Power shift in Moscow? Or why Stratfor is worthless at least for Russia

[jpatter666]

Re: Power shift in Moscow? Or why Stratfor is worthless at least for Russia

Eh, why not add to the jokes list....

A Briton, a Frenchman and a Russian are viewing a painting of Adam and Eve frolicking in the Garden of Eden. "Look at their reserve, their calm," muses the Brit. "They must be British."

"Nonsense," the Frenchman disagrees. "They're naked, and so beautiful. Clearly, they are French."

"No way! They have no clothes and no shelter," the Russian points out, "They have only an apple to eat, and they are being told they live in a paradise. Obviously, they are Russian."

[llanlad2]

Re: Power shift in Moscow? Or why Stratfor is worthless at least for Russia

Some recent polls on Russians' attitude to democracy and power. At least they don't kid themselves they have democracy unlike the western democracies The first poll was from 2007.

"Asked what was more important, "order" or "democracy" - 68 per cent opt for order, 11 per cent for democracy. Some 31 per cent of Russians say they have a positive or very positive feeling about the word "communism"; 11 per cent feel that way about capitalism; democracy gets a 21 per cent positive rating. But "great power" gets 72 per cent approval and "motherland" gets 88 per cent approval. Oh, and only 29 per cent accept Russia's current borders and only 21 per cent think of themselves as "European"."

More recently by the same pollsters.

A growing number of Russians believe their country does not need democracy, a nationwide survey by one of Russia's leading polling agencies suggests.
The poll by the Levada-Centre showed that 57% of those questioned considered that Russia needed democracy - the lowest number since 2006.

It seems that in the western democracies it's about1% of the population that don't believe we need democracy. Unfortunately they're the ones in power now.



STALIN VOTED 3RD GREATEST RUSSIAN

[metalman]

Re: Power shift in Moscow? Or why Stratfor is worthless at least for Russia

Russia will never be a democracy because of Russian genetic defects due to inbreeding.

wat? take it back.

[metalman]

Re: Power shift in Moscow? Or why Stratfor is worthless at least for Russia

215 posts as of November 8, 2009 @ 2:30pm PST

20 on AGW

40 on health care

1 on Russia

none with any information whatsoever.

I think MM may be the recipient of the first ever c1ue Ignore list.

i'll join ya with that.

[jpatter666]

Re: Power shift in Moscow? Or why Stratfor is worthless at least for Russia

STALIN VOTED 3RD GREATEST RUSSIAN

You know, I could kind of agree with that in a twisted sense. Great does not equal good. Reminded me of the Harry Potter quote about Voldemort.

"After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great."

[medved]

Re: Power shift in Moscow? Or why Stratfor is worthless at least for Russia

Some recent polls on Russians' attitude to democracy and power. At least they don't kid themselves they have democracy unlike the western democracies The first poll was from 2007.



More recently by the same pollsters.


It seems that in the western democracies it's about1% of the population that don't believe we need democracy. Unfortunately they're the ones in power now.



STALIN VOTED 3RD GREATEST RUSSIAN

Why Russia Still Loves Stalin
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...021100795.html

[c1ue]

Re: Power shift in Moscow? Or why Stratfor is worthless at least for Russia

Russians love Stalin because Russia was a great nation in his era.

Under Stalin:

Russia defeated the Nazis.

Russia had a historically large empire.

Russia brought itself up to be able to compete with all the Western European nations it used to envy.

Russia entered the Nuclear Age.

That his actions resulted in many deaths not being an issue is ironically perhaps due to both the thoroughness of the purges as well as the proclivity of survivors to leave Russia.

[llanlad2]

Re: Power shift in Moscow? Or why Stratfor is worthless at least for Russia

Thanks. Very interesting read.

Why Russia Still Loves Stalin
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...021100795.html

Coincidentally I was actually chatting to a Russian lady today who said that the 50s and 60s were filled with great optimism at the time with life improving dramatically following WW2 which chimes in with the above.

[dcarrigg]

Re: Power shift in Moscow? Or why Stratfor is worthless at least for Russia

Russia will never be a democracy because of Russian genetic defects due to inbreeding.

I don't recall reading anything this extreme about Russians since Lebensraum und die Große Planung.

I hate comparing anything to the Nazi times, but this is where ideas like "Russian genetic defects due to inbreeding" lead.

[D-Mack]

Re: Power shift in Moscow? Or why Stratfor is worthless at least for Russia

I don't recall reading anything this extreme about Russians since Lebensraum und die Große Planung.

I hate comparing anything to the Nazi times, but this is where ideas like "Russian genetic defects due to inbreeding" lead.

they were thinking about using 100.000 of them to start WW3

Operation Unthinkable



Operation Unthinkable was a British plan to attack the Soviet Union. The creation of the plan was ordered by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and developed by the British Armed Forces' Joint Planning Staff at the end of World War II.

...

The majority of any offensive operation would have consisted of American and British forces, but it also contemplated the use of Polish forces and up to 100,000 surrendered German soldiers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unthinkable