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Location: Ames, Iowa, United States

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Russian Bear Wants a Piece if the Middle East

Russian leader Vladimir Putin is not ready to give up on the Middle East. As the United States has exerted great influence over the area militarily over the last 15 years, Russia is using that as an excuse to sell "defensive arms" to middle eastern sountries. In addition, they are continuing to help Iran build the nuclear power plant that is being opposed by the United States and most European leaders. The following article gives a good overview of the situation:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-russia2feb02.story

An interesting note though: A Russian official is pragmatic about the effort however. He feels it is just a pipe dream. His words about the Iranian nuclear plant are clear:

"Russian policy is largely driven not by rational national interests, but by this complex of former greatness," said Andrei Piontkovsky, director of the Center for Strategic Studies in Moscow. "Any leader in the Middle East or elsewhere knows about this complex, and can take advantage of it by helping Russia to continue to play this role for a perk or a privilege."That is why it is quite obvious that Russia will continue to supply nuclear technologies to Iran," he said, "until the very day when the Bushehr power plant is bombed out of existence by the United States."

I agree to a point, but it looks like Putin is not ready to give up on the old USSR and its dream just yet. After all, he was head of the KGB, the old Soviet secret police, that arrested those who opposed the regime and "disappeared" many others.

I'll be back

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