Andrew E. Kramer / International Herald Tribune & Sorcha Faal – 2007-05-11 08:47:07
http://www.iht.com/bin/print.php?id=5642323
MOSCOW (May 9, 2007) — President Vladimir Putin of Russia obliquely compared the foreign policy of the United States to the Third Reich in a speech Wednesday commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, in an apparent escalation of anti-American rhetoric within the Russian government.
Putin did not specifically name the United States or NATO but used phrasing similar to that which he has used previously to criticize American foreign policy while making an analogy to Nazi Germany.
The comments marked the latest in a series of sharply worded Russian criticisms of the foreign policy of the Untied States – on Iraq, missile defense, NATO expansion and, broadly, the accusation that the United States has striven to single-handedly dominate world affairs.
Some political analysts see the new tone as a return to Cold War-style rhetoric by a country emboldened by petroleum wealth. But Russians say the sharper edge is a reflection of frustration that Russia’s views, particularly its opposition to NATO expansion, have been ignored in the West.
Putin’s analogy came as a small part of a larger speech in which he unambiguously congratulated Russian veterans of World War II, known here as the Great Patriotic War.
Speaking from a podium in front of Lenin’s Mausoleum on Red Square before troops mustered for a military parade, Putin called Victory Day a holiday of “huge moral importance and unifying power” for Russia and went on to enumerate the lessons of that conflict for the world today.
“We do not have the right to forget the causes of any war, which must be sought in the mistakes and errors of peacetime,” Putin said.
“Moreover, in our time, these threats are not diminishing,” he said as he delved into what one expert said was clearly an allusion to U.S. foreign policy. “They are only transforming, changing their appearance. In these new threats – as during the time of the Third Reich – are the same contempt for human life and the same claims of exceptionality and diktat in the world.”
The Kremlin press service declined to clarify the statement, saying Putin’s spokesman was unavailable because of the holiday.
But Sergei Markov, director of the Institute of Political Studies, who works closely with the Kremlin, said in a telephone interview that Putin was referring to the United States and NATO. Markov said the comments should be interpreted in the context of a wider, philosophical discussion of the lessons of World War II. The speech also praised the role of the allies of the Soviet Union in defeating Germany.
“He intended to talk about the United States, but not only,” Markov said in reference to the sentence mentioning the Third Reich. “The speech said that the Second World War teaches lessons that can be applied in today’s world.”
The United States, Putin has maintained, is seeking to establish a unipolar world to replace the bipolar balance of power of the Cold War era.
In a speech in Munich on Feb. 10, he characterized the United States as “one single center of power: One single center of force. One single center of decision making. This is the world of one master, one sovereign.”
The victory in World War II, achieved at the cost of roughly 27 million Soviet citizens, still echoes loudly in the politics of the former Soviet Union, particularly in Russia’s relations with the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
In his speech, Putin criticized Estonia – also indirectly – for recently relocating a monument to the Red Army in Tallinn, the Estonian capital, along with the remains of unknown soldiers buried there. Putin warned that desecrating war memorials was “sowing discord and new distrust between states and people.” The remarks were a nod to the protests in Russia and Estonia after the relocation of the Bronze Soldier memorial from the city center to a military cemetery.
In last May’s Victory Day speech, Putin brushed on similar themes of the lessons of the war. Then, he spoke of the need to stem “racial enmity, extremism and xenophobia” in a possible reference to rising ethnic tension inside Russia.
Victory Day has evolved into the principal political holiday in Russia, replacing the Soviet-era Nov. 7 celebration, Day of the Great October Socialist Revolution. That holiday was canceled under Putin and replaced with another, marking a 1612 uprising against Poland, celebrated on Nov. 4.
Veterans gathered at war memorials festooned with red carnations sang “Katyusha” and toasted departed comrades in traditions little changed over the decades. The Red Square parade opened, according to tradition, with drummers from the Moscow Military Music Academy and closed with the marching band of the Moscow garrison. The defense minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, arrived in a gray Zil convertible limousine. About 7,000 soldiers sang the Russian national anthem a cappella.
At one point, a formation of MiG jets thundered over the square. As the planes pulled up and away, a pilot broadcast a message to the veterans over his radio. “We love you and remember you.”‘
Putin In “Rage” Over US-Iran Alliance Orders New Cold War Spy Flights
Sorcha Faal / WhatDoesItMean.com
MOSCOW (May 11, 2007) — Reports from within the Kremlin today are describing President Putin as being in a “rage” against the United States due to that Nations diplomatic maneuvering to bring the Persian Nation of Iran into its sphere of influence as a “buffer” against both Russia and China’s growing power in the Middle East.
So livid, in fact, is Putin against the United States that he took the unprecedented step during his speech commemorating the end of World War II of comparing the Americans, and their War Leaders, with Nazi Germany and Hitler by saying:
“We do not have the right to forget the causes of any war, which must be sought in the mistakes and errors of peacetime. Moreover, in our time, these threats are not diminishing. They are only transforming, changing their appearance. In these new threats, as during the time of the Third Reich, are the same contempt for human life and the same claims of exceptionality and diktat in the world.”
The American President, Bush, was quick to react to Putin’s provocative statement by placing an immediate call to him, but which failed to placate the Russian Leader, and to which the American Secretary of State, Rice, then fired back that Putin’s moves to consolidate power within Russia are “troubling.”
Kremlin watchers are quick to point out that Rice’s statements are “beyond strange” in light of the United States actions against Russia by moving to place a missile shield around Russia in its former satellite states of Poland and Czech Republic, and which the Americans say Russia “can’t alter,” and the Russia’s Army Chief of Staff, General Yury Baluyevsky, has vowed to respond to as a “threat.”
Of the greatest concerns, according to these reports, of Putin and the Russian General Staff is the Americans maneuvering to support the radical Middle East Nation of Iran through the funding of its proposed pipeline to Pakistan and India through the World Bank, and as we can read:
“The World Bank has expressed its readiness to fund the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline and described the $7 billion project as a ‘win-win deal’ despite US reservations about the project. World Bank vice president Praful Patel said although the bank has not been approached by Pakistan to this effect formally or informally, the bank was ready to fund as and when approached.”
The World Bank describes itself as follows: “[We are] a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the World. We are not a bank in the common sense. We are made up of two unique development institutions owned by 185 member countries.”
It is important to note, also, that the World Bank President is always a United States citizen who is appointed by the American President, with the present one being Paul Wolfowitz, and who prior to being made the head of the World Bank was the United States “chief architect” of the wars against both Afghanistan and Iraq.
As to one of the truest reasons for these wars Mr. Wolfowitz has been remarkably candid, and as we can read as reported by Britain’s Guardian Unlimited News Service in their June, 2003 article titled “Wolfowitz: Iraq war was about oil”, and which says:
“Oil was the main reason for military action against Iraq, a leading White House hawk has claimed, confirming the worst fears of those opposed to the US-led war.
The US deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz – who has already undermined Tony Blair’s position over weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by describing them as a “bureaucratic” excuse for war – has now gone further by claiming the real motive was that Iraq is “swimming” in oil.
The latest comments were made by Mr Wolfowitz in an address to delegates at an Asian security summit in Singapore at the weekend, and reported today by German newspapers Der Tagesspiegel and Die Welt.
Asked why a nuclear power such as North Korea was being treated differently from Iraq, where hardly any weapons of mass destruction had been found, the deputy defence minister said: “Let’s look at it simply. The most important difference between North Korea and Iraq is that economically, we just had no choice in Iraq. The country swims on a sea of oil.”
Mr. Wolfowitz’s latest maneuverings to use World Bank funds to further the war goals of the United States has met with stiff International resistance, especially those of the European Union where France has called for an “urgent” meeting aimed at toppling Mr. Wolfowitz from the World Bank Presidency.
Russian Military Analysts also point out that by the actions of the United States in implementing Mr. Wolfowitz’s plan for the invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, the Persian Nation of Iran has been the beneficiary as its only two enemies on its borders have now been destroyed leaving it, alone, as the most powerful Nation in the Middle East.
These reports further state that Iran, not Israel, is the United States most “natural” ally in the oil rich Middle East Region and that rather than go to into an “unwinnable” war against Iran it serves American interests better to covertly support it as its geo-strategic position to the Middle East, Europe and Asia places the Persian Nation as a “linchpin” against Russian and Chinese maneuvering in these areas, including the vast untapped oil wealth of Central Asia, and which many believe holds the last, and largest, oil reserves on the Earth.
In these latest manuverings the United States further moved its International strategy away from Israel’s by taking the “unprecedented” step of canceling the scheduled visit to the Jewish state by the American Secretary of State Rice, and who, instead, is heading to Russia to meet with Putin.
President Putin has responded to these latest provocations by the United States by ordering Russian Military Forces to return to their Cold War stance of probing Western Defenses, and which we can read as confirmed by Scotland’s The Daily Record News Service in their article titled “RED ALERT Leuchars Tornados scramble to see off Russian spy plane”, and which says:
“A British fighter jet sees off a Russian spy plane in a dramatic showdown. An RAF Tornado pulls up alongside a Tupelov Tu-142 as it tries to snoop on a NATO exercise off the Outer Hebrides.
It was almost like a throwback to the Cold War as two jets from the Leuchars base in Fife were scrambled when a pair of Russian planes popped up on radar. Officials say no contact was made but the RAF fighter pilots made sure the spy planes – codenamed Bear Foxtrots – knew they had been spotted.
The incident happened last week during the Neptune Warrior exercise but details and this photograph were only released yesterday. Squadron Leader Keith Wardlaw said he could not remember the last time such an encounter had happened.”
To the American people themselves they seem to remain oblivious to the growing forces of anger, and war, against both them and their War Leaders, but which in light of the propaganda campaign being waged against them by their own media organs is understandable.
After all, when a Nation has descended to the level of decadence that shows its citizens knowing more about a celebrity girl named Paris Hilton (and of whom we can find no information of any notable achievements) then they do about the actions of their War Leaders then, perhaps, all hope for these people may indeed be lost.
© May 11, 2007 EU and US all rights reserved.
Note: To access all the embedded links in the original report, go to: http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1008.htm
Posted in accordance with Title 17, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
