he is talking about.

  • Posted By: irra @ 09/08/2008 8:46:38 AM

    Nonromantic was faster :-) and very kind in his translation of russian comments.
    This article have shown how competent Mr MacShane is. Dear Denis, your own Big Myth of Russia is too silly to comment it seriously. I hope Newsweek will find more professional person who knows the subject not by hearsay.

  • Posted By: Valdis i @ 09/08/2008 8:34:06 AM

    My remark: "the journalist/CIA agent that placed the bombing marker on the roof of Belgrade TV center in the 99" is not correct. I am correcting it as follows: "the journalist (rumored CIA agent) that is rumored to have placed the bombing marker on the roof of Belgrade TV center in the 99".
    I have only second witness accounts and no firsthand knowledge myself. In 99 he was named Paul Henderson from CNN.
    In case the mentioned journalist in Riga, Paul Goble is not the same person as Paul Henderson from CNN in the 99, and is not the person that placed the bombing marker on Belgrade TV center, I extend my apologies to him for my incorrect remark.

  • Posted By: Valdis i @ 09/08/2008 8:18:28 AM

    Re Myth No.6: SouthOssetia and Abhazia case IS precisely same as Kosovo case. Several hundred refferences point to that end. Now, if the author wants to stipulate that it is not, then he or she must prove that NATO forces bombed Yugoslav TV center in Belgrade, not Serbian TV center in Belgrade. BTW, to my utter amazement, the journalist/CIA agent that placed the bombing marker on the roof of Belgrade TV center in the 99 s now living in Riga, Latvia. He is practicing liberal journalism and is named Paul Goble.

  • Posted By: Valdis i @ 09/08/2008 8:17:40 AM

    Re Myth No.6: SouthOssetia and Abhazia case IS precisely same as Kosovo case. Several hundred refferences point to that end. Now, if the author wants to stipulate that it is not, then he or she must prove that NATO forces bombed Yugoslav TV center in Belgrade, not Serbian TV center in Belgrade. BTW, to my utter amazement, the journalist/CIA agent that placed the bombing marker on the roof of Belgrade TV center in the 99 s now living in Riga, Latvia. He is practicing liberal journalism and is named Paul Goble.

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