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It’s no secret… Vlad is upset about the fall of the USSR and he would love to get the band back together. With team Biden busy scolding Republicans, Putin is free to do as he pleases.
What are we supposed to think about Russia? Well, that depends on which party is in office.
When Obama’s crew were giving it a ‘reset’ button, and Clinton donors are helping their buddy Vlad set up a Russian Silicon Valley that the CIA warned was designed to seal military secrets, they’re no big deal. Obama made a cold war joke about Romney when he said Russia was a threat. When Putin annexed parts of Ukraine, Obama replied by sending Ukraine … food rations.
When Trump’s Republicans were in office, Putin became an evil monster and threat to the world, and corrupter of elections so slick that he can do it in a way that a $30,000,000 investigation cannot find conclusive evidence to prove it.
Now that Biden’s in office… suddenly Putin is an afterthought again.
What does that mean for international affairs? It means Putin can go back to swallowing nations without worrying about the calculus of a wildcard like Trump who might actually tank his economy or declare war if he steps too far out of line.
What began as protests over rising fuel prices on Jan. 2, 2021, quickly escalated into violent clashes on the streets of Kazakhstan. On Jan. 5, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, a firm ally of Putin’s, requested support from the Collective Security Treaty Organization, of which Putin’s Russian Federation is the leading member. Russia has responded decisively by sending paratroopers, special operations troops and equipment as part of a nearly 3,000-strong force to Kazakhstan.
Tokayev explained his request by claiming that protesters are really “a band of terrorists” trained abroad. On Jan. 7, Tokayev escalated the conflict: “I have given the order to law enforcement and the army to shoot to kill without warning,” Tokayev said.
As a scholar of post-Soviet Ukraine, Russia’s involvement in Kazakhstan looks very familiar to me. It’s similar to what happened in Ukraine beginning in 2014, when peaceful protesters were met with violence by the government and a protest grew into a revolution that ultimately overthrew the Russian-backed leadership of the country. —YahooNews
Why does it look familiar? Let’s call it … precedent.
Note the date on this tweet. Dems were too busy with photo ops, television hits, and playing Hamilton songs in Congress to pay these events any notice.
Almaty, earlier this morning. #Kazakhstan pic.twitter.com/oXX8RHyhEL
— Aldin ?? (@aldin_ww) January 6, 2022
But maybe our ears really should perk up. Especially now that Biden has done such an amazing job of signaling weakness in his military leadership skills.
Seizing on that moment of domestic unrest in 2014, Putin gave direct orders to annex Crimea, a Ukrainian territory home to a key Russian naval base. Shortly afterward, he supported a war mounted by so-called Russian-speaking separatists in Ukraine’s eastern regions.
…In Kazakhstan, as in Ukraine in 2014, the Russian government explains its military presence as appropriate and requested by a legitimate government. As in Ukraine, the Russian government emphasizes that external forces are responsible for unrest in the former Soviet republic. As in Ukraine, the Russian Federation has pointed out the need to protect a Russian-speaking population. —YahooNews
As an outsider, it’s hard to know the truth of dynamics in the local situation, so here is the counter-argument to give it a fair hearing.
If this really is a legitimately grassroots movement, here is what they are said to be calling for.
Protesters in Zhanaozen in #Kazakhstan have these main demands:
1. Change of political regime
2. Conduct popular elections of local administration
3. Return of the 1993 Constitution
4. Do not persecute civil society activists pic.twitter.com/9lxSKkifir— Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) January 7, 2022
Even if Russia isn’t actually behind the protests, does anyone really think they are ‘helping’ out of the goodness of their heart?
Psalms of War: Prayers That Literally Kick Ass is a collection, from the book of Psalms, regarding how David rolled in prayer. I bet you haven’t heard these read, prayed, or sung in church against our formidable enemies — and therein lies the Church’s problem. We’re not using the spiritual weapons God gave us to waylay the powers of darkness. It might be time to dust them off and offer ‘em up if you’re truly concerned about the state of Christ’s Church and of our nation.
Also included in this book, Psalms of War, are reproductions of the author’s original art from his Biblical Badass Series of oil paintings.
This is a great gift for the prayer warriors. Real. Raw. Relevant.
