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What are your hopes and fears for Russia in 2009?
Marian 18 December, 2008, 21:39 Concerning the balance of power, Russia should not focus on global considerations, such as the general balance of power between Russia and the USA. Another way of conceptualizing power might be in terms of the resources the people of Russia might possess one day(income, education, pensions, economy). A country that cares for its inhabitants will flourish and will be admired, while a country that wishes neighbouring small countries as a 'security belt' will fail in the end. What I fear: The way Russia defines power just now - My hopes: That I will be wrong. Besides, for Clinton, economy was the key to power for a country('It is economy, stupid').
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Lavy 19 December, 2008, 09:15 Hopes - The hope that the economic Meltdown that has affected the whole world, but more so Russia, shall wither away or at least the ill effects be lessened... Other hopes - Lessening of tensions with US,Further integration with the EU and others, more cooperation with CIS members, population pressures to lessen. Fears - NATO, AMD, Economic, More tensions, inflation, further Georgian extremism...
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Andrey 19 December, 2008, 09:59 Fears - the crisis will hit our regions in the spring. I hope Putin was right about Russia to overcome it successfully. Hope - Zenit will win UEFA Cup again! Good luck for all!
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TRIATHLON 19 December, 2008, 21:04 HOPES FOR THE NEW RUSSIA (1)That it not withdraw into it self at a time when the world is looking for Peace, and a World based upon a prime directive of none interference into the affairs of a neighboring state without provocation. (2)That Russia and its dynamic leadership of President Dmitry Medvedev, and Chairman Vladimir Putin working in a continued team effort are willing to trust but will verify, any agreements, understandings, or treaties made with the (US/MIC) United States Military Industrial Complex, as its foreign policy is entirely based upon the Aristocratic Elite, World Chessboard Game Theory, The (FSWD) Full Spectrum World Domination Strategy, Preparing the Battlefield, Clear, Hold, and Rebuild as a state of the (US/MIC). (3)That President Dmitry Medvedev, and Chairman Vladimir Putin have the wisdom to understand the (US/MIC) is an aristocratic family business which is doing a great job for the elite (US/MIC) governing cadre, they meet, debate, posture, do the bidding of Wall St., as their agenda is handed to them by “K” street lobby’s along with fat checks, submit, pass, and place into law legislation good for Wall St., the (US/MIC) and the family business bank accounts, and power base. That’s not a shameful performance its just family business as usual. USMC Gen. Chesty Puller said the mob had nothing over the (US/MIC)United State Marine Corp., and how true he was. And its end game is one of (FSWD). (4)Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev stated that the New Soviet Russia will defend its interests against nations that may oppose its expanding influence in the regions vital to the continued prosperity of the Russia, and the Russian people, this should be extended to the continued expanding threat being directed against the interests of not only the Russian Motherland but Peace World Wide by the (US/MIC) (5)That President Dmitry Medvedev, and Chairman Vladimir Putin, and Russian Security Council Chief Nikolai Patrushev, will continue to make available to those nations which request military aid the assistance not in manpower or the sons of Russia but the tools, supplies, and weapons of defense to allow them to defend themselves and their way of life against the expanding domination of the (US/MIC). (6)That President Dmitry Medvedev, and Chairman Vladimir Putin, will work to once again bring about a world under (UN) United Nations Charters, and International Laws, ending the era of Pox America Unilateral Cowboy Diplomacy, in which the only way is the American version of Democracy at the end of a (USMC) United State Marine Corp. Bayonet, or Blackwater Security if its to your front and alive its an enemy, if its to your rear and dead it a friendly. My Fears for both Russia and the World is that they not wake up and face the demon, the wolf at the door the (US/MIC).
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Marzipan6 20 December, 2008, 06:07 HOPES: (1) That Russia will make peace with itself and with its neighbours by finding the courage and honesty to candidly face its Soviet past, apologise for the crimes that Russians committed against their fellow Russians and their neighbours in the name of the Soviet State, and move forward together in mutual understanding and friendship toward a better future for all. (2) That Russians will begin a genuine national debate over what they have learned from their seven decades of Soviet experience, and over what responsibility ordinary Russians had for allowing the Soviet nightmare to descend on them and for allowing it to remain in place for so long. Part of this debate would include a listing of danger signs that would indicate when contemporary Russia might again be in danger of slipping into totalitarianism, and a plan of action for what ordinary Russians could do to avoid such danger when it presents. FEARS: That none of the above will happen, as no Russian political figure of any note is even suggesting such a path. Instead, Russia seeks to deal with its criminal past by burying it under distortions and outright lies, blaming the victims and not the victimisers, and choosing the most violent and blood-soaked episodes of its past history to serve as markers for its self-identity. Meanwhile, the true heroes of Russia, the men and women who opposed the Soviet system and the many others who survived the Gulag with their humanity intact, remain unacknowledged and uncelebrated. Oh, Russians shed a few tears at Solzhenitsyn’s funeral – they are, after all, a sentimental people. But they left the truths and values that Solzhenitsyn fought for firmly on the shelf, and don’t want to know about them. The result over the next 12 months of Russia continuing to live in its preferred distortions will be the same as it has been for the past 12 months: a nation that seeks validation through conflict not co-operation, that sees paranoid threats in normal internal disagreements and external differences of opinion, that will continue to have strained and fraught relations with neighbours and with the wider world, and that will continue to deny both itself and them the benefits that co-operation could bring to all.
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Kotic 20 December, 2008, 13:10 HOPES: THAT MARZIPAN6 WILL GO AWAY. FEARS: MARZIPAN6 WILL NOT GO AWAY.
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Benedict Panda LongHu 20 December, 2008, 15:50 Hopes: 1) That Russia will continue to play the proactive role in global diplomacy that it began in earnest under Putin and cemented internationally with the appointment and policy enactments of Medvedev. 2) That more Russians will understand and reinforce the role that Russia is playing internationally, assisting the rise of Russia (again) which will restore and ensure balance in world affairs. 3) That Russia will maintain a peaceful balance between East and Western powers and not listen to US idiots who would like Russia to become a Disney state. Fears: 0) None. No fears. Russia is rising just as China, India and other important future-prominent economies rise. Russia is in the right economically, domestically, in foreign policy and most importantly strategically via its partnerships with Iran, India, China, South America and Europe, particularly via its key role in the SCO. Russia is peace-maker, protector and partner and there is no better role to have in the world than this at this important time in world policy making.
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Takhliq 20 December, 2008, 16:01 I hope to see better relations between russia and pakistan. It is too critical for the stability of the region.
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Cantemir 20 December, 2008, 17:27 Dear Marzipan6, Russia is a different entity now than the former Soviet Union. Besides, the people leading the destinies of the russian people now are different than the ones responsible for all the atrocities of the past and, to me, it seems they are not committed any longer to that ideology. Consequently, why should Russia, through its leaders, apologize for all that relatively distant past? Are you willing to apologize (if any) for the mistakes or crimes of your grandfathers? If Russia is to do so, then all the world leaders should start apologizing: Gordon Brown or rather the Queen of England for all the bloodshed in the past in order to create the British Empire, Bush Jr. for the genocide against the red indians and for taking and exploiting their lands, turkish president for all the bloodshed during the Otoman Empire and so on and so forth... there’s no end to the list. Where do you draw the line and just say: „Alright, enough apologies offered”? On the other hand, UK, NATO, US, should at the very least, apologize for their PRESENT bloody adventures on the world stage, to all those nations they stamped their foot on... and also for their subversive way in which they conquered economically, politically and financially all eastern Europe in the past 20 years... Moreover, if this is a just world (which is not!) all those criminals starting with Bush Jr. and those behind him pulling his strings should be brought to a fair trial and condemned! Can you bring Stalin to „justice” today? No! So, what’s the point? Everyone should at the very least apologize for their actions and not those of their forefathers, don’t you think? I used to dislike a lot the former Soviet Union but have some empathy with today’s Russia. If you know the true history, you should also be aware that ordinary Russians were manipulated by the Propaganda of those times to believe and act in the ways they did. How about all the international Cabala and moneychangers who orchestrated only in the last century the two world wars with untold suffering and results, for their own dark ends, appologize to the people of the whole world, huh? I’m sorry to say, but, to me, you have a rather narrow view of the past world events and history. My hope for Russia in 2009 is that its leaders would remain true to the Russian people and act in their best interest, also remembering that, in the end, we are all a big family, Earth’s humanity, brothers and sisters to one another. My fears for Russia in 2009 and beyond is that its leaders might just not be what they seem to be, someone else pulling the strings from behind, just like in the case of EU, USA and much if not all of the rest of the world... Happy holidays to all the brave russian people!
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Marzipan6 21 December, 2008, 04:47 To Cantemir: Yes, Russia is a different entity than the former Soviet Union. The Federal Republic was and is a different entity to the Third Reich also, yet no Russian ever believed that this excused the new Germany from making amends for the crimes of the old. By what rationale, then, does the corresponding logic not apply to post-Soviet Russia?? Nor is it correct to say that “the people leading the destinies of the Russian people now are different than the ones responsible for all the atrocities of the past…and are not committed any longer to that ideology.” The recent (and possibly next) President and current Prime Minister of Russia was a KGB lieutenant-colonel and much of the KGB-based team that he gathered around him is still in place. If post-Nazi Germany was still led by a former Gestapo officer and an ex-Gestapo ruling clique, I doubt that most Russians would be quite as sanguine about it as you imply that we should be. Besides, while Russia’s ruling circles are no longer committed to Soviet ideology, neither have they lifted a finger to seek reconciliation with many victims of that murderous ideology, and simply want to proceed as if nothing had happened. This, unfortunately, is not possible. Russia’s leaders have the option of either bringing genuine closure to their country’s criminal past and seeking reconciliation with Soviet Moscow’s victims, or they have the option of having that past continue to hang around their neck like a millstone. But simply carrying on with “business as usual” and pretending that Russia, its government and people were not at the centre of one of the most murderous criminal regimes of all time is not an option. The fact that up to 30 million people were murdered by the state during the seventy years of Soviet history, and not one solitary Russian who committed these crimes against humanity in the name of the Soviet State has ever had to account for his actions in a Russian court of law is simply an obscenity -- there is no other word for it, Cantemir. Nor are we talking about only Stalin’s crimes of the 1930s or 50s (though if we were, a statute of limitation no more applies to those than does to Nazi crimes). We are talking about the terror-based Soviet occupation of half of Europe, and its ongoing process of comprehensive destruction of three sovereign nations of Europe, the Baltic countries, up until a mere 17 years ago. This is in quite a different framework of time than the British or Ottoman or Napoleonic empires, nor of the American settlement of its west, with which you tried to compare it. There is plenty for which to apologize in regard to all those events, but whether or not such apologies come exerts no practical influence on today’s world affairs. Unlike with Soviet crimes, which were very recent, extremely vicious, and which continue to deeply affect an entire circle of nations around Russia and continue to figure profoundly in their calculations of on-going national security. When Russia’s neighbours think of Soviet crimes, Cantemir, they do not stop with Stalin. For them, their captivity and gross Soviet criminality and oppression against them continued under Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko and Gorbachev, and Russia’s enormous chauvinism which drove that whole Soviet apparatus is still unabated to this present day. To understand the attitude of Eastern Europe towards Russia, one has to appreciate their actual experience of Russia, past and present. Yes, Cantemir, ordinary Russians were manipulated by the propaganda of those times to believe and act in the ways they did. So were ordinary Germans in the Third Reich. This is part of what made it imperative for post-Nazi Germans to demonstrate that they repudiated that poisonous propaganda. Post-Soviet Russians are yet to demonstrate this, and their government continues to repeat some of Stalin's most odious lies to this day. Hence their neighbours’ deep misgivings about today’s Russia – and thus the New Year’s sentiments that I expressed.
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Pauline 21 December, 2008, 05:04 If I fear for Russia, I fear for the world, so I wish Russia the best, and so all of us. We are already so intertwined, only most Americans have no idea how much. I am so sick of all these arrogant incantations that Russia must grovel over its past! Whatever you did to yourselves is your business. I don't hear these same people asking the USA to continually apologize for what we did to African Americans up to the 1960s or admit how William Casey slaughtered 1 million Indonesians ETC.! But the Russians did a lot of good things for the world, which you should NEVER apologize for, like beating Hitler at Stalingrad, which won that war, or like Tatiana Tarasova!
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John 21 December, 2008, 15:07 Hopes - That Russian people will realize Putin is not dissimilar to Bush. Understand that he is of a KGB mindset and that in a global economy you cannot operate your government as a large mafia. I hope Gary Kasparov gets traction politically and journalists stop getting murdered. Fears - As regular Russians see exactly how bad Russia will be smacked up from $35 oil, the government does not do anything insane in desperation. Russia could be looking at another bankruptcy based on much economic research. The Russian people deserve more.
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Marzipan6 22 December, 2008, 02:05 Pauline tells us that Russia “did a lot of good things for the world,” but specifies only one, namely Russia’s contribution to the defeat of Hitler. The defeat of Hitler was undeniably good, and Russia’s contribution to it is appreciated. Less appreciated, though, was Russia’s alliance with Hitler for a full third of WW2 under the terms of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact under whose terms Stalin and Hitler gave each other leave to conquer and divide Europe between themselves. Perhaps Pauline should research a bit of history and learn how Russia supplied the German military with provisions and co-operated fully with them until Germany finally attacked Russia in mid-1941. Only then did Russia actually start opposing Hitler; by that time approximately half of Europe was already under the Nazi boot, and the other half firmly under the Soviet boot. Less appreciated yet were Moscow's actions after Hitler was defeated. Whereas Nazi occupation ended in 1945, Moscow brought no liberty at all to the other half of Europe. There, the terror-enforced Soviet oppression and occupation of a dozen countries continued until the 1990s. For Eastern Europe, the seamless replacement of Nazi tyranny with Soviet tyranny over them was no one's idea of a “good thing”. Pauline continues, “I am so sick of all these arrogant incantations that Russia must grovel over its past! Whatever you did to yourselves is your business.” I haven’t heard of anyone at all suggesting that Russia must grovel over its past. But countries that suffered 50 years of Soviet murder, enslavement, oppression and occupation do insist that for normal relations and trust to now exist between them and post-Soviet Russia, Russia should at the very least stop its offensive and truly arrogant repetition of Stalin’s lies regarding those events. I think you will find that such countries are also just a little bit sick of contemporary Russian behaviour, and with cause. And Pauline, you are right – when Russians killed, enslaved in the Gulag and oppressed millions of their own people, that is their own business. But who asked them to crash over the borders of neighbouring countries, destroy their sovereignty and also start killing, enslaving and oppressing them as well, and keep it up for fifty years?? That, unfortunately, is not only Russia’s business, and it is profoundly arrogant of you to suggest otherwise.
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Johnny 22 December, 2008, 04:59 What I would like to see Russia instill in their youth… is a sense of integrity, regality, and pride in their youth league, and not so much fight. Russians can be proud of who they are, you are an emerging super power, there is no need to fight for it on the streets. The anti foreigner whiplash is going to kill your tourism. Or in simpler terms, for every job they think they saving, they losing three. Just now they going to take out a tourist, or a famous hockey player, or an RT presenter, and then you can kiss tourism goodbye, make them think. A country that can take on any nation, doesn’t need to beat the crap out of one little foreigner. CNN loves your skin heads.
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Nico 22 December, 2008, 12:31 My hopes for Russia in 2009 are, that there will be a massiv strengthening of the political forces in the country that are giving support to the present leadership in the circumstances of the world economic crisis.It is not possible to underestimate, that 'concernleaders' at yours had to be warned by your minister-president not to fire employees on mass-scale if not nesseccary! What kind of people are we speaking of here? Russia pay attention to your affairs.
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P 22 December, 2008, 16:44 Russia has risen. Now it's time to use it's potential to the full. With new friends around the world, Russia should do what all good friends to and that is to take care of there friends. Business through Russian technology and skill is the answer to a long prosperious future for Russia and her friends. There should be Russian supercars, superplanes, super computers, super everything to give to Russia's friends and this should be done NOW. I hate XBox, I hate PS3 they are all propoganeder and tainted. Russia should be an educational centre for future teachers and lecturers of it's friends like, India, Venuasuala, Cuba, China, Tailand, etc etc. Russia should make movies and books and all things to cater for there hungery friends and then I will see Russia become the Richest country in the world and I pray for this.
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Svetlana 22 December, 2008, 18:16 With falling oil prices and economical crisis, unfolding in RF the support rates of Putin’s government by population is falling from 70% to 50% this year. Most probably regime will survive. My hopes are: - People of RF will use the opportunity to demand from government more freedom of press end etc. (perhaps unrealistic). - Therefore unrealistic hope at least for 2009 for condemnation of Stalin’s regime and establishing good relations with neighboring countries. Perhaps it can be done under pressure of international community. Germany started reconciliation process, when Jewish lobby in USA started boycott of German banks, etc. - Opposition will take a stand, not only criticizing government, but creating alternative decisions, programs open to broad discussions. Opposition will cooperate with government, show that they can do work better and will be more transparent. So, ordinary people could see opposition is not only up to power and privileges but can offer something meaningful. - Governors of the regions will be elected and get more independence from the Centre. - That government will face the truth about demographic situation in RF. Statistics regarding lifespan and death/birth rates are worse than in EU or South America. Size of the population in RF is shrinking and losses have to be covered by immigrants. Government’s steps to increase birth rate did not and will not work. This is a problem of all industrial, urban countries. But with improved healthcare, pension policy and anti alcohol strategy lifespan can be prolonged. - Government will take a lead in creating more welcome atmosphere for immigrants, give them support, and provide courses. It’s painful to see how migrants are treated, skinheads rise. And prognosis is: by 2050 population of RF and immigrants will be 50/50, by 2100 Russian population and their descendants will be a minority! - RF will use better strategy in South Caucasus. My fears: - RF will slip into totalitarianism. - Gov-t of RF will continue to blame only USA and Saakashvili in order to distract the population and escape responsibility for its own mistakes. Although I don’t deny USA negative influence. It mostly dangerous for Russian people, when they start to hate not only Saakashvili, but Georgians in general, which was impossible to imagine in the past.
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Marian 22 December, 2008, 22:47 Svetlana writes:' Germany started reconciliation process, when Jewish lobby in the USA started boycott of German banks, etc). This statement is not correct. Our payments started in the 195os(as soon as we had some money).However, in the 1990s, there was a campaign against Germany(and Switzerland, by the way), focusing on the roles of German banks and companies during World War II. The Jewish Claim conference argues it speaks in the name of the victims. However, other Jewish people claim that German payments have made some people and organisations very rich, while the real victims live in Israel under very poor conditions. No further comment.
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Pauline 23 December, 2008, 01:20 Marzipan, you did not answer my questions! However, I will try to answer yours. With the Molotov/Ribbontrop pact Stalin was only trying to do what the US managed to do. Stalin knew world war was coming, adn he wanted to find a way for the Soviet Union to peacefully develop while the "imperialists" chewed each other up. He could not manage that, however because Hitler was so stupid he would rather fight on two fronts than allow that. Anyway, aside from strategic issues, if I was Polish, and especially if I were a Polish Jew at that time, I would MUCH prefer that Stalin invaded Poland rather than Hitler did! Can you argue that the Germans were kind to the Poles? Did the Germans not slaughter six million Poles? I will gladly tell you a lot more good things the Soviet Union did, although beating Hitler would have been enough for eternal glory...they invented vacations with pay, sick days with pay, unions, the only force in the USA that supported the civil rights of African Americans for many decades were the US communists and popular front democrats like Henry Wallace; the Soviet Union invented method acting, sports medicine, and inspired people like Charlie Chaplin, Rogers and Hammerstein, George Gershwin, the man who wrote the score for Wizard of Oz, and Paul Robeson. They inspired Woodie Guthrie, whose songs my mom used to sing at the sink washing dishes, and never knew he was a leftist! And Woody Guthrie inspired Bob Dylan who inspired Bruce Springsteen. Every movie I really love and every song I love to sing somehow can be counted backwards to the Soviet Union...even the CARTER FAMILY were radicals to begin with, popular front Democrats and you can bet your life Johnny Cash was too. I'm sorry if you do not like it, but I am grateful for all that, it has enriched my life. You say the Warsaw Pact did not allow liberty? Obviously, the Soviet Union was not interested in "liberty". Anyone who knows a thing about communism knows that. They were interested in protecting the working class from exploitation and in economic development. They obviously failed, and although I'm not sure why, its clear that this sort of thing, and the command, top down economy in particular, does not work. But I believe with all my heart that they were trying their best do good, and utterly failed. How could I possibly have a grandfather and father who were popular front democrats and not believe that? The only other possibly is that the Russian elite was trying to defend itself from take-over by the west, and using "communism" to defend itself, from Britain in particular. You do know, don't you, that Britain bankrolled the overthrow of the Czar, because the Czar would not open another front with ill-clothed soldiers with no boots and no ammunition! That infuriated Britain. You call Russia viz. the Warsaw Pact "tyranny" but you fail to note that Mexico and Latin America were far less developed, and far more poverty stricken than these Warsaw pact nations until the collapse of the Soviet Union. How do you explain that? Right now, all sorts of Latin American nations just hate us, so why do you express such one sided analysis? I think the Warsaw Pact and all of it, the "west" and "east" pacts" and "camps" etc. is bad, but after Nixon, Reagan and Bush/Bush, after seeing what happened to Allende, in Nicaragua, Iran, Iraq, what is happening in Israel/Palestine, etc. I am thinking that maybe the Warsaw Pack we a necessary evil? I would love to see a truly independent Poland etc....I think that if Bush would leave them alone, and stop using them to get at Russia, they would, well, for one thing, develop some POLISH architecture...I think you, Marzipan, wherever you are from, should be truly independent, and tell Uncle Sam and Russia both to get the hell out of your country -- but that is not what is happening, instead, the US is arming Georgia and setting up "forward bases" and for what? You are a fool if you think they will not turn your countries into battlefields, or rear areas to attack Russia. They want that OIL, look what they did to the Middle East to get oil. Is that what you want? Look what they did to the Kurds, where the oil is centered...they broke them up into THREE parts and would not allow them to speak their own language in public to render them POWERLESS. Is that what you want? If not, then Russia is your only defense, and perhaps China. Again, I would LOVE to see the Polish people be themselves, or the Georgians or Ukrainians ... but you are making a deal with the devil when you allow the US Bushite Neocons to use you against Russia -- just ask Ngo Diem, Noriega, Saddam Hussein.
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Marian 23 December, 2008, 11:30 Pauline, the Jewish people killed have been citizens of Poland or the Soviet Union or other states in Europe.
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