Russian
Problem
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Comments
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Nuclear Weapons on
active duty
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The Russians are still the
number two nuclear nation. They are however reducing down at each
milestone in START, that is commendable. They also prove they are
destroying old warheads -- the dirty secret of nuclear arms reduction
is that you destroy old warheads any way -- they get very dangerous as
they age. The key is not building new ones and creating more
material to build them. It's not clear they are not doing that --
they only say they aren't. 13,14,15,16
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Nuclear materials
under poor
security
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This remains a hot issue
for many, we are not sure their security is that bad, but then again,
it isn't up to the levels of European or U.S. arsenals. Their
nuclear waste security is dismal, though, and when the first dirty bomb
goes off, it will be from a Russian made reactor (From Russia,
Pakistan, Libya, Iran, or Iraq). We will know because the
materials are telltale. 10,
11, 19
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Democratic
controls being removed
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Russian President is engaged in
removing democratic controls slowly and apparently every month.
At this rate Putin will have nearly as much power as Andropov in about
a year. That is damned scary. Look for a huge military
budget up tick in a country that can't pay its soldiers now. 12
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Support of human
rights
violators
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Russia is the number one
supplier of weapons and trades with nations that are humans rights
violators on large scale. Make a list of the humans rights
violators and then look at their major trading partners, you'll find
Russia. International sanctions mean nothing to the
Russians. Oh they talk good, but it doesn't take very much
investigation to disclose they lie through their teeth. 8
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Opposes U.S.
Policy 3/4 of the
time
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On nearly every issue we can
think of, the Russian government has come out against it in the last
ten years. The only issue that appears to match is anti-terrorism
and that is because the U.S. has capitulated on Chechnya. Yes,
there is a terrorist problem there, but it is very likely that if
Russia had granted independence to Chechnya, there would be a much
smaller number of terrorists active. Having said that, there is
no excuse for terrorism, so we begrudgingly allow Russia some
latitude there -- note we did not place Russia's brutal treatment of
Chechnya in our list, we certainly could have.
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Anti-terror forces
kill
innocents wholesale
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The use of a deadly nerve gas in
the Russian theater siege demonstrates the government is clearly
disinterested in the lives of individuals. This does not bode
well for the future of the Russian people. 9
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The world's
greatest nuclear
proliferator
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If they don't ship off nuclear
weapons or reactor technology, they are shipping off dual use equipment
that aid nuclear programs. Iran, Libya, Pakistan, Iraq...the list
is endless. 1,2,3
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Iran's greatest
supporter
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Russian technology is everywhere
in Iran, including weapons system, nuclear plants, advisors to the
military, you name it. Overall Russia sells their weapons to all
of the rogue nations and dictators the world over while the rest of the
world tries to apply sanctions 1,2,3
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A major player in
oil-for-food
scandal
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It goes without saying -- the
skirting of sanctions against Iraq clearly tells the story whey they
did not want us in Iraq -- it had nothing to do with taking out Saddam
or any of the other reasons they used in the U.N. debates, it had to do
with us finding the records of their complicity. If we made a
list for France, this would be at the very top, but for Russia it was
an expected outcome and pretty much par for the course. 18
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Helped
Move Iraqi WMD to Syria
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And possibly into Bekka Valley
in Lebanon. That is a frightening misjudgment by Russia.
Syria/Lebanon has been linked to terrorist training camps for the major
terrorist groups -- this includes Chechen terrorists. What were
they thinking? And now Russia is giving Syria financial credit to
buy more weapons? Opposing U.S. policy is one thing, actively
aiding the number two terrorist nation? This is just crazy!
1
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