In my opinion Russia is evil and is continuing on a path of evil.
All governments are evil today. Russia, USA, Israel, Ukraine (very evil -
I know), Georgia (what country did Stalin come from?). Isolating Russia as the evil country today is not objective. Communism was a very evil regime. It was more evil than the American regime at the time. Here we can make moral comparisons. But communism was a regime of the Soviet Union - a multinational state. Statistically, Russians were underrepresented in the communist government. Unfortunately, there was a disproportionately HUGE number of Jews among communists - until the late 30ies when Stalin exterminated them. Solzhenitsyn writes about it. The first Soviets sounded like the list of Bund members. It was an overwhelmingly Jewish organization, and I am not proud of it. There was a very large number of Caucasians (not whites - people from the Caucasus region), and among them - Georgians, such as the famous butchers, Stalin and Beria. There were a lot of Balts (Latvians) among the communists in the beginning, and there was always a very large number of Ukrainians. It was historically understandable that formerly oppressed minorities became attracted to the communist ideology and joined the movement in large numbers, but still, let's not demonize the Russians or other ethnic groups. Communism doesn't have a nationality, and everybody's hands have blood on them.
Let's bring some objectivity into the discussion of Russia today. It's not a communist state, no matter how much some people like to claim that it is. It is more capitalist that the U.S. today. It's also a very corrupt system because a lot of people are dishonest due to the immoral atheism of Soviet years. In addition, the Russian society doesn't understand that the law of the land must be upheld. This is because they don't have the Western democratic tradition of law-abiding behavior and constitutional thinking. If people can bend the law to their advantage, they will. If they can cheat, they will. It is their mentality that needs (in my opinion) a complete overhaul, because such a mentality is very counterproductive for the society - it tears down its very fabric. To be fair, the exact same thing is equally valid for other post-Soviet states, such as the Ukraine and Georgia, which are today the darlings of the Western media.
What can a country do in the meantime to compensate for its people's lack of law-abiding mentality and propensity to cheat to make sure that it doesn't descend into chaos? It can turn authoritarian. This is what we observe happening in Russia. (And in Georgia, for that matter. Saakashvili is no democrat). Is autocracy, in itself, bad? No, I don't think so. As long as we have an enlightened ruler. Hopefully, the righteoud government of Israel will be an enlightened theocracy.
Some of the good things happening in Russia. People turn to Christianity in droves. Even muslims are converting to Christianity. People become more traditionalist in their thinking and more patriotic. Traditionalism, patriotism, religion - these are GOOD things. Another good thing compared to the US - a much greater spread of opinion in the mainstream press and internet. A very vigorous and healthy atmosphere of political analysis. A lot of the political trends that were observed by Western analysts recently, were noted by Russian analysts some years ago. There is certainly a lag I notice. Yes, this is a paradox. Russia is authoritarian, but there seems to be more freedom of speech (the press and the internet) than in the U.S.
On the other hand, Western governments are quickly turning totalitarian (while Russia is authoritarian - feel the difference?). This is especially true in the EU. It is truly scary how many freedoms have the European people lost recently. But this is quickly happening in the U.S. as well. Luckily, the First Amendment seems to be more robust than the analogous freedoms in Europe, but it is being quickly eroded. Cultural elites and mainstream media are virtually monolithic in its political opinion with which they bombard the American people and which enables them to pursue their suicidal policies of mass immigration and railroading Israel into submission. As for the aggressive pursuit of political interests, it is the West that have been winning in this department. The guy interviewed said that the NATO expanded more than Hitler. Nothing wrong with that. Every system protects its political interests and expands their sphere of influence. That's the geopolitical game for you. But to single out Russia as the bad guy is unfair. Of course, they don't want NATO next door. How would the U.S. like it if Russia were to sign a treaty with Mexico, put its military bases there and start training its military. Remember what happened in 1962 when Russian send its advisers to Cuba? Well, the guy says it all very well.
Is there a big moral difference between Russia and the U.S. today? It's terrible that Russia aligned itself with the Arab and muslim world. I hate them for that. But the U.S. is not much better. It armed the Taliban, it sold weapons to Pakistan, it put Saddam Hussein into power, and it has been doing and continuing to do low, underhanded deals with Saudi Arabia. It puts pressure on little Israel to committ a national suicide. Russia helps Israel's enemies, but, at least, it leaves Israel alone (for now). The two important differences I see are: 1) the American people (of European background) are, on the whole, more upright and righteous because of their Christian upbringing; 2) the American people, on the whole (not their State Department!), do support Israel in much greater numbers than Russians, who are quite antisemitic. But if think Russians are antisemitic then what would you think about Ukrainians? They are 10 times more antisemitic than Russians. I know. I lived in both places. So, on the whole, yes, the U.S. occupies the higher moral ground today than Russian does. But only due to the number of righteous people who live there (there is still quite a few of them), not because of their government. And the moral difference is diminished every day.
Whew, I certainly didn't think I would be defending Russia on this board (or anywhere, for that matter). I am not a Russia lover or supporter. But the hypocrisy of the U.S. government who granted independence to Kosovo while denying the same to South Ossetia really riled me up. They have the gall to talk about the sovereignty of national borders while the ink is still wet on the Kosovo agreement! I am also irritated by the vitriol of the unreflective Russia hatred. Remember when Serbia was demonized in the beginning of the Yugoslav war? Let's bring in a note of sanity here.
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