About the Author

Richard Cochrane is trained in chemistry and metallurgy but is far more interested and practiced as a political and fund raising consultant, writer and amateur historian. He grew up in a Navy family and with his two younger brothers carried on its 500+ year tradition of naval service to Great Britain and the USA then enjoyed a career with one of the largest advertising and public relations agencies working with numerous Fortune 500 companies and many of America's premier educational institutions. He maintains friendships and acquaintanceships around the world. He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

See All Posts by This Author

Putin Has Motive and the Opportunity

September 3rd, 2008 • Richard Cochrane
Email This Post Email This Post - Print This Post Print This Post - Subscribe

Putin’s Police Will Use Fear and WMD of Gulag.

Historians see the German reoccupation of the Rhineland in 1936 as the real beginning of World War II. The treaty that ended World War I, forced Germany to agree to keep troops out of the Rhineland (a German region on the French border).

Hitler made a deal with Stalin giving him Poland and putting Great Britain and France between a rock and a hard place. So, when he sent 32,000 troops and police all they could do was huff and puff but could do little else.

That was then this is now. Putin is annoyed with Poland and the Czech Republic for its alliance with the U. S. and installation of anti-missile radars and missiles. But, Putin is focused on Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltic States and a few of the Central Asian “stans” would be nice too. Would, or could, anyone stop him?

Hitler didn’t have nuclear weapons, nor was Germany the supplier of a quarter of Europe’s energy needs Putin does and is. Hitler also didn’t have the support of the German people for such military adventures, Putin does.

Plus, Putin is a practiced KGB operator. Russia still has a massive secret police apparatus to instill fear. That is important because absorbing the nations of the “near abroad” (as Russia calls its neighbors), would mean having to deal with a lot of dissidents.

That’s what the Gulag (the Russian acronym for the prison camp system, or “The Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies”) was created for. Today, credit cards, cellular phones and massive computer banks make it easier to keep and eye on and track people. From there it is only a matter of rounding them up and hauling them to oblivion in the Gulag.

Make no mistake such abject fear induced by then Soviet secret police worked before and it can work again, and Putin is not timid. He fancies himself a combination of Marx, Lenin and Stalin on a crusade to resurrect the Soviet Empire with himself as its new Czar and he senses a coming terminal weakness in America - that would remove the only impediment to his aspirations.

There Are 2 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Marshall Ivan Risidin on 3 September 2008:

    Yeloev, the dissident web master of Northern Ossetia was “Accidentally shot by Russian police while under restraint in a police van. The miraculous shot went straight through the temple, baffling authorities—according to Izvestia.
    Marshall Ivan is not baffled !!!

  2. Comment by Bill - Florida on 3 September 2008:

    No sweat, I am sure that the ACLU has already completed necessary filings to obtain necessary standing in order to protect the abridged human rights and freedom of speech on the internet.

Post a Response

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture.
Anti-Spam Image