NEWS: Putin Takes A Dive Into Lake Hitler

POLITICS: Putin Takes A Dive Into Lake Hitler

Here’s a delightful image. What if the United States had 120,000 male teenage Ann Coulters running around? Sounds like the ultimate nightmare, doesn’t it? That is what seems to be happening in Russia. They are known as “Nashi” and they speak the same extremist language as Coulter. They fanatically support Putin, call the political opposition traitors and fascists and demonize foreign powers. The only difference between Coulter and the Nashi, is that the Nashi have no problem with using physical force to make their point.

The Nashi aren’t the only group. There are also the “Young Guard” and “Walking Together.” The one thing these groups have in common is their fanatical devotion to Putin, much like the Sturmabteilung’s fanatical devotion to Hitler.

They are highly disciplined and sponsored by the Kremlin. They must receive basic military training before they can become members. The Nashi also have a volunteer “police force,” who patrol and “if necessary beat hooligans." These young militants form what is essentially a private army, devoted to one man: Putin.

Meanwhile, Putin is stoking the fires of anti-Americanism. At a recent military parade, Putin made comments about “new threats” to the world “as during the time of the Third Reich.” Pretty much the same kind of talk Adolph was spewing out during his rise to power. And the crowd at the Independence Day parade soaked it up. Mostly because the only people allowed into Red Square that day were members of the youth groups. The kids are catching on to Putin’s message.

Super and totally not creepy.

The Nashi claim they are fighting against fascism. (Exactly the same claim made in the early days of the Nazi party and by Benito Mussolini’s Blackshirts.) Unfortunately, fascists seem to only be defined as people who criticize Putin.

Meanwhile, the kids are doing some really quality work in Russia.

And the Young Guards are doing their thing. They have staged training sessions in how to handle an “Orange Revolution.” At the end of one training session, the Young Guards grabbed baseball bats and smashed up a mock Orange tent camp. That might discourage any future protestors a bit.

The Nashi are also using technology in ways the Nazis could have only dreamed of. They pass out brochures and SIM cards in Moscow. The SIM cards allow users to text the Kremlin, where Nashi volunteers are waiting to receive the word of whatever horrible event is occurring on the streets and respond. If any Orange revolution activity is seen, the Nashi will send out texts to their foot soldiers to respond. (Might be a really great use for the new iphones, by the way)

The Nashi are also taking their message to outlying village schools, to teach the young minds about the truth.

You can’t really argue with that description of Putin. Poor, little, lonely wolf. It’s really quite scary if you think about all the rats. The Kremlin has given $220 million to help fund these little fascists. And they get some sweet perks.

The Nashi are now paying off in spades. In May, Estonia removed a statue of a WWII Soviet soldier in Tallin. The small country suddenly found itself overwhelmed by a cyber attack. Servers went down and NATO Internet security experts were brought in to combat the assault. Russian sponsored protests in Estonia left 1 dead and 99 injured. In Moscow, Estonia’s ambassador was attacked by the Nashi and were only stopped when the ambassador’s bodyguards sprayed them with mace. The ambassador and his staff were forced to flee the country. Nashi barriers shut down the highway from Moscow to Estonia. They created a large sign that read, “You are driving toward fascist Estonia.” This all happened because Estonia took down a statue. What if the small country had actually really done something negative toward Moscow. What would the reaction been then?

The world is, understandably, a little freaked out.

Well, what can you do? This shit is off and running. It’s 1933 Germany all over again.

And you thought Bush was bad news….

War is Peace.
Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength.

If they're so tough, why are they all dancing to YMCA?

Comparing someone to Hitler is a too easy a shot to make.

Quite rightly, Russia is afraid of being colonised by Capitalism the same as much of the world. Unfortunately for Russians, their way of life is no better.

A heavily-armed country headed by a former KGB head talking tough all the time vs. a heavily-armed country headed by an idiot talking tough all the time.
Nobody's Hitler. But everyone's still insane.

Um....wow. Thats about all I can muster up to say...

It's about time for another world war to happen, honestly though I think the US has its plate full as it is. I think the US should let NATO take care of this one by itself, then see how much those fucks need us when their bogged down in war and squealing like the pigs they are.

It's never 'about time' for another world war to happen. If NATO sees fit to impose heavy sanctions on the Russians, they'll strangle the countries nearby them who depend on them. If we prevent them from doing that, they'll get violent. If we respond and beat them, as we surely all would, they would launch one of their thousands of nuclear devices, and nobody would win at all.

It's better to let them have their rhetoric and isolation.

Yes. Let's induce a world war with the Russians.

What could go wrong?

I smell a Red Dawn scenario!

aldoushuxley said:

Yeah, and when NATO does "need us" for this new war, who is going to fight it? Worn out soldiers coming off of their 3rd, 4th or 5th tour of duty in Iraq and Afganistan? Or the new Army, a bunch of middle aged soldier wannabees recruited because the U.S. Military can't get qualified people to enlist anymore?

And to think, the current administration actually believes this cluster fuck is *helping* national defense.

Don't forget "Arbeit macht frei." (work will set you free)

I like their dressing too much. Lets not.

Those roulette games they've been exporting are pretty stupid though.

Never again!

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

Who didn't see this coming when Putin took over the Newspapers years ago. Or when he usurped power of elected leaders of the country. Or the former spies being murdered by complete "accident." Russia has been back under a dictatorship for some time, and will continue to fall under it. Another case of a rapid shift to democracy and capitalism before a large stable middle class was formed. Sigh.

In the USA, they're called "The Christian Right".

I wonder if the Nashi like to dance to "Putin on the Ritz"?

In this case, though, the analogy is apt. I mean, remember the brown shirts? The Hitler Jungen? They did the same exact thing in Germany in the 30's, going around, enforcing Nazi party politics through violence, and acting as an unofficial police force.

This is actually, quite scary.

I don't think we should be all gung-ho about going to war with them, but clearly, this is not good.

It'd probably be more appropriate to compare him to Mussolini, actually. For one thing, Putin's bellicose posturing doesn't seem to be hinting at any genocides as being necessary to regain Russia's place in the sun. For another, Russia remains in pretty sorry shape at the moment. My understanding is that it's basically an oil emirate without a genuinely sustainable economy anywhere behind its present wealth.

These kinds of developments are alarming, of course, and don't at all bode well and are certainly worth watching, but as yet they don't quite constitute a threat to anyone outside the region.

And, sadly, while Russians are obviously responsible for their own country's future, I have to say that American policies (post-Cold War triumphalism, Shock Therapy, and a tightening rather than loosening of Containment) towards the Federation over the last fifteen years have obviously not helped.

Finally, FTR, the Brownshirts and Blackshirts claimed to be fighting "Bolsheviks," not Fasicsts (they were Fascists, after all - and, unlike Nashi, they were also actually fighting the people they claimed to be fighting, at least at first). It's a small factual error in an otherwise interesting article.

You ever hear "If war is the answer, it was a stupid question?"

Honestly, war is the utter nadir of human thought. I'd like to simply think that since you're a young soldier, that you've been trained to blow things up and so blowing things up looks like a good solution to you a lot of the time. But I know a LOT of good soldiers who know a lot more about blowing shit up than you do, and not ONE of them wants to blow shit up . They do it when they're told to, but they're not really happy about it, because they know that somewhere along the line, someone they're blowing up has people that will mourn their journey to the land of Smithereens. I do hope along the line of your service, you learn the difference between duty and sociopathic enthusiasm.

As usual, well said sir.
Russia is in bad shape and have a ton of problems to deal with on their own land. Hell, just the declining birth rate and economic problems are enough for them to deal with.
I wouldn't jump to war based off the actions of a small % of the population.
The US is always on the opposite side of the fence with Russia. I mean, just the whole helping Afghanistan back in the day, now we are stuck in a war. The Kosovo issue. On and on.
Plus the US has that whole middle east thing going on.

He's actually just being a troll to blow off steam. No big deal. He's not a real troll.

At the beginning of both groups, they claimed to be anti-fascist, then they went after the "Bolsheviks."

My camparison to Hilter was only in regard to his rise to power, his use of the youth and his creation of a cult of personality. Which is really all we are talking about here.

Also, there is an unrelated article on Harper's website right now.

The coming cold-snap in US - Russia relations.

""It is time to put an end to America being the strongest and most influential empire. We won't let America make Russia another one of its colonies."

+1

just for that, British Columbia becomes the 51st state

That, combined with his criticism of term limits in Russia, makes for an interesting 2008, when his term is up and the current system says he can't run again.

I suppose Mussolini would be a better analog. Hopefully, that won't change.

I suppose it's also true that there is no immediate threat outside of their region, but I can't help but feel bad for the Russians that are experiencing the heavy hand of these groups.

I guess it just worries me very much, because it's been ingrained in me by my teachers and parents to be ever-vigilant against the kind of horrors that arose in WW II. And, to me, this seems frighteningly similar to early events in the rise of the Nazis.