We may be in a recession, but Russia is on the brink, it seems. First, Serena absolutely clobbers Dinara Safina in the Australian Open Women’s Final 6-0 6-3. Then the global financial crisis, that our best and brightest financial minds sparked, is succeeding in cutting the legs out from under pesky oil-rich nations like Russia and Iran and Venezuela. You can’t have oil demand if people don’t have jobs! Now our buddy Putin is trying to put a clamp on the dissent by going back to his old reporter-murdering handbook:
MOSCOW (AP) – The dead loom over the morning editorial meeting at Russia’s leading investigative newspaper. Novaya Gazeta’s staff is trying to plan the next issue and editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov is in an understandably foul mood. In a corner hang photos of four reporters he has lost in the past eight years – one beaten to death, one allegedly poisoned, two shot – the most recent on Jan. 19. It’s not easy to put a paper out these days, Muratov says.
I’ll bet it’s not. It’s also not easy to walk across downtown Moscow unmolested by some protestor or the other. They’re calling for Putin to resign because of the economy:
Russia was rocked today by some of its strongest protests yet as thousands rallied across the vast country to attack the Kremlin’s response to the global economic crisis. The marches, complete with Soviet-style red flags and banners, pose a challenge to a government which has faced little threat from the fragmented opposition and politically apathetic population during the boom years fuelled by oil. Pro-government thugs beat up some of the protesters.
Nine years into the new century seems right about on schedule for another Bolshevik uprising. So is Medyedev playing the part of Rasputin? And to top it off, fresh off Al-Queda trying to frighten America into opposing Obama by calling him a house-negro, Iran’s calling us weak for wanting diplomacy:
US President Barack Obama’s offer to talk to Iran shows that America’s policy of “domination” has failed, the government spokesman said on Saturday. “This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed,” Gholam Hossein Elham was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency. “Negotiation is secondary, the main issue is that there is no way but for (the United States) to change,” he added. After nearly three decades of severed ties, Obama said shortly after taking office this month that he is willing to extend a diplomatic hand to Tehran if the Islamic republic is ready to “unclench its fist”. In response, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a fresh tirade against the United States, demanding an apology for its “crimes” against Iran and saying he expected “deep and fundamental” change from Obama.
Hah – if your distractions don’t work, the fundamental change might come in Iran’s next elections! If only Israel hadn’t taken the bait. Again.
And once again we’re sitting pretty. What an incredibly amazing 8-year plan. They had it all figured out all this time. Man, George Bush may have been right about history judging him differently.
Um…..
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