Phoenix100
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I agree, MR. I think in as much as you believe that there is anything to be had from a democratic, liberal system that is not based on arbitrary power (whether coming from monarchy, wealth, inherited power, cliques of entrenched oligarchies, whatever) then it is important to stand up and say so. Even if the system is flawed and has its very major issues (the best system out of a series of bad alternatives, even), it's still better than being run by a clique of self-serving, self-justifying oligarchs who are primarily serving their own interests (as with all oligarchies throughout history they do usually believe that their interests are coterminous with their country's). The whittling away of arbitrary power in systems of governance is largely a European/north american ('western') achievement that many died to bring about, the benefits of which it is very easy to forget when you have them. Russia has never had them. Throughout its long history Russia has been run by a variety of oligarchical systems. Such systems survived so long in Tsarist times because they rode on the back of a hugely impoverished, uneducated majority. That remains, relatively, the case, but it is changing and changes which educate, empower and enlighten that vast majority can only be a bad thing from the point of view of the ruling minority. That's what's happening in their response to Ukraine (that's their political agenda) and that's also what makes them vulnerable to an apparently silly set of targeted sanctions. Those sanctions might just work, if ramped up enough. I hope so, otherwise, as MR says, it's certainly possible that, however late on the scene (as is traditional in response to such threats) NATO will have to do something.
Let's have that scenario, MR!
< Message edited by phoenix -- 9/1/2014 7:30:07 PM >
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RE: Ukraine - 
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