Russia bored with Condoleezza Rice’s far-fetched statements

BruceLaoMan · Senior Member

The site has been quiet today, so I like to post something

Date: Sep 20, 2008

The opposition between the government of Bolivia and the rebels, who organized riots in several provinces of the nation, ended with the victory of La Paz. One of the separatist leaders, Leopoldo Fernandez, who was accused of organizing the bloody clashes, was arrested.

The leaders of eight leading countries of South America supported Bolivia’s President Evo Morales during an emergency summit devoted to the Bolivian problems.
Analysts say that the events marked the failure of the US-led politics in Latin America. They say that Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, who heads the anti-American bloc, has virtually become the leader of the continent, which automatically strengthens Russia’s influence in the region.
The reaction of Brazil was understandable. This country depends on the shipments of the Bolivian gas. Like Argentina, Brazil announced its support for the actions of the legally elected president of Bolivia. The nearest allies of the Bolivian leader, representatives of ALBA, a regional organization, expressed a similar point of view on the matter.
The events mark the failure of the strategy of the White House in the region that was hoping for a split between Brazil on the one hand and Venezuela on the other hand. South America stands together for the first time since the times of Simone Bolivar. Hugo Chavez has won.

Scientists of politics say that the region does not want to see the USA as the guarantor of its regional stability anymore. It is not ruled out that this role will be handed over to Russia, if Venezuela wishes for it.
The Russian Federation has been actively cooperating with Venezuela in the defense industry during the recent several years. One may say that such practice will soon be expanded onto other countries of the region which position themselves as Venezuela’s allies.
The two countries have been developing cooperation in the civil field as well. Russian state-run corporations will soon launch shipments of up-to-date technologies in the field of oil processing, space communication and modern navigation systems.
If the projects become real, Russia will obtain a technological platform in close proximity to the USA. Moreover, the platform will appear in the region, which has been traditionally considered the zone of Washington’s absolute control.

It goes without saying that the US administration is not going to give up.

Washington will take efforts to retrieve its influence in Latin America. Chavez is perfectly aware of that, which explains his increased attention to contacts with Moscow.

Date: Sep 20, 2008

I assume you posted a news right? That's what it sounds to me.

LAO SPY · Senior Member

I could not help saying some words to support a good idea suggested by Bruce, saying he likes to see Russia coming back to check and balance, otherwise small countries would be bullied by USA forever.

I do know Russia quite well as I had been there for long time. I got my Bs and Msc degrees from there. That's why my English is not good.

khonthakek · Guru

LAO SPY

How long have you studied in Russia?

LAO SPY · Senior Member

khonthakek wrote:

LAO SPY

How long have you studied in Russia?

Ten years, though. Thanks for asking.

BTW, are you in Laos or abroad? I got a feeling that you are now in China, but sometimes you seem to live in USA.

-- Edited by LAO SPY at 03:30, 2008-09-20

Date: Sep 20, 2008

sbd lao spy,
do you know TSP from singapore.?
he said, he was graduated from CCCP as you did.

good old days, memories.

my2cent

LAO SPY · Senior Member

Anonymous wrote:

sbd lao spy,
do you know TSP from singapore.?
he said, he was graduated from CCCP as you did.

good old days, memories.

my2cent

Sabaidee Mr. My2cent,

Yes, I know him. He is now doing PhD in Singapore. We had ever studied together in USSR and Russia, as well. The fact that I used USSR (CCCP) and Russia is because we had studied there for too long, meaning before and after Soviet Union collapsed.

You seem to graduate from CCCP as well, isn't that true?

Yes, it was really good old days for me as well.

Regards,

-- Edited by LAO SPY at 06:50, 2008-09-20

BruceLaoMan · Senior Member

LAO SPY wrote:
I could not help saying some words to support a good idea suggested by Bruce, saying he likes to see Russia coming back to check and balance, otherwise small countries would be bullied by USA forever.

I do know Russia quite well as I had been there for long time. I got my Bs and Msc degrees from there. That's why my English is not good.

Lao Spy, I just want to share with you my experienced interviews with a few Russians and I had a hard time understanding their English because of the thick accents. Some of them blamed on Gorbachev for the collapse of Soviet Union but at the same time, they were also happy in a way that it was collapsed. They said Russia domestic policy back then was very oppressive to its own people. I also got to interview people from Bosnia, Ethiopia, Iran, India, China, Somalia, Lebanon and some even from Egypt. I was told by people from Bosnia that Yugoslavia was the most moderate communist country comparing to other former Soviets’ Republics.

If I may ask, what’s the subject of your study in Russia? You don’t have to answer me if you don’t feel comfortable to share your personal information over the internet. I am just curious. Did you get any decent opportunity upon your return back to Laos? I would assume so with all your educational background from abroad Am I right? And please don’t tell me I am wrong because that would be quite devastating. What is the annual number of students that Lao government can afford to send abroad nowadays? I know China and Thailand have huge numbers of their students study oversea especially in U.S.

Date: Sep 20, 2008

Sabaidee Mr. My2cent,

Yes, I know him. He is now doing PhD in Singapore. We had ever studied together in USSR and Russia, as well. The fact that I used USSR (CCCP) and Russia is because we had studied there for too long, meaning before and after Soviet Union collapsed.

You seem to graduate from CCCP as well, isn't that true?

Yes, it was really good old days for me as well.

Regards,

it was my dream, but russian is very hard for me to speak and write.
i quited my med. faculty in VTE coz of russian language teacher. could not stand her. that was in 1978. after leaving VTE, i was kicking dirt here and there.
i picked my MA in eastern europe where they speak similar language to russian.
russian now sounds nice to me and i can pick it up some word from friends.
if i m high school boy now i will take russian, mandarin and spainish.

reguards
my2cent

LAO SPY · Senior Member

First of all, may I express my opinion about your thought? While reading your comment in this topic, I was surprised very much over the fact that you have such a thought. I have never thought that people in USA would have such an idea in their mind. Your move proved me wrong. It made me think that lots American people love peace, but not war.

About the last President of Soviet Union, Gorbachev, he is not popular amongst Russian people. They thought he destroyed Soviet Union. Most people then thought Soviet Union should have been changed step by step similar to China. Nevertheless, they accept that he has very great contribution to their life, to their country development and all countries around the world, including Laos as well. I also do appreciate his contribution.

For myself, I must say that I owe Laos and Lao people a lot. I am a son of farmer could have such an opportunity to study abroad. Lao government granted me a scholarship for all my degrees. So, no doubt that I work hard for Lao government no matter what position provided to me. I am a structural engineer by training, by the way.

Yes, I would not say that lot Lao students, but some study abroad. They study in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, EU, Canada and USA... That is what I know, but sorry I don't know the annual number of students, I would fail to tell you about that as my job has no connection to the field.

However, I do know for sure that Lao government always encourage Lao students to study abroad. I must accept that sometimes our students' ability cannot meet their requirements, let say to study in USA; one should get the TOEFL scores more than 600, which is really hard for Lao students to get. That's why the number of Lao students in USA is very small, say no more than 2 students annually.Thanks for asking Bruce
Regards,

BruceLaoMan wrote:
Lao Spy, I just want to share with you my experienced interviews with a few Russians and I had a hard time understanding their English because of the thick accents. Some of them blamed on Gorbachev for the collapse of Soviet Union but at the same time, they were also happy in a way that it was collapsed. They said Russia domestic policy back then was very oppressive to its own people. I also got to interview people from Bosnia, Ethiopia, Iran, India, China, Somalia, Lebanon and some even from Egypt. I was told by people from Bosnia that Yugoslavia was the most moderate communist country comparing to other former Soviets’ Republics.
If I may ask, what’s the subject of your study in Russia? You don’t have to answer me if you don’t feel comfortable to share your personal information over the internet. I am just curious. Did you get any decent opportunity upon your return back to Laos? I would assume so with all your educational background from abroad Am I right? And please don’t tell me I am wrong because that would be quite devastating. What is the annual number of students that Lao government can afford to send abroad nowadays? I know China and Thailand have huge numbers of their students study oversea especially in U.S.

-- Edited by LAO SPY at 12:26, 2008-09-20

BruceLaoMan · Senior Member

LAO SPY wrote:

First of all, may I express my opinion about your thought? While reading your comment in this topic, I was surprised very much over the fact that you have such a thought. I have never thought that people in USA would have such an idea in their mind. Your move proved me wrong. It made me think that lots American people love peace, but not war.

Well I don’t know how you initially got the impression that most Americans would love war instead of peace. But I can honestly tell you this; millions of people in U.S don’t even care much about politics and 90% of Americans still believe in God. American people have voluntarily served in various humanitarian missions around the world and donations are in millions and millions of dollars from private citizens, from non-profit organizations and not just from government. I couldn’t be wrong either to say that Americans are generous people too. Nonetheless, we people are somewhat influenced by politicians in our lives and that’s how we normally choose sides based on the information given to us then, we would do our own analyses. Our economy also goes up and down every 10 years which is good in a way; otherwise, people become passive if there is no struggle in lives.
You may not know war in Iraq has consumed too much of our resources and it does not benefit ordinary people. It only benefits those whose businesses are in arm industry. The reconstruction of Iraq had given so many contracts to Americans, but as a citizen like me, I don’t gain anything from it. Instead, I am paying into it. I am a legitimate tax payer just like any other Americans; we do our part by paying back to the society.
We have reached our full potential long time ago and there is not much room to grow anymore, but we ended up abusing our own system, our own wealth due to many loopholes in our constitution. We have allowed millions of immigrants to come to the states, but millions also tend to live off state and federal benefits mostly by deception not necessarily based on the exception of need. And don’t get me wrong, millions of immigrants also have major contribution to our society as well.
We are a country with 13 trillion dollar-economy and we had huge surplus during Clinton administration, but after Bush came to power, we now have huge deficit. In spite of that, other big powers like China and Japan still have faith in our currency and their current ownership in our treasury bonds have manifested itself.
Moreover, for the last 50 years we Americans have been on the top list of contributions to tourism industries follow by Germans, Japanese and other Europeans. Millions of our people enjoy high standard of living and we have travelled around the world. Therefore, our American English has also been dominant throughout history. By the way, thank you for sharing your education background. I admire people whose interests are in engineering field, in law either criminal justice or family law, or any type of law. Medical science is what I hate the most. I never have a passion for it. I also admire people who like to be a surgeon, a doctor of dentistry, but I used think about becoming a doctor of pharmacy (Parm D) and I would never want to be a doctor of medicine (MD). My interests are in business fields like administration and finance.

Date: Sep 22, 2008

Russia bored with Condoleezza Rice’s far-fetched statements

Russia’s Foreign Ministry published an official statement in connection with Condoleezza Rice’s remarks accusing Russia of aggressive actions against Georgia.

Ms. Rice released harsh statements September 18 about US-Russian relations in light of recent events in Georgia and South Ossetia. In spite of the fact that the US Secretary of State virtually acknowledged Georgia’s guilt in unleashing the military conflict and expressed her condolences on the death of Russian peacemakers, Ms. Rice stated that the war had been masterminded by the Russian administration. According to Rice, the war had a goal to topple the regime of the Georgian government.
No one at the Russian Foreign Ministry was surprised with Rice’s statements. “It is not the first time when spokespeople for the US administration roughly misinterpret the events caused with Georgia’s aggression against South Ossetia. There is nothing surprising about it, taking into consideration Washington’s bias to back the bankrupt regime in Tbilisi,” an official statement from the ministry said. “Russia does not intend to get into a rhetorical or any other confrontation with the USA,” the statement also said.
“Georgia attacked Russia, and we had nothing else to do but to use the right of self-defense in strict correspondence with Article 51 of the UN Charter. The United States begin to acknowledge the impossibility of the unipolar world, although it can only be seen through painful reactions to the demonstration of power on the part of the USA’s competitors,” the statement from the Foreign Ministry of Russia said.
President Dmitry Medvedev said Friday that Russia would not yield to Western pressure or be pushed into isolation over the war in Georgia. Medvedev's comments appeared to be a response to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who warned Russia on Thursday that its policies have put it on a path to isolation and irrelevance.
Medvedev dismissed a claim that Russia was sliding back to authoritarianism. "They are, in fact, pushing us onto the development track that is based not on normal and civilized cooperation with other countries, but on autonomous development behind thick walls and an 'iron curtain,"' Medvedev said at a meeting with non-governmental organizations. "This is not our track, and it makes no sense to return to the past."
In addition, he vowed that Russia would set its own course. "No new outside factors, let alone outside pressure on Russia, will change our strategic course," Medvedev said.
"We will continuously strengthen our national security, modernize the military and increase our defense capability to a sufficient level," he said. "And we will determine what level is sufficient proceeding from the current situation; it can't be measured once and for all."
Medvedev reaffirmed his push for a new pan-European security pact, saying NATO alone can't ensure security on the continent.
"It only has provoked the conflict," he said, in a reference to the war in Georgia.