Russia's Secret New Weapon: The Inflatable Tank

I suppose the idea is to make any potential enemy die of laughter.

THEY may look like real tanks and missiles, but some of the weapons in Russia's arsenal may not all be what they seem.

The army is making increasing use of inflatable replicas — decoys deployed in a cunning attempt to deceive potential enemies.

In a workshop in Moscow's suburb Khotkovo, employees of inflatable equipment company Rusbal sew the fabric used to create fake weapons for their main customer — the Russian army.

Established in 1993, Rusbal replicates military equipment, such as T-80 tanks, S-300 missiles or fighter jets, for an undisclosed price, but also manufactures inflatable castles and other toys for children.

"These machines are effective in deceiving the enemy, and they protect the real equipment," the Rusbal plant director, Victor Talanov, said.

"This kind of technology has existed in the army for a long time, since World War II."

Can't wait to see Putie driving one of these things.

Not that it'll happen, but someone in Russia might want to do an inventory of their real equipment. I suspect a whole lot of money isn't going where the public might think it is.

The Kremlin has vowed repeatedly to modernise its dilapidated military, equipped with aging and obsolete equipment.

In February Russia launched a $650 billion rearmament plan to counter the West's military dominance by adding eight nuclear submarines and hundreds of warplanes to its creaking armed forces.

Last year Russia announced plans to triple its defence spending to 19 trillion rubles ($669 billion) over the next decade.

Speaking of Putie, the man buying fake tanks is calling action in Libya medieval. An interesting retort from Dmitry Medvedev.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed as “unacceptable” Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s description of Western-led attacks on Libya as a “crusade,” marking their first public foreign-policy dispute.

Putin, who spoke amid a visit to Russia by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said the UN resolution and resulting allied offensive amounts to a “medieval call for a crusade.”

“It’s unacceptable to use terms that effectively lead to a clash of civilizations like the crusades,” Medvedev said at his residence outside Moscow. “Otherwise things could end far worse than what’s happening now.”

Train Wreck (For Charity!): Putin Sings 'Blueberry Hill'

And with this, the Russian Prime Minister is now officially more "American" than our fine President.

(NDTV) — Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sang and played piano while participating in a charity event in St. Petersburg on Friday evening.

The charity was organised for children suffering from cancer. Numerous celebrities from Europe and the United States came to the northern Russian capital to support the event.

During the evening Vladimir Putin played the Russian song “From Where Does The Motherland Begin” on the piano and then sung “Blueberry Hill” (originally by US artist Fats Domino) in English.

Amongst the celebrities taking part were singer Paul Anka, US actors Kurt Russel, Goldie Hawn, Sharon Stone, Kevin Costner and Mickey Rourke, as well as European actors Alain Delon, Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel.

h/t Weasel Zippers. Cross-posted.

'Did Putin Have a Facelift?'

For some reason there don't appear to be many photos out there of Putie with a shiner. Guess people are too afraid to embarrass the Communist hack. We found the one above here and he appears heavily pancaked.

Vladimir Putin, who has carved out a strongman image by wrestling with tigers or judo opponents, raised eyebrows Thursday as he was pictured caked in make-up, apparently to mask a black eye.

Journalists feverishly speculated that the Russian premier could have taken a punch during a judo session or even had a facelift, after he visited Kiev on Wednesday slathered in war paint.

"Ukrainian, Russian and Western journalists ... talked only of one thing: How did the Russian prime minister get a black eye?," reported Kommersant business daily's Kremlin correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov.

"Could it really be the result of some tough sparring? While it was carefully covered up, it was noticeable to everyone without exception."

While some leaders regularly wear make-up for televised meetings, Putin has always stayed barefaced in the past, journalists said.

Putin arrived for talks with Ukrainian leaders in a "bad mood" and with "something like a big bruise on his left cheekbone. He also had on his face a very noticeable swelling," reported Ukrainian television channel TCH.

"It was all badly covered up with make-up."

Aw, poor Putie-poot. Maybe he's just been up late worrying about the heavy losses his comrades in America are about to suffer.

Heh: Russian Pols Claim Spy Arrests are Right-Wing Plot to Embarrass Obama

As if the "right-wingers" in this country could conspire to meet privately for lunch, let alone clandestinely operate a spy trap for over a decade knowing that years later they could use the arrests to make an inept president look even weaker than he already is.

And here we thought such delusions were only left to liberal Democrats.

So it was that the most rabid anti-American Kremlin stooges on state TV were muzzled and state TV portrayed President Medvedev’s trip to the United States last week as a sign that Russia is once again, if not exactly an equal partner, a great power whose opinion matters. Backed by generally high oil prices, the third largest international reserves in the world, and an economy that appears to be coming out of the global recession faster than Western rivals, the Kremlin is once again feeling confident.

Yet the spy row has left it in a bind. President Medvedev has invested too much political capital and too much propaganda in better relations with the United States to suddenly perform a U-turn now. The only way is forward. Russian politicians are therefore already punting a convenient conspiracy theory. The spies are not spies and the “plot” was announced just after President Medvedev’s trip to the US by American Right-wingers intent on embarrassing President Obama and killing of better relations between the two countries.

It is a theory that allows the Russians to publicly save face: it is not our new friends that have stabbed us in the back but the enemies of our new friends. Yet the real victim of the dispute may not be Mr Obama but Mr Medvedev or, more accurately, the policy vector he represents. He is the one who has publicly gambled on embracing the West, while Vladimir Putin, the prime minister and former president, has kept notably quiet on the subject and is known for his tough anti-Western rhetoric.

It shouldn't be long until some in our own media run with this theory. I figure the crack staff at MSNBC is feverishly pursuing this insane line of logic.

Putie, meanwhile, claims Russia is the real victim.

Russia is the real victim of the spy scandal, Moscow angrily said yesterday -- while the Obama administration acted embarrassed at carrying off the biggest counterespionage coup in years.

Kremlin officials acknowledged that at least 10 of the 11 suspects caught in the US spy dragnet were Russian citizens. But in a bizarre role reversal, they said this showed America was acting irresponsibly.

"Back at your home, the police went out of control," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told a visiting Bill Clinton in Moscow. "Throwing people in jail."

Clinton appeared to chuckle but made no comment.

Other Kremlin leaders demanded an explanation for reviving what the Foreign Ministry labeled "Cold War-era spy stories" and making "groundless" accusations.

In contrast, President Obama dodged the issue.

While talking to reporters about the economy, Obama was asked about the arrests. "Thank you," he replied. He declined comment when asked a second time.

Speaking of Clinton, it appears an ally of his wife was a target of one of the alleged spies.

A close political ally of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton believes he was the target of one of the ten alleged Russian spies arrested in the U.S.

Alan Patricof, the former finance chairman of Clinton’s Senate campaign, confirmed that the woman known as Cynthia Murphy had worked on his account at a New York finance firm.

According to the FBI complaint filed in New York on the arrests, which were the result of a ten-year investigation, Murphy had been told to get close to a New York-based financier described as a fundraiser “for a major political party” who is “a personal friend” of a Cabinet member.

Seems the one spy receiving much of the attention isn't exactly the brightest bulb.

Those who knew Chapman from the social and club scenes described her as "sweet," "flirtatious" and "friendly" -- sometimes too friendly.

At parties, she "would be very flirtatious," said one moneyman, who encountered her at a couple of Wall Street cocktail soirees. "She was very sexually aggressive [and] wore revealing clothing . . . I thought she was a call girl because she dressed that way," said the man, who spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity.

She also had problems keeping her cover stories straight.

"She made up a different story every time," he said.

"The first time, she said she ran a real-estate Web site. Then the next time, she was working on an oil deal."

"[Then] she told me she was a derivatives trader. I asked her one thing any derivatives trader would know and she didn't know what I was talking about," he said. "She was just dumb, quite frankly."

That, of course, may well be an act by the woman whose real name is Kuschenko.

If it is proven she is a spy, Chapman is one of a new breed of young attractive female agents trained in the era of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, himself a former Soviet agent, for a new age of espionage to undermine the West.

Documents in Russia reveal that Chapman’s real surname is Kuschenko. She was born in Ukraine and raised in Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, southern Russia. As a teenager she studied at the Economics Department of the University of People’s Friendship in Moscow – an institution with long-standing links to the old feared KGB.

But this could all be a decoy by Russian intelligence to mask her real identity. She is widely travelled, fun-loving and a fashionably dressed Russian entrepreneur who sends her photographs to friends about her glittering, cosmopolitan lifestyle in New York, London and Moscow.

Her CV also suggests she is involved in a dizzying array of businesses, including interests in London up to 2006. In the UK she is listed as the marketing manager of a company called Navigator and also worked in the City as an investment banker. In the US she runs an online real estate business.

It was also reported last night that it was in London that she acquired her English surname after she married an Englishman and moved with him to America. But it is unclear when she married. An online friend said: “Anna loves to exchange experiences with successful entrepreneurs around the world.”

Looking at her it's easy to see how she could lure the men in.

Pelosi: Selling Out Eastern Europe a 'Brilliant' Move

Just imagine what this dunce might say if if we treated our allies like friends rather than throwing them under the bus and selling out to Vladimir Putin.

President Obama's decision to scrap a controversial Bush-era missile shield for Europe yesterday calmed Russian fears of a new Cold War -- but outraged critics, who said it weakened the West.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev praised Obama's "responsible approach."

But critics said Obama was needlessly kowtowing to the Kremlin on the eve of his meeting with Medvedev next week at the United Nations.

"It's just, unambiguously, a bad decision," said John Bolton, former UN ambassador in George W. Bush's administration.

"Russia and Iran are the big winners. I just think it's a bad day for American national security."

Sen. John McCain, Obama's Republican rival in the presidential race, called the reversal "seriously misguided."

On the other hand, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said it was a "brilliant" move and described it as a "giant step forward."

Obama opted for what he said was a cheaper, more flexible strategy to meet the challenge of Iran's ballistic missiles. He said new intelligence data showed the greatest danger came from Tehran's shorter-range missiles, not the long-range ones anticipated in Bush's multibillion-dollar plan.

Of course now that the Iranians are ready to roll with their own nukes, does Obama have any plan to stop them?

Of course not.

Once the Bush administration committed to the deployment, I grudgingly supported it: We couldn't hang the East Europeans out to dry after strong-arming them for commitments.

Now the Obama administration's made the mess immeasurably worse. It's a lose-lose situation for us -- and for our allies.

Moscow believes we just signed over a new lease on Eastern Europe. And we didn't even get a tin of caviar. Will the Obama-Putin Act go down in history as the post-modern Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact?

Probably more like Neville Chamberlain waving a piece of paper saying we had peace in our time, but we'll see.

If anything, Obama has impeccable timing.

Ironically, Obama's announcement came on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland at the start of World War II -- an event that underscores Warsaw's longstanding fear of aggression from the east.

Moreover, Obama's cave-in to Putin & Co. might make sense if it were part of a quid pro quo -- namely, a firm Russian commitment to take a harder line against Iran's nuclear ambitions. But Moscow has signaled that fresh sanctions against Iran would be "a serious mistake."

Another big winner in this? Why, Obama's pals at GE and MSNBC. Somehow I doubt his flakcs there will utter a single word of criticism.

Putie Pulls an Obama

What is it with these Marxist leaders and their desire to go topless in public?

Well, I guess it's soon time for our Dear Leader's freeloading jaunt to Martha's Vineyard, so I guess he'll need to reflex the pecs for his adoring masses.

Cantor Contrasts Obama With Putin

This is unfair of Eric Cantor. How dare he compare a relative moderate like Putie with a far-left radical like Obama?

The No. 2 Republican in the House is comparing some of President Barack Obama's economic policies to those of Russia's prime minister and former president, Vladimir Putin.

The House Republican whip, Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, tells The Associated Press that Obama is micromanaging the auto industry to win points with Democratic allies and labor unions.

Cantor said Thursday that Obama's plans for the auto industry are, in his words, "almost like looking at Putin's communist Russia."

Cantor says the normal rights of secured creditors have been taken away and given to political cronies and the auto workers unions.

Expect a major meltdown by the left over Cantor's comments. They hate being compared with their Communist comrades.

Hot Air links. Thanks!

Putie Stages Rescue, Media Laps It Up

Just imagine an American politician trying to pull this off. Well, I'm sure they'd let Lord Obama get away with it. After all, He can do no wrong.

He's driven a big truck, flown in a Russian fighter jet and fished shirtless on national television.

Now comes Vladimir Putin's latest image-boosting escapade, a visit to a Russian wildlife preserve that gave him the chance to wear camouflage, stalk through the woods and shoot a tiger — all for a good cause.

According to Russian media reports, Putin, taking a break from lambasting the West over Georgia, was visiting the Ussuriisky Nature Reserve in the far east of Russia to see how researchers monitor the tigers in the wild.

Just as Putin was arriving with a group of wildlife specialists to see a trapped Amur tiger, it escaped and ran toward a nearby camera crew, the country's main television station said. Putin quickly shot the beast and sedated it with a tranquilizer gun.

"Vladimir Putin not only managed to see the giant predator up close but also saved our television crew too," a presenter on Rossiya television said at the start of the main evening news.

Sure he did. Just keep believing that.

Hate to be cynical, but maybe he was looking to distract attention from the murder of another journalist.

An opposition Internet news site owner in Russia's troubled Ingushetia region was fatally shot on Sunday soon after being detained by police, and his colleagues called for a rally to protest his death.

Magomed Yevloyev is one of the most high-profile journalists to be killed in Russia since investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead near her Moscow apartment in 2006, provoking condemnation of Russia's record on media freedom.

Yevloyev, owner of the www.Ingushetiya.ru website, was a vocal critic of the region's Kremlin-backed administration, accused by opponents of crushing dissent and free speech.

A lawyer for the website -- which survived repeated official attempts to close it down -- said police met Yevloyev at the steps of the aircraft after he flew in to Ingushetia's airport, put him in a Volga saloon car and drove him away.

"As they drove he was shot in the temple... They threw him out of the car near the hospital," lawyer Kaloi Akhilgov told Reuters by telephone.

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

Laugh of the Day: New Russian President Stresses Freedom

Reuters shamelessly shills for the "new" leadership in Russia, trumpeting freedom.

Yeah, right.

Dmitry Medvedev was sworn in as Russian president on Wednesday and just over two hours later nominated his predecessor Vladimir Putin as prime minister, ushering in an unprecedented period of dual rule.

Medvedev, a 42-year-old former corporate lawyer and longtime Putin ally, stressed freedom and the rule of law in his first remarks after taking the oath of office in a solemn, emotional ceremony in the Kremlin's glittering St Andrew's Hall.

So the upshot is Medvedev has installed former KGB leader Putin as his Prime Minister, who hand-picked Medvedev for this job. Anybody out there really believe that Putin (did I mention he is former KGB?) is not still running things?

Me neither.

So what does Putin have to say about all this?

Before Medvedev was sworn in, a somber-looking Putin entered the Kremlin alone, bid farewell to the presidential guard and thanked the Russian people for their trust over his two four-year terms.

Barred by term limits from standing again, he encouraged his audience to support Medvedev but told them not to deviate from his policies.

"It is very important for everyone to continue the course we have started already and which has proved right," he said.

Translation: Do exactly what I tell you or else!

My guess is that the first time Medvedev actually shows any inclination to make his own decisions he will be overcome by an urge to shoot himself in the back of the head a couple of times.

Imagine If We Shut Down Newspapers That Made Mistakes

We noted the other day the story about Vladimir Putin dumping his wife for some young gymnast babe.

Apparently, it was BS. Now the paper that printed the original item has been shut down.

A NEWSPAPER that defied the Kremlin by reporting that President Vladimir Putin was planning to marry an Olympic gold medal-winning rhythmic gymnast half his age was shut down yesterday.

The closure of Moskovski Korrespondent, whose editor Grigori Nekhoroshev was forced to resign, was a sharp reminder of the perils of invoking Kremlin displeasure.

Rumours of a romance between Putin, 55, and Alina Kabaeva, 24, who is also an MP in his party, have been circulating in Moscow for months, but until last week no one had dared to print them.

The paper admitted there was no factual basis for its claim that Putin had already divorced Ludmilla, 50, his wife of 24 years, and would marry Kabaeva in June, shortly after standing down as president and becoming prime minister. It cited information from a party planner who claimed to be bidding to organise the lavish reception.

Both Putin and Kabaeva denied the report, which was followed up by European newspapers but ignored by Russia’s media, which do not delve into the private lives of politicians.

“I thought we should run the story to help break the taboo,” said Nekhoroshev. He paid a swift penalty for his daring: the paper, owned by Alexander Lebedev, the billionaire tycoon, ceased publication immediately.

Its parent firm blamed “costs” and “conceptual disagreements with the newsroom” but insisted in a statement that “this has nothing to do with politics and is solely a business decision”.

Few in Russia will believe that. The closure came a few hours after Putin had said during a visit to Sardinia that there was not a word of truth in the story and derided the “snotty noses and erotic fantasies” of the journalists concerned. So protective is the president of his private life that the Russian public has not seen his daughters since he came to power eight years ago.

Obviously if the story is bogus, the paper should retract it. Seems a bit harsh to cease operations entirely.

Though it got me to thinking: What if newspapers here were forced out of business for publishing falsehoods?

The New York Times would have gone out of business a long time ago.

Would anyone miss them?

Putie Dumps His Wife, Plans to Marry Young Model

Maybe he's envious of Nicolas Sarkozy. Granted, Sarkozy actually married someone a bit closer in age. Vlad is going really young here with a 24-year-old gymnast.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin, a man less known for his personal life, is planning to marry a former Olympic gymnast and model who is half his age, a local newspaper reported.

“What about his wife?” Some may ask.

Well, the 56-year-old president has taken care of that. Putin divorced Lyudmila, his 50-year-old ex-wife, two months ago after 25 years of marriage.

The fact has recently come to light, but it was obvious that their relationship wasn’t on the right track. Putin came at the UN Summit in Bucharest without his wife and, more surprisingly, he was alone when he received President Bush and his wife Barbara at Soci.

The girl Putin plans to marry is the 24-year-old gold medal-winning rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabaeva according to Britain's Evening Standard newspaper.

Kabaeva represented Russia at the Sydney and Athens Olympics. She has been a one-time nude model, is currently a politician and has entered the Russian Parliament last December. She once posed wrapped in only fur and also appeared in an action film.

Of course, Putie denies the story.

"In what you said, there is not one word of truth,'' Putin said when asked about the reports by a journalist at a news briefing with Italy's Prime Minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi.

Which means, of course, by the time you read this, they'll have been officially married.

She seems to be a very flexible young lady.

Dubya Tweaks Putie

Bush Tweaks Putin Before Last Talks
Even as President Bush downplays concerns about tensions between the United States and Russia, he is using a trip to Croatia to showcase some of the differences that have caused those tensions just before final talks with outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Hours before the pair start working on a new "strategic framework" they hope to announce to guide relations beyond their time in office toward a less rocky future, Bush on Saturday is lauding U.S.-promoted developments in Russia's backyard.

In a speech to an invited group of up to 7,000 Croatians in a public square in Zagreb, the president is extolling the virtues of extending NATO membership and spreading Western-style democracy throughout all of Europe, including eastward to former Soviet states on Russia's borders.

That should give Pelousi and the Kooky Kult Kommandante something to screech about.

Ahead of Bush's arrival, thousands massed quietly and listened to local singers in St. Mark's Square, used as the site of the inauguration of every Croatian president for the past 700 years and considered "the center of Croatian politics." But while there was little chance of an unfriendly crowd there, as the invitations were given to the Croatian government to distribute, hundreds of anti-war demonstrators protested Friday night upon Bush's arrival in other parts of Zagreb.

Bush also met Saturday with Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, signing a guest book to signify improved U.S.-Croatian relations.

By evening, Bush was to be at Putin's summer home at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where the two men will cap an often contentious seven-year relationship that will come to end when Putin leaves office next month.

As if Putie's really leaving.

Over dinner,and again in talks Sunday, Bush and Putin are expected to make nice and emphasize the positive, such as the strategic framework and Russia's agreement this week to allow shipment of nonmilitary NATO supplies to Afghanistan through its territory.

Via The AP

UPDATE:
Missile Defense Deal Unlikely in Russia

About Lame Duck Presidencies

Interesting developments while Dubya's in Romania.

Putin, Bush may sign missile shield document
A joint document to be signed by the Russian and U.S. presidents on April 6 will include issues related to missile defense, a Kremlin source said on Tuesday.

George W. Bush will meet with Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia's resort city on the Black Sea, for more discussions on NATO's expansion and U.S. plans to deploy elements of its missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

"Experts are working hard on a document within the strategic framework of Russian-U.S. cooperation," the source said.

"[The presidents'] joint statement will include provisions on missile defense," he added.

He also said the upcoming meeting would provide "a road map" for future presidents in both countries.

While some of Old Europe's heavy hitters grasp their oui-ouis and tremble in abject fear, ol' Dubya and New Europe again challenge Vladimir Paranoid to join the 21st century.

So-o-o-o-o, what's happened to bring Putie aboard the Good Ship Real World?

Heh. Maybe this.

Bush said earlier on Tuesday that there would be no deal with Moscow on withdrawing American support for NATO bids by the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Ukraine in exchange for Russia's acceptance of a U.S. missile shield in Europe.

Speaking at a news conference in Kiev after talks with President Viktor Yushchenko, Bush signaled his support for the two ex-Soviet states' requests to enter the Membership Action Plan (MAP), a precursor for membership in the Western military alliance.

Asked by a reporter about rumors that Washington could strike a bargain with Moscow, he said: "That is a misperception - I strongly believe that Ukraine and Georgia should be given MAP, and there's no tradeoff, period."

The U.S. intends to deploy 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic, which it says will provide defense against 'rogue states' such as Iran. Moscow views the plans as a direct threat to its own security.

Moscow also vehemently opposes NATO's further expansion around its borders. The Kremlin threatened in February to target missiles at Ukraine if Kiev joins NATO and allows Western military facilities on its territory.

Bush's visit to Kiev is a stop-over before a trip to Romania for the April 2-4 NATO summit. Putin has also been invited to the summit.

Koslings v. PuffHo: Who will be first to spin this into proof of the Bushchimphitler-Pajamashadeen-Jooooish Conspiracy?

And what about eeeevil Halliburton?!?

Via RIA Novosti, Russian News & Information Agency

See also: U.S.-Czech treaty on radar base may be announced at NATO summit


Also at A Tangled Web

UPDATE: Dr. Rusty links. Thanks!

Building Putin's Empire

Deal with Serbia gives Russia victory in 'pipeline war' with EU

Russia won the right Friday to direct a major supply route for natural gas through its ally Serbia to Europe, a deal that analysts described as a Kremlin victory in a "pipeline war" with the European Union.

The agreement, signed in the Kremlin before President Vladimir Putin and visiting Serbian leaders, increased Moscow's control over energy supplies to Europe and could undermine a rival EU project.

Strong Russian opposition to independence for the Serbian province of Kosovo was a key bargaining chip in the negotiations that resulted in Serbia joining the project, the South Stream natural gas pipeline. Belgrade also agreed to sell a majority stake in Serbia's state-owned oil monopoly, NIS, to the Russian natural gas giant, Gazprom, at a favorable price.

South Stream is a project worth a projected €10 billion, or $14.7 billion, organized jointly by Gazprom and the Italian energy giant ENI to carry Siberian gas to Europe via the Black Sea.

"Our close political relations were today converted into economic results," Putin's chosen successor, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, told reporters. "This is a great breakthrough."

[...]

The agreements signed Friday by Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica of Serbia, gave Gazprom a 51 percent stake in Serbia's NIS oil and natural gas company, for €400 million [US$593,259,318.44 ed.] and a pledge to invest €500 million more by 2012.

Some analysts described the price as well below market value, giving estimates of €1 billion to €2 billion [US$1,483,589,692.57 - US$2,966,249,293.59 ed.], although others said the NIS plant needed heavy reconstruction.

NIS dominates the Serbian market, with a monopoly on refining and a network of almost 500 gas stations. The NIS deal gives Gazprom its first refinery outside Russia.

Gazprom gets OMV stake

Gazprom will acquire a stake of 50 percent in OMV's natural gas hub in Austria, giving it greater access to the Continent's customers, under an agreement signed Friday, Bloomberg News reported.

The two will sell to Germany and Italy through the Baumgarten hub, located near a trunk pipeline from west Siberian natural gas fields.

Via The IHT

On January 17, 2008, The Streetwise Professor observed that

Gazprom/Russia is/are playing smashmouth ball over Serbia’s national oil company. Don Miller and Don Medvedev have presented Serbia with an offer it can’t refuse: to sell Naftna industrija Srbije at a fraction of its true value–and one with an unbelievably short fuse, like, you know, Friday.

In exchange for control of SIJ’s hard assets and guarantees of a monopoly position in Serbia for some period (take that Serbian consumers, Gazprom doesn’t do competition), Gazprom Neft (Gazprom’s oil affiliate) is offering an amount that has been estimated to represent well less than one-half (and perhaps as little as one-quarter) of the Serbian company’s value. The tacit quid pro quo is that Russia will support Serbia on Kosovo–but, if Russian rhetoric is to be believed (yeah, I know) they would do that anyways.

To make the deal look a little less like an abject surrender, Gazprom has also dangled the prospect of giving Serbia a stake in a future gas venture. Word of advice, guys–DON’T BELIEVE IT, and DON’T TAKE IT. Gazprom is the master of what Bob Amsterdam calls “premature contractualization.” That is, announcing deals just in time to forestall projects that are adverse to Gazprom’s interest, and then fading the deal when the threatening competing projects are shelved in response to the Gazprom announcement. Gazprom will whisper sweet promises in anybody’s ear to get what they want, and then renege when it suits them. (Nigeria–you should take note of this, as Gazprom has been wooing you too.)

Gazprom’s stratagem is analogous to a common ploy in the software business. In the 80s and 90s “vaporware” was a commonly employed competitive strategy. A software company would announce a new, improved software product in order to forestall entry by a competitor. Once the potential entrant was scared away, the new software would just fade away into the mists, never to be seen. Gazprom is essentially following this playbook–constantly announcing vaporpipelines, vaporwells, vaporinvestments, vaporstorage, vapor-you-name-it whenever a threatening project is mooted.

So, what Gazprom is offering Serbia is: a pittance in cash plus a pig in a poke in exchange for hard assets right now. Given Gazprom’s record of delivering on its big talk, the Serbs would be well advised to take cash on the barrelhead and take the promises for what they are worth–a little more than nothing.

It would be fair to say that Serbia is the first new province in Putie's Soviet Union Lite. Let's see how long it takes before soon-to-be Soviet Russian Premier Putin directs the new pawns - with their new military advisors - to square off against KFOR, while at the same time, telling the EU that abandoning their NATO obligations would be in their absolute best energy supply interests.

And whether he delivers the message or has his beard, Gazprom poohbah Gerhard Schroeder, do so instead.

See also: How To Attract Foreign Investment (Gazprom and its business partners)

RFK Jr. Advising Putin?

What is it with these Kennedy scions cozying up to Communists?

In Massachusetts, you have Joseph Kennedy in business with Hugo Chavez, and today comes word Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is advising Vladimir Putin, according to the New York Post, while eyeballing Senator Clinton's seat were she to win her run for the White House.

ROBERT Kennedy Jr. has reportedly become an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin on cleaning up the environment. Kennedy, now in Aspen with his family, is said to have offered Putin his expertise in cleaning up the terrible pollution in Russia during a trip to Moscow last year. The founder of Riverkeeper also told restaurateur Nello Balan he's interested in running for Sen. Hillary Clinton's seat when it becomes vacant.

Apparently, the family has a long history of working with Communists.

Rumrunner Joe would be proud of such appeasement.

The Other Side Of Vladimir Paranoid

Putin, the Kremlin power struggle and the $40bn fortune
An unprecedented battle is taking place inside the Kremlin in advance of Vladimir Putin's departure from office, the Guardian has learned, with claims that the president presides over a secret multibillion-dollar fortune.

Rival clans inside the Kremlin are embroiled in a struggle for the control of assets as Putin prepares to transfer power to his hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, in May, well-placed political observers and other sources have revealed.

At stake are billions of dollars in assets belonging to Russian state-run corporations. Additionally, details of Putin's own personal fortune, reportedly hidden in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, are being discussed for the first time.

The claims over the president's assets surfaced last month when the Russian political expert Stanislav Belkovsky gave an interview to the German newspaper Die Welt. They have since been repeated in the Washington Post and the Moscow Times, with speculation over the fortune appearing on the internet.

Citing sources inside the president's administration, Belkovsky claims that after eight years in power Putin has secretly accumulated more than $40bn (£20bn). The sum would make him Russia's - and Europe's - richest man.

In an interview with the Guardian, Belkovsky repeated his claims that Putin owns vast holdings in three Russian oil and gas companies, concealed behind a "non-transparent network of offshore trusts".

Putin "effectively" controls 37% of the shares of Surgutneftegaz, an oil exploration company and Russia's third biggest oil producer, worth $20bn, he says. He also owns 4.5% of Gazprom, and "at least 75%" of Gunvor, a mysterious Swiss-based oil trader, founded by Gennady Timchenko, a friend of the president's, Belkovsky alleges.

Asked how much Putin was worth, Belkovsky said: "At least $40bn. Maximum we cannot know. I suspect there are some businesses I know nothing about." He added: "It may be more. It may be much more.

"Putin's name doesn't appear on any shareholders' register, of course. There is a non-transparent scheme of successive ownership of offshore companies and funds. The final point is in Zug [in Switzerland] and Liechtenstein. Vladimir Putin should be the beneficiary owner."

Given the situation of Anna Politkovskaya, Luke Harding, Stanislav Belkovsky, Yulia Latynina and others had better develop a healthy sense of paranoia.

Read it all at The Guardian.

See also Why The Chekist Mindest Matters and Putin's Russia.

Also at A Tangled Web

H/T The JammieWearingFool

Well, at Least It Wasn't Algore

Time should be ashamed naming this despicable man Person of the Year.

Bad enough they pulled that copout by naming everyone POTY in 2006, but seriously, Vladimir Paranoid?

Please.

I guess the fraudulent elections he recently pulled off sealed the deal.

If they had a shred of decency, the POTY would have been General David Petraeus.

UPDATE: Thanks to Don Surber for the link. He's got more.

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.

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