When Vladimir Paranoid Talks . . . .

Putin's comments drive a company's stock down $6 billion

When Vladimir Putin talks, investors in Russia listen. And some head for the door.

Speaking at an industry conference this week, Putin, Russia's former president and now prime minister, spoke five sentences critical of one of his country's big steel companies, Mechel, and its billionaire chief executive, Igor Zyuzin.

In a sign of Putin's enduring power in Russia and around the world, that criticism came with a price: about $1.2 billion per sentence in lost shareholder value.

Such is the power of Putin's words - even after "stepping down" to prime minister in May - that shares in Mechel, a coal mining and steel company, plunged almost 38 percent on the New York Stock Exchange after Putin complained that the company was charging more to its domestic customers than to its foreign ones. The comments wiped out, at least for a day, about $6 billion in stockholder value.

[....]

On the heels of the imprisonment of one tycoon and some bare-knuckled corporate raids and renegotiations of large energy contracts under Putin, the market did not take this talk lightly.

Over all, the Russian stock market slid more than 5 percent Friday, on fears that Putin's comments might presage another attack on a company similar to the destruction of the Yukos oil company in 2004.

The remarks also coincided with the departure of the American chief executive of the British energy company BP's joint venture in Russia, which is under pressure from its Russian partners and the government, in another glum sign for investors here.

Putin's speech began simply enough.

"We have a respected company, Mechel," Putin said in introducing his subject.

"By the way, we invited the owner and director of the company, Igor Vladimirovich Zyusin, to today's meeting, but he suddenly got sick. Meanwhile, it is known that in the first quarter this year the company exported raw materials abroad at half the domestic, and world, price. And what about the margin tax for the government?" He added: "Of course, sickness is sickness, but I think Igor Vladimirovich should get better as quick as possible, otherwise we'll have to send him a doctor."

You're absolutely hilarious, Putie Putirovich! Just ask former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko about getting 'sick' all of a sudden, as it seems that the new Soviet Russian flu bears commonality with the old Soviet variety.

[....]

With inflation soaring in Russia, particularly for manufacturing inputs like steel, government officials are concerned about the impact on a vast infrastructure rebuilding effort that is a centerpiece of Putin's economic program.

The government is also seeking to diversify the economy away from dependence on raw materials exports, to provide employment and protection against a possible retreat in global commodity prices. Putin has asked business owners to comply with this approach, even at the cost of profits.

What a nitwit. It has more everything to do with the cost of their 'health'. Then again, we mustn't take the chance that Vlad Paranoid might become offended.

[....]

If there were any doubt over who holds sway over Russia's oil-fueled economy, the power of Putin's words could be seen putting that to rest. Indeed, his successor, Dmitri Medvedev, has spoken often of the need to burnish Russia's investor image and improve the rule of law, so far with little effect.

The Bush Adminstration's Russian expert was unavailable for comment.

Read the rest at IHT.com

In Vladimir Paranoid's Paradise . . .

Court Charges Beslan Victims' Group With 'Extremism'
The winter holidays are a difficult time for the many families that lost relatives in the hostage drama that struck the small North Ossetian town of Beslan in September 2004.

For the Voice of Beslan, a victims' group led by women who lost children in the siege, this year's holidays brought further distress: a court summons from neighboring Ingushetia, where local prosecutors had filed charges accusing the organization of "extremist" activities.

"We received a telegram around the New Year inviting us to a Nazran court," says Ella Kesayeva, one of the group's leaders. "We think this trial was specially commissioned by someone. A lot has been happening lately around Voice of Beslan. What's happening now is one more attempt to pressure a civil group that is carrying out its own investigation."

More than three years after the siege, many questions remain unanswered. For Voice of Beslan and other groups, the key detail is who sparked the violence that brought the three-day siege to its deadly conclusion -- the hostage takers, most from the North Caucasus, demanding a military withdrawal from Chechnya, or the federal forces brought in to negotiate an end to the crisis.

After a private investigation, Voice of Beslan says it believes it was federal security forces outside the school, using flamethrowers and tanks against the school, that caused the blast that killed many of the 1,000 hostages and triggered a bloody battle with the militants.

Two reports have backed these claims -- one penned by the North Ossetian parliament's investigative commission, the other by Russian politician and explosives expert Yury Savelyev.

As best as we can tell, none of the parties involved with preparing the reports have come down with a case of influenzae Sovietski. So far.

The State Duma has yet to release its own final official report on the events. But the chief parliamentary investigator, Aleksandr Torshin, has suggested that militants were responsible for the explosion.

No 'Official' Account

The large number of parallel investigations conducted into the Beslan siege illustrates the extreme controversy and high political stakes surrounding what remains the most horrifying event in recent Russian history.

Voice of Beslan says its campaign to bring senior officials to trial for botching the Beslan rescue operation has angered many. The group's trial -- currently due to begin on January 15 -- is not the first time Voice of Beslan has encountered trouble with the authorities.

A North Ossetian court ordered the organization to close down in December, claiming that Kesayeva was not its leader and that a former member who claimed to be the leader of the group should replace her. That ruling was subsequently annulled by the Russian Supreme Court.

This time, prosecutors' charges are tied to an open letter accusing President Vladimir Putin of covering up the truth about the carnage to protect top officials.

"We are guilty of electing a president who solves problems with the help of tanks, flamethrowers, and gas," Voice of Beslan said in the text, posted in 2005 on its website. "But it's not our fault that the global political elite supports our president, who has become a backer of criminals."

The charges fall under Russia's 2007 amended law on extremism, which broadens the definition of extremist activities to include "slander of public officials" and "humiliating national pride." The legislation can be applied retroactively and has been used to investigate journalists, human rights activists, and opposition figures.

Such mishegas. This makes the Patriot Act look like a simple walk in the park. Not that the Kooky Kult of Koslam, the gangs at PuffHo and Digg, or other leftists would notice.

Regional Animosity

Why authorities might seek to shut down Voice of Beslan is obvious. Russian officials have shown little compunction about using the extremism legislation to crack down on their critics. What is less clear, however, is why the charges come from Ingushetia, rather than Moscow -- and more than two years after the text's publication.

[...]

Read it all at RFE/RL

Condi? Dubya? Shrillary? Obama? Silky? Rudy? Fred? Huckster? Leading presidential contender Ron Paul?


September 1, 2004. The first day of school.
UPDATE: Dr. Rusty Shackleford of The Jawa Report links. Thank you!

Also at Also at A Tangled Web

And The 2008 Nobel Peace Prize Goes To . . . .

This comes as no great surprise and we can expect more like it from Soviet dictator Russian president Vladimir Paranoid and his ilk. And it shouldn't be long before the Koslings and the Leftisphere jump onboard.

Russia Issues Nuclear Threat
Russia's nuclear weapons chief threatened Monday to target a planned US missile defence shield in central Europe if Washington fails to take into account Moscow's worries, the Interfax news agency reported.

General Nikolai Solovtsov, head of strategic missile forces, said that such a decision could be taken if the US shield is seen to "undermine the Russian nuclear deterrent capability."

In that case, "I do not exclude... the missile defence shield sites in Poland and the Czech Republic being chosen as targets for some of our intercontinental ballistic missiles," Solovtsov said, according to Interfax.

Washington says the plans to install radar in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptor rockets in Poland would guard against theoretical missile strikes from "rogue" nations such as Iran, without denting Russia's massive nuclear offensive arsenal.

But Moscow claims the United States is exaggerating the threat from Iran and describes the shield as the thin end of a wedge aimed at changing the current balance of military power.

On Saturday, the Russian chief of staff, General Yury Baluyevsky, warned that the launch of US interceptor missiles could accidentally trigger a Russian retaliatory strike.

And the resulting vaporization of Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad would be considered an 'accidental' response.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk denounced the comments as "unacceptable" and said that "no declaration of this kind will influence Polish-American negotiations."

Solovtsov, speaking hours after state television showed images of a ballistic missile being test fired from a submerged submarine at a target on the other side of Russia, said the United States was untrustworthy.

"If the Americans signed a treaty with us that they would only deploy 10 anti-missile rockets in Poland and one radar in the Czech Republic and will never put anything else there, then we could deal with this," he said.

"However they won't sign, they just tell us verbally, 'We won't threaten you'."

"They already cheated Russia once," he said, referring to NATO expansion into former Soviet-dominated territory after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. "Verbally they already told us that when we re-unite Germany there won't be one NATO soldier there. Now where are they?"

East-West relations are increasingly strained as Russia and NATO countries argue over how to ensure security in the post-Cold War landscape.

Russia froze compliance last week with the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which imposes strict limits on deployment of troops around the country.

The Foreign Ministry offered reassurance that Russia had "no current plans to accumulate massive armaments on our neighbours' borders."

However the decision was criticised by NATO, the United States and other Western powers.

Kameraden! Nobody forced your former slave-states to join or ally with NATO. They did so out of appreciation for your 50 years of kindness and generosity.

And in remembrance of your reassurances from 1943 on that the Soviet army had simply . . . liberated them.

Via Spacewars.com

H/T The NoisyRoom

Also at A Tangled Web

Democracy At Work

When discussing the G8 and the Soviet Union today's Russia during an interview six months ago, Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves offered that, ...if you're not a member of the G8, it's not difficult to call for anyone to be thrown out. But I certainly wouldn't call it the organization of industrialized democracies anymore.

Interviewer: What would you call it?

President Ilves: Seven industrial democracies and one country brought in for reasons that have lost their relevance.

Putin to be PM in future Russia government
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday he was ready to become prime minister if his close ally Dmitry Medvedev succeeds him, giving Putin a way to keep a grip on power after he leaves the Kremlin.

A 42-year-old lawyer with no political base of his own, Medvedev is virtually certain to win next March's presidential election since most Russians will vote for whoever the highly popular Putin endorses.

"If Russian citizens express their confidence in Dmitry Medvedev and elect him as the country's president, I will be ready to head the government," Putin told a congress of his United Russia party held near Moscow's Red Square.

"(We) shouldn't be ashamed or afraid of transferring the key powers of the country, the destiny of Russia to the hands of such a man," Putin added in his speech.

You'll get no argument from the Koslings, Putie. They know democracy when they see it.

Medvedev, 42, was later adopted by the congress as United Russia's presidential candidate. Delegates voted 478-1 in a sober, Soviet-style ceremony held without debate.

Is there any other way???

In his brief acceptance speech, Medvedev listed priorities such as strengthening Russia's position in the world, preserving the Russian nation, looking after the young and the old.

"All this is in Vladimir Putin's strategy. I will be guided by this strategy, if I am elected president," Medvedev said.

"But carrying out an idea can only be successful with the participation of its author. I have no doubt that in the future Vladimir Vladimirovich (Putin) will use all his resources, all his influence in Russia and abroad for the benefit of Russia."

[....]

Putin praised Medvedev as a man whose "main principles in life are the interests of its government and its citizens."

And pleasing his master.

He also announced a big pay rise of 14 percent for public sector workers, which will come into effect on February 1, just over a month before the election. The military will get 18 percent.

Of course, the pay increases have nothing to do with buying loyalty and votes for Putie's weak sister.

In a further sign of Putin's intention to keep a grip on power next year, Russian media reported that Putin could send the Kremlin chief of staff to run Medvedev's election campaign.

[....]

Read it all at Reuters

Too busy shilling for the Palis, the administration's 'Russian expert' was unavailable for comment.

Also at A Tangled Web


UPDATE: Although speculation about Putie's future began last June, Vladimir Paranoid's announcement about becoming prime minister after Medvedev's 'elected' in March, experts were surprised.

Experts, schmexperts.

Baltic Perspective On Putie

POLITICS OF PARANOIA
No one who has paid the slightest attention to events in Russia over the past several years was the least bit surprised by the results of the Dec. 2 election, which was determined well in advance. Previous elections, of course, were also manipulated and marred by abuse of state funds (let’s not forget Boris Yeltin’s shenanigans in 1996, or the violations witnessed in 2000 when Vladimir Putin was first elected), but this year the scope of fraud and use of methods in contradiction with the spirit of democracy clearly demonstrate that, at best, neither Putin nor any other Russian official has the right to use the word “democracy” in reference to the country’s system of governance. At worst, Russia’s electoral sham has shown that the mentality of Russia’s leadership is driven by a more sinister psychosis – paranoia.

Analysts agree unanimously that Putin and his party, United Russia, would have won the election had it conducted it freely and fairly, and without prior manipulation of the laws to make it more difficult for parties to participate and break the higher, 7 percent barrier. Russia has prospered under Putin. GDP is up almost 70 percent, wages and pensions are paid regularly, a middle class has formed, and Russian corporations are now buying Western businesses. Then why the heavy-handedness and gross abuse of power?

Here opinions diverge, but while there are undoubtedly several reasons, the dominant one harks back three years to Ukraine, when foreign money and influence played a key role in helping reverse what appeared to be an electoral victory by pro-Russian forces. That one event – the so-called Orange Revolution – forever changed the Kremlin’s opinion of the West. Ever since then Putin and his administration have planned methodically, leaving no (spy)stone unturned, to prevent foreigners and NGOs from meddling in the parliamentary election.

The Kremlin’s fear of outside interference, in fact, has been irrational to the point of becoming paranoid. Two examples come to mind. First, cells of pro-Kremlin youth activists were positioned at various locations in Moscow on election day in order to prevent any impromptu anti-Putin rallies from materializing. There was even one outside the BBC’s office in Moscow to discourage opposition politicians from venting on the international airwaves. Second, in a major pre-election speech on Nov. 22 Putin referred to opposition politicians as “jackals,” which in Russian is an extremely strong word. “Now they’re going to take to the streets,” he ranted. “They’ve learned from Western experts and have received some training in neighboring republics.” Hence, the youth scare-squads on Dec. 2.

Putin is woefully intolerant. He has shown that he is not only unwilling to accept criticism of Russia but that he considers Russia’s internal critics to be traitors (This frame of mind – those who aren’t with us are traitors – is a devious twist to another familiar strain of intolerance first uttered six years ago by someone else: “those who aren’t with us are against us.”). His derogatory eulogy for Anna Politkovskaya, a renowned journalist and Putin-critic who was shot to death outside her Moscow home, is a self-indictment. Politkovskaya, he said, did more damage to Russia by dying that she did while alive. Clearly such words could only come from a demented mind.

For the Baltics, none of this is news. It should, however, be a useful confirmation of what is already known. We should be mindful of the fact that the Kremlin is now fueled on paranoia and will in the future be increasingly pro-active in meddling in affairs of countries in the near abroad now that it is utterly convinced that Western powers do the same. The Kremlin has recently scored important victories in Ukraine and Georgia, facilitating major setbacks in the democratic transformations of those countries, and when possible it will try to influence events in the Baltics as well. The Bronze Soldier riots in Tallinn were just the first instance of what is likely to become a regular phenomenon.

The State Department's Russian expert was unavailable for comment.

Via The Baltic Times

The Road To Democracy

No More 'Troubles' Under Putin
Russia has its own path to democracy, one that is determined by the country's long history, President Vladimir Putin and his entourage frequently assert. To understand their vision of Russia's future, one must pay attention to their use of the past and to the national myths they create and promote.

Russia is engaged in a political transition now that, even Kremlin insiders admit, is virtually a "crisis." The celebration of People's Unity Day on November 4 and the 90th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution on November 7 have brought to the forefront crises of the past and models for emerging from them. The pro-Kremlin Unified Russia party and the state media have labored overtime in recent weeks to reduce these historical events to easily understood elements -- chaos, disunity, internal and external enemies, violence, and famine -- and to emphasize that Russia survived them only by rallying around a strong, authoritarian leader-for-life.

Historical Precedent

People's Unity Day is a three-year-old holiday that marks the liberation in 1612 of Moscow from Polish occupation and the end of a decade and a half of discord known by the ominous Russian phrase "Smutnoye vremya," the Time of Troubles. The "smuta," or trouble, was set off when the royal line of Ivan the Terrible came to an end and the country's political elites began a ruthless battle among themselves for power. The period was characterized by factional infighting, famine, and foreign occupation, nearly leading to the collapse of the Russian state. It came to an end only in 1613, when the nobility chose one of their own, Mikhail Romanov, at a Grand National Assembly, founding the dynasty that would rule Russia until 1917. Before the 17th century was out, Mikhail Romanov's grandson, Peter the Great, was in power and the country that had been on its knees was on the verge of becoming a global power.

The new People's Unity Day holiday has developed in two directions in its short history. On the one hand, it is a cause for annual semi-sanctioned "Russia-for-the-Russians" actions, events that serve to remind the public that the country's unity is fragile and that violent confrontation is lurking close to the surface. On the other hand, the holiday is marked by widespread demonstrations in support of the Kremlin and the strong central government. The Unified Russia party has begun the practice of sending representatives into schools and other institutions to make sure that the horrors of the Time of Troubles remain vivid and the lessons of unity and authoritarianism are not forgotten.

[...]

In Praise Of The Iron Fist

The logic of the analogy between the Bolshevik Revolution and the Time of Troubles leads to the conclusion that Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was the strong, authoritarian leader-for-life who pulled the country out of chaos and, through a far-sighted program of industrialization and collectivization, created a country that was capable of withstanding the onslaught of Nazi Germany and of competing in the Cold War for decades. The Kremlin, of course, is wary about direct praise of Stalin, largely because of how such statements are seen in the West. In addition, the means by which Stalin came to power -- infighting, betrayal, show trials, and persecution -- are clearly less savory than the image of the Grand National Assembly that elevated Mikhail Romanov on a wave of national unity.

However, Putin has made enough overtly pro-Stalin statements over the years to have lured away virtually all the Stalinists from the Communist Party. He has restored Stalin-era state symbols and has stated directly that the country has no need to feel guilty about its past. During Putin's years in power, Stalin's reputation has grown steadily, with more and more Russians stating that he played "a positive role" in Russian history. State television commentator Mikhail Leontyev wrote in "Profil" this month: "What Stalin inherited from the Bolsheviks as an object of state -- in fact, imperial -- restoration was an absolutely Asiatic formation that could only be managed by Asiatic methods -- literally those of Genghis Khan. That is, by using 'the masses' as raw material, fuel for the historical process. There were no other means for managing that country, for saving it, for securing it in the midst of an aggressively oriented environment."

[....]

Read it all at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Also at A Tangled Web

Say It Ain't So, Kameraden!

Progressive politics at its finest.

Fraud, intimidation and bribery as Putin prepares for victory

State workers forced to vote in effort to rig result

The Kremlin is planning to rig the results of Russia's parliamentary elections on Sunday by forcing millions of public sector workers across the country to vote, the Guardian has learned.

Local administration officials have called in thousands of staff on their day off in an attempt to engineer a massive and inflated victory for President Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party. Voters are being pressured to vote for United Russia or risk losing their jobs, their accommodation or bonuses, the Guardian has been told in numerous interviews with byudzhetniki (public sector workers), students and ordinary citizens.

Doctors, teachers, university deans, students and even workers at psychiatric clinics have been warned they have to vote. Failure to do so will entail serious consequences, they have been told.

Analysts say the pressure is designed to ensure a resounding win for the United Russia party and for Putin, who heads its party list. The victory would give him a public mandate to maintain ultimate power in the country as "National Leader" despite being unable to stand for a third term as president in March.

In a televised speech yesterday Putin implored the nation to turn out and vote for United Russia, saying: "I count on your support." The president enjoys genuine popular backing but a spokeswoman for Golos, an independent organisation monitoring the elections, said "big pressure on voters across the country" was being used to balloon the result for United Russia.

"We are seeing a new phenomenon where voters are forced to get absentee ballots under threat of being sacked or being denied bonuses," she said. "People are then instructed to vote at their workplace where everything is tightly controlled." The spokesman said the pressure applied to private businesses as well as state-run enterprises.

Students have been told they risk the prospect of failing exams or being removed from courses if they do not vote for United Russia. Alexander, a journalism student at Oryol State University, said: "It's been made very clear that students who don't get absentee ballots and vote the right way could lose their place in the dormitory."

Anna, 31, a schoolteacher in Ulan Ude, said: "We were called to the staff room in my school about a month ago and asked to sign a formal declaration promising that we would vote for United Russia. I told them that I wanted to vote for another party, but they told me to sign it in such a manner that there was no way to refuse. They hinted I could lose my job."

[...]

Bloggers on Russia's most popular social networking site, Livejournal, have posted numerous accounts of intimidation. One in Murmansk wrote that he was told that if he didn't vote for United Russia "the management would get it in the neck".

Don't be surprised if Livejournal develops a severe case of technical difficulties in the not too distant future.

Another in Yekaterinburg wrote: "Today my wife came home in shock. As the boss of a state company she has been told that all her workers living in different parts of town must take absentee ballots and go to vote in Kirovsky district. She has to go and sit all day on December 2 and call round everyone in her collective. Then she has to provide a list of who has voted." She then received a directive warning her to add anybody who didn't vote for United Russia to a list, and later those people would be "called to the office" of the local administration.

The Kremlin has cast Sunday's State Duma vote as a referendum on Putin. Although Putin is obliged to step down as president next May, a landslide victory may be used to legitimise his return to power, possibly as early as the summer.

The president's personal popularity remains high. But support for United Russia is less solid. Independent experts say the party's true ratings are around 35% - well below the 55% figure suggested by state-controlled opinion polls.

In a leak to Russian media this week, one senior election official said that regional governors had been told to deliver at least 65% of the vote for Putin's party, an "unrealistically high" total that could be achieved only through electoral fraud and by compelling people to vote.

"The elections are going to be falsified," said Mikhail Delyagin, an economist and the director of Moscow's Institute on Globalisation Problems. "The elections that took place in the Soviet Union were less falsified than this one."

He added: "All those who depend on state salaries have been forced to go and vote. This means workers on all levels of state power working for local government, all the military, and those who are in prison or psychiatric hospitals. Of course people have the possibility to lie. But there is enormous psychological pressure."

[...]

Putin's decision to associate himself with United Russia's election campaign - and to stand as a candidate at the top of the party's federal list - has contributed to the scale of the fraud, analysts said.

"The scale of pressure is due to nervousness within the Kremlin administration since it announced that this is no longer a parliamentary election but a referendum on Putin," Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of the journal Russia in Global Affairs, said. Lukyanov said he believed the amount of fraud on polling day would be small.

This schmuck wouldn't know voter fraud if it came up and kicked him in the ass. Or, he's on Putie's payroll.

"This is normal in contemporary advanced authoritarian systems. They are smart enough to organise the vote in quite a proper and correct way," he said.

Coercing people in advance was a more effective tactic, he added. "The consequences [of not voting for Putin] are not perhaps as bad as they promise. But there is psychological pressure, of course. I had thought Russian authoritarianism was much softer. We will see."

[....]

There's more

Furiously taking notes, spokesthingys from the Kooky Kult of Koslam were unavailable for comment.

Previously Democracy Under True Democrat, Vladimir Paranoid

Democracy Under True Democrat, Vladimir Paranoid

Chess grandmaster and opposition leader Garry Kasparov (C) pushes through the crowd before being detained by the police during an opposition rally in central Moscow November 24, 2007.

Russian police round up anti-Putin protesters
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Russian riot police beat opposition activists on Sunday and detained nearly 200 people at protest rallies against President Vladimir Putin a week before the country's parliamentary election.

Riot police in St Petersburg, Russia's second city and Putin's home town, detained Boris Nemtsov and Nikita Belykh, leaders of the Union of Right Forces (SPS) party who are both running in the December 2 election. They were later released.

The protests came a day after police detained opposition leader and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov in Moscow -- a move the United States condemned on Sunday as part of "aggressive tactics" by authorities.

"We are troubled that Garry Kasparov and other leaders of the opposition have been arrested and detained," said White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Kasparov, leader of the Other Russia group, was among 60 detained in the 3,000-strong Moscow march, activists said.

In St Petersburg, this correspondent saw riot police beating activists with batons and their fists before forcing them into police buses.

Dozens more were detained outside the Winter Palace, the residence of the Tsars, and at another rally in the city centre.

"They have forbidden us from discussing Putin," Nemtsov told the crowd. "But we have come here today to ask Mr Putin and the authorities why is there so much corruption in the country?"

There's much more

Kooky Kult Kommandante Markos was unavailable for comment.

Here A Nazi, There A Nazi

Blinded by an accumulation of years of their own barnyard excrement, the Germans didn't see this one coming.

Social Democrats Behind Neo-Nazis in Saxony Survey
That Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) are in free fall is nothing new. The center-left party, despite being Angela Merkel's coalition partner in Berlin, is overshadowed by the popularity of the chancellor. SPD leader Kurt Beck is unpopular and has a hard time even keeping his own party in line. And party membership is lower than it has been in half a century.

But on Thursday, the party hit a new low. A survey in the eastern German state of Saxony shows that, were voters to head to the polls on Sunday, more people in the state would mark the box next to the neo-Nazi party National Democratic Party (NPD) than would vote for the center-left SPD. The poll, carried out by Forsa, has 9 percent of those surveyed supporting the NPD with just 8 percent for the SPD.

The NPD celebrated the result in a press release, calling the numbers "really sensational." The poll comes just three weeks after Saxony was in the news after a xenophobic mob chased eight Indians through the town of Mügeln shouting "Foreigners Out!" before beating them up. The NPD on Thursday said the most recent poll is a result of the fact "that we didn't join the media-driven witch hunt against our own countrymen as happened in Mügeln." The press release also said the coverage of the Mügeln attack was "racist" and ended with the words: "Don't worry, the next elections are coming for sure."

Of course, in der Fatherland, Bush is evil.

via der Spiegel

Graphic/DDP

UPDATE: 09/09/2007 @ 7:00 AM - ISRAEL didn't see this one


Israeli Neo-Nazi Ring Busted
In a case that would seem unthinkable in the Jewish state, police said Sunday they have cracked a cell of young Israeli neo-Nazis accused in a string of attacks on foreign workers, religious Jews, drug addicts and gays.

Eight immigrants from the former Soviet Union have been arrested in recent days in connection with at least 15 attacks, and a ninth fled the country, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, in the first such known cell to be discovered in Israel.

All the suspects are in their late teens or early 20s and have Israeli citizenship, Rosenfeld said. A court decided Sunday to keep them in custody.

"The level of violence was outrageous," Maj. Revital Almog, who investigated the case, told Israel's Army Radio.

Gang members were arrested in recent days, and a gag order on the case was lifted early Sunday.

News of the arrests came as a shock in Israel, which was founded nearly 60 years ago as a refuge for Jews in the wake of the Nazi Holocaust and remains a most sensitive subject. Any forms of anti-Semitism around the world outrage Israelis, and the discovery of such violence in the country's midst made the front pages of newspapers and dominated talk on morning radio shows.

The gang documented its activities on film and in photographs. Israeli TV stations showed grainy footage of people lying helpless on floors while several people kicked them, and of a man getting hit from behind on the head with an empty bottle.

Police found knives, spiked balls, explosives and other weapons in the suspects' possession, Rosenfeld said. One photo that was seized showed one suspect holding an M16 rifle in one hand and in the other, a sign reading "Heil Hitler," he added.

Police discovered the skinhead ring after investigating the desecration of two synagogues that were sprayed with swastikas in the central Israeli city of Petah Tikva more than a year ago, Rosenfeld said.

Police computer experts have determined they maintained contacts with neo-Nazi groups abroad, and materials seized include a German-language video about neo-Nazis in the U.S.

The group planned its attacks, and its targets were foreign workers from Asia, drug addicts, homosexuals, punks and Jews who wore skullcaps. In one case they discussed planning a murder, Rosenfeld said, without providing details.

Under Israeli law, a person can claim citizenship if a parent or grandparent has Jewish roots. Authorities say that formulation allowed many Soviets with questionable ties to Judaism to immigrate here after the Soviet Union disintegrated. About 1 million Soviets moved here in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Rosenfeld said all the suspects had "parents or grandparents who were Jewish in one way or another."

Israel doesn't specifically have a hate crimes law, and suspects in past cases have been tried as Holocaust deniers, he said.

The Anti-Defamation League, a U.S.-based group that fights anti-Semitism, condemned the neo-Nazi cell, but urged Israelis not to stigmatize the entire Russian immigrant community based on the acts of what appeared to be a marginal group.

"The suspicion that immigrants to Israel could have been acting in praise of Nazis and Hitler is an anathema to the Jewish state and is to be repelled," the statement read. "The tragic irony in this is that they would have been chosen for annihilation by the Nazis they strive to emulate."

Amos Herman, an official with the semiofficial Jewish Agency, which works on behalf of the government to encourage immigration to Israel, said the phenomenon was not representative of the Russian immigration.

He called the gang a group of frustrated, disgruntled youths trying to strike at the nation's most sensitive core.

"We thought that it would never happen here, but it has and we have to deal with it," he said.''

via AP

Carl in Jerusalem has more.

Gloating Jew-rant from the depths of the premier cesspool of progressive groupthink in 5...4...3 ....

Just don't question their commitment to Tolerance and Diversity.

I Looked Into His Eyes . . . .

Soviet Russian president Vladimir Paranoid, not content with further unifying New Europe, displays his true intentions.

A 1999 encounter between a US F-15 Eagle and a Russian Tu-95 Bear

Russian bombers taunt US pilots in Guam

Russian bombers have flown to the US airforce base on the Pacific island of Guam for the first time since the Cold War.

The aerial brinkmanship, known as "buzzing", was part of an exercise yesterday designed to prove the nation's resurgent military power.

US pilots scrambling to intercept the two Tu-95 bombers received a cheery welcome from their adversaries, according to the commander of Russia's long-range bombing force.

During the Cold War, "whenever we saw US planes during our flights over the ocean, we greeted them," Maj Gen Pavel Androsov told a news conference.

"On Wednesday, we renewed the tradition when our young pilots flew by Guam in two planes. We exchanged smiles with our counterparts who flew up from a US carrier and returned home."

The flight to the Pacific Island was part of a three-day air force exercise during which Russia's strategic bombers made 40 sorties and launched eight cruise missiles, Maj Gen Androsov, who commands Russia's long-range bomber force, said.

Before the collapse of the Soviet regime, bombers routinely flew far over the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans - the areas from where they would launch nuclear cruise missiles at the United States in case of war.

However the economic meltdown of the 1990s brought such manoeuvres to a halt.

Now, as the booming value of Russia's oil and commodity trade has revived the economy, President Vladimir Putin has felt able to reassert his country's military prowess.

Don't worry, Putie. If the Surrender Monkey Party progressives gain control of the White House next year, they're bound to give you everything you want -- and then some.

His belligerent rhetoric reached a peak when he threatened to train his nuclear arsenal on Europe's cities in response to a US plan to develop a missile shield on the continent.

[...]

The Russian military has also intensified air force exercises, sending strategic bombers to areas off Norway and Iceland, as well as Russia's northeast corner, across the Bering Strait from Alaska.

There's more.

Moonbat blame Bush hatefest in 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... because this wouldn't have happened if Karl Rove hadn't stolen two elections.

Or something.

Old Europe Put On Notice?

Vaclav Klaus and Lech Kaczynski focused on Czech-Polish economic and cultural relations . . . .

Klaus calls for joint efforts of Czechs, Poles in EU
Czech President Vaclav Klaus Wednesday pointed to the importance of cooperation of the EU member states on the regional level and of their joint efforts in the EU.

Klaus, on an official visit to Poland, said at a meeting with Polish Senate Marshal Bogdan Boruszewicz that the result of the June EU summit did not fill him with optimism, the Polish news agency PAP reported.

At the summit Poland came up with the proposal to extend the validity of the current EU voting system until 2020 after which a new system envisaged in a draft European treaty would take effect.

Poland demands more voting power in the EU, pointing to the size of its population. Poland believes that the new voting system envisaged in the EU's new draft treaty will give large countries such as Germany too much influence.

Wanna see Old Europe really fill their panties? Suggest Demand one nation, one vote.

Of the EU's 27 member states, the Czech Republic alone has offered Poland support in its bid to reopen a debate on the voting system.

The summit in the end did not comply with Warsaw's demand but it agreed to postpone the new voting system's introduction until 2017.

Boruszewicz praised an important role of the regional cooperation within the Visegrad Four that includes, apart from Poland and the Czech Republic, also Slovakia and Hungary.

Klaus said that the more was achieved within the group the better but pointed to disputes that exist in the group.

Boruszewicz said he was satisfied with the Polish-Czech consultations on the U.S. plan to station a missile defence base on their territory.

Klaus said that the Czech Republic's approach to the U.S. proposal shows the importance it attaches to trans-Atlantic relations.

To stand on two feet - in the USA and the EU - is especially important for the countries with such geographical position as Poland and the Czech Republic, Boruszewicz said, adding that it would be appropriate to think about the strengthening of the east European policy.

It is reasonable to consider cooperation between the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania and Estonia, Klaus said.

Hmmm. All countries which have recently told Soviet Russian president Vladimir Paranoid and his lackeys to STFU.

Klaus will end his three-day visit to Poland on Thursday. The main topics of his discussion with Polish President Lech Kaczynski are Czech-Polish economic and cultural relations, the EU and the planned stationing of the U.S. missile defence base in the Czech Republic and Poland.
This story is from the Czech News Agency (CTK)

That stench emanates from Old Europe's panties. Host elements of the US missile defense system?!? Why . . . why . . . that might make Putie mad at us!

Old Europe, your loyal apparatchik kameraden José Manuel Barrosa has said that the European Union is now an empire.

I agree. Empire of the Tax Consuming Toothless Tiger.

Seething, Gnashing Of Teeth

The Soviet Union Russians just can't understand why they're not loved by central and eastern Europeans.

Seeing red
The Foreign Affairs Ministry is rushing to smooth tensions after controversy erupted over a Soviet war memorial in south Moravia that's pitted the Russian consulate against a local politician.

The monument, beside a church in the Královo Pole district of Brno, commemorates 326 Red Army soldiers who died liberating the city from Nazi forces in 1945. Above the interred remains of the dead sits a stone obelisk, erected in 1946, that’s crowned with a five-pointed star and embossed at the base with a hammer and sickle. A message in Russian commemorates the unidentified dead.

But during the night June 25, the hammer and sickle disappeared, and none other than Královo Pole’s deputy mayor has claimed responsibility. Two days before the memorial was to be officially unveiled after months of renovations, René Pelán called a stonemason for help. Pelán was so opposed to the hammer and sickle that he himself took power tools to the stone to help grind it off.

“The hammer and sickle are communist symbols, and communism is connected with dictatorship and a reign of terror,” said Pelán, who called the memorial “a monster.” As for the star, “I have nothing against [it],” he said. “That’s the official symbol of the Red Army.”

At the unveiling June 27, police had to be called to detain protesters who showed up to support Pelán’s move, the Czech News Agency (ČTK) reported. Alexei Kolmakov, attaché at Brno’s Russian consulate, arrived to observe the fracas.

Russian consular officials refused to comment, but in a June 28 press release called Pélan’s actions “a deliberate disgracing” of the Red Army victims and an attempt to “rewrite history.”

Such as the liberation of Plzeň?

In late May, when Pelán proposed replacing the monument with a general one to all World War II victims, the consulate released a statement saying they would consider any steps to remove the memorial as “hostile.”

Looks like Královo Pole’s deputy mayor has called their bluff.

And his actions told the Soviets Russians to STFU, already.

How A Free Press Works Under A True Democrat

Freedom of the press in the Soviet Union Russia ends up not being so free, Leftist swooning notwithstanding.

Journalists Flee The Paradise Of Vladimir Paranoid
Yuri Bagrov and Fatima Tlisova who were reporting from the volatile North Caucasus have been granted political asylum in the United States, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Sunday. The reporters said they had emigrated because of persecution of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). This is the first time that Russian journalists have received political asylum in the United States.

[....]

“The most terrible thing is that they had to flee simply because they were doing their job well,” says Nina Ognyanova, Europe and Central Asia coordinator at the Committeee.

The two journalists have repeatedly caused indignation with Russian authorities. Yuri Bagrov worked for Radio Freedom and reported about a possible role of the FSB in adbuctions in Ingushetia on the North Caucasus. In an alleged retaliation, Mr. Bagrov was charged with forging documents. The journalist told Kommersant off the record that authorities would never forgive him for his reports and close friendship with another critical journalist, Andrey Babitsky.

Fatima Tlisova reported for The Associated Press in 2005, covering a militant attack on Nalchik, which left 129 people dead. Kommersant reported in March that Ms. Tlisova was seeking political asylum in the United States, something that she was denying at the time. She said that someone was trying to poison her last October.

The decision is all the more noticeable after the U.S. Department of State issued a report in May with blistering critism on media freedom in Russia. The U.S. State Department was unavailabe for comment on Sunday.

“I don’t find anything surprising about this news,” says Igor Yakovenko, secretary general of the Russian Union of Journalists. “Real journalists are forced out of mass media with all possible means.”

Kommersant, based in Moscow, is not on Putie's friendly list.


Like the State Department, Leaky Loony Leahy was unavailable for comment.

It's Like Deja Vu All Over Again

And how prophetic Yogi's famous pronouncement remains.

Czechoslovakia's biggest disinformation ops now on web

Ask any Czech who is old enough to remember the Communist years what comes to mind when they hear the name Cerne Jezero, or the Black Lake. They will tell you that it is in Bohemia's Sumava region and the place where several chests containing Nazi secret police documents were found. The fact that the chests were actually placed there by Czechoslovakia's own secret police, the StB, only came to light after one of their agents defected and wrote a book about the operation. But now, the original StB documents with detailed information about the plan can be found on the web.

Back in 1964, four chests believed to contain secret Nazi intelligence documents were found at the bottom of the Black Lake. They were retrieved by a group of divers during the making of a Czechoslovak TV documentary. Since it was believed that the Nazis had sunk a number of chests with stolen treasure and secret documents in the lake, the Czechoslovak intelligence was called to the scene. The chests were taken to Prague and the interior minister at the time proudly declared that a list of all Gestapo collaborators was amongst other secret documents in the chest.

At the time, nobody even suspected that the chests had been put there just a few weeks earlier - naturally not by the Nazis but by Czechoslovakia's own intelligence service. Together with the KGB, they had been in possession of documents on Nazi collaborators since the end of the war but were waiting for an opportunity to make them useful. The time was ripe in the 1960s as the documents proved that West Germany's secret service was still using a network of agents that also served the Nazis and that influential government officials had already served under Adolf Hitler. Interior ministry historian Petr Cajthaml: "It was the Cold War and the goal was to re-awaken interest and discredit West German politicians. Another goal was to have the statute of limitations for war criminals, which would have expired in 1965, extended. Following the extensive media coverage, the countries that suffered during WWII demanded that the statute be prolonged. Germany eventually extended it and then agreed that there be no limited time in which their war criminals could be tried."

The divers that retrieved the chests were actually led to them by a man named Ladislav Bittman, who in reality was an StB agent specialising in misinformation campaigns. To make the chests look authentic, the corrosion process was studied carefully so that the rust on the metal parts looked like the chests had been in the water for twenty years.

"The chests that were put there contained normal white paper as the real documents that were later shown at the press conference got to Czechoslovakia from the Soviet Union weeks after the chests were retrieved. The first time that the disinformation campaign came to light was in 1972. Ladislav Bittman, who himself ran the operation emigrated in 1968 and made the operation public a few years later in a book called 'The Deception Game' that came out in the United States."

Details of the operation can now be found on the internet. The Czech civilian intelligence has posted the original StB files on the operation dubbed "Neptune" on its website.

Dan Blather would be proud.

audio

Will Putie Be Setting Up A Caretaker Government?

According to the Soviet Russian constitution, president Vladimir Paranoid is limited to two consecutive terms and must step down following elections next year. However, Putie has not ruled out running again in 2012.

"Theoretically it's possible. The constitution does not forbid it. But it's very far away, I haven't even thought about this."

I'll believe that right after I'm named high rabbi of Mecca and Medina.

Amid repeated calls by politicians for Putin to remain in power after 2008, the president has stressed that he opposes changing the constitution to allow him to stay on. But he has also suggested he will choose a favored successor and hinted that he may keep a hand in running the country after he steps down.

So, who would be the ideal puppet? And wouldn't object to Putie keeping his hand in the cookie jar?

Rumor has it that the incumbent president's wife could become a leader of the Spravedlivaya Rossia party (Fair or Just Russia, also translated as Russia of Justice; formed in October 2006 as a merger of Rodina, the Russian Party of Life and the Russian Pensioners' Party). Two facts are usually cited in this context, among others... The party was recently joined by the president's cousin, Igor Putin, and the year 2007 was declared a Year of the Russian Language, which gives Lyudmila Alexandrovna [Putin], who has long been overseeing the project, an excellent road-show opportunity, as well as the much needed exposure.

As they say, stay tuned.

Understanding The Menace

It's obvious that nearly fifty years of brainwashing, brutality, intimidation and occupation had little effect. The Prague Post tells us that Russia's political posturing is a disservice

U.S. efforts to station a missile shield in what used to be Warsaw Pact territory have Moscow making threatening noises and reviving its Cold War posturing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the shield will threaten his country’s security, and that Russia would be forced to direct its missiles against targets in the United States or Europe if the shield is deployed. And, last week, Russia made a great show of testing its own new multiple-warhead intercontinental missile.

The point of all this rhetoric and chest-beating is not to prove that Russia can overcome a U.S. shield. The fact is the shield could not possibly threaten Russia — and the Kremlin knows it. The point is to aggravate the political divide in Europe and to win points at home.

According to Tim Williams, head of the European Security Programme of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, the Russian arsenal contains 1,700 to 2,200 strategic nuclear warheads. The United States wants to put 10 interceptor missiles in Poland.

Putin and every military officer in Russia can do the math.

[....]

Russia’s leaders also say they are miffed that the United States began developing the shield, and courting Eastern Europe, without informing them. This assertion is so dishonest that those propagating it should be ashamed.

When the United States withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2001, it did so with the stated intention of building a shield.

Looks like you're having some credibility problems, Putie. Some of the former slaves are telling you to STFU.

Again.

Putie Just Can't Help Himself

Soviet Russian president Vladimir Ilyich Paranoid just couldn't help himself yesterday. Discussing his missile defense brain fart, Putie opined that,

"In this case, there will be no need to build a radar in the Czech Republic and deploy missile interceptors in Poland," Putin said. "They could be deployed in the south — I'm speaking hypothetically since it's necessary to conduct talks with relevant nations — possibly in U.S. NATO allies, such as Turkey."

"Or it could be Iraq — what they have waged the war for? There would be at least some benefit coming out of it," Putin added on a sarcastic note.

How about somewhere in northern Afghanistan, Putie? Didn't you fight a ten-year war to bring peace and stability to the Afghan people? Shouldn't you get at least some benefit from those glory days?

And wouldn't it be better to have a facility where it could keep an eye on both Iran and Pakistan?

Screw your idea about Iraq, Putie. A radar and interceptor base in northern Afghanistan makes much more sense.

Especially if each were heavily staffed with former members of the Northern Alliance.

Tension Increases Over Soviet Monument In Brno

Kralovo Pole in Brno is dealing with a delicate matter at the moment. The district has a large memorial to Soviet soldiers who fell in April 1945 while liberating the city from Nazi rule and were buried there. The memorial displayed Soviet symbols - the five-pointed star and the hammer and sickle - ever since it was erected in 1946. The symbols were removed in the early 1990s, but now the star has returned.

The monument in question is in fact a military burial site where, according to the inscription in Cyrillic, 326 soldiers of the Red Army were interred. The monument was erected in May 1946 and decorated with a hammer and sickle on the front and a five-pointed red star on top. These emblems, commonly seen as representing communism, were removed after 1989, but the star returned last year after pressure from the Russian General Consulate in Brno.

Deputy Mayor of Kralovo Pole Rene Pelan says he understands the attitude of the Russians. "They are very sensitive about it now, but I wish they would understand that nobody wants to disrespect the burials sites or the memorials to the liberators of Brno, but rather start a debate of the form and appearance of the monument. I suggested removing the monument and installing a boulder with the inscription 'To all victims of WWII'. It is still debated whether there are only Red Army soldiers in the grave, or maybe some Germans, or Rumanians, or even civilians. So that text that only celebrates the Red Army, might not be completely true."

This proposition met with little appreciation from the Russian Consulate. Alexei Kolmakov, attaché to the General Consulate, would not comment on the matter, but a press release from 22nd May 2007 maintained that any effort to "distort the truth and to libel the Red Army" and any destruction or profanation of the monuments to Soviet soldiers would be seen by the Russians as "adversary".

Not that the Soviets Russians would ever dream of distorting the truth.

The Shame of Forgotten Days

On May 27th, Orlando at FortHardKnox provided some unique and meaningful insight into the observance of Memorial Day.

I’m ashamed to admit that Memorial Day had little meaning except for a mini-vacation, a day off, BBQ, and picnic.

Sound a little bit too familiar?

That changed when I joined the military and served in the Gulf War.

Thank you for your patriotism and service, Orlando.

More than 1.5 million American men and women who served our Armed Forces have died. One point five million – that is the equivalent of the entire country of Estonia. It is hard to comprehend. They did not die in vain. They died in service to our country. In return, we owe them and their families our greatest respect.

Indeed, we do and it must be never ending.

Orlando's commentary brings to mind ways in which we disrespect our veterans - our World War II veterans specifically. For starters, see if there's more than passing reference that this year marks the 63rd anniversary of D-Day, the start of the Allied invasion of the European continent.

Now, think back one month ago. How much was said or written about VE Day?

To our great shame, very little.

In the Czech Republic's southwestern Bohemia, however, the memories and significance of VE Day - 62 years ago - survived nearly 45 years of Soviet liberation occupation; an occupation that was no less brutal and cruel than that which was visited upon the Czech Lands by der Übermenschen, the Austrian corporal's Master Race.

As World War Two in Europe came to a close in the first days of May 1945, more than just the end of the war was at hand. For over six long years, the people of western Czechoslovakia had lived under Nazi tyranny - longer than any other people subjugated by Nazi Germany. Now, two corps of General George S. Patton, Jr.'s Third U.S. Army were in the Sudetenland region along the old 1937 German- Czechoslovak border. The German Army opposing them was literally melting away, as tens of thousands of its soldiers surrendered or deserted daily. Third Army was about to bring an end to western Czechoslovakia's long years of Nazi occupation and oppression.

Today, the populace of the Plzeň region remembers, celebrates and honors their liberators. But it wasn't always so.

For more than 40 years after U.S. forces drove Nazi Germany from Plzeň, west Bohemia, an important truth was kept quiet. Although this event was known as the “liberation” of Plzeň, the city continued to suffer under the oppressive censorship of Soviet communism, and schoolchildren were taught that it was the Russians who freed Plzeň from the Nazis’ grip.

But private memories persisted. Many people remembered the massive celebration when the Americans rolled into town in May 1945. Families secretly kept photos, and some even hid U.S. military vehicles that had been left behind.

Discovery would have meant execution for being an enemy of the state.

Eva Stejskalová, of Prague, was 6 years old at the time; she remembers bringing a cake her mother baked to some U.S. soldiers and parroting the English phrase her father taught her: “How do you do?” The soldiers laughed and gave her chocolate.

On May 6, 2007, a convoy of Jeeps and other military vehicles made its way along Klatovská street, re-enacting the liberation.

Perched in one of the jeeps was Earl Ingram, 84, a U.S. veteran from North Carolina. It was his division, the 2nd Infantry, that liberated the city in 1945.

Doug Brackenbrough, 75, a Korean War veteran, came over from Washington state for the celebration. His eyes teared when he remembered driving through a small Czech town in 2002 with the convoy and passing a crying elderly couple holding a sign that read, “Thank you America.”

“The outpouring of appreciation and patriotism in this country is much greater than in our own,” he said.

Ask any American school kid about the significance of the Anschluss, the Munich Accords, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, September 1, 1939, the Malmedy Massacre - much less D-Day, VE Day or VJ Day - and you'll be met with a blank stare.

Hell, go to the source. Ask their indoctrinators teachers.

It is The Shame of Forgotten Days.

Well, There He Goes Again

Soviet Russian president, Vladimir Paranoid, is showing that he's a master at winning friends and influencing people.

President Vladimir Putin yesterday declared that a new arms race and cold war with the west had begun and announced that Russia would retaliate against US missile defence plans in Europe by pointing its missiles at European cities.

He also indicated that he would not shy away from fights with the German chancellor Angela Merkel on human rights and harshly accused Britain of "politicising" the murder of the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko.

Putie & human rights? LOL

On missile defence, Mr Putin said that if the Bush administration installed elements of a missile shield in eastern Europe, Russia would retaliate by training nuclear missiles on European targets. Russia has not specifically aimed its missiles at Europe since the end of the cold war but, asked if it might do so again if the US missile shield went ahead, Mr Putin said: "Of course we are returning to those times. It is clear that if a part of the US nuclear capability turns up in Europe, and, in the opinion of our military specialists will threaten us, then we are forced to take corresponding steps in response."

"What will those steps be? Naturally, we will have to have new targets in Europe."

The Euroweenies may wet their panties, but the Czechs and Poles (and the rest of New Europe) will never roll over for you, Putie.

"We want to be heard, we want our position to be understood. But if that does not happen, we lift from ourselves any responsibility for the steps we take in response, because we are not the ones who are initating the arms race in Europe."

Mr Putin's comments, in an interview with selected media from G8 countries at his dacha outside Moscow, appear calculated to inflict maximum panic among western leaders ahead of the G8 summit.

Putie, STFU.