Russian Politics

Russian Federation is the largest coutry in the world. It is also among the most powerful nations, and has large influence over other countries.
I find it quite offensive that politics of a country like Great Britain (no offence to British people, who I respect for their history) are discussed in the separate forum, while Russia has been omitted.
I would highly appreciate if a forum was created for discussion of Russian/CIS politics.

Thank you in advance.

P.S. I don't know if 'forum' is the right word for what I meant, maybe it is called subforum but I hope you understand what I mean.

I don't believe there are many Russian's on ATS,

so what would be the point???

Actually, the point might be that it could be educational. There are many of us that have a limited and or one sided view of what is really going on over there and quite frankly it's too big a piece of the international scene to ignore, especially with what is going on these days.

Besides, are the other forums limited to the members who are from the designated country?

You have a section, Euro forum. Seeings majority of the members are US and UK, thats why we have main political forums for them. We only have a UK forum because we had a massive support campaign! (thanx to all members who took part)

Actually, just to be totaly correct, Russia is in Europe and Asia.

I too think it could be very educatioanl, but without many Russians taking part on this board(as far as I am aware) it could be a very bear forum.

Your best bet is too get as many Russain people on here to ask for a seperate forum, just like people from the UK did. Also, one of the reasons a UK forum may have been created is that the site owner is British

Originally posted by UK Wizard
I don't believe there are many Russian's on ATS,

so what would be the point???

With respect you are missing the point . It dosnt matter how many russians are on ATS. If there were few Americans around I would still want a topic devouted to the sometimes strange world of American politics.
Russia is a former superpower which still holds influence in Europe.
I would love to learn more about Russian politics, after all you dont have to be a yank to debate American politics!

I think the absence of people wanting to talk about Russia is the reason for the lack of a dedicated forum.

Start making some threads on Russian politics first and if the interest is there I am sure a new forum could be created.

It may be interesting to hear about how Putin is driving the country back to the bad old ways...

Also with information on the issues in the Ukraine, that would be interesting for an inside view.

Actually its a typical Russian response demanding equal recognition to other countries whist never actually doing anything that shows it. Its the god old "We are just as good as you are " chip on the shoulder.

Despite being the biggest land mass the Russian society can be far from equal to other First world societies. Maybe we should make a forum on "First world wannabes"



[edit on 4-12-2004 by Netchicken]

I would like to know where the Federation has placed itself in the complex world view of "president" George W Bush: "You are either with us or against us".

What say you, Russian Federation?

"Bring it on!"

"You are either with us or against us"

Well, things not always black and white, you know, we have own geopolitical interests and thay frequently cross with yours. If you want to fight with terror - yes, you can count on us and our assistance. If you want to gain control on more resource bases and destabilize entire region to do it, we are not with you.

It may be interesting to hear about how Putin is driving the country back to the bad old ways...

Also with information on the issues in the Ukraine, that would be interesting for an inside view.

Actually its a typical Russian response demanding equal recognition to other countries whist never actually doing anything that shows it. Its the god old "We are just as good as you are " chip on the shoulder.

Despite being the biggest land mass the Russian society can be far from equal to other First world societies. Maybe we should make a forum on "First world wannabes"

Well, well, well, another Russia's "expert" that thinks that he know something about us, it's boring to answer to such crappy statements believe in what you want.


Back to the topic, I don't think that the separate forum is a good idea, there are not much russians on ATS to express different views on our politics and too much people that prefer bash Russia than try to understand our point of view.

Well, some of the views already expressed over this are exactly the reason why perhaps good Russian Political discussion might serve an educational purpose furthering our lovely board's motto (maybe not). True, there may not be many Russian Federation members on the board, and those who are, frequently find themselves at odds with all the preconceived mindsets, some of which have already been stated here. I think it's a shame.

It has not been my experience that anyone in the rest of the world can truly say we know the Russian Federation at this point or where the people stand, but I do think not all would agree with NetChicken's take on Putin for instance, just as half the US would not agree with anyone's stance on Bush.

Perhaps the numbers do not warrant a separate forum. However, I think the following is an understatement bordering on insult, that perhaps is the reason more dialog should take place:

Despite being the biggest land mass the Russian society can be far from equal to other First world societies. Maybe we should make a forum on "First world wannabes"

Can anyone honestly underestimate the Russian Federation to this extent? Why don't we just ignore everything that has been accomplished since the cold war, secure in our superiority, and not give a you know what until it actually matters. Geez!

(By the way, has it occurred to anyone that there are actually some common goals at the moment between the United States and the Russian Federation regardless of differences in ideaology?)

WooHoo!
Debate

Underestimate the Russian Federation?
I think the problem is that historically we have tended to overestimate it.
Come on, its close to a failed state at present.
Its greatest export are the Russian mafia,
Its corrupt, despotic, chaotic and decaying.
It has first world aspirations on a second world economy and infrastructure.
It is a worse performing economy in terms of potential than many African states.
Its democratic freedoms, just newly created, are being quietly eroded taking it back to a soviet style police state, as Putin kills and silences any opposition and terrorises the media into silence.
Its military are decaying, outdated and defunct.
It exists as a military power solely on its aging nucleur weapons. Take them away and its claim to being a superpower goes with it.

Can anyone honestly underestimate the Russian Federation to this extent? Why don't we just ignore everything that has been accomplished since the cold war, secure in our superiority, and not give a you know what until it actually matters. Geez!

The same common goals? - to rule the world and subvert everyone to their political mindests?
At least America tries to rebuild the counties it invades (without much luck so far) whilst Russia just bombed the # out of them and left.

(By the way, has it occurred to anyone that there are actually some common goals at the moment between the United States and the Russian Federation regardless of differences in ideaology?)

This looks more like a thread destined for the Slug-Fest forum than the Russian Politics forum.

But seriously, I think rather than being offended by a lack of a forum, Russian members and members interested in Russian affairs can accomplish the most good by contributing more posts that would belong in such a forum.

Just my 2 kopecks.

I cannot believe I have just witnessed you posting that trash NetChicken, but nevermind.

It is obvious that this board could do with Russian contributors, I think it could be very interesting indeed.

Good luck khruschev and ExD in getting your forum, I hope it may help to rid some of the obvious ignorance we see so much on this forum.

I look forward to reading your future posts.

Kritz, if you have a problem with what I wrote then how about refuting it and outlining what you see is correct.

Originally posted by Netchicken
Underestimate the Russian Federation?
I think the problem is that historically we have tended to overestimate it.
Come on, its close to a failed state at present.
Its greatest export are the Russian mafia,
Its corrupt, despotic, chaotic and decaying.
It has first world aspirations on a second world economy and infrastructure.
It is a worse performing economy in terms of potential than many African states.
Its democratic freedoms, just newly created, are being quietly eroded taking it back to a soviet style police state, as Putin kills and silences any opposition and terrorises the media into silence.
Its military are decaying, outdated and defunct.
It exists as a military power solely on its aging nucleur weapons. Take them away and its claim to being a superpower goes with it.
The same common goals? - to rule the world and subvert everyone to their political mindests?
At least America tries to rebuild the counties it invades (without much luck so far) whilst Russia just bombed the # out of them and left.

Actually, we used to be a close to a failed state, while Yeltsin listened to what Americans say, and was doing most of what US goovernment wanted.
We don't export our mafia. But USA does buy our oil, and you invaded Iraq not to be dependent on us any longer, but it was harder than your smart president thought and you still depend on our oil.
Corrupt? The situation is getting much better now. But freedom of media isn't very high in the USA, so it takes years to censor all the news so what you get is outdated Chaotic? At least Putin didn't become President after a coup d'etat like Bush did.
Have you ever lived in Russia? I guess no, because of everything you say makes no sense. Putin is reforming the army, and you say Russia is going back to Soviet ways. Well, just to tell you Russia isn't the one attacking Iraq for oil, Russia isn't the one going to Afganistan to test new weapons, and Russia is not the one bombing FR Yugoslavia to support Albanian terrorists (KLA).
Concerning the military, I would love to see a military exercice conducted involving most modern Russian and American weapons, as well as the other ones still in use. Nuclear arsenal is hard to test, but if it is so bad and ageing why do you care about it so much, and go around whinning about the new weapons being developped. USA is a superpower due to its nuclear arsenal too.
Actually only one partially common goal, is the war on terrorism. But US is providing refuge for Chechen terrorists while fighting someone who didn't even attack USA in Iraq. To rule the world? Only USA is trying to do so, but you won'thave much luck with it...
I see how you rebuild all the countries you bombed. And I don't remember any country bombed by Russia.

Are these houses in Yugoslavia repaired?


Is Russian Air Force destroying civialian trains, killing civillians in them?


Or did this TV tower with a restaurant on top fall by itself? And was repaired?


Precision of American bombs or stupidity of American pilots? Or, oh she was a terrorist leader? Osama Ben Laden disguised as 11 month old girl?


These houses in Iraq were rebuilt too, right?


And if everything would be just based on how many members are somewhere from each country I guess USA and UK would rule the world but I guess this isn't true. And anyways USA and UK have pretty much the same policies, because UK does whatever USA wants them to do, and that is why they might have problems with terrorism.

And for those mentioning Euro forum to be used for Russian politics, first of all Russia is not just in Europe, and second that I would never discuss politics of Russia under the flag of EU.

Despite being the biggest land mass the Russian society can be far from equal to other First world societies. Maybe we should make a forum on "First world wannabes"

Or instead of American politics forum, we should make a forum of countries that weren't even discovered until the end of 15th century? Or where the President is among the stupidest people in the country? And anyway who told you Russia wanted to be "classified" by USA among the first or second or 1312431325th world countries? Who is USA to define who is in which world? Again, your country is too "young" to define those that existed for a long time prior to 1492.

It would be interesting to see several forum for Russia/CIS and China, and perhaps India, Africa, Latin America, Middle East.

the UK is part of Europe, so it is a bit redundant to have a separate forum for the UK alone.

Russia/CIS has countless issues , some of them not very well known to outsiders and it would be quite interesting if there was a space for them to be presented.

I would like to know more about the politics of the Mother Russia since that is where my family came.I have to say I dont know much about it though. I think Russia has the potential to become a economic super power in the near future. I have been looking into more information about Siberia after watching a show about it very interesting place. Sad to see AIDs could be making such a big problem for the people up there.