--- jeff sommers <sommers at apollo.lv> wrote:
>
> --Chris, what I'm saying here is the changing
> economic conditions created
> the stability, not the other way around.
Well, I think the changing economic conditions gave rise to a certain level of stability, which was then exploited by the Kremlin.
>
> --Chris, this is true, especially with Ukraine and
> Latvia, but less so with
> Belarus, Estonia, and Lithuania. But, the point is
> they arose from the
> confluence of 4 factors: 1) collapse of the ruble,
> 2) rise of oil prices, &
> 3) the big privatizations/grabitizations mostly
> complete, & 4) the focus on
> generating real economic activity created by factors
> 1-3. I don't see what
> Putin had to do with any of these, although, no
> question he's more stable
> than Yeltsin and his KGB training gave him a good
> sense of the techniques
> social psychology/control...
He's kind of the personification of factor 4...
> As one Russian Putin supporter told me this week,
> the US and Russia need to
> ally to smash the Muslims.
I assume this was a LATVIAN Russian Jewish supporter? Nobody in Russia says shuch things outside the extreme right. It would be suicide -- Russia's population is 15% Muslim. Actually Russia is trying to join the Organization of the Islamic Conference (if I remember the name rightly). Putin was at the conference where Mahithir made his famous "12 million Jews run the world" statement.
When I suggested this
> approach had not worked
> well in the West Bank and Gaza (Christians aside),
> she replied, that's
> because the Israelis have been too soft on the
> Palestinians." A more
> suitable approach, no doubt, according to this
> logic, is to empty your store
> of munitions dating back to WW II on anyone in your
> way. Case in point
> Chechnya...
Well there's also the building schools in Chechnya and making it a Special Economic Zone side of the matter.
Note Putin essentially says
> guarantees will begin to
> disappear in 2006...
>
This is what he said: "From January 1, 2006 people will choose between in-kind benefits and cash payments." CHOOSE.
===== Nu, zayats, pogodi!
__________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - now with 250MB free storage. Learn more. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250