tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post7953026553252036996..comments2024-02-26T00:59:26.907-08:00Comments on Ana the Imp: The winter of bureaucratsAnastasia F-Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-75816322388342401632010-09-29T02:40:49.760-07:002010-09-29T02:40:49.760-07:00I suffer from the same ambivalence; I think everyo...I suffer from the same ambivalence; I think everyone who knows Russia must to a degree: a recognition at one and the same time of grandeur and tragedy, of nobility and depravity. My ambivalence is reflected here in these two blogs!Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-78293429463912152732010-09-29T02:36:23.995-07:002010-09-29T02:36:23.995-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Fletch's Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16402507296202065300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-49837247219477383492010-09-29T02:34:23.121-07:002010-09-29T02:34:23.121-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Fletch's Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16402507296202065300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-13373124702820516012010-09-29T02:31:06.183-07:002010-09-29T02:31:06.183-07:00I think there was one (very) great diplomatic succ...I think there was one (very) great diplomatic success, back in the early 90s, in this part of the world: that is, persuading Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan to give up their nuclear weapons.<br /><br />But I certainly also lament the lost opportunities, and posit that it is certainly, clearly, overwhelmingly, desirable, that relations between us and Russia are not clouded by suspicion or fear. <br /><br />Part of me is a Russophile, but another part of me despairs as how cruelly Mother Russia has habitually treated, and continues to treat, her children, and, in certain regards, how little respect there is seems to be for human life there. (I could exemplify this in many ways, if I had time...) <br /><br />This was one reason why I was overwhelmingly enthuisastic about the "orange revolution" (but not the coup in Georgia, or either of them in Kyrgyzstan) and indeed Yushchenko (and it wasn't really a revolution: merely ensuring that the democratic process was upheld); however inept and useless a president he proved, the fact remains that Ukraine became a much safer, law-abiding and freer place, during that intermission of five years. Whereas now, only eight months in Yanukovych's reign, we already have the first journalist "disappearance" reported.<br /><br />(Crimea...is more complicated)Dominichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00145734042272196687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-90504392732184650562010-09-29T02:22:30.953-07:002010-09-29T02:22:30.953-07:00Yes, thanks, Dominic. I just wish our diplomats ha...Yes, thanks, Dominic. I just wish our diplomats had greater imagination. It's sad to see so many lost opportunities. We could have nurtured Russia in such a way that might have helped reduce instability and suspicion, at least I like to think so.Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-46017231155735666842010-09-29T02:08:16.782-07:002010-09-29T02:08:16.782-07:00Russia is (alas) now a "virtual superpower&qu...Russia is (alas) now a "virtual superpower", reduced largely to shows of strength that have little substance in reality, with Putin as a real life He-Man, albeit one with a good selection of poisons on hand. <br /><br />Even that clip of them planting a Russian flag on the North Pole was interspersed with clips from, of all things, "Titanic". For goodness' sake!<br /><br />And I agree with you, Ana, and Hitchens, but with some qualifications. The "New Cold War" approach, put forward, of late, particularly, by Edward Lucas (why the Economist reappointed him as their man in Russia I have no idea), is really foolish. And in some ways I find the expansion of NATO far more of a provocation than the EU.<br /><br />But the problem is also that Russia chooses to behave in the way that it does; and also that even in the early 90s it had a President who was happy to turn the guns on his parliament, killing 150 therein, before stripping it of power (to weaken the old Communist order, for sure), and to let loose a reign of brutality on Chechnya that really did aid the growth of extreme Islamist there and in neighbouring territories.<br /><br />I might also argue that the Eastwards expansion of the EU may well prove, eventually, and with help from, among others, us (come on Mr Hague pull your finger out), and not least the Poles and the Czechs to be the weakening of the deepening, centralizing, nature of the Union. But we are still a long way from that being so. And letting near-failed states in like Bulgaria or Romania was definitely a foolish move.Dominichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00145734042272196687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-48542271720703916502010-09-29T01:57:52.247-07:002010-09-29T01:57:52.247-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Fletch's Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16402507296202065300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-17571491491196058272010-09-29T01:54:38.427-07:002010-09-29T01:54:38.427-07:00Adam, you are blind to the structural weaknesses o...Adam, you are blind to the structural weaknesses of the Russian state. Anyway, yours is a proposition that will be tested by time. The Second Republic was was the briefest of interludes in Spanish history, lasting from only 1931 to 1939. The Franco state was always premised on an eventual restoration of the monarchy. There is no widespread support for a restoration of the monarchy in Russia; it's been gone too long. Putin will attempt no such gesture, another statement that will be tested by time.Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-49365603067536100552010-09-29T00:27:16.023-07:002010-09-29T00:27:16.023-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Fletch's Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16402507296202065300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-73350447833636491812010-09-28T15:43:38.090-07:002010-09-28T15:43:38.090-07:00Thanks, Adam. I think Georgia’s attack on South O...Thanks, Adam. I think Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia was wrong but I don’t agree for a moment that it was ‘genocidally motivated.’ Putin’s prosperity is shallow, riches narrowly distributed and often by semi-criminal and nepotistic means. It’s a gas bubble waiting to burst. Russia continues to be a weak giant, an argument that I think I might supplement tonight. Putin has been right in many ways for Russia but for all the wrong, corrupt neo-Stalinist reasons. There is no Tsar, apart from Tsar Vladimir. There will never be a Tsar again. History moves on.Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413130168723738166.post-66573579984769486052010-09-28T15:26:43.042-07:002010-09-28T15:26:43.042-07:00The following contribution from Adam is being post...The following contribution from Adam is being posted by request. There are things that one cannot do, even on BlackBerry. :-))<br /><br />Sorry I couldn't resist(I'm not a patient man) here are my comments--I cannot post them on a new blog from a phone(only as a follow up) so if you'd not mind publishing for me--it's much appreciated. First of all, I agree with the vast majority of what you have to say--all of it brilliantly put. Here though are some areas of contention 1. The EU is post-democratic and deeply anti-democratic 2. Georgia acted in as the aggressor in their genocidally motivated war on South Ossetia--this not just according to me but the official EU report and as you know the Germano-centric EU is now natural ally of Russia 3. This isn't so much a disagreement as a something to take note of. Whilst Krushchev gifted Sevastopol to the Ukrainian SFR in the year 1954, this had no real meaning till 1991 as the SFRs were administrative units merely disguised as republics. 4. Putin is not Shelly's monster--he has listed Russia into a greater prosperity than she has ever known. He defends his citizens at home and abroad--(he's learnt for Palmerston well in this regard--however ironic this is given how anti-Russian he was). The West have made him a monster only in blinded western eyes. He remains more popular than any leader since the Revolution and for good reason, indeed. As for the rest it is spot on--even the bits I disagree with are frankly written more concisely than Hitchens(a man I enjoy reading very much) God Preserve the Tsar I've an idea--after Putin's next stint as President, he should do as Franco did and posthumously restore the Monarchy.Anastasia F-Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01284602529524462457noreply@blogger.com