For those of my readers who wonder what kind of articles we read in Soviet newspapers some thirty years ago here’s a very good example – Jim Hoagland’s op-ed “Putin, Acting in Character” in Washington Post also known as Pravda on Potomac.
First, the premises -
National character continued to surface as the problem rolled westward. The Ukrainians -- reflexively portraying themselves as victims responding to the depredations of their more powerful neighbor -- responded by siphoning off their normal share of the gas flowing through the pipelines that cross their territory into Central and Western Europe.
And then the conclusion from it -
That inflicted the Russian cuts primarily on European Union consumers, who get about 25 percent of their natural gas supplies from Russia. Their howls of pain and outrage on Monday forced Putin to reconsider what he seems not to have considered at all: the likelihood that inflicting economic punishment could backfire on him. Russia promised to restore full supplies.
I suspect Jim Hoagland graduated cum laude with the degree in journalism from Moscow Communist Party School Higher School in 1981. I was sobbing. Russians are guilty that Ukrainians were stealing European gas. RUSSIA PROMISED TO RESTORE FULL SUPPLIES. Russia promised to compensate for the stolen gas. What an imperialistic monster!
This passage is the key -
Fearing that the Kremlin would use energy for political blackmail, Reagan focused American power on stopping the extension of Soviet gas pipelines into Western Europe. In 1982, I asked the French president about Washington's threats to sanction companies that cooperated in the project.
Jim clearly states that any cooperation between Europe and Russia is against American global interests. It was so in the Soviet times and it is so today. Keeping Europe and Russia as far away from each other is the best way to promote American world supremacy. Divide and Rule!
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3 comments:
I just had a small doubt... I wanted to know ur view on the Hare Krsna's ISKCON in russia. I know the church doesnt like them, understandable wtih the slow but increasing number of devotees, but do u think he was justified in calling Krsna as satan? Are all russians as intolerant ? I am thinking you can give me ur view as a person and as a russian to know what russians think of india in general and the hare krsnas more specifically.
Thank you
regards
g
--
http://g-thisisme.blogspirit.com
girishgk@gmail.com
I agree that Russia has the right to charge market rates for its gas. What puzzles me is the significance you're giving to this one article in the Washington Post as evidence that the US is making plots against Russian-European unity. The US has nothing to do with this gas dispute. I read the same BBC forum where many Europeans expressed doubt about Russia as a reliable supplier. That should worry you more than some alleged US conspiracy.
This is the first time I have seen the Washington Post called "Pravda on the Potomac". What is the source of this statement? Where did it come from? And when?
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