Comments on: Putin Gazing

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 15:05:35 +0000

A sane man confronted by such troubles would not play around with more problems, but would look for friends who could help him.

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 15:03:46 +0000

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/world/10868322.htmHealth of men in Russia is rapidly decliningBy MARK MCDONALDKnight Ridder NewspapersST. PETERSBURG, Russia - A 90-pound chunk of masonry breaks off the facade of a high-rise building and crushes a man on the sidewalk below. Another man, stumbling home from a late-night party, falls in the street, passes out and freezes to death. Two men break into a railroad yard and die after drinking several quarts of industrial solvent from a tanker car.There are so many odd and horrible ways to die in Russia that it's almost no surprise that the average Russian man isn't expected to see his 59th birthday. Men in Bangladesh live longer."Normally only during wartime do we see the kind of decreases in men's longevity that we've seen recently in Russia," said Vladimir I. Simanenkov, the head of the department of internal diseases at the St. Petersburg Medical Academy and a senior official with the city's Public Health Committee.Government statistics show that the average Russian man lives 58.6 years, compared with 73 years for the average Russian woman. In 1990, life expectancy for men was 63.4 years.The reasons sound simple: Russian men drink too much, smoke too much, live with too much stress and go to the doctor too rarely.The consequences are anything but simple, however. Russia's erupting men's health crisis could trigger major social or political unrest in a nation with huge stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.Russia one day could even become incapable of patrolling its borders or policing vast expanses of rural emptiness, creating new havens for smugglers, terrorists and others. Military leaders already complain that most new draftees are so unfit, drug-addled or psychologically damaged that only about 10 percent are capable of withstanding boot camp.Death rates are soaring for stroke, lung cancer, stomach cancer, TB and heart disease, the nation's No. 1 killer with a rate double that of American men.Murray Feshbach, an expert on Russian health and demographics at the Smithsonian Institution's Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, says the situation will grow worse.He said the country's HIV/AIDS infection rates rival those of southern Africa, and that Russia is undercounting deaths from the disease by attributing many of them to secondary infections such as tuberculosis. By 2020, he said in a telephone interview, HIV/AIDS alone is projected to kill 250,000 to 648,000 Russians a year.Hepatitis C, mostly caused by intravenous drug use, also is poised to explode, Feshbach said.In the next 20 years, according to Goskomstat, the state statistics agency, the Russian National Security Council and the United Nations Population Division, Russia's population of 144 million could drop by a third.Russian women would have to have almost twice as many children (2.4) as they're having now (1.3) just to keep the population from declining, but Russia has one of the world's highest abortion rates. Some surveys suggest that there are more abortions than births.============================================ http://www.thepublicinterest.com/archives/2005winter/article1.htmlWinter 2005Russia, The Sick Man of Europe By Nicholas EberstadtThe Russian Federation today is in the grip of a steadily tightening mesh of serious demographic problems, for which the term "crisis" is no overstatement. This crisis is altering the realm of the possible for the country and its people -- continuously, directly, and adversely. Russian social conditions, economic potential, military power, and international influence are today all subject to negative demographic constraints -- and these constraints stand only to worsen over the years immediately ahead.Russia is now at the brink of a steep population decline -- a peacetime hemorrhage framed by a collapse of the birth rate and a catastrophic surge in the death rate. The forces that have shaped this path of depopulation and debilitation are powerful ones, and they are by now deeply rooted in Russian soil. Altering Russia's demographic trajectory would be a formidable task under any circumstances. As yet, unfortunately, neither Russia's political leadership nor the voting public that sustains it have even begun to face up to the enormous magnitude of the country's demographic challenges.

By: Kyda Sylvester

Kyda Sylvester — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 17:51:32 +0000

Yolanda in the comments section at Secular Blasphemy has two interesting links. The rest of world it would appear is hellbent on "checking" America's "ambitions", its "geopolitical offensive". Is the rest of the world really that ignorant of America's "ambitions"? Is it actually deteriorating into a dangerous game of "We're No. 1"? Or is it that power remains the greatest aphrodisiac? We have the evidence before us that individual and economic freedom and cooperation among nations to secure such for its citizens is the only road to peace and prosperity for all. But I guess all that is secondary to knocking the United States off its perch.

By: Kyda Sylvester

Kyda Sylvester — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 16:55:11 +0000

Secular Blasphemy says: Russia and China’s cooperation in blocking sanctions on the genocidal Sydanese government is no doubt pointing to what may well become the most prominent political conflict of the 21st century: the return of the cold war.

A cold war waged over what exactly? The Cold War was an ideological battle pitting freedom, democracy and Capitalism against repression, totalitarianism and Communism/Marxism. The former won. Freedom and democracy may not be bustin’ out all over just yet but Capitalism certainly is and individual freedom and some brand of democratic rule necessarily follow in the wake of a successful free market economy.

So, then, what? Does it deteriorate into a variation of the old kid’s game King of the Hill? Should we all don foam fingers and shout in one another’s faces “We’re No. 1″, “No, we’re No. 1″? Like it or not, for better or worse, the market is global and our economies are interconnected.

Russia wants influence in the Middle East to counter that of the US. Why? Still looking for that warm water port? Is not a stable, democratic, peaceful ME as much to Russia’s advantage as ours? I don’t get it.

China is another story of course. Having close to 1.5 billion people within its borders, China must import food. And its appetite for oil, already voracious, increases every day. One can certainly picture China attempting to become the Japan of the 20’s and 30’s except for the fact that Japan in the first half of the last century was not an economic powerhouse.

Won’t it be a kick in the butt if it turns out to be all about oil afterall.

By: richard mcenroe

richard mcenroe — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 16:46:14 +0000

Putin is no Rasputin. But he is something out of Maxim Gorky. Maybe the lockmaker from The Lower Depths…

By: charlotte

charlotte — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 14:34:02 +0000

A few years ago, after being warned it wasn’t a good idea by friends there, I took a picture of what was supposed to be exKGB building in Smolensk. My camera was stolen a few hours later.

The silent men who tagged along with our group in Moscow and St. Petersburg couldn’t have been minders, since our guide told us that domestic surveillance was no longer the new Russia’s policy. But the men were ever-present and wouldn’t say who they were.

It’s disappointing but not much of a surprise that Putin is vying for client states and leverage in the Middle East, just as the Soviets did this past century. Ditto regarding his clamping down on the “free” press and jailing oligarchical rivals. Even the mysterious offing of Ukranian opposition is not altogether shocking.

Old totalitarian habits die hard for some, especially for ex?KGB with an East-West bi-polar disorder. Choosing a Soviet expert as Secretary of State may have been an extra auspicious decision.

By: Steve M

Steve M — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 10:12:13 +0000

On a lighter note (same topic), this should amuse: Putin Sells Effort to Halt Iran Nuke Production

By: JB

JB — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 05:50:06 +0000

“I think the guy is underqualified for the job.”

In a cosmic sense, maybe. But, again, this IS Russia we’re talking about here. My parents have lived in the US for nearly 25 years, voted for Bush in ‘04, support the democratization of the ME and they still have their “the people need discipline” moments.

What if, as Jack Nicholson’s famous character said, this is as good as it gets?

By: Yehudit

Yehudit — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 04:15:45 +0000

The new issue of the Atlantic has an article on Putin. Title:

“The Accidental Autocrat”

Subtitle:

“Vladimir Putin is not a democrat. Nor is he a czar like Alexander III, a paranoid like Stalin, or a religious nationalist like Dostoyevsky. But he is a little of all theseówhich is just what Russians seem to want.”

I haven’t read it yet.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 04:12:17 +0000

Thibaud once wrote that Putin is so weak that it is only matter of time before he is ousted and when this happens the only thing we will be wondering about is why we did not see it coming. Only I do not think that the replacement will be much of an improvement, whoever he may be.