The Empire Strikes Back

This time Lasers and the Jedi may not help.

Hey folks,

The Rebel Alliance is real. However, there is no Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, nor a Force for good backing them. No Princesses, Millennium Falcon, or Band of X Wing Fighters ready to launch to take out the Evil Death Star.

No folks, no lights, cameras, nor action. This time it's REAL. Unfortunately, there is also no Yoda to impart the Wisdom and knowledge of how to deal with this VERY REAL Threat to Freedom and Peace. You see, this time it's REAL.

I told you a few years ago that Vladimir Putin was not going anywhere. He simply stepped back into the shadows and allowed the New President, Dmitry Medvedev, to take his place as a figurehead. Nothing more nor less. Make no mistake about it, as Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin was still very much in charge.

I have been telling you how he is attempting to get back all the Old USSR Territories. The The Georgia War was just a step in that direction, toward that end. He has been working in quiet for some time to put into place the things he needs to bring this about.

With this American President in place, he has no fear. Now is the time to stop hiding it. Now the day is coming for him to take his rightful spot back in the Limelight. Back as the Official Head of Russia. Now more and more people are starting to take notice. It is no longer just me, sounding the Alarm. According to The Guardian - Putin prepares the Russian empire to strike back

The reincarnation of the current PM as president poses a challenge to western powers for which they seem ill-prepared

Thank you Obama.

As prime minister for the past four years, Vladimir Putin never really went away. But his looming reincarnation as the all-powerful, executive president of Russia – the country's "paramount leader" in Chinese parlance – poses a stark challenge for which the US, Britain and other beleaguered western powers seem ill-prepared. As president, potentially until 2024, Putin has one overriding objective: the creation of a third, post-tsarist, post-Soviet Russian empire.

Putin famously described the collapse of the Soviet Union, the "evil empire" of Ronald Reagan's imagining, as "the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century". His aim, once this weekend's heavily managed parliamentary elections and next March's presidential coronation are out the way, is to put this disaster to rights. Reinstalled as president, and with his political potboy, Dmitry Medvedev, pushed aside, Putin will again exercise unchallengeable control over Russia's external affairs.

Never much interested in domestic policy, Putin's only political trick is a hyper-nationalism that pits a proudly embattled Russia against a hostile, US-led, world conspiracy. But the trick works. Despite mounting criticism during the Duma campaign, both supporters and opponents acknowledge his perceived achievement in restoring Russia's standing in the world following Boris Yeltsin's chaotic 1990s decade.

Accepting the presidential nomination of his United Russia party last month in an otherwise tedious speech, Putin said: "When I hear people shout out 'Russia', I think the entire audience should do that." The response, according to witnesses, was a deafening chant of 'Ro-see-ya! Ro-see-ya!" while Putin pounded his fist on the podium.

Make no mistake about this folks. Putin has support.

Elements of Putin's strategy to make Russia great again are slowly coming into focus. Much of the plan is defined by Russia's opposition to the US, the traditional foe. Thus the Kremlin announced last week that it would renounce the strategic arms reduction treaty (known as New Start) agreed with Washington two years ago if the US did not abandon its European missile defence plans.

This announcement, coupled with the unveiling of a new Russian missile base in Kaliningrad on Nato's doorstep, has striking implications. New Start was the centrepiece of Barack Obama's 2009 "reset" of bilateral relations. The reset is viewed by the White House as a major foreign achievement (and 2012 re-election asset) for a president who has but few to his name.

Missile defence ostensibly aimed at deterring Iran is seen as another success. With the US preoccupied by wars in the Middle East and South Asia and fixated by the Arab spring, a quiet Russian "front" has been deemed essential by Washington. Putin appears set to change all that.

On his eastern flank, meanwhile, Putin is busy reviving the idea of a remodelled union embracing the former Soviet republics of central Asia, an arrangement that prospectively boosts Russian political and military influence. "Russia will begin this new iteration of a Russian empire by creating a union with former Soviet states based on Moscow's current associations, such as the customs union and the collective security treaty organisation. This will allow the 'EuU' [a Eurasia union] to strategically encompass both the economic and security spheres … Putin is creating a union in which Moscow would influence foreign policy and security but would not be responsible for most of the inner workings of each country," said Lauren Goodrich in a Stratfor paper.

Putin's third empire project also includes, crucially, a tightening of Moscow's politicised grip on Europe's strategic energy supplies.

Following last month's Gazprom deal with Belarus, industry analysts suggest up to 50% of Europe's natural gas could be controlled by Russia by 2030. This is hugely significant: Putin's new Russian empire can only be financed by continuing, high-priced energy export revenues. In effect, Europe could be paying for its own future domination.

The empire-fights-back scenario has numerous other aspects. Recent remarks by Medvedev about the lack of wisdom, in the context of the 2008 Georgia conflict, of unchecked Nato enlargement vividly illustrated Russia's visceral opposition to any interference in what used to be called its "near abroad" – and Putin's desire to roll back the western encroachments of the past 20 years. Russia's determination to defend wider spheres of traditional influence in the non-aligned and developing world can be seen in its obdurate refusal to penalise Syria, in the face of almost universal outrage over the crackdown there; and in its de facto defence of Iran's nuclear programme. Putin, meanwhile, continues to prioritise Russian military modernisation.

Western countries inclined to take issue with this external empire-building, or with Russia's lamentable internal democracy and human rights deficit, have been told to save their breath. "All our foreign partners need to understand this: Russia is a democratic country, it's a reliable and predictable partner with which they can and must reach agreement, but on which they cannot impose anything from the outside," Putin told the United Russia convention. Attempts to influence the election process or the reform agenda were "a wasted effort, like throwing money to the winds".

As Putin – former secret policeman, physical fitness fanatic and hyper-nationalist – prepares to resume Russia's presidency, his third empire ambitions become ever clearer. March's election will be no contest. Only when it is over will the real fight begin.

Folks, none of this is a surprise. I have been warning you about this for years. I have been following Little Hitler's Rise in Iran and the relationship with Russia. Let's not forget what is going on in the Middle East, where The Muslim Brotherhood is taking over. Obama continues to play games here, including weakening our relationships with our Allies and weakening our Military, and National Security by the furthering of his Liberal Agendas. I keep telling you. As Obama plays games, the World grows even more Dangerous.

2012 is the MOST important Election in the history of this Country, because never more true than today, America itself is on the line here. We can not survive another 4 years of this insanity. The only thing that can successfully defend us from all these growing threats, is AMERICAN GREATNESS. The only thing that brought down the USSR the first time, was AMERICAN GREATNESS. The only thing that has kept the World in relative Peace, and those that would rather see us gone at bay, IS, WAS, and NEEDS to be again, AMERICAN GREATNESS. It really is, just that simple.
Peter

Sources:
OPNtalk - Russia Up To Dirty Tricks Again.
OPNTalk - Russia Returning to USSR
The Guardian - Putin prepares the Russian empire to strike back