After a phone call from the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, to the British Foreign minister, David Milliband, that was reportedly a tirade of foul mouthed abuse, it still seems that Russia is not getting the message. The tasteless and wholly inaccurate comment from Dimitri Medvedev that "Georgia was Russia's 9/11" combines the usual sense of Russian arrogance and paranoid victimhood in one simple phrase.
Meanwhile Russian schoolchildren are being tought that Stalin was "a tough minded leader who took decisions in his country's best interest".
Actually, Mr. Putin, Stalin was a psychopathic murderer with the blood of millions on his hands, who entered into an alliance with Hitler that destroyed European peace. Almost entirely evil, by the end of his life he was essentially criminally insane.
I am back in Tallinn and the impact of the Georgian war is clear- the fear that Russia intends to destabilise Estonia and the other Baltic countries by picking further disputes and stirring up the local Russian population. In fact although I think that much effort in that direction is being considered by the Kremlin, I am also sure that the local Russian population are generally quite happy living in a wealthy and democratic state, where their rights are respected.
Several Russian speakers have said to me that although the extremists amongst both Estonian and Russian speakers make a lot of noise, the vast majority are building their lives regardless. There is greater recognition by Estonian speakers that Russian speakers need to be brought further in to the Estonian state. There is a determination that no further social fracture should develop. That the Kremlin will create as much trouble as they can is taken as a given. However the overall feeling is that Russia has committed a strategic blunder, firstly by their massive over reaction in Georgia and even more so by their hostile and aggressive response to the storm of criticism.
The recovery of the Dollar and the fall in oil prices last week, underlined the vulnerability of Russia, despite its offensive posturing. The joint exercises that the Russian navy is undertaking with the Venezuelan armed forces do not pose a substantive security threat to the United States, but the cold rage that Washington now feels about the erratic blustering of the Silovik state grows more obvious by the day.
Close to home, several senior Estonians are now pointing out the growing likelihood of the collapse of the Russian electricity grid if there is a hard winter this year. Doubtless the crooks in the Kremlin will regard their own folly as some evidence of an American plot.
In the well chosen words of the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation: why don't you f****** sort out your own issues, you lousy f*****.
Meanwhile Russian schoolchildren are being tought that Stalin was "a tough minded leader who took decisions in his country's best interest".
Actually, Mr. Putin, Stalin was a psychopathic murderer with the blood of millions on his hands, who entered into an alliance with Hitler that destroyed European peace. Almost entirely evil, by the end of his life he was essentially criminally insane.
I am back in Tallinn and the impact of the Georgian war is clear- the fear that Russia intends to destabilise Estonia and the other Baltic countries by picking further disputes and stirring up the local Russian population. In fact although I think that much effort in that direction is being considered by the Kremlin, I am also sure that the local Russian population are generally quite happy living in a wealthy and democratic state, where their rights are respected.
Several Russian speakers have said to me that although the extremists amongst both Estonian and Russian speakers make a lot of noise, the vast majority are building their lives regardless. There is greater recognition by Estonian speakers that Russian speakers need to be brought further in to the Estonian state. There is a determination that no further social fracture should develop. That the Kremlin will create as much trouble as they can is taken as a given. However the overall feeling is that Russia has committed a strategic blunder, firstly by their massive over reaction in Georgia and even more so by their hostile and aggressive response to the storm of criticism.
The recovery of the Dollar and the fall in oil prices last week, underlined the vulnerability of Russia, despite its offensive posturing. The joint exercises that the Russian navy is undertaking with the Venezuelan armed forces do not pose a substantive security threat to the United States, but the cold rage that Washington now feels about the erratic blustering of the Silovik state grows more obvious by the day.
Close to home, several senior Estonians are now pointing out the growing likelihood of the collapse of the Russian electricity grid if there is a hard winter this year. Doubtless the crooks in the Kremlin will regard their own folly as some evidence of an American plot.
In the well chosen words of the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation: why don't you f****** sort out your own issues, you lousy f*****.
Comments
I rather like you Liberals roaming about solving the problems of the world.It suits you far better than the UK which is a bit complicated for a generalist.
It’s like the Labour councillor on my council that constantly swears and slanders the Tories (it is, apparently, possible :o) in the hope of getting thrown out of the chamber by the mayor, because it gets him good publicity.
Putin’s band of thugs are desperate to distract the Russians from their domestic misery by stirring up geo-political discord and then claiming to be defending Mother Russia.
If that was my mother, I’d run away from home.