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Amaunet

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Amaunet

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Re: Amaunet post# 1575

Tuesday, 09/07/2004 10:40:24 AM

Tuesday, September 07, 2004 10:40:24 AM

Post# of 9338
President Putin has admitted he puts the strength of the state above even democracy. He understands that democracy is being used by foreign countries to further guarantee the poverty of his people. Putin will step on Russian freedom, he has no choice, he will be judged by what degree.

It is the freedom that democracy bestows that best allows a foreign country to steal a nation's assets through the same privatization that was shoved on Russia and that we plan to bestow on Iraq even mulling an annual cash payout for all Iraqis if they would privatize their oil and gas sector.
#msg-1197170
#msg-1869189

Putin referring to the United States said "Some would like to cut a juicy piece of our pie. Others help them," he said. "Terrorism is just one instrument they use."

One way in which we were to cut a piece of their pie may be glimpsed in the Khodorkoysky affair. A close scrutiny shows the Khodorkoysky case was in essence a means by which the United States could invade Russia by gaining not only control of Yukos but a foothold in their Duma.

Another problem connected to YUKOS—the issue of buying seats in the Duma—has been noticeably less discussed. YUKOS is accused of not limiting its lobbying to “one-time” deals, but generously “sponsoring” various parties to cobble together its own Duma “faction.” Other oligarchs do similar things, but not on the same scale as YUKOS.
http://www.gateway2russia.com/st/art_164082.php

This is how generously they were sponsoring.

The Russian president and the former secret police members who now dominate his staff struck at Khodorkovsky when it became clear that the billionaire was preparing to spend $100 million to win a large bloc of seats in Duma elections next month and eventually to run for the presidency himself.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/147219_hoagland7.html

Exxon Mobil originally meant to buy a controlling interest in Yukos, only later did they back down to 40%.

Therefore the merger in its original intent would have given Exxon Mobil, a foreign entity, seats in Duma.

The sale of Yukos shares to a U.S. company would entail that representatives of American big business would be sitting in the Russian parliament. Russia would cede its sovereignty if it allowed transfer of strategic assets to corporations that are, in turn, closely linked to foreign governments. This would be like having a representative of Russian business in the U.S. congress voting on or blocking key legislation relating to the national interest. Knowing that Khodorkovsky has been siphoning profits from the impoverished Russian people under the umbrella of privatization compliments of democracy and is associated with not only the Carlyle Group but the elder Bush and others it becomes painfully obvious that his allegiance is with the United States and not Russia yet he would be president. This is betrayal, he’s lucky Putin does not try him for treason.

The sovereignty of Russia was being challenged albeit in a small way but nevertheless a precedent Putin could not ignore. Khodorkovsky was plotting against his own country.

Our objective has always been to contain Russia, keeping them in abject poverty by controlling pipelines and limiting Russia’s ability to get their oil and gas to market.

One example may be found in Turkey who takes orders from the United States and is limiting Russian oil transport through the Bosporus Straits and boosting its own interest in the construction of a U.S. backed pipeline from Baku on the Caspian Sea to the Turkish terminal at Ceyhan, which would also by-pass Russia.
#msg-3518781

Putin also cites terrorism as another instrument we use.

Bush who recently has vowed never to negotiate with terrorists "in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere," and told a campaign rally last week: "You can't talk sense to these people. You can't negotiate with them. You cannot hope for the best. We must engage these enemies around the world" will pay terrorists, specifically the AUC, with taxpayer money to destroy democratically elected Chavez of Venezuela for oil. Not only does Bush negotiate with terrorists he takes them to his bosom as allies. We saw this again when Bush gave asylum to Chechen/al-Qaeda rebel, Ilyas Akhmadov, who is connected to the attacks in Russia.
#msg-3967677

Many signs point to the fact that the United States clandestinely supports the Chechen rebels who are reportedly related to al Qaeda and thus we are ultimately responsible for the deaths of all those Russian schoolchildren.
#msg-3953878

Lately Bush has gone too far.

-Am

Putin warns of security backlash

Pressure for action rises

Jonathan Steele in Moscow
Monday September 6, 2004
The Guardian

Vladimir Putin's solemn weekend broadcast to the Russian people struck many popular chords and will have satisfied most of his compatriots, but it left unclear what concrete changes in policy will come in the wake of the catastrophe of Beslan.

The president appealed to nostalgic Soviet patriots and Russia's ancient sense of encirclement when he said the collapse of the USSR left the country "without defences either to the east or west". He criticised the mistakes of the security forces, saying: "We could have been more effective if we had acted professionally and at the right moment."

He conjured up a frightening external threat, indirectly accusing the US of supporting terrorists and trying to disarm Russia as a nuclear power and pull territory away from it. "Some would like to cut a juicy piece of our pie. Others help them," he said. "Terrorism is just one instrument they use."

He called for unity as the best form of strength because in the past "we showed ourselves to be weak and the weak get beaten".

Mr Putin signalled that he intends to re-establish control over security across Russia. But how can he do it? He faces enormous challenges in all areas of domestic, military and foreign policies.

Domestic


In putting all the blame on international terrorism, the president avoided using the word "Chechnya" at all. The measures he talked about in broad terms - to strengthen Russia's unity, create a new system of control over the northern Caucasus and set up an effective anti-crisis management system - need to be fleshed out.

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The speech also left the suspicion that Mr Putin was exploiting the shock of Beslan to accelerate efforts to create a more authoritarian and centralised form of rule, and using the notion of a terrorist war on Russia to divert attention from rising social and economic tensions.

All the indicators show an increase in the gap between rich and poor, as well as stubbornly high rates of joblessness, particularly in parts of the northern Caucasus. The high world price for oil has given the government a cushion at least to pay wages and pensions on time, unlike a few years ago, but Mr Putin's neo-liberal economic strategy caused the biggest street protests of his presidency this summer.

Other shocks are in store, including a rise in the domestic price of oil and gas, which will hit people's utility bills. Medicine is being privatised, leaving thousands defenceless. The closure of kindergartens and even schools is hitting families hard in smaller towns, many in the northern Caucasus - precisely the areas where tension can turn to violence.

In central Russia discontent often turns to apathy. In Muslim regions it can lead people to Islamism. The oddest line in the president's speech was his suggestion that Russians cannot "live in as carefree a manner as before" - as though his compatriots have not endured some of the harshest ordeals in Eu rope in the last century, including civil war, dictatorship, foreign invasion, and the recent collapse in living standards and security which he himself mentioned.

Military


Mr Putin has few options militarily. The war in Chechnya is going badly, and Russian deaths continue at a rate of 15 a week. The resistance fighters are not as strong as they were during the first Chechen war but the struggle is essentially at a stalemate.

The president has gradually been restoring the power of the KGB, now renamed the FSB. It was weakened under President Yeltsin, but Mr Putin recently put the border guards back under FSB control. Handling terrorism is in the hands of a dozen different ministries and he may create a Russian version of the US department of home land security, essentially a strengthened FSB.

Other ideas which were already under discussion before the Beslan atrocity were to raise the profile of Russia's security council. Under Igor Ivanov it has little clout and the key discussions on security take place weekly in what is sometimes called "the little Politburo". It is chaired by Mr Putin and includes all the "power" ministers: defence, interior, foreign affairs, as well as the prosecutor general.

Sergei Ivanov, the defence minister and a friend of the president, who is tipped as his successor, might be appointed to chair the security council. Other suggestions are that the job of vice-president be re-established.

Mr Putin's call for strengthening the unity of the country might mean a further boost for the restoration of "vertical" rule. He has already changed parliament's upper house, the federation council, so that regional governors and legislative leaders no longer sit in it. Now there is talk of the president appointing governors, rather than them being elected. This would bring Russia back towards the Soviet system of hierarchical one-party rule from Moscow.

Foreign policy


The president's emphasis on a powerful external threat will cut into his foreign policy options. In the Caucasus, Russia's bargaining position has weakened over the last year. The new nationalist government in Georgia is unlikely to help seal its frontier with Russia when it is trying to remove the Russian troops from the disputed territory of South Ossetia, which was within Georgia's borders in Soviet times.

Azerbaijan may be unwilling to help clamp down on its Chechen diaspora while Russia has failed to get Armenian troops out of the large areas of Azerbaijan which they occupy.

The US and Russia are struggling for influence in the southern Caucasus, and Mr Putin will not want any American interference in the northern Caucasus, including Chechnya, as well. His claim that Washington is exploiting the disruption caused by terrorism is a warning that, even though both sides claim to be allies against an invisible international enemy, the rules of the game have strict limits.


I

http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,2763,1298049,00.html














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