Putin: pulling a `creeping coup' against democracy

[dArKeR]

At an annual security conference here on the eve of NATO's seven-state expansion, Moscow's neo-imperialist defense minister threatened to back out of an agreement limiting the size of his armed forces on Russia's European front.

Sergei Ivanov's bluff was immediately called by US Senator John McCain. The Arizonan had accused Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime of a "creeping coup" against democracy within Russia, as well as a campaign to intimidate and reassert control over states -- from the Baltics to Belarus, Georgia and Ukraine -- that our victory in the cold war had liberated from Soviet rule.

This Russia-NATO confrontation has been brewing for a year. While France and Germany split with the rest of Europe and the US over the war in Iraq, Putin took advantage of the world's distraction to crack down on internal dissent and to undermine the independence of his neighbors.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/02/12/2003098459

[bemildred]

1. Yeah, I expect those Russian tanks wil be rolling

through the Fulda Gap any day now. :puke:

(What a crock ...)

[lastknowngood]

2. Nothing ever really changes the shrub has allowed the

KGB to reinstall the old Russian system. Welcome to the second cold war. Is it just me or has everything gone wrong ever since the shrub stole the 200 election.

[lovedems]

3. Yeah, I read that and am wondering what in the hell has happened

to our world? I have this sinking feeling in my stomach at the moment.

[Dover]

4. Nothing at all like Bush's "creepy coup".

Ever feel like you're watching a rerun of The Godfather? Putin and Bush....two mafia families playing by the same twisted code.

[tom_paine]

5. BINGO! Putin is just reading from the Bushevik Playbook

of "Managed Democracy".

Unfortunately for the Russians, they don't have the traditions of dissent, Constitutional Rule, and Free Elections, so Putin doesn;t have to move as slowly as his "soulmate" the Emperor Bunnypants* in taking all that freedom and free elections crap back.

And I'll just bet Emperor Bunnypants* and his stooges are JEALOUS of Putin's success.

After all, Imperial Amerika probably won't be where Putin is RIGHT NOW until at least the later reign of Emperor Jeb or perhaps the Emperor Ahnold...

Poor Totalitarian Babies.