Putin may be Russia's next P.M.

Vladimir has a problem. (Actually he's got a bunch of problems)

Since the breakup of the old Soviet Union there has been "heep-big" trouble around Russia.

Trouble with some of the breakaway States and Regions seeking greater autonomy. Trouble with a dramatic rise in crime and criminal organizations as more money flows into Russia. Trouble with terrorists who want independence for this and that. Trouble with the Generals of the Armed Forces. Trouble with the social safety net and poverty amongs the lower class while at the same time a middle class always clamering for more and better products. Trouble with Muslim Fundamentalists. (Yes, were are not the only one's) And if they have a "River City" I bet they have trouble there too!

(As a matter of fact, all the people bitchin about the problems in the States should try living in Russia for a while. That will shut them up!)

Whatever you may say about him, Putin has done a job that not many others could have pulled off.

He has his flaws but on the whole you have to give this guy an "A" for effort.

Time may be catching up to Mr. Putin since he is by law not allowed to seek another term as President and Russia needs a strong leader at the helm. So, he came up with a plan.............

Vladimir Putin on Monday raised the "realistic" possibility of becoming the next Prime Minister by agreeing to lead his dominant political party in December's parliamentary election.

Leading members of the United Russia party applaud President Vladimir Putin during a congress of the party in Moscow on Monday. Putin said he would lead the dominant United Russia party's ticket in December parliamentary elections.

"As far as heading the government is concerned, this is a quite realistic suggestion, but it is still too early to think about it," Putin told his party's congress, which prompted an ecstatic cheer from his supporters.

The Russian leader set two conditions on becoming prime minister — a win by United Russia in the Dec. 2 election and the election of what Putin described as a "decent, competent, modern person" as President.

This statement needs to be examined further. You remember when George Bush said he looked into Putin's eyes and saw a decent and sincere man there?

I don't think Mr. Bush was that far off the mark and Putin's statement that they needed a "decent, competent person" was not sheer political drivel, but rather a sincere desire to get the right people running Russia.

For all his flaws Vladimir Putin has more postitive than negative qualities and it would be a shame to have him disapear from the Russina Political scene. So, something might be in the works....... orchestrated by Putin himself.

In September, Putin dissolved the government and nominated Victor Zubkov — a little-known economist who has headed the country's financial monitoring service since 2001 — as a candidate for the prime minister.

Zubkov's nomination was approved in parliament the next day.

But as speculation ran rampant in recent months over who would replace him, Putin has given indications he would remain in politics in some capacity with a role in the government. (Prime Minister)

He also has not ruled out another presidential run in 2012.

His decision also likely ensures that United Russia retains a two-thirds majority in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, enough to change the constitution.

The end result of all this is that we might just see Russia with a strong Prime Minister and a weakened President in the near future.

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at www.God-101.com and the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

Now You Know the "Real" Rest of the Story!

Want to know what the war in Iraq was really about?

CBC News - Iraq to give Western companies control of oil, says report: The Iraqi government plans to introduce a law that will give control of the country's huge oil reserves to Western oil companies, a British newspaper says.

The government is drafting a law based on "production-sharing agreements (PSAs)," which will give major companies rights on Iraq's oil for up to 30 years, the Independent on Sunday reported.

Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world, the U.S. government says and Nabil al-Jurani/Associated Press said it had been given a copy of the draft law from last July, and the draft has not been changed significantly since then.



Critics say the agreements will be bad news for Iraq because they guarantee profits to the companies while giving little to the country. With 112 billion barrels, Iraq has the second largest reserves in the world, the U.S. government says.




Platform, a London-based pressure group that seeks to minimize the impact of oil companies, says on its website that Iraq endorsed production-sharing agreements last fall, just as Russia sought to undo a similar deal it signed in the period of turmoil after the Communist regime collapsed.

Russia has realized it signed a bad deal to develop a gas project, which allocated the risk to the government and the profit to the private sector, Platform said, citing published Russian reports.

"Russia realized the mistakes it made by signing PSA contracts only when it was too late. It remains to be seen whether Iraq follows the same course," the group said in October.

Platform's Greg Muttitt said the U.S. government, international oil companies and the International Monetary Fund had been asked to comment on the draft Iraqi legislation, but many members of the Iraqi parliament have not seen it.

The Independent said Iraq may adopt PSA contracts because it is in a weak bargaining position.

The legislation, if passed as in the draft the Independent was given, would stoke claims that the U.S.-led attack on Iraq was motivated by oil. The U.S. has denied that.

For example, in 2003, then Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld called the idea "utter nonsense."

Speaking to the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera, he said: "We don't take our forces, and go around the world and try to take other people's real estate or other people's resources, their oil. That's just not what the United States does." (I have to puke! Allan)

The Independent said signing PSA deals would be a first for a major oil-exporting country. Saudi Arabia and Iran, the two leading exporters, both control their oil industries tightly through state-owned companies.

What really troubles me is that Canada has one of the largest "oil reserves" in the world in the 'Alberta tar sands' and the most fresh water in the world in our lakes.

Please, whatever you do, don't let the U.S. know about this!

Your 'roustabout" scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Putin

It seems Putin's Russia has not changed that much since the time of Stalin after all.

It’s not all that easy to change a National Psyche once a certain mind-set and inertia has set in!

Not only was the State implicated in the murder of a newspaper reporter critical of the regime, but they are now trying to blame the murder of an ex-KGB spy on political rivals as well.

Here is a press release from the Russian Government;

A former oil tycoon's alleged role in the poisoning of an ex-KGB spy is under investigation, Russian authorities said on Wednesday.

Russia's prosecutor general's office has named Leonid Nevzlin as a suspect who could have ordered the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian agent who died Nov. 23 from exposure to the radioactive substance polonium-210.

Nevzlin, living in Israel in self-imposed exile, was second-in-command to former billionaire oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Khodorkovsky's much-publicized arrest was widely believed to have been motivated by the billionaire's political activism against the Kremlin.

Together the two partners owned the Yukos oil company, but Khodorkovsky was jailed in Siberia on trumped-up charges of fraud and tax evasion and Nevzlin fled the country.

Your "blame the guy who left" scribe;
Allan W Janssen

Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God-101 (what the church doesn't want you to know!) at; www.God-101.com
And the petition to have people mind their own business instead of yours at; http://www.petitiononline.com/moses/petition.html