EDITORIAL
Russia, most Warlike of Nations
According to Australian think tank Vision of Humanity, only eight of 133 world nations surveyed are more warlike and less peaceful than Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
You read that right: Russia is in the bottom 10% of all world nations when ranked for peacefulness. The likes of Zimbabwe and North Korea are more peace-loving than Russia.
Last year, there were nine countries more warlike than Russia, so Russia’s position has gotten even worse over the course of the last year.
Today we offer an entire issue devoted to illustrating by various examples what a truly barbaric country Russia is. But you hardly need a wealth of evidence to understand that a country run by a proud, lifelong KGB spy is going to rely on brutal violence as its chief means of enacting policy. What other behavior would we expect from a man like Vladimir Putin who is rehabilitating Josef Stalin, the greatest mass-murderer of Russians in world history, and turning him into a national hero?
Still, VOH’s list of nations is truly shocking, a stunning new low for Putin’s Russia. It obliterates the ridiculous neo-Soviet lie that Russia somehow a peaceful nation which only defends itself from aggression. Across a wide range of criteria, VOH has shown Russia to be a fundamentally violent society, a danger to its neighbors and itself, more dangerous in fact that almost every other nation on the planet.
If Russia were a truly civilized country, it would react with shock and horror to its poor position on the VOH list. It would urgently seek reform, beginning with the ouster of its bloodthirsty KGB regime. But no such thing will happen in Russia, first of all because the KGB regime’s TV stations won’t report Russia’s shocking results and second because, even if they did,Russians would turn a blind eye just as they did during the times of Stalin. A Russian was far more likely to turn in his neighbors to Stalin’s secret police than to stand up for his neighbor’s rights, and that’s still true today.
And Russia’s VOH results are no anomaly. As we’ve demonstrated over and over again, Russia’s receives the same pathetic failing scores no matter what criteria are used for comparison, economic, social or political, and no matter what country is doing the studies. Russia’s score for life expectancy, as issued by the United Nations, is almost exactly the same as it’s score for violence in society.
The Russophile scum will, of course, do nothing but try to attack VOH as nothing but a group of “racists” or “Russophobes” and urge Russians to ignore the VOH results, the same tactic that was applied in Soviet times to maintain power and avoid reform. The result of failing to correct your problems, as any civilized person knows, is that they get worse, until they are bad enough to bring down the nation, exactly what happened in Soviet times. How can Russia, then, expect any other fate?
La Russophobe 
Hitler directly killed about 5 million people,but one historian said that Stalin was, on balance, worse.
I think Hitler’s figure should be higher, probably about 10 million, but of course Stalin was much worse, and that’s according not to just one historian. Every historian in the field can easily confirm it.
Estimates vary from low 15 million (nobody shows a number below that) to as many as 60 million. Truly shocking. Only Mao was even worse
How long can it continue? How long can THIS Stalin crap can exist together with Price Waterhouse Coopers, together with IKEA, even Starbucks now…?
Great “investment climate”… and the Shroeder works for Gazprom… nice job… maybe Shroeder also wants to help Ramzan Kadyrov with some nice business in the basement? I’m sure Kadyrov can pay nicely.
Of course it can co-exist. Just look at China. Same repressive regime, same Western businesses there
I think China is actually kind of better in many ways. The main thing – in China there are rules. So you know what you can do and what you can’t. There is nor very big corruption. In Russia corruption is over the top, no clear rules, bandits in the government. How can you even have peace of mind that your business will exist long enough to give good profit. Moreover, how can you walk the streets safely? Well, I guess double expat salary solves some problems, but such high corruptiion causes chaos. You pay bribe to one official but then comes another, you pay again, then comes another.
That;s why IKEA said it stops investment in Russia because it took several years to pay bribes in Samara before they could open their shop there finally.
Some companies, who managed to get guarantee from Putin himself manage quite well for continuous period of time. But these are only several multinational corporations who managed this. The rest are out. That;s one of the reasons the economy is so weak.
But anyway, this is so funny to see all this Fair trading crap in the West, when the same companies will fight to get to any bloody market. Even if it’s covered with real blood.
I am sure crime is lower in China. About corruption, I don’t know. China and Russia are probably similar
This is a standard Kim Zigfeld posting every week or so:
1) Russian barbarism
2) The evils of Russian barbarism
3) Russian barbarism in its fully glory
4) Russian barbarism is a threat to humanity
5) Why won’t the Russians cease being barbarians?
It kind of reminds me of the ADL, in their endless search for more anti-Semitic crackpots.
LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:
This is a standard, desperate, ignorant, idiotic response of a Russophile moron. Not one single scrap of evidence that Russia is civilized, no civilized debate, on a childish neo-Soviet smear of EXACTLY the same type it accuses us of making. Except, of course, that our pieces are all carefully researched and sourced, many FROM OTHER SOURCES in the first instance.
Your gibberish makes Russia look like a nation of hilariously illiterate apes. Was that your intention?
Dear brickhouse,
I partially agree with you.
LR should write: secular savage uncivilized pagan BARBARIANS IN THE KREMLIN.
La Russophobe is genius!
If there was a market for children’s books on boot-licking, you’d dominate the field.
And if there was a market for publishing utter ruSSo-phile trash you’d win hands down.
Mark’s (or is it Marx) no.1 rule is; “stupidity is a virtue.”
And talking about “boot-licking” I bet that you would not even need to bend to lick a rat’s backside.
As an afterthought I cannot but help and note that you seem to be full time on this wonderful blog! So care to tell me who pays you to spread your ruSSian propaganda. No, don’t bother, your answer will only be another disjointed ‘nashi’ lie.
Heil Putler! comrade marx.
Alex wrote: “La Russophobe is genius!”
Mark wrote: “If there was a market for children’s books on boot-licking, you’d dominate the field.”
Don’t blame Alex. He simply needs a political god/goddess to worship. So, he worships LR the way his Ukrainian grandparents worshiped Comrade Stalin, who was also praised as a “genius”.
And the same way modern Russians worship Lenin and Stalin……
What was it that recently went up in the Moscow metro?
Oh thats right, and ode to Stalin….
Andrew,
You are lying again. That was not an ode to Stalin.
BTW, I read your father-in-law joined the Communist Party at the age of 18. You also claim that Communists killed more than 60 million Russians and Jews. How many did your father-in-law kill?
Oh yes, he was originally a communist, but then he also took great risks in disseminating anti communist literature.
See, unlike your collaborating relatives, he saw communism (and Russia) for what it really was.
As for “not an ode to Stalin”, well human rights activists in Russia would beg to disagree.
“Moscow Metro Ode to a Brutal Dictator
In late August a stone was unveiled at the Kurskaya Circle Line Metro Station in Moscow. It carries the words: “Stalin brought us up – to be true to the people. He inspired us to labour and to heroism!”. The words are from Sergei Mikhalkov’s version of the national anthem, and were removed after Stalin was denounced back in 1956. They have been reinstated, and if anybody should think that this is merely aimed at adding historical authenticity, I would politely recommend considering how they would react if similar words appear in the Berlin metro glorifying Hitler. For many of us, whose relatives were murdered by Stalin’s regime, glorification of the dictator is deeply offensive. It also reflects a profoundly disturbing development in the country.
The persistent attempts by Russia’s leaders to accuse neighbouring countries of “rehabilitating Nazism”, to shout about an alleged denial of the Soviet role in defeating Hitler, as well as the creation of a History Commission to fight “falsification of history”, are not only a defensive response to anniversaries of Stalin’s initial pact with Hitler. The tendency to whitewash Stalin, present him as an “effective manager” and avoid or try to somehow minimize the millions of victims of the Terror, Holodomor, collectivization, deportations and the labour camps has been gathering momentum for a few years. It reached school textbooks in 2007, and it is important to note that the quite extraordinary mangling of history by at least one representative of the History Commission, Natalya Narochnitskaya, is echoed in the version of history fed children in Fillipov’s guide to teachers of history.
It is not clear whether Moscow’s Mayor Yury Luzkhov was involved in this latest shameful demonstration of moral atrophy and profound disrespect for the victims of Stalinism and their families. He can, however, and must be made to understand that the ode to a murderous butcher must be removed.
Halya Coynash
Kharkiv Human Rights Group
Hundreds of human rights defenders, writers, public figures and many concerned members of the public have signed a letter to the Mayor of Moscow, Yury Luzkhov, asking him to have the words glorifying Stalin recently placed in the vestibule of the metro station “Kurskaya Circle Line” removed. Please add your voice of protest against glorification of a bloody dictator and grave insult to all his victims and their relatives.
The letter is the same in both languages, and although a postal address is given, sending it my email to mayor@mos.ru would be fine.
Sample letter:
Mayor of Moscow
Y.M. Luzkhov
125032 Moscow, ul. Tverskaya, 13
Email: mayor@mos.ru
Dear Yury Mikhailovich,
I fully endorse the calls made by the Memorial Society and very many human rights defenders, writers and public figures in Russia to remove the words glorifying Stalin from the Kurskaya Circle Line Metro Station in Moscow. I also consider the phrases in praise of Stalin to be a profound insult to all his victims.
I would urge you to take all necessary measures to ensure that the words are replaced by others or simply removed.
Yours sincerely,
Мэру города Москвы
Ю. М. Лужкову
125032, Москва, ул. Тверская, д.13
Email: mayor@mos.ru
Уважаемый Юрий Михайлович!
Полностью поддерживаю призывы общества «Мемориал» и многих правозащитников, писателей и общественных деятелей убрать надпись, прославляющую Сталина в интерьере станции „Курская кольцевая“. Я также расцениваю строки во славу Сталина как оскорбление памяти всех жертв диктатора.
Призываю Вас предпринять всё от Вас зависящее, чтобы надпись заменили на иную или убрали.
С уважением,”
http://eng.maidanua.org/node/1007
Considering your love affair with Stalinism RTR, how many did you and your parents kill?
Andrew,
Have you stopped beating your wife yet? Yes or no?
Never beat her in the 1st place, I leave it to Russian filth such as yourself to do wife beating, you are pretty much the world champions in abusing women and children….
Excellant Brickhouse. Expand those subjects in readable form. You also can help expose the Putin regime.
The “Vision of Humanity” list is a complete nonsense, as USA close neighbors in this list are Ukraine, Kazahstan, and you will lough, Trinidad and Tobago. Did you hear about any military aggression of these countries? USA are currently running TWO WARS (if not counting Pakistan), and the whole US history is a history of continious barbaric wars without borders. USA had more than 70 foreign military operations from 1980. So, no credit to “Vision of Humanity” — I’d call it “Blindness of Humanity”.
LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:?
Actually, moron, the USA's score on this test is very low, and it was even lower last year. But Russia is a FAR more dangerous society than the USA, and Americans live FAR longer on average than Russians.
Residents of Cyprus live longer than Americans, and the Infant Mortality Rate is higher in the U.S. Cyprus blows the doors off the United States in every assessment factor in the category “International Openness”. Does this mean Cypriots are a FAR better society than Americans? I would say no. It’s easy to cherry-pick factors that support whatever conclusion you want to make.
“LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS: Actually, moron, the USA’s score on this test is very low, and it was even lower last year. But Russia is a FAR more dangerous society than the USA…”
This is wrong, old ugly drunk lady. USA is most the dangerous and warlike country in the world, and everybody knows this.
“and Americans live FAR longer on average than Russians”
This does not prove that Russians are more warlike, old ugly drunk lady.
That index has – at minimum- plenty of subjective guesswork.
How do they figure that the USA, Sri Lanka and Hungary has been involved in conflicts worth 1.5 but Estonia 2.5? How did Iceland get “1.5”? That brass soldier riot must be worth more than the Tamil Tigers I guess. And USA?? How on earth did they get conflicts 1.5 for USA, with Iraq, Afg etc ongoing?
How can military capability and sophistication of the heavily armed million man military of North Korea be rated as “2” on a par with NATO member Hungary and also basket case Equatorial Guinea (2500 soldiers), but the 4000 strong (light infantry) of Estonia at “3”, on a par with the mighty mechanized 250000 man Bundeswehr of Germany, while Australia rates a “4” on par with Russia and China?
For that matter how does police state North Korea get ranked at “5” for access to small arms, while Switzerland with a government issue assault rifle under every mans bed is rated at “2” but the land of the gunshow and unregistered firearm USA “3”, while the nanny state UK will-not-issue-period “2”?
Nitpicking, yes, but this kind of logic-free evident guesswork by “analysts” does little to raise the credibility of this index.
LR, theres plenty of evidence that Russia sucks without having to resort to this sort of high school project.
LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:
Interestingly enough, you don’t provide a link to a single worldwide survey on this subject that you find more reliable. Hence, your nitpicking hardly has much value.
“Moreover, how can you walk the streets safely? ”
Quite easily. I lived in Moscow for 3 years, Voronezh for 3 months, St Petersburg for 6 months and Tomsk for 1 year. Everyday worked to college or work, sometimes in the evening, especially dark during the winter. Even stumbled home after having few too many at the pub but never got beaten up, harrassed or threatened. Never got any hassle from the cops and no I didn’t have a large expat salary. Most of my teacher friends had the same experience with street crime and mugging as me…zero..
Maybe your lousy savok clothes and “worthless typical muzik” appearance saved you from roaming gangs of Nashi. Or you just had that “beaten down Savokian Stare” and possibly light skin.
Bob, you did not say that you ventured too far, from the outskirts of town, or visited the low rent public housing areas, where you got drunk, because you could not afford hookers.
Your story is as unusual, as is your namesake for those places. I smell a disinformatsiyni neo bolshevist rat, since even an elderly music professor got mugged by the police last week in Yekaterinburg.
Everybody I know that went to Moscow, even on holiday, tells some nasty story, about lousy attitudes if not outright threats. I would not wander around drunk by myself anywhere you mentioned. I hope you keep doing it however.
“Maybe your lousy savok clothes and “worthless typical muzik” appearance saved you from roaming gangs of Nashi. Or you just had that “beaten down Savokian Stare” and possibly light skin. ”
Where did you get any of that from what was said? It makes as much sense as assuming from your conversation that you never reach much of a level of awareness above dead drunk.
Oh….wait…
I have to back Bob on this because it reflects my own personal experiences in Russia.
Starting in early 2000 when I gave up visiting on tourist visas and finally moved to Russia full time to marry my girlfriend at Zags #4 I initially lived in Moscow and ended up surviving on the fringes of society teaching technical English to Russian Engineers working for American/Russian partnerships (Alcoa as an example) in towns like Chekhov which is on on the outskirts of the city and involved much Metro time and a 250 ruble hired car at the end of the line to shuttle me out to site and back to the nearest M stop in the evening. It was a different driver every trip. All were recently awakened wild haired crazy/insane types and the traffic so unmanageable that more than once our side mirror disappeared in a cloud of debris being struck off by an oncoming vehicle as my driver took “short cuts”. I’ll always remember the Soviet era rubber gas masks used as gas caps on the big rigs, lord knows why the original cap disappeared. I never had any trouble from the authorities because I was a foreigner and the GAI checkpoints were/are still in operation in the country side just like in Soviet times so that sez something. Quite the contrary, we would take the time to stop on the side of the road to buy mushrooms in the summer and maybe a nice foamy beer!
I then lived in various places like Chyvo, Aniva Bay, Yuzhno or Korsakov on Sakhalin Island in the Far East for three years (and I could write a book about that, I once tried to prove to a teenaged toothless GAI goon I could break down his AK quicker than his daughter) before I ended up back in Moscow for a couple more years and all I recall as far as negative experiences go is the occasional doc checks at the top of the escalator where I live (Belorusskaya). Never paid a bribe, never had to go into the back rooms. They were just fishing for coin from an obvious foriegner.
Moscow is not what it was when I first arrived years ago but all expats say that. Nowadays the Metro stations are devoid of Babushkas selling flowers and kiosks due to enhanced security. My wife was caught in one Metro bombing, so what can I say? It’s a dangerous world! But many other countries are reacting in ways that could be described as equally draconian, ever try to take a picture in a public place in the UK?
This site lacks balance. Maybe LR will accept my invite to visit my flat at Belorusskaya in the near future. If you don’t want to deal with me you can rent it for a week as I live in Riga nowadays.
Yes?
“My wife was caught in one Metro bombing, so what can I say? It’s a dangerous world!”
Oh my God. Are you living human being or some sort of an alien life from? It seems to me that you treat your wife like a pet.
Maybe you will say that terrorist acts happen everywhere… well sort of, but in some countries every dozen years in others, like Russia, several times a month
Your wife was almost killed in Moscow… so what, it’s a dangerous word… you wrote it, really, I can’t believe it, oh my god!
This is soooooo craaaaaazy….
When did you do off your meds?
Oh my god, Bob, what do you mean? This is safe low-crime country, really? Maybe you should exchange your citizenship for Russian?
You can live in Russia for even 50 years and maybe you will never get into crime. Especially if you don’t try to do anything like business, like active lifestyle, if your skin is white and you don’t talk too much…. maybe! Maybe not. I would say your chances are 60%.
But if you have some business, independent political views, if you drive a car, etc. I would say that you will get into big big trouble with chances 100%.
By the way, I think North Korea has one of the lowest crime levels. And almost no corruption, probably. What a charming place to live, yea?
I lived in Russia for 20 years and during this time I almost did not get into jail, one “policeman” tried to shoot me and I saw about dozen dead bodies in different situations – killed on the road, killed by car, killed by vodka.
I would pay a lot to see you living there with Russian citizenship… it would be such fun to see…
With the kind of attitude and overall human warmth you display, not to mention your marked tendency toward gratuitous insults, I’m surprised that attempts to shoot you were so infrequent.
Actually Mark, Alex shows much more “human warmth” to those suffering repression of their fundamental human rights not to be tortured, ethnicly cleansed etc etc etc by Russia than you do.
In WW2 you would have been a collaborator I am sure.
By the way Brickhouse, Israel is a decent democracy with an excellant human rights record surrounded by dirt bag enemies. Israel acts only to defend itself. Show me different.
Snicker.
First off, if Russia accurately is eighth on the list, the headline should be “Barbaric Russia; Eighth Most Warlike of Nations”. Of course, that would lack the desired degree of offensive punch.
As others have alluded, indexes like this that attempt to strike a balance between countries which staggering differences in size, population and capability – while not entirely meaningless – are like many statistical models. You can get them to support largely whatever conclusion you want, depending on how you manipulate them.
Just by way of a lead-in, take a look at the main screen, the one that comes up when you follow the link provided. Papua New Guinea is significantly more warlike and destabilizing than the United States, by 10%. Who’s going to make the case that Papua New Guinea has had a more profound global effect in 2009 than the United States? That’s what I thought.
But let’s go further. Try the “Comparison” option, on the left. This lets you pick any 5 countries, and compare their overall index value based on broad categories. I compared Australia, Canada, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
In the “Respect for Human Rights” category, the only country with a worse record than the U.S.A. was Russia. Does that sound realistic, do you think, considering America’s enviable record for human rights – fourth-worst out of five? Not really. In the Number of People Jailed per 100,000 category, the U.S.A. has a worse record than Russia, right at the very bottom. Number of Homicides per 100,000? Only Russia has a worse record than the United States. The Number of Displaced Persons is the same in both countries. Only Russia has a worse record of Transfers of Conventional Weapons (Supplier) per 100,000 population than the U.S.A. The United States comes in third for Political Participation, but Russia is right behind it and has a better rate than the United Kingdom. The United States leads in Higher Education enrollment; highly respectable. But Russia is third, ahead of both Canada and the United Kingdom. Viewed with the Adult Literacy Rate, in which Russia is the leader among the five, this hardly supports the conclusion (often advanced in this blog) that Russians are stupid, uncouth savages, does it? Not unless you’re prepared to assume all the other countries assessed are even more stupid. Finally, in Unemployment, Canada is the worst of the lot – 6.4% compared with 6.2% for Russia. With all the great press Canada’s banks have received for Canada’s coming out of the recession with the best economic stability on the planet, assessed alongside Canada’s standard of living compared with Russia, does that makes sense? In some weighting-factor way, it probably does, but it would be foolish to conclude that economic conditions were better in Russia, based on that figure.
In the same way, it would be pretty non-analytical to label Russia “most warlike of nations” while the U.S.A. is involved in two major military conflicts and is the biggest arms dealer on the planet, regardless of their respective positions on the Vision of Humanity Index. Not unless you’re ready to support headlines like, “America – More Warlike Than Albania, But Not As Bad As Jamaica!!”
That should be “which HAVE staggering differences…”
What is wrong with the US being top arms sellers when they sell weapons to democracies unlike Russia. All terrorists us weapons of Russia origin, not American. Russia is the second biggest arms dealer in the world. They should be called the biggest regime/terrorist dealers in the world.
Where do you think the Iranian Air Force came from? During the war between Iran and Iraq, the United States sold weapons to both sides, and neither was a democracy.
Wrong as usual Mark.
During the Iran Iraq war of the 1980’s Iran was under a US arms embargo (which still operates today) not the least because of the embassy hostage crisis that occurred during the Iranian revolution.
The Iranians were only able to keep their F-4 Phantoms flying due to (of all things) Israeli assistance, the Israelis assisted the Iranians simply to keep Saddam looking east at Iran instead of west at them.
As for selling weapons to Saddam, which US made weapons did he use again?
Let see:
Mig 21 – Russian
Mig 23 – Russian
Mig 25 – Russian
Mig 29 – Russian
Mil-8 – Russian
Mil – 24 – Russian
BTR-60/70/80 – Russian (wheeled APC)
BMP – Russian (Tracked ICV/APC)
BRDM – Russian (armored car)
SCUD – Russian (SRBM)
AK-47/74/AKM – Russian
T-55 – Russian MBT
T-72 – Russian MBT
T-80 – Russian MBT
Really you are a completely uneducated chap aren’t you.
Well, not completely. For instance, there’s you.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=99195§ionid=3510304
The F-14 Tomcat was the finest air superiority fighter of its day, and was only ever sold to one foreign nation – Iran.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iran/airforce.htm
The Iranian Imperial Air Force was not only U.S. supplied, it was U.S. trained. America invested heavily in Iran during the 70’s (pre-Islamic Revolution), and before things went off the rails Iran was the U.S’s “Great White Hope” in the Middle East. Something like 80 Iranian pilots trained in the U.S., and formed the Tomcat squadrons known as the “Persian Cats”. They slaughtered Iraq, despite Iraq’s receiving support from the U.S.A. (AWACS aircraft).
I could care less what they have now. This is where they got their start.
Now Mark, you claimed that the both the Iranians and Iraqis were supplied by the US during the Iran Iraq war.
Wrong, and a blatant lie.
Yes, the Imperial Iranian Air Force had F-14’s, F-4’s, and F-5’s, however the Shah of Iran was toppled because of his reforms, introduced under a dictatorship to be sure, of womens rights and modernisation of society, as well as attempting to introduce secular government.
As for “They slaughtered Iraq, despite Iraq’s receiving support from the U.S.A. (AWACS aircraft).”
More BS Mark, some evidence please……
As for the Iranian Air Force “slaughtering” the Iraqi’s, yes early on they did, but by the end of the war the Iranians were forced to indulge in huge “human wave” offensives with the according massive losses of men, due to the fact that the IRIAF was down to around 65 fighters (from over 400) while the Iraqi’s had over 300, both sides scored significant victories and losses over each other.
Once again Mark, you show yourself to be very poorly informed.
“Now Mark, you claimed that the both the Iranians and Iraqis were supplied by the US during the Iran Iraq war.
Wrong, and a blatant lie.”
Andrew, Andrew….after a while, shooting fish in a barrel gets tiresome. Have you heard, perhaps, of the Iran/Contra affair? So called because Iran was one of the parties involved? Colonel Oliver North? Ronald Reagan admitting on national television that arms were transferred to Iran, and that the money was used to fund the Nicaraguan contras? Not ringing any bells?
Okay, have a look here;
http://www.mia.org.il/archive/861106lat.html
This isn’t the best-written reference, but I deliberately chose it instead of Wiki, which has much more information in a more readable format.
“The Reagan Administration, using an Israeli-operated supply line set up through highly secret negotiations with the regime of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, last year began supplying U.S.-made missiles and weapons parts to Iran in exchange for Iran’s aid in freeing Americans held hostage in Lebanon, government sources said Wednesday. ”
That means weapons, Andrew.
“According to The New York Times, the United States supplied the following arms to Iran:[22] (from Wiki)
August 20, 1985. 96 TOW anti-tank missiles
September 14, 1985. 408 more TOWs
November 24, 1985. 18 Hawk anti-aircraft missiles
February 17, 1986. 500 TOWs
February 27, 1986. 500 TOWs
May 24, 1986. 508 TOWs, 240 Hawk spare parts
August 4, 1986. More Hawk spares
October 28, 1986. 500 TOWs ”
More on the Iranian Air Force;
“…under the Shah’s rule the USA supplied a large number of combat aircraft, including 79 F-14A Tomcats, 32 F-4D Phantoms, 177 F-4Es and 16 RF-4Es, 140 F-5Es and 28 dual seat F-5Fs. Iran Air Defense relied heavily on western hardware until an arms-embargo was established when militant Iranian students seized the US Embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979.”
And the dates for the Iran/Iraq war? September 1980-August 1988. 1985 and 1986 actually fall into this time period!
Once cagain, Andrew, you show yourself to be……Oh, never mind.
Now Mark, what happened to those who illegally, and against the wishes and laws passed by the US government, passed weapons to Iran as part of the Iran Contra SCANDAL?
Lets see:
Convictions, pardons and reinstatements
Oliver North and John Poindexter were indicted on multiple charges on March 16, 1988.[54] North, indicted on 16 counts, was found guilty by a jury of three minor counts. The convictions were vacated on appeal on the grounds that North’s Fifth Amendment rights may have been violated by the indirect use of his testimony to Congress which had been given under a grant of immunity. In 1990, Poindexter was convicted on several felony counts of conspiracy, lying to Congress, obstruction of justice, and altering and destroying documents pertinent to the investigation. His convictions were also overturned on appeal on similar grounds. Arthur L. Liman served as chief counsel for the Senate during the Iran-Contra Affair.[55]
The Independent Counsel, Lawrence E. Walsh, chose not to re-try North or Poindexter. Caspar Weinberger was indicted for lying to the Independent Counsel.
And a whole host of minor players were also convicted.
Nice try Mark, but no cigar.
And in addition, we all know the US supplied the Shah of Iran with military equipment, however as even your post states “Iran Air Defense relied heavily on western hardware until an arms-embargo was established when militant Iranian students seized the US Embassy in Tehran on 4 November 1979.”
Honestly, having lived in Russia in a regional city for 5 years, I felt safer than I had expected. Of course, I didn’t hang around in bad parts of town and used common sense just like I’d do in any city in the world. In Russia, and even when I visited Moscow several times, I never felt threatened. The crime statistics don’t uphold what I experienced, I suppose, but I just know what I saw. Usually, there are so many other people walking around at all hours of the night, that there is safety in numbers. There was really only one time in Moscow that I felt in danger and that was when a drunk guy was harassing everyone in a Metro car. At the next stop, several young guys grabbed him and threw him out of the train. That was some impressive vigilante justice.
Now, if I were a betting man, I would certainly still choose my hometown over a typical Russian city, but I have to say, that things weren’t too bad at all for me. If you think you can walk around drunk in a bad part of town, then you’re asking for trouble no matter where you are.
I saw more obvious drunks on the street and in bars than I would expect to in North America, but not a startling percentage more; certainly not a number that would support an allegation that 75% of the men are alcoholics, or anything close. I was really nervous the first time I visited, and less so every time after that.
“Now, if I were a betting man, I would certainly still choose my hometown over a typical Russian city, but I have to say that things weren’t too bad at all for me. If you think you can walk around drunk in a bad part of town, then you’re asking for trouble no matter where you are.”
I’ve never seen it expressed better, and I wholeheartedly agree.
The editorial: “Russia is in the bottom 10% of all world nations when ranked for peacefulness. The likes of Zimbabwe and North Korea are more peace-loving than Russia.”
Let me be back to the editorial under your kind consideration word for word in a mirror manner – The US is at the top of 10% of all world nations when ranked for peacefulness. Are the likes of Israel and UK more peace-loving nations than the US? This largely remaines to be a question among the partners indicated with their global “vision of humanity” in oil rich countries.
I am all for serious with this reverse picture.
LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:
The USA is not in the top 10%. That would be 13 countries, USA is ranked in the 80s. Israel is ranked lower than Russia.
“Israel is ranked lower than Russia.”
Israel is ranked the 4th “Most Barbaric Warlike of Nations” (to use your terminology), while Russia is ranked 9th.
Of course, the first two places among “Most Barbaric Warlike of Nations” went to Iraq and Afghanistan, the victims of US occupation.
Only an insane retard would not put USA at the top of this list, especially since USA spends on weapons and war more than the rest of the World combined. Naturally, almost all “experts” on this panel are from Anglo countries, so this is nothing more than the usual propaganda.
I think it is not relevant that knowledgable individuals who know what they are doing can avoid muggers, etc. It is political and foriegn policy corruption and that reduces the living standards of the Russian people and impacts the neighboring peoples.
Australia – mean years of schooling: 20.5.
So the average Australian spends twelve years at school and then another 8.5 at university?
The survey is rubbish on many other counts as well. I’m surprised that LR let it feed her bile.
LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:
Who says “schooling” can’t include university study? We’re suprised you don’t think a little more before you comment, and your “many other counts” is as much rubbish as anything you point out, just a ridiculous childish smear.
No.
Most Australians spend about 24 years at school, because they have to repeat each grade twice. :-)
But seriously, all those Goebbels and Pravda propagandists must be looking up from Hell to modern Anglo mass media disinformation in awe of their audacity.
… Goebbels and RTR propagandists must shut up.
RTR: Russian Television and Radio
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32487.html
USA and russia were close to war in August 2008! What do you think,guys???? There are rumours,that russia will invade Georgia again in 201o to oust Saakashvili. This time they would go to Tblissi! What is your opinion? How would Obama react???? Let´s start a discussion,spring is approaching and war-rumours in Georgia and Russia speed up again! This is serious! Russian and caucasian sources report,that in these days the russian “Black Sea Fleet” “trains a naval landing”. It´s an ominous sign!
http://www.kavkazcenter.com/russ/content/2010/03/16/71253.shtml
Would Obama defend Georgia military or not?? What do you think?
Naw, Obama has already committed GI’s to marching with the Mascal Victory in parade on May 9.
This recent aggression will be put on the back burner, unless there is more this spring and then just noise. However Mascals still get to humiliate a superpower and rob more territory. I hope that the Chinese will start on them soon.
My parents remembered during WWII the Mascali were so scared, they promised to do away with communism if people helped save them. So much for the lying Red Rats.
Much bribe taking and business greasing to take place for the Political Parties in both oppressive governments of the US, and EU. If there was a fight, Rasha and the US governments would both collapse, and they know it. Politicians could face rebellions and not just Tea parties, because people would demand results.
So Georgia was a small price to pay in the short run. If Maskovia should have more problems in the future, and weakened, and the US gets the hell out of Afghanistan where America protects Moscow, then it would be a different story.
Muslims will win anyway, and being in alliance with losers the US will become like the Soviet Union one day. Smart bombs are as smart as the country that launches them.
“However Mascals still get to humiliate a superpower and rob more territory. I hope that the Chinese will start on them soon. ”
Хуй тебе в жопу, бандеровец.
“My parents remembered during WWII the Mascali were so scared, they promised to do away with communism if people helped save them. So much for the lying Red Rats.”
Your parents promised to do away with communism? Poor guy, you are half-ukro half-German.
“Хуй тебе в жопу, бандеровец.”
So, Archi Gulag, what made you a homosexual – a rape in glorious Russian army or a rape in Russian prison?
Crawl back into the fascist dung heap that you crawled out of, you foul mouthed soviet KGB era ‘stukach’ scum.
And your “glorious Russian army” ha, ha, ha, what a lying jerk you are. Why don’t you ask the women that were raped by your beloved soldiers, I’m sure that they too will sing your warped and sick songs of praise ha, ha, ha.
My humble apologies just in case my message did not come over the way it was intended to, i.e. I am having a shot at Archi Gulag, and not you ttc.
sorry, it was of course meant “tts’s xуй тебе в жопу, бандеровец”, so you got a faggot party with Georg, and Bohdan also wants to join you, as it follows from his last post. Enjoy it.
We have another vulgar clueless teenage nashi, making another vulgar comment.
China will help russia in a war? You are crazy,russia has no defense treaty with a single country,man. China will seize half of russia one day,the huge resources in Siberia.
Yes, very interesting.
And Russia maybe is angry at ‘losing’ nations that it believes belongs to it, so wants get them back [think Georga 2008] and with our new President, Russia might just return Ukraine to its breast, we’ll see !
This the best Blog I look at for FSU topics !
Sincerely,
Marina – Ukraine.
I think that China has hidden financial problems. They are blustering which not a good sign for them. Confident nations always talk smoothly.
Bohdan wrote: “ha, ha, ha,”
To A. and others, who are trying to keep track of various personas that our “Ukrainian diaspora” posters assume, here is an update:
“Bohdan” is the same as “Elmer”:
https://larussophobe.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/the-russian-orthodox-church-ardent-foe-of-human-rights/
elmer // June 30, 2008 at 2:49 am
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Previously, for those who are trying to track different names that “Georg” is using here, I googled for his words “Roosha” and “Rasha”, and got the following personas:
George = Georg = LES = voroBey = elmer
George // October 9, 2009
“Roosiyski Fed-a- Rat Nation”, “Roosha”
elmer // August 31, 2008
“roosha”, “Roosha”
LES // May 13, 2009
“roosha”
Georg // February 6, 2010
“Roosha”
Georg // December 7, 2009
“Rashan”
George // May 11, 2009
“Rashans”
elmer // February 24, 2009
“rashans”
voroBey // October 20, 2009 “Rasha”
Georg even writes letters of admiration to himself:
Georg wrote:
[Elmer, thank you for so eloquently making these points… you are an inspiration… Keep up the good work.]
RTR, wow you even saved the date I commented, I am touched.
There really is a conspiracy because Savok Sock Puppets share computers. In Nashi Headquarters you all lie, suck and get pregnant for Put-In. United Rasha and Smersh FSB pimps.
George // October 9, 2009
“Roosiyski Fed-a- Rat Nation”, “Roosha”
That was a good one, must have gotten a rise somwhere.
Since RaSSiya is officially declined as an adjective by your “Fed-A-Rat-Nation, and not a proper noun as with all real countries, it is OK to use Elmer’s “Roosha”. Then if Elmer tells me to stop it, I will, since that was his genius, and me only a “copycat”.
I just love to read Elmer’s no nonsense posts, don’t you? Direct and right to the heart of the matter, each time, Crushing and Logical.
Thank you RTS for mentioning me, so often, and putting me first, in your list of unique individuals, that comment on this and other blogs as well.
RaSSiya Vpe-Red, indeed.
Barbaric Rasha at it again, hiding the past.
Russian nationalists in Crimea have burned Ukrainian history textbooks to protest what they say are distortions of the past by the administration of former President Viktor Yushchenko. The recent transfer of power in Kyiv has raised hope among Russian nationalists and fear among Ukrainians.
On Sunday, Russian nationalists in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, threw Ukrainian history textbooks into boxes at the foot of a local monument to Russian empress Catherine the Great. The books were to be turned into pulp.
More history texts were burned the following day at another demonstration in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea.
Among the participants was Sevastopol city councilman Yevgeniy Dubovik, a member of the pro-Russian and far left Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine. He agrees with the warning of 19th century German writer Heinrich Heine who wrote, “Where they burn books, they will in the end burn people.”
Nonetheless, Dubovik told VOA that Monday’s burning of Ukrainian history books was justified.
Dubovik says his group burned literature that promoted fascism in Ukraine, and they will continue to burn and trample it. He condemns the books, saying they seperate people and destroy the mutual love between Russians and Ukrainians. Dubovik adds that perhaps even toilet paper will be made out of the books. He acknowledges the chosen method may be harsh, but thinks it is the right one.
Unlike history texts promoted by former President Viktor Yushchenko, those of the Soviet era ignored or condemned Ukrainians who fought against Russian or Soviet imperial rule. Pro-Russian forces also resent Mr. Yushchenko’s campaign to teach the Ukrainian language to schoolchildren in Russian-speaking regions of the country.
Another bitter point of contention is the former president’s decision to have young Ukrainians learn about the so-called Holodomor, a Kremlin-inspired famine more than 75 years ago that was aimed at collectivizing Soviet agriculture. The tragedy claimed the lives of millions of Ukrainians and other Soviet peoples, including Russians, Belorusyns, Moldovans, Crimean Tatars, Kazakhs and Jews. Any mention of the Holodomor was strictly forbidden in the USSR.
Yevgeniy Dubovik says there is no point in dwelling on the past, because everyone knows about the famine anyway and life after collectivization was fine…
http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Book-Burning-in-Ukraine-Stokes-Controversy-About-History-88239147.html
As Heinrich Heine said in one of his plays “This was a prelude only; where they burn books they will eventually burn people.”
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I struggle to reconcile the Russia of great art and literature and music with this barbarism ,rape and slaughter of the innocent. Russian mothers have a great shame to bear.
Any country or government that takes away human freedoms and represses and crushes the human spirit is not good.
I don’t know how they can live with themselves.
I would be so ashamed.
Russian army is no better than a common criminal.
Not things to be proud of.
They talk about America, but at least America is a civilized country. We are not barbaric.