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A Mi-8 helicopter during Su-34, Su-27 and MiG-29 aircraft during the aerial rehearsal of the May 9 Victory Parade in Moscow. © Sputnik/ Vladimir Astapkovich
Stratfor: Analysis: The Kremlin's Cracks Are All-Too Familiar
Summary
Feb. 27 marks the anniversary of the assassination of Russian opposition heavyweight Boris Nemtsov. His killing sparked two weeks of intrigue in Russia's top political circles, laying bare previously obscured Kremlin infighting and putting President Vladimir Putin's continued control in question. The dispute, which went far beyond the death of one opposition leader or even broad factional competition, was in fact a struggle over who controls Russia's future. In this it mirrored a three-year period of division in the early 1920s that ended in a leadership transition and set the trajectory of the Soviet Union.
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WNU Editor: There is a lot to digest in this analysis. What's my take .... everyone is now positioning themselves for the day when Putin is no longer in office. Loyalties and alliances are being formed (or strengthened), and while the focus is on what is happening in Moscow, regional politics are also playing an important role. And while there may be some similarities to the era of the 1920s .... no one is thinking of a return to those days. I will be commenting more on this Startfor analysis later tonight on this post.
Hat Tip James for this link.
WNU,
ReplyDeleteI don't know, a lot of this seemed like reinventing the wheel journalism. What still puzzles me, this after all of the literature, punditry, expert opinion, and 25 yrs or so of observation, is the question of "who really is Vladimir Putin" has never been answered to my satisfaction.
I read it. Not bad besides the oft repeated and overheated references to Trotsky's "Lenin's Testament"--the mileage on that, phew!!!-- and Stalin's machinations. As usual, however, the very real existential threat to the USSR's (and the Russian Federation's) existence, and the impact it has had on its development, is little mentioned.
ReplyDeleteWhether left con-munists or anarchos then, or (neo) liberal Russians now, like it or not the USSR/Russia faced/faces enemies that are not interested in anything other than total capitulation and the break-up of the state and all that entails for the population see: Libya, Iraq, Ukraine and a whole host of other neo-liberal capitalist wonderlands. This requires harsh and strict measures however they may offend "western" (and sycophantic) sensibilities.
No less harsh, I may add, than the settlement/development of North America was, and is, on the indigenous, negro, and other populations. Though those ends always seem to justify the means; crocodile tears notwithstanding.