Is Anyone Paying Attention to Russia?

These dudes are not joking around. They have no patience, nor need for hope and change.

Excerpts from an excellent read at RedState:

In the annual Presidential address to the nation - an address that, interestingly, is traditionally given in October but which was postponed to November 5th - Russian President Dmitri Medvedev gave shockingly aggressive and anti-American speech. Besides the rhetoric blaming the United States for the August war against Georgia, he announced the deployment of modern, mobile, and nuclear-warhead-capable missiles to the Kaliningrad enclave - a region that had been largely demilitarized via European security agreements, and Russia's only present piece that borders on Poland. (I would bet my bottom dollar that there were two versions of his address ready to go, with the choice being determined by the election outcome here. Hopefully, the "alternative" one was filed away somewhere and will be found by future historians.)

So what's going on here? Why are the Russians so charged up to move, and to move quickly - literally taking only hours after the election results to get moving?

Here's the key thing you have to understand about Russia.

Russia is weak, and Russia is dying - literally.

Putin isn't a neo-Stalin. If he sees himself as anything, it's as a neo-Peter-the-Great - "Great" because he made Russia into a strong and dominant nation-state. That's what drives Putin. In Putin's view, Russia is suffering all that it is now suffering - both socially and economically - because it is no longer great. If Russia can re-assert itself and become great again, then all its ills will disappear. That's the "new" Russia that we have to understand - and handle. Russian cantankerousness is intentional - they've been looking for ways to be cantankerous as a vehicle for asserting their importance. Rational cooperation is not an option.

This probably would have been a manageable problem, but for the events of this past Tuesday. Suddenly, Russian nationalists see their chance - that they can just roll a weak President-to-be. But the bottom line is - they're in a hurry because they have to be in a hurry. Russia will die if they don't make Russia great again - and soon.

Read more about what targets Russia has in mind.

And while we're on the subject of Russia, It seem Pooty Pute has just begun cracking heads:

A Russian reporter who challenged alleged corruption in local government was close to death on Monday after a savage beating, a close friend said.

Mikhail Beketov, the editor of a newspaper in the Moscow suburb of Khimki, was found unconscious and covered in blood near his home on Nov. 13. He had multiple fractures.

Doctors have amputated one of his legs and have had to delay another operation at Moscow's main emergency hospital, the Sklifosovsky Institute, because his condition is so serious.

"This is what happens when you oppose certain people," Fedotova said. "If they finish me off then you can write a story about that too. I am no longer scared."

"Violence against journalists continues to be very much in the news in Russia... This cycle of violence must stop."

Reporters in Russia risk beatings and even death if they delve into the murky world where Russian politics and business overlap. Attackers are rarely convicted and journalists say they regularly receive threats.