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Russia Wastes No Time in Testing Obama

And so it begins! Gird your loins!

Medvedev: Russia to Deploy Missiles in Response to U.S. Missile Shield

Russia will deploy missiles near NATO member Poland in response to U.S. missile defense plans, President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday in his first state of the nation speech.

Medvedev also singled out the United States for criticism, casting Russia’s war with Georgia in August and the global financial turmoil as consequences of aggressive, selfish U.S. policies.

He said he hoped the next U.S. administration would act to improve relations. In a separate telegram, he congratulated Barack Obama on his election victory and said he was hoping for “constructive dialogue” with the incoming U.S. president.

Medvedev also proposed increasing the Russian presidential term to six years from the current four, a major constitutional change that would further increase the power of the head of state and could deepen Western concern over democracy in Russia.

The president said the Iskander missiles will be deployed to Russia’s Kaliningrad region, which lies between Poland and the ex-Soviet republic of Lithuania on the Baltic Sea, but did not say how many would be used. Equipment to electronically hamper the operation of prospective U.S. missile defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic will be deployed, he said.

He did not say whether the short-range Iskander missiles would be fitted with nuclear warheads and it was not clear exactly when the missiles would be deployed.

“Mechanisms must be created to block mistaken, egoistical and sometimes simply dangerous decisions of certain members of the international community,” he said shortly after starting the 85-minute speech, making it clear he was referring to the United States.

The president said Georgia sparked the August war on its territory with what he called “barbaric aggression” against Russian-backed South Ossetia. The conflict “was, among other things, the result of the arrogant course of the American administration, which did not tolerate criticism and preferred unilateral decisions.”

Medvedev also painted Russia as a country threatened by growing Western military might.

“From what we have seen in recent years, the creation of a missile defense system, the encirclement of Russia with military bases, the relentless expansion of NATO, we have gotten the clear impression that they are testing our strength,” Medvedev said.

He announced deployment of the short-range missiles as a military response to U.S. plans to deploy missile-defense facilities in Poland and the Czech Republic — former Soviet satellites that are now NATO members.

Speaking just hours after Obama was declared the victor in the U.S. presidential election, Medvedev said he hoped the incoming administration will take steps to improve badly damaged U.S. ties with Russia. He suggested it is up to the U.S. — not the Kremlin — to seek to improve relations.

“I stress that we have no problem with the American people, no inborn anti-Americanism. And we hope that our partners, the U.S. administration, will make a choice in favor of full-fledged relations with Russia,” Medvedev said.

Tension in Russian-American relations has been driven to a post-Cold War high by Moscow’s war with U.S. ally Georgia.

On the financial crisis, Medvedev said overconfidence in American dominance after the collapse of the Soviet Union “led the U.S. authorities to major mistakes in the economic sphere.” The administration ignored warnings and harmed itself and others by “blowing up a money bubble to stimulate its own growth,” he said.

Medvedev said the president’s tenure should be lengthened to six years to enable the government to more effectively implement reforms. He said the term of the parliament also should be extended by a year to five years, and that parliament’s power must be increased by requiring the Cabinet to report to lawmakers regularly.

The proposals were Medvedev’s first major initiative to amend the constitution since he was elected in March to succeed his longtime mentor Vladimir Putin.

Putin, who is now prime minister and has not ruled out a return to the Kremlin in the future, has favored increasing the presidential term.

Amusing

Putin Shoots Escaped Tiger With Tranquilizer

This video is obvious Russian propaganda designed to highlight Putin’s toughness for western audiences. There are two things that stand out as kind of odd in this video. The first is that we never see Putin actually fire the tranquilizer gun. The second; everyone in the video is about the same height as Putin so that he doesn’t appear small. According to IMDB, Vladimir Putin is only 5′ 5″.


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Russia’s Invasion Of Georgia is a National Security Issue

Russia’s brutal invasion of Georgia makes one thing perfectly clear and should serve as a wake-up call to all Americans. We need to Drill Here and Drill Now! The invasion shines the light on the need to dramatically reduce or cut off our dependence on foreign oil. Why would the U.S. want to expose the American economy to the potential risk of being held hostage by a couple of oil pipelines that run through the old Soviet empire? Do we really want OPEC, Hugo Chavez, and Vladimir Putin to control our energy prices? Or will we be brave enough to seize our own energy independence? Expanding domestic oil exploration and refining is vital for our national security and the security of our allies.

Its time for Congress to get off their corrupt lazy asses and pass an energy bill that includes drilling on all federal lands and offshore, plus the development of alternative forms of energy.

Republicans need to jump all over this and explain it to the American people.

This editorial from IBD is spot on and backs up my point.

Answering Russia

Energy: Russia’s bloody invasion of a smaller neighbor whose territory includes a vital oil pipeline has left many people wondering: What can we do? Plenty, it turns out — including some things right here at home.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced he was halting Russia’s air and ground attack on Georgia, but someone forgot to tell Russia’s military.

It has continued its brutal assault, with news reports that Russian troops have started looting, raping and savagely attacking Georgian civilians.

It’s clear former President Vladimir Putin, not his handpicked successor Medvedev, is calling the shots. Putin’s made no secret of the fact that he wants to depose Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and set up a pliant puppet regime, giving him de facto control of Georgia’s oil pipeline — the main conduit to Europe from the oil-rich Caspian Sea that’s not on Russian soil.

Why would Russia do this? As we note elsewhere on this page, roughly a quarter of Europe’s energy comes from Russia. This tightens Putin’s stranglehold on Europe’s economy and gives him all the diplomatic leverage he needs.

If you don’t believe this, look at the EU’s weak response to the crisis in Georgia. It “brokered” a cease-fire that is essentially a total capitulation by Georgia to Russian demands. Appeasement is back.

After Putin’s bullying, Europe is less likely to object to Russia’s profiteering from Iran’s nuclear program, or Russia’s brutal war against Chechnyan separatists, or its intimidation of Eastern European countries. Europe has no sticks for Russia — only carrots.

That’s not the case with the U.S. Start with President Bush’s pledge Wednesday to support Georgia, an ally in the war on terror, and send it aid. Bush warned Russia the U.S. might not support its “aspirations” to join diplomatic, economic and security groups.

We’ve already canceled joint NATO-Russia naval exercises, scheduled for this weekend. And we can turn the G-8 nations back into the G-7. Russia has shown that it doesn’t deserve to be counted among democratic, economically free nations.

But there’s more we can do:

• Russia wants badly to join the World Trade Organization. Put that on a back burner until it starts behaving.

• Russia is scheduled to hold the 2014 Winter Olympics at the resort of Sochi, 15 miles from Abkhazia, the other Georgian province that Russia just invaded. Cancel it, and give it to a more deserving host.

• We’re building a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. We should accelerate our plans, and broaden participation.

• Russia took in about $27 billion in foreign investment last year. We should limit capital flows to make sure Western capital and technology aren’t used to build Russia’s military.

In short, if Russia wants a Cold War, we can give them one.

One other thing: Congress should, as a matter of national security, pass a broad energy bill that includes drilling on all federal lands and offshore, plus the development of alternative energy.

When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats deny the U.S. badly needed sources of new energy, they make America more vulnerable to energy blackmail. Russia’s gambit should remind us that energy policy is too important to be held hostage to special interests and domestic politics.

We have huge amounts of potential energy to be developed — at least 130 billion barrels of conventional oil reserves, 800 billion more in oil shale, massive supplies of natural gas, coal, burgeoning solar and wind technologies, and the technological ability to build the world’s most efficient and safe nuclear power plants.

Yet today, Americans get nearly 70% of their oil from overseas, making us vulnerable to blackmail by the likes of Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Iran and now even Russia. Developing the full range of energy sources we have available may be the single most effective way of ensuring our nation’s security.

Amusing

What do Vladimir Putin and Napoleon Bonaparte Have in Common besides Being Short?

What do Vladimir Putin and Napoleon Bonaparte Have in Common besides Being Short?

 
Vladimir Putin and Napoleon BonapartePutin is a master chess player, and he’s manipulating the world from behind-the-scenes in a way unparalleled since perhaps Napoleon. Putin likens his position to that of a modern day czar, and he will stop at nothing to consolidate that power and anyone who stands in his way is going to be killed.

Now is the time for an official US policy of assassination. It would save countless lives.

This is the Must-Read editorial of the day.

Vladimir Bonaparte

The farther Russia’s tanks roll into Georgia, the more the world is beginning to see the reality of Vladimir Putin’s Napoleonic ambitions. Having consolidated his authoritarian transition as Prime Minister with a figurehead President, Mr. Putin is now pushing to reassert Russian dominance in Eurasia. Ukraine is in his sights, and even the Baltic states could be threatened if he’s allowed to get away with it. The West needs to draw a line at Georgia.

No matter who fired the first shot last week in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, Moscow is using the separatist issue as an excuse to demolish Georgia’s military and, if possible, depose its democratically elected government. Russian forces moved ever deeper into Georgia proper Monday. They launched a second front in the west from another breakaway province, Abkhazia, and took the central city of Gori, which lies 40 miles from the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. These moves slice the country in half and isolate its ports, most of which Russia has bombed or blockaded. Moscow dismissed a cease-fire drawn up by European nations and signed by Georgia.

Russian bombers have also hit residential and industrial areas, making a mockery of Moscow’s charge that Georgia is the party indiscriminately killing civilians. Russian claims of Georgian ethnic cleansing now look like well-rehearsed propaganda lines to justify a well-prepared invasion. Thousands of soldiers and hundreds of tanks, ships and warplanes were waiting for Mr. Putin’s command.

While the rape of Chechnya was brutal, this is the most brazen act of Mr. Putin’s reign, the first military offensive outside Russia’s borders since Soviet rule ended. Yet it also fits a pattern of other threats and affronts to Russia’s neighbors: turning off the oil or natural-gas taps to Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, and even to NATO-member Lithuania; launching a cyberassault on Estonia; opposing two antimissile sites in NATO members in Eastern Europe that couldn’t begin to neutralize Russia’s offensive capabilities.

Our emphasis on NATO here is no coincidence. The Georgia invasion is a direct slap at the Western alliance. Tbilisi, like Kiev, has been pushing for NATO membership. Mr. Putin decided to act while some alliance members, led by Germany, dallied over their applications. Georgia was first. Ukraine, which has been pushing Russia to move its Black Sea fleet’s headquarters out of the Crimea, could be next.

The alliance needs to respond forcefully, and it can start today. NATO officials have granted Russia a special meeting before deciding what to do about Georgia — though we don’t recall Russia briefing NATO about its plans in the Caucasus. The meeting is an opportunity to relay to Moscow that Georgian and Ukrainian membership is back on the table and that the alliance is considering all options for Georgia, from a humanitarian airlift to military aid, if Russia doesn’t withdraw immediately.

Mr. Putin is betting that the West needs him for oil and deterring Iran’s nuclear ambitions more than he needs the West. He’s wrong — not least since his “cooperation” on Iran consists of helping Tehran stall for time and selling the mullahs advanced antiaircraft missiles. Russia also needs the West’s capital and especially its expertise in developing its oil and gas fields at least as much as the West needs Russian energy supplies.

The U.S. and Europe need to make all of that clear. Forcing Russia to veto a strong condemnation of its own actions at the U.N. Security Council would be one way to turn the pressure up. And speaking of pressure, where are all the peace protesters during this war? They can’t all be in China.

As for the U.S., this is perhaps the last chance for President Bush to salvage any kind of positive legacy toward Russia, amid what is a useful record elsewhere in Eurasia. While Mr. Bush has championed the region’s fledgling democracies, he and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice badly misjudged Mr. Putin. Now would be a good moment for Mr. Bush to publicly acknowledge his misjudgment and rally the West’s response.

John McCain had the Russian leader pegged better, which speaks well of his foreign-policy instincts. The Republican Presidential candidate has long said that Russia should be booted from the G-8 and yesterday he outlined a forceful Western strategy on Russia that stops short of military action. Barack Obama has in the past indicated support for the Georgia and Ukraine NATO bids, but the Democratic candidate has yet to explain in any detail how he would respond to the current conflict.

There’s one other way the U.S. could hit Russia where it hurts: by strengthening the dollar. The greenback’s weakness has contributed greatly to the record oil prices that have in turn made Russia flush with petrodollars and fueled Mr. Putin’s expansionist ambitions. Crude prices continued to fall yesterday, below $115 a barrel, and further deflating that bubble would do more to sober up an oil-drunk Kremlin than would any kind of economic sanctions.

* * *
Vladimir Putin’s Russia isn’t the former Soviet Union, bent on ideological confrontation around the world. But it is a Bonapartist power intent on dominating its neighbors and restoring its clout on the world stage. Unless Russians see that there are costs for their Napoleon’s expansionism, Georgia isn’t likely to be his last stop.

 

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