PUTIN'S PLAYGROUND
By RALPH PETERS
New York Post, April 11, 2009
DON'T feel bad if you can't find Moldova on a map. Our president can't find it, either.
Our befuddled secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, could find Moldova, if she wanted to. But she doesn't want to. Because that would mean facing up to Russian mischief.
And everybody knows the Russians are going to be our bestest-bestest friends, like forever, dude. They really mean it this time.
Anyway, why should we care about an impoverished state the size of a cattle ranch where a population of barely 4 million survives on a per- capita income of $2,500?
Why should the Obama administration care about people struggling to regain their snatched-away freedom and to unseat a Communist government that came to power in murky elections -- then blatantly rigged recent voting to keep control?
Why care about hundreds of pro-freedom demonstrators beaten in the streets and jailed in cells once run by the KGB? Obama's congressional intimates are busy flying to Havana to adore the Castro brothers. (So much for the pro-democracy Cubans rotting in Fidel's prisons: Guantanamo bad; Cuban torture chambers? Viva la revolucion!).
A smudge at the edge of Europe, Moldova is a victim of history. Stalin hacked most of its territory from Romania (most Moldovans long to rejoin their motherland) and the rest from Ukraine. The Soviets then used it as an agricultural fief, unwilling to industrialize a border region.
As the Soviet Union collapsed, Moscow's security services saw Moldova as a crucial outpost that must not be relinquished: It marked the USSR's border with Europe, which the likes of Vladimir Putin would resurrect.
So the KGB and its successors armed and guided a separatist movement in eastern Moldova, on the left bank of the strategic Dniester River. "Transnistria" would serve as a future Russian bridgehead (and a goldmine of corruption in the interim).
Moldova's post-independence lot was tough in other ways, too. Its humble agricultural exports were produced on land poisoned by Soviet farming methods. Its wine, although prized back in the USSR, won't threaten Napa Valley.
Under Putin, Moldova's top exports were banned from the vital Russian market, devastating the economy. Electricity, supplied through breakaway Transnistria, was disconnected repeatedly.
Russian natural-gas supplies were cut off in the dead of winter. And the Communists who returned to power in Chisinau, the threadbare capital city, in 2001? Amid wild corruption, government officials have been accused of white-slaving Moldovan women to the Middle East.
So much for national pride.
The people of Moldova want to be part of the West, to join the European Union. The population's over 80 percent Romanian and fiercely anti-Russian. (The region once hosted a wonderful Jewish culture, but we all know what Hitler and Stalin did to that.)
Communist "President" Vladimir Voronin blames Romania, not Russia, for all Moldova's suffering. The people know better and want Vononin gone. But Russia's new czar, Vladimir Putin, backs Voronin. So the Obama administration ignores the demonstrations, the brutality and the unlawful imprisonments.
After all, if we don't give a damn about Putin's thugs murdering Russian dissidents at home and abroad, why should we care about Moldovans getting beaten or raped by their government? Repeat after me: "The Russians are our friends. And friends have to overlook each other's little quirks."
A quarter of Moldova's workforce labors abroad. Families survive on remittances. Russian policies impoverish those who can't leave. Democracy's in ruins. Crime thrives. And now Russia's stooges are clubbing the last dreams of freedom out of the population.
Today, Moldova. Tomorrow, Georgia and Ukraine.
And then our president will go to Moscow and apologize for America's role in defeating the Soviet Union.
Freedom is so last week.
N M R Pozitia Washington-ului se regaseste si in declaratia ambasadorului sau de la Chisinau, Asif J. Chaudhry, citez: "reactia autoritatilor Republicii Moldova a fost adecvata evenimentelor care s-au desfasurat"
Rusine!
By RALPH PETERS
New York Post, April 11, 2009
DON'T feel bad if you can't find Moldova on a map. Our president can't find it, either.
Our befuddled secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, could find Moldova, if she wanted to. But she doesn't want to. Because that would mean facing up to Russian mischief.
And everybody knows the Russians are going to be our bestest-bestest friends, like forever, dude. They really mean it this time.
Anyway, why should we care about an impoverished state the size of a cattle ranch where a population of barely 4 million survives on a per- capita income of $2,500?
Why should the Obama administration care about people struggling to regain their snatched-away freedom and to unseat a Communist government that came to power in murky elections -- then blatantly rigged recent voting to keep control?
Why care about hundreds of pro-freedom demonstrators beaten in the streets and jailed in cells once run by the KGB? Obama's congressional intimates are busy flying to Havana to adore the Castro brothers. (So much for the pro-democracy Cubans rotting in Fidel's prisons: Guantanamo bad; Cuban torture chambers? Viva la revolucion!).
A smudge at the edge of Europe, Moldova is a victim of history. Stalin hacked most of its territory from Romania (most Moldovans long to rejoin their motherland) and the rest from Ukraine. The Soviets then used it as an agricultural fief, unwilling to industrialize a border region.
As the Soviet Union collapsed, Moscow's security services saw Moldova as a crucial outpost that must not be relinquished: It marked the USSR's border with Europe, which the likes of Vladimir Putin would resurrect.
So the KGB and its successors armed and guided a separatist movement in eastern Moldova, on the left bank of the strategic Dniester River. "Transnistria" would serve as a future Russian bridgehead (and a goldmine of corruption in the interim).
Moldova's post-independence lot was tough in other ways, too. Its humble agricultural exports were produced on land poisoned by Soviet farming methods. Its wine, although prized back in the USSR, won't threaten Napa Valley.
Under Putin, Moldova's top exports were banned from the vital Russian market, devastating the economy. Electricity, supplied through breakaway Transnistria, was disconnected repeatedly.
Russian natural-gas supplies were cut off in the dead of winter. And the Communists who returned to power in Chisinau, the threadbare capital city, in 2001? Amid wild corruption, government officials have been accused of white-slaving Moldovan women to the Middle East.
So much for national pride.
The people of Moldova want to be part of the West, to join the European Union. The population's over 80 percent Romanian and fiercely anti-Russian. (The region once hosted a wonderful Jewish culture, but we all know what Hitler and Stalin did to that.)
Communist "President" Vladimir Voronin blames Romania, not Russia, for all Moldova's suffering. The people know better and want Vononin gone. But Russia's new czar, Vladimir Putin, backs Voronin. So the Obama administration ignores the demonstrations, the brutality and the unlawful imprisonments.
After all, if we don't give a damn about Putin's thugs murdering Russian dissidents at home and abroad, why should we care about Moldovans getting beaten or raped by their government? Repeat after me: "The Russians are our friends. And friends have to overlook each other's little quirks."
A quarter of Moldova's workforce labors abroad. Families survive on remittances. Russian policies impoverish those who can't leave. Democracy's in ruins. Crime thrives. And now Russia's stooges are clubbing the last dreams of freedom out of the population.
Today, Moldova. Tomorrow, Georgia and Ukraine.
And then our president will go to Moscow and apologize for America's role in defeating the Soviet Union.
Freedom is so last week.
N M R Pozitia Washington-ului se regaseste si in declaratia ambasadorului sau de la Chisinau, Asif J. Chaudhry, citez: "reactia autoritatilor Republicii Moldova a fost adecvata evenimentelor care s-au desfasurat"
Rusine!
Un comentariu:
Ca bine le zici, "mate"!
Trimiteți un comentariu