Dead Man Talking
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday called President Saakashvili “a political corpse”. “For us, the present Georgian regime is bankrupt,” he said in an interview broadcast on Russian television on September 2. “President Saakashvili no longer exists in our eyes. He is a political corpse.”( Civil Georgia, 3 Sep.'08 / 12:22)That of course leads us to assess the doings of this dead man Saakashvili. Yes, he has erratic behavior. Yes, he acts funny sometimes. Yes he never stops talking when he should. But really: He has managed to stand upright through the worst nightmare any leader could face through war and occupation and still have a united country behind him in his obvious military defeat. In his naïve and enthusiastic way he also has managed to be a mirror, to hold all the western leaders political gala speeches about democracy and sovereignty up in front of them and in that way captured them in their own rhetoric. He has managed to get Georgia and Ukraine (who knows what happens there with the loose canon Tymoshenko who is flirting with the Russian party these days) a lot closer to NATO membership, got a free trade agreement with the EU, put Russia in a very difficult position, and finally get observators from OSCE in the rebel regions: a goal he has persued for many years.I’d say that not bad for a corpse.
posted by Eistein G. at 7:01 pm
26 Comments:
Vladimir Putin, Unmasked at Last
We confess that, though we have been predicting it for years now, it has happened sooner and more spectacularly than any of us dared dream.
Vladimir Putin has been unmasked and stands naked before the world. The $1 billion aid package for Georgia that the U.S. government has just announced is unmistakable proof that the world now clearly sees Putin for what he is: evil incarnate.
There was a time, it must be admitted, when even Putin’s actual physical nudity was part of his mask. Few Russia watchers will forget first seeing those photographs of a shirtless Putin frolicking at the side of a river, flexing his muscles for all the world to see. And, having not seen Putin’s breathtaking barbarism in Georgia, many in the world were beguiled by the spectacle, reluctant to concede its obvious meaning, that Putin is quite insane in the classic Stalinist manner.
But having seen that bloodthirsty violence, who in the world — even the most slackjawed of the Russians themselves — can see as anything but tragic farce the Russian media reports earlier this week about Putin saving TV crew from a tiger? Does the Kremlin really believe there is anyone, even in Russia, itself, who will not see it as being just a little bit too convenient that Putin performs this act of he-man heroism so soon after seeing the Georgia invasion turn into an international fiasco in which Russian has been condemned for aggression by every nation on the planet? Does the Kremlin really believe such silly Soviet-style propaganda will make the world forget Putin’s crazed — indeed, hysterical – public statements blaming the U.S. government for the Georgia crisis, claiming it was all part of a plot to elect John McCain?
Speaking of those crazed remarks, those who would rationalize neo-Soviet Russia are fond of asking those who accuse the Kremlin of complicity in political murders – like that of hero journalist Anna Politkovskaya and KGB defector Alexander Litvinenkon — to produce “evidence” before making the charges. But what “evidence” did Putin produce of his alleged U.S.-sponsored conspiracy? None whatssoever. And where were those who demand “evidence” when Putin uttered his crazed statements? They were nowhere to be found.
More and more each day, reading news reports on the Russian government’s reaction to its hamhanded mishandling of the Georgia issue is becoming a through-the-looking-glass experience. On Tuesday, for instance, Russia was praising the European Union for declining to impose sanctions or freeze diplomatic relations and claiming Russia would not be isolated because of Georgia and at the very same time condemning the EU for imposing sanctions, in the form of frozen talks over Russian participation in the EU. It was also condeming Australia, even as Putin claimed Russia was “not isolated,” for announcing it was reconsideration its decision to sell Russia vital yellowake uranium Russia needs for its nuclear reactors.
It was, in short, as if the Kremlin were genuinely not in touch with reality, just as in Soviet times deluded into the crazy notion that it could, with superior Russian intelligence, pull the wool over the eyes of the entire outside world. To be sure, Russian leaders can be forgiven for thinking this might be possible given the callow, pathetic response to such actions they receive from the people of Russia themselves. But even judged under this standard, Russia’s actions in recent days have been quite literally insane.
Another wonderful, horrible example is reported by Paul Goble, who says that Russians are now saying they are 1-1 in the cold war. Sergei Karaganov, the head of Moscow’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, says that there was one “cold war” against Bolshevik Russia between its seizure of power and World War II, and since the Bolsheviks survived World War II they “won” the first cold war, only to be defeated in the second that followed the end of the military conflict. By that twisted logic, the USSR won the cold war each day of its existence, and lost only once, on the day it was extinguished, and therefore leads the cold war scorecard by hundreds to one. Karaganov then argues that Russia has “certain advantages” in the new cold war, and apparently high hopes of raising the score to 2-1 in its favor.
But the best evidence of all is the behavior of Putin’s hand-picked successor Dmitry Medvedev. Just hours after the world’s newswires were burning with the news of yet another anti-Kremlin journalist being murdered to silence him, Medvedev declared that the freely-elected president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, was not recognized by Russia and was a “political corpse.” Only a true barbarian could make so vulgar and ill-timed a remark, could fail to understand how the world would view him. Putin has been soundly defeated by Saakashvili, has adventure in Georgia has blown up in his face. And so, like the mafia thug he is, Putin can think of only one response: physical liquidation, the same technique that was used to deal with Anna Politkovskaya.
That is the same “solution” they tried in the USSR, and it’s not surprising that a proud KGB spy like Putin would fall back upon it. But it didn’t work then, and it won’t work now. The only thing Putin achieves is to convince the world that Russia is a barbaric state to be excluded from the confidences of civilized nations — exactly the opposite of what the Russian people want. They crave respect and admiration in the outside world, yet their leaders generate only scorn and contempt.
Political corpse? Saakashvili?
Who says it, Medvedev? The "president" whos future as a president was dead even before he "became a president"?
Haha....
Thanks for this post, you have described him very correct.
Squaring his shoulders, looking grim and punctuating his speeches with uncharacteristically blunt language, the 42-year-old Medvedev has in recent months sounded like Putin, his predecessor and mentor. On Aug. 11, he used the words "lunatic" and "bastard" in talking about Saakashvili.
The so-called "president" of Russia (everybody knows he has no real power) talks like a common street thug -- proving just how soundly the President of Georgia has defeated him.
Wonder how Russians would react if President Bush called Medvedev, not elected freely as the President of Georgia has repeatedly been, a "bastard."
Putin complained to Time magazine that Westerners wrongly see Russias as "a little bit savage." Indeed, they are mistaken. They don't realize Russia is much more savage than that.
Now, Russia is more alone, more alienated and hated among the republics of the former Soviet Union than at any other time in Soviet and post-Soviet history.
Indeed, for quite a few people, Stalin is once again popular as the man who created the great Soviet - read Russian - empire; and it is not accidental that Alexandr Prokhanov, editor of one of the most influential Russian dailies, Zavtra, proclaimed that in the recent war with Georgia, the Georgian "battalion Solzhenitsyn" was destroyed by the advancing Russian army.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Prokhanov
One could assume that these Russian forces advancing toward Gori, Stalin's birthplace in Georgia, were hailed by a huge effigy of Stalin, possibly the only one that remains in the world. Here, as if still alive, and looking dignified, he hails Russian soldiers as he did in 1945 when they marched in Red Square in Moscow during the victory parade that followed the end of
World War II.
This seems to explain why the comparison between the recent Russian invasion of Georgia and the Soviets' imperial buildup launched by Stalin is so popular in the Western media.
But this is not the case: the war has irrevocably broken the relationship between the Russians and the other peoples of the former Soviet Union, that is, the war has in fact finally destroyed the legacy of Stalinism.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JI05Ag01.html
Hmmm...
Dear Josef boberg,
Whar does this intriguing "hmmm" mean?
:)
Just that I had read and contemplated... :-)
Josef Boberg
What's your opinion about this tekst ?
Georgia’s Human Chain Stronger than Russian Tanks
On Monday, Georgia came to a halt or, rather, it came to life. A massive human chain gripped the avenues of Tbilisi, the streets of Russian-besieged Poti, the squares of every city, the lanes of every village and the country roads that connect them.
Maybe Russian Czar Vladimir Putin watched on television the human chain that will defeat his tanks. This is no maudlin deviation from this column’s traditional realist analysis. It is a sober argument that Georgia’s human chain represents the march of history from which Putin has kept his country.
Link to the text
http://georgiandaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7218&Itemid=133
George Friedman on Georgia
This article in the NYRB caught my attention and is strongly recommended
Georgia and the Balance of Power
The Russian invasion of Georgia has not changed the balance of power in Eurasia. It has simply announced that the balance of power had already shifted. The United States has been absorbed in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as potential conflict with Iran and a destabilizing situation in Pakistan. It has no strategic ground forces in reserve and is in no position to intervene on the Russian periphery. This has opened an opportunity for the Russians to reassert their influence in the former Soviet sphere. Moscow did not have to concern itself with the potential response of the United States or Europe; hence, the balance of power had already shifted, and it was up to the Russians when to make this public. They did that on August 8.
link
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21772
To the shamless Friedman:
"This article in the NYRB caught my attention and is strongly recommended"
As you have written the article yourself, I would suggest that you say: "Dear Eistein G. Can I do som advertising on your blog for an article I have written?"
Next article should asess the global economy and the change from mechanical warfare to financial warfare. As the ever so mighty mafiahead Lucchese (in the Godfather III)states it: "Finance is a gun. Politic is when to pull the trigger"
Your right Eistein
Friedman is too generous: the present Russian leadership's bandit operation in Georgia doesn't make Russia a great power, merely one to be loathed and despised. The advent of a "new cold war" is precisely the message that the leadership wants to project to the outside world, as can be seen from numerous recent interviews with ideologues of the Dugin-Prokhanov brand - and the West shouldn't fall for it. In fact, Russia's armed forces are rather far from having established any kind of positive reputation, even a "competent" one. In the recent conflict Georgia's weaponry far outclassed the Russian hardware, and even on the third day of the war Russian forces were taking heavy casualties. While the Su-25s could fly at night, the Russian jets couldn't, and this gave Georgia a significant advantage. In the end, the balance was tipped in Russia's favour by sheer force of numbers on the ground - hardly a great victory. Moscow didn't even have the political will to finish the job properly by bombing Tbilisi and overthrowing Saakashvili, much to the disgust of Russia's generals.
Hmmm... - Ole Pedersen - Apropå Din fråga ovan: ”Josef Boberg - What's your opinion about this tekst ?”
Personligen föredrar jag numera att hålla mig till det allt överskuggande väsentliga - om vad som övergripande är grundorsaken till allt faenstyg som MaktPyramid-MaktElitNissar både här och där i världen hittar på = ”ställer till med”, tyvärr tyvärr...
Mer om det i sak - och i kortform - här.
Josef Boberg new question.
(Mr Kadyrov confirmed that Chechen units and paramilitaries had fought with Russians against Georgians in South Ossetia last month.
"We Chechens are obliged to be on the front line with Russia because we are warriors, and we know what war is," he explained. )
BBC
The Russian rule and divide in the
Caucasus region are well documented.
As Eistein have pointed out in several previous occasions,crimnals do not like rule of law.
President Saakashvili is hated by criminals.
Saak’ashvili graduated from the School of International Law of the Kiev State University (Ukraine) in 1992. He briefly worked as a human rights officer for the interim State Council of Georgia following the overthrow of President Zviad Gamsakhurdia before receiving a fellowship from the United States State Department (via the Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program).He received an LLM from Columbia Law School in 1994 and took classes at The George Washington University Law School the following year. In 1995, he also received a diploma from the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.
Play by the KGB-RULES ?
As the ever so mighty mafiahead Lucchese (in the Godfather III)states it: "Finance is a gun. Politic is when to pull the trigger"
Josef Boberg new question.
You know the son of the Sovjet KGB-star Heydar Aliyev, who was made head of the Azerbaijani KGB when İlham was six and later became party leader for Azerbaijan and full member of Politburo, and Dr. Zarifa Aliyeva, a medical doctor and daughter of Soviet politician Aziz Aliyev
Worrisome for Washington is the Russian proposal that lies on Aliyev's table offering that Moscow will be prepared to buy all of Azerbaijan's gas at world market prices - an offer Western oil companies cannot possibly match. It is an offer Baku will seriously consider against the backdrop of the new regional setting.
As the ever so mighty mafiahead Lucchese (in the Godfather III)states it: "Finance is a gun. Politic is when to pull the trigger"
How do you explain this behavior, is it in the long tern interest of the people or Aliyev ?
Ole - samma svar som det ovan givna tidigare... :-)
Josef Boberg
You have a very simple understanding of the world.
It sounds like you do not dislike the Putin-puppetmasters.
Hmmm... - Ole Pedersen - Apropå Din uttryckta mening ovan: "It sounds like you do not dislike the Putin-puppetmasters." - slut citat.
Detta är till 100 % Dina egna ord = ej alls mina !
Men det är helt OK för mig - därför att det är till 100 % Ditt eget bord = ej alls mitt bord - och ingen enda annans bord heller för den delen.
Hmmm - Josef Boberg thinks is ok to serve as Putnis puppy like a Sovjet KGB-star ?
It is impossible for Boberg to say anything negativ about the pay masters behavior ?
Du forstår kanskje ikke engelsk siden du har slike propbemer med å gi konkrete svar ?
Det kanske kan vara av bra för “Putinkramare” att erinra sig att det efter andra världskriget finns en enda makt som fortfarande sitter på orättmätigt ockuperat territorium, nämligen Ryssland. Detta numera så fredsälskande land besitter fortfarande Karelska Näset och fd Ostpreussen. Man har inte heller gjort en min av att ersätta de baltiska staterna för allt de lidande som ryska intressen förorsakat där, men krigsskadestånd av Finland, det klämde klämde man ut till sista marken. Det finns ingen orsak att inte tala klartext om vad denna stat nu sysslar med, nämligen att långsiktigt återta förlorad mark.
Josef Boberg er Putins mann og gjør en glimrende jobb på nettsiden til Carl Bildt for å skape dessinformasjon og forvirring ?
Hmmm... - Ole - Apropå Din uttryckta mening ovan: ”Josef Boberg er Putins mann og gjør en glimrende jobb på nettsiden til Carl Bildt for å skape dessinformasjon og forvirring ?”
Igen - Ditt förhållningssätt till mig som person är helt OK för mig - därför att det är till 100 % Ditt eget bord = ej alls mitt bord - och ingen annans bord heller för den delen.
Övrigt
1. Alla kommentars-möjligheter i tanke- och skrift i fri form är ”puts väck” sedan förra veckan på Carl Bildt´s blogg.
2. Vad jag personligen EGENTLIGEN ”håller på med” - finns det en del i sak om här och i kommentarerna här.
Ha det... :-) /önskar tankefrihets-vännen Josef
Takk for at du bekrefter hypotesen om at du står på lønningslisten til Putin-mafian.
Er det historiske grunner for at du er “Putinkramare” ?
." The Stalinist left? "
I wouldn't define it that way because of the pejoratives loaded around it; that would be making a rod for your own back. If you are asking did I support the Soviet Union, yes I did. Yes, I did support the Soviet Union, and I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Hmmm... - Ole - Måhända känner Du ej alls till talesättet:
"Det Wi tänker/talar/skriver om någon eller några andra - det tänker/talar/skriver Wi ALLTID mer eller mindre om oss själva också - och ej alls så sällan minst lika mycket !"
Som folkpensionär sedan 2006 - så får jag min lön ifrån statskassan i Sverige. Min folkpension räcker mer än väl till för att överleva på utan sidoinkomster, faktiskt... :-)
I think we must calm dow a bit here
Hmmm... - Eistein G. - Jag håller med Dig, verkligen...
För en stund sedan försökte jag göra detsamma här (så länge den nu får vara kvar - utan att raderas...).
Trevlig helg... :-) /önskar folkfreds- och folkstyres-vännen Josef - med:
”Intelligent Wi kommer att drömma i natt
Intelligenta drömmar som Wi aldrig någonsin drömt förut
Wi drömmer om att det Är Fred och Frid på Jorden
Därför att Allas Tanke-intellektuella och Fysiska Krig Är Slut !”
Apropå texten i min föregående kommentar: "För en stund sedan försökte jag göra detsamma här (så länge den nu får vara kvar - utan att raderas...)."
Raderingen kom några timmar senare - men den texten i sin helhet finns nu istället här.
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