Big Trouble in Russia

Russia is a huge land area occupied by a rapidly dwindling population of Russians. But that isn't the trouble of which I write. It is Putin who is big trouble for Russia, and finally more and more Russians are starting to understand the kind of trouble Putin is making for them.

A revolution is brewing in Vladimir Putin's Russia. The chickens of his incompetence and shameless artifice are finally coming home to roost. Now, he has only neo-Soviet brutality to fall back upon. How long that will maintain him, only the likes of Barack Obama can say.

The Bruce Springsteen of Russia, Yuri Shevchuk of the seminal rock band DDT, recently launched into an unprecedented, lengthy, and biting critique of the Putin regime from the stage of one of Russia's most prestigious arenas. A video of the speech went viral and has already been viewed nearly 200,000 times and received over 500 comments.

Then an online petition surfaced, attracting the support of virtually every significant opposition leader, and it too went viral. The call: Putin must go, now and permanently. The websites hosting the petitions were soon under furious attack from Putin's army of hackers.

Russians have good reasons to despise the increasingly neo-Soviet regime that Putin, a proud KGB spy, has created. And despite the shameful lack of support from Barack Obama and other craven Western leaders, they have good reason to be brave enough to challenge him...

...Putin is likely delighted to see that Russia's performance has become even worse under Medvedev because it gives him the chance to further justify a return to power. Never mind that under Putin's two terms, Russia's scores dropped enough to lag behind some of the most lawless African states. Putin can claim that he is once again riding to Russia's rescue.

The scheme can work only because of the poor excuse for leadership being provided by the Obama administration, which has driven France into Putin's waiting arms and which has remained silent despite the opportunity to speak out for freedom that the Kremlin's ongoing failure has presented. _AT

Obama behaves as a pathetic enabler to Putin's tyranny, in total callous disregard of the plight of the people of Russia. That is no surprise. Obama really has no competence or expertise in anything except given telepromptered speeches. What is surprising is how totally incompetent and foolish Obama's entire team in the cabinet and executive branch is turning out to be.

The Russian people are dying fast, and being born very slowly. They are disappearing like tiny tortured stick men from the vast expanse of the largest country in terms of area, and probably the wealthiest country in terms of mineral resources.

Who is on their side?