dear sirs what mr. president medvedev says show us that he is one of the best leaders in the world and he is very faithful man for his country and also he respects the other countries

what mr. Medvedev said, no matter how big Russia is, when contacting and cooperating with other countries, when Russia can get to the level of small countries and understand them, I expect a boost in Russia´s close neighboorhood. Perhaps not a boost on the state level as much, but surely a boost in public support for better and closer ties with Russia.

To Joseph Walker: Marxist philosophy was neither corrupt nor incorrupt – it was just a zany, impractical, pie-in-the sky set of doctrines that could never work in the real world of real people. That is why, everywhere it was tried, it had to be imposed by brutality and murder, and maintained by terror. In the light of these gross criminal abuses against innocent people, corruption was the least of the faults of those who ran Marxist societies. The least, but hardly non-existent. Marxist societies had no checks and balances which practical civilization has discovered is needed to keep governments at least somewhat honest and at least somewhat answerable to, and therefore acceptable to, those governed. In the Soviet Union, the nomenklatura – the Marxist elite – lived off the best of all that was available, and ordinary people not only suffered in corresponding poverty, but suffered terror, coercion and lack of freedom to make the lives of Marxists possible. I’m not sure what you call that, but I call it corruption on a grand scale. These attitudes of corruption were never exorcised from Russian society, but flowed over into the new Russia inside the heads and within the actions of those who had been their practitioners in the old. Hence Russia’s acute problems with corruption today. No, Marxism “was not an ideology of socialist values which was adopted by its people…” Marxism was an impractical, falsely-based, unscientific and inhuman ideology, one which ran directly counter to the most intuitive and basic of human instincts, namely of personal freedom, the personal ownership of property, and to the motivation of fair reward for fair effort. It wasn’t “adopted” by Russia – it was forced onto it at the point of guns, and maintained by terror, until it finally collapsed in ignominy under its own rotten weight, leaving Russia and its long-suffering neighbors to deal with its grim human, environmental, economic and political legacy.

Sorry, my previous spost should have been submitted to the discussion of corruption in Russia. However, its points are valid, even if not quite on topic.

It’s interesting that President Medvedev himself apparently did not use the words, “Russia should not pose as superior to other nations.” This was merely an interpretation or summary by a commentator. The fact is, that all large nations both feel and pose as superior to other nations, and their ability to see things, especially to see their own actions and attitudes, through the eyes of other nations is abysmal. This is doubly true of Russia which, as well as being an extremely large nation, is one that has historically been strongly infected by a messianic complex. In Tsarist times, Russia wasn’t just Russia – it was “Holy Russia.” And in the Soviet era Russia posed as the messianic messenger to all the world of utopian bliss, and was more than prepared to back up its messianic extremism with coercion, war and terror, both at home and abroad. After that messianic vision collapsed, as far as I’m aware the Russian establishment has not said, “Hey, we were stupid, misled, naïve, immature and arrogant to assume that we had the answers to everything and the right to try to impose it on everyone.” No, Russia simply withdrew into dismay and confusion, and under Putin has re-emerged with a new truculence and a new eagerness to impose its views of the past and present upon everyone within reach, especially upon its neighbours. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Ukraine, Japan and as many others of Russia’s neighbours as you’d care to list would breathe a collective sigh of relief if Russia truly believed it should no longer pose as superior to other nations. And Russia’s relations with each of them would improve hugely.

Marzipan. Thats the trouble with our deluded humans in the western media and broadcasting,somebody deluded them that thier were intelligient,in thier ignorance they forget to mention that humans distort philosophy,just get educated and open your mind,just listen to our society,and its uneducated or devious relate the problem to its philospy.intelligence if you acquire it ,would point out ,it is the people who inteperate the philosophy.not the policy that is to blame.the conclusion it is our prats in our govts and thier messengers who are the problem.

I agree that large nations can pose as superior to other nations. We excel at that here in USA. However I also believe all nations, regardless of size, have a problem seeing themselves through the eyes of other nations. It is a basic problem of human nature and something that must consciously be attempted, even if it cannot be done 100 pct. As for Russia "imposing its views" on the Baltic states and other neighboring states, that stopped in 1991. You seem to demonstrate a diametric opposition to anything Russian, so if they have tried to squash you, they have not done a very good job. As for re-emerging from dismay and confusion, well, I do admire Putin for leading the country out of that anarchy and holding the bits together for eight years. However I do not believe Russians have a corner on the market in "truculence", and actually I have not seen them demonstrate it all that much.

To MEJanssen who writes, “As for Russia "imposing its views" on the Baltic States and other neighboring states, that stopped in 1991,” unfortunately it did not. Contrary to all worldwide acknowledged evidence, Moscow holds to the absurd notion that the invasion and incorporation of the Baltics in the Soviet Union was free and legal, and that there never even was a Soviet Baltic occupation, but that the Red Army brought liberty to them (liberty???). This notion is offensive enough, but Moscow still tries to force that view onto those countries, and goes into almost paroxysms of anger against them when they assert the truth of their history. You do remember, don’t you, the amazing and prolonged outbursts when Estonia moved a statue of Stalinist occupation from downtown Tallinn to a nearby military cemetery? Russia imposed trade sanctions, blockaded and physically attacked the Estonian embassy, criticized and slandered Estonia to high heaven, imposed travel restrictions, pressured Russian businesses to cease operations in Estonia, discouraged Russian tourists, and still hardly a month goes by without Moscow criticizing Estonian in some official domestic or international because Estonia refuses to buckle to Russia’s unique view of history. According to Moscow, Estonians are supposed to be Nazis, practisers of apartheid, offenders against human rights, blasphemers, re-writers of history, etc. etc. etc. Similar pressure is directed towards Latvia, Lithuania and Poland because they, too, do not buckle to Russia’s distorted take on their history. To this day Russia does not acknowledge that it was a co-attacker, along with the Nazis, of Poland in 1939. Russia has severely pressured Ukraine to vote according to Russian preferences. And Georgia, which is small and has no military or political alliances to rely on, got monstered rather more directly. Possibly you are not aware of what neighboring countries’ experience of Russia continues to be.

I repeat, Russia has not been able to "impose" its views since 1991. Bringing up Stalin-era repressions is comparing apples and oranges. Or are you saying Russian tanks are still prowling the streets of Talinn? Fooey. The Baltic states have been free to think on their own, and have done so, since 1991. Your constant ranting on a Russian-sponsored news site is an example. If they are so oppressive, why haven't they shut you down? Just because Russia has a point of view that differs from yours, does not mean they are "oppressing" you. Sounds like what you really want is their slavish adherence to your point of view.

Empires come and empires go, but most people envy big countries or have a desire for their own country to become powerful and big. It seems that the view seems to be that "big is better". Actually, the quality of life is often better for citizens of small countries than in the huge, empire like ones. Bigger is not necessarily better. Happiness and quality of life for the population could be better.

To MEJanssen: there are a variety of ways to impose views. A totalitarian state does it with a powerful secret police establishment, torture and terror, arbitrary arrest, with exile to slave labor camps, and with a hundred and one lesser carrot-and-stick levers of persuasion. Non-totalitarian states which seek to fit in with the world community exert their views in different ways. Russia’s views about its Soviet era Baltic adventures remain essentially unchanged from Stalin’s day to Medvedev’s. Stalin and the Soviet leaders who followed imposed those views by the means that were available to them. Putin and Medvedev impose it by the more limited, though often still highly disagreeable means available to them. I outlined some of those methods in a previous post, and no disputes their factuality. And just for the record, MEJ, the Baltic States have always “been free to think on their own”, even during the darkest night of Soviet terror, and have always done just that. But between 1940 and 1991 they have not been free to act on their thoughts. You do not know how parents in thousands upon thousands of families in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania literally gave their children power over the parents’ own lives, by telling them, in the privacy of their own homes, the true account of their countries’ actual history, of how and Soviet Russians came to their lands, what they did to grasp power, and what they were doing to their countries. If a child ever told this to a teacher or an agent of the state, the parents would be immediately arrested, deported or worse. There were celebrated cases in Russia where young children who informed on their parents exactly like that were heroized by the State and held up as an example. These Baltic parents and their grown children notice very little difference between Soviet attitudes to their homelands, and the views still expressed and vigorously sought to be imposed by Moscow via the means currently available to it.

To “Big”: it’s interesting that one of the main areas of friction (amongst many others) between Estonia and its Soviet Russian rulers lay in the fact that Russia is enamored of bigness, and Estonia is not. Gigantic manufacturing plants, huge collective farms, enormous monuments, sweeping, noisy and extravagant gestures, bubbling emotionality, epic messianic theories of glory – all these things seem not even second nature to Russians, but first nature. Russia tried to force all of these onto Estonia even though none of it was in keeping with the Estonian character, and none of it was wanted or needed by Estonia itself. Estonians enjoy quietness, value solitude, have an affinity for individuality not collectivization, do not like showy emotion, and aspire to scales of economy that are in keeping with the size and resources of their land rather than with the vastness of Russia. Estonia is not an epic kind of land. Its natural features endow it with the sense of being a quiet, solitary land, at peace within itself, with no jagged mountains or ravines or deserts, just quiet vast forests dotted with numberless lakes, empty for the most part of human habitation, and of small settlements that fit harmoniously into this background. Russia’s slash-and-burn mentality of irresponsible development is anathema to Estonians. It was Russia’s environmental vandalism in Estonia that first galvanized overt opposition to Soviet rule in the 1980s.

Jesus, marzipan6 is now trying to highjack this string. Will he finally get it that no one here cares about estonia. There are many countries out there which are much better, more interesting and much higher priority. Talk about overinflated ego. Please, stop embarrassing yourself.