Dominos that teeter...

After nearly two decades of independence, Moldova’s citizens are still at odds over the basic question of who they are. That division boiled over last week, when a huge anti-Communist demonstration turned violent. Its participants, in their teens and 20s, say they are desperate to escape a Soviet time warp and enter Europe. But many of their elders feel more affinity with Russia, and see the protests as a plot by their western neighbor Romania to snatch away Moldova’s sovereignty.

This will, likely, be a growing issue throughout the entire "Eastern Bloc" that will be exploited by Dimitry Medvedev and the puppetmaster, Putin. Right now, 76% of that country defines itself as Moldovan. Watch that number go down over the next few years. Then consider how Reagan would address the matter.

President Obama, on the other hand will ignore it completely...and the repercussions will fester, grow, and magnify.

Any takers on that scenario? Keep in mind that when Russia invaded Georgia, Obama refused to take a side even though Georgia was considered a hard and fast ally. He only came out with a statement in their "partial" support after McCain called him on it and it reflected negatively in the General Election polls.

For every action there is an equal and opposite...

Now, with Russia itself beckoning and sturdier than before, that time has come.

The government is trying to head off the country's severe population decline by luring back Russians who live abroad as well as their descendants. Mr. Reutov and several dozen other members of his religious community from Uruguay have become among the most striking examples of this policy.

In other news, the number of strippers in the New York metropolitan area has taken a nose dive for some unexplained reason. Similarly, the black car livery availability has plummeted.

Out of his league...or...

March 14 (Bloomberg) -- Russia could land strategic bombers at Cuban and Venezuelan airfields while conducting patrols, the head of the Russian strategic air force was quoted as saying by the Interfax news service.

“With Cuba, this is possible,” the Moscow-based agency quoted Major General Anatoly Zhikharev as saying. “There are four or five airfields with 4,000-meter (13,000-feet) runways which suit us completely.”

Russia has also received an offer to temporarily station bombers in Venezuela from President Hugo Chavez, which Zhikharev called “possible,” according to state television station Vesti-24.

“If the heads of the two countries show the will, the political will, then we are prepared to fly there,” Zhikharev said, according to Interfax.

You see it...right? I'm not the only one that is sitting here with an open mouth.

President Obama is getting his lunch handed to him by the Russians. It has been non-stop since he took office. First there was the Kyrgyzstan base closure which was pressured, admittedly, by the Russians. As a solution, the Russians offered passage to supply the bordering portion of Afghanistan (which they would be able to shut down in a heartbeat)...and our current administration is actually considering it.

Then there was the whole "Missile Defense" fiasco in which the current administration was embarrassed by the Russian public comment on a half-assed plea for assistance with the Iranian nuclear weapons quest.

At the same time, the current administration is actually talking publically about working WITH the Russians in the future to joint-deploy similar missile defense systems (inside their own country).

“We believe the US and Russia can co-operate on missile defence through joint research and even joint deployment in the future . . . it is intended to be a defensive response vis-a -vis Iran and other actors,” Mrs Clinton told journalists in Brussels before flying on to Geneva to hold her first substantive talks with Russia foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

I'll say it again...either President Obama is way way wayyyyyy out of his league, or he is compromising this country's security on purpose.

Oh...that's much better...

WASHINGTON — President Obama, in one of his first efforts to "reset or reboot" the nation's icy relationship with Russia, said Tuesday he has told Moscow that the United States might not need to build a controversial missile-defense system in Eastern Europe.

In a letter sent last month to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Obama included a big if — the system could be scrapped, he said, if Iran halted its quest for a nuclear weapon.

Obama said he did not press Russia to exert its influence over Iran or issue a "quid pro quo" for not building the system. "What I said in the letter was, obviously, to the extent that we are lessening Iran's commitment to nuclear weapons, then that reduces the pressure for, or the need for, a missile-defense system," he said.

What's worse than a quid pro quo that bases it's foundation on the voluntary cooperation of Russia? Well...that would be a quid pro quo that bases its foundation on the voluntary cooperation of Iran.

I do believe that our President is wayyyyyyy, wayyyyyyy, wayyyyyyyy out of his league...or his goals are suspect.

Throw a dart, and you're bound to hit an idiot...

The president of Chechnya emerged from afternoon prayers at the mosque and with chilling composure explained why seven young women who had been shot in the head deserved to die.

Ramzan Kadyrov said the women, whose bodies were found dumped by the roadside, had "loose morals" and were rightfully shot by male relatives in honor killings.

"If a woman runs around and if a man runs around with her, both of them are killed," the bullnecked Kadyrov told journalists in the capital of this Russian republic.

Anyone under the age of 18 shield your eyes.

ASSH*LE!!!!!!

Kadyrov describes women as the property of their husbands and says their main role is to bear children. He encourages men to take more than one wife, even though polygamy is illegal in Russia. Women and girls are now required to wear head scarves in schools, universities and government offices.

Kids...leave the room.

ASSH*LE!!!!!

Vladimir Putin, then president and now prime minister, embraced the younger Kadyrov, who has succeeded in ending a wave of terror attacks that haunted the early years of Putin's presidency. But as Kadyrov has consolidated his power, many of his critics and political rivals have been killed. Some have been gunned down on the streets of Moscow, including the journalist Anna Politkovskaya, whose death in 2006 made headlines around the world.

Once more with feeling...and I incude Putin in the mix this time...Kids...cover your ears.

ASSH*LES!!!!!

This is a good example of a government (Russia) appeasing a truly disgusting mentality for peace without consideration for what is morally and ethically just.

Islam, on the other hand, is a cult of idiocy and malfeasance wrapped up in soft-brained absurdity best left along the roadside with the other rotting animal carcasses despite the fact that said cadavers in residence would have valid complaint in stating... "there goes the neighborhood."

DISCLAIMER: That last paragraph was an exercise in "freedom of speech." Deal with it you animals.

Any comment from the National Organization of Women???

Русская машина времени (Russian Time Machine)

Undercover pro-Kremlin agents have worked in opposition groups across Russia to provide the presidential administration with information on opposition activists and rallies, a self-described handler said Thursday.

Anna Bukovskaya, a St. Petersburg activist with the pro-Kremlin Nashi youth group, said she coordinated a group of 30 young people who infiltrated branches of the banned National Bolshevik Party, Youth Yabloko and United Civil Front in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Voronezh and six other cities.

The agents informed Bukovskaya, who passed the information to senior Nashi official Dmitry Golubyatnikov, who in turn contacted "Surkov's people" in the Kremlin, Bukovskaya told The Moscow Times. Vladislav Surkov is President Dmitry Medvedev's first deputy chief of staff.

The agents provided information on planned and past events together with pictures and personal information on activists and leaders, including their contact numbers, Bukovskaya said by telephone from St. Petersburg.

They were paid 20,000 rubles ($550) per month, while she received 40,000 rubles per month, she said.

My calendar says this is 2009...but the little voice inside my pointy little head says its 1980 again. Hmmmm...

Incidentally...Natalya Krainova (Staff Writer for the Moscow Times) is one brave lady. I'm not so sure I'd be stirring the pot considering the expiration period of a journalist rivaling non-homogenized milk in Russia these last few years.

Back to the чертежная доска...

A test launch of the Navy's new Bulava submarine-based intercontinental ballistic missile ended in failure Tuesday, in just the latest setback in attempts to revamp the country's nuclear arsenal.

The missile went off course after being launched from the Dmitry Donskoi submarine and was ordered to self-destruct, a defense industry source told Interfax. No casualties or damage were caused by the explosion, the source said.

Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said Tuesday that the test launch had been carried out in the White Sea, but would not speak about the results, saying only that they were being studied.

Tuesday's test launch was the Bulava missile's 10th, five of which have been unsuccessful. The Navy had said before Tuesday that a successful launch this time would have allowed the missile to enter service next year.

Capable of carrying up to 10 warheads and with a range of up to 8,000 kilometers, the Bulava is being counted on to replace rapidly aging Soviet-era missiles to maintain strategic parity with the United States.

I can't say that I'm disappointed that the Russians are having difficulty with the Bulava. After all, this is the "keep up with the Jones's" strategy that the old Soviet Union followed during the Cold War...which, incidentally, put them in such bad financial straits that they were forced to relent.

Personally, I believe that Russia is moving back towards their old ways...if, in fact, they ever truly left them. Still, its nice to see them fail on such an expensive endeavor for the fifth time. It's even more enjoyable to see that the Russian media outlets (Moscow Times) are not barred from publishing the failure. So, there's more than one acorn in this piece.

Oliver Stone...call your office...

Russians with pumpkins protest many U.S. plots

In a film projected on several large screens, an actor playing President George W. Bush (though with a heavy Russian accent) delivered a speech in which he gloated over the United States' control over world affairs. The film asserted that the United States orchestrated World Wars I and II so that the American economy could overtake Europe's, carried out the Sept. 11 attacks to broaden government powers and planned to brand every person on the planet with the "mark of the beast," as referenced in the Bible.