Jeff sent me the following email, b/c he had problems with posting to the list and so sent it to me directly. BTW, Jeff, thanks again for your hospitality when I was in Riga.
Hello Chris, Same as last note to you regarding email problem. Again, you can either read, or read and post.
Take care! Jeff
Hello Chris,
My position on Putin is somewhat plastic, so I appreciate your help in forcing me to re-evaluate it. Just some last comments then I'm done...
---
Well a few years ago I thought Putin was going to be a
tool of Berezovsky... He completely surprised me.
>
>
> --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...
---Agreed on that too, but still not convinced he caused it...
---
He (more properly, his people; he's not the Tsar) did not create the initial stability, but have been trying like hell to preserve it. That's what the "vertical of power" is all about.
---
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.
--Yep, was a Latvian Russian, but not Jewish. Think more Russians think it than say it....
-- "Jewish" was a typo; I meant to write "Putin." My reasoning was that it seems more likely that someone in Riga, where there are close to zero Muslims, would make such a statement, as opposed to someone in Moscow, where Muslims live in every apartment complex. We've got a million of them! Also it makes sense that someone in Latvia, which it squishing its way Europe-ward, would take a more right-wing "European" view of the issue. There is almost zero anti-Muslim rhetoric in Russia -- a clash of civilizations here would run along the Volga! Actually people like Dugin think Russia should ally with the Muslim countries to fight the United States. (This is not to say that there is no discord with members of predominately Muslim _ethnic groups_.) Who are the most strident supporters of the Kremlin's policy in Chechnya? The Muslim regions boredering on Chechnya. Putin was declared a "son of Dagestan."
Well there's also the building schools in Chechnya and making it a Special Economic Zone side of the matter.
--Sounds like the Iraq treatment....
--- For Russia, creating a stable order in Chechnya (INSIDE RUSSIA) is a matter of life or death... BTW this is the best thing I have _ever_ read on Chechnya, by the wonderful Dagestani journalist Nabi Abdullaev:
23.08.2004 Puppet State or Failed State?
The Chechen conflict is not about who will govern Chechnya. It is about whether Chechnya will be governed at all.
The latest impressive demonstration of force by Chechen rebels in Ingushetia in June, the ensuing upsurge of their activities in Chechnya, and the looming presidential elections there in August have given Russia new impetus to find a «political solution» to the Chechen conflict. The growing chorus against Moscow for continuing to build a puppet, pro-Moscow administration in the republic is also spurring the Russian government to look for a way out.
But it is paradigms, not governing forces-a Kremlin puppet state vs. an «independent Chechnya» controlled by separatists-that are actually colliding in Chechnya. The legalist paradigm grants the Chechen people the right to political self-determination, but the realist one admits that the Chechens have no capacity now or even in the foreseeable future to create a viable state-much less a democratic one based on rule of law. Another paradigm, idealism, denies the realities that shape harsh Russian policies in Chechnya.
http://www.chechentimes.org/en/press/?id=20653
===== Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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