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Asked by a correspondent of the Al-Jazeera television channel, if he regarded the victory of HAMAS in the parliamentary election in Palestine as a failure of the U.S. policy in the Middle East.
Putin said it was “a heavy blow on U.S. efforts in the region.”
He remarked that despite the election victory of HAMAS the refusal to provide assistance to the people of Palestine was a mistake anyway.
President Vladimir Putin at a major news conference in the Kremlin.
Russia does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization, a view not shared by Israel, the U.S., Europe and the United Nations. Must somehow be different from Chechnyans fighting the Russian rule in their former Soviet satellite state.
In the wake of lessened U.S. influence in the world, since the outcome of the 2000 election, the renewed entry of Russia as a world energy power and China as a rising economic power can now be seen in the Middle East, Africa, South America and Asia of course.
RAMALLAH (Al Jazeera) Jan 29 — Russian President Vladimir Putin promised aid and military equipment to the Palestinians as he wrapped up his historic tour to the Middle East.
The Russian leader pledged to rebuild the shattered Palestinian economy, boost security services and sell helicopters to the Palestinians. “Russia will continue to offer aid to the Palestinian Authority to implement reforms and construct a state,” Putin told a press conference after he held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
“We support the efforts of President Abbas to reform the security services,” he added.
Putin also said that Abbas must have enough resources to reform the security services, promising that Russia will “give the Palestinian Authority technical help by sending equipment, training people. We will give the Palestinian Authority helicopters and also communication equipment.”
“We want this cooperation to be fully transparent and not cause any concern on the Israeli side,” he said. Putin also demanded Israel to release all Palestinian detainees and stop its restrictions on the freedom of movement.
However, Russian President didn’t mention Russia’s offer to sell armored vehicles to the Palestinians, a sale that Israel strongly opposed.
Looks like Bush and neocons were successful to build a new coalition of evil: Syria, Palestinians, Iran and Putin’s Russia with extra backing from an emerging economic power China. Quite a record of failed leadership to offer the American voters in the midterm elections later in 2006!
See soj’s excellent coverage in his diary :: 101 Reasons Why
● Rice Admits U.S. Underestimated Hamas Strength
“We do not want to have another Afghanistan in Central Asia, there should be no revolutions, but evolution that would bring about the establishment of democratic governments,” Putin said about the situation in Uzbekistan.
MOSCOW Jan. 31 — “We know what happened in Andijan, who fomented tensions in that city and how. It is likewise clear to us that Uzbekistan still has very many problems.”
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
We are seeing the limits of “hard” power (i.e., the unilateral use of military force to impose our will on the planet). The problem? Bush Cheney et al haven’t learned the lesson. Like all fanatics they continue to believe that just a little bit more war will solve all their problems.
…wanted to ask you something offline, so to speak, but don’t have your e-mail address. Feel free to drop a line at techandscribeATgeemailDOTcommie. Thanks in advance.
Now…back on topic. Excellent work, as always. I don’t know why I never realized that Russia is a world energy power, but it’s so obvious.
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See recent diary by BostonJoe, these are just the oil reserves, most of Russia and ME Countries have also large gas assets.
● Calling Jerome in Paris – ANWR Oil Reserve
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
It may be that the primary reason for the “5 Failures”, (as I call the results of the Bush democracy initiatives), is simply that because Bush & Co themselves have no understanding of the true nature and value of real democracy, that any initiative they undertake to spread it will wind up elevating like-minded authoritarians into positions of ever expanding power by default.
The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ahmadinejad in Iran, the Iran-backed Shia theocratic Islamists in Iraq, and Hamas in Palestine all have reason to be grateful to the Bush regime for elevating their stature amongst their own people and increasing their influence in the realm of world affairs.
The authoritarian streak that dominates the Bush regime’s ideology cannot help but resonate with and be helpful to like minded autocrats the world over. It’s a symbiosis that has a long history in the affairs of men, an insidious and deadly symbiosis that always causes tragedy for the innocent on a mass scale, while generating huge profits for the merchants who thrive on perpetuating the death and destruction.
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Bush neocon policy failed everywhere, from North Korea to Iran and the Arab nations in the Middle East. Bush – Powell – Rice lost all the Central Asian states of the former Soviet Union and got kicked out of Uzbekistan. China and Russia have tightened their grip on these satellite nations bordering strategic oil and gas resources of the Caspian Sea,
The twist with the Ukraine and Georgia were the latests where the Kremlin – Putin – and Gazprom got their way and secured the trasport pipelines through the whole region. Putin mirrored the openings Bush took to grap executive power in the States, to his own possibilities with domestic politics of the Doema, Russian oil billionaires and neighboring totalitarian states. Putin’s implementation was much better than Bush, even China wasted no time to sign multi-billion LNG import contracts with Iran and invested heavily in Central Africa Chad and Sudan, South America in Argentina and Venezuela.
Bush and neocon cabal got their asses kicked everywhere and are much worse off than at the start five years ago. No wonder Bush spoke of his oil addiction, because he failed miserably to conquer any foreign oil fields. His only success was the invasion and occupation of Haiti, except there is no oil to be gained. VP Cheney probably wanted to vault from Haiti into Chavez territory of Venezuela, but the overthrow failed!
● Iran – Pakistan – India Pipeline
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
This recent story here is an interesting one concerning the current insanity over Iran and the pipeline business.
Additionally, I would qualify my remarks where I used the word “failures” to describe the efforts of the Bush regime.
Since I never believed for a minute that the true goals of BushCo had anything to do with democracy or human rights or a stable petroleum environment, I regard the results of their efforts in the region not as failures but rather as successes in that they are succesfully creating a climate that insures ever increasing levels of conflict for the forseeable future and guarantees that the entire region will be engulfed in war. I believe this is the true agenda of Cheney and his neocon lunatics and that so far they are achieving it. In short, their “failures” are the results of deliberate strategy designed to encourage chaos, not rein it in.