Author
|
Topic: any Russia-Watchers here ?
|
Abdul_Maria
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11105
|
posted 10 September 2006 01:26 PM
this morning there were 2 articles in the Moscow Times making the Russian Navy sound like the Keystone Cops if there was more room i wanted to title this - "Nuclear Sub Test Reporting in Moscow Times - Feint, Real News, or Both ?" "A test of a new intercontinental ballistic missile ended in failure Thursday" http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2006/09/08/014.html "Nuclear Submarine Blaze Kills 2 Sailors" http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2006/09/08/011.html reporting on an electrical fire - "He said the fire was most likely caused by a short circuit." - that's usually the way it is with electrical fires. from reading these articles, one gets the impression that the Russian Navy is not the world's most efficient. somehow, i doubt it's that simple. can't help but wonder if they have 2 military forces, the dangerously incompetent one that the world gets to see, and the one that is kept under wraps, like some of the US' own military research labs.
From: San Fran | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Abdul_Maria
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11105
|
posted 10 September 2006 05:09 PM
actually, my best understanding of TWA Flight 800 came from Sanders' book. he's the guy who gat arrested by the FBI because a family member who lost a loved one on the plane gave him some samples of the seat fabric. he was writing a book and they smuggled it out.they paid to have it tested for chemical residues and found that it had solid rocket fuel on it. one of the other things that was happening that night was that the US military was testing their Mucho Beloved AEGIS system. it's part of an integrated communications that automates a lot of the functions of combat - but i don't want to go off on too much of a tangent. i believe the testing that was planned for that night also involved missile defense. there was another incident years earlier where they shot down an Iranian airliner, i think, and they wanted to get better at warfare in a crowded signal environment. so, that night in Long Island sound, off went the target missile. off went the kill missile. TWA Flight 800 flew by and went down. something spewed solid rocket fuel all over the seat fabric. relative got upset, obtained fabric samples from the re-constructed airplane, gave samples to Sanders, Navy has PR problem. i guess both military's try to cover things up. the US and the Soviet's. - - - another good search term if you're interested in American missile defense, is Nira Schwartz TRW she was a scientist at their Redondo Beach facility, working on missile defense.
From: San Fran | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
Abdul_Maria
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11105
|
posted 11 September 2006 12:50 PM
http://www.cluborlov.com/ClubOrlov/ConfSlides/index.htmlthis presentation was created by a Russian emigre named Dmitri Orlov. it's about the collapse of the Soviet Union, and extrapolates from that to discuss the effects of Energy Transition on the United States (that's where we figure out what to do as we run out of cheap oil). for example, in the Soviet Union, when people lost their jobs, they didn't lose their homes. in America, when people lose their jobs, depending on the details of their mortgage ... they may lose their homes.
From: San Fran | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Martha (but not Stewart)
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 12335
|
posted 11 September 2006 02:04 PM
quote: Originally posted by BetterRed: Now if you really DID FOLLOW Russian politics, then you would know that the liberal opposition party(Union of Rightist Forces) is a lot more repulsive than Putin's party.
Sadly, you are absolutely right about the Union of Right Forces. Even a capitalist should cringe at the form of gangster capitalism that took hold in post-Soviet Russia. I don't know if it's worth debating which is worse: Putin's autocracy or the oligarchs' kleptocracy. In the last election, four parties took more than 5% of the popular vote and/or more than 5% of the 450 seats in the Duma: United Russia (38%, 222 seats); Communist Party of the Russian Federation (12.8%, 51 seats); Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (11.7%, 37 seats); and the Party of Russian Regions (now known as Rodina, i.e. Motherland) (9.2%, 37 seats). United Russia is Putin's party, formed to support an ex-KGB autocrat who allegedly plagiarized on his PhD thesis (see here, here and here, or just do a google search like this). I just thought I'd throw that in as one more reason to be suspicious of the man and his party. Oh, let's not forget the morally bankrupt Chechen war. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation has, unfortunately, taken a turn towards a nationalistic form of nostalgia, or a nostalgic form of nationalism. The Liberal Democratic Party is a truly scary beast, led by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, famous for his anti-Semitism and expressed admiration of Hitler. Here's a quotable quote, about Condoleezza Rice: "Condoleezza Rice needs a company of soldiers. She needs to be taken to barracks where she would be satisfied." This is taken from an anti-Rice article in Pravda. Rodina's official platform is "Patriotism — to build a society of social justice and to unite the nation on the basis of patriotism." That soundbite might not be too scary -- though I am always afraid of any party that offers "patriotism" as its central theme. But further investigation concerns me deeply: one of their 2005 TV commercials "shows a blonde woman pushing a pram over watermelon rinds discarded by a group of dark-skinned men sitting nearby. The spot is packed with cliches suggesting people from the Caucasus region, who often sell fruit and vegetables in the capital’s markets, only eat watermelon and do little else. A party leader tells them to pick up their watermelon skins. Another then asks in language normally used to address children: 'Do you understand Russian?' The clip ends with: “Let’s clean the city of rubbish." The Union of Right Forces (which you mention) got 4% of the votes and 3 seats in the Duma.
From: Toronto | Registered: Mar 2006
| IP: Logged
|
|
|