KGB files from the famous Mitrokhin archive — described by the FBI as "the most complete and extensive intelligence ever received from any source" — are now open to the public for the first time. From 1972 to 1984, Major Vasily Mitrokhin was a senior archivist in the KGB's foreign intelligence archive, with unlimited access to hundreds of thousands of files from a global network of spies and intelligence-gathering operations.
At the same time, having grown disillusioned with the brutal oppression of the Soviet regime, he was taking secret handwritten notes of the material and smuggling them out of the building each evening. In 1992, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, he, his family and his archive were exfiltrated by Britain's Secret Intelligence Service.
Now, more than 20 years after his defection to Britain, Mitrokhin's files are being opened by the Churchill Archives Center, where they sit alongside the personal papers of Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.
Professor Christopher Andrew, the only historian to date allowed access to the archive, and author of two global bestsellers with Mitrokhin, said: "There are only two places in the world where you will find material like this. One is the KBG archive — which is not open and very difficult to get into — and the other is here at Churchill College where Mitrokhin's own typescript notes are today being opened for all the world to see.
"Mitrokhin dreamed of making this material public from 1972 until his death; it is now happening in 2014. The inner workings of the KGB, its foreign intelligence operations and the foreign policy of Soviet-era Russia all lie within this extraordinary collection; the scale and nature of which gives unprecedented insight into the KGB's activities throughout much of the Cold War." (...)
Russia (or whatever they call them these days) must hire the same contractors as we do. Did someone say the Chinese?
It still looks like the Chinese are still relying on the Russian design institutes for the basic design work on their materiel, but are getting more and more involved in producing the guns, planes, aircraft carriers etc. on their own.
The scary part to me is that the Chinese are still interested in making sure that all of their weapons systems can interoperate with the Russian ones. That says to me that the still hard-core totalitarian Chinese government is planning on bringing Russia and maybe other former Soviet countries back into the fold, and reignite the East vs. West hostilities. Although Russia isn't the great empire that it was before, they could reclaim most of the old USSR states, especially with Chinese help. Notice how Russia is the perpetual backer of nutjob crazy Muslim regimes like Iran and Syria, keeping the UN or western forces from getting involved, even with humanitarian aid. Likewise, China is propping up North Korea. It's like they're longing for the "good old days" of the Cold War, not unlike how the RNC was a gigantic ad for fictitious "good old days" in the US.
Predictions for what's in style for 2013:
For the US— Breeder reactors Duck 'n' Cover Tailfins Men wearing hats and thin black ties
For the China— A new, revised edition of "The Little Red Book" Mao uniforms ICBMs
They want to be "job creators" too, while at the same time boosting nationalism...
So what do we have? A world stuck in a prolonged economic depression, with populations looking towards strongman leaders with their jingoism and promises of war. Gee, I wonder how this story will end?
Maybe a little of both. With Putin and presumably a whole cadre of old school (read "Soviet") political allies firmly in power now, and a new generations of Russians with no firsthand knowledge of how bad life in the Soviet Union really was, we might see Russia's future in its totalitarian past.
Maybe a little of both. With Putin and presumably a whole cadre of old school (read "Soviet") political allies firmly in power now, and a new generations of Russians with no firsthand knowledge of how bad life in the Soviet Union really was, we might see Russia's future in its totalitarian past.
Wooing older voters, or just regressing to 'happier times'?
Maybe a little of both. With Putin and presumably a whole cadre of old school (read "Soviet") political allies firmly in power now, and a new generations of Russians with no firsthand knowledge of how bad life in the Soviet Union really was, we might see Russia's future in its totalitarian past.
Russia remains America’s foremost “geopolitical foe,” top foreign policy advisors for Mitt Romney have stressed. They also blasted the Obama administration for, they say, cozying up to Moscow in the wake of the so-called "reset" in relations.
“Russia is a significant geopolitical foe. Governor Romney recognizes that,” Richard S. Williamson, America’s Special Envoy to Sudan and the Romney campaign's foreign policy advisor, told reporters at a panel organized by the right-wing Foreign Policy Initiative.
Williamson contended that the "reset" in relations with Moscow, which had been announced by the Obama administration in 2009, had been a failure.
“They are crowding out civil society, they are trampling human rights, and they are opposed to us in a number of interests,” Williamson was quoted by Foreign Policy as saying. “We have to reset the failed reset policy.”
Another senior foreign policy advisor for Romney, former ambassador-at-large Pierre-Richard Prosper, also expressed his support for the former Massachusetts Governor’s stance on Russia.
“They are our foe,” Prosper stressed. “They have chosen a path of confrontation, not cooperation, and I think the governor was correct in that, even though there are some voices in Washington that find that uncomfortable.”
He also attacked Romney's critics for saying the Republican candidate’s remarks on Russia ignored history.
“Those who think liberal ideas of engagement will bend actions also don't understand history,” Prosper noted. “We're better to be frank and honest.”
The former envoy also suggested that Russia was never “on the side of peace” or “humanity,” and said it was “not behaving like a democracy” despite claiming to be one.(...)
Wooing older voters, or just regressing to 'happier times'?
Vladislav Inozemtsev, economist and opposition politician, recently published an opinion piece extolling the virtues of the protestant ethic and calling for the modernization of the Russian Orthodox Church. The article was a response to the sentencing of the three Pussy Riot members to two years in prison on August 17.
Inozemtsev was on trend. In the past several months, many Russian bloggers have compared the slow disaster of the trial to the start of the Protestant Reformation. (...)
Three members of Pussy Riot, a group of Russian feminist activists that has challenged the Kremlin, went on trial in Moscow Monday. Pussy Riot is a punk-rock collective that stages political impromptu performances all across Moscow, most recently an anti–Vladmir Putin demonstration inside a cathedral, an act which may now land the women in jail for up to seven years...
Before this latest attack we went camping for a week and I went on a meat binge
Three members of Pussy Riot, a group of Russian feminist activists that has challenged the Kremlin, went on trial in Moscow Monday. Pussy Riot is a punk-rock collective that stages political impromptu performances all across Moscow, most recently an anti–Vladmir Putin demonstration inside a cathedral, an act which may now land the women in jail for up to seven years...
The Victory Day parade, the annual Red Square military parade which commemorates the defeat of Nazi Germany and is Russia's most important secular holiday. The enormous suffering of World War II, and the Red Army's determination to beat back the Nazi invasion, are cherished elements in Russia's national identity.
The Soviet Union lost an estimated 26 million people in the war, including 8.5 million soldiers.
(...) Vladimir V. Putin did well in Chechnya, a place that he virtually declared war on after becoming president in 1999, and whose people have suffered grievous human rights abuses at the hands of Russian security forces. The final tally: Putin, 1,482 votes; Gennady A. Zyuganov, the Communist Party leader, one vote.
This result was in itself statistically improbable. But even more difficult for the teachers who had been drafted onto the electoral commission to explain was the turnout: there were only 1,389 people registered in the precinct, meaning that the turnout was 107 percent.
“Look, something is not adding up here,” said Milana Atlanova, the head of the commission, growing increasingly confused.
Analysts of Russian elections say the North Caucasus region is a place where violations of election law are uniquely brazen, from a combination of top-down pressure, cultural factors and, in Chechnya, a fearful milieu of police intimidation.
Fraud that to a Western eye seems outrageous is tolerated and never followed up on in courts. It is also rarely seen by independent election observers, who do not monitor Chechnya for safety reasons.
The flagrant fraud witnessed here in Sunday’s election did not greatly affect the outcome nationally, in that the North Caucasus region is home only to 6 percent of Russia’s voters. But it shows the deep tolerance of undemocratic practices that persists in Russia, particularly in places beyond the reach of Western observers.(...)
Arrests as protesters stage central Moscow sit-in (PHOTOS, VIDEO) — RT A few hundred people have refused to leave Pushkin Square in central Moscow after an opposition rally, saying they will stay until their demands for fair elections are met. According to police, at least 250 people have already been arrested.
It still looks like the Chinese are still relying on the Russian design institutes for the basic design work on their materiel, but are getting more and more involved in producing the guns, planes, aircraft carriers etc. on their own.
Gee, I wonder how this story will end?
I think they're only trying to keep up with the Chinese, but still...
