Reply #20: I don't know Naomi Klein, but I lived in Russia at the time

[social_critic]

I suppose you would have to tell me about this Naomi Klein, but I used to live in Russia, and I know some of the players involved, and I did talk to a lot of people at the time. I was lucky, I had a fairly large dacha with a large parking area, and I volunteered it for meetings where young Russian professionals and intellectuals would meet to discuss what to do about the end of communism. And I can vouch their main focus was to bury communism and make sure it would never return. And I remain in close touch with my Russian friends, and the signals remain the same - forget communism.

Another interesting point: at the time, they also had a naive belief that US diplomacy would be fair, and would give them the breathing room to chage without having to fear US encroachment on their "sphere of influence". Clinton, however, proceeded to betray their trust, and began a relentless series of moves which they saw as serious threats to Russia's future viability as a nation. Bush, being led by the nose by a neocon faction in Washington, made matters even worse. My analysis leans towards this being a serious miscalculation by Clinton and Bush. Obama has somewhat rectified the US onslaught against Russia, but this has been done only because the Russians re-gained their backbone and made it clear they would do what they had to do to save Russia.

I can also assure you there are huge differences between the capitalist systems in Russia and the USA. So different, they are like volleyball and football - different rules, different players, different audiences, etc.