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Guest Post: Russia After Sochi
Submitted by Stephen Sestanovich via The Diplomat,
By hosting the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia has brought a surge of international attention to the state of its economy, its interethnic relations, its domestic politics, and its foreign policy. Already much of the scrutiny has become unwelcome.
The staggering $50 billion price tag for the Games highlights official waste, fraud, and abuse. The threat of terrorist attacks reminds the world of the volatile state of Russia’s southern regions and the separatist movements that operate there. Legislation on so-called gay and lesbian “propaganda” calls attention to the illiberal elements of President Vladimir Putin’s governing ideology. The reluctance of many foreign leaders to come to Sochi provides a convenient scorecard by which to evaluate Russia’s global standing.
Corruption, terrorism, human rights protests, high-level no-shows—all these represent ways in which the Sochi Olympics have embarrassed Putin. Yet in each case, the problem goes well beyond any connection to the Games. Each reflects a major tension in the system that Putin has created. And even if all goes well at Sochi, they suggest continuing challenges for the Western effort to create a cooperative relationship with Russia.
A Slowing Economy
Rapid economic growth has, for many Russians, been the most important achievement of Putin’s tenure. Between 1999, when he became prime minister and then acting president, and 2008, on the eve of the global financial crisis, annual growth averaged 6.9 percent. The impact of the crisis was severe for Russia, but the recovery was also quick. Rebounding smartly, growth in the three years after 2009 averaged 4.1 percent.
Last year, however, the Russian economy slowed significantly. Growth was only 1.4 percent, and the World Bank forecasts only slightly higher growth (2.2 percent for 2014); other forecasts are lower still. If so, Russia will be the slowest growing of the BRICS economies in the year ahead. Inflation, meanwhile, remains relatively high—approximately 6~7 percent in 2013; it is likely to continue at that rate in 2014. And all this has occurred with the price of oil, a key Russian export, still high. In the event of a real drop, economic forecasts become much more negative.
When the slowdown began, Putin sought to deflect blame for it; he traced lower growth to economic difficulties in Europe as a whole. More recently, he has acknowledged that the causes are “internal, not external.” Russian economists, businessmen, and officials are now engaged in a debate about how to respond. Among Western-trained experts, the right course has seemed relatively clear-cut: Russia needs market-based solutions that allow more small- and medium-sized businesses to form, reduce the size and power of state corporations, lighten the burden of corruption, and encourage both foreign and domestic investment.
Putin has embraced some of these ideas, but has given few indications that he is ready to change course. Some of his pronouncements have, in fact, had a distinctly atavistic flavor (like his proposal to recreate Soviet-era mechanisms for evaluating national economic competitiveness).
Ethnic Friction
Chechen separatism and associated terrorist activity originating in the North Caucasus have gripped Russia’s attention for two decades. They are a headline-grabber for the Sochi Games too. But the challenge posed by violent extremism may not be the most severe ethnic policy problem Russia faces in the coming decade. That distinction should probably go instead to the growth of a large workforce of immigrants from Central Asia and the Caucasus in Russia’s biggest cities.
With its long-running economic boom, Moscow in particular has been a magnet for jobseekers from the south; estimates of the number of undocumented migrant laborers living in the capital range from one to several million. Although many of them are in fact citizens of the Russian Federation, they are widely seen to be taking jobs from ethnic Russians, engaging in criminal activity, and exploiting social services.
These tensions periodically express themselves in violence, most recently after the October 2013 killing of a young ethnic Russian, allegedly by an Azeri migrant, in the Moscow suburb of Biryulevo. Many Russian commentators called the fighting that followed a “pogrom.” More than a thousand migrants were arrested (even though Russians had launched the beatings), and the entire Moscow police force was put on high alert.
Ethnic issues had been a topic of lively debate before the Biryulevo incident, and even some liberal oppositionists have felt obliged to appease popular hostility to migrants. While disavowing the nationalist slogan “Russia for Russians,” Alexei Navalny, the best-known new leader of the opposition, said visas restrictions should be imposed on visitors from Central Asia and the Caucasus. Slower economic growth seems likely to increase the demand for such measures.
A Political Awakening?
The huge demonstrations that shook Russian politics are now two years in the past, and in most respects Putin has successfully blunted their impact. No significant new opposition groupings, much less a united opposition coalition, have formed. New laws have been passed to impede the activities of organizations that already exist, especially by trying to choke off foreign funding for civil society. The near-term electoral calendar offers few opportunities for breakthroughs by candidates who want to challenge the near-monopoly of Putin’s party, United Russia. Putin himself does not have to face the voters until 2018, at which point he will be eligible to run for another six-year term.
Despite the seeming lull, however, Russian politics has hardly returned to the status quo prevailing before 2012. The NGO sector remains robust, buoyed by the amnesties of December 2013. Many organizations have worked around legal hurdles to sustain foreign funding. In a series of cases both administrative and civil, Russian courts have actually ruled that NGOs should not have to register as “foreign agents.” (The Constitutional Court will take up the issue soon.)
On the electoral front, elections to the Moscow city council offer an opening for opposition candidates to emerge as new leaders in 2014. Democratic activists continue to think that Moscow is fertile ground for them, and Navalny’s strong showing in the mayoral balloting of September 2013 bolsters their claim.
Another opposition victory in 2013 was the election of Yevgeny Roisman, a defector from United Russia, as governor of Sverdlovsk. In the coming year, there will be gubernatorial elections in fourteen other Russian regions. Many of these will not be genuinely competitive contests, but taken as a whole they may test the continued dominance of United Russia as the institutional expression of Putin’s rule.
As for the president’s own popularity, the picture is interestingly mixed. His own approval ratings have improved in the past year, and 68 percent of poll respondents say they would vote for him in a new election today. Only 22 percent, however, say they want him to run again in 2018, and 47 percent want someone else to run instead.
Russia’s Global Standing
The Sochi Olympics represent a genuine reputational risk for Putin. Damage could be done to Russia’s international prestige in any number of ways—by a terrorist attack, by some major shortfall in the preparation of the Games, by too-rough treatment of protestors, and so on.
Yet this picture of the situation is incomplete in two ways. An estrangement between Russia and leading Western countries has been underway for some time, for reasons that have nothing to do with the Olympics. Moreover, this estrangement has been to a large extent a matter of deliberate strategic choice by Putin. He has sought greater distance from the United States and Europe, and is likely to perpetuate it no matter what happens at Sochi.
That foreign leaders are holding Putin at arm’s length was clear from President Obama’s cancellation of a Moscow visit in September 2013. It was underscored by the cool reception the Russian leader received in Brussels for the EU-Russia summit in late January 2014. For Washington, Russia’s grant of asylum to Edward Snowden was the prime grievance; for European leaders, Russian efforts to block the EU’s relationship with Ukraine were central. How long this set-jaw style continues will be tested four months after the Olympics when Putin hosts the annual summit of the G8—once more in Sochi. (Even if the mood among the leaders improves, the event is certain to produce a new wave of anxiety about terrorist incidents.)
For Putin, social slights by foreign leaders may carry some sting, but he has defined Russia’s aims and identity in a way that downplays what others say and do, and puts a lower premium on international problem-solving. He argues that what makes Russia one of the few truly “sovereign” countries in the world is precisely its ability to pursue its own interests and rebuff outside interference in its affairs. Lately he has given this theme a still more ideological dimension, portraying Russia as a brave holdout against Western decadence.
This “exceptionalist” outlook has resonance in important sectors of Russian society, especially the Orthodox Church. Yet it worries those who want Russia to be a “normal” country, one with modern democratic institutions and social norms. Long after Sochi, Russians will be arguing about whether Putin has advanced this goal—or put it further out of reach.
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Russia was stupid to waste 50 billion USD on this.
Not because I think Sochi is a failure. I don't buy the Western MSM antiRussia propaganda.
Better to spend that money on S400 missile systems and radar and arm Iran, just to laugh in Israel's face.
Putin should have known better that western MSM will try to do a hit on Sochi.
The only people listening are the westerners still locked into the propaganda machine anyway. I wonder what this all looks like to the rest of the world, struggling to throw of the Zionist yoke?
It looks like a decent to high class winter olympics organized by some russians.
What a rag this diplomat is. It's clear that propaganda machine is in full force.
Dumb Russia, failed Russia, cannot organize an olympics Russia.
Drivel. My question is, are we seeing a shift in ZH?
Is ZH becoming a propaganda rag? Hmmm?
Too bad if it is.
Okay, I'm off to see if any travel girl will travel with me.
ori
I concur this is pure BS.
The Western media wants the Sochi Olympics to fail miserably because the Russians under Putin didn't cooperate on Syria, so now they pivot on Ukraine while Russia brings in it's first Olympics in more than 30 years.
What is more shameful is the U.S. warships being sent to the Black Sea "in case of evacuations" of U.S. citizens are required!....
Wonder how the U.S. would have felt if Russia had parked a missile cruiser near Long Beach CA during the 1984 games? The whole attitude of the West is like watching a petulant child that unfortunately is deeply psychotic and dangerous willing to take enormous risks because it isn't getting it's way! What is amazing is the way the U.S. media is propogandizing it and "the sheep" are too clueless to inquire, do there own research and understand what is actually taking place. Case in point. I had dinner with family yesterday evening when I brought up the Department of State Nuland scandal and the cooincidence and timing of this to Russia's Olympic Games to which I received blank stares. And to make matters even worse this is "Wa-Po" Country I'm living in! Go figure?
In answer to your comment about ZH in seeing a "shift" Nope.
It's deliberate and he wants to see the words written under comment(s) as the "sounding board". If you don't read the comments section(s) on ZH, then you're probably not reading "ZH"!
In Russia there is no patriotic opposition. All opposition in Russia, payable from Washington and fulfills orders from Washington. If tomorrow, this so-called opposition in Russia to obtain an order from Washington, to kissing Putin ass, all of them will kiss Putin's ass.
Russia is shunned because it won't bend over for Washington. All these criticisms apply 10 fold to the US.
I read the headline and knew this was a Vischy DC propaganda piece or the author is weak minded.
both...they go together
...not to mention (so I'll mention it) that the Fed prints up more each month than Putin spent on the Sochi facilities in about 6 years.
So guess who's the bigger lying, cheating, human-rights-abusing fascist dickhead?
Printing money destroys the value of human labor. Who is destroying more lives?
No, it is shunned because communism and then oligarchy has led to massive problems for Russian society. Russia remains locked in its bitter old ways while other former Soviet Bloc countries have learned their lesson and moved on because they didn't put up with the massive corruption.
They weren't rounding up stray dogs in LA in '84 and the plumbing all worked.
And if it wasn't for the illegal mexican workers, the Salt Lake games would have been even more of a disaster.
Pieces like this hint so. This shit was written with scorn from the very first line. James Bond theater in London with UK army filling in for security? Superb. Russian show with some technical difficulties? Baaad.
ori, ask her if she has friends. ;)
Take up the gypsy life... watch young Jimmy Rosenberg rip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi4aVqEVT_c
I quite agree. I've been reading ZH since before they actually became an independent site. I come here for markets/econ news and analysis, not for some bizzare political musings. If anyone is interested in yet another piece on why we should keep bashing Russia, there is plenty of MSM propaganda available left and right. I kind of start to suspect that Tyler cashed out, leaving ZH to some teenage interns whose monthly checks come from Murdoch, or maybe Yahoo.
Yep, I was a long time reader, just signed up though. I miss robot trader, his mom, travel, Francis and cog dis only posts so much. Before, the riles of fight club were respected and known, now pussies are allowed to walk and talk. O INdian has good posts too and Norris is good for laughs. I also enjoy Fonestar's love of crypto. I figured signing up this late set my anonymity to zero, meaning I'll be the first one in the camps. Meaning I will get one of those plastic beds while the other pleebs that come in after me will sleep on the dirt.
You can go get me some coffee right now rookie, this site actually plays second fiddle for me right now. As All is well and calm at the home site where we even shut the bernanks up for inappropriate behavior.
@ ORI,
Yes, The DIPLOMAT is on full throttle to spread out its propaganda shits.
Put it into simple words, The DIPLOMAT is just UNREADABLE... UNBEARABLE.
One of the sad realities of the new ZH... ZH ver 2.0
Have you noticed that Stratfor haven't contributed with their pre-ordered analyses since last autumn? Shit in, shit out...
I wonder how much these "experts" from The Diplomat, Sovereign Man etc. pay to ABC Media LTD. for publishing their vomit on ZH.
ori,
++
sad.
I'm also sensing this shift.
He's running out of countrys to dump on.
yup
it would be a crying shame if this site became DRUDGEREPORTLITE
Then again, ZH does tax my ( pretty well stacked ) computer's resources with its multpile scripts; it wouldn't be a particularly difficult transition and my system wouldn't sound like a weezing cyborg...
Boris is still curious why is allow Bi-athlon take place in anti-gayist Russia.
The so-called West wants from Russia only one thing - that Russia did not exist.
Or, that Russia is "normal" and not "exceptional" by tptb standard.
"Normal Russia", it is certainly a Russia that is controlled by Washington, is not it? LOL
The Olympics are "awarded" to countries by the IOC and their decisions have no more bearing on reality than who gets the Nobel Peace Prize. Just a bunch of deluded wannabe MOTUs who think their decisions mean something other than who influences who and gets the games dropped in their back yard.
If the Olymics have any more real world effect than Dot Com companies quoting how many "eyeballs" they have looking that their pages, it isn't by much.
Enjoy them for what they are. Don't read too much into them.
Some Russians believe it is a matter of time before the USD loses it's reserve currency status and most of its value, so that spending the 50B USD before it becomes Azwapé paper might be a wise decision.
The 50Bil went to transform Sochi's nearby mountains into a resort so russians dont have to smell the french anymore.. and you'll probably see a major tennis tourny in Sochi going forward.. I wouldnt doubt Sharapova goes into politics at some point
Yea cause when the French start to open their mouths it can really start to stink around here.
I'd vote for her.
They are working since quite some time on the S500.
Russia has amazing missile technology, the fastest in the world.
We're gonna know what we've always known. Russia is a totalitarian state. And Putin is a fuck-wad. Bitches.
Lots of Putin apologists here....
Much better than wasting trillions in endless wars.
American protest in Sochi:
http://cs425923.vk.me/v425923559/7f07/CWFevu1t4m8.jpg
I was the kid they used to pick on, now I have the balls you can lick on.
-Vladimir Putin
He does look like the midget chess playing type that was always bullied in highschool until he started to train in judo, got into the KGB, got himself elected as president of Russia and now he bullies the bullies.
He learned from the great master.
http://i.gifeye.com/8248.gif
Viewing this pic is forbidden.
here some how it's blocking it....
http://forgifs.com/gallery/d/195044-2/Chuck-Norris-stops-chainsaw.gif
Endless laughs!
http://tinyurl.com/pkl25ob
Russia is just like any other fascist government - like the US, Japan, et al - they suck up tax payer money and distribute it from the top down.
And if we must discuss how UE and food stamps is killing America, let's note that everyone is currently funding $85B/mo worth of bond buying to keep the uber rich banks afloat. Now that is what I call liberal.
The story is Russian facism? I thought the story was US fascism...ah well,
Exactly. What difference does it make, their tyrant or ours? Intelligent people should want neither.
Legislation on so-called gay and lesbian “propaganda” calls attention to the illiberal elements of President Vladimir Putin’s governing ideology.
The real reason why this boring, irrelevant shit shows up on ZH.
ZeroHedge has new owners. Hmmm....
The daily Diplomat...so that you not only know what is important to TPTB, but what and how to think about it all. Today, Russia bad. Yesterday, China bad.
I suppose it is difficult for them to write an article about how good the American government is without being forced to compare it to all of the bad governments out there.
Putin has not banned gays and lesbians fuck each other. Putin banned only propaganda of gay sex .
Because it is the will of the majority of the Russian population , which refuse to accept gays and lesbians sex as the norm .
Thus, Putin decided the most democratic manner .
In Western countries, the majority of the population is also against the promotion of gay sex .
But Western governments are ignoring the will of the majority.
Western governments are using the power of government to impose its will on the people. Thus, they go against the will of the people and show the classic signs of the military-police dictatorship.
'They' are destroying nations,
the financials, genders and FAMILY...
and are replacing it with a perversions, lies and the occult, i.e, the new order.
.
As above, so below.
Putin is very much in touch with what the people think, if the people change their opinion over the next few years then Putin will also change his stated view.
It's only a few years since homosexuality was illegal in many other western countries and is still illegal in many others today. for example Qatar where the football world cup will be held in 2022.
@ tonyw
Who told you that homosexuality is illegal in Russia? It is delirium!
- You know how to read?
- You know how to read carefully?
- You know how to think? You know how to think for themselves?
- You can find the differences between the prohibition of homosexual relations and the prohibition of propaganda of homosexuality relations?
- You are able to understand the differences between the prohibition of homosexuality actions and ban open public propaganda of this homosexuality action?
Putin banned only one thing - public propaganda of homosexuality. He did it because it is required the vast majority of Russian citizens. Putin expressed in this law, will of the people and nothing more.
Pandering to homophobes and other bigots...
TL;DR 20 second read, Tyler
.
Yep, twenty seconds is all it takes to recognize the stench and discard it. For instance:
It actually provides a scorecard by which to evaluate the absent leaders' lack of global standing and invertebrate status.
Nope. These are merely the straws at which the western media are grasping in their embarrassingly inept attempts to discredit Putin.
Correct, but probably not in the way The Diplomat's Stephen Sestanovich imagines.
Each reflects the degree of butthurt that western "leaders" have suffered at the hands of Putin.
Made me laugh. The only western effort is the one to ruin any cooperative relationship with Russia.
No need to go any further. The article is a smear job and ultracheap propaganda. I've seen better material from AnAnonymous. Seriously.
ZH needs to have a fiction section for articles like this.
4th, nice in-line style work there. The iron(y) sits heavy. And the shift in ZH is palpable, eh?
Smells all wrong...
ori
As I've called it before, 'ZH Tabloid Submodule.'
As far as I can tell, Putin actually cares about the average ethnic Russian. And when you hear western reporters object to his policies what you are really hearing is a protest against any nation protecting its indigenous white population, a population that must have its voting power diluted by brown skinned people in all nations in which whites might be a majority.
How the white elites who force this process expect to remain safe and dominant in a sea of hostile brown remains the ultimate mystery.
Castle Strategy,,, The NYT presents it as kind of an accident, but in fact it is the doctrine behind the sowing of chaos.
And even if all goes well at Sochi, they suggest continuing challenges for the Western effort to create a cooperative relationship with Russia. Made me laugh.
Yep, me too.
Really? there's an Olympics going on now?
Strange but I feel no tension whatsoever.
Where is president Obama? Vacationing in Hawaii?
Useless talkings.
I'm a 66 year old Canadian. The way I see it Russia has been "Putin" it to the US for quite some time now.
My government embarasses me, yet it takes quite a bit more for the US government to embarass most Americans. Why do you suppose that is?
As a Canadian I guess I'll never know. But my guess is, that it has to do with the "mlitary color guard" before every major sporting event?
Canadians are screwed over more by their government than Americans are - and that's some deep & painful anal penetration - yet they're even more lubed, docile & complacent aboot it than Americans are - and that's saying a lot.
I once met a firefighter in a Canadian bar who was married to a school teacher, and he swore that he and his wife had an effective federal & provincial tax rate of 51% on a net basis (in other words, they were allowed to keep 49% of what they earned).
Mind you, this doesn't even include the 15% GST (a sales tax) they paid on every purchase they made.
But wait, Canadians have awesome, free health care, right? Not really.
A study that came out in 2002 demonstrated that just about any Canadian of financial means who desperately needed knee replacement or cardiovascular surgery would cross the border into the U.S. To have these procedures done, since the wait time in Canada for these procedures were along the lines of 6 YEARS and 3 YEARS (absent a complete life-or-death imminent need), respectively, and that there were more MRI machines in a relatively scarcely populated county in upstate New York State (population 340,000) than their were in all of Canada (population 30,000,000).
What a FUBAR country full of hosers, eh?
BUTTTT ITS FREE!!!!!@!@@!@!
Russia is a one trick pony economy smaller than California.
When fracking takes away their cash cow, they will be tits up again like the early 90's
That's the problem, sport.... apart from the still mostly untapped Siberian oil and gas, there's lots of untapped mineral wealth, including gold, copper, diamonds.
Imagine a diamond trade that doesn't depend on black South African quasi-slave labor and Jewish middle men in Cape Town, Tel Aviv, and Antwerp. {Funny thing about SA, Jewish population is literally under 1/2 of 1% and - 25 of the 100 richest people. Cool,huh? It pays to be divinely chosen...er, and benefit from years of slave labor and apartheid and stolen natural wealth.. which is probably the goal for Russia.
Funny how it was basically never the Belgians running the Belgian diamond trade for decades. Now it's Indians, apparently. Que sera sera, eh?
I didn't down vote you but did you really give that comment any real thought before you posted it?
Russia is a a one trick pony, hydro-carbon extraction, but fracking ain't going affect them much...
Thanks, but I'll let the Russians worry about Putin. I'll concern myself with the treasonous criminals here.
"Team Guillotine."
Stephen Sestanovich is the author of Maximalist: America in the World from Truman to Obama (Knopf, February 2014). He is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and professor of international diplomacy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Also a signatory to some of PNAC's statements, eh?
Being the top Russia expert at the CFR is like being the top African-American expert at the KKK.
Fuckin' PNAC? Really??
Dear Weekend Tyler, it's your show, but you're fuckin up the brand, mate. We can get this same prepackaged Usraeli shit at Foreign Policy, or Foreign Affairs, you know the two major fp journals, both, surprisingly, headed by a nice Jewish fella. FA is of course published by the CFR, which, just super coincidentally, is also headed by an establishment Jewish neocon.
Is it 'racist' to point out that this group, 2.5% of the population seems to pop up over and over to criticize a country whose oligarchs bought up Russia's natural wealth for copecks on the ruble under Yeltsin with western assistance? Oligarchs Putin largely chased out? Oligarchs who often fled to the UK or Israel, the latter making sense as more than half were Jewish in a country where they are less than 2% of the population ....
The Rise and Decline of Russia;s Zionist Oligarchs
** The Neocons Versus Russia **
I dunno know who owns ABC Media these days... but they sure do like having Jewish CFR members doing hit pieces on Russia, rather than ever covering just how the Israel Lobby is trying to lie the US into another war as it continues to aggressively spy, and interfere in government, and buy our politicians through proxy actors like AIPAC and the ADL.
Again, this is shit we can see everywhere, from the sort of people, frankly, who have an overwhelmingly disproportionate share of media pulpits from which to broadcast their Zio-conservative agenda. Why bring it here?
Bravo, Johnny!
On would do well to watch the BBC documentary Putin, Russia and the West. Which being BBC, was designed as a hit-piece on Putin, and features interviews with some high-level Russian and Western aparatchiks. But as long as you don't have your head stuck up Hillary's ass you'll see that the policies the documentary seem to criticize were spot on as far as preserving Russian sovereign interest and keeping the Zio-cunts out.
I just wonder who is more ignorant, you or your friend imbecile Johnny?
"They may as well have paved it in platinum or caviar," Boris Nemtsov, an opposition politician, said. He estimates that two-thirds of the $51 billion Russia spent on the Olympics was lost to corruption.
Re: "a nice Jewish fella"
"One of the key beneficiaries of lucrative Olympic contracts was Putin’s childhood friend ("a nice Jewish fella") Arkady Rotenberg. Through a majority-owned subsidiary, Rotenberg holds nearly 39 percent of the Mostotrest company, which amassed a dozen Olympics-related state contracts to build nearly all of the highways in the area."
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2014/02/07/sochi-olympic-price-tag-soars-critic-slams-road-that-could-have-been-paved-with/
P.S. Some Russians believe Putin is "a nice Jewish fella" too, in maternal and paternal sides.
http://henrymakow.com/putin-is-nwo-pawn.html
You called me an imbecile then linked to Makow? Really, dude?
Why not peruse the links I provided.
Are you one of these assholes who would claim it's a "canard" that Jews have disproportionate influence in the media? Or to note that the oligarchs robbed the Russian people and were overwhelmingly Jewish?
Is it really unfair, given the facts, to suppose that the Russia and Putin bashing in the MSM might relate to the "canards" [i.e. true statements regarding disproportionate Jewish power] noted above?
Putin's loyalty is, demonstrably, to the Russian people at least to a greater extent than those oligarchs. This doesn't mean he's above corruption, particularly in a country transformed into a basket case of corruption - by the mostly Jewish oligarchs.
You lack nuance, kidd.
And apparently you don't actually know much about modern post-Soviet Russian history, or have relied on frankly whitewashed sources.
Facts are stubborn things. One day, you may learn to use them to understand, a bit better, what really happened, without filtering it through some nondistributing middle label maker. {hint: it is manifestly not that "all X are bad" or "all -x are good" you dumb fuck}
p.s. Also, and this isn't derived merely from this post, you appear to be an inveterate cunt.
How's that working out for you, boss?
Actually my main link was to a Putin’s childhood friend oligarch and ("a nice Jewish fella") Arkady Rotenberg who happens to be "one of the key beneficiaries of lucrative Olympic contracts."
Post Script link was just an additional information about what SOME Russians think.
Please get your facts straight first before you attack people and accuse them to be neocons and trolls.
I know you think you made some sort of point, I just have no idea what you think it is. The nice Jewish fella remark, which was too glib to be wise, admittedly, goes, as discussed, to who the oligarchs were and who a lot of the people are at CFR and elsewhere doing the bashing.
Now, you can accept or reject the thesis, or theory, but in the links provided, Putin's intimate ties, especially early, to many of the oligarchs is discussed. At length. Whatever Putin's ancestry may or may not be would seem to have no relevance to what he's done - which is to claw back much of Russia's natural resources from a group of mostly Jewish oligarchs who have significant ties to the west and to zionist organizations.
This doesn't mean that all the oligarchs were disingorged of their wealth, or that Putin is above corruption. Arkady is one of the guys who decided to follow an 'if you can't beat him join him' strategy.
During his first term in office, Putin moved to curb the political ambitions of some of the Yeltsin-era oligarchs, resulting in the exile or imprisonment of such people as Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky; other oligarchs such as Roman Abramovich and Arkady Rotenberg[115] soon joined Putin's camp.[citation needed] Putin presided over an intensified fight with organised crime and terrorism that resulted in two times lower murder rates by 2011,[116] as well as significant reduction in the numbers of terrorist acts by the late 2000s (decade)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin
So, I mean, what is your point? That my argument is unsound? If anything, your links amplify it. Or that I'm an "imbecile" because I mentioned that it was a tiny minority {with western and global zionist ties} that in essence grew rich by one of the most acute, coordinated series of thefts in modern history?
As the links I provided support, pretty well, I think, a lot of the Putin-bashing arose after he moved against several of the oligarchs, who fucked off to Britain or Israel. At least Arkady and Abramovich have built some shit that may provide some jobs and benefit to the Russian people.
I didn't think you're a troll, but you seem eager to smear me as a racist for mentioning the ethnicity of the oligarchs and theorizing that writers and think tankers from the same ethnicity might be motivated by Putin's wresting of power and wealth from them. You can take that or leave it. As for being racist, I know I'm not, which is all that matters to me. Could I choose my language more carefully, sure, but I'm of the opinion that honest and open discussion of this sort of thing is not only fair, but necessary to have a decent understanding of {part of} what's going on with the Putin and Russia-basing.
There's far too much thought-policing and knee-jerk smearing when certain facts regarding disproportionate power are mentioned. I view it as hypocritical and dishonest - to have quasi-quotas and discussions of 'white privilege' and aff action based on ethnicity, but being forbidden from discussing, where arguably relevant, incredibly disproportionate power held by only a certain group.
Particularly as discussion of same in the MSM is pretty much wholly absent.
This is Fight Club, and it's why it's such a good site to read articles and comments on.
Apologies to the extent I was harsh or unfair to your p.o.v.
I'm not "bashing" Russia. I'm "bashing" Putin's murderous with Hitler-like imperial ambitions and uber corrupt regime (that for some bizarre reason Zero Hedge is glorifying, this bloated, oppressive and deeply corrupt regime).
Hitler’s Games in Berlin in 1936 = Communist-era Moscow Games in 1980 = Putin's Sochi Games in 2014
Ah, the ole Reductio Ad Hitleram.
What took you so long?
How is Putin "imperial" via a vis the US, or NATO, or the IMF or EU?
Would you say Putin killed more or fewer people than bush/obama?
Corrupt, sure. But more or less corrupt and harmful to Russians than under Yeltsin? As corrupt as lying a nation into needless wars that cost trillions, and killed over a million?
Your absurd Putin-bashing isn't based on any logical foundation in a world in which the forces facing him are far worse.
You're ignorant, which is forgivable, but youre also a dishonest hypocrite, which is not.
But keep playing the Hitler card, as you keep ignoring the plank of wood in the eyes of Usrael and NATO.
Putin - is a democratic choice of the majority of Russian citizens. What do you interfere in other people's business? You do not like the democratic choice of the majority of Russian citizens?
Please choose in their own country, any idiot who you like.
Funny, so was the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt...
I recall Americans being given the choice of one Mitt Romney, and Bush's 4th term.
Glass houses, Flak.
You clearly missed the point of my comment...
And do you *really* think for a moment that Mittens wasn't also a 4th Bush term vis a vis the NSA, drones and the like. Are you that naive?
Re: "Putin - is a democratic choice of the majority of Russian citizens."
Hitler was "a democratic choice of the majority."
As far as Putin, yes he was a "democratic choice" indeed. In some regions turnout exceeded 140% and in Chechnya Putin scored 99.5%.
http://www.economist.com/node/21541455
Wall Street brought Hitler to power literally by hand and he was a puppet of Wall Street. You need to read more books, but not empty propaganda by faux news.
WALL STREET AND
THE RISE OF HITLER
By
Antony C. Sutton
http://www.reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/
@ Cult_of_Reason
You messed up in their lies. First, you claim that Chechen people against Putin. And then you say that in Chechnya for Putin voted 140% of voters. When exactly did you lie - in the first case or the second?
Seriously, you're going to the Hitler well far too often to be taken seriously.
You might look into what happened to votes for Ron Paul in several states in the last election, asshole, before asserting that electioneering fuckery is unique to Russia. Think those e-voting machines are faithfully recording everyone's votes? Might want to look into who owns them...
I'm simply suspicious of people like you, who never fail to bash Putin, while failing to ever bash the US for doing much the same, and worse.
Putin hasn't killed over a million people in the past ten years, hasn't invaded Ukraine, and arguably, has had to use strong arm tactics just to keep Russia from being torn apart due to ethnic and regional strife stoked by the US government and western NGOs - something you also always leave out of your calculus.
Are you a paid troll or what?
@ Cult_of_Reason
What do you care about corruption in Russia? You live in Russia? Or you are doing business in Russia? Or you are a victim of corruption in Russia and lost your money? Why are you trying to interfere in the affairs of others people in other countries? Or you're tired of the world and you want a new war?
They must have had the short bus Tyler in over the weekend, keeping the lights on and the plants watered. He's the same one that fills in over holiday weekends and usually finishes up on Sunday night with a guest post by a retard.
<- propaganda
<- stupid
This article by The Diplomat.
<- Both
<- Neither
Fawkinae Johnie. Gawddamn CZionists gottago.
lol
Interesting. Not only ABC but CBS too. When I up arrowed your zero responses JCNB, the plus number suddenly jumped to 8, and following that the HTML class code here suddenly changed on this comment; now I'm blocked from linking today's CBS Face the Nation Schieffer/Peter King interview regarding the latest Snowden allegations. Snowden's def become a burr under NSA's saddle and so has Putin's Olympics.
Stop this world.......I want to get off!!!
If you own an assault compressed air nail gun, I need you to calm down, entrust it to a loved one that you trust, and try to relax and get a good night's well, okay?
This article reads like some kind of second-rate political hit piece put out by the CIA. The Russian government, and in particular Putin, are very clever and shrewd and wouldn't spend a Ruble without a guaranteed decent return.
shutdown, Yes, I think you have exposed just what this hit piece was. These hit pieces are all over Business Insider and several other economic blogs lately. This is straight from the US State Department propaganda corps. ZH publishes what it feels like, so I don't complain of that. But we readers can mostly see through what this piece of crap is.
The efforts to smear and marginalize the Olympic games are so obvious I'm surprised they're not dumping nasty leaflets out of airplanes to discourage the spectators.
Too many white athletes in the winter sports.
Cool Runnings!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swnle389UKM
Horse Shit...the douches spend 50 BILLION on the opening "ceremonies"
I doubt there's a rush to immigrate or invest in the USSR (cause that is STILL what it is) from that display of idiocracy.
I think I read Russia is now third in world in direct outside investment. Up from 16th last year.
Ignorant post. Media dumb you down much?
No motherfucker. Pack your lists up your crippled ass. Russia has shown for decades that it crushes those that do not obey the Kremlin. "Direct outside investment" - referring to what - oil? Minerals?
Yeah - like Putin is going to allow exploitration of the Father/Motherland. LOL.
When the whip comes down - it'll sting a like bitch to all the greedy companies on your....list.
Your "lists" are dumbing YOU down.
That was a really shallow article. It surely doesn't come from anyone with real insight into Russia, in fact, nothing written there couldn't be picked up in an hour on the web. It has a strong taint of US State Department in it. I give it a 2 on a scale of 1-10, 10 being a really honest factual expose of Russia's situation in 2014. As for massive demonstrations 2 years ago. The leaders of them we paid by the USA, and film shows the leader going in to the US embassy in Moscow to receive instructions and other things. Moscow did indeed have demonstrations against Putins party. But Moscow was where they were and they were not massive in a city of some 15 million people. I remember occupy movement in USA, beaten down by US cops. Ugly attacks by cops on massive anti government demonstrations in USA, and in hundred sof cities. The Russian demonstrations 2 years ago showed freedom of expression even though the were not massive and were funded by USA.
The USA trick is to use money to purchase foreign elites to betray their people. This works in many nations. Russia will be attacked by US funded terrorists and demonstrated against by USA funded and bought people. Anyone in Russia demonstrating for the New World Order to move in and take over Russia are insane, or totally being paid by the USA. I think in a fair election, Russia will never vote for EU/USA/NATO candidates funded by USA, yes, they will get votes, but will never win.
You said: "The USA trick is to use money to purchase foreign elites to betray their people."
I say: The 13th Tribe's trick is to use money to purchase foreign elites to betray their people.
Also...Look at the push for 'multiculturalism' on a global basis and you'll find 13th Tribe efforts all over it, just like stink on shit.
Very poor one, Tyler !
One dot for you...
If Putin had real fucking balls he'd sell the Iranians the advanced S400 SAM system
And hit the House of Saud
Prince Bandar is quiet these days.
Polonium soup maybe?
He's on a long vacation in the USA due to exhaustion. Kid you not.
"Corruption, terrorism, human rights protests, high-level no-shows—all these represent ways in which..."
As an American I was certain you were commenting on the U.S.S.A.
Pretty sure we beat the Russians there, except for the protests.
I plussed you but I started laughing as I read the article. Russians would laugh too. They are not Western no matter how much Putin wishes that they would be. They do not like it. Don't buy into Putin's bullshit.
With but .05% of the worlds population, yet a prison population that represents 25% of the worlds incarcerated. Human rights is a term americans should hide from.
The very definition of hypocrisy.
Not sure of your maths there... closer to 5% of the world population I figure, but point is well taken of course.
"The staggering $50 billion price tag for the Games highlights official waste, fraud, and abuse"..... What...the Fed is spending $80B / mth hihglighting official waste, fraud, and abuse.
Does the author think that this is staggering as well? Ok...how about the $1.7 Trillion deficit by the Obama Admin this past year... is that staggering?
This author must be looking to get a ride on John Kohn's yacht moored in Rhode Island to avoid MA taxes.
Making shit up I see...
1.7 trillion? Really?
"Another opposition victory in 2013 was the election of Yevgeny Roisman"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Roizman
Yevgeny Roizman (born 14 September 1962) is a Russian-Jewish politician, the Mayor of Yekaterinburg[1] after winning the mayoral election in September 2013. He is known as a campaigner against corrupt police, illegal drug sellers and for drug rehab centers.
He was sentenced to a two-year prison term in 1981 on charges of theft and fraud[2] In 1999, Roizman cofounded the project City Without Drugs program. He operates a drug rehab center in Yekaterinburg, and has been accused by the city's officials of kidnapping drug-addicts[3] and imprisoning patients and using violence as part of therapy,[4][5] and was accused during the Yekaterinenburg 2013 mayoral race of entertaining strong ties with local mafia bosses.[6] In September 9, 2013 he was elected as Mayor of Yekaterinburg.
Yevgeny Roizman never, never and never, no was opposition to Putin. Do not believe the propaganda delirium. This is the same trick of propaganda, as alleged about popularity Navalny in Russia.
The majority of Russian citizens believe that Navalny - is a traitor who serves Washington for money.
Most Russian citizens despise Navalny only that he is a friend of McCain.
"needs market-based solutions that allow more small- and medium-sized businesses to form, reduce the size and power of state corporations, lighten the burden of corruption"
same with the USA.
The fucking hypocrisy is breath taking.
Agree, with both of you.
In other news, I have been trying to teach my Russian wife about how to play to cribbage for years now. Cribbage should be a winter Olympic event because that is all there is to do around here right now. It is just a simple game that is not so simple. It is just a game of odds and chance. She tried the game and I beat her easily. She became disillsuioned on cribbage and even to this day she will not play me no matter what I say. I started wondering how hard cribbage could be and I have played in tournaments. Oh yes, I have lost too but it was all for fun. That is what we do here in winter.
I got to looking around on you tube for cribbage. My goodness, if you ever try to play me based on YouTube videos then I will double skunk you. The game is easy if you can calculate odds. The cards in your hand are NOT the cards of your opponent...duh. Statistically speaking it is pretty straight forward. I want a game but none of these computer versions seem to work. Anyone have a good site?
wtf, is cribbage, sounds retarded, i feel bad for the russian gal who married you.. u probably have lots of money right?
8:07 and already ugly to someone looking for advice.
Resent your life much?
Chess.
It trains your mind to see muliple futures based on present realitys, and how to react to the highest probabilitys.
Fifteen-two, fifteen-four and the rest don't score...
This article is terrible and whoever wrote it is brain dead. If I wanted to read some trendy Russia bashing I'd just go any number of mainstream news outlets. Come on ZH you can do better than this.
I have to agree.
Please do better.
Western propaganda or not, most of you know jack shit about Russia.
And please. do not come with any ridiculous "Yes, I do know, I lived in Moscow for 3 months" crap.
If you haven't lived in the country for long time, and I do not mean living for a few months in Moscow/St.Petersburg and making decent money as a foreign specialist, if you do not follow the daily Russian news, in Russian, not the general drivel written in Western newspapers/newssites, you know jack shit.
You may praise Putin, the insignificant no-name KGB agent and suitcase carrier for the former mayor of St.Petersburg and a petty criminal, who, by chance, drew the greatest lottery ticket in the world and was made president of Russia, but if you speak to an average Russian, not a corrupted politician/policeman or a brainwashed/so-called-Russian-beer-drugged teenage idiot, what they think about the czar, you will hear only disdain and disgust.
I am so happy that my granddad, who fought in 3 wars, who burned 3 times in his tank (I've seen the driver of his tank, with melted face), who fought in the Kursk tank battle, did not live to see a furniture factory manager being pronounced the Minister of Armed Forces, then stealing, together with his whores (that's right - his two female bitches who he put in charge of running big parts of military establishment), billions of dollars. Not only did they not go to prison, the freaking furniture bastard was pronounced and decorated as "Hero of Russia"!
You should see how old people live in Russia, you whining American welfare queens would get a heart attack!
You may say and think what you want of Putin, but I know what my relatives in Penza think about Yeltsin/Putin Russia, and I know what I think about it.
I do not watch anything related to Olympics, out of principle, that is my little protest. I am sure the SHOW is great, no expense spared, but knowing where this money come from, knowing that big part of it was stolen and transferred abroad (the capital flight from russia is huge), knowing how the place for Olympics was decided (czar made a wish), knowing first hand how people live in real Russia, the behaviour of crazed monkeys from the Chechen/Dagestan region, seeing normal businesses and all the old factories being destroyed or sold off for peanuts or taken away (in RUssian - "otzhati") by FSB goons, I feel disgusted even reading about these olympic games.
predatel rodini
Ty zabyl popizdet' o "krovavoi gebne", - lzhets i konchennyi pridurok. LOL
to @ NoPasaran
Only a complete idiot or a paid provocateur like you, can say, that the people of Russia against Putin.
Even open enemies of Putin, forced to admit, that Putin has the support of the overwhelming majority of Russian citizens.
Double post.
The Zionists can scream like banshees but in the end they will have to accept that they've been outfoxed by Putin. In the 1990's they had their alcoholic stooge Boris Yeltsin and they looted Russia dry. Russia was run by the Mafia, the military was not being paid,there were mile long queues for bread.
After Yelstin's death, the crazy Zionists a.k.a "Oligarchs" saw the quiet quisling Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as a "safe pair of hands" who would permit business as usual-i.e. them getting richer and richer while Russians get fcuked. Putin nonetheless turned against his former handlers and drove them out of power and into exile. Master looter Mikhael Khordovoky cooled his heels in Siberia. The "privatizations" arranged under the previous regime were overturned, to a large extent, and the "entrepreneurs" of the Russian Mafia were reined in.
Political stability and economic progress returned to Russia. Poverty dropped by 50%, unemployed dropped from 55% to 8%, GDP per capita increased from $6,000 to $18,000.Russia is now the 8th largest economy in the world. The country possesses wealth that is guaranteed for the next 3,000 years. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2204566/Russia-diamonds-Source-S... You mad, Jew?
Russia is now 3rd in world in direct outside investment. Up from 16th last year.
Yet it worries those who want Russia to be a “normal” country, one with modern democratic institutions and social norms.
As... Which country with "modern democratic institutions and social norms"?
Regarding Putin, the west and the Ukraine conflict.... I understand Central Bank of Ukraine (National Bank) isn't a member of the BIS. I wonder who is pulling the strings of the whole matter.
Give Mr. Sorkin time...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihor_Sorkin
Sorkin is regarded as a long-time right-hand man of the increasingly influential Arbuzov. Earlier this year, Arbuzov was appointed first deputy prime minister in the recently reshuffled government led by 65-year old Mykola Azarov. Political analysts say the younger Arbuzov, 37, is being prepped to takeover soon as prime minister.
Domestic political pundits explain the reshuffling as a move by Yanukovich to increase his control over the most influential government positions, in turn sidelining representatives some oligarch groups that have supported him in past years.
However, a Thursday vote in parliament to relieve Arbuzov of his duties as central bank chief failed to muster a 226 majority of votes.
Dozens of pro-presidential lawmakers simply failed to show up for the vote. The invigorated opposition also prevented pro-presidential lawmakers present in the hall from voting on behalf of their absent colleagues by using their voting cards. Called “piano voting,” the unconstitutional practice was common in past years.
So the government tried again. In a repeat vote on Friday, Arbuzov was relieved of his central bank duties. In a rushed vote that followed, Sorkin was instated as head of the National Bank of Ukraine without taking any questions from lawmakers or laying out any substantial detail about his views on future monetary policy.
....
http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2013/01/11/play-it-again-viktor-ukraine...
Now do this same kind of piece and call it America after Lehman...
That this gets posted is actually quite informative in some way. This shows how delusional the upper echelons have become. They keep writing as if it is 1992.
Hilarious stuff, I laughed.
and not a single reference to Putin "skating on thin ice" Nice!
I got this far and stopped:
"...they suggest continuing challenges for the Western effort to create a cooperative relationship with Russia."
It's not at all clear to me that "the West" is making an effort to create a cooperative relationship with Russia. At least not one based upon mutual respect. This is what should have happened after the Cold War, but it didn't. What we have seen is the USG doing its best to surround Russia with NATO surveillance and weaponry for the purpose of ringfencing Russia and hemming it in...just like it did during the Cold War. Apparently, little has changed in Western capitals. Obama's humiliation by Putin over Syria and several other things add to the distrust that exists.
if with "western capitals" you mean Washington and London, then I agree. and this point of view is somewhat visible in the latest diplomatic "Fuck the EU" comment, which is an excellent example of "mutual respect"
Ghordius,
It's not just Washington & London, although I'd agree they are in front.
Surely you haven't missed that - even though the incumbent government in the Ukraine is closer to Russia than the "western-supported" opposition - the EU is busy stirring up the anti against it. Barroso and other unelected EU-crats have made acidic comments against the Ukraine president. Clearly they want regime change in the Ukraine just as Washington & London do. Russia sees all this as not being in its interests.
USA has all of its foreign NGOs register as foreign agents... Hypocrites.. Completely propaganda of an article, keep hating for no reason, ur western politicians need just that. A bad public opinion of Russia, since Putin doesn't play along with the ccorrput western NWO devil worshipping butt budies, elite.
Unbelievably ignorant article, pretty much a 100% miss as far as reality is concerned. This is one of those mainstream products which leaves me wondering if the author is really abysmally ignorant, or is knowingly massaging shallow, misleading, propaganda style mis-analysis. I tend to think it's the former in most cases. Perhaps Stephen Sestanovich also writes PR for Pussy Riot?
Off Topic, how strange was it, as an American, to see a highly produced epic ceremony (Sochi) that wasn't dark and loaded with occult and Luciferian symbolism? I mean where were the dancing chicks in loincloths and goat horns? The whole thing was strangely bright and light. Wake the fuck up? Buehler? Anyone?
As far as the "what the hell is this doing on ZH comments... This does come with a big, huge implied sarc tag, right Tylers? Right?
Seriously, what is an article like this doing on zerohedge, did the council on foreign relations pay off some zerohedge tylers with a lot of fiat to post this garbage?