It doesn't really matter now. But I laughed hard when read about it (North Korea's big leap in ICBM development). XD

Everyone has a right to be strong. Especially if there is a bully which beats anyone having own opinion (which is different from bully's one) and you don't want to be the next beaten poor fellow. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Probably liquid rocket engine because Yuzhnoe was completely unsecure, but unlikely that someone from top ranks did it. But you can smuggle anything from there today if you have proper contacts, its like Russia in 1992-95.

Edit: I think I should source my statements. Here is interview with one of rocket engineers of Yuzhnoe, revealing how easy it is to access (80-era) rocket engine hardware, which is still more than sufficient for ICBM.

Seriously, USA is by far not the brightest example of corruption fighting or corruption absence. Corruption, defined as a violation of adherence to the law, require that the law is sufficiently equitable, that law servants research the facts sufficiently and handle them absolutely neutrally. It also requires non-alerted, non-militaristic state of government... People with high moral standards. Thats moving target, something to strive for. A fairy tale for the unsuspecting.

I agree with you. But my point was that Russia has to do something (with corruption, which cripples it's economy and development), regroup, concentrate, when such a big danger is moving towards it.

You can't argue with him!

Oh, crap. We are screwed. XD

But I was unaware of this actually, I don't have any politics in my rss.
Since nobody commented here, can I try to debunk Mr. Freeman? I wonder if Shariy will comment on this, since he started to be more involved with russian politics... (as I was typing this - he did!)

This video seems like unedited one.

Claim by Freeman: "Former KGB spy, angry at collapse of his motherland"
Counter claim: "While Putin was indeed angry at collapse of USSR, its hard to find anyone within ex-USSR, who would be happy - since a) the Perestroyka was actually not about collapsing and b) CIA openly admitted running multiple operations aimed at collapsing USSR - and not helping to reform it, how it was claimed in the public. In short, there is nothing wrong with being angry if your country collapses, is it?"

Claim by Freeman: "Plots a course for revenge."
Counter claim: "Freeman provides absolutely no proof of 'revenge'."

Claim by Freeman: "Taking advantage of the chaos..."
Counter claim: "First, the chaos was completely US-made. The islamists made it to Chechnya before Putin came to power and was funded by people in US gov't and Saudi Arabia. Purpose flooding of the market causing massive economy collapse, direct external support of Yeltsin and all people involved in unconstitutional dissolution of USSR under false motto of 'independence' in Belavezha, while general population was feed with populism about 'democracies' on mass media, controlled by criminal godfathers. There is a nice series done by US about outbreak of crime, called "Criminal Russia". I mean, I survived these days, the mass media was full with crime reports and racketeering. This is absolutely not what USSR citizens agreed upon: they wanted to reform the economic system, not to wreck and divide everything. To sum up - the chaos in USSR was a direct result of massive US interference."

Claim by Freeman: "...., he works his way through the ranks of post-soviet russia and becomes a president."
Counter claim: "The 1999 article from Carnegie describes US stance at that time and how exactly Putin became president. Putin came to wreckage and started to fix it, while US was looking for a way to force Russia solve the conflict with suicide bombers and toting fanatics 'politically'. Why? Easily because US govt had Russia disintegration as utmost interest - fragment it further into chaos, then run the land of those who survived. How do you actually argument with suicide bomber?
Also, Yetsin was virtually a puppet with serious health and mental problems, as Skuratov has once openly stated. The state at that time was run by godfathers-oligarchs, for example Boris Berezovsky - who run NTV, and who introduced Putin to upper circles (oligarchs) was a godfather and somehow managed to flee to UK for protection - of what I presumely see as paycheck for his own criminal actions, and he WAS a criminal - plus to make huge 46m pound debt! How is it possible without involvement of influent people from UK, for example?"

Claim by Freeman: "He establishes an authoritarian regime."
Counter claim: "Thats an outright lie. Recently an ukrainian UPA-supporter has won the lower court in Russia. How is this possible in authoritarian regime?"

Part 1... (if I manage more)

Wow, that's a really nice token gesture they made for the man after harassing him into exile, that really makes up for all those opposition politicians and journalists who "mysteriously" died or disappeared.

Who is "them"? Which politicians and journalists "disappeared"? What kind of "opposition" do you mean? Russia has nearly no competent opposition for years - unless you count far-lefties, populists trololols (like LDPR), populist tongue-workers and grant-eaters (liberals), schoolboy puppetmasters (like Navalny) - an opposition.

The guy is hated by common street folk, because he writes tong-in-cheek non-sense. I would personally probably beat whip him with a stick because he deserves it. In this case, he called musicians that were onboard the plane flying towards Syria to cheer up troops fighting ISIS - "propagandists" and "deserved to die". He has links to UPA and UPA has long supported to islamists, here is youtube video - v=i9H7UAGAr8U.

So unless you support ISIS, I doubt there can be second opinion on his personality. Yet, the court ruled out he has freedom of speech.

After he is out of the country and it doesn't matter either way. After the state media whip up the populace against him, and people like you say "I would personally probably beat whip him with a stick because he deserves it".

Like I said, a token gesture, which will have no impact for those involved, meant only to pretend that Russia isn't an authoritarian country that stifles, or outright crushes, those who oppose Putin.

He could leave the country any time. I doubt that anyone saying something similar in Brasil would have it any different with local folks. Its not a token gesture, the courts actually work now. By the way, if you are interested in who jailed Pussy Riot, you might want to look up Mark Feygin involvement.

Edit: since its actually pretty hard to find english version, I found this piece, enjoy, its verifiable.

Since vsr mentioned corruption, I found this personality. That may explain why both Gusinsky and Berezhovsky fled to UK (and not somewhere else).

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Edit: now all this is actually news to me. The Telegraph article is funny in several places: first the headline containing "Russians", but all these "gentlemen" are "Jewish";

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the second is that it gets lost defining the oligarchy as good or bad. Granted that Berezhovsky once asked Yeltsin to murder quite a large list of other oligarchs, the murders of the people in the article are quite in-line with typical 90ties mafia style, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Russians.

Yeah, so what would you call renaming the School of the Americas, a giant step for freedom and democracy? lol
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Careful, Lin, I'm pretty sure we're not supposed to mention that Russian mafia is actually Jewish mafia.

Nah, I am fine. I don't have so much money to buy a helicopter, so that plan won't work on me, hehe.

But jokes aside, I meant the nationality of these gentlemen in the article, which are collectively referenced as "Russians" in terms of ethnicity, not citizenship per se. Not the criminal circles of zionist jewish structures (if there are any)... The more fitting term for them would be post-soviet oligarch mafia?.. The classic "Russian mafia" are really "New Russians", like this one. They all rose to surface with fall of USSR, and thus fall of official state prosecution system.


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As said, US series "Criminal Russia" is pretty nice series on them. Here is youtube playlist, unfortunately untranslated. It was produced by NTV (belonging to Gusinsky) and "M&E David Hamburg"(?)

Furthermore, Abramovich is Putin's friend if I am not mistaken, so I suspect there is a ton to read and discover. I am not much of an analyst though...