…

It’s not Russia’s fault. Bush and Cheney, backed by their borscht buddies, are just looking for trouble with Russia in order to take over their borscht factories.

dalewalt on May 17, 2007 at 1:41 PM

Yes… the acclaimed firm Halliborschton.

Right on, Blaise! Also would make an excellent presidential debate question.

Thank you Entelechy for the link, the update & the zinger! And I don’t for a moment take at face value what is happening in the former Venezuela or the former Bolivia…

You can’t help but marvel at the sculptural power but you can understand why the locals weren’t chuffed to discover that their 1945 ‘saviours’ were the Red Army. That is like jumping free of the gallows and falling into a pit full of crocodiles….and that particular crocodile pit wasn’t drained until the Russian Zone ended in 1955. Still worth a look though, as it was a ‘gift’ from the Russian people…I think I’d have preferred socks!

Russia is already a rogue state.

Blaise, great list. Major item to add, Iran (mentioned by Bryan).

I’d add what we don’t know about – their deals with Venezuela, China, Bolivia, Nicaragua, etc.

Don’t know if the monument still stands in Vienna, at the Schwarzenbergplatz, or not… if so, time to take it down!

1. Cyber attack on a former Soviet vassal republic (Estonia)
2. Interference in Ukranian elections
3. Cutting off energy supplies to Georgia (the republic, not the state)
4. Prime suspect in murder of journalists
5. Prime suspect in murder of dissidents such as Alexander Litvinenko
6. Forced liquidation and sale of Russian corporations to friends of Mr. Putin
7. Elimination of opposition press
8. Pressure on potential electoral opponents of Putin favourites to drop out of elections.

There’s more, but that’s enough to make the point.

The point is not that Russia is backsliding into authoritarianism…that’s self-evident.

This is about the G-8 countries. Membership in this group is supposed to be characterized not only by economic advancement, but by commitment to democratic ideals. Whether or not post-Soviet Russia was ever committed to such ideals, I don’t know. I am sure however, that if any such commitment ever existed it has been long since abandoned.

Accordingly, when are out gutless leaders going to call a spapde a spade and tell Russia to get out of the G-8, and come back when they are ready to act like a civilized member of the community of nations?

Russia couldn’t compete with us when they were a globe-bestriding empire, now, they’re heading toward client state of China status. … Yawn.

Veeshir on May 17, 2007 at 8:42 AM

Which may – I emphasize may – be one of the reasons why Bryan referred to Russia becoming a “rogue state” and not a “rival superpower”.

For all of the reasons Anton mentioned, that is a big deal. Most of our past & lingering problems came from the KGB wing of the regime, not from 20,000 warheads or a million men under arms in Eastern Europe.

The Russian Mafia(across and down the hall from the “government” offices) have become insanely good at controlling botnets for fun and profit. That is probably where the “attacks from all over the world” thing is coming from. That makes it alittle…only alittle…difficult to nail down the control node for the botnet. It’s certainly doable but it will probably take some time and some careful Statecraft as the network traffic will probably cross a couple of unfriendly borders.

I think it is certianly time for NATO to look at what constitutes an attack on a member. It’s a different world now and a coordinated attack on cyber infrastructure is just as critical as a column of tanks rolling through a capital…perhaps more so.

If they can seriously damage the ability to do business in Estonia, then they can threaten other states. Its another form of blackmail.

Many of us in the industry have seen this coming for quite some time, going to be interesting to see how this turns out.

Patton was right.

Hening on May 17, 2007 at 9:41 AM

Unfortunately FDR and Truman’s entire Administrations were linked to working with the Soviets.

Veeshir on May 17, 2007 at 8:42 AM

Were you alive back then? If so, you sure weren’t paying attention.

Russia’s command-and-control government isn’t good for their people, but it is very good at sticking to important tasks like weapons development, military recruitment, and espionage. Their intellectual and military class is as good as anyone we have, with the added benefit of being able to stick to a mission longer than our short-attention-span political culture allows.

Ditto for the Chinese.

I don’t want Russia as a sworn enemy again. I can deal with them behaving like a cranky, hung-over version of France. But if Putin wants to oppose us, we really can’t dismiss the challenge or pretend they are not a formidable threat.

Yawn.

Veeshir on May 17, 2007 at 8:42 AM

Is this what we call complacency?

- The Cat

We’re not in a new Cold War with Russia yet

That always makes me laugh. It’s like the “rivalry” between Ithaca and Cornell, only one school knows about it.

Russia couldn’t compete with us when they were a globe-bestriding empire, now, they’re heading toward client state of China status.
Sure Russia has nukes, but they’re all at least 20 years old and were probably no more than 80% reliable 20 years ago.

Yawn.

Estonia decided to remove a Soviet-era monument from its capital city.

Oh, the horror! I don’t think we should be in a new cold war, in the same sense. Someone should just cyberattack them back. I’m sure you tell a few hackers here, that they have permission to declare all out cyberwar on Russia, they’d have Russia’s systems down in a few hours.