Exclusive: Russia threatened countries ahead of UN vote on Ukraine - envoys
Source: Reuters
Russia threatened several Eastern European and Central Asian states with retaliation if they voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution this week declaring invalid Crimea's referendum on seceding from Ukraine, U.N. diplomats said.
The disclosures about Russian threats came after Moscow accused Western countries of using "shameless pressure, up to the point of political blackmail and economic threats," in an attempt to coerce the United Nations' 193 member states to join it in supporting the non-binding resolution on the Ukraine crisis.
According to interviews with U.N. diplomats, most of whom preferred to speak on condition of anonymity for fear of angering Moscow, the targets of Russian threats included Moldova, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as well as a number of African countries.
A spokesman for Russia's Mission to the U.N. denied that Moscow threatened any country with retaliation if it supported the resolution, saying: "We never threaten anyone. We just explain the situation."
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/28/us-ukraine-crisis-un-idUSBREA2R20O20140328
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Response to OneCrazyDiamond (Original post)
Last edited Sun Jun 15, 2014, 04:59 PM - Edit history (4)
Tough-Talking Putin Crafted Image His Wayby Gregory Feifer - May 03, 2008
...The Kremlin has worked hard to build Putin's public image as Russia's virile "national leader" whose authority extends beyond his presidency...
Few people had heard of Vladimir Putin when Russia's then-President Boris Yeltsin appointed him prime minister in 1999. But the stern-faced former KGB officer triggered a love affair with the Russian population — by starting a popular second war in Chechnya later that year...
"If they're in the airport," Putin said, "we'll kill them there ... and excuse me, but if we find them in the toilet, we'll exterminate them in their outhouses."
...Putin has often lost his temper in public. During a 2002 news conference in Brussels, Belgium, the president responded to a question that angered him by inviting a reporter to come to Moscow to be circumcised:
"We have specialists in this question, as well," Putin said. "I'll recommend that he carry out the operation in such a way that nothing will grow back..."
More 'Putinisms' down the page at:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90083829
The way he has presented himself to the Russian people, with an 80% approval rate at the time this article was written, inspired this video:
In 2002, a pop band called Singing Together released a song titled "I Want Someone Like Putin" with the following lyrics:
Someone like Putin, full of strength
Someone like Putin, who doesn't drink
Someone like Putin, who doesn't hurt me
Someone like Putin, who won't run away
This is why he's the darling of the all the 'freedom-loving' authoritarians on Faux Noise, the Libertarians, the GOP and the Tea Party. It doesn't matter who this style of strong man rule harms, in fact, they relish it, as anyone they hate going down means more power for them, supposedly.
Chris Christie's approval rating remains higher than we may think it should be as Democrats who expect equal treatment under the law. It is based in a society of people who walked away from their responsibility for effecting change, thus creating their own disempowerment. No one will ever motivate them to vote or get involved as they value a carefully culitvated cult of victimhood.*
The world does not stand still and reality will intrude in the form of a crisis that could be prevented. Then the panic begins and that always leads to people looking for a strong father figure who will fight all their battles for them, as they had no skill in doing so before in real life.
It was part of Hitler's popularity, as each act of incivility and brushing aside the rights of others forged their new identity. It's why the Nugents and the verbal bomb throwers, no matter how dishonest they may be, are so popular now. It's a vicarous victory so people cheer on bullies.
'Might Makes Right' is preferred by such no matter what they call it, instead of the call of Obama for the justice from 'Right Makes Might.' Obama leaves it to people to decide what they believe and want, and is despised for telling people to take up the tools of government as a unitef front against their oppression.
So we have Christies, Cruz's, Pauls, Koches, Rushs, Walkers, O'Reilly's, et al, who make people feel strong victorious, but inside they had and still have, no determination to face the daily, uncheered struggles of life, as they bet on something for nothing.
That's going to be a growing problem in humanity's mental landscape as more challenges arise and people refuse to accept their own role in the coming crisis from taking a pass on their own hand in it.
*Or in a supreme personal victory, they manage to grab financial power through patronage and cronyism, most often through privatization schemes. Getting involved in the work of government is unworthy until it is parceled out to their benefit. And the true oppressiveness of that system without any merit needed to make money that excludes the rights of others to have opportunity, doesn't matter so long as they got theirs first.
This is the enduring, personal and grass roots benefit of fascism as an economic system where business orders government to favor them and not individual rights. That economic opportunity for all was possible if the people were united in support of equality and each other, loses its appeal thorugh nonstop propaganda.
And those who get those advantages would be willing to destroy anyone who seeks to prevent their profit, thus they often win.
he treats Gays.
Thanks for this.. the more you know.. 
...when it comes to UN resolutions. Twisting arms and making veiled threats. And let's not forget overthrowing the occasional government we don't like and outright invasion. This is in no way an apology for Russia's recent actions, but it is how the UN works on occasion. It's been that way long before the UN ever existed and hasn't changed.
Going to file this Reuters report in the "Do ya think!?" file. 
