The Kremlin's apparent willingness brazenly now to strike at its foes wherever they may be is all too reminiscent of past, ruthless measures taken by Russian and Soviet rulers to crush internal and external dissent. Unfortunately, it is but one piece of the reprise Vladimir Putin seems to have in mind for his country...For example, as he systematically consolidates absolute power in Russia, Mr. Putin is increasingly putting the squeeze on his country's neighbors in what the Kremlin refers to as "the near abroad." Also in his cross-hairs are nations as far away as Western Europe. Notably, he is using threats of disruptions in Russian energy supplies and, in some cases, actual cutoffs for strategic ends....Putin's Back to the Future, Frank Gaffney, Jr., Front Page Magazine, 3/9/2007
The Cold War, it should be remembered, propped up the Soviet regime for nearly forty years. Without it, the vast state expenditures not only on arms but on building and sustaining a professional middle class, would likely never have occurred. And since the end of the first Cold War, those same people were disvested of power and wealth. It has only been in the last few years, as Russian has capitalized on its energy resources as a commodities economy, that a new middle and upper class has emerged. That the President they put in place would want to revive the terrifying standoff, or to reverse the results of the first one, is appalling but not surprising. Putin was a member of that first Cold War's professional middle class as a rising staffer at KGB. And, one should not forget something else. A defeated power, left to lick its wounds without the help of something like the Marshall Plan in Europe in the 1950s, which is what happened with Russia, may act just like Germany did in 1932, be taken over by someone anxious for revenge. In the nuclear age, there are few more terrifying prospects than a tyrant bent on vengeance.
Luther
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