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The US media’s three-year obsession with the mostly fictitious allegations of “Russiagate” has all but obscured, even deleted, important, potentially historic, developments inside that nation itself, still the world’s largest territorial country. One of the most important is the Putin government’s decision to invest $300 to $400 billion of “rainy day” funds in the nation’s infrastructure, especially in its vast, underdeveloped provinces, and on “national projects” ranging from education to health care and family services to transportation and other technology. If successfully implemented, Russia would be substantially transformed and the lives of its people significantly improved.
Not surprisingly, however, the plan has aroused considerable controversy and public debate in Russia’s policy elite, primarily for two reasons. The funds were accumulated largely due to high world prices for Russia’s energy exports and the state’s budgetary austerity during the decade after Putin came to power in 2000, and they have been hoarded as a safeguard against Western economic sanctions and/or a global economic depression. (Russia’s economic collapse in the Yeltsin 1990s, perhaps the worst modern-day depression in peacetime, remains a vivid memory for policymakers and ordinary citizens alike.)
There is also the nation’s long, sometimes traumatic, history of “modernization from above,” as it is termed. In the late 19th century, the Tsarist regime’s program to industrialize the country, “to catch up” with other world powers, had unintended consequences that led, in the accounts of many historians, to the end of Tsarism in the 1917 revolution. And Stalin’s “revolution from above” of the 1930s, based on the forced collectivization of the peasantry, which at the time accounted for more than 80 percent of the population, along with very rapid industrialization, resulted in millions of deaths and economic distortions that burdened Soviet and post-Soviet Russia for decades.
Nor are Russia’s alternative experiences of modernization from below inspiring or at least instructive. In the 1920s, during the years known as the New Economic Policy, or NEP, the victorious Bolsheviks pursued evolutionary economic development through a semi-regulated market economy. It had mixed—and still disputed—results, and it was brutally abolished by Stalin in 1929. Decades later, Yeltsin’s “free-market reforms” were widely blamed for the ruination and widespread misery of the 1990s, which featured many aspects of actual de-modernization.
With all this “living history” in mind, Putin’s plan for such large-scale (and rapid) investment has generated the controversy in Moscow and resulted in three positions within the policy class. One fully supports the decision on the essentially Keynesian grounds that it will spur Russia’s annual economic growth, which has lagged below the global average for several years. Another opposes such massive expenditures, arguing that the funds must remain in state hands as a safeguard against the US-led “sanctions war” (and perhaps worse) against Russia. And, as usual in politics, there is a compromise position that less should be invested in civilian infrastructure and less quickly.
Running through the discussion is also Russia’s long history of thwarted implementation of good intentions. To paraphrase a prime minister during the 1990s, Viktor Chernomyrdin, “We wanted things to turn out for the best, but they turned out as usual.” In particular, it is often asked, what will be the consequences of putting so much money into the hands of regional and other local officials in provinces where corruption is endemic? How much will be stolen or otherwise misdirected?
Nonetheless, Putin seems to be resolute. He is also insistent that his ambitious plan to transform Russia requires a long period of international peace and stability. Here again is plain evidence that those in Washington who insist Putin’s primary goal is “to sow discord, divisions, and instability” in the world, especially in the West, where he hopes to find “modernizing partnerships,” do not care about or understand what is actually unfolding inside Russia—or Putin’s vision of his own historical role and legacy.
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Sounds good to me. Free market capitalism at its best.
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Oh, brother. Talk about rewriting history. No, Stephen, the “millions of deaths” of Russian and Ukrainian peasantry weren’t based on some bumbling economic plan. Stalin and his Bolshevik blood gang wanted to destroy Christianity, and the peasants were always its stronghold. They tried to kill Christianity by killing religious peasants. The St. Petersburg elite were godless, anyway.
Communism, BY DEFINITION, is atheistic, because corrupt governments will NEVER tolerate the rable answering to a power higher than themselves.
Jews can never see straight when it comes to Russia. They never, ever give up their ancient grudges.
Stephen Cohen, an apologist for Putin, a Jewish mafia stooge and a traitor. No one should trust either of them. Putin is in bed with Israel and Jews against Muslims including Palestinians.
is supporting and cooperating with Netanyahu and fifth column and traitor trump on ‘the deal of the century’ but does not say openly.
The criminal Jewish tribe support Russia and Putin because it was Russia along with other criminal states US and Britain who stolen Palestine and gave it to the criminal tribe.
Palestine was transferred to the criminal Jewish Tribe by criminal States: Russia – Britain – US.
Now, Putin the zionist stooges is cooperating with the criminal ASSASSIN trump on ‘the deal of the century’, that’s why members of the Jewish mafia and Jewish tribe love Russia and Putin, a mafia.
Don’t trust anybody from the Tribe and expose them all in the world.
Don’t trust saker either, who also is Putin apologist.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/no-big-deal-some-limits-russian-israeli-co-op-syria/5703255
Yeah, when “”oligarchs”” try to rape and pillage your country’s great resources, killing the economy, and driving millions of ordinary Russians into brutal misery, it’s kinda hard to forget that. Russia almost drank itself to death.
Putin drove “”them”” all out, and he’s vilified in “”powerful media outlets”” to this day.
I was looking forward to the comments on this article, then I read the comments……
Excellent piece.
When Putin started he had 4 national projects. Medvedev upped them to 10 and now there are 12. They have never thrived. p wants them done before he retires.
Scapel – might I suggest you read TWO HUNDRED YEARS TOGETHER by Solzhenitsyn? (Hope you can read in a language other than English.)
If you had read it, you might understand the comments. (Except the poster of question#3 who is clearly a troll/clown).
Good luck.
Sterile architecture like that turn people into soulless globalists.
No, Putin was put in power by the dominant gang of oligarchs who consolidated their power and drove the losers out. Good for social stability but none of the people who stole Soviet property ever gave it back or paid any sort of restitution. Putin and Yeltsin answer to the same bosses.
Thank you Mr Cohen for your perspective. I always enjoy hearing or reading your informed thoughts on Russia.
A long period of international peace and stability would serve Russia’s interests, as it would America’s: it is when interests clash there is war and chaos; between Washington and Moscow – world war.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
“Stephen Cohen, an apologist for Putin, a Jewish mafia stooge and a traitor. No one should trust either of them. Putin is in bed with Israel and Jews against Muslims including Palestinians.”
Wow. If you are saying this about Putin, who is defending Syria and Iran against Israel and America’s terrorist soldiers, I can’t imagine what you think of all politicians (bar none) in Washington!!!
Peter, you are delusional. Sure, every President of every country has his powerful backers.
But with Putin vilified in all Western media 24/7, methinks his kind of oligarch-backer is not the usual kind of “””oligarch””” backer.
Perhaps you’ve already forgotten “”their””” Russia-hoax and Ukraine-hoax witchhunts of Trump for the past 3.5 years? Schiff is still at it. Good grief.
Putin turned on his masters. Abramovich, Vekselberg, Friedman and Deripaska are still around but no longer influential in politics. Putin re-established the boundaries of the state metaphorically and literally.
Broadly true, but Berezovsky and Khodorkovsky surely did, and those that didn’t got the message that the days of freebooting were over.
True of Yeltsin, sure, but as every competent Russia-watcher knows, the arc of Putin’s presidency — and a reason for his vilification in the West — is precisely that he has gone from being beholden to oligarchs and foreign governments to being his own man.
Putin is NOT defending Iran. Putin is Syria to collect all the Cards, to arrange the region to benefit the criminal WEST and ISRAEL, where Russia and Putin an ally. Russia never defended Muslims. Russia and Putin Always protected Israel and the interest of the West that Russia is an ally.
Putin tried very hard to force Iran out where Iran the main defender of Syria beside Syrian people and Assad. It was Iran where thought it is a good idea to bring Russia in.
But since 2015 that Putin is in Syria, the only concern he has is that to collect ALL the cards so can arrange the situation for the interest of Russia and Israel.
You apparently do not know the dark history of Russia in the region. Russia and Soviet Union NEVER helped Muslims, but used them. Russia never helped Arabs, Iranians or Palestinians. Russia and Putin ALWAYS helped the baby killers in Israel and Natenyahu.
That’s why Russia is allowing Israel to bomb Syria on a daily basis. Assad did not allow Russia to force Iran, true ally of Syria, out of Syria. Iran never allows Russia to get away with its crimes against Iranians. Russia like Britain and US voted for the erection of Israel on the stolen land of Palestine, and the Muslims never forget or forgive that.
Russia along with Britain during the WWII divided Iran into sphere of influence and tried to STEAL Azarbaijan in the northern part of Iran but could not.
Russia invaded Iran many times and occupied many parts of Iran where later added to its own territory. There are many horrible stories of rapes, torture and stealing during Russian occupation of Iran.
Russia always cooperated with the criminal West against Muslims. Russia with the criminal west helped Saddam against Iran during the invasion of Iran by the puppet Saddam. We never forget, ever forgive.
Putin is the servant of the Jewish mafia, that’s why is protected by the zionists including this author.
Putin let into power by the Jewish Mafia in Russia. Any Putin apologist including Saker, Paul Craig Roberts, and Pepe Escobar should not be trusted.
What did you expect Doc…This is UNZ, remember…LOL
As for my own reaction to the very significant new policy of spending public funds to build infrastructure and improve the lives of ordinary folks in Russia, I am all for it…I also think this will work out well, despite Prof Cohen’s true observation that there is still a lot of rot and corruption at the provincial level…
The fact is that there will always be powerful forces opposed to real progress for humanity at large…this was the case in FDR’s time, when this powerful global elite threatened to turn the entire global economy into a fascist dystopia…
In his inaugural speech in 1933 FDR proclaimed boldly…
People forget that in those years of the 1930s the entire world was suffering…In the US the decade of the 1930s saw a population shortfall of about ten million…an American Holodomor…the US population was three quarters rural also, not just the Soviet Union under Stalin…the massive disruptions in the economy, brought on by the greed of the moneyed elite was perhaps more costly in terms of human lives than the much hyped alleged famines and such under Stalin…
The US census data on decade by decade population shows vividly the demographic catastrophe of the 1930s…when population growth dropped by more than half from the previous decade of the 1920s…before returning to form in the following decade of the 1940s…
John Steinbeck’s Nobel-winning novel Grapes of Wrath tells one such story, the Joads of Oklahoma, tenant farmers who are forced off their meager land and migrate to California to work on huge fruit plantations…this was the story of millions such ‘okies’…from all across the Dust Bowl of the rural midwest…
This factual history of widespread famine in the US has been disappeared down the memory hole so completely that we never hear of it…yet right here on this forum I see endless clowns quacking on and on about the Ukrainian ‘Holodomor’ [a propaganda invention], yet they are totally ignorant of our own sorry history…
In the book and in the 1940 film with Henry Fonda, we see how these poor landless folks [way more desperate than any refugees in today’s world] are beaten down and ground into dust by greedy large landowners…the only ray of hope for them comes from FDR’s Resettlement Administration [later renamed the Farm Security Administration], a New Deal agency that brought relief to these starving, exploited masses…
Of course today’s programmed zombies [like we see on this forum] have zero appreciation of REAL HISTORICAL FACTS…and you will see them endlessly bloviating about FDR ‘the commie’…
The fact that the New Deal basically built the modern US infrastructure…brought electricity and roads to rural America [again, the vast majority of the population at the time] is somehow forgotten by the indoctrinated masses of today…
So when we see Prof Cohen talking about the historical hardships of Russia, and particularly the Stalin era, it is good to keep in mind the global context…the historical facts are that Stalin’s five year plans were a huge success…Soviet economic growth and industrial development in those decades is still unsurpassed in modern history, even by China in the last three decades…
The country went from a backward basketcase under imperialist Tsarist rule to putting the first man in space in a few short decades…along the way, the country’s military and industrial might crushed the most dangerous and evil regime the world has ever seen, the Nazis…
So I have to disagree with the good professor’s characterization of the Stalin era as some kind of ‘fail’…it was quite the opposite…just as FDR saved the US in the same era [only to see the most of that reversed, starting in the 1970s and continuing till today…]
Likewise the Soviet Union, which started on its downward trajectory only after the passing of Stalin..;.
That era gives great insights that could guide Russia’s drive for advancement under Putin’s new plan…it is therefore instructive to review the New Deal and its massive public works and rural programs that transformed America into a modern country with a decent standard of living for its people…
Of particular interest is the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which circumvented the parasite central bank system and created money directly for these huge projects for developing industry in America…
–Matthew Ehret, How to Crush a Bankers’ Dicatatorship; Lessons from 1933
The same kind of RFC-type financing would do wonders in Russia today…Prof Cohen is right that the country is still suffering from the capitalist shock doctrine of the 1990s…engineered and carried out by the same kind of fascist global ‘moneychanger’ elite that FDR had to subdue…
In Russia the so-called Stolypin Club of progressive thinkers is looking exactly in that direction, with a plan similar to that of the RFC…for sure the country is suffering under the continuing austerity policy of the Russian central bank, which appears to answer more to the global moneychanger elite than to Putin…
Certainly the newly appointed government is a step in the right direction, but I am still waiting to see what is really needed…an RFC-like money creation system that bypasses the bankers…
A few random negative notes or questions re Putin before disagreeing with your overall assessment.
I agree that Putin should be less solicitous of Israel and wouldn’t doubt that he finds it worthwhile to accommodate the enormous financial and media power of the Israeli lobby abroad. Next, from what little I know of Russia’s domestic laws, I’d prefer greater scope for private ownership and carrying of handguns for defense of home, person, and family in Russia, a critical right for the common person that we are gradually losing here in the USA. Also don’t think it would hurt for Russia to decriminalize marijuana, one of the few sensible things our state governments have done recently in the USA. (Certainly that would do less damage to the health and public safety of Russians than rampant liquor consumption has. Though they apparently have drastically reduced deaths and disease from alcoholism and drunkenness compared to the old stereotype.). I’m sure as I learn more about russian law and policy, I’ll find more to criticize as I do in my country.
And so as not to be naive, neither of us has any real knowledge of how much he and his coterie are personally profiting from their positions (as our US Congressmen routinely do as well).
But tell us, which major world leader has a better character and track record of accomplishment than Putin? Consider that when it comes to competence, steady temperament, knowledge of world affairs, common sense, avoidance of debt, defense of the borders, long-term planning, judicious use of resources, avoiding unnecessary and aggressive war, deft negotiations and cultivation of international reputation, and pride and love for one’s own people.
It’s usually relative in life, and government, as we select from among the choices that confront us.
** I’d gladly take VVP as president of my country rather than any actual US president in my half century of life, Democrat or Republican. **
Two of our children will be learning Russian, and we hope to take them all to Russia — preferably while Putin is still president. Who knows if or when Russia will be fortunate enough to have the likes of Putin leading their country again.
Putin and Russia are under no obligation to “help Muslims” or “help Arabs” or help Iran. (If one wishes to preserve much of the historical character of Russia, there are far too many Muslims in the RF as it is, for that matter, and even a brilliant highly competent leader like Putin cannot forstall the Islamization process unless core russians start having children again.)
In any event, both legally and morally, Putin’s duty is to place the security and interests of the Russian people first and foremost, not the interests of whomever you’re representing or “rooting for.”
After that, to the extent that it can be consistent with his own people’s interests, I’d hope that he would try to link Russia most of all with predominantly european and Christian countries. (That would be rather difficult, however, given that the formerly white and Christian countries are abandoning their traditional values and self-respect and surrendering to alien peoples on their own territory. Russia may soon not have any meaningful potential allies, no genetic or cultural kinsmen, in the former Western world.).
On balance, Putin seems to be doing an excellent job with the hand he was dealt. And would the neighboring Muslim countries really treat Russia and Russians any more fairly if they had superior military strength? The notion seems painfully naive, or dishonest.
[But tell us, which major world leader has a better character and track record of accomplishment than Putin? ]
These countries, Russia, China, Turkey, are doing well because Iran is under attack by sanctions that Russia voted for. Because Iran is in a box, with the help of Putin, not creativity of Russians!!!!
Putin knows Russia should be a servant to the demands of the criminals who rule the world.
Putin and Russia have cooperated with the criminal west against Iran and other ‘seven countries in five years’ PROJECT.
Putin has obeyed the demand of the criminal west and voted five times for the illegal SANCTIONS against Iran and Iranian children, to break the backbone of the Iranian economy, because that is good for Russian’s economy. To benefit from killing of others. US is doing the same. So, what is the difference? Only China is buying little oil from Iran, NOT Russia. Russia only benefits from Sanction of Iran that’s why they are willing to do it.
That’s why Russia, Turkey thrived economically. They are all criminals and we have no doubt about it.
How a country can survive without other countries’ help. No, Russia is as CRIMINAL as Washington, and Britain.
Venezuela must know that Russia in not an ally, only an opportunist. Putin is working closely with the Jewish mafia pimp, Trump and Netanyahu. Iran knows that and is trying to revive the economy that Putin-Netayahu-Trump and the Jewish US treasury are trying to break. Iran knows that Iranians should not rely on Russia and Putin.
Putin and Russia cooperated with the criminal West and Jewish mafia against Libya. Russia and Putin is responsibility for thousand of Libyan deaths.
Putin is directly responsible for massacre of Qaddafi and his family. Please stop defending an opportunist zionist stooge.
Russia is in bed with Assassin Jewish mafia stooge, Trump, against Palestinians. They never supported Palestinian cause, but Russia and Putin, a zionist stooge, have supported these criminals for over 70 years. Stop being cute and ignorant.
Only racist ‘white’ are blind and ignorant about the fact that Russia is in Syria not to ‘defend’ Syria, but to collect all the card to re draw the map.
But, Putin must know that he cannot do much without Iran and Syria’s agreement, otherwise he will be forced out.
[Putin and Russia are under no obligation to “help Muslims” or “help Arabs” or help Iran. ]
Then, why this delusional comment is posted here:
[If you are saying this about Putin, who is defending Syria and Iran against Israel and America’s terrorist soldiers, I can’t imagine what you think of all politicians (bar none) in Washington!!!]
Exactly, I am saying the same thing that you say.
what I am saying is that Russia is in Syria working towards Russia’s interest which is an ally of the criminal west and Israel, where is trying to draw the map that benefits Russia, the West and the apartheid entity. Russia voted for the creation of Israel against the will of Palestinians and Muslims along with criminal states, US and Britain in 1948.
Then, we understand that why these racists ‘white’ praise Putin. Because the criminal west is in decline and there is NO ‘leader’ to prevent its downward, thus they are trying to make Putin as their ‘leaders’ because he is ‘white’. The west has NO credibility. America, Britain, France, the evil empires of different period have gone and are going into their GRAVES, they have NO credibility. Russia was and is part of the west, but now Putin is pretending that Russia is different, where is not true. The racist ‘white’ are disappointed and they need a ‘leader’ to gather around and save the racist states. It is too late, hopefully China take over soon and will pass Russia as well. Russia has a DARK history in the region. Before you say anything further, go and read this history.
Russia always, always, always was an ally of the criminal west against the rest.
Putin and Russia cannot be trusted. Iran is trying to out maneuver the damages caused by the ILLEGAL sanctions that Russia voted for to please the apartheid entity, Israel.
Israel is more concern with Germany than Russia, because Netanyahu knows that Putin and Russia have been a good friend of apartheid entity than Germany. So Iran is trying to fix some of the damages from the illegal sanctions designed and implemented by the US treasury run by Jewish mafia pro Israel by turning inward:
[In this connection, the Times ran a revealing piece about the Iranian economy late last week. Let there be no question, the U.S. sanctions regime is nothing more than economic terrorism and has cut deeply into the lives of ordinary Iranians. But it has also brought benefits. As a matter of necessity Iranian companies have begun to replace formerly imported items with products made domestically. Strikingly, the Tehran share market was the world’s top performer last year.]
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/02/18/patrick-lawrence-mike-pompeos-latest-delusion/
The Jewish mafia gang the other day voted to keep Iran in the black list, through FATF, which is a 100% Jewish controlled.
[I’d hope that he would try to link Russia most of all with predominantly European and Christian countries.]
Don’t worry. Putin is an ally of the ‘white’ West and the racist ‘white’ like Trump, Netanyahu not Muslim countries. Russia always helped the white tribe against the rest.
So, we also are looking for our interests. Our cooperation with Russia is not permanent knowing the dark history of Russia. So we have a right to be cautious and alarm people when we see opportunists are at work doing harm to our communities.
You are an incredible fucking idiot…
You come on here with your ‘anonymous’ so regular people here can’t look up your comment history…and then proceed to squirt diarrhea like the sick, disgusting moron you are…
I don’t usually respond to assholes like you, since your crap is so obviously false that people just turn away with disgust anyway…
But just ask yourself where would Syria be today if it weren’t for Putin and Russia…?
Where would Iran be…?
First, Syria would have long ago fallen to the US and Israel and you would now have a puppet government there that would see to it that Iran would be kicked out and its access to Lebanon would be gone…where would that leave Hezbollah and Lebanon…?
This is exactly the dream of the colonialist Israeli regime…to be able to invade and annex southern Lebanon and its water resources which it badly needs…
These facts are beyond dispute…but Russia, at great cost in blood and treasure moved forcefully into Syria and has pretty much restored order…right now Russia is helping the SAA to clean up the last of the terrorist scum in Idlib…
Despite fierce resistance from Turkey, the US and Nato and the entire western propaganda machine, Russian aircraft are bombing the shit out of the takfiris and their Turkish sponsors, and getting fired at with manpads for their trouble…
Do you remember Roman Nikolayevich Filipov…?
This brave airman blew himself up with his own grenade after his Su25 ground attack jet was brought down by a terrorist manpad in Idlib almost exactly two years ago…
‘This is for our guys’ he shouted, as he left this world and his family and kids behind…Роман Николаевич Филипов, recipient of the Hero of Russia award…
But for scumbags like you, it’s never enough…nobody could possibly do enough for your filthy Muslim ass…no matter how much they sacrifice…
Who is backstopping Iran against the onslaught by Zionist Trump and his Israeli neocons…?
It is Russia that’s who…where are the automatic ‘kickback’ sanctions at the UN Security Council that the Germans, French and British have been making noises about invoking…?
It hasn’t happened, just as I predicted months ago…precisely because Russia has Iran’s back…
Having said that…let’s keep in mind that Iran and its fanatical Shia theocracy is no angel by any means…there is no place in today’s world for rule by some medieval religious bullshit…even if the Iranian government does have a lot of positive socialist-like aspects to it…
Iran has been a poor friend to Russia…a fair weather friend at best…they never cease to harp on some imagined ancient grievances against Russia…even while Russia is keeping guard for their benefit…
These are the facts dipstick…it’s hearing from idiots like you that don’t even have enough sense to see that Russia has saved the Axis of Resistance that makes me feel like throwing Iran under the bus…much to the delight of other trolls here like A123, who is the Zionist mirror image of your fanatical and hate-filled Muslim stink…
Here’s a suggestion for you asshole…why don’t you go to Syria and help out…instead of pulling crap out of your rear end…?
FB, thank you for taking the time to put this fucking asshole “anonymous” in his place. You salvaged the thread from his bullshit diarrhea. Now maybe we can have some logical assessments of Putin and the critical role he’s played on the world stage.
He’s had success precisely because he’s been consistent. Countries trust his diplomacy, which of course drives the State Department bat guano insane.
If trump is a white racist, or racialist, he has a strange way of showing it:
continuing the flood of 1-2 lmiklion egal and illegal non-white invaders into our country (the USA) every single year,
Doing nothing to protect white or even merely civic-nationalist Americans from physical assault if they dare to attend anti-immigration rallies or the “wrong” party’s rallies,
trumpeting his support for even more such immigrants,
doing nothing (even by attempted executive order) to repeal birthright citizenship,
doing nothing to end chain migration (“family reunification”),
and letting his administration and advisors propose even more H1B visas to displace American professionals.
If you don’t like trump, fine. If you don’t like the USA and the west, also fine, and in recent decades I’d probably agree with many of your reasons,
If you for some reason think that white people are “racist” but other people aren’t, that’s absurd and contrary to both human nature and history. People of all races have competed to show the universality of in-group supremacism and the attendant cruelty against other racial and religious groups, and I’ve felt the pull of such feelings myself.
As for welcoming China’s domination of the world, boy you are either terribly naive about how they will treat people, or a paid shill. Let’s assume just naive.
I understand the tendency to reach for anything in a desperate hope that this drug-addled, obese, homosexualized, ignorant, unspiritual, meanspirited western “culture” meets its downfall and doesn’t spread further.
But domination by a 24/7 godless Chinese government/party to whom individuals are mere ants? No thanks.
You can build hundreds of those buildings in ММДЦ, but Moscow will still be a city full of shuffling old people outside a few key zones, with more miserable pensioners every year.
[You are an incredible fucking idiot]
The one who is fucking idiot is YOU liar.
[But just ask yourself where would Syria be today if it weren’t for Putin and Russia…?
Where would Iran be…?]
You MUST ask yourself, where would Russia be today if General Soleimani did not approach Putin using Ruusia’s DESIRE to play a role in the middle east, an opportunity for Russia that loved so much?
Iran presence in Syria is far more important that Russian air power knowing the dark history of Russia in the region. Iran and Syria for years, since 2011 were keeping US-Israel-UK terrorists back. s The Iranian soldiers on the ground were FAR MORE important than Russian bombing and has remainsed as suh. Syrian and Iranian efforts will be helped due to Russian air power, General Soleimani thought, but both Syria and Iran are cautious about Russian intention in Syria. Iran even allowed Russia using Iranian territory to go after the terrorists in Syria, but ONLY one time and then Russians were kicked out of Iran, knowing their dark history in the region.
So, Russian air power was helpful but it was not the main reason behind syrian victory who defeated US/Israel tereroerists, ISIS and their project. We don’t know how much Russia is going to help its ally Israel in the future.
The Unied Sates bombed many countries since WWII, but could not defeat determined people who defended their lands and honor. The American air power killed millions of innocent people, yet the hot to leave the targed country like a rotten rat, so Russia from Afghanistan, so evil British empire from Afghanistan, three time, and now US knows that should fuck off from Afghanistan, Iraq and the Middle east. That’s why racist ‘white’ like you praising Putin, a Jewish Mafia stooge to be successful in order to save the apartheid entity that Russia is protecting and liking Tribe’s behind for over seventy years. Today, Putin and Russia are standing with a con man and an ASSASSIN, trump giving support to baby killers Kuchner-Netantyhue-trump for their evil plan to steal all of Palestine “the deal of the century.
Do you idiot read the slogan of ugly Russian ‘foreign minister’ Lavrov about the ‘deal iof the century” He gave 100% support to Mafia trump and baby killers Netanyahu and Kuchner idiot:
[Russia: Lavrov calls for Middle East Quartet to review Trump’s peace plan]
The Journalist Andrew Korybko was right AGAIN when he wrote:
Don’t be Surprised if Russia Tacitly Supports the Trump-Netanyahu “Deal of the Century”
https://www.globalresearch.ca/dont-be-surprised-russia-tacitly-supports-deal-century/5702231
[Russia’s relations with “Israel” in recent years are much deeper and more strategic than its historic ones with Palestine so it’s unthinkable that Moscow won’t tacitly support the so-called “deal of the century” despite expectedly voicing mild reservations about it in public for the sake of retaining its regional soft power.]
Mr. Korybko is right again when exposes Purin as a Zionist servant:
Has Russia “Stopped Israel” from Bombing Syria? Has Moscow Authorized Syria to Use the S-300 Air Defense System
his political fantasy should have been rejected outright by anyone with even passing knowledge of the situation in Syria since the onset of Russia’s anti-terrorist intervention there after Moscow reached a military agreement with Tel Aviv to allow the latter to continue carrying out attacks against the IRGC and Hezbollah. This isn’t “fake news” either like the most zealous anti-Zionists in the Alt-Media Community might claim, but was officially confirmed by the spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Defense in September 2018 after the mid-air spy plane tragedy.
the unspoken truth is that Russia is actually “Israel’s” unofficial ally. President Putin has lavished extensive praise on the self-professed “Jewish State” numerous times as verified by the official Kremlin website, and he even took time out of his extraordinarily busy schedule to speak at the annual conference of the “Keren Heyesod Foundation” last week where he endorsed the activities of the group that describes itself as the “fundraising arm of the Zionist movement“.
President Putin’s speech is a must-read for anyone remotely interested in the truth nature of Russian-“Israeli” ties since it includes such crucial takeaways as the Russian leader “say(ing) with pride that probably there has never been such a high level of relations between Russia and Israel”, confidently asserting that he regards “Israel” as a “Russian-speaking country”, and even boldly saying that the two are “a true common family”, the latter description of which he immediately proceeded to say was said “without exaggeration”. Quite clearly, it’s nothing short of delusional to think that Russia is against “Israel” and that Putin is secretly an anti-Zionist.
Only ignorant and racist people who believe in WHITE POWER domination support this zionisrt stooge. It is not strange to see many racists who protect Putin, they support Donald Trump because Trump is given Russia and Putin a lot of opportunity to have his support against Iran and in support of Israel. Russia’s economy has improved due to illegal Iran sanction that Russia -US-UK-Israel voted for, where keeps Iran in a box. The day that Iran is out of box, then Russia has to work hard to feed its poor population. Now, the Putin supporters can LIE as much as they can, but a day comes soon that Putin can not CASH IN on Iran sanction, when an American patriots be elected and put in office, NOT A TRAITOR like Trump, to work for the interest of Americans not Russians, Jewish mafia, Israel or Erdogan, a zionst stooge.
The day that US realize its mistake, then Russia and Turkey and Isreal go down the tube over night, NOT china.
Please read other articles by Andrew Korybko to know facts about Russia and Putin:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/author/andrew-korybko/page/2
The architectural style of the buildings on the heading image is the neo-modernist iconic glamour style of the Western globalist corporatist and liberal institutional power mongering elites. In some circles they call it the ‘we crush you style’, ‘glamour brutalism’, etc.
I wonder whether the selection of such an image of Western iconic imperialist style is supposed to suggest something.. Or perhaps the essayists’ aesthetic ideas in the area of architectural style are submissive to the mentioned powers, and as such modernization per definition equals that style?
[Too much crude profanity may get your comments trashed.]
Look you stinking piece of shit…why don’t you get lost…nobody wants to hear your diarrhea here…
You took up 1,000 words here to say ABSOLUTELY NOTHING…
Andrew Korybko…?
What a fucking idiot you are…that pinhead is nothing…a useless Soros stooge…
I’m really not interested in carrying on a conversation with a profoundly retarded shithead like you…I have much better things to do…
But for the decent folks here who are not happy with your shitstreaming here…I will just post a map of Syria from June 2015 before Russia came in that fall, and Syria on February 20, this year…
The results speak for themselves…the fact is that Russia, thanks to VVP, saved Syria…as we can see from the map, there was really no Syria left in 2015 [the territory in red]…Iran was already in Syria in 2015 and they were getting creamed…what would have happened if Russia did not come in and the US put in a no fly zone…?
It was President Assad coming to Moscow and inviting Russia in that was the turning point…Yes Soleimani was part of the equation and Russia is still supporting Iran…Russia has offered to sell one million barrels of oil a day for Iran, months ago…and Iran still hasn’t taken up the offer…
Russia was key to getting the Iran nuclear deal done in the first place, and is still backing up Iran in the UN Security Council…
As for Israel ‘bombing’ Syria…that is meaningless as a mosquito bite…do you expect Russia to start a war with Israel…and bring a full-scale war to the region that will have unpredictable consequences…?
But Israel dare not fly into Syrian airspace, they are launching missiles from outside Syrian borders…they are not a real problem by any stretch of the imagination, so why make it a problem…?
Turkey is much more of a problem in Syria than Israel…and right now the Russian air force is bombing the shit out of them…
Video Link
In any case, I suspect that you are not the only Iranian who hates Russia…in fact there is a lot of anti-Russian sentiment there…the people are also not happy with the fanatical religious regime…Iran is not a country that can be counted on…this is why nobody is rushing in to help them…even China is basically doing nothing, or at least much less than Russia…India turned their back on Iran right away and stopped buying Iranian oil…
It would be best for Iranians and the world if a secular government came in and replaced that ridiculous theocracy…Iran is really no better than Israel in many ways…
[Andrew Korybko…?
What a fucking idiot you are…that pinhead is nothing…a useless Soros stooge…]
[YOU are the fucking idiot, racist and a liar. Korybko is telling the truth that many racist Russian pro zionists do not like. Soros is part of the Jewish mafia that your zionist pimp, Putin gives service to.]
All the racists who paint ‘white power’ as victims, like racist Paul Craig Roberts, are supporter of the Jeiwh Mafia pimp, Putin and Assassin trump who serves the interest of Israel.
https://www.unz.com/proberts/white-people-are-being-erased/
You idiot cannot deny it. Putin – trump – Netanyahu are mobsters who are serving the criminal Jewish Tribe. Modi, the racist Hindi, also has joined these criminals who lived on HATE crimes slogan against Muslims and Palestinians. Why ICC, a whore house, does not arrest these criminals and assassins on HATE crimes? The HATE crimes designed and forced by the criminal Jewish Mafia to brainwash and silent people.
Go and serve these criminals reading from the zionsit hate crimes speeches against Muslim. Putin does the same when says ” Israel has a right to defend itself”, a piece of lie taken from Zionist book. You are not partial to deal with. Stop your lies
[In any case, I suspect that you are not the only Iranian who hates Russia…in fact there is a lot of anti-Russian sentiment there…the people are also not happy with the fanatical religious regime]
You are so ignorant about your slogan where is COPIED from the zionist media propaganda against Iran and NOT knowing it.
There is MORE freedom in Iran that Russia, a zionist servant. the ONLY country that has stood for the past 41 years against zionist mass murderers and its extension US imperialism is IRANm,while Russia has served and licked Jewish zionists’ behind for few bones as concession to feed itself.
Russia allied with Israel and the criminal west to bomb Libya and to kill thousands of Libyans idiot.
Russia is the country along with UK-US voted for the erection of an apartheid entity Israel, against Mulsims, cooperated with CIA-MI6 on 1953 coup against elected PM, Mohammad Mosaddeq, by manipulating the fifth column, Todeh Party in Iran by Stalin. We never forget or forgive, liar.
Russia voted, at least 4 times in supporting the illegal sanctions against Iranian children to please Jewish tribe to serve its interest.
Russia and Putin, in exchange for few bones as concession, postponed Iranian reactor plant at Bushehr, due to an order from the Jewish Tribe where Putin serves. He delated the project, more than 10 years before its completion.
Russia and Putin did NOT honored S-300 agreement, although Iran had a signed agreement and paid for it fully, high priced, due to an ORDER from the mass murderers Jewish mafia Netanyahu, where Putiun OBEYED.
There is more freedom in Iran that Russia or US, where these countries have been chained and put in a box by the zionist rulers to repeat the Holohoax story, otherwise will be imprisoned. idiot.
Recently Putin attended the zionist SHOW and kissed Netanyahu’s behind to honor HOLOHOAX liar.
You bet, Iranian people never forget the Russian crimes against Iranians in their own country, and against Muslims while Russia and Putin are serving Israel’s interest and cooperating with their servants MBS, racist Hindi Modi and its image Trump.
Trump is serving Israel and Russia’s interest and hoping for these racists to help him for another 4 years. Putin cann’t wait to serve AGAIN.
Iran never betrayed its allies, and since 1979 is the ONLY country that has stood with Palestinians, although it is NOT profitable, but Iran honor morality that the zionist PIMPS who are serving baby killers to have the Jewish mobsters on their sides.
It has been a profitable business for Putin to serve the baby killers because the Zionists applauded Russia for its cooperation with the criminal tribe, but a deadly policy against Americans’ interest.
Americans should follow their interests and kick the zionists and its extension out, Putin and Russia are that extension so racist Hindi Modi. Netanyahu using all the racist fools that mentioned above to erect ‘greater Israel’, that these traitors are cooperating with.
[You are not partial to deal with.]
Should have been You are not impartial to deal with. Thanks
tell that to 2 million Afghans dead as result of Soviet invasion. there are photos of short mini-skirts of Afghan women on streets of their cities before invasion.
where in America Communists shooting women for gleaning on state fields, taking or spoiling food in their houses? in some regions Ukrainian-speaking regions death toll was 25% or more of population. many Ukrainian villages especially active in uprising against Bolsheviks in 1919 were 100% dead. shame on you.
Yep, he is lying and disrespectful to 3 to 6 million Ukrainians and 15 million victims (Russians, Ukranians, Belarussians, Tatar, Kazakh people etc) of red terror in 1920s.
I wonder why he doesn’t pay attention to drop of increase from 21% in 1910 to 15% in 1920 … oh, yeah, because birth rates were slightly down and immigration was down from
1905 1,026,499
1910 1,041,570
to
1915 326,700
1920 430,001
which explains the drop from 21 to 15%
And if he looked at birth rates in 1930 and 1950 … 18 per 1000 in 30s moved upward to 25 per 1000 in 50s, which results in difference between natural change 7 in 1930s vs 15 in 1950s. Extrapolate it over decade and it’s 8% percentage point difference.
Add to this increased restrictions on immigration (300-400k immigrants in 1920s vs 35k immigrants in 1935), which results in 2.5-3% percentage point difference over decade.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States
Comparing people having fewer babies and tighter immigration restrictions/lower immigration rates with millions of people being murdered and deliberately starved to death … don’t know how one can get lower than this.
Following his logic, if the US stopped accepting 1-1.5 million immigrants (including illegals) every year it would be equivalent to Pol Pot’s genocide in Cambodia.
And I thought I’d seen–read–it all on this site. This one takes the Tinfoil Trilby.
You are far too uneducated to understand even basic numbers…
Also you are too inarticulate to express a coherent train of thought…
But let us look at the hodgepodge of diarrhea you have deposited here…
First let us attempt to distill the core of the so-called ‘argument’ you are trying to present…
Number one…you seem to think that the population shortfall of TEN MILLION PEOPLE in the US in the decade of 1930 to 1940 [the years of the great depression and the Dust Bowl, where millions of non-landowning farmers were forced off the land and migrated to other parts of the country] is somehow easily explained by a drop in immigration…[without actually citing any sources]
You then go on and yap about fertility rate in those decades…without actually presenting any numbers…so here they are…
We see quite clearly that in that decade of the 1930s the fertility rate dropped by a third…before rebounding again by 1950 to reach 3 [the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime]…we see of course that before 1930 this number had been above 3…and again rose to 3.5 by 1960…
Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that low fertility comes with poverty and hardship…people have less children due to malnutrition…this is well established…also there is a decrease in live births…for instance in Grapes of Wrath, Rose’s Baby is stillborn…children that are born alive also die at a higher rate due to malnutrition…it’s called infant mortality…
At least read the wikipedia entry on Grapes of Wrath, or better yet watch the 1940 film [it’s clear that actually reading a book is beyond your ability]…to get an idea of how the poor were treated in America in the 1930s…
I won’t get into a detailed telling of the true Dust Bowl story here…[not the airbrushed wikipedia fake history]…but this era’s human suffering on a massive scale is part of the real fabric of American history…as we see from the writing of Steinbeck, the music of Woodie Guthrie, and the photogrpahy of Dorothea Lange…[try to at least look up some of these references before spouting off about things which you know nothing about…]
Now let’s turn to your unintelligible noises about immigration…of course being retarded as you are, you are unable to provide any sources…[but that doesn’t stop you from doing all kinds of mental patient gymnastics in trying to twist this into some kind of ridiculous ‘conclusion’…]
So let us again look at the facts…here is a chart neatly showing immigration by decade into the United States…
As you can [hopefully] read from the numbers, we do see that immigration was much higher in the 1920s than in the 1930s, 4.2 million versus 700,000…a decrease of 3.5 million immigrants in the decade 1930 to 1940…
However, this in no way comes close to accounting for the population shortfall in the 1930s of ten million people…
Clearly arithmetic is not something you have learned yet…let us look again at the total population by decade…
Let’s carefully walk through these numbers so that even you can understand what’s going on here…in the decade of the 1920s the population increased from 106 million to 123 million…an increase of 17 million…subtracting the 4 million in immigrants in that decade leaves us with a NATURAL INCREASE of 13 million…
In the very next decade, the 1930s…the population grows only 9 million…if we also subtract the 600,000 immigrants that leaves only EIGHT MILLION NATURAL INCREASE…
Where is the other FIVE MILLION…?
And if we look at the next decade, 1940 to 1950, we see an increase in total population of 19 million…
Immigration was also very low in that decade…only about 150,000 more than in the 1930s…again it leaves a NATURAL INCREASE of 18 million…
Of course this jibes perfectly with the fertility rate decline we saw in the desperate years of the 1930s [see again the table above]…the simple and obvious conclusion is that people were having LESS CHILDREN DUE TO HARDSHIP AND MALNUTRITION…
So let us take stock here…in the decade immediately prior to the 1930s, we have a natural increase of 13 million…in the decade following the 1930s we have a natural increase of over 18 million…but right in between, where it should naturally be an average of those two decades, ie about 15 million…we see a natural increase of only eight million…
And this is somehow explained by your incoherent gibberish…?
Yeah no, Medvedev [LOL]…this kind of bullshit may fly on the idiot Karlin’s discussion threads…but it’s not going to work on people of normal intelligence here…
PS…I see youR retarded buddy ‘AnonymousUkrop’ is also popping off some incoherent noises about the starving Ukrainians…
But here’s the big difference…I have presented here REAL ACTUAL FACTS FROM REAL GOVERNMENT SOURCES…where are the numbers and sources from the Soviet Union for the 1930s population…?
My understanding is that the population of the country continued to grow in that decade…so until you and your retarded Ukrop buddies can bring some real facts to the discussion, then we will consider the so-called Holodomor nothing but the propaganda bullshit it really is…
The death toll was horrible in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking regions too (and indeed in the Russian republic, e.g. the Kuban region). And let’s not forget that by 1933, terror famines were a tried-and-tested Bolshevik suppression tactic. It had been used many times already against unruly Russian regions.
Did you just make that BULLSHIT up or do you have actual credible sources to that effect…?
‘The US media’s three-year obsession with the mostly fictitious allegations of “Russiagate” ‘
Even Stephen Cohen can’t quite bring himself to say wholly instead of ‘mostly’. Or, to be more blunt, that the whole of Russia-gate is a pile of dangerous, despicable lies.
Is Cohen naive, an idiot or actually paid by the FSB? There is no evidence that Putin and his cronies have any plans to “invest” in Russia’s infrastructure. The last 20 years of Putin have demonstrated that the only aim of Russia’s rulers is to steal as much as possible while there is still something to steal. The lack of investment over the past two decades shows that quite clearly. Russia’s railroads are falling apart, the rivers haven’t been dredged in decades meaning there is no longer decent river transport, there are no decent highways outside the Moscow Ring, and even the oil and gas pipelines – carrying Russia’s lifeblood – are undermaintained. The Chinese are abandoning efforts to run silk road traffic through Russia and are now looking for alternative routes to Europe and the Middle East.
On top of that, the health care system is decimated, the education system has been gutted, the many amenities the USSR provided citizens in provincial cities are disappearing. Moscow is gleaming to be sure, but Russia is more than Moscow. Russia’s best and brightest emigrate at the first opportunity.
With oil now dropping to historic lows, Putin has probably missed his chance to leave a historic legacy behind, and future generations will curse the wasted decades of his reign.
Why should Russia white-knight for the Palestinians? There is no Russian naional interest at stake there.
Medieval religious bullshit, both Muslim and Christian forbade usury. That opened the door to rule by older religious bullshit which revels in massacres.
In comparison, the medieval religious is much more preferable.
The Afghan government of the day turned to the USSR for help against the CIA backed rebels. The government was “communist” by US standards, and it was the government of the day that allowed the women to be in mini-skirts on the streets, and educated them in universities.
The USSR “invaded” because the CIA backed “rebels” were causing instability on the Soviet-Afghan borders. If James Earl Carter Jr. and Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski had minded their own goddam business, there wouldn’t have been a Soviet invasion.
Destabilization has been US foreign policy for 70 years.
A couple of Trump Towers would be a good move by Putin .. and drive the NWO Communists insane.
Many people believe the tide of globalization is receding due to Covid-19 or the rise of nationalism. I beg to differ. I believe the world will continue to be tightly coupled. The economy of mass production and the desire to choose the best and cheapest products will continue to propel the globalization.
Given this trend, no country will ever be able to excel in everything. Russia needs to focus and invest its resources into its strengths, rather than spreading out too thinly. Building infrastructure may or may not be Russia’s competitive edge, so it should out-source projects to the best and cheapest builders in the world (unless there is national security concerns). That could help to save a few billions here and there.
Most importantly the bulk of the investment should leverage on Russian traditional strengths and emerging changes in sciences: space tech, aeronautics, energy, math, etc. Some random (probably silly) thoughts here:
1. Harvesting resources from space, e.g. renewal energy, minerals.
2. Nuclear fusion commercialization.
3. Online degree, education, problem-solving techniques and research in sciences/math.
4. Long term arctic living, exploration and travels.
5. New generation of missile/submarine and weaponry.
6. Opportunities from climate change, global warming, green house effects or other natural cycles.
7. Export and combining Russian culture, soft power, literature, music with sciences.
8. New applications and mining technology of natural resources and material.
9. Science tourism, leisure, entertainment, movies.
10. New management, process, optimization, integration of the above categories.
Accordingly, Russian investments need to be purposeful and supportive for those identified targets.
I constantly forget that this level of ignorance and stupidity actually exists. To suggest ANY love between the Russian hating jews and the jew hating Russians is just being uninformed. The jews so hated the Russians (Christian Russians) the organised, paid for and executed a revolution/putsch dragging the entire nation into decades of abject misery with the death of MILLIONS of Christians. Now recovered from this unspeakable crime does anyone seriously believe that the Russians simply forgive? Does this moron not see the Russian involvement in the Middle East as being the ONLY thing that keeps jew aggression at bay? Does this ignoramus think that the american jew establishment constantly defames Russia out of love? Vladimir Putin has put Christianity back to it’s rightful place at the centre of Russian life and the jews hate that, if you are going to tear a strip out of the plague that is the jew then do so, it is right to do so at every opportunity but do NOT go for your allies in the same way, that’s an american tactic and is stupid and ultimately suicidal.
Mr. Cohen, my compliments for your body of work over the years.
A True Truthful Human.