Here’s is perhaps one of the more controversial segments from our interview with Paul Goble, the former State Department official who blogs over at Window on Eurasia. Part of this discussion was related to a blog post written by Goble about Irina Pavlova’s critique of Gleb Pavlovsky – which interestingly predicted the media campaign that would be waged in Washington by the latter (as evidenced by the FT and NYT pieces) a month before it happened. Pavlova’s argument, which will certainly raise some disagreement among many (including ourselves), is that the current leadership of Russia is increasingly behaving in a “Stalinist” fashion – especially with regard to the orally dictated secret directives to security forces. This one is open to interpretation.
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So he admires Yeltsin…That comment tells you everything you need to know about Goble.Yes, Yeltsin’s governance was disasterous for actual Russians, but he submitted on demand.That sums up what The West looks for in a Russian politician.
Ignoring everything else he said is not a good way to judge Goble’s opinion, rkka. Notice he claimed Yeltsin should be in the cell adjacent to Putin’s in The Hague’s tribunal as well…I’m not a fan of Yeltsin, yet I can see what Goble is talking about: Yeltsin, unlike Putin, actually didn’t like the KGB and communism (as the guiding ideology of the Soviet Union). That seems to be by and large true. Yeltsin’s failures as a statesman — and they are many — don’t change this fact.
Molotov, Stalin’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, started his working day by review of the western mass-media. If the articles were full of criticism, he looked satisfied. “They are condemning us? All right”- he used to say, “It means that we are doing OK”. But when he saw some article which was praising the USSR, he looked cautious: “We need to understand what we did wrong”.Look very actual, isn’t it? Eltsin as a democratic leader? Putin as a Stalinist-type dictator? Aren’t you not tired of continuously repeating this shit?
Absolutely idiotic thoughts – kindergarten level.Who really must be in The Hague’s tribunal is US for bombing Europe and all what they did and still do in Iraque. Great Democracy – Give me a break! This guy has no clue about Russia…