10 January 2014
By Markza Kavkaz
The Possibilities
Endless
Leftist Paris magazine publishing
cartoons against Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), Christians
and National Socialists attacked in Paris. Was it the
KGB? A Paris-based "satirical"
magazine Charlie Hebdo came under attack on Wednesday
afternoon. 12 editors and journalists were killed and
10 others wounded, five of them are in critical
condition (see the video), in an armed attack.
Russian has a paranoid political
culture. Her moves on Ukraine look to many Westerners
like a straightforward case of aggression. That is not
the way they look to Vladimir Putin's inner circle of
advisors in Moscow, nor to most Russians. That inner
circle is drawn mainly from the Russian security
services — Putin himself spent 16 years in the KGB —
and to them the revolution in Ukraine was a
U.S.-backed coup aimed at weakening Russia. Putin
describes the Crimea as a birthplace of Russian
culture, and his government has repeatedly warned
against the expansion of Western economic and
political influence into a region historically
regarded as Moscow's sphere of influence. Putin relies
heavily on the Kremlin bureaucracy to provide him with
intelligence (he avoids the Internet), so his
briefings tend to reinforce the view that Moscow was
forced to intervene in Ukraine by Western subversion
aimed at undermining his rule.
Russia has a
collapsing economy. Much of Putin's popularity within
Russia is traceable to the impressive recovery of the
post-Soviet economy on his watch. Since he came to
power in 2001, the country's gross domestic product
has grown sixfold, greatly increasing the size and
affluence of the Russian middle class. But that growth
has been based in large part on the export of oil and
gas to neighboring countries at a time when energy
prices reached record highs. Now the price of oil has
fallen at the same time that economic sanctions are
beginning to bite. The ruble lost nearly half its
value against the dollar last year, and the economy
has begun to shrink. Putin blames sanctions for 25-30%
of current economic hardships. Many Westerns believe a
prolonged recession would weaken Putin's support, but
because he can blame outsiders, economic troubles
might actually strengthen his hand and accelerate the
trend toward authoritarian rule. Comments 💬 التعليقات |