Eloy
Gold Member
Vladimir Putin learned well as he trained to be a KGB agent how to find a weakness in his opponents and exploit it. An example is how he is managing the European Union parts of which rely on Russia for energy, such as Germany. He knows Germany and the Germans well, having been a secret agent in Dresden when Angela Merkel, who speaks fluent Russian, lived in the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR).
Putin in Dresden mid-1980s
In 1989 the wall in Berlin came down and the people in Dresden were feeling that their nationalism was in the ascent. The mob moved on the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) and then headed across the road to the KGB headquarters but before they could enter they were met by Vladimir Putin who told them that his men were armed and had permission to shoot. The small crowd left. Putin was seeing a type of German nationalism which was discouraged in the DDR under the thumb of Moscau. He left Germany and returned to Leningrad which people even there were beginning to call St. Petersburg. Like East Germany, nationalism was on the rise in the imploding Soviet Union. Putin saw first hand what this people power can do and he put his future in it with the contacts he had made with other KGB agents from Dresden. They are all now directors of former Soviet industries, now privatized and whose wealth goes into the pockets of Putin and pals.
Putin hates the European Union (EU) which has imposed hurting sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine and annexing Crimea. EU member states in the east were under Soviet rule and, like East Germany, they have put their future into a partnership of nations but they are nervous of Russia. The Baltic states have native Russian speakers and Putin might just make a move. Poland and Hungary too throw a glance at Russia and wonder. Putin knows the weakness of the Europeans is their nationalism and he will work on this to pull asunder the EU just as it did in the DDR. The racism which is fundamental to nationalism can be exploited so that individual members who are rejecting the EU in favor of their own sense of identity as distinct from neighbors and better without them. Putin must be overjoyed that Britain is about to leave the EU (Brexit) and what a gift Donald Trump has given him by declaring that Nato is obsolete and he likes Putin.
This will be how the Kremlin will undermine the EU, making individual relationships with European nationalists, picking them off one at a time. This week Heinz-Christian Strache, Austria's far right leader has signed an alliance with President Putin's United Russia party and has offered to act as a go-between for the Kremlin and Donal Trump. Well, what do you know, the birthplace of Aryan nationalist, Adolf Hitler, Austria's neo-Nazis might just be next to have an exit.
Heinz-Christian Strache leader of Austria's Freedom Party signed a co-operation agreement with Sergei Zheleznyak, United Russia's deputy leader who is subject to travel bans and asset freezes by the EU.
Putin in Dresden mid-1980s
In 1989 the wall in Berlin came down and the people in Dresden were feeling that their nationalism was in the ascent. The mob moved on the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) and then headed across the road to the KGB headquarters but before they could enter they were met by Vladimir Putin who told them that his men were armed and had permission to shoot. The small crowd left. Putin was seeing a type of German nationalism which was discouraged in the DDR under the thumb of Moscau. He left Germany and returned to Leningrad which people even there were beginning to call St. Petersburg. Like East Germany, nationalism was on the rise in the imploding Soviet Union. Putin saw first hand what this people power can do and he put his future in it with the contacts he had made with other KGB agents from Dresden. They are all now directors of former Soviet industries, now privatized and whose wealth goes into the pockets of Putin and pals.
Putin hates the European Union (EU) which has imposed hurting sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine and annexing Crimea. EU member states in the east were under Soviet rule and, like East Germany, they have put their future into a partnership of nations but they are nervous of Russia. The Baltic states have native Russian speakers and Putin might just make a move. Poland and Hungary too throw a glance at Russia and wonder. Putin knows the weakness of the Europeans is their nationalism and he will work on this to pull asunder the EU just as it did in the DDR. The racism which is fundamental to nationalism can be exploited so that individual members who are rejecting the EU in favor of their own sense of identity as distinct from neighbors and better without them. Putin must be overjoyed that Britain is about to leave the EU (Brexit) and what a gift Donald Trump has given him by declaring that Nato is obsolete and he likes Putin.
This will be how the Kremlin will undermine the EU, making individual relationships with European nationalists, picking them off one at a time. This week Heinz-Christian Strache, Austria's far right leader has signed an alliance with President Putin's United Russia party and has offered to act as a go-between for the Kremlin and Donal Trump. Well, what do you know, the birthplace of Aryan nationalist, Adolf Hitler, Austria's neo-Nazis might just be next to have an exit.
Heinz-Christian Strache leader of Austria's Freedom Party signed a co-operation agreement with Sergei Zheleznyak, United Russia's deputy leader who is subject to travel bans and asset freezes by the EU.
