Unfortunatelly, Farid Zakaria did not make most of his time. By dwelling so much on the Presidential race 2012, he missied opportunities to ask questions about Russia. I am not sure that even the questions that he asked were really good enough to provide a glimpse into Russia --- they were somewhat of a predetermined box. Looking outside boxes is not much of a CCN strenght. Now back to dwelling on the relationships and presidential race. What Farid Zakaria does not understand that not every culture has elevated campaigning to a permanent fixture of a national life. In US, campaign never ends. It has been said of Bush administration that it was not an administration--- it was a permanent campaign. Obama administration is going in the same footsteps. Keeping the permanent buzz in the air about someone's election prospects, be it individual or parties, never leaves the TV screens. However, it erodes entirely the discussion of what really should be done. Even when it occurs, like in health care, the discussion focuses on what appears to be the red lines. Even though, the key word is APPEARS, since public is not really fully aware what are the real meanings behind the public pronoucements. In the American cultural context, it is therefore, of high interest to dig into the Holiwood-eske drama. What President Medvedev should have said, to make it more clear to the american audience is the following: "2012 is far away, by Russian standards. Russia has changed immensely during last three years, and the next three promise to be just as dynamic. Before I make my decision, I will consult with my colleagues in my political party including Mr. Putin, my closest advisors and supporters and my family. When I reach that decision, I will sure let everyone know!"

Here we go again. The Russian President is once more telling us “It’s only very dishonest people who say that World War II was won by someone else.” Please, Mr Medvedev, exactly who is it that is telling us that Russia’s contribution was not the critical factor that made the defeat of Nazi Germany possible? I don't know of anyone. Who is it that discounts or dismisses Russia’s enormous WW2 sacrifices? Who? You nor your compatriots never tell us that. You simply repeat, ad infinitum, that someone out there is dishonest enough to claim “that World War II was won by someone else,” but if you cannot put a name and face onto these mysterious claimants then it can’t be they who are dishonest. Stating that Stalin’s Soviet Union replaced one terrible oppressor in Eastern Europe with another is (1) not a lie, (2) not a denial that the Soviet Union’s contribution was vital to winning the war and (3) does not make the horrors of Stalinist oppression anything even close to liberty.

Medvedev regrets that Russians lack confidence in their country’s legal system: “People lack initiative and don’t use their political rights. Courts are less efficient than they could be. If people need to defend their interests, they usually go to various bosses rather than to courts. In fact, as a lawyer, I think that’s absolutely wrong. We need a different legal culture. We need respected courts and effective law enforcement.” When a population has been abused and terrorized for generations with millions of people having been unjustly imprisoned and killed by the state, and when the state has not required even one single person who committed such crimes to answer for their actions in a court of law, it is hardly surprising if people have little respect and even less confidence in laws and courts. Soviet-era oppressors of Russian people are living quietly off their ill-gotten gains while the Russian legal establishment says, “Trust us!”

Marzipan6, I do NOT know who you are but I LOVE reading comments. It gives me hope in this world! I LOVE how you stand up for yourself. I do NOT know if you are a guy or girl, young or old, Russian or not, BUT I love reading your posts! You give Atlanta, georgia HOPE! Keep HOPE alive! Your right, I do NOT know anyone, including the "dumb" Amerikans who do NOT appreciate the efforts of the "Soviet Union" during World War II. Like you, I keep hearing these comments and I ask, "WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE"? Thank You!!!

Yes Russia is always there in the end on the Rescue mission, after the political idiots have gotten themselves out of control, and thank God we are there. Now onto the next task of sorting out the US NATO mess of illegal invasions, rape and torture. But we are up to it, we always are! One step at a time sweet Jesus!

Here we go again ... Marzipan trying to tell everyone the "truth" ... concern yourself with things that are happening now ... illegal wars in afghan for example .. that the west has named a peace and restoration mission ...your country is on it too ...

CountCash, Russia is not that kind of country. It has never shown itself to have particularly experienced heartburn over the mass suffering and death either of its own people or others, whether before, during or after the event. If you think I am mistaken, please present historical facts to demonstrate that. But beware – Russia apparently frowns on the re-writing of history. Sierra, thank you for your kind comments. My concern is to factually highlight absurdities which may seem quaint enough in individual posts or articles, but which have the effect of potentially working enormous injustice and suffering on people when these are applied as national policy.

Marzipan6 scores 10/10 for bulls eyes. Russia never prosecuted any of its mass murderers, as Germany did. We know all about crimes of Nazis Adolf Eichmann and Heinrich Himmler; about Babi Yar and Auschwitz. But who remembers Soviet mass murderers Dzerzhinsky, Kaganovitch, Yagoda, Yezhov, and Beria (to name only a few)? Who knows of Soviet death camps like Magadan, Kolyma, Solovky and Vorkuta? Movie after movie appears about Nazi evil, while the evil of the Soviet era vanishes from view or dissolves into nostalgia which is now being brought to center stage by Messrs Medvedev and Putin.

Alex, whenever I should tell “untruth”, do please factually substantiate this and I will retract it. And if you want me to concern myself with things that are happening now, please suggest to President Medvedev that he restrict his comments to things that are happening now. I merely respond to comments that he makes…now.

Yeah Roman, and former secretary of Defence for the US Robert McNamara admitted on Camera that he (and others) were a war criminal(s), for acts relating to the fire bombing of the Japanese and other acts, he could have had it printed up on a brightly coloured 80's style T-shirt and worn it 5 days out of the week (except for laundry) for the rest of his life and no one would bat an eyelid, at least he had the decency to admit it as well. So your point is kind of, relevant only in the sense that maybe people don’t admit things in the past as readily , but if I turn on my “listening powers” I think I heard in the past the admission of these things, I think the point the President was trying t shoot for here was that one can remember the good and bad in the past, now lets look to the future so we don’t make the same mistakes. Humanity that is. i'd say the most significant time that Russia has saved the world is happening right now.

Soviet utopianism in the 20th century murdered 65 million to 130 million victims. A typical estimate is by Prof. JR Rummel These numbers boggle the mind. Nazis were pikers, compared to this. Genocide of the Ukrainian nation had been undertaken in that period, amongst other crimes. It's preposterous to give it a casual nod of the head and suggest that, yeah, somebody once mentioned it but hey, let's just move on. Siberia is a mass graveyard full of the bones of countless innocents, scattered on permafrost or chewed up by wolves. Mass murder is not a statistic merely to be filed away.

K.e writes, “I think the point the President was trying to shoot for here was that one can remember the good and bad in the past, now lets look to the future so we don’t make the same mistakes.” The Baltics, which were abused so grievously by Soviet Russia for 50 years and which today still bear both the scars of that abuse and the brunt of Russia’s ongoing verbal hostility, would love to hear precisely that message. But as they’re not blessed with K.e’s interprative powers, they haven’t heard it yet. A lot of Russia's neighbours haven't.

Historical facts to show the correctness of Medvedev are many: 1. Termination of the evil of colonialism which the west was the rapacious practitioners. 2. Destruction of the evil of Nazism which was instigated by the west and unleashed against humanity in WW2. 3.Containment and prevention of the unleashing of nuclear war by the Western Powers led by the USA which showed its callousness of using the atomic bomb first to achieve world supremacy. 4 Rescue of Vietnam, Korea, Mozambique, Angola, Guinea Bissau, Namibia, Algeria from wars of colonial plunder by the west 5.Liberation of several European countries from Nazi Occupation 6. Liberation of Jews from Nazi concentration camps and rehabilitation of the survivors of torture by providing them hospitality and dignified life in Russia. 7 Inception and inclusion of the articles of respect for Human rights in the U.N. by its exemplary socialist system And many more examples. from Ibarruri, E-mail chemerole@yahoo.co.uk Lagos, Nigeria.

Thanks a million for the acknowledgement, RT. Keep up the good work. There are millions of freinds of your glorious motherland out there. Ibarruri.

I hate to disappoint you, Ibarruri, but your list is missing quite a few facts. 1. Colonialism certainly had evil aspects, but Russia did not terminate it. The West realized that Colonialism was both practically unviable, and contrary to the principles that it proclaimed.In some areas it was no longer able to maintain colonial control, and in other areas it chose not to. All that Russia did was capitalize on people’s dissatisfaction in some areas so as to cynically use them in proxy wars to try to advance Communism. 2. Soviet Russia played a major role in the defeat of Nazism, but claiming that it destroyed Nazism all by itself is a myth. 3. By stealing nuclear technology Russia actually increased, not decreased, the likelihood of nuclear conflict, and its behaviour in relation to the Kremlin's Bay of Pigs adventure actually brought the world to the very brink of nuclear war. 4. The various wars you mentioned obviously had colonial connections. They just as obviously had Soviet and Chinese connections and were cynically used by one or another of those countries as proxies to advance world Communism, not the individual freedom of any of the combatants. 5. Soviet Russians indeed cleared Nazis out of various East European countries. But this was no liberation, merely the replacing of foreign Nazi tyranny over them with foreign Soviet tyranny. At no stage did those peoples experience any liberty until around 1990, which is when WW2 finally ended for them with the collapse of the Soviet Union. 6. Yes, the Red Army liberated Auschwitz. And then turned it into a Gestapo prison for political detainees. This is a microcosm of what the Soviets did to all of Eastern Europe. 7. Soviet Russia grossly violated human rights both at home and in its captive foreign nations. The rule of law did not exist anywhere that Soviet power was planted. And many more examples.

In Point 6 of my preceding post, "Gestapo" should be corrected to "KGB". Sorry I confused the two organisations -- not hard to do.

Oh Marzipan6, my old "friend", it's so good to find you again after so much time. I admit I missed you... Like you, I tend to confuse Gestapo, CIA, NSA, KGB and other secret polices. It seems that while humans exist, there will be - shall we say - rude methods for getting what you want from people unwilling to cooperate. So, if you please, stop accusing only USSR.... Now. Let us take another look at the list. 1. The West would NEVER "realize that Colonialism was practically unviable" without some ... help from the armed communist resistance. Even now, their "globalization" is actually the re-establishment of Colonialism after the collapse of USSR... However "Uncle Vladimir" thwarted their NWO plans and made Russia a superpower again. So Russia saved the world again. 2. The FIRST military defeat of Nazis was in Stalingrad - Russia. Until Stalingrad, the Nazis advanced victorious EVERYWHERE. 3. Errr..., actually, USA would not hesitate to use the Bomb again and again to achieve world domination if Russia didn't have it too. Every disagreeing country would be destroyed by USA's nukes... About half the planet would turn to a radioactive graveyard.... The "Cuba Crisis" was USA's fault. USA first planted nukes in Turkey targeting USSR. Not many people know this, so I really really forgive your ignorance. You see, goody-goody USA manages to do all its dirty-work in secret... 4. Now that the S.U. collapsed these Asian and African countries still hate the West and turn to Russia for help... Their oppression by the English bastards (17th century - 1970) is still fresh in their memory. 5. Most of E. Europe countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary etc.) were allies of the Nazis. The nazis did not occupy these countries, they WILLINGLY allied with the nazis. So no, it wasn't a liberation, it was an occupation by USSR. They fought a war and lost. What did you expect?