Islam rising in Russia

Giulio Meotti warns that the Religion of Peace has gained considerable traction in Russia over the past 3 decades, something overlooked by many:

There are 25 million Muslims in Russia, or 17 percent of the total population. They are the majority in 7 of the 21 republics of the Federation. Not only does Russia have a far greater percentage of Muslims than any other European country (almost double that of the UK), but China and the Islamic Ummah have only to watch the war in Ukraine and alternately root for both sides while waiting for a historical phenomenon ignored by Western newspapers to run its course.

The Telegraph reveals that “Rybar”, alias Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former Russian officer with 1.3 million followers and founder of one of the most followed Telegram channels “Z”, blacklisted by the European Union and the Kiev government, has just published a scathing analysis of demographic changes in Russia, using the Moscow suburb of Kotelniki to illustrate the point: “In schools, only 50 percent are Russian”.

Responding to Rybar, Ria Katyusha, another nationalist channel, compared the situation in Kotelniki to “similar stories about Paris, Hamburg or British cities”. Boris Rozhin, a blogger with over 850,000 subscribers, says Moscow’s transformation is reminiscent of “minority-dominated neighborhoods in Marseille and Paris.”

St. Petersburg in recent days: 150,000 Muslims gathered for prayers at the walls of the central mosque, near the Gorkovskaya metro station. The mosque could not accommodate everyone who wanted to come, streets were closed, changes were made to the operation of public transport, and tram service was suspended.

Political scientist Yuriy Podorozhniy says: “The Muslim population of Russia is growing. In a certain period, the share of Slavic and Muslim populations will change. Russia will naturally turn into a Muslim country. That is why Putin is negotiating with them, this will be a significant topic in the future.”

Sergey Mironov of the Duma said in December that Russia’s demographic rates were driving the country to “extinction.” Extinction.

By the middle of this century, Russia could have a Muslim majority.

According to Paul Goble, a leading analyst of Russian affairs, Moscow will be Islamic in 20 years.

Last year, more than 8.5 million migrants arrived in Russia, including more than a million from Tajikistan. And that’s not counting the growing number of Russians who have converted to Islam.

Russia imported 11 million migrants between 1991 and 2023 (officially, 11 more are needed million by 2040), while the population of the federation has shrunk by 16.7 million.

The Atlantic Council, a US think tank, said: “Vladimir Putin’s war has virtually guaranteed that for generations to come, Russia’s population will not only be smaller, but also older, frailer and less educated. It will certainly be less ethnically Russian and more religiously diverse.”

In 1991, 120 mosques. In twenty years, they have built 8,000. The largest mosque in Europe is in Moscow.

And the imam of the Great Mosque of Moscow, Ildar Alyautdinov, said: “Muslims have a great demographic mission: because of the high birth rate, to make Russia a Muslim majority country.”

Well just look at that. Only so much incompetence indoctrinated by communism has now resulted in what'll lead to replacement by a more demonic ideology. One that'll lead to a situation worse than the Cold War. One of the reasons this situation's come about, one could argue, is because nobody insisted or demanded that Russia improve their political system to abolish communism altogether, and it resulted in Putinism knocking it all back by more than a century. Now, Putin's own wrongdoing is making things much worse.

Armenian government selling out homeland and citizens to Azerbaijan, who may have incited riots in Nouvelle Caledonie

This news may be a few weeks old, but it's still very chilling, whether it already happened or not:

In early March 2024, Azerbaijan demanded that Armenia hand over eight villages along the two countries’ borders. To avoid a new war, Yerevan agreed to transfer four villages to Azerbaijani control; the border delimitation process is now underway. Local residents, however, oppose the decision; they want Armenia to refuse to concede any territory and have appealed to international human rights organizations for help. Photographer Egor Kirillov traveled to the border village of Kirants, which is still Armenian territory, to photograph residents’ fight against the transfer. [...]

“We’re losing our homeland. Every Armenian needs to understand: our old enemy, the one who committed genocide against us, could come knocking on any door at any moment,” local resident Mariam Simonyan told Meduza. Even if the protests don’t change anything, she wants her descendants to know that she opposed the land’s transfer to Azerbaijan.

Yikes. This is similar to how the Israeli Labor party originally surrendered parts of Judea/Samaria to the PLO over 30 years ago, and look where that got Israel on October 7, 2023. Now, Armenia's government is acting in pure cowardice, with the worst part being much of the world's turning a deaf ear and blind eye to this atrocity. This will lead to a horror story sooner or later. And the aforementioned coward Rachel Avraham will doubtless sugarcoat this awful news too.

Also eyebrow-raising is this news of France accusing Azerbaijan of being involved in riots on New Caledonia:

Days of clashes between demonstrators and police in French-controlled New Caledonia are fueled by foreign interference, Paris declared on Thursday, as local officials vowed to restore order in the South Pacific territory.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said that the violence, which has claimed the lives of three indigenous Kanak people and a police officer, had been actively supported by Azerbaijan.

“This isn’t a fantasy,” he insisted on Thursday. “I regret that some of the separatists have made a deal with Azerbaijan.” However, “even if there are attempts at interference, … France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better,” he added.

Speaking to POLITICO, a French intelligence official granted anonymity to discuss sensitive issues of national security, said that “we’ve detected activities from Russia and Azerbaijan in New Caledonia for weeks, even a few months. They’re pushing the narrative of France being a colonialist state.” [...]

Relations between France and Azerbaijan have hit rock bottom in recent years as a result of French military and political support for the South Caucasus country’s neighbor and historic rival Armenia — a situation only intensified by Baku’s military seizure of the ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh last year.

And no surprise Russia could be involved in this distraction either. This is similarly repellent news, and coupled with how Azerbaijan's even had jihadists coming from their territory, not to mention associated with the late Ebrahim Raisi, and Russia's made use of Iranian-manufactured weapons, it makes clear both countries are a very bad influence.

Chechnya taking in Muslims from Gaza

Well, this is most intriguing. The autocrat of a region circa Russia that's Muslim-majority is taking in Mohammedans from the Gaza strip:

Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov announced this week that his majority-Muslim Russian republic will construct a "Palestinian village" for refugees from the Gaza Strip.

Kadyrov, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, laid the cornerstone for the establishment of the village that will accommodate the refugees. The hamlet will be built in Chechnya's capital Grozny, in the vicinity of schools and kindergartens, and will include five residential buildings with 35 apartments each with a total living space of roughly 45,000 square feet.

Family members of refugees who do not hold Russian citizenship received a passport and citizenship upon arrival. Kadyrov also announced that each family will receive 100,000 rubles (1,100$) in financial assistance.

According to Russian-born Israeli social activist Alex Tenzer, about 1,124 refugees have arrived in Russia from Gaza so far since the start of the war, with most of them settling in Muslim-majority areas, such as Chechnya and Dagestan.

The first group of refugees has already been taken in by Chechnya, which has announced that it is ready to take in about 250 more refugees. Kadyrov himself met with some of them, and said that 30 refugees have already been accepted for employment in the health sector, while the rest are now taking courses to learn the Russian language.

Last month, Canada announced that it intends to ease the criteria for accepting relatives of Canadian citizens and residents living in Gaza. However, Canada made it clear that the exit from Gaza depends on Israel's approval, and warned that leaving the area could be dangerous. According to Canadian Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Mark Miller, hundreds of people will be able to resettle in the country under the program.

Whatever one thinks of Canada, they're certainly less lucky. As is the public in Russia proper, recalling it may have been reported there's some Muslims who went directly there as well. One can only wonder if Putin's preparing a poison "gift" for the Russian populace for after he's gone.

This news does give an idea of what European and other countries who're more realist might want to encourage their own Muslim populations to do, and move to places like Chechnya and Dagestan instead. And who knows, that might be just what'll happen in the future. If the Gazan Muslims move to those areas in the meantime, it's quite fine. We do not need any of the worst Islamic-influenced bigots dwelling here, as Ron deSantis would surely agree.

Here's more on this news at the Jerusalem Post and Jewish Press.

While Ukraine can use aid, their president is no "Jewish hero"

While Russia's assault on Ukraine is offensive in the extreme, Josh Hammer and Jonathan Bronitsky explain why Volodomyr Zelensky, the latter country's president, is not the "Jewish hero" he may want everybody to think he is:

Volodymyr Zelensky is a lot of things — including, to be sure, a “hero” to many. But to anyone who takes Jewish identity, Jewish tradition, and, especially, Jewish survival at least somewhat seriously, he certainly should not be considered a “Jewish hero.”

Zelensky was born to Jewish parents. Like that of most Jews from behind the Iron Curtain, his upbringing was markedly secular. As Beckerman rightly points out, “Jewish identity didn’t exist in the Soviet Union, because it couldn’t.” That said, there were Soviet Jews who found their way to some form of Jewish identity after the breakup of the communist empire. Indeed, more than a million immigrated to Israel in a wave that started in earnest at the beginning of the 1990s.

But Zelensky did no such thing. “Zelensky and his family,” Beckerman concedes, “were part of the few hundred thousand Jews who stayed, content to assimilate in a post-Soviet world.” Zelensky has never even shied away from making light of this reality. For instance, in a 2019 interview with the French newspaper Le Point, Zelensky quipped, “The fact that I am Jewish barely makes 20 in my long list of faults.”

Not Jewish

Zelensky married a non-Jewish woman who was baptized, and he and his wife baptized their two children in the Greek Orthodox tradition, according to press reports. Boleslav Kapulkin, the spokesman for Chabad Lubavitch in Odessa, Ukraine, was even under the impression that Zelensky himself had converted to Christianity. Eduard Dolinsky, executive director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, went further. He attested that Zelensky is “a Ukrainian with Jewish ancestry; he’s not a member of the Jewish community, he’s not religious, doesn’t keep Jewish traditions and never speaks of himself as a Jew.”

There’s a long-running and complex debate over what constitutes Jewish identity. But there’s no question that Zelensky’s life choices have been inimical to the survival of the Jewish people and the Jewish faith.

It may be disappointing enough Zelensky's the gazillionth person of ethnic Israeli/Jewish descent who won't promote the Judaist faith as one worthy of following/converting to. But as the following makes clear, it's even worse than you think:

Recently, Zelensky has started to make a habit of referring to his Jewishness in conjunction with pleas for international backing of Ukraine. He blasted Henry Kissinger for calling for a diplomatic solution to the Russia-Ukraine War, likening the plea of the former secretary of state and national security adviser to Neville Chamberlain’s infamous appeasement of Hitler in Munich in 1938. He also slammed, of all nations, lo and behold, Israel for refusing to arm Ukraine. (Israel hasn’t armed Russia either.) Now there is reporting that Zelensky is pushing the White House to pressure Israel.

Worse still, Ukraine, under Zelensky, has been rather hostile to Israel at the United Nations, the international forum where the Jewish state has been under sustained assault for decades. According to UN Watch, in a total of 122 resolutions involving Israel, Ukraine has voted against Israel in 95 and abstained in 27. That means it did not vote in favor of Israel once. Yet Zelensky continues to make demands of the Jewish state, which must deal with a Russian presence in neighboring Syria, where Israel conducts counterterrorism operations against Islamic extremists.

Now that's a very valid reason for concern. Ukraine's government, even under Zelensky, acts hostile to Israel at the worst global forum that's no freedom-lover's paradise, and so far, hasn't made any genuine efforts to clean up this act. Of course that's reprehensible. Certainly, it would do some good to provide aid to the country for defense against a country that's still severely influenced by communism, but that doesn't excuse Zelensky's hypocrisy. And why couldn't he show the courage to practice the Judaist religion in any way, and encourage the Ukrainian public to try it as well? This is all something the new Netanyahu government should make a point of, why, if Israel is to aid Ukraine, they must prove they can repay the deed by ceasing all hostility at the UN, in example.

It's a terrible shame how Jews living in foreign countries would rather be part of an establishment mindset than promote certain aspects and customs as worthy of emulation for outsiders. Zelensky's regrettably one of those.

China, Fearing Regime Change by the U.S, Bulks Up Its Nuclear Deterrence Capabilities

An eye opening report. 

My first thought, "Well that's just great (*Eye-roll*)."

At the Wall Street Journal, "China Is Accelerating Its Nuclear Buildup Over Rising Fears of U.S. Conflict":

China has accelerated an expansion of its nuclear arsenal because of a change in its assessment of the threat posed by the U.S., people with knowledge of the Chinese leadership’s thinking say, shedding new light on a buildup that is raising tension between the two countries.

The Chinese nuclear effort long predates Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the U.S.’s wariness about getting directly involved in the war there has likely reinforced Beijing’s decision to put greater emphasis on developing nuclear weapons as a deterrent, some of these people say. Chinese leaders see a stronger nuclear arsenal as a way to deter the U.S. from getting directly involved in a potential conflict over Taiwan.

Among recent developments, work has accelerated this year on more than 100 suspected missile silos in China’s remote western region that could be used to house nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the U.S., according to analysts that study satellite images of the area.

American leaders have said the thinking behind China’s nuclear advance is unclear. Independent security analysts who study nuclear proliferation say they are also in the dark about what is driving Beijing after exchanges between Chinese officials and analysts mostly dried up in the past few years.

The people close to the Chinese leadership said China’s increased focus on nuclear weapons is also driven by fears Washington might seek to topple Beijing’s Communist government following a more hawkish turn in U.S. policy toward China under the Trump and Biden administrations.

American military officials and security analysts are concerned China’s nuclear acceleration could mean it would be willing to make a surprise nuclear strike. The people close to the Chinese leadership said Beijing is committed to not using nuclear weapons first.

China plans to maintain an arsenal no larger than necessary to ensure China’s security interests, they said, adding that the Chinese military believes its nuclear weapons are too outdated to present an effective deterrent against a potential U.S. nuclear strike.

“China’s inferior nuclear capability could only lead to growing U.S. pressure on China,” one person close to the leadership said.

Nervous international reaction to Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s call for his nuclear forces to be put on alert following his invasion of Ukraine has offered Chinese officials a real-world lesson about the strategic value of nuclear weapons. So did Ukraine’s decision in 1994 to turn over the nuclear weapons left in the country after the breakup of the Soviet Union in return for security assurances from the U.S. and Russia.

“Ukraine lost its nuclear deterrence in the past and that’s why it got into a situation like this,” said a retired Chinese military officer with ties to the country’s nuclear program.

The people familiar with the Chinese leadership’s thinking said Beijing hasn’t conveyed any adjustments to the country’s nuclear policy as a result of developments in Ukraine. China’s Ministry of Defense didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The people have knowledge of Beijing’s thinking about nuclear policy through their work with various agencies involved in security issues. None are directly involved in the setting of nuclear policy. They didn’t preclude that future developments might change Beijing’s approach and said other factors may also be influencing the leadership’s approach to nuclear weapons.

Their observations nevertheless bring greater clarity to a shift in Beijing’s thinking that has far-reaching consequences globally. Rising tension between the U.S. and China over nuclear weapons could throw the world back into a Cold War-style nuclear standoff similar to that seen in the decades following World War II between the U.S. and Soviet Union.

The risk of miscalculations this time could be higher, however, because while the U.S. and Soviet Union communicated about their nuclear weapons during arms control talks from the late 1980s, the Chinese program and Beijing’s thinking on the role of nuclear weapons has been shrouded in secrecy. China has declined to engage in nuclear arms control talks with the U.S., saying Washington should first reduce its nuclear inventory.

U.S. government and private sector estimates put China’s nuclear arsenal in the low hundreds of warheads, far below the roughly 4,000 warheads held by both Russia and the U.S. The Pentagon says it now expects China to have 1,000 warheads by the end of this decade.

Satellite images taken during January show the last 45 of the temporary covers over each of 120 suspected missile silos near the city of Yumen have been removed, suggesting the most sensitive work at all of the silos has been completed, said Matt Korda, a senior research associate for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington. At two other smaller silo fields in western China, work is at earlier stages.

The silos at each of the sites are large enough for a new long-range Chinese missile known as the DF-41 that was put into service in 2020 and is capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, analysts say. Tests of missiles that are launched from aircraft and can carry nuclear warheads also give Beijing a stronger chance of being able to retaliate if it is hit first in a nuclear attack.

In public, China has played down its nuclear pursuits.

“On the assertions made by U.S. officials that China is expanding dramatically its nuclear capabilities, first, let me say that this is untrue,” Fu Cong, director general of the Foreign Ministry’s arms control department, said earlier this year. He said that China is working to ensure its nuclear deterrent meets the minimum level necessary for national defense.

Chinese leaders had seen nuclear weapons as being of limited value because they don’t offer realistic options for fighting most wars. A major shift occurred in early 2020, according to the people familiar with the leadership’s thinking, as the U.S. government hardened its stance toward Beijing in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Strong criticism of the Communist Party from senior Trump administration officials spurred a consensus among Chinese leaders that Washington was willing to take greater risks to stop China’s rise, some of the people said.

A May 2020 speech in Mandarin by former Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger was particularly alarming, they said. Speaking on the anniversary of a pivotal 1919 student protest in China, Mr. Pottinger said: “Wasn’t the goal to achieve citizen-centric government in China, and not replace one regime-centric model with another one? The world will wait for the Chinese people to furnish the answers.”

“The speech was obviously calling the Chinese to topple the Communist Party,” one person familiar with the Chinese leadership’s thinking said.

In response to a request for comment, Mr. Pottinger said that such an interpretation was “a profound admission that the Communist Party knows it has failed to deliver citizen-centric governance, and it confirms what everyone already suspected: What Beijing fears above all is its own people.”

At the same time, increased support from the U.S. for Taiwan, a democratically self-ruled island that Beijing views as a part of China and has vowed to put under its control, prompted Chinese leaders to debate the prospect that the U.S. might be willing to use nuclear weapons in a conflict over the island, according to the people close to the leadership...

 

TOTALITARIANISM IS MAKING A COMEBACK

Claudia Rosett warns in Forbes that totalitarianism is on the rise again in the 21st century (via Hot Air):

Dictators are making a comeback.

Just four or five years ago, the headlines were full of democratic movements, notably the yellow, rose and cedar "revolutions" in the Ukraine, Georgia and Lebanon. The Taliban had been toppled, Saddam Hussein overthrown. Democratic stirrings were heralded from the streets of Iran and China to promises of reform in Saudi Arabia and Libya. Freedom was continuing a roll begun way back in the Reagan era. Tyrants were on the outs with polite society.

These days, dictators are on a roll. Among the many signs was last week's op-ed in The New York Times by none other than Muammar Qaddafi, unrepentant and brutal tyrant in Tripoli for the past 40 years--though, for the purposes of this piece, the Times identifies him politely as "the leader of Libya." I am still pondering that article, and not solely because this is the same New York Times that last fall rejected an op-ed by John McCain when he was running for president. Qaddafi used his patch of American editorial space to float a plan that would demographically blitz democratic Israel out of existence by setting up a single combined Palestinian-Israeli state, which he suggests we call "Isratine."

It's tempting simply to dismiss such stuff as unintended self-parody--whether on the part of Qaddafi, the Times or both. But it is also a token that tyrants are back in style, not only feeling safe to venture out of their spider holes but preening as elder statesmen and increasingly welcomed back to the parlors, editorial pages and negotiating tables of democratic high society. [...]

Freedom House Research Director Arch Puddington highlights Iran, Russia, Zimbabwe and Venezuela as showing "enhanced anti-democratic tendencies." But these are surrounded as well by a scene of broader decline.

Freedom House attributes part of this slide to "gathering authoritarian pushback against opposition parties, nongovernmental organizations and the press." It might be tempting to blame such pushback on President Bush's democracy agenda. Except, coinciding with this decline, Bush dropped the dead-or-alive approach to terrorists and their state sponsors during his second term, and soft-pedaled the democratization push. Increasingly during his final years in office, he relied on soft power, talks at Annapolis, talks with North Korea, talks via the European Union and the mechanisms of the predominantly undemocratic United Nations.

I'm glad to see that she's acknowledging Dubya's betrayal of principles that really took effect during his second term of office. But she's wrong that there's ever been any real democratic push in Lebanon, and come to think of it, in Iran or China either. And Russia is certainly moving back to totalitarianism, and has been ever since Vladimir Putin took office.

The Cold War, it's sad to say, has returned, mainly because would-be democratic leaders failed to make any convincing effort to ensure that democracy would hold steady.

And one more note: to think that the House of Saud could be so easily persuaded to allow democracy is simply missing reality.

RUSSIA'S NEW SHARI'A-BASED CREDIT CARD SYSTEM

As Russia returns the world to Cold War status, they also seem to be taking steps to provide shari'a benefits for their Islamic population, which, if we think of Russia as a European country, is the largest in the continent (may number at about 25 million). Now, they've issued shari'a compliant credit cards for their own Muslim population (via Dhimmi Watch):

For the first time ever in the banker history in Russia special plastic cards for Muslims are now available for the followers of Islam. The cards are produced by one of the largest banks of the Republic of Dagestan of the RF.

The special feature of the cards is zero annual percent. It is known that Islam prohibits usury and the Muslim religion is against its followers getting profit from keeping money somewhere.

According to the pushful bank representatives, the cards are already gaining popularity with the Muslim republic citizens who previously to becoming a bank’s client had to write a paper confirming that they refused getting deposit percentage.

I've got a feeling that, as Russia continues to veer back to Cold War status, that Muslims there will continue to influence the country, and just like in Britain, money bonds for shari'a could be issued there.

DID PUTIN TRY TO MURDER ANOTHER FORMER KGB AGENT IN GREAT BRITAIN?

TELEGRAPH: Russian KGB defector 'survives murder attempt at Surrey home'

Police in Surrey are investigating an alleged attempt to kill a KGB double agent who spied on Russia for British intelligence during the Cold War.

Oleg Gordievsky, a former Soviet colonel who defected to Britain in 1985, was taken by ambulance from his home to a hospital in Guildford after falling ill in November.

He believes he was poisoned by a Russian acquaintance, a former intelligence officer who visited him at his safe house in Surrey. After falling unconscious for 34 hours, he spent two weeks in a private clinic and was initially left partially paralysed. He still has no feeling in his fingers.

Mr Gordievsky, 69, fears he is the latest victim of revenge attacks on defectors. Alexander Litvinenko, his friend and another former Russian spy, was murdered in London in 2006.

DAILY MAIL:

Special Branch is investigating an alleged attempt to murder Oleg Gordievsky, the KGB double-agent who spied on Russia for British intelligence at the height of the Cold War. The former Soviet colonel, who escaped to Britain in 1985, says he was poisoned by a Russian assassin who visited him at his secret safe-house in Surrey.

He fears he is the latest victim of revenge attacks by Russian intelligence on high-profile defectors. Alexander Litvinenko, another former Russian spy, was murdered in London in 2006.

Gordievsky – awarded one of Britain's highest honours by the Queen last October – was rushed to hospital after collapsing at home. He lay unconscious and "close to death" for 34 hours. He spent a further two weeks recuperating in a private clinic paid for by his former bosses in MI6.

He was initially left partially paralysed by the alleged attack and still has no feeling in his fingers.

Last night Surrey Police confirmed they were investigating a possible attempt on Gordievsky's life. But he claimed that his former MI6 paymasters had attempted to cover it up. He said MI6 forced Special Branch to drop its initial investigation into the case.

Officers were ordered to reopen the inquiry only after pressure by senior intelligence figures, including former MI5 chief Eliza Manningham-Buller.

Lord Butler, the head of the inquiry into intelligence failures in the run-up to the war in Iraq, is also understood to have questioned why the case was not being taken more seriously.

Gordievsky, 69, defected to the UK after more than ten years living a double life spying for British intelligence. He told The Mail on Sunday that he was certain he was the victim of a Kremlin-inspired assassination attempt.

"I've known for some time that I am on the assassination list drawn up by rogue elements in Moscow," he said. "They murdered my friend Alexander Litvinenko. I have no doubt my sudden illness last November was a similar attempt on my life. ... It was obvious to me I had been poisoned... The targets for assassination are well known. First Boris Berezovsky [the multi-millionaire oligarch living in exile in Britain], next the prime minister of Chechnya, then Litvinenko and then I was fourth. Now I remain third."

• I THINK PUTIN'S GANG IS BEHIND THIS MURDER ATTEMPT - AS HE WAS ALSO BEHIND THE MURDER OF LITVINENKO.
  

• I THINK THE FACT THAT ANDREI LUGOVOI WENT BACK TO MOSCOW PROVES PUTIN ALSO HAD LITVINENKO MURDERED.

• (IF LUGOVOI WAS PART OF A BEREZOVSKY GANG, THEN HE WOULDN'T HAVE GONE BACK TO RUSSIA!)

PUTIN IS STILL IN CONTROL OF RUSSIA - AND WILL REMAIN SO FOR YEARS TO COME.

HE MUST BE WATCHED - CAREFULLY.

NOTE: Oleg Gordievsky [was] the highest ranking KGB officer ever to collaborate with British Intelligence...

On Saturday 26th February, Sir Martin Jacomb, Chancellor of the University of Buckingham, conferred an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters of the University on Mr Oleg Gordievsky, the highest ranking KGB officer ever to collaborate with British Intelligence, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to protecting the security and safety of the United Kingdom.

THAT'S WHY PUTIN TRIED TO WHACK HIM: TO SEND A MESSAGE...

*******UPDATE: Gordievsky saw it coming: KGB defector in Britain fears he will be next Alexander Litvinenko (2/10/08):

Oleg Gordievsky, 69, who was honoured by the Queen for services to British security last year, fears he could be murdered by Russians in this country, The Sunday Times writes today.

The former KGB officer who spied for Britain says he has become increasingly worried about his safety since the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian Federal Security Service officer, in London 15 months ago. Worsening relations between Britain and Russia have given him further concerns, the paper marks.

JEWISH WORKERS IN RUSSIA FACE VISA PROBLEMS

If only the Jewish community there would think wisely and leave, considering the returning reign of communism (or Putinism, if you think of the brand new dictator now posing as the prime minister there), maybe this wouldn't be an issue. The JTA reports:

MOSCOW (JTA) -- New visa rules in Russia are stoking anxiety and frustration among Jewish groups here, forcing them to get in line quickly with new laws to avoid fines or the expulsion of their foreign employees from Russia.

While the changes, which went into effect Oct. 18, do not specifically target Jews, the new rules for multiple-entry business visas -- which cover the sub-sections of religious, humanitarian and cultural visas -- are having a huge impact on Jewish organizations.

Large Jewish groups, some of which employ hundreds of foreign workers and their families, are fighting their way through the maze of paperwork and bureaucracy surrounding the new rules, and many still do not understand exactly how the rules are to be applied.

The new rules, hastily instituted by the Russian government amid the heavily anti-Western rhetoric of December’s parliamentary campaign, are still not clearly understood by those who will be most affected by them.

[...]

For the Chabad-led federation, which has an estimated 500-plus foreign employees and family members in the country, most of whom hold either Israeli or U.S. citizenship, this constitutes a tremendous weight on operating costs. Employees will be able to stay in Russia for no more than 90 days out of every 180, and every 180 days they will have to go to their countries of origin to renew their visas. That's a lot of plane tickets.

Not to mention money. The Russian-Jewish community should understand that the time has come to pack their bags and leave, to avoid the encroaching reign of communism anew. If they were to do that, all these matters wouldn't be a problem and a lot of money would be saved.

PUTIN IS THE WORLD'S THIRD MOST DANGEROUS MAN

• OSAMA.
• MAHMOUD.
• VLADIMIR.

• JIHADO-TERROR.
• IRANIAN SHIA HEGEMONY.
• RUSSIA.

AND PUTIN IS STEADILY GROWING IN POWER, AND.... AUDACITY. TODAY'S NEWS IS FURTHER PROOF:

BREITBART/AP:

Russia poised to walk away from CFE arms treaty

Russia was set to suspend compliance overnight Tuesday with a key Cold War treaty that sets limits on troops and weaponry across Europe, a move starkly underlining growing East-West tensions.

A foreign ministry spokesman confirmed to AFP that Russia's moratorium on the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty would take effect at midnight, in accordance with a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin last month.

"Starting at midnight Moscow time (2100 GMT), Russia will suspend all compliance concerning the treaty," a statement from the foreign ministry read.

"Such a step has been caused by the exceptional circumstances connected to the content of the treaty which concern the security of Russia and demand that we take immediate measures," it added.

"Russia will not be constrained by the limitations placed on its arms deployments on its flanks.

"At the same time, we have no current plans to accumulate massive armaments on our neighbours' borders," it added.

Signed in 1990 and modified in 1999, the CFE places precise limits on stationing of troops and heavy weapons from the Atlantic coast to Russia's Ural mountains -- a mammoth agreement that helped resolve the Cold War standoff.

Suspension means that Russia will be free to move troops without notifying NATO, dealing a new blow to East-West relations already teetering from Moscow's threat to leave the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces treaty.

Tensions are also swirling around US plans to install a missile-defence system in NATO members Poland and the Czech Republic. Washington insists the system is aimed at Iran, but Moscow says the shield would threaten its own nuclear forces.

Moscow says the CFE needs major revision, but that Russia could re-enter the treaty if NATO countries agreed to modifications.

"The moratorium is not an end in itself but a way of attracting our partners' attention to the unfavourable situation in this area," Anatoly Antonov, head of the Foreign Ministry department on security, told journalists last week.

However, Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer said "the treaty is dead."

"What was very important is the transparency regime which was very much working and very active, allowing transparency of all military activity," he told AFP.

"With the CFE gone, European nations will lose an important independent source of information about Russian military activity."

NYTIMES:

A day after President Vladimir V. Putin endorsed a loyal protégé, Dmitri A. Medvedev, as his successor, Mr. Medvedev went before the nation today and declared that he in turn wanted to name Mr. Putin as his prime minister.

Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev during a live televised address today in Moscow.

The announcement could bring to a close questions about how Mr. Putin intends to wield influence over Russia after his term ends next year. Mr. Putin is barred by the Constitution from running for a third consecutive term, but he had indicated in recent months that he had no intention of giving up all his power when he stepped down in the spring.

Mr. Medvedev has no background in the state security services and virtually no power base in the Kremlin, and he is seen here as a relatively weak figure beholden to Mr. Putin. With Mr. Putin as prime minister, it would appear that little would change in who controls Russia.

Some analysts conjectured that Mr. Medvedev could even step down before his term as president ends — clearing the way for Mr. Putin to be elevated from prime minister to president, which would be possible under the Constitution.

• THESE NEWS ITEMS COME A FEW DAYS AFTER PUTIN ANNOUNCED HE WAS INTENT OF FORMING A SUPER-REPUBLIC WITH BELARUS - A STORY WE HAD LAST FRIDAY - BEFORE THE MSM.

• PUTIN ARMS SYRIA AND IRAN AND HAS A HUGE INTEREST IN KEEPING OIL AND GAS PRICES HIGH.

• HE MUST NOT BE TRUSTED. HE IS AN OLD KGB MAN AND THE KGB WERE RUTHLESS.
  
• ALSO: REMEMBER THAT THE KGB WAS VERY ADEPT AT USING SURROGATES AND FOMENTING WARS WHICH HELPED THE USSR AND GAVE US GREAT TROUBLE: VIETNAM; ANGOLA; NICARAGUA; ETC.
• THEY MAY EVEN NOW BE HELPING OSAMA AND IRAN AND ASSAD AND NASRALLAH FOR THE SAME REASONS.
  
• THE KGB TRAINED ARAFAT, TOO. AND CARLOS. AND ABBAS.
  
• I WOULD NOT PUT IT PASSED PUTIN.
  
• LIKE ASSAD - PUTIN ASSASSINATES HIS FOES WHEN HE FEELS IT'S NECESSARY.
  
• HE WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR POWER.
  

WE DESPERATELY NEED A NEW PRESIDENT WHO WILL COURAGEOUSLY COUNTER HIM - AND NOT BE OUT-MANEUVERED BY HIM:

MCCAIN. MITT. OR RUDY.

PUTIN'S "ELECTION" A SHAM OF A MOCKERY OF A TRAVESTY

BBC:

Monitors denounce Russia election

Ballot papers at a polling station in Moscow Foreign observers have said that Russia's parliamentary election, won by President Vladimir Putin's party, was "not fair".

The statement was made by a joint observer team of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe.

With nearly 98% of ballots counted, Mr Putin's United Russia had 64.1% of Sunday's vote.

Mr Putin said the poll was "legitimate" and a vote of public trust in him.

"[The elections were] the most unfair and dirtiest in the whole history of modern Russia"
Garry Kasparov, Russian opposition leader

Criticism cannot mask reality

Press sees tainted triumph

The election showed that Russians would not allow their nation to develop along a "destructive path" as had happened in several former Soviet countries, Mr Putin was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

Opposition claims of fraud have been rejected by Russia's electoral commission.

'Not a level playing field'

The election "was not fair and failed to meet many OSCE and Council of Europe commitments and standards for democratic elections," the observers from the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly and the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly told a news conference in Moscow.

"The vote affirmed the main idea - that Vladimir Putin is the national leader"
Boris Gryzlov, United Russia leader

The statement said the polls "took place in an atmosphere which seriously limited political competition" and that "there was not a level political playing field".

"Frequent abuse of administrative resources, media coverage strongly in favour of the ruling party and an election code whose cumulative effect hindered political pluralism" had tainted the polls, the observers said.

The OSCE had abandoned its plans to send a large team of monitors, accusing Moscow of imposing curbs and delaying visas. Russia denied the claims.

Only a much smaller group of members of the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly had attended the election, leaving some 330 foreign monitors covering nearly 100,000 polling stations.

The opposition Communists and two other parties - A Fair Russia and the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party - were also poised to win seats in the 450-member lower chamber of the parliament, the State Duma.

The country's liberal opposition parties looked certain to fail to clear the 7% threshold needed to enter parliament.

The Communists have said they will mount a legal challenge to the result, and will decide shortly whether to boycott the new parliament.

"We do not trust these figures announced by the central elections commission and we will conduct a parallel count," Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said after the vote.

• THOUGH PUTIN'S THUGS HAVEN'T TAKEN RUSSIA COMPLETELY BACK TO SQUARE ONE (YET), IT DOES LOOK LIKE - AT THE VERY LEAST - WE NEED TO START BROADCASTING A NEW VERSION OF "RADIO FREE RUSSIA."

ASIDE: EVEN GENNADY ZYUGAMOV - WHO HAS BEEN LEADING THE COMMIES SINCE THE FALL OF THE USSR - IS DENOUNCING THE ELECTION: HOW FREAKIN RICH!

MORE PROOF THAT PUTIN'S RUSSIA IS MARCHING BACK TOWARD TYRANNY

NYTIMES:

Western election observers on Friday pulled out of a mission to monitor Russia’s Dec. 2 parliamentary vote, citing restrictions imposed by the Kremlin on their work.

The cancellation by the election-monitoring arm of the 56-member Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe means the elections being held by President Vladimir V. Putin’s government may not be seen as legitimate by Western Europe and the United States.

The group’s decision to withdraw from the monitoring mission was the first such occurrence in Russia since the country undertook to hold free and fair elections and to allow access for observers to monitor them in 1990, as the Soviet Union was disintegrating. It will probably be seen as another breach between the government of Mr. Putin and the West.

The group, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, or O.D.I.H.R., cited what it called unacceptable Russian demands to limit the mission’s size, making it impossible to determine whether the elections are marred by fraud.

NO ONE FROM THE KGB SHOULD EVER BE TRUSTED:

• THE KGB CREATED ARAFAT - (MORE HERE). STEERED THE VIETNAM ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT - (MORE HERE), AND SPREAD THE TERROR WHICH ENABLED THE POLITBURO TO TYRANNIZE RUSSIA AND IT'S SATELLITES AND THE CAPTIVES OF EASTERN EUROPE.

• AS LONG AS PUTIN AND HIS KGB GANG IS IN CONTROL, RUSSIA IS A MAJOR THREAT. THEY'RE BAD PEOPLE WHO CELEBRATE DECEIT, MISCHIEF AND TERROR.

• UNLESS WE GET TOUGHER, THESE THUGS WILL CONTINUE TO AID IRAN, SYRIA AND THE FOES OF DEMOCRACY. AND TO ASSASSINATE THOSE WHO SEEK TO STOP IT.

• TO DIMINISH THE POWER OF RUSSIA - AND OUR OTHER ENEMIES, WE SHOULD BE OIL-DRILLING OFF OUR COASTS AND IN ALASKA - INCLUDING ANWR, AND BUILDING COAL-BURNING AND NUCLEAR POWER-PLANTS.

• THE LEFT HERE IN THE USA IS PREVENTING THESE POLICIES -AND THEREBY STRENGTHENING THE RUSSIAN TYRANTS.

• WHICH IS A VERY FAMILIAR ROLE FOR THEM.

WHICH IS WHY I HAVE LONG ARGUED THAT WE MUST DEFEAT THE LEFT AT HOME IOF WE WANT TO DEFEAT THE ENEMY ABROAD.

• TODAY, THE ENEMIES OF DEMOCRACY AND FREE ENTERPRISE ARE THE SOCIALISTS AND THE JIHADISTS.

• TO DEFEND DEMOCRACY AND FREE ENTERPRISE FOR GENERATIONS TO COME, WE MUST STOP THEM BOTH. EVERYWHERE.

NOW.

PUTIN EFFORTING TO UNDERMINE ELECTION OVERSIGHT

GEE, I WONDER WHY!?

NYTIMES:

Russia has opened a diplomatic campaign to curtail the activities of election observers in the states of the former Soviet Union, proposing to cut the size of the missions sharply and to prohibit the publication of their reports immediately after an election. ...

the proposals would severely undermine the activities of the organization’s election-monitoring arm, before two important elections in Russia: the parliamentary election planned for Dec. 2 and presidential elections next spring.

THIS IS SIMPLY MORE PROOF THAT PUTIN IS TYRANNICAL AND PUTIN'S RUSSIA A FOE.

WE SHOULD DO BE DOING MORE TO SUPPORT THE DEMOCRATIC OPPOSITION IN RUSSIA.

MERKEL TO PUTIN: IRAN IS KIND OF CRAZY, SHOULDN'T GET NUKES (PLUS: YUP, OPERATION ORCHARD HIT A NUKE FACILITY)

We wonder if she had to speak very slowly and use really small words:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel backed the possibility of stronger sanctions against Iran before she met Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who planned to travel on to Teheran from Germany. Iran, Merkel was quoted by Army Radio as telling Putin, was a danger to Israel's security. The German leader said her talks with Putin would focus on the standoff with Iran over its nuclear program and the resolution of Kosovo's status... The US push for stronger sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program has emerged as the theme likely to dominate the talks, with Putin set to visit Teheran after Monday's meeting.

So that last sentence was kind of the reason we're not particularly hopeful on this. Unless we've missed a memo, the only thing stopping the spread of nuclear technology in the Middle East right now is the occasional Israeli bombing run over Arab territory:

Israel’s air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and American intelligence analysts judged was a partly constructed nuclear reactor, apparently modeled on one North Korea has used to create its stockpile of nuclear weapons fuel, according to American and foreign officials with access to the intelligence reports. The description of the target addresses one of the central mysteries surrounding the Sept. 6 attack, and suggests that Israel carried out the raid to demonstrate its determination to snuff out even a nascent nuclear project in a neighboring state. The Bush administration was divided at the time about the wisdom of Israel’s strike, American officials said, and some senior policy makers still regard the attack as premature.

Or, more accurately, the occasional totally awesome Israeli bombing run over Arab territory. But want to guess which part of the Executive was against the attack? If you said "not the State Department", (a) you're wrong (b) welcome to MR. We're always glad to have new readers.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

Panic In Iran

I have a long post about what the recent Israeli attack on Syria portends for Iran.


The short version: if America and/or Israel is going to attack Iran the attack will probably happen in the next two months or so.

RUSSIA GIVES IRAN CUTTING-EDGE ANTI-SHIP MISSILES TO GIVE TO HEZBOLLAH

We'd like to thank the State Department for keeping the IAF leashed during Lebanon II, the United Nations for stopping the war just as Israeli soldiers were getting poured across the border, and pretty much everyone else for the fantastic job they've been doing with Iran:

The recent delivery of an advanced Russian-made anti-ship missile to Iran has defense officials concerned it will be transferred to Syria and Hizbullah and used against the Israel Navy in a future conflict... Called the SSN-X-26 Yakhont, the supersonic cruise missile can be launched from the coast and hit sea-borne targets up to 300 kilometers away. The missile carries a 200-kilogram warhead and flies a meter-and-a-half above sea level... The missile homes in on its target using an advanced radar guidance system that is said to make it resistant to electronic jamming. The Yakhont is an operational and tactical missile and can be used against both a medium-sized destroyer and an aircraft carrier. It would pose a serious threat to the Israel Navy,... While officials could not confirm that the missile had reached Syria or Hizbullah, the growing assumption is that any weapons system or missile that can be taken apart and fit into a shipping container can easily be transferred.

Of course, any significant Hezbollah attack would now also send the IAF to Syria's doorstep. So at least Russia's not also pouring offensive and defensive weapons into Syria. We're not too worried. The UN was very clear that they would prevent any arms smuggling to Hezbollah, if only Israel agreed to withdraw behind the border.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

Rational Choice

JR has posted some excerpts from a recent review of the Russian situation. Since I commented on that a few days ago I thought I'd add my 2¢s.

========

Jeff Lukens writes in The American Thinker about the resurgence of Russia on the world scene and Putin's plan to revive Russia's fortunes goeopolitically, economically, and demographically.

Putin sees Russia's vast petroleum reserves as more than a means to economic growth, but as an avenue to superpower status once again. Last year, Russia was the second-highest oil producer in the world after Saudi Arabia. Their GDP has grown at an average rate of 5.5% since 2000, largely by energy exports.

So far so good. However, if oil prices fall as they surely will come the next recession, Russia and the oil exporters in general will be in a world of hurt.

Demographically, however, Russia is a nation that is slowly dying. The country has dwindling birthrates, and amazingly, declining life expectancy. That portends a bleak economic outlook unless they can leverage their energy resources to attain higher growth rates. This is Putin's strategy.

The demographic question is one that will not go away. In human society for a very long time children/family were a person's retirement and medical plan. With government's taking over that function the millenia long incentives we have had to live by are gone. Russia hopes to reverse the trend by improving economic conditions. I don't think it can work. However, we shall see.

In any case if they can keep raising their income for a while they will be at minimum a troublesome opposition.

So can we get along with the Russian Bear?

For its part, Washington may have unnecessarily provoked Putin as well.

Following 9/11, Putin agreed to allow Americans to stage the Afghanistan invasion from bases in former Soviet central Asian republics. Washington's reluctance now to depart from these bases has become troublesome to Moscow.

Overreach by NATO hasn't helped either. With China to the east, radical Islam to the south, and NATO's advancement from the west, Putin fears Russia is being threatened and encircled.

When the Soviet Army departed former Warsaw Pact countries in Eastern Europe, they were not expecting NATO to expand eastward. But that is exactly what happened. Not only did Poland and the Czech Republic join NATO, the former Soviet republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have joined too.

I believe the NATOization of the former satellites caused anger more due to the loss of military sales (loss of volume production/profits) than to the politico/military aspects. Of course loss of military sales also restricts the sphere of influence, so there are probably multiple aspects.

Ultimately Russia will hold whatever ground it can. Holding on to the former satellites was never an option.

All through Russian history the people have prefered authority over liberty as Jeff notes:

Most Russians would rather have a strong and secure nation than one that guarantees personal freedoms. This sentiment, and the growing economy, is the basis for Putin's broad popularity. A recent poll found only 16 percent of Russians surveyed want to see Western-style democracy remain in their country. Predictability is perhaps the greatest comfort to the average Russian.

Since winter time living in Russia is so precarious, perhaps trading Liberty for Security is a rational choice. It could also be a bargain with the devil who is now calling his note due.

Cross Posted at Power and Control