Moscow Congratulates Obama and the "flexibility" that is coming

Trevor

 

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has congratulated US President Barack Obama on his re-election victory, while expressing relief that Moscow will not have to deal with the Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

From Kremlin propaganda station Russia Today:

“Congratulations!” Medvedev tweeted in English to Barack Obama, who emerged victorious in a tight race against Mitt Romney.
“Obama is an understandable and predictable partner,” Medvedev told reporters on Wednesday. “Obama has been a quite successful president.”
Meanwhile, the Russian premier expressed his relief that Republican candidate Mitt Romney, known for his anti-Russia outbursts on the campaign trail, had lost the election.
“I am glad that the man who calls Russia its No. 1 foe will not be the president of this large and influential state,” Medvedev said. “That is paranoid.”
Moscow and Washington, which declared a “reset” in relations in 2009, are working to overcome a number of bilateral hurdles, including the NATO missile defense system in Eastern Europe, which Russia views as a threat to its national security, as well as how to resolve the years-long Syrian conflict.
Dmitry Peskov, the Russian leader’s press secretary, told reporters that President Vladimir Putin has sent a congratulatory message to Barack Obama, together with an invitation to visit Moscow in 2013.

President Obama, who has worked with pro-Moscow, anti-US military activists such as Frank Marshall Davis, Alice Palmer and the Communist Party USA most of his life.

Now we will see the “flexibility” that Obama promised Mr. Medvedev in the infamous “hot mike” incident in Korea in March.

President Obama may be about to give Russia and its allies a potentially fatal advantage against their main target, the United States of America.

Obama cries “peace,” but he is leading the world to war. A war that Moscow and its allies in Beijing, Tehran, Havana, Pyongyang, Caracas, Managua and the caves of Afghanistan and Pakistan, have a very good chance of winning.

All the Pravda [Obama-Medvedev affair]

CFP/  Daniel Greenfield

For a man so in love with the technology of image, the camera, the microphone and the teleprompter, the leader of the increasingly less free world has a natural tendency to put a little too much faith in it. This is the second time that an open microphone has let Obama down, the first time it recorded him stabbing an ally in the back, the second time it recorded him stabbing a few dozen more in the back.

Medvedev, whose bosom buddy just managed to cling to power with a stolen election and brutal suppression of protests, surely understands how O feels. Photo ops with tigers and sunken treasures, not to mention skiing, martial arts and even rap, did not keep the Big P in smooth with the Russian public when the economy headed south.

Vladimir Putin didn’t have any racial guilt to ladle on the voters that might get them to overlook the mansions, the corruption and the abuses of power. But the average American voter, like the Russian voter, is more interested in the meat and potatoes, not to mention the gasoline, than in mystical allusions to the power of history. If Putin at times seemed bent on passing himself off as a new czar and Obama as a new savior, the crown and halo were shattered by the economy.

Putin’s had tightened control over Russia to an extent that the Obamas and the Warrens could only fondly dream of in their fondest federalist fantasies. And it’s easier to steal elections, when you don’t have to kowtow to a bunch of provincial interests and take the complaints of bible and gun owners seriously. But much like Putin and Ahmadinejad, Obama enjoys dim prospects in a straight election. And unlike them, he doesn’t have a military force that will turn up a few million ballots and send the protesters straight to the hospital, if not to the morgue.

Obama likes being a democrat, it’s just the democracy part that he doesn’t much care for

Obama likes being a democrat, it’s just the democracy part that he doesn’t much care for. And while his diplomacy is generally underwhelming, a mutual dislike of elections proved to be a popular bonding topic with Medvedev, the human face of the regime. But if Medvedev really thought that Obama was serious about needing more space because of an election, he hasn’t been paying much attention to American politics.

This is a White House that doesn’t pass laws to curry favor with the general voting population. That’s what publicity stunts and race cards and wars against women are for. In 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, where Al Sharpton is an honored guest and policy is outsourced to whoever comes earliest and tosses the foam ball the best, policy isn’t made to soothe the savage electoral beast, it’s done to pay off buddies, soothe furious Muslims and implement whatever idea that a committee of unhinged leftists, Clinton veterans and friends from Chicago think is the way to go. 

If Obama is jettisoning Eastern Europe, it’s because he thinks it doesn’t matter. The sage wisdom is that the future is in the Middle East and the Pacific Rim. Russia is full of pale men and so is Eastern Europe. A man who thinks that there’s a language known as “Austrian” can’t exactly be expected to tell them apart or to care. Not when there are more exciting places to be, like Beijing of Dubai.

When it comes to Russia, Obama can’t see the point. When the Berlin Wall fell, Obama was busy completing the final leg of his prolonged education and adolescence while minoring in racial careerism. If he was even busy paying attention to people with funny names like Yeltsin or Gorbachev, it was while smoking blunts and laughing at how funny the syllables of their names sounded in his mouth.   More >>

Obama begs Medvedev for 'space' - caught on mic

Is Obama planning to let Russia help re-elect him to his 2nd Term

WND/ by Aaron Klein

What specifically was President Obama referring to when he told Russian President Dmitri Medvedev he would have “more flexibility” after the November election to deal with controversial issues such as missile defense?

In remarks caught on mic and later broadcast around the world, Obama asked Medvedev to tell incoming Russian President Vladimir Putin to give him more “space,” indicating missile issues can be resolved during a second term in office.

Obama made the remarks in a bilateral meeting at the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul.

Find out more about Barack Obama’s radical past in Aaron Klein’s “Red Army: The Radical Network that must be defeated to save America,” available at WND’s Superstore

Stated Obama: “On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved, but it’s important for him to give me space.”

Medvedev replied: “Yeah, I understand. I understand your message about space. Space for you. …”

Obama then stated: “This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.”

Last year, Obama committed to reducing stocks of U.S. weapons-grade plutonium and signed an agreement that will lower the country’s deployed nuclear arsenals.

Obama’s “science czar,” John Holdren, long petitioned for the moves in a magazine whose personnel were used for the benefit of Soviet propaganda in an attempt to disarm America, according to a former top intelligence official during the Soviet era.

The magazine’s founders were accused of providing vital nuclear secrets that helped the Soviets develop an atomic bomb.

The magazine, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, has been urging the U.S. to surrender its nuclear arsenal to international control.

In April 2010, the U.S. and Russia signed a deal reducing stocks of weapons-grade plutonium, officials in both nations said at the time.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signed a non-binding protocol to a 2000 agreement on eliminating excess weapons-grade plutonium from defense programs.

U.S. officials have said each country is to dispose of 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium by burning it in reactors.

One week earlier, Medvedev and Obama signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, committing them to reducing their deployed nuclear arsenals.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, with Holdren on the board of directors from 1984 until recently, has long petitioned for the U.S. to reduce its nuclear stockpiles. According to Pavel Sudoplatov, a former major-general in Soviet intelligence, this kind of work by the magazine editors was for the benefit of the Soviet Union.

Holdren is assistant to the president for science and technology, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and co-chairman of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists began publishing regularly in 1945, when it was founded by former physicists from the Manhattan Project, which developed the first atomic bomb.

Two of the magazine’s founding sponsors, Leo Szilard and Robert Oppenheimer, were accused of passing information from the Manhattan Project to the Soviets. Both were also key initiators of the Manhattan Project.

In 1994, Sudoplatov, a former major-general in Soviet intelligence, identified Szilard and Oppenheimer as key sources of crucial atomic information to the Soviet Union.

“The most vital information for developing the first Soviet atomic bomb came from scientists engaged in the Manhattan Project to build the American atomic bomb – Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard,” wrote Sudoplatov.

Sudoplatov wrote the Soviet Union “received reports on the progress of the Manhattan Project from Oppenheimer and his friends in oral form, through comments and asides, and from documents transferred through clandestine methods with their full knowledge that the information they were sharing would be passed on.”

Oppenheimer was accused in Senate hearings of bringing communists into the Manhattan Project. He brought his brother Frank and three former graduate students into the project, all of whom, according to Senate hearings, were well known to him to be “members of the Communist Party or closely associated with activities of the Communist Party.”

Oppenheimer admitted he knew by August 1943 that two of the scientists working under him were Communist Party members. Three of five scientists under Oppenheimer’s direct supervision were accused of leaking secret information about the atomic bomb to the Soviets.

On Oct. 25, 1945, Oppenheimer met with President Truman at the White House, urging him to surrender the U.S. nuclear monopoly to international control. Truman was outraged, reportedly telling Secretary of State Dean Acheson, “I don’t want to see that son-of-a-b*tch in this office ever again.”  More >>

Russia 2012 Ticket

Putin y Medvedev intercambian nuevamente sus puestos

El Pais

Ya se conoce el nombre del próximo presidente de Rusia: Vladímir Putin. En el congreso del partido gubernamental Rusia Unida, el actual jefe de Estado, Dmitri Medvédev, propuso la candidatura de hombre fuerte del país para las elecciones presidenciales de 2012. Minutos antes, Putin había propuesto a Medvédev que encabezara la lista de Rusia Unida en las parlamentarias de diciembre próximo. La noticia -que fue una sorpresa pues los analistas esperaban que la decisión de quién sería el candidato presidencial se tomaría a último minuto., es un balde de agua fría sobre las cabezas de quienes tenían esperanzas en un programa reformas democráticas. 

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A Kremlin Built for Two - An FP Photo Essay

BY JOSHUA E. KEATING

Seeing double: In a political experiment unique in Russian and world history, Russia has been ruled for the last three years by two men: technocratic lawyer turned businessman turned President Dmitry Medvedev, and KGB veteran turned president turned astonishingly powerful Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Here's a look at how their partnership developed and where it may be heading.

Full story...

Everything You Think You Know About the Collapse of the Soviet Union Is Wrong

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A Kremlin Built for Two
Putin and Medvedev Through the Years

BY LEON ARON | 

Every revolution is a surprise. Still, the latest Russian Revolution must be counted among the greatest of surprises. In the years leading up to 1991, virtually no Western expert, scholar, official, or politician foresaw the impending collapse of the Soviet Union, and with it one-party dictatorship, the state-owned economy, and the Kremlin's control over its domestic and Eastern European empires. Neither, with one exception, did Soviet dissidents nor, judging by their memoirs, future revolutionaries themselves. When Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist Party in March 1985, none of his contemporaries anticipated a revolutionary crisis. Although there were disagreements over the size and depth of the Soviet system's problems, no one thought them to be life-threatening, at least not anytime soon.
Whence such strangely universal shortsightedness? The failure of Western experts to anticipate the Soviet Union's collapse may in part be attributed to a sort of historical revisionism -- call it anti-anti-communism -- that tended to exaggerate the Soviet regime's stability and legitimacy. Yet others who could hardly be considered soft on communism were just as puzzled by its demise. One of the architects of the U.S. strategy in the Cold War, George Kennan, wrote that, in reviewing the entire "history of international affairs in the modern era," he found it "hard to think of any event more strange and startling, and at first glance inexplicable, than the sudden and total disintegration and disappearance … of the great power known successively as the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union." Richard Pipes, perhaps the leading American historian of Russia as well as an advisor to U.S. President Ronald Reagan, called the revolution "unexpected." A collection of essays about the Soviet Union's demise in a special 1993 issue of the conservative National Interest magazine was titled "The Strange Death of Soviet Communism."
Were it easier to understand, this collective lapse in judgment could have been safely consigned to a mental file containing other oddities and caprices of the social sciences, and then forgotten. Yet even today, at a 20-year remove, the assumption that the Soviet Union would continue in its current state, or at most that it would eventually begin a long, drawn-out decline, seems just as rational a conclusion.

Indeed, the Soviet Union in 1985 possessed much of the same natural and human resources that it had 10 years before. Certainly, the standard of living was much lower than in most of Eastern Europe, let alone the West. Shortages, food rationing, long lines in stores, and acute poverty were endemic. But the Soviet Union had known far greater calamities and coped without sacrificing an iota of the state's grip on society and economy, much less surrendering it.
Nor did any key parameter of economic performance prior to 1985 point to a rapidly advancing disaster. From 1981 to 1985 the growth of the country's GDP, though slowing down compared with the 1960s and 1970s, averaged 1.9 percent a year. The same lackadaisical but hardly catastrophic pattern continued through 1989. Budget deficits, which since the French Revolution have been considered among the prominent portents of a coming revolutionary crisis, equaled less than 2 percent of GDP in 1985. Although growing rapidly, the gap remained under 9 percent through 1989 -- a size most economists would find quite manageable.
The sharp drop in oil prices, from $66 a barrel in 1980 to $20 a barrel in 1986 (in 2000 prices) certainly was a heavy blow to Soviet finances. Still, adjusted for inflation, oil was more expensive in the world markets in 1985 than in 1972, and only one-third lower than throughout the 1970s. And at the same time, Soviet incomes increased more than 2 percent in 1985, and inflation-adjusted wages continued to rise in the next five years through 1990 at an average of over 7 percent.
Yes, the stagnation was obvious and worrisome. But as Wesleyan University professor Peter Rutland has pointed out, "Chronic ailments, after all, are not necessarily fatal." Even the leading student of the revolution's economic causes, Anders Åslund, notes that from 1985 to 1987, the situation "was not at all dramatic."
 Read more...

Appearance of Democracy: Cover for a More Aggressive Russia

New Zeal Blog

This excellent piece is written by Lauren Goodrich of Stratfor. Very few have such a good grasp on the way the Kremlin thinks and operates, and the growing threat it represents. This is one of those articles that you read and then email on to friends. 

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Russia has entered election season, with parliamentary elections in December and presidential elections in March 2012. Typically, this is not an issue of concern, as most Russian elections have been designed to usher a chosen candidate and political party into office since 2000. Interesting shifts are under way this election season, however. While on the surface they may resemble political squabbles and instability, they actually represent the next step in the Russian leadership’s consolidation of the state.

In the past decade, one person has consolidated and run Russia’s political system: former president and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Putin’s ascension to the leadership of the Kremlin marked the start of the reconsolidation of the Russian state after the decade of chaos that followed the fall of the Soviet Union. Under Putin’s presidential predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s strategic economic assets were pillaged, the core strength of the country — the KGB, now known as the Federal Security Service (FSB), and the military — fell into decay, and the political system was in disarray. Though Russia was considered a democracy and a new friend to the West, this was only because Russia had no other option — it was a broken country.

Perceptions of Putin

Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Russia

Putin’s goal was to fix the country, which meant restoring state control (politically, socially and economically), strengthening the FSB and military and re-establishing Russia’s influence and international reputation — especially in the former Soviet sphere of influence. To do so, Putin had to carry Russia through a complex evolution that involved shifting the country from accommodating to aggressive at specific moments. This led to a shift in global perceptions of Putin, with many beginning to see the former KGB agent as a hard-nosed autocrat set upon rekindling hostilities and renewing militarization.

This perception of Putin is not quite correct. While an autocrat and KGB agent (we use the present tense, as Putin has said that no one is a former KGB or FSB agent), he hails from St. Petersburg, Russia’s most pro-Western city, and during his Soviet-era KGB service he was tasked with stealing Western technology. Putin fully understands the strength of the West and what Western expertise is needed to keep Russia relatively modern and strong. At the same time, his time with the KGB convinced him that Russia can never truly be integrated into the West and that it can be strong only with a consolidated government, economy and security service and a single, autocratic leader.

Full story...

Obama and Medvedev talk #missiles at G8

With figureheads from the most influential countries in the world meeting at the G8 summit this week, many are turning to two leaders in particular: US President Obama and Russian President Medvedev. While issues including the economic and terrorism have been brought up at this week's gathering, the topic of missile defense between the two superpowers has been put on the table. Mark Adomanis of Inosmi discuses with RT.

Obama and Medvedev talk missiles at G8

With figureheads from the most influential countries in the world meeting at the G8 summit this week, many are turning to two leaders in particular: US President Obama and Russian President Medvedev. While issues including the economic and terrorism have been brought up at this week's gathering, the topic of missile defense between the two superpowers has been put on the table. Mark Adomanis of Inosmi discuses with RT.

Dancing #Medvedev - Video of President party to 'American Boy'

Forget his political moves in the Kremlin, Dmitry Medvedev has been caught showing off his moves on the dancefloor. A video of Russia's President shaking his stuff at a reunion with university friends last year has become an internet hit. Medvedev can be seen here getting down to the Russian nineties hit "American boy". One Twitter user, less than overwhelmed by the Presidential prowess, described his style as "dancing like her dad". Russia's leader said he and his friends were just having a good time, though admitted his moves may be a little stuck in the nineties.

Memo to #Kremlin Aides: #Medvedev Needs #Putin

By Vladimir Frolov

With Prime Minster Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev publicly sparring over the UN resolution on Libya and the Russian elites agonizing over an emerging rift in the ruling tandem, an ominous question has begun to cloud Russia’s political scene: Is the split in the tandem manageable or will it tear the country apart like in 1991? We don’t really know.
Just a short while ago it seemed that keeping the tandem intact for another six years would be a no-brainer. After all, it looked like the least costly way of keeping Russia on a course of economic and social modernization, gradually expanding the space for democracy while keeping a tight lid on the destructive forces of Russian nature. Transferring power from Medvedev to another member of Putin’s team in 2018 looked like the optimal plan.

More  Here

Putin spokesman says Medvedev speaks for Russia

Full story: WHNT-TV Huntsville

Russia's Medvedev Slams Putin Over 'Crusade' Remarks

MOSCOW -- Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Monday said premier Vladimir Putin's comment comparing the Libyan air strikes to a medieval crusade was "unacceptable," in the most public clash yet between the two Russian leaders, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/03/21/russias-medvedev-slams-putin-crusade-remarks/#ixzz1HH58vAjW

Medvedev sees `fires for decades' in Arab world

By DAVID NOWAK, Associated Press David Nowak, Associated Press – Tue Feb 2

 

MOSCOW – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday predicted decades of instability in the Arab world if protesters whom he called fanatics come to power, adding no such scenario will be permitted at home.
Medvedev's words fall in sharp contrast with the European Union, which said in a statement on Monday that it "deplores the violence" and "repression" against the pro-democracy protesters by authorities in one of the troublespots, Libya.
Speaking at a security meeting in the Caucasus city of Vladikavkaz, Medvedev didn't name countries, but he was referring to the crisis in the Middle East and North Africa — which has brought down governments in Tunisia and Egypt and sparked protests in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Iran, Morocco and Jordan.
"These states are difficult, and it is quite probable that hard times are ahead, including the arrival at power of fanatics. This will mean fires for decades and the spread of extremism," Medvedev said in televised comments.
Any attempts to repeat the unrest in Russia would be quashed, he said.
"They have prepared such a scenario for us before, and now more than ever they will try and realize it. In any case, this scenario won't succeed," he said, without identifying the people he considers could threaten the Kremlin.
Russia has crushed Islamist separatists in two wars in Chechnya in the last 15 years, and continues to battle a lingering insurgency in the wider Caucasus region. The region is the epicenter of terrorism in Russia, with most of the high-profile attacks in recent years claimed by or attributed to Caucasus rebels.
In the past Medvedev also has warned domestic political opponents that they won't be permitted to "rock the boat," and he has continued the policy of his tough predecessor, Vladimir Putin, in sanctioning the violent dispersal of anti-government protests.
Opposition activists have been beaten and imprisoned under their rule. Putin, who wields greater power despite holding lower rank, warned demonstrators in a September newspaper interview that "you will be beaten upside the head with a truncheon. And that's it."

Russia: Medvedev & space exploration program

Medvedev & space exploration program

The Kliper: A New Age of Russian Space Exploration  

Fidel le ofrece a Putin descanso y recreacion para los bomberos

Fidel se lo ofrece a Putin, mientras Raul bien ubicado en su lugar, solo puede enviar un mensaje de condolencia a Medvedev, como para que no hallan dudas cada cual en su nivel. Fidel hace como que olvida sus desagravios con el macho ruso y regala lo que no es suyo, solo para congraciarse y Raul se limita a lo que puede hacer.

Muy baja la tasa de ocupacion del turismo en Cuba, cuando cierran un cayo para una cumbresita con Venezuela que perfectamente se podia realizar en cualquier potrero de Punto Uno y ahora invitaciones para los bomberos.

Abierta esta nueva modalidad de turismo free por invitacion, en cualquier momento empezara el desfile de dialogueros y congresistas que se esfuerzan denodadamente por levantar las restricciones.

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Cuba offers recreation to Russian firefighters

Cuba has offered general and health recreation to overstressed Russian firefighters. The offer is in a message from the veteran Cuban leader Fidel Castro to the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

A parallel message from President Raul Castro to President Dmitri Medvedev contains expressions of support and sympathy over losses in this country’s fire inferno.

La nueva Rusia condena a Stalin

Medvedev rinde honor a las victimas de Stalin

El presidente de Rusia condena a Stalin y lo declara culpable de crímenes imperdonables