Estern Slavs

[Batukhan]

Editorial
By The Baltic Times
Riga, Lativa
February 06, 2003

Those Eastern Slavs just don't know what to do. One week they're flirting with the West, the next they're chumming it up among themselves, declaring eternal friendships and establishing monetary unions. In all truthfulness, it all looks like a grand farce, and one can't help but wonder how long the self-delusional circus will go on.

Cold-shouldered at NATO's Prague summit, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, who so earnestly wants to befriend the West, now finds himself an outcast. What does he do? He runs to Vladimir Putin and declares undying loyalty, when in the back of his mind he fantasizes about an alliance with Western powers.

Banned by more than a dozen Western countries and the United States just weeks after he was eschewed by the Kremlin, Belarus' Alexander Lukashenko was forced to grovel on his knees in Moscow lest he become a complete international pariah. The result? Belarus will become part of the ruble zone on Jan. 1, 2005, completing the Eastern union about which so much ink has been uselessly spilled.

It will never work. Simply because each country is going into the union with completely different motivations (granted, selfish ones), a single monetary zone uniting Russian and Belarus won't swing. Lukashenko wants access to the printing press to pay off his debts and finance his deficit economy, while Putin dreams of stretching Russian control right up to Poland's and Lithuania's eastern border, making export deliveries to the West and Kaliningrad exclave a whole lot easier.

The proposed ruble zone will fail once Minsk insists on having the right to print fresh cash. This issue, by the way, is still undecided and is likely to remain so. Belarus' economy amounts to some 2 percent of Russia's (effectively just another region for Moscow), but Lukashenko insists that his country would be a net contributor to the new union. So he should have the right to print.

Putin, for its part, is soaking up all the attention the union is getting from Lukashenko and Kuchma, and like a master ventriloquist, he will manipulate them for all they are worth. To make the new union work, the Kremlin has even promised a $300 million no-interest loan to Minsk that can be paid back "at earliest convenience." Lukashenko is giddy with delight, and one can't help but wonder what Russian taxpayers have to say about this.

It is all a joke. Then there will come a time when Belarus and Ukraine will tire of this arrangement, and they will once again cozy up to the West and the Eastern Slavs will be back to Act One. It is a bizarre performance to watch.

[mishaaverko]

Always fascinating to read the impressions of nationalist Latvian and Estonian jackasses who think they're superior.

[AtamanSapiecha]

Very Good Batu ,good news ,me like this

>>>and one can't help but wonder what Russian taxpayers have to say about this.<<<<

Thye no like for sure.

Originally posted by Batukhan
Editorial
By The Baltic Times
Riga, Lativa
February 06, 2003

Those Eastern Slavs just don't know what to do. One week they're flirting with the West, the next they're chumming it up among themselves, declaring eternal friendships and establishing monetary unions. In all truthfulness, it all looks like a grand farce, and one can't help but wonder how long the self-delusional circus will go on.

Cold-shouldered at NATO's Prague summit, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, who so earnestly wants to befriend the West, now finds himself an outcast. What does he do? He runs to Vladimir Putin and declares undying loyalty, when in the back of his mind he fantasizes about an alliance with Western powers.

Banned by more than a dozen Western countries and the United States just weeks after he was eschewed by the Kremlin, Belarus' Alexander Lukashenko was forced to grovel on his knees in Moscow lest he become a complete international pariah. The result? Belarus will become part of the ruble zone on Jan. 1, 2005, completing the Eastern union about which so much ink has been uselessly spilled.

It will never work. Simply because each country is going into the union with completely different motivations (granted, selfish ones), a single monetary zone uniting Russian and Belarus won't swing. Lukashenko wants access to the printing press to pay off his debts and finance his deficit economy, while Putin dreams of stretching Russian control right up to Poland's and Lithuania's eastern border, making export deliveries to the West and Kaliningrad exclave a whole lot easier.

The proposed ruble zone will fail once Minsk insists on having the right to print fresh cash. This issue, by the way, is still undecided and is likely to remain so. Belarus' economy amounts to some 2 percent of Russia's (effectively just another region for Moscow), but Lukashenko insists that his country would be a net contributor to the new union. So he should have the right to print.

Putin, for its part, is soaking up all the attention the union is getting from Lukashenko and Kuchma, and like a master ventriloquist, he will manipulate them for all they are worth. To make the new union work, the Kremlin has even promised a $300 million no-interest loan to Minsk that can be paid back "at earliest convenience." Lukashenko is giddy with delight, and one can't help but wonder what Russian taxpayers have to say about this.

It is all a joke. Then there will come a time when Belarus and Ukraine will tire of this arrangement, and they will once again cozy up to the West and the Eastern Slavs will be back to Act One. It is a bizarre performance to watch.

[mishaaverko]

Recycling crap is still crap.

[AtamanSapiecha]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mishaaverko
[B]Recycling crap is still crap.

You recycling lot crap,day after day.

Misha the Trotsky ,something good for you.
Me no like Trotsky.Ivan

How is Leon Trotsky viewed by Russian historians today?

Leon Trotsky was an excellent public speaker. He took an active part in organizing the Red Army and played a major role in preparing the defence of the country, as well as the victory in the civil war. He had much that Stalin lacked. Trotsky was one of the leaders in the armed uprising in Petrograd. After the Bolsheviks took power, he held several ministerial posts, including chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council. He was uncompromising toward Stalin and the existing regime. Unfortunately, he also went down in history as one of the organizers of labor camps and mass executions. Nevertheless, he was one of the main leaders of the revolution. He believed fanatically in the workers' revolution of the world. Trotsky left the world 100 volumes of his works. No one has had as many lies told about him and nobody has been as ruthlessly discredited as Trotsky. Yes, he believed in world communism. But he was never an enemy of the Soviet Union and never bowed to the West. But you've got to understand that the world revolution, like communism, was a myth, a mirage.
Joe Adamov

[mishaaverko]

Ataman

You seem to think that every Rusak is a Commie. Silly you.

I'm a Riurikist-Romanovist, with Trotskyites as my sworn enemy.

Uncle Joe Adamov can be a silly old man at times.

[AtamanSapiecha]

[>>>You seem to think that every Rusak is a Commie.<<<<

Not all ,only some ,same with Americans.


>>Silly you<<<
Silly you too

>>>>.I'm a Riurikist-Romanovist, with Trotskyites as my sworn enemy.<<<<
Uumm ,true ?

><<<<Uncle Joe Adamov can be a silly old man at times<<<<

You silly all times
Ivan