Vladimir Putin: Friend or Foe of Democracy?

Vladimir Putin has again demonstrated his lack of credibility in his dealings with Syria. After pledging not to sell arms to Syria, to President George W. Bush, he did just that. In a stunning breach of promise, he concluded an extremely lucrative and dangerous arms sale to Syria. Amongst the list of weapons is the Iskander/ SS-26 missile, one of the most formidable weapons available. Here is what Global Security has to say about this missile:

"In 1996 Russian television reports depicted the first launch of the SS-X-26, which is a direct evolution of the SS-23 Oka. It appears probable that new features will be incorporated into the design. The SS-X-26 appears to have several different conventional warheads, including a cluster munitions warhead, a fuel-air explosive enhanced-blast warhead, a tactical earth penetrator for bunker busting and an electro- magnetic pulse device for anti-radar missions. Given the relatively small warhead, improved terminal precision was a major system requirement, which could be achieved by active terminal sensor such as millimeter wave radar, satellite terminal guidance using GLOSNASS, an improved inertial platform, or some combination of these approaches."
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/ss-26.htm

Putin has time and time again, both with his Western Allies, and even with his own constituency, proven that he cannot be trusted to keep his word. Two very troublesome other developments are his new legislation designed to limit information and participation in Russia’s arms production. If passed, it will limit foreign manufacturing to 10%, citing a necessity for security and internal sealing of these issues.

Second, during a state visit to Great Britain, he has pushed for "open visas" between Russia and other European countries. There is thankfully, opposition to this plan. But since Prime Minister Blair has declared that Russia and Europe are interreliant on each other for critical energy needs-translate-petroleum, an accommodation must seriously be looked at.

The Chechn situation is yet again, another area where at the very least it can be said Putin demonstrates a clear lack of desire to encourage democracy or independence. The Chechen peoples have a long proud history of being fiercely independent, the one thing they are demanding for their region.

"During the collapse of the Soviet Union (1991), the government of the republic declared independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. As of 2005, their independence has not been recognized by any major state. This declaration has led to armed conflicts between the forces of the self-declared government and other Chechen groups, and the Russian Federal army.

Pro-Moscow Chechen officials claim that by 1994 over 200,000 people have been killed in Chechnya, including more than 20,000 children,[1] and further that ethnic Chechens comprise only one quarter of this number [2]. They do not account for the remainder of those killed.

Rebel sources claim that federal forces have killed more than 250,000 people in Chechnya, including 42,000 children "[3]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechenya

As with many poor and disenfranchised countries or regions, an opportunity for groups such as Al Qaeda to exploit resources, human or otherwise presents itself. Robert Baer, in his book Sleeping With The Devil: How We Sold Our Soul For Saudi Crude cites the witnessing of Chechens in Saudi sponsored terror training camps, pre 9-11. The very high death rate amongst Russian Federal troops-10,000 leads one to believe the training was highly successful.

Perhaps if President Putin had simply granted this little republic it's independence, all the carnage could have been avoided. Yet again, at the heart of this struggle lies petroleum. Chechenya sits on some hefty reserves of crude and was at one time producing 3 metric tons annually, and is now producing only 1.5 metric tons annually or 30 barrels of raw crude. In other words, 80% of it's economic potential was destroyed.

Of the 2 billion dollars Russian government officials say were spent on Chechenya's reconstruction, not more than 350 million dollars of it was actually used, according to Russian internal accounting reports.

Strictly observing Vladimirs Putin’s actions on the world's stage, raises questions-serious questions, abut what he intends for Russia. It doesn't appear that the Russian bear has changed much where it matters. The external "prettification" of Russia's image doesn't quite hide the fact that the same forces that have governed Russia for 50 years are still in operation, and that we need to be very careful about our dealings with this 30 year veteran of the KGB.

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