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“500million on 4-5 counter-ISIL opposition..they should have given us the money. We would have spent it better. ”
Lol! Doesn’t think too highly of his partners ‘dance’ moves, does he?
Why doesn’t Russia offer to write US foreign policy too? Thinking Americans would be grateful.
* * *
Thanks for this Saker. With so much craziness, its always a relief to see Putin looking healthy, confident and articulating clearly what’s going on – without compromising Russian security or personnel of course.
I think Putin has internalized an ancient wisdom: “I am sending you out as wolves among packs of human hunters. Be wise as serpents and quick as mongooses.” (My adaptation). The wisdom of the King Cobra is to avoid mongooses if at all possible since this very social and beautiful animal wins 80% of the time. He goes straight for the brain but if he misses he may be in trouble. He too avoids confrontation with a King Cobra unless it’s a matter of survival. Kind of like Russia’s Putin. That part of the scripture about being like sheep and doves is a patriarchal Roman rewrite of the now unrecoverable original in order to induce passivity among the populace, IMO.
What worries me about Russia is what also seems to worry Sergei Glaznev. The bear’s lingering longing for Western values as epitomized by her central bank. Does that other president possess such charms that mongooses fall at her feet? Is Putin dragging his feet which would be uncharacteristic with someone who taps his foot in rhythm while being interviewed? Or like a mongoose is he sizing up the situation and waiting for just the right millisecond to strike? But what do I know? I’m as harmless as a dove according to the Roman scriptures. If Putin strikes the bank and misses, he may be a mongoose meal. Such is the hope of the current but aging King Cobra. If he doesn’t strike in a timely manner, he may also be a mongoose meal.
“Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes between the pass and fell incensed points of mighty opposites.” Hamlet. “Be gentle, brother, be gentle and pray.” Dylan.
Both Putin and Solovyov speak so clearly, and Putin thinks and speaks so clearly, that even for one with very rudimentary knowledge of a few words in Russian, it is a pleasure to watch/listen with subtitles to help one recognize indivdual words and phrases. He is very sure of what he is saying, confident about Russian military capacity, somewhat sly (when speaking about knowing what leaders of variously Islamic states really think) and I hope he is listened to in the WEst. I can never help comparing Putin with our young Jackass. How well could Obama integrate knowledge of all the spheres of state activity that Solovyov asked Putin about and produce coherent, complex response with nary a pause and NO TELEPROMPTER!!!
He looks pretty darned healthy, and I am glad of that.
Katherine
Huh, now I am getting the boorish “you are posting comments too quickly slow down’ message.
Bummer. I don’t recall posting any other message lately. Like, today. WTF.
Just drop that message from the menu, please.
How many times do I have to ask.
***Katherine, its not in our control to drop that message. Think of it like a ‘busy signal’ on the phone – modaa
Katherine
The message refers to how fast you hit Post a comment not frequency of commenting.
The server we connect to that produces the code prefers a slow click on the button at times.
Wow, Luddite me too fast for the computer!
Thanks for the explanation.
Will try to click s l o w l y . . . .
K a t h e z z z . . .
I don’t agree with everything Putin says, but watching him is so refreshing because at least he’s saying real things. He’s making statements of fact. Some of them are facts one could expect much of the audience not to already know–that is, he’s actually giving information. He’s putting them together in reasoned sequences. When he claims something and then says why, the things he says to back up his point are relevant to it and do in fact back it up. When was the last time you heard a Western political leader do any of that stuff?
The other thing you notice, particularly in a longer interview like this one, is that the personality projected onto Putin by Western politicians and media is ludicrously inappropriate. Putin is actually quite careful in his statements, quite deliberative, almost musing some of the time, and very much open to dialogue. Compared to how hard most American politicians blow, Putin’s approach is very measured; if anything a good deal of what he says seems to me clearly to present a softened version of reality designed to let certain people he still wants to deal with, save face. He knows the Americans and the Turks and the Saudis are behaving worse than he lets on, he makes glancing allusions to the reality so we know he’s not just deluded, and he plans his actual actions on that basis, but if any of them want to stop acting like asses he’s willing to pretend it never happened. Even I had often tended to think of Putin as mostly a hardass–calm because controlled, but wound tight and ruthlessly pragmatic. But when you watch him for a while he really doesn’t come off that way; there’s steel there, the hard decisions get made and stuck to, but he actually seems pretty thoughtful.
I still disagree with him about some substance–for instance, I thought his comments about the economic utility of military spending were fundamentally misguided; they belong to a common school of thought on the subject that, basically, ignores opportunity costs. Yes, some of the research into military matters has useful spinoffs; yes, the military employs people; yes, sometimes the advanced manufacturing capabilities developed for military things can be repurposed. But you’d get more if you spent the same money to do nonmilitary research, create nonmilitary employment and develop nonmilitary manufacturing technologies. Which is not to say Russia shouldn’t spend money on the military–of course they should. But economically, it’s a necessary evil and pretending it is instead a benefit is the kind of talk that leads to your own growing corrupt military-industrial complex. Putin may actually know better and only be saying that to shore up the rationale for military spending he knows is necessary for geopolitical reasons, but I think he probably doesn’t need to do that and it would be better if he didn’t.
What a statesman!!!
Rf
Sorry, I’m confused..how can there by a political solution with ISIL…unless what Mr President means is a political solution with US and Saudi Arabia and Turkey (and Israe) about funding ISIL>
Soloviev asks questions that are obviously of concern to the Russian population….like ‘can we afford this re-armament”…that’s good work.
Although Putin seems like a wire drawn really tight. I read the only autobiography of him, I think its called “1st Person” and in it, his wife is interviewed, and she’s asked by the interviewer…the whole book is just interviews of him and his close family and friends…..she’s asked if he ever shouts at her or anything like that….and she said she has never heard him shout at anyone.
Did you notice she also said he’s basically a very shy person? (In answer to his secretary who said she envied his ability to be so serene meeting very powerful people). She said he has to work hard at appearing calm and controlled in such circumstances. I saw that shyness in a 2 hour session he did answering questions from a heap of young people at Universities. One young lady complimented him on his appearance, and he nearly fell apart!!
Great interview…the nod at the end was even the best part.
Spot on sister Ann. Yes, Netanyahu is very scared, so we all must be very, very careful.
Already, two false flags on Malaysia, the plane disappearing in thin air, and the other one being shot down over Ukraine. Malaysia kept on poking the eye of the serpent.
Best regards,
Mohamed
Mohammed do you get the impression that the US deep state and Obama have made a decision to get rid of that loud bombastic moron Netanyahu? The recently security implosion, color revolution style social media organized ‘spontaneous’ random attacks by palestiniabn youth against israelis and simultaneous social media organized anti-netanyahu protests within israel as well no practical support from the US towards Netanyahu’ regime seems to indicate that this arrogant bungler may be on his way out.
Just like erdogan also seems to be being thrown under the bus by the same Western establishment.
What is your opinion in this matter?
Salam Anonymous,
I believe that the West has made the decision that Isreal don’t want peace. They were helpless with AIPAC being so strong. So, the first order of business was bring down AIPAC. They decided that the Israel right and moron Netanyahu will be great for this job. The rest is history in the last 2 years.
I predicted this on the Old Saker Blog detailing 8 things. Two things that I didn’t predict are the best, which I will list them down. I used to say, that both Obama and Putin are in cahoots. People thought that being an Ahab, I don’t know the meaning of cahoots. So, they start quoting me from the dictionary the meaning of cahoots. To make the story short, Saker personally asked me not to use Obama and Putin are in cahoots. I complied with the Owner of the House.
The two things that I didn’t predict and which took me with pleasant surprise are:
1. Barrel of Oil being between $50 to $80, which is good for All Poor People of the world. Today, everything is produced is with Oil, even Food.
2. Bringing Russia to the doorsteps of Israel with Modern Advance Arms. Russia is already in Syria, very soon they will be in Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon …….
Obama to bring Putin on his side, gave Crimea to Putin on a Sliver Platter, and the rest of Ukraine will be Federalized according to Putin’s Wishes.
Best regards,
Mohamed.
Salam sister Ann,
Have you noticed The Empire attention’s is shifted back to Afghanistan, away from Syria.
Rejoice,
Mohamed
Hi Dear Mohamed, yes, I agree with you about this diversion in Afghanistan, and I hope Netyanhoo is scared very scared…do you think the China bombs lately are false flags ?
Salam Sister Ann,
You are right that Netanyahu is very, very scared and we should all be very, very cautious while rejoicing.
Amen,
Mohamed