I think we are about to make a huge foreign policy blunder in Kosovo. If we want to start a cold war with Russia and even see a hot war with Serbia this is a good way to bring it about. We are also going to see a new military alliance over this. We are doing this to appease Muslims who are working againts us. It is a huge mistake. We are just making another world crises as if we do not have enough of them.

“Most ominously, Russia with its newfound resurgence under Vladimir
Putin’s guidance has stated its willingness to support Serbia against what
they would consider an illegal occupation of Serbian territory. The current Serbian government is divided on whether it would be prepared to use force to protect its citizens in a breakaway Kosovo, but there have been clear indications that Moscow is prepared to provide military assistance if Serbia requests it.”

“The U.S. seems intent on letting the Serbian province of Kosovo break away and apparently sees the issue of no great importance. Russia on the other hand, sees the situation very differently. Moscow has warned it will not accept ndependence for Kosovo. Mr. Putin has put his prestige on the line. He cannot afford to back down as Boris Yeltsin did.”

“And therein lies the crisis. This is an “optional” crisis. We cannot overlook the fact that the dominant element in the local Albanian administration are commanders from the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army that have known ties to the global jihad movement and organized crime. Further, more than 300 mosques have been built in Kosovo, funded mainly by Saudi Arabia where the radical teachings of the Wahhabi sect are promoted.”

Kosovo train-wreck warnings

Putin, the Kremlin power struggle and the $40bn fortune Russia Guardian Unlimited: “Citing sources inside the president’s administration, Belkovsky claims that after eight years in power Putin has secretly accumulated more than $40bn (£20bn). The sum would make him Russia’s - and Europe’s - richest man.
In an interview with the Guardian, Belkovsky repeated his claims that Putin owns vast holdings in three Russian oil and gas companies, concealed behind a ‘non-transparent network of offshore trusts’.
Putin ‘effectively’ controls 37% of the shares of Surgutneftegaz, an oil exploration company and Russia’s third biggest oil producer, worth $20bn, he says. He also owns 4.5% of Gazprom, and ‘at least 75%’ of Gunvor, a mysterious Swiss-based oil trader, founded by Gennady Timchenko, a friend of the president’s, Belkovsky alleges.
Asked how much Putin was worth, Belkovsky said: ‘At least $40bn. Maximum we cannot know. I suspect there are some businesses I know nothing about.’ He added: ‘It may be more. It may be much more.”

Perhaps Putin is just saving to buy back Alaska.

FOXNews.com - Medvedev: Putin Should Be Russian Prime Minister After March Elections - International News News of the World Middle East News Europe News
MOSCOW — Dmitry Medvedev, whose candidacy for Russian leader has the endorsement of President Vladimir Putin, called on Tuesday for Putin to become prime minister after the March 2 election.
Putin is prohibited by law for running for a third consecutive term, but clearly wants to retain a powerful role once he steps down. Medvedev’s proposal would provide such a role, especially if the constitution were amended to increase the prime minister’s powers — which could be done readily with the new parliament dominated by pro-Putin politicians.
Medvedev has spent most of his career as a loyal comrade of Putin.
“Having expressed my readiness to run for president of Russia, I appeal to (Putin) with a request to give his principal agreement to head the Russian government after the election of the new president of our country,” Medvedev said in televised address a day after Putin endorsed his candidacy.

Gee, how did we know that would happen in Russia? So they just change Putin’s title to Prime Minister and give the Prime Minister the power that the President had and Putin/Gog remains in power in Russia until he dies. So what has changed in Russia? Which proves that you can take the leader out of the country during a depression but you can’t take a people who love authoritarian rule out of the nation.

Russia warns of ‘consequences’ for Kosovo - Telegraph: “However, Russia - which historically has been a strong supporter of Serbia - issued a stark warning to the EU, suggesting that it ‘think very carefully about the consequences’. ‘In that case [of the EU supporting a unilateral bid for independence], those countries would be violating international law, and we will not support the violation of international law,’ said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. ‘I want to stress that UDI of Kosovo and recognition of such independence will not remain without consequences,’ he continued. ‘It will create a chain reaction throughout the Balkans and other areas of the world.’ “

Russia is correct. If the EU wants a new war in that region and a new Soviet Union they are on the right course to help bring it about.

Russia ’shut out’ election watchdog - Telegraph
Russia’s last pretensions to democratic credibility are hanging in the balance after Western observers abandoned plans to monitor a parliamentary election that critics have already dismissed as a sham.

The almost unprecedented decision is likely to set Russia and the West on a new collision course at a time when relations are already badly strained.
Already accused by domestic critics of engineering an electoral charade designed solely to strengthen Vladimir Putin’s autocratic rule, Russia now faces the added embarrassment of a vote robbed of legitimacy in the eyes of the international community.

FrontPage Magazine: “Remarkably, this unfolding takeover of one of the world’s largest economies has so far gone mostly unnoticed by the international community. Conducted discreetly and largely under the radar, it bears the hallmarks of Mr. Putin who has managed to acquire vast political power behind the façade of democracy. Now a similar effort is underway in the economic sphere even as most of the world still thinks of Russia as one of the freest economies in sight. Should this trend continue, the Russian state could well end up with unbridled political and economic powers in a not-too-distant future. Given today’s complex geopolitical situation, this is a troubling prospect to contemplate. Equally worrying is the fact that this undertaking is being carried out by a group of former KGB operatives. Looking at all this one can hardly resist the feeling that the old days may be coming back again. “

The Hindu News Update Service: “MOSCOW: The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a Russia-led defence pact of former Soviet states, have signed a defence cooperation pact dubbed a “Russian-Chinese NATO.” The SCO, which comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and the CSTO, which groups Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Belorussia, signed a memorandum of cooperation on Friday on the sidelines of a CSTO summit in Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan. China is the only member of the SCO, which does not participate in the CSTO. “

Putin of Russia has designs to reform a good part of the Old Soviet Union. This defence pact is probably only the start of it. It is looking more and more like Putin will fulfill the role of Gog spoken about in Ezekiel 38 and 39.

And for my next trick, I will turn into a prime minister - Times Online: “Today the answer is clear. Mr Putin will take over the job himself. That at least will give him a proper base for continued influence. The effect, of course, will be simply to reverse the balance of power. In future the prime minister will call the shots, while the president will find his power severely limited. And after four years Mr Putin could come back again as President (which is possible under the Constitution). And the balance of power would be reversed again. “

Or something will happen to the President and he will take over both titles and the title of the party. Then he will be just like his Soviet predecessors. Anyone that cannot see that Fascism is taking over Russia is blind. Putin is probably Gog.

Physicists challenge U.S. missile claims - USATODAY.com: “The Pentagon agency overseeing the missile program, the Missile Defense Agency, rejects the scientists’ claims, saying their analyses are flawed. The United States says the missile system is intended to counter a threat from Iran and could not take out Russian missiles. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has dismissed Russia’s concerns as ‘ludicrous.’

But the six scientists, whose backgrounds include elite American universities, research labs and high levels of government, said in interviews that Russia’s concerns were justified. ‘The claim by the Missile Defense Agency is not correct,’ said Theodore Postol, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a longtime missile defense critic. ‘And it is hard to understand how they could get something so basic wrong.’”

Why would Russia or anyone believe the missile defense would be there to protest Europe from Iran? The US and Europe have flatly said we will not allow Iran to have nuclear weapons.
The missles are clearly going to be in positions to stop any kind of surgical nuclear strike by Russia on one specific European country or more likely on Israel.

Putin the Terrible Macleans.ca - World - Global: “Can anyone control the forces the Russian president has unleashed?CHARLIE GILLIS September 3, 2007 A couple of weeks back, while news readers were averting their gaze from photographs of a shirtless Vladimir Putin fishing in Siberia, two videos circulating on the Internet laid bare a different, much more chilling, portion of the Russian body politic. The first was a crude bit of agitprop thought to originate with the Nashi, a Kremlin-funded youth movement loyal to Putin whose work involves denouncing the president’s critics as fascists, homosexuals or foreign-controlled traitors.The eight-minute clip, which eventually found its way to YouTube, was ostensibly meant to persuade draft-eligible teenagers to seek a career in the army. But its true object was to foment paranoia. Images of U.S. soldiers marching on unidentified soil flashed across the screen, while a narrator warned that America aims to ‘colonize’ Russia for its oil. Former Soviet satellites in the ‘Stans and eastern Europe were depicted as beachheads for an impending invasion. One animated segment portrayed worm-like tentacles emanating from the United States and creeping around the globe through former Soviet republics like the Baltics, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. ‘They are right next door,’ the voice-over said. ‘They will take any available opportunity to take us over.’ “

Remember when certain people said it was the war to end all wars? If you don’t that war was World War I. The wisest man who lived said there in nothing new under the sun and mankind keeps proving him correct. Just wait a decade until the Nashi gets into position of power in Russia with a modern military.

Putin brings back mental ward torment - Times Online

The Soviet practice of doing away with people by declaring them mentally ill is making a comeback in today’s Russia,” said Vladimir Bukovsky, a Soviet-era dissident now living in London who was twice locked up in mental institutions.
“Abuse of psychiatry had ceased after the collapse of communism. But now, under Vladimir Putin, a president who has brought back many Soviet-era practices and has described the collapse of the Soviet Union as a catastrophe - it’s becoming common again.”

Vladimir Putin rewrites Russia’s history books to promote patriotism - Independent Online Edition > Europe: “Critics are accusing President Vladimir Putin’s government of a Soviet-style rewriting of Russian history with a series of new ‘patriotic’ textbooks to be unveiled in the new school year. New laws passed this summer have given the government sweeping powers over which textbooks will be used in schools. Teachers and other critics have voiced concerns that this will allow the government to force the use of a single, approved book in each subject - essentially a return to Soviet practice. Mr Putin has complained that the negative view of the Soviet past in current history textbooks is down to the fact that the authors received foreign grants to write them. Now, the Kremlin claims it wants to change that situation and a recommissioning of Russia’s history textbooks is under way. A handbook for teachers, on the basis of which a future textbook for students could be written, is called The Modern History of Russia, 1945-2006. Only one of the authors is a professional historian. The book calls Joseph Stalin a ‘contradictory’ figure, and states that while some people consider him evil, others recognise him as a ‘hero’ for his role in the Great Patriotic War (the Second World War) and his territorial expansion.”

Putin wants textbooks to lie to the Russians about their past so that they will allow similar mistakes in the future and allow Putin to continue on the road to becoming the next Russian tyrant.

‘Will Canada Get the Cold Shoulder in the Arctic?’ - Aaron Goldstein - Aug 19, 07: “The key here is the Lomonosov Ridge, an underwater mountain range spanning more than 1,200 miles spanning the Eastern Siberian Sea to Ellesmere Island – the most northern part of Canada. Russia and Canada argue that the ridge is an extension of their continental shelves while the Danes argue it is an extension of Greenland, which is a Danish territory. Given that the polar icecaps are melting (largely attributed to global warming) the Lomonosov Ridge has created new opportunities for both oil and natural gas exploration as well as for shipping. Needless to say whoever prevails will reap an enormous windfall. It will also be a source of immense national pride in all three countries.”

How can anyone determine who owns the area around the North Pole? The most anyone can do is make is a judgment call that will just piss off the other claimers.
I have a solution. Agree to make all Arctic regions outside of the 200 mile territorial boundaries of the nations to be international with those areas managed by the United Nations. The money they get from the natural resources would be used to pay for the management of the area, the cost of UN government and as aid funds for the world.

Russian bomber jets resume Cold War sorties Reuters: “MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia’s strategic bombers have resumed Cold War-style long-haul missions to areas patrolled by NATO and the United States, top generals said on Thursday.”

Russia continues to ramp up their threat capabilites.

After claiming the Pole, Russia looks south - Telegraph: “Russia stirred memories of the Cold War yesterday when the country’s senior admiral called for the establishment of a permanent naval base in the Mediterranean for the first time since the Soviet era.”

US economy ‘in danger zone with oil price’ - New Zealand’s source for business, stock market & currency news on Stuff.co.nz: “Qatar’s Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said today that Opec – which pumps about a third of the globe’s oil – can do nothing about the high price of oil and that there is no shortage of crude in the market. “

Enough is enough. It is time to tell OPEC that we do not want your stinking oil at $80 a barrel. This is not an issue of free markets and supply and demand. The world is clearly being held hostage by a cartel of racketeers that get the stuff out of the ground for a few dollars a barrel and who purposely limit their production to rape us all. It is time for the world to get rid of cartels and for it to become a free market.

It is time to tell OPEC we have an American game they we are pretty good at. It is called Poker and you are about to learn that game.

The West and some nations of the far East need to get together and flatly tell OPEC that we will not be held hostage to artificially high oil prices anymore and that we will not pay more than a reasonable market price. Say, we set that price at $50 a barrel. We tell them effective immediately no one in the West and other nations like Japan, India, S. Korea etc. will pay above that price.

What could they do about it? Do you think all those nations would cut their own throats and stop pumping oil? If they kept pumping oil and not selling it within weeks they would have nowhere to store it and they would have to stop pumping. If they did not sell most of their oil some of those nations would have a revolution in their countries within months. We would also stop selling all exported goods and services to these nations and freeze their assets worldwide. We would stop all military and economic aid to them as well. If oil shortages damaged the economy of the West they know they would be a bigger loser.

If they would not meet our demands we could meet part of our oil needs by confiscating any tankers who came out of any OPEC countries that would not participate. We could continue to buy oil from non OPEC nations, nations who would find it in their best interest to participate and we could also use our national reserves. We could find other ways to make up the shortfall including mandatory rationing.

The big wild cards would be the reaction of China and Russia. We probably could convince China that lower oil prices were in their interests as well and see to it they got their share of the oil. Russia has been part of the problem with their recent blackmailing of Europe over energy. It is time to send a loud and clear message to Russia who is now getting delusions that she can become the leader of the world through the path of Fascism.

If we were serious about it. I think the OPEC cartel would be history within a few months and supply and demand would truly set the price of oil in the future. If it turns out that they don’t fold and somehow hold the winning hand in this high stakes poker game with their kings and jackass showing against our three aces we can always teach them another American game called Hardball.

Sex for the motherland: Russian youths encouraged to procreate at camp the Daily Mail
Attempting to raise Russia’s dismally low birthrate even by eccentric-seeming means might be understandable. Certainly, the country’s demographic outlook is dire. The hard-drinking, hardsmoking and disease-ridden population is set to plunge by a million a year in the next decade.
But the real aim of the youth camp - and the 100,000-strong movement behind it - is not to improve Russia’s demographic profile, but to attack democracy.

Under Mr Putin, Russia is sliding into fascism, with state control of the economy, media, politics and society becoming increasingly heavy-handed. And Nashi, along with other similar youth movements, such as ‘Young Guard’, and ‘Young Russia’, is in the forefront of the charge.

If tens of thousands of uniformed German youngsters were marching across Germany in support of an authoritarian Fuhrer, baiting foreigners and praising Hitler, alarm bells would be jangling all across Europe. So why aren’t they ringing about Nashi?

Everyone but the liberal West which has its head in the sand about many world threats can see that Russia is going Fascist big time and Putin is the one pushing it. Yet we continue to kiss up to him like he was our friend. If we think we had problems with Russia during the cold war just wait another decade. What a wonderful world it will be.

Putin has become as popular in Russia as Hitler was in Germany and he has much the same ideology and personality. He is now in the process of killing and marginalizing his opposition and he is now making land and power grabs for control of the earth’s energy resources. He is also modernizing the military and has announced plans to again become a military superpower. Putin is still fairly young he will not go away. He will be Gog of Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 or at the very least he is setting the foundation for Gog.

OpinionJournal - Global View: “It does not matter here, as the Kremlin’s apologists are so fond of pointing out, that Mr. Putin is wildly popular in Russia: Popularity is what competent despots get when they destroy independent media, stoke nationalistic fervor with military buildups and the cunning exploitation of the Church, and ride a wave of petrodollars to pay off the civil service and balance their budgets. Nor does it matter that Mr. Putin hasn’t re-nationalized the ‘means of production’ outright; corporatism was at the heart of Hitler’s economic policy, too.
What matters, rather, is nicely captured in a remark by Russian foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin regarding Britain’s decision to expel the four diplomats. ‘I don’t understand the position of the British government,’ Mr. Kamynin said. ‘It is prepared to sacrifice our relations in trade and education for the sake of one man.’”

Putin is taking Russia back to the future.

Defense analyst: Russia choosing sides in new ‘cold war’ (OneNewsNow.com): “Copley acknowledges what he describes as a ‘reshaping’ of the world into a new cold war. ‘And the new cold war adversary will actually center more around China and Iran and North Korea than it will around Russia,’ he states. ‘We just don’t want to force Russia to join the new cold war on the other side of the fence. China is a prime concern.’”

So why do we make China rich by buying enormous amounts of their products when they will use this wealth to build a military to threaten us? That is not a very sane policy if you ask me.

FrontPage magazine.com :: America “More Terrible” than Stalin’s Russia? by Dr. Paul Kengor: “The USSR served as headquarters for a communist ideology that, according to conservative estimates, was responsible for the deaths of over 100 million people worldwide from 1917 through 1987. The late Alexander Yakovlev, a close aide to Mikhail Gorbachev who later assumed the grisly task of trying to total the victims of Soviet repression, estimates that Stalin alone was responsible for the deaths of 60-70 million, a stunning number two to three times higher than previous estimates. He recorded the gruesome details in his work A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia (Yale University Press, 2002), a book that should be required reading for anyone interested in the history of the period—particularly Vladimir Putin.

The examples of Soviet criminality are so plentiful that one need not go far to illustrate the point—”

Putin: Vietnam worse than Stalin purges Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: “Russia should never forget the abuses of the Communist era, Putin said. But he also said no one had the right to make Russia feel guilty about those abuses.
‘No one must be allowed to impose the feeling of guilt on us,’ he said. ‘Let them think about themselves.”

Why should Russia not feel guilty? It certainly should! The Stalin purges, communism and the cold war caused the deaths of hundreds of million of people around the world. Communism also was the cause of Korea, Vietnam and the killing fields of Cambodia. We did not go to Vietnam to contain democracy. If you recall, Russia threatened the West with nuclear annihilation for several decades. Russia’s advancement of communism almost brought the world to total destruction. It lead to the bankrupting of your economy and to a great depression for the people of Russia. You might take full responsibility for embracing this godless evil philosophy and move on. Otherwise, if you do not learn from history, you are probably doomed to repeat it.

No country in this world is totally without fault but certain countries have allowed evil to flourish much more than others. Germany and Japan took full responsibility for what happen in the second world war but now you cannot take full responsibility for what happen afterward? By the way, would it have really been more humain for the U.S. to not have dropped those nuclear weapons on Japan making it necessary for both countries to fight on Japanese soil with perhaps millions getting killed and ending in the complete destruction of Japan? Further, if the bombs were not dropped would not someone have risked using them in some later action. Like perhaps Russia?