EDITORIAL
Russia is Ruled by a Psychopath
In a speech on January 28th before the World Economic forum in Davos Switzerland, Vladimir Putin declared in his 8th paragraph that he would not criticize U.S. economic policy. He states: “Regardless of their political or economic system, all nations have found themselves in the same boat.” Then in the 9th paragraph, he scathingly attacks the U.S. stock market, making no reference to the fact that the performance of the Russian market has been twice as bad and ignoring the sorties by nuclear bombers he has ordered against American targets, as well as the virulently anti-American rhetoric has has been spewing out for months.
That is only the beginning of the insanity.
He then states: “The concentration of surplus assets in the hands of the state is a negative aspect of anti-crisis measures in virtually every nation.” But not Russia, of course.
He claims: “Russia is one of the major exporters of a number of food commodities.” He doesn’t name single such commodity or customer. Was he thinking of Polonium Tea, maybe?
He asserts: “I believe the 21st century is an economy of people, not of factories.” This is convenient, of course, because Russia is faced with a massive industrial recession. But Putin seems to have overlooked the fact that his nation’s population is projected to fall by one third over the course of the next fifty years. And just what is an “economy of people,” anyway? Isn’t this, in fact, gibberish?
He condemns military spending, ignoring the fact that Russia is massively increasing military spending.
He equates what he calls “Georgia’s adventurous sortie” in Ossetia to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai and Gaza.
And he closes by stating: “Trust and solidarity are key to overcoming the current problems and avoiding more shocks, to reaching prosperity and welfare in this new century.” This from a man who cannot keep his own word from the 8th to 9th paragraph. Moreover, he appears to have forgotten that he himself is a proud KGB spy nobody trusts.
After his speech, Putin participated in a Q&A with Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computer. Dell asked Putin: “How can we, as an IT sector, help you broaden the economy as you move out of the crisis and take advantage of that great scientific talent that you have?” Putin, who had just admitted in his speech that Russia was too dependent on its raw materials sector, responded by sneering in a deeply disturbing, unhinged manner: “We don’t need any help. We are not invalids. We are not poor, we don’t have limited mental capacities, we are not a nation of pensioners or a developing country.”
To put it mildly, Russia is ruled by a psychopath.
As if for emphasis, even as it was being reported that Russia intended not to go forward with its efforts to install offensive nuclear missiles in Kaliningrad, it was also being reported that it intended no such thing. Meanwhile, the ruble plunged to a historic low of nearly 34:1 against the dollar, having lost nearly 42% of its value against the American currency in less than six months. As of January, this puts Russia on pace to record nearly 30% consumer price inflation in 2009. More proof of Vladimir Putin’s economic brilliance and fundamental trustworthiness!
International judgment on Putin’s maniacal rant was as swift and unequivocal as that of the currency markets. Niall Ferguson, a Harvard University history professor attending the conference, stated: “The idea of the Russians lecturing the West about how to run the economy is absurd. It gives this whole event at Davos a surreal quality.”
They’re laughing at your “prime minister,” Mr. & Mrs. Russia. Laughing.
And indeed, even the benighted people of Russia themselves are getting clued in to some extent. Robert Coalson reports:
The Levada research center has released a new poll showing that the percentage of Russians who feel the government can improve the situation in the county continues to fall. While 44 percent agreed with this statement last July, by August, it was 36 percent; in November, it was 31 percent; and the survey this month put the figure at 22 percent. Thirty-two percent said the government cannot improve things.
Russia is a nation governed by madmen. The world must finally stop and take notice.
La Russophobe 
It’s not madness, it’s simply another mind from another side. Mr. Putin just forgot he presents his overview not for Russian audience but Western, which operate by another notions than himself. He just made the wrong place. If you remember Mr.Medvedev, who said once, that freedom is best than non freedom, you can see, it’s ordinary situation, when Russian leaders say “a”, but do “b”.
So, were there fawning syncophants at Davos that swallowed his swill or a yawning group that merely tolerated him, the later is my guess. Foreign investors are never coming back. Davos wasn’t the best forum for him.
Wish as I might that Putin gets his just dues as Russia devolves into economic chaos, sadly he will probably prevail.
Russia doesn’t have many more chances to prove that it isn’t a failed state. When you own the airwaves you own the minds of the unthinking of which in Russia there are plenty. There is no viable opposition to Putin.
I do so love to see that wretched excuse for a human being squirm like a rat. I am SO going to enjoy the coming months as Putin’s nasty little web of lies and violence founders on the hard rocks of economic reality: it’s all over Vlad – I’m afraid that it’s off to the psikhushka for you!
See…aren’t his speeches so much fun to dissect! La Russ, I hope you took two asprin BEFORE you read the gibberish. Though, at his rate, a bottle of vodka under the belt would probably be better suited to help understand his ranting nonsense. This speech actually seems to be sound-bites from some psycho-babble talk show.
“We don’t need any help. We are not invalids. We are not poor, we don’t have limited mental capacities, we are not a nation of pensioners of a developing country.”
Absolute classic Russian attitude. They would rather spend 1,000 years bumbling around in the dark trying to figure it out for themselves rather than ask for help, or at least look to a working model to copy.
My time living in Russia taught me that to a Russian, to ask for help is a sign of weakness. If you offer them help they will, as noted by Putin’s statement not only refuse it but become offended that you even offered the help in the first place.
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Barb, are you talking about Putin’s or the diluded author’s gibberish? Statistics are so fun to quote. So here’s a few statistics, again from the Levada Centre.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20090122/119758945.html
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MOSCOW, January 22 (RIA Novosti) – An opinion poll said that the majority of Russians are in favor of the activities of the country’s president, prime minister and government despite growing unemployment and a fall in the value of the ruble.
Russia’s unemployment rate has grown by 20% since early October, while the value of the ruble has seen its sharpest decline against the dollar since the 1998 financial crisis.
The Levada Center, an independent pollster, said on its website on Thursday that the number of people, who endorse Dmitry Medvedev’s activity as president has risen from 70% in May 2008 to 75% in January 2009.
Approval for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has grown by three percentage points since May 2008, to 83%, while support for his cabinet fell by three percentage points, to 58%.
However, the number of people who believe that the country is heading in the right direction has fallen by 16 percentage points since May 2008, to 43%.
The poll was carried out on January 16-19 across 128 towns and cities in 46 Russian regions among a sample of 1,600 respondents.
—–
Also, I live in a country which has seen its currency depreciated against the US dollar from a high of almost equal parity, to mid US$0.60s. Like Russia, we are a commodities based economy, but unlike Russia we don’t have a massive sovereign wealth fund that the RF so wisely instituted many years ago for occasions exactly such as this. If you want a failed state, don’t look at Russia, look just south, its name is Ukraine.
The hilarious thing is that he criticises the US for “government taking stakes in private business” as part of the bailout package.
Ahem, but what exactly have you been doing Mr.Putin? As usual, the leader of Russia shows himself to be an arrogant hypocrite.
Unfortunately Russia is also, thanks to 100 years or more of force fed propaganda, peopled by psychopaths too.
AusRuss,
Well well the worst of both worlds, an Aussie-Russian.
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund is simply money that has been stolen from its citizens.
Money that would have been better used funding the replacement of crumbling hospitals, rusting infrastructure, cleaning up the man made hell of soviet era industrial polution, and many other worthwhile projects.
Instead the money has been hoarded & squandered on protecting the rouble, and funding Putins pet oligarchs, who immediately transfer said “support payments” out of the country.
Russia is still the same old one party state, Ochrana, GPU, NKVD, KGB, FSB is one example.
A new coat of paint on the same genocidal, murderous monster does not change it any more than a leopard can change its spots.
Putin’s schitzophrenic words have not gone unnoticed and the world leaders join Bill Clinton in chuckles: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jQ9pPB3_agR20JuZCo2l5kflYP1wD960PM600
AusRuss, what do you really expect from polls in a country where all of the tv stations are under Kremlin control and print is carefully self- censored for fear of offending. The vast majority of Russians get their news from the boob tube. As has been the case for decades most Russians are clueless.
The only paradigm Russians have operated under is that their fate is passively linked to the Czar or Party elite. Putin’s approval ratings seem to me to reflect that he still is perceived as a benign ruler. How long before he has to crack a larger number of skulls is the question?
Incongrueously though only 43% feel the country is heading in the right direction. Andrew is right, eight years of Putin and Russia is still without property rights so necessary to a middle class, an infrastructure that is third world outside of the major cities, demographics that are unacceptable out side of the third world, internet access by only 20% of the population and the widespread ignorance you’d expect in a country that distorts and limits information.
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund isn’t massive. It has been poorly utlized to defend the ruble and bail the Kremlin cronies out. The country needs capital inflows which isn’t going to happen.
All of us will be poorer across the globe. Some of us will emerge wiser. Russia won’t.
Putin’s antisocial personality disorder.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder
Track record
Alexander Litvinenko, November 2006. Litvinenko was a former KGB agent who had defected to the United Kingdom and published books on the internal workings of Putin’s FSB networks, and he was critical of the new Russian state. He was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210.
Arkady Patarkatsishvili, February 2008. A wealthy Georgian-Russian businessman, Patarkatsishvili was extensively involved in Georgian politics. Patarkatsishvili died in the United Kingdom of coronary complications that resembled a heart attack. His family and many in Georgia have accused the FSB of involvement, however, saying the FSB has many untraceable poisons at its disposal.
Leonid Rozhetskin, March 2008. Rozhetskin was an international financier and lawyer who held stakes in strategic companies, like mobile phone giant MegaFon. He disappeared while in Latvia after losing Kremlin backing by selling his assets to multiple parties, including some government ministers who are former FSB agents.
Suspicions of Moscow’s involvement in the assassinations of Russian dissidents by various means have become common in the past three years. Russian organized criminal groups, as well as the Russian domestic security and intelligence service, the FSB, are the most likely culprits behind the increase in high-profile assassinations of Russian dissidents over the last few years. Many of the assassinations have been connected to the issue of Chechnya and alleged human rights abuses there.
Considering the organized crime-FSB nexus, the increase in politically motivated murders of Russian dissidents and how Moscow most likely was pleased with Israilov’s demise, Russian assets in Vienna could well have been involved in the murder. While Russia is broadly suspected of killing dissidents abroad in recent years, Chechnya is not known to have carried out attacks in the European Union before — meaning the Israilov killing will send chills down the spines of exiled Chechen dissidents.
Just a note on inflation. Economists tend to confuse rising prices with inflation. Inflation is a monetary phenomenon. The quantity of money will dictate inflation. Rising quantities without any productive value, like free borrowing and spending governments in the 70’s and 80’s, are very inflationary. Falling quantities through bank collapses create deflation.
A general price rise, such as that is the 70’s, is an indication of unworthy money creation.
I believe the Russian Government is printing all the currency, far worse than actually borrowing it regarding inflation. but this is a separate matter.
Russia is experiencing rising prices for imported products in its monetary devaluation. Byhaving to pay out more for imported items, especially if they are necessities like food, there will be less money for other non-essential items. This will actually lead to a contraction in the economy depressing demand for all sorts of items and compelling price decreases.
Gary Marshall
Just when you thought life under Putin couldn’t get more surreal, check out Paul Goble’s latest post. Trust me, just read it.
http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2009/01/window-on-eurasia-being-more-putinist.html
“I believe the 21st century is an economy of people, not of factories.”
If true, this should come as no comfort to a leader whose country’s population is imploding as fast as Russia’s.
Dell asked Putin: “How can we, as an IT sector, help you broaden the economy as you move out of the crisis and take advantage of that great scientific talent that you have?”
Pride cometh before the fall.
Emotion based mob rule seems to be pervasive however, I believe that there will be a counter-revolution against these emotional “revolutionaries.”
The simple fact is, we “reactionaries” are forced to clean up their messes. When we aren’t there, or we are extridited, exiled or exterminatd, you have a Russia, Cuba, name any islamic state, Vietnam, Congo, Venezuela, North Korea. I see a pattern, it appears to be a downward spiral.
The more you give, the more they take.
Kolchak, Dell is hawking his wares. Good luck to that. The last thing that the Kremlin wants are more Russians wired to the internet.
I guess from your point of view, we, russians, are all psychos. Well, we think the same of you now. There are cats and dogs, and there are russians and the west. The difference is that in nature cats don’t spend so much time talking about how dogs are bad. Why most westerners like to do it..is beyond me. Maybe they are psychos?
LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:
If you actually read our blog instead of barking like an illiterate dog, you’d know that there are many Russians we love and praise. Oleg Kozlovsky, for instance, who routinely risks his freedom and his life marching for democracy in Russia. If you can’t read the blog before commenting, you should not open your idiotic mouth.
Andrew // January 29, 2009 at 10:23 am
Unfortunately Russia is also, thanks to 100 years or more of force fed propaganda, peopled by psychopaths too.
Ok-ok.. we are all psychos.. now are you happy?
Go do something useful instead of barking here about baaad russians….
Nice to see you admitting it antherion.
What else are we supposed to think about a state that killed 68,000,ooo people during the 20th century in peacetime? that is twice as many as killed in ALL the WARS of the 20th century?
What are we supposed to think of a people who deam of restoring that evil empire?
Why don’t you do something useful, like build a democratic Russia, that does not kill its own people, or oppress its neigbours?
antherion
I agree with you. But unfortunately most of westerners can only barking about baaad russians (and other independence people…). They are not able to do anything except democracy revolution! Export of democracy revolutions dodoo is the most important income item for USA.
I am Russian can’t you take any critique? Westerners don’t hate all Russians, cant you see how they love mail order brides from Russia? :-D
James
I love Europeans but I love my country more much. I would like to think better about westerns. But I see that most of them “barking about baaad russians” I see double standart, hate and antagonism. For example Andrew&Co that fool person do not say anything and because constantly outrages my Russia.
LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:
Do Russians ever “bark” about bad Europeans? If so, have you ever criticized them for doing it?
ARE there any bad Russians, or only figments of European imagination?
LR: are you trying to engage he is russian dude in intelligent discussion?! You are obviously a russophobe just for that! Don’t you know: Умом Россию не понять – в Россию можно только верить (You cannot rationalize Russia – you can only believe in it). Great Russian poet said two centuries ago.
30 years ago in Soviet Latvian high school I had a subject “Introductory military training”. It was taught by retired army major who was also school vice-principal for ideology. So he taught us “political information” classes as well (I am not making any of these names up – every Soviet school had such subjects).
Anyway, Major had major passion and loyalty to Soviet government and ideology that he exported to Vietnam, Egypt, and Angola. One think that he was lacking was logic. So, his “political information” studies were exactly like our russian dude’s posts.
The story has an interesting postscriptum. It just happened that I was drinking with this fellow in late 80s. He was quite drunk when he confided to me: they hated us in Vietnam, and Angola, and now they hate is here in Riga! Why do they always hate us? We really want the best thing for them – we want Soviet way of life… why do they hate us?
We hate the “culture” of Russia that endorses genocide, ethnic cleansing, brutal opression of minorities and the invasion and opression of neighbouring states.
You “Great Russians” are the among the worst criminals in history. You killed more than 68,000,000 people from 1917 to 1991, destroyed entire cultures, comitted the most brutal repression in history. And now, just when we thought the monster was buried, people like you want to ressurect it. You commit genocide on the people of the north Caucasus because they want their freedom, you commit ethnic cleansing in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transdenister, you cut off the gas to europe and use it as a weapon, etc, etc, etc.
Actually “I am Baboon” I have a great many Russian “In-laws” and they feel the same way about “Great Russia” as I do. They are completely ashamed that once again their people are embracing the darkness.
Andrew
68,000,000. Why is this number counted so few people, why no 6800000000000000000000000000000000000000? You probably counted this list by oneself? Or If you have not any argument, you fabricate ones immediately?
Felix, your comment reminded me of “The Ugly American”.
What rooshans, as opposed to Russians, simply refuse to understand is that people want to be free, they don’t want to be killed by their government, as happened in the Soviet Union and Russia for centuries, and they have their own identities – they don’t want the soviet way of life, or the rooshan way of life – Putinism.
And rooshans, as opposed to Russians, seem absolutely incapable of coming to terms with their past, as other countries have done.
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
The term originated as the title of a 1958 book by authors William Lederer and Eugene Burdick. Ironically, the character referred to as the “ugly American” is one of few Americans who does not exhibit the traits now known by that term. [34] In 1963 the book was made into a movie directed by George Englund and starring Marlon Brando.
The best-selling, loosely fictional account provided contrasting characters with different approaches to opposing communist influence in Southeast Asia, and the use of foreign aid in particular. The majority of the Americans exhibit a range of blundering, corrupt, and incompetent behaviors: often concentrating on impractical projects that will serve more to benefit American contractors than the local population. A minority are effective because they employ knowledge of the local language and culture, but most of these are marginalized and some even considered suspect. As a result, their influence is more limited than it should be.[35]
The title character, Homer Atkins, is introduced late in the book. The “Ugly American” is an engineer whose unattractive features, rough clothing and dirty hands are contrasted with the bureaucrats’ freshly pressed clothes, clean fingers and smooth cheeks. Their behaviors have the opposite contrast: the engineer wants to provide practical solutions to day-to-day problems faced by the populace; the bureaucrats want to build highways and dams that are not yet needed, and with no concern for the many other projects that will have to be completed before they can be used. [36]
The book led to a move by President Dwight Eisenhower to study and reform American aid programs in the region.[37]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugly_American
“I am Baboon” please refer this link for an academic counting of the numbers of civillians killed by their own governments.
http://hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?1c1d76bb-290c-447b-82dd-e295ff0d3d59
Unfortunately the numbers have been confirmed by work done by the Russian human rights group Memorial
You really are an idiot “I am Russian” if you are an example of a Russian lawyer, I am not surprised your country is in collapse
Some calculations put the number as high as 100,000,000. This is when the large number of Soviet citizens killed by their own government during WW2 are added, as well as several famines.
But I will stick with 61,911,000 murdered by the Soviet Union 1917-1987 as this has the most systematic accounting in general sources.
And the breakdown of the 61,000,000 is given here
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE4.HTM
As Tatiana says, “I am Russian” is an uneducated fool
I am Russian, not all of them were russian. In fact these purges affected half of europe.
I hope that will shake you out of your oblivious stupor.
As I said, SOVIET citizens.
The statistics given were for the SOVIET UNION. Other European states have their own lists on the website linked to, if you can be bothered having a look.
Interesting from the figures how ethnic minorities from the Soviet Union, Georgians, Chechens, Ingushetians, Tajiks, Latvians, Estonians, etc, all suffered proportionally far higher population loss than the Russians under the horrors of the USSR. Russian “ethnic cleansing” (genocide) and “Russification” (more genocide) of the empire is nothing new.
Andrew, that is a very good reference.
Most Russians are people without conscience. At least Germans apologized and made laws for the murders to never happen again (and Germans prosper and live happily). In Russia, they blame and swing their fists at anyone/everyone but themselves. That’s what drinking gallons of vodka did their brains. They literally became psychopaths. I have never met a Russian who felt guilty or ashamed about their history. That’s why they will never prosper.
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