So some while back (Jan, 2006) I created a post regarding Oil becomes the newest weapon in Moscow's arsenal ?? and now we find that not only has Putin gone and tried to claim the North Pole for Russia Russians Plant Flag on the Arctic Seabed but he's also setting out to rewrite history in a more Nationalistic flavour with this being reported recently by the Washington Post - New Manuals Push A Putin's-Eye View In Russian Schools
And how about this one? Sex for the motherland: Russian youths encouraged to procreate at camp where the Nashi now appears to be quite a neat spin on the new Motherland?
Under Mr Putin, Russia is sliding into fascism, with state control of the economy, media, politics and society becoming increasingly heavy-handed. And Nashi, along with other similar youth movements, such as 'Young Guard', and 'Young Russia', is in the forefront of the charge.
Just as the Nazis in 1930s rewrote Germany's history, the Putin Kremlin is rewriting Russia's. It has rehaabilitated Stalin, the greatest massmurderer of the 20th century. And it is demonising Boris Yeltsin, Russia's first democratically-elected president. That he destroyed totalitarianism is ignored. Instead, he is denounced for his "weak" pro-Western policies.
While distorting its own history, the Kremlin denounces other countries. Mr Putin was quick to blame Britain's "colonial mentality" for our government's request that Russia try to find a legal means of extraditing Andrei Lugovoi, the prime suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.
Yet the truth is that Britain, like most Western countries, flagellates itself for the crimes of the past. Indeed, British schoolchildren rarely learn anything positive about their country's empire. And, if Mr Putin has his way, Russian pupils will learn nothing bad about the Soviet empire, which was far bloodier, more brutal - and more recent.
A new guide for history teachers - explicitly endorsed by Mr Putin - brushes off Stalin's crimes. It describes him as "the most successful leader of the USSR". But it skates over the colossal human cost - 25m people were shot and starved in the cause of communism.
"Political repression was used to mobilise not only rank-and-file citizens but also the ruling elite," it says. In other words, Stalin wanted to make the country strong, so he may have been a bit harsh at times. At any time since the collapse of Soviet totalitarianism in the late 1980s, that would have seemed a nauseating whitewash. Now, it is treated as bald historical fact.
Is it really that much of a stretch to think that on the back of the almost record prices for resources (and let's face it Russia and Siberia have quite a lot of it?) that if Russia has this much economic clout that they are not going to throw it around a little in search of gaining some lost credibility?
By Olga Craig,
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If the stand-off between Britain and Russia has brought back memories of the Cold War, then that is just how Vladimir Putin wants it. Olga Craig investigates the ruthless tactics employed by the Kremlin as it attempts to restore the country's faded might.
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Putin's Russia is not playing by the Western rules it adopted after the collapse of the Soviet Union
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The two pilots and their navigators had just brewed fresh coffee when the red phone rang in the corner of the crew room at RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire. The voice on the other end said a single word: "Scramble!" The instant they heard the order, just before dawn last Tuesday, the Quick Reaction Alert teams hauled on their bulky flight equipment and sprinted across the runway, coffee cups tumbling in their wake. Within minutes they were strapped into the cockpits of their Tornado F4 interceptors and set for take-off.
They faced the prospect of a highly unusual confrontation. Radar operators at RAF Fylingdales, the early warning station 20 miles away on Lockton High Moor, had just identified two unknown aircraft speeding towards British airspace as Russian TupolevTu 95 "Bear" long-range bombers. Attempted incursions by the Russians were common during the days of the Soviet Union, but have been rare since.
At the last moment the bombers changed course, soaring in an arc and heading back towards their base on the Kolea Peninsula, high in the Arctic Circle. But the message was clear: Britain need have no doubt it was now engaged in a Cold War-style stand-off with Russia. In case the message was missed, Russian bombers again came close to British airspace on Friday.
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Let's not forget the past or history or we could very well be condemned to repeat it? Wasn't it the resurgence of the German Military after the embarrassment of the appeasement from WWI that helped start WWII?
Let's just hope this is a pessimistic view and it doesn't come to pass?