The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin in my opinion is one of the most corrupt leaders in the world. This man is an ex KGB agent, and from July 1998 to August 1999 was the head of the FSB which is the successor agency of the KGB.

Why did I mention that?

Well, I am trying to illustrate that this man is very powerful and has been for quite some time. He is feared by many in Russia which is why his decisions are able to go unchallenged.

Russia sells weapons and military technology to countries President Bush has labeled the “Axis of Evil”. In early January of this year, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov announced the fulfillment of Moscow’s billion dollar deal with Iran. View the full story at www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6906839&ft=1&f-1001. To sum it up, the United States government criticized this weapons deal vigorously.

Ivanov replied to the harsh criticism by saying, “If Iran wants to buy defensive, I underline defensive, equipment for its armed forces, then why not?”

Why not?

Is this a game?

I would love to see Putin’s reaction if the circumstances were reversed. The United Nations has passed a resolution against selling atomic materials and technology to Iran. Yet, Russia says Iran is only interested in atomic energy for peaceful purposes and has gone so far as to build a nuclear power plant in Iran.

Can you say violating the UN sanctions?

But the massive failures of the United Nations are a story for another day. In fact, Russia is almost solely responsible for the progress Iran has made towards nuclear enrichment, whether that may be for peaceful electricity purposes or to make a nuclear bomb.

Which one is it?

The real question you should be asking is, are you willing to take the chance that it may be the latter?

The answer should be, No, for reasons I will lay out in the next paragraph.

Iran isn’t the only enemy of the United States that Russia supplies arms to. Russia sells billions of dollars worth of weapons to Hugo Chavez’s government in Venezuela. This is the same Hugo Chavez who recently called President Bush “The Devil” and cancelled a popular television network because they didn’t always support his point of view.

Russia also sells arms to Syria as does Iran with the Russian missiles they acquire. Fact: Syria is a known state sponsor of terrorism. Let me break this down in a very general flowchart kind of way. Russia sells weapons to Iran, who sells them to Syria, who gives them to a known terrorist network called Hezbollah, who fires these rockets at Israel killing innocent civilians as we saw last summer.

So who is the problem?

Is it Syria?

Sure they shouldn’t sponsor a terrorist network. But that is a temporary solution to the greater threat.

Why is Russia allowing their weapons to fall into the hands of these terrorist networks?

This is why we cannot afford to gamble on whether or not Iran wants nuclear technology for electricity or for a bomb.

Political analysts here in the United States are saying that US-Russian relations are at the lowest point since the Cold War. Putin has been blasting the U.S. for its proposed missile defense shield it plans on implementing in the Eastern European countries of Poland and the Czech Republic.

This is viewed as a serious threat to Russian security, but why?

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice states that the defense shield is capable of stopping only a small number of warheads at a time. Russia has the ability to launch multiple warheads at once which would completely bypass the shield system. But for a country like North Korea or Iran who might launch one or two, this shield could intercept those missiles. Russia went even further by testing a new inter-continental missile with the ability to launch multiple warheads recently to show the United States they could beat this shield if needed. This of course, is exactly what U.S. officials already knew and have been trying to tell President Putin with the hopes of calming him down.

But he is irrational, and compared President Bush’s foreign policy to that of Hitler’s in a speech given not too long ago. Here is an idea; if Russia controlled who it sold its arms and technology to in a more responsible way, the United States would not feel the need to create defense shields in Poland and the Czech Republic.

There are countless examples of how Russia is the most dangerous country to the United States’ security these days.

Now I want to be clear about something; I in no way am promoting a war with Russia or anything close to that extremity. However, I think America needs to realize that Iran is a temporary threat to US security. If Iran is out of the equation, Russia will just find another anti-American country to sell its weapons to. We must address the source of the problem. If it is the money Russia is after, we should propose buying up the arms that Russia would sell to Iran instead. This way Russia is happy, they got paid, and the US is happy, it kept weapons out of the hands of a state that sponsors terrorism.

This would be a good start to addressing the issue, but much diplomatic work needs to be done between the United States and Russia before this threat could ever be extinguished. Also, let me point out that this solution works if and only if Russia is selling weapons and technology for the money. I am not convinced it is.

Next in the series: Russia’s repression of journalists!

Andrew Turkish wants to protect the Land of the Free from oppressive regimes like Russia!

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"Putin Promotes Axis of Evil Against America" (June 02, 07, 11:21 a.m.) by Trade Martin

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