Never a dull moment with Putin

[a_unique_person]

I have absolutely no idea what he's done politically, but the man has probably the most exciting press photos I've ever seen.

Also, the guy in #26 would scare the everloving **** out of me.

Its title, 'Mafia State', sums up its theme. Putin's created a state peopled by ex KGB (Committee for State Security) and FSB (Federal Security Service) officers like himself, bent on making money above all.

Harding was himself expelled from Moscow after a campaign of harassment in which he was followed, bugged, obliquely threatened and had his flat repeatedly broken into.

He spoke to me a short time ago.

LUKE HARDING: What I hadn't really expected, when I first arrive in 2007, was that this sort of security state, which as you say has been kind of traditional, in Russia it's gone on for a very long time, but that it would be back, and actually in some ways kind of re-fighting the Cold War. This isn't really about ideology anymore, I mean no-one's interested in global communism, the Soviet Union's gone, but this mechanism, the KGB if you like, carries on.

And it took a bit of knock in the early '90s when the Soviet Union collapsed the KGB, but rather swiftly it reformed and it was rebranded the FSB, the Federal Security Service. And by 1999, who was its boss? Well Vladimir Putin.

Really what he's done, over the last decade, as he's kind of undone various reforms to the security services which Boris Yeltzin carried out in the '90s. And he's turned it into this formidable, prodigious, secret, and really quite terrifying, kind of organisation that sees its goal as defending Russia from enemies. Both internal ones - opposition guys, human rights workers, those kind of people - and external ones - Western diplomats and people like me.

MARK COLVIN: Is it just Putin or has it managed to get a lot of FSB people dotted around the system?

LUKE HARDING: Well it's a kind of a KGB state now actually. The Russian government won't thank me for saying that. But if you look at the kind of people who are the top echelons of Russian power, a lot of them are Putin's friends, a lot of them are former KGB operatives from military intelligence, from foreign intelligence and so one. And obviously Putin feels comfortable with these kind of people.

And they share a similar kind of world view, which is essentially xenophobic, it's reflexively anti-Western, and the big project, I mean if Putin does have a big project, the project is to get back the sort of prestige and the international clout that the Soviet Union once enjoyed.

I mean what he really wants to be is to be taken seriously as a sort of, for Russia to be taken seriously as an international player and for people to be a little bit scared of Russia as well.

MARK COLVIN: It's difficult to know what's going on because, on the one hand, you say that he wants Russia to be great again, and I suppose that's a sort of ideological goal, but on the other hand, you say that it's really just about money, that it's a cleptocracy?

LUKE HARDING: It's more of a, I mean the more important project of course is to get rich. I mean the ideology is definitely there but the primary goal, I think, for Putin and his team is to make money and to, essentially, to hang onto that money and to off-shore that money. And so the Russian…

MARK COLVIN: How much money?

LUKE HARDING: Well we're talking billions and billions of dollars. The problem is, as a reporter in Moscow, it's extremely hard to get to the bottom of this. I mean you would need a thousand years and an army of lawyers and you'd need people to leak. But I mean, there have been some leaks, and about three or four years ago one source I spoke to said, I think rather convincingly, that Putin was worth about $40 billion. So in other words …

MARK COLVIN: That's billion …?

LUKE HARDING: … one of them …

MARK COLVIN: … not …

LUKE HARDING: … one of the richest ..

MARK COLVIN: … billion not million?

LUKE HARDING: … men here. That's billion $40 billion. In other words, one of the richest people in the world.

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2011/s3329930.htm

 

[commandlinegamer]

Could you give some examples how Soviets influence modern science?



Do you have any example of the cute gadgets?

I heard the Soviets were big on videophone technology, but can't really find much to back this up. In any case I imagine a booth the size of a tank was involved, with large knobs, painted in a delightful shade of forest green.

 

[Alex333]

I heard the Soviets were big on videophone technology, but can't really find much to back this up. In any case I imagine a booth the size of a tank was involved, with large knobs, painted in a delightful shade of forest green.

As I know Soviets were good to steal American or Western Europe science/technology ideas. They was VERY good at it.

 

[Pardalis]

In other news.

The way he yanked them out of the ground he probably damaged them even more.

 

[L.Y.S.]

Could you give some examples how Soviets influence modern science?



Do you have any example of the cute gadgets?

*Sighs

You mean like THE PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS (Russian, but nonetheless an important discovery for humanity), satellites, ballistic missile submarines, infantry fighting vehicles, human space flight, pioneering all types of advances on space station design (which half of the ISS was designed BY “RUSSIA”. Hmmm let's see, there are too much many achievements. Your western bias is really starting to show, it saddens me.

**Double Sighs

As I know Soviets were good to steal American or Western Europe science/technology ideas. They was VERY good at it.

And Americans stole Soviet and Eastern technology when they could as well. Pointless and biased hogwash. Espionage goes both ways not one way. Maybe you should read up more on your Cold War history before throwing out wild ass claims like the ones you made above. Just sayin’…

 

[L.Y.S.]

The way he yanked them out of the ground he probably damaged them even more.

I'm willing to bet the same. Do we know if he yanked the artifacts from their original location or if it was conveniently placed in the black sea?

 

[Alex333]

*Sighs ... Your western bias is really starting to show, it saddens me.

Thank you to point this out to me. Yes, I'm biased. I grew up in USSR where human rights abuses is a normal government policy. Even in post Soviet states situation with human rights is not changed. I used to listen Voice of America and really admire western hemisphere. If we take as a starting point UN human rights bill and compare USSR and USA for abuses. USSR abuses 80-100% of human rights articles and USA maybe 5-10%. This is my bias

 

[L.Y.S.]

Thank you to point this out to me. Yes, I'm biased. I grew up in USSR where human rights abuses is a normal government policy. Even in post Soviet states situation with human rights is not changed. I used to listen Voice of America and really admire western hemisphere. If we take as a starting point UN human rights bill and compare USSR and USA for abuses. USSR abuses 80-100% of human rights articles and USA maybe 5-10%. This is my bias

Which republic? You sound Baltic (Estonian?), but that's just a wild guess. And I wouldn't put America too far away from human rights abuses. It does some pretty nasty things to its indigenous population. In interest of preventing thread derail however, I'll leave it at that.

 

[Alex333]

Which republic? You sound Baltic (Estonian?), but that's just a wild guess.

L.Y.S. you are close. Latvia, Ukraine.

And I wouldn't put America too far away from human rights abuses. It does some pretty nasty things to its indigenous population.

But it happened before UN Human Rights declaration in 1948.
Plus USA tries to fix many of errors. Unlike Latvia or Ukraine.

 

[L.Y.S.]

But it happened before UN Human Rights declaration in 1948.
Plus USA tries to fix many of errors. Unlike Latvia or Ukraine.

Some of it is still happening today. Many reservations lack running water and healthy food. I've seen some improvement, not much. You'd mistake some reservations in the plains for Uzebekistan.

 

[bikerdruid]

Some of it is still happening today. Many reservations lack running water and healthy food. I've seen some improvement, not much. You'd mistake some reservations in the plains for Uzebekistan.

most indian reservations illustrate third world conditions.

 

[L.Y.S.]

most indian reservations illustrate third world conditions.

To the max, and most people refuse to hear this or believe it is happening in America. Yes people, there are places you can go to in America that barely have roads; running water or sewage; and barely have crops. It's quite sad actually.

 

[Alex333]

To the max, and most people refuse to hear this or believe it is happening in America. Yes people, there are places you can go to in America that barely have roads; running water or sewage; and barely have crops. It's quite sad actually.

Could you give some links to media sites which cover these issues?

 

[L.Y.S.]

Could you give some links to media sites which cover these issues?

ROL

 

[Alex333]

L.Y.S.
Do you have more links?

 

[Gazpacho]

There's a relevant thread over here.

 

[L.Y.S.]

L.Y.S.
Do you have more links?

Gazpacho is right; there are plenty of links in his thread. I would not wish to detract from this thread. But the U.S. does have a poor human rights track record with its indigenous population. I just don't want you to make the mistake of thinking that the U.S. in scot free. On the contrary, America like Russia has its fair amount of skeletons in its closet. I'm sure that America is violating many more U.N. rights than the U.N. cares to reveal.

 

[Alex333]

This is real cult of personality of Putin in post Soviet space.

Mr. Atambayev, who was prime minister until stepping down in September to concentrate on his campaign, even sponsored a bill this year naming a mountain in Kyrgyzstan after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin.

Full article is here.

 

[timhau]

There was a column about Russian Putin/Medvedev jokes in our local paper today, with examples.

My favorite:

*beep* *beep*
"You have called the telephone exchange of Dmitri Medvedev, the President of the Russian Federation. To reach President Medvedev, please press 2."

 

[Alex333]

There was a column about Russian Putin/Medvedev jokes in our local paper today, with examples.

My favorite:

*beep* *beep*
"You have called the telephone exchange of Dmitri Medvedev, the President of the Russian Federation. To reach President Medvedev, please press 2."