http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=1&subID=822 "It was scarcely noticed during the dog days of August, but Russia has now overtaken Saudi Arabia as the world's largest producer of oil. It already dominates natural gas. Around £210m a day in oil and gas tax revenues now pour into the Russian treasury. Russia is now an oil and gas economy, with 52 per cent of all its state revenues and 35 per cent of its exports coming from the energy industry." "Imagine this scenario. Europe is importing around one-third of its natural gas from Russia. Putin, or his successor, has an argument with the EU over democratic reform in a former Soviet state. Meanwhile, China is hungry for more natural gas. Russia changes the flow of its pipelines, channelling more to China and less to Europe, without any drop in its own revenue. Europe's industrial costs rocket, home heating becomes exorbitant and the EU economy collapses." "Then there are the two state-controlled energy giants, Gazprom - which this year surpassed BP and Shell to become the second largest energy company in the world after Exxon Mobil - and Rosneft."
This is great news for Swiss bankers. Unfortunately... It is cold comfort for the millions of Russian women... That are prostituting themselves in the brothels of relatively advanced counties like Turkey. Or the sad fact that Russia has the world's biggest drug and alcohol problem... Just one sign of a superficial culture centered on materialism and exploitation... Which has resulted in NEGATIVE population growth. The Moscow area and what was then pre-Russian tribes... Was occupied by the Mongols for 400 years (12th to 16th centuries)... Which explains why the Russian ruling class is genetetically 30-40% Mongol. And the future is just as bleak... With hoards of Muslims barbarians are at the gate. They must laugh every time they ship another kilo of heroin to Russia.
Since the 50s, the U.S. and Western powers have failed to democratize the Middle East into a flourishing haven of compliant puppet states with liberalized energy industries. Operation Ajax led to the Iran of today. Realpolitik created Saddam to deal with that, which turned out nicely. Then came the neoconservative dream of <a href=http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2006/12/neocons200612>using the military as an instrument of policy</a> to drive the nail into the coffin of Iraq nicely. Well done, boys. Bush is your scapegoat for now, but you have enough ideologues and moneyed think tanks to further ruin U.S. foreign policy in the future. Russia and China have had more than enough impetus to form a lasting partnership now after watching the U.S. shoot itself in the foot. Let's hope their efforts create a more stable international environment will not weaken the influence of pro-democratic, liberal powers in the future. I think it'll lead to a rather unhealthy amalgam of corporatism and statism, myself. Too bad Americans couldn't exorcise the new Kissingers and Nixons from the right-wing. Too many rednecks with jingoistic hubris to keep voting them back in power. Ironic, since they'd probably love the situation they created if they had been born in any other country than the U.S.
I definatly agree with the last paragraph. However, it was not occupied for 400 years, the Mongols simply bothered Muscovy for 400 years. I do not know about the 40%. I hope not. Do you have any evidence?
You are contrasting 2 fundamental and irreconcilable world views: (1) The Euro-Baker View. Only money and power matter... so let's do "business" with with every despot... Because there is no Good or Evil... Only self-interest and money and power... And any crumb of Morality that dilutes realpolitik is, at best, naive. (2) The Bush/Neocon/Founding Fathers View Human beings are children of God... And have inalienable rights to live as Free Men and Women. Since human nature always drifts towards totalitarianism and serfdom and slavery... Freedom can only be bought and defended at the price of Blood. Therefore... it is immoral and wrong to "do business" and appease murderous despots... In fact, it is a duty to promote Human Rights in any way possible. You can chose #1... or you can chose #2... But they are irreconcilable. And botching up the Iraq War... Simply because the Bush Idealists ** were not ruthless enough **... Does nothing to alter either view... And it's just a tiny blip on the continuum of history.
East European history is subject to great debate... Primarily because the Soviet Union spent 3 generations methodically rewriting East European history. Here's an article called "Period of Mongol Invasion and Rule, 1237-1480"... So that is 243 years. http://russia.nypl.org/history/mongol.html Assumming "Mongol Rule"... the genetics flows automatically. Obviously... the Mongols would chose to have sex with upper/ruling classes... And with the most beautiful and intelligent of the peasant class. As an East European... If you go to any EE major city... You will very, very commonly see Mongol features among the people... While if you go to the villages... You will see a predominance of Euro-Slavic features. The Russian ruling class probably absorbed more Mongol genetics then any other Slavic group... Just look at these guys... Lenin, Stalin, Brehznev, Yelstin... all significant Mongol features. But even greater... Was the cultural and institutional impact... Because the Mongols imposed many of their ways on occupied lands... And that is why Russian culture and values... Have more in common with the Mongols than with Europe. This is all very debatable... But Westerners would do well to understand that Russians are Euro-Mongols... not plain Euros.
You guys lost me. How the hell did we get into genetics of the Mongols from energy resources of Russia??? Also I thought first that Hounddog writes in poetry, but it doesn't rhyme...
Hey Adolf, You should really do your homework first before posting crap. Even though it is true that some of the Russian land was under the Tatar-Mongol rule for a while, it does not mean that they actually occupied the area and interbred. Granted there were few rapes here and there, but overall the Russians were able to keep the Tatars at bay by paying taxes and having a treaty in place. Did you know that a lot of Russians are actually descendants of the Swedish Vikings that settled all the way down the Volga River? Are you the same troll that keeps posting the "Russians are mongoloid thugs" message all over the yahoo message boards?