Kind Of A Good News/Bad News Situation
By Mitch Berg
“Things that can’t be sustained, won’t be”.
China is headed for some serious problems – as we’ve discussed not so long ago.
Russia is having its own problems – not the same, but similar. Russia in its current form is not sustainable .
And that may well be the bad news:
Very much worth a watch.
February 15th, 2024 at 12:26 pm
Interesting guy. Thanks.
February 15th, 2024 at 5:57 pm
He makes a lot of good points. One thing that’s interesting is that the only region that might break away is predominantly Islamic, between the Black and Caspian seas. That might be “very interesting.”
I tend to think that for the other regions of Russia, the transportation, economic, and other ties between the regions would keep all but the Islamic republics together, at least unless Putin really “s**ews the pooch” with his constant wars. So the goal, then, is to help Russia to split the difference between totalitarian disaster and mass civil wars.
Slava Ukraini!
February 16th, 2024 at 12:12 am
[…] Takes the Stand [Updated] Shark Tank: Mills Says America Was Safer Under Trump Shot In The Dark: Kind Of A Good News/Bad News Situation, also, Informal Yet Rigorously Scientific Survey The Political Hat: Starving To Death As Medical […]
February 16th, 2024 at 1:42 pm
I’m pretty sure you won’t expect this – I know I didn’t – Navalny was a Deep State Asset. I’m not advocating anything, just passing it on.
February 16th, 2024 at 3:05 pm
As bad as Putin is, he’s frankly better than most of those who would replace him were he to fall. So be careful what we’re wishing for, things could easily be far, far worse if the Biden/EU project of toppling him comes to pass. A broken up Russia would tempt Chinese interference in an attempt to claim the assets of Russia’s far east (oil and coal that the Chinese desperately need) that could easily turn into a major war, for example.
Frankly, Clinton badly missed a chance to draw Russia deeper into a union with the West. There was a chance that economic integration would have prevented as much totalitarianism as Russia now has. Maybe, maybe not. Russians as a whole expect to be ruled by tyrants, but as a mid-range economic power they may have had enough exposure to Western doctrine to want change, yet not feel totally subservient because they had energy and raw materials to be bring to the table. As a part of the EU community Putin probably would not have been able to conclusively claim power and eliminate all his rivals as ruthlessly as he has.
February 16th, 2024 at 3:18 pm
^ Good points, nerd.
February 16th, 2024 at 5:08 pm
jdm, even if your source is as stated, all it says is that he was asking for foreign contributions to give his political movement a chance at the polls. That’s not terrorism. Your source is giving itself away as really in the pocket of Mr. Putin.
Besides, since when do M16 agents identify themselves, and since when do they discuss subverting governments in plain sight where any aspiring counterspy can see them?
On another note, I disagree that whoever follows Putin will be worse. Hitler was followed by Doenitz, Stalin by Kruschev, Mao by Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. The successors were far more benign than their predecessors, and Putin is a guy who took a colonel’s rank in the KGB to depose Boris Yeltsin and largely reverse the political and economic liberalization Yeltsin and Gorbachev had championed. He lies with a straight face right up there with Bill Clinton. Not too many people can duplicate that sort of thing.
Besides, even if Stalin himself were to take over from Putin, he’d be dealing with an army that’s lost a huge portion of its men and armor. And even Stalin didn’t want to be vaporized or preside over a sheet of glass.