"O!Bama! Save us!"

A group of 20 political "hasbeens" from East and Central Europe have written an open letter to O!Bama. The 20 signatures came from the following individuals suffering from a distinctive group thinking:

Valdas Adamkus, Martin Butora, Emil Constantinescu, Pavol Demes, Lubos Dobrovsky, Matyas Eorsi, Istvan Gyarmati, Vaclav Havel, Rastislav Kacer, Sandra Kalniete, Karel Schwarzenberg, Michal Kovac, Ivan Krastev, Alexander Kwasniewski, Mart Laar, Kadri Liik, Janos Martonyi. Janusz Onyszkiewicz, Adam Rotfeld, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Alexandr Vondra, Lech Walesa.

Most likely Mr. Obama doesn't know/remember who these people are and what small countries they come from. So we won't elaborated on this either. Their political agenda (not agendaS, but agenda) is based on one single idea:

"Against Russia."

That's it. The style of this extremely loyal letter most closely resembles a letter written by a feudal vassal to his lord in which the vassal swears an oath of loyalty to his lord and is asking the lord not to forget him. In a few words the meaning of the letter is this: "Don't forget us, the great America, - don't forget your most loyal friends and allies in Europe, don't let us alone with this bloody monster - Russia! Otherwise - we are finished."

The vassals want to feel important once again and they are worried that the "great America" in view of its financial and political problems is overstretched. The "great America" simply may not find enough resources for all of its "areas of national interest" (which cover the whole planet). The most ridiculous part of the letter is that the twenty vassals have even asked for more troops and more military bases of foreign countries on their territory. Apparently that's their idea of independence. You know what? America might as well oblige them, if they attack Russia from its East European bases, Russia will attach back and destroy Prague, Warsaw, Riga and Bucharest instead of Washington DC. Not a bad deal for the "great America."

These 20 hasbeens also remind me a begging dog, waiting for a treat. We don't want to offend anybody but it has just happened historically that these countries have never had any real independence, - instead they have been either parts of bigger countries in the region (Prussia, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Russia, Germany, etc), or playing the role of vassals to bigger countries. It is also clear that these "politicians" are trying to be "more catholic than the Pope" while showing their respect and loyalty to the new "lord" and hoping to be petted by the new owner who might even give them a treat.

What is really pathetic is their pathological hatred and rejection of Russia; in their pathological hatred they are prepared to provoke a new "cold war" with Moscow. What makes them think that that's what Obama wants? Barack Obama has a lot of work to do to clean up the mess left behind by G W Bush Jr. Moreover, these "young democracies" wanted to be so much a part of EU, "Euro zone", "Schengen agreement", etc. Why don't they try to solve their problems (including psychological ones) with their colleagues from EU? Why to go over their heads and plead directly with Washington DC?

Do they want to end up like Mikhail Saakashvili (the nickname "USAkashvili)?

Dmirtry Medvedev with Russian paratroopers

This week the (100% official) Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the VDV (Russian paratroopers) training center "Raevski" near Novorossiysk during the actual exercises. In particular, Mr. Medvedev inspected new equipment and weapons that have been just introduced to the paratroopers. What is very unusual, that much of the new stuff is imported. The Russian Army has not been equipped with equipment and weapons manufactured abroad since the times of WW2, when the American and British made weapons and equipment were quite common in the Russian Army. The Russian President tested the quality of Austrian and British rifles, German optical instruments, Finish ammunition, etc. He even fired a round from a British made sniper rifle (AW.308 model - on the second photo below). All this got me thinking about the poor state of the Russian industry and its possibilities ... but it didn't end there. After the inspection Dmitry Medvedev joined the paratroopers for lunch. This meant to be a moral booster, but first - I couldn't refrain from noticing that the paratroopers didn't look particularly well-fed (first photo below), and second - a year ago or so the Russian newspapers made fun of the Georgian President Michail Saakashvili who also dined with his troops shortly before the pathetic attempt to conquer South Ossetia.

"Miss Moscow - 2009" is Yulia Obraztsova!

Today in the concert hall "Pushkinsky" of the Russian capital the 28 contestants




competed for being named "Miss Moscow - 2009". The winner of the beauty paegent is the beautiful 25-years old model Yulia Obraztsova (Юлия Образцова - the 8th lady from the left, top row).

Another Obama's magic revealed

An unfortunate accident revealed how Barack Obama gives his speeches, - he uses not one, but two teleprompters to deliver his speeches. Hence moving his head to the right and to the left while speaking. Unexpectedly, two days ago one of his teleprompters broke in mid-speech.

Barack Obama's autocue breaks mid-speech
Uploaded by itnnews. - News videos from around the world.

And that's how Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader who was in charge of the USSR for 17 years till he passed away in 1982, gave his speeches:

Commenting on this blog

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OSCE insults - Russia strikes back: The case against Lithuania

(Pravda.ru) Friday July 3 2009, the Parliamentary Assembly of OSCE passed a resolution comparing Stalinism with Nazism. For Russia the distortion of history for political ends is unacceptable. This profound insult to the country that lost over 26 million souls, as it stemmed the Nazi tide, responsible for 90 per cent of Wehrmacht casualties, cannot go unanswered.

It was Vilija Aleknaite-Abramikiene, of Lithuania, who wrote the proposal Reunification of Divided Europe, asking for a condemnation of Nazism and Stalinism, as though they were one and the same thing. And it was Slovenia that supported the motion, accepted overwhelmingly by most of the Assembly. Let us then analyse, one by one, the history of the human rights records of the OSCE member states which insulted Russia.

Lithuania

In Lithuania, while Russians and Soviets were losing more than 26 million souls to destroy Fascism-Nazism, the authorities installed the Kovno (Kaunas), Kauen, Slobodka, HKP (Vilna) and Prawienischken collaborationist extermination camps, where they massacred between 135,000 and 220,000 people.

They began before the Nazi occupation on the 24th of June 1941, with Lithuanian fascists attacking the Jews in Kovno. The pogroms were masterminded by SS Brigadefuhrer Walter Stahlecker and Algirdas Klimaitis, whose Lithuanian fascists murdered hundreds of thousands of fellow countrymen and Poles.

During the occupation, the Lithuanian Einsatzgruppen Auxiliary and the Lithuanian Security Police (Lietuvos saugumo policija), perpetrated acts of slaughter. 10 of the 26 units were directly involved in the massacre of tens of thousands of Jews and Poles, the most infamous of which was the Ponary massacre. A further 5,000 Jews were slaughtered in Slutsk by the Second Batallion, which also shot 9,000 Soviet prisoners of war, in Minsk. This batallion staffed the extermination camp at Majdanek and a Lithuanian batallion took part in suppressing the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943.

In the words of the OSCE Resolution, genocide, human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

From Haaretz: "That's Lithuanian chutzpah," says Dr. Efraim Zuroff, director of the Israeli branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. "To date, Lithuanian governments have not punished a single Lithuanian war criminal. In spite of our considerable efforts and the large amount of information we have given them, they handled three cases with astonishing slowness. Not one of the three served a single day in prison. On the other hand, they're not ashamed to persecute and harass Lithuanian partisans who fought the Nazis. What is common to all these cases is that they're all Jews. Instead of punishing Lithuanian criminals who collaborated with the Nazis and murdered Jews, they're harassing the partisans, Jewish heroes."

Professor Dov Levin chronicles in his books how more than 200,00 Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, mainly by the Lithuanian collaborators who were eager to engage in murder without the German Nazis having to convince them. Levin believes that Yad Vashem should have severed any connection with the Lithuanian government and ended its activity.

"I told Yad Vashem, 'stop kissing up to the Lithuanians, it's kissing up to evildoers,' " he emphasizes. Levin says that in a protest move, decided not to visit Lithuania again. "In the past I went there but now it disgusts me." This was as a result of their continued practice of persecuting anti-fascist partisans.

Photo: Lithuanian collaborators guard Jews before their execution. Ponary, June-July, 1941

Lisa KARPOVA

PRAVDA.Ru

We are sorry: Dmitry Medvedev wasn't drunk

We wish to thank Mikhael Kuznetsov for providing the following video clearly showing that the (100% official) President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev was NOT drunk at the G8 meeting in Italy. Our sincerest apologies.

Why doesn't Obama's star power translate in Russia?

Although politically Obama's visit to Russia has been a success, - he brought from Moscow what he wanted, that is a treaty that benefited his country (compliments of Putvedev), - many political observers are disappointed, and it has nothing to do with politics. But rather with O!Bama's status as a semi-deity that he has enjoyed so far while visiting other countries. Strangely enough the Russians hasn't worshiped Obama (or The Obamas) during his (their) historic visit to Moscow. For example, here's what The New York Times had to say about the issue:

In Russia, Obama’s Star Power Does Not Translate

We disagree with the main points of this article and would like to offer our opinion regarding the matter instead. To understand why the Russians didn't treat Obama as a god during his visit, we first should look into the reasons why he is still treated in his own country as a god and why his reception in Germany or England was so much different from how he was treated in Russia (politely but cool that is).

So, why is Obama so popular? It is strange, considering that he hasn't done much yet, - for example, he hasn't won a war, or conquered the economic depression the world is in, or fulfilled any of the promises he made during the Presidential campaign last year for that matter (like pulling the troops out of Iraq). So what's the hype then? Well, you see he is different! Up until recently in the most democratic country of the world the only people who were elected the Presidents where those belonging to a specific race and a specific denomination of Christianity. Thus, JF Kennedy, the unfortunate deviation from one of these rules, - he belonged to a different Christian denomination, - was assassinated. Moreover, as recent as 40-50 years ago the societies of many States were segregated, namely the "colored" people were not allowed to socially mix with the people of the white race.

As for political arrangement, in spite of having the most democratic political system in the history of humankind, the American society has been ruled by a few political clans really (The Bushes, the Kennedys, the Clintons, etc). What is different now? Not much, the society is still ruled by the same clans, but the skin color of the President is different. Hence "The Change" and all that "Yes, we can" stuff.

What about the Russians? Well, they have done it a long time ago so they cannot be possibly impressed by a "different" kind of president (again!). Please recall that for many years Russia (USSR) was ruled by Stalin who was an ethnic Georgian, married to a Russian. Among his close associates the Russians could see people of various nationalities: Kaganovich was a Jew, Mikoyan was an Armenian, Voroshilov was a Russian, Beria was a Georgian and so on. The Russians know that the skin color or ethnic background of the people in charge don't necessarily translate into what the ordinary people need or want. The Russians never imposed segregation. In the Soviet Union the main "religion" was internationalism, ethnically mixed marriages were common, there were even affirmative action type policies enforced, as well as a government imposed liberation of women (so you'd never be able to impress the Russians with feminism either).

Therefore if I were Barack Obama I wouldn't be offended by the cool reception he received in Russia, - it was neither personal, nor racist. The true reason is that so far Obama has nothing, absolutely nothing to impress the Russians with and/or force them to worship him as the Americans, the Germans, or the English do. Besides, lest we forget the second of the Ten Commandments:

2. You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it.

Perhaps the Russians were being righteous about Obama during his visit?

Russian weapons for sale

Unable to provide its own army with these weapons in adequate numbers, the Russian government through its export companies sells them to other countries, helping also to produce the most advanced systems there. Let us hope that these weapons won't be turned against Russia at some point.

More talking

In light of recent developments in Russia I'll try to sound not so negative. Let's talk official some more. The (100% official) Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has given a press conference following the G8 summit in the city of L'Aquila in Italy. Basically, Mr. Medvedev confirmed that the G8 leaders don't really know what is going on. "We don't know whether or not the crisis bottomed yet." I'm really suspicious it was the last ever G8 summit. Oops, I'm sounding negative again.

Yeltsin vs Putvedev

For a while I have been wondering: what is the essential difference for Russia between the times of the late Yeltsin and now, when the country is ruled by Putvedev? I can see only one difference, namely during the reign of Yeltsin the oil prices were low (with natural consequences for Russia), while up until mid-year 2008 during Putvedev's rule - the oil had been very expensive.

Now that the oil prices are low again, the Putvedev's Russia more and more resembles the Russia of the late Yeltsin. Clear, the popularity of Putin is a function of the world oil prices.

Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus: A special anniversary

Today some people in Belarus celebrate a very special anniversary of a very special President. Please be reminded that exactly 15 years ago Alexander Lukashenko was elected the President of Republic of Belarus, - the first ever. He is still the President and there is no evidence in sight to suggest that he is ever going to resign. Mr. Lukashenko has managed to stay in power for so long by carefully balancing between "East" (Russia) and "West" (EU, USA), playing them one against the other. Most people of Belarus live modestly but on the other hand there are no "oligarchs" the Russian style there (except perhaps Mr. Lukashenko himself).

Initially in 1994 Mr. Lukashenko was elected purely democratically (so was Hitler in 1933), however each subsequent election was less and less democratic, so much so that Mr. Lukashenko had to even change the Constitution somewhat to make these endless re-elections possible.

Apparently, the idea to elect a President in then the parliamentary constitutional republic of Belarus was prompted by the fact that all of the neighbouring countries (like Russia, Ukraine or Poland) had Presidents. A classic case of "keeping up with the Joneses." Or, put it another way, - "Be careful what you wish for."

The American Presidents come and go, but the President Alexander Lukashenko - stays. Happy Anniversary, Аляксандр Рыгоравіч!