An unnatural alliance: Russian 'liberals,' commies, and neo-Nazis unite against Putin

The upcoming
G-8 conference, scheduled for July 15-18 in St. Petersburg, is shaping up
as the latest battleground in the developing conflict between Putin's Russia
and the West. This summit is "really
about Russia," says the BBC, and as far as the West is concerned, it's
all
criticism all the time. The barrage of anti-Russian (and, specifically,
anti-Putin)
propaganda in the Western media has been relentless ever since Moscow refused
to get on board the U.S. invasion of Iraq. As punishment for such brazen defiance,
Richard
Perle demanded
that Russia be thrown out of the G-8. More recently, as the Russians decline
to kowtow to the Americans
(and the Europeans)
over
Iran
(and
Ukraine),
Vice President Dick
Cheney has been ratcheting
up the rhetoric, accusing the Russians of "blackmail"
– when they quite reasonably insisted the Ukrainians had to pay the world market
price for their oil – and darkly hinting that Putin harbors imperialistic designs
on his neighbors.

This last accusation, coming as it does from Washington's most
belligerent warlord, is a classic case of projection: indeed, it inverts
the reality, which is that the U.S., not content with one "war of civilizations,"
is doggedly trying to
provoke yet another. Toward this end, the Americans are presently
engaged in an all-out political assault on the Putin regime, an exercise in
"soft power"
they hope will eventually culminate in regime change.

We've come a long way since Bush looked into Putin's eyes and espied
the Russian leader's soul. This time, it will be more of a head-butting
than a bonding.

The Americans are after Putin's scalp for the same reasons they went after
Milosevic and Saddam: not for their crimes, both
real and
imagined, but because he
insistently defies them. Instead of bowing to the wishes of the would-be hegemon
and its Middle Eastern ally, the Russkis are selling
missiles to Damascus and doing
business with Tehran. And now, flush with funds from rising
oil prices, Putin is flexing his muscles, picking the crippled Russian bear
up off its knees. Nothing could enrage the Americans more: after all, they thought
they won the Cold War, fair
and square. Don't the Russians know they're beaten?

...the organisation with strongest support among anti-government youth – the National Bolshevik Party – has radical and anarchist tendencies. It combines references to both Nazi and the Communist ideology in its name and symbols. And although its leaders are less blatantly extreme as they were some years ago, they could hardly be described as liberal or pro-Western.