Then kindly shush. As you quite rightly pointed out, it was the Russians who liberated Auschwitz and, had it not been for the USSR, Israel the nation would likely not even exist today. Don't let an long string of stupid political decisions led by paranoid dogmatics taint your view of a whole people. In my country, it's called racism. 

Oh really! You know what? I just ducked a mirror in the hallway near the loo, as I didn't want to see how racist I am. You could be kind enough to empathize with my predicament as you, as a Russian (?), are certainly familiar with that kind of feeling, and to try to understand what centuries of sustained hatred (c/ref last Sunday's sermon at your Orthodox church?) can do to the soul. And I am one of the very few to just begin to reciprocate this 5+ centuries-old, ingrained hatred. I can assure you few people around me would agree with me on this, but what the hell, I am what I am and the way I feel is my problem.

 

You cannot reduce that to "political decisions made by paranoid dogmatics" and claim intellectual honesty. It goes much, much deeper than that and you know it. Also, Israel as a nation started out a good 2,000 years before anybody would even utter the word "Russia", and the USSR's contribution to the existence of the modern state of Israel is irrelevant at best. 

Well, I can understand your point. But I don't agree with it. And I'm as much British now as I am Russian. So take your pick. Don't go to church either, Orthodox or otherwise.

 

'5+ centuries-old, ingrained hatred.'

Sorry, but what utter rubbish. Unless you believe anger and racism are ingrained genetically, then what's basically happened is you've convinced yourself that all Russians are evil to Jews by nature, based on the stories you heard and the history books you read. I can just as easily turn around and start hating the Germans for killing my relatives. But I choose not to, because it's a bit silly. 

Oh, and I have jewish blood in me too, apparently. So, am I supposed to what, hate myself now? 

' It goes much, much deeper than that and you know it.'

Ok. Firstly to the best of my knowledge I personally have not killed any Jews. Secondly, it wasn't Stalin who liberated Auchtwitz. Nor was it Stalin who wanted to recognize Israel as a state (he had completely different plans for Jews, so I can only guess some unknown advisor went to great lengths to convince him to have a 'change of heart'). Do you see the point I'm making?

 

And if you're referring to attacks on the Jews pre-USSR, well, do you also hate the Poles, the Germans, the Spanish, the Turks etc etc etc?

My, what a lot of hate you have in you. Why carry all that around? To what purpose? 

Personaly I am of the opinion that it is President Obama who has unwittingly proven to be one of Russia's better allies. The reason for this is simply that he gets Russia to sign an agreement to reduce nuclear weapons, but leaves Russia with the option of backing out while the US will still adhere stick with it regarless. Good press and a clear out. Good for Russia bad for the US.

 

Other than that Russia dosen't have too many allies that are worthe the name.  India can only really be counted because they are a major arms buyer. The same with Venezuala. China seems to do a one time purchase than steals the tech.

Personaly I am of the opinion that it is President Obama who has unwittingly proven to be one of Russia's better allies. The reason for this is simply that he gets Russia to sign an agreement to reduce nuclear weapons, but leaves Russia with the option of backing out while the US will still adhere stick with it regarless. Good press and a clear out. Good for Russia bad for the US.

 

Other than that Russia dosen't have too many allies that are worthe the name.  India can only really be counted because they are a major arms buyer. The same with Venezuala. China seems to do a one time purchase than steals the tech.

Forgiving and moving on with one's life is the right thing to do, and hating is a most unproductive and energy-consuming activity we can do without. OTOH, forgetting is both immoral and irresponsible. The Ukrainians, who, like the Germans or the Poles, have otherwise taken significant and genuine steps towards reconciliation with us, are lionizing mass murderers such as Petliura, Chmielnitzki, and above all Stepan A. Bandera under cover of a nationalistic revival. Should we sit back and shut up in the interest of realpolitik, or should we raise a stink for our dignity's sake?

Contrarily to Germany, Poland, Ukraine, France and many others which leaders have spoken out against the past injustices and are no longer hostile to the Jews and to the State of Israel, it seems that post-Soviet Russia is still pretty busy making sure we all die, by continuing the Soviet's policies that result in arming our most genocidal foes with nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.

So, I can't be accused of blind hatred for only acknowledging the fact that Putin's Russia is our enemy.

 

I don't believe that anger and racism are genetically coded like the Jews' baldness or the Russians' cold resistance, because this is obviously not  the way DNA works.

There is, however, something called atavism, which cannot be satisfactorily explained by nurturing and other cultural factors. It will, someday, get a scientific explanation, but currently there isn't any. We call it "karma", and move along to some more urgent endeavors like curing diseases or designing a better cell phone battery.

 

Living in Israel, I am exposed to a lot of Russian-ness. Up to half a million ethnic Russians and Ukrainians immigrated to Israel in the '90s when it was possible for them to just pretend they had Jewish origins or spouses and get citizenship according to the Law of Return. That was better for them than staying put and starve under the Yeltsin kleptocracy.

AFAIK, none have been prosecuted for fraud, nor is there much of a legal basis for such prosecutions.

They have no interest in integrating culturally or otherwise, and the contempt of many of them for anything Jewish or Israeli is blatantly apparent. They have double citizenship now, and vote for Putin at the Russian consulate while their kids are painting svastikas on synagogues.

 

All this, however, doesn't even begin to explain why I experience that "fight or flee" adrenalin rush every time I hear the Russian language spoken aloud in a cell phone near me in the bus!

A good friend of mine is a psychiatrist. She says she sees too many real illnesses to care for my little problems, and that besides, she feels exactly the same way, so I'm not likely to get help anytime soon!

[Disclaimer for admins etc: racial stereotypes covered in post below are all from personal experience/anectodal evidence, and relate only to the vast majority of said population only, in said geographical area. I have many Polish and Pakistani friends, honest. Please don't ban me for racism!] 

 

Well, I can think of two things here. Firstly, Slavs in general are full of poo - and yes, many are racist on a regular basis. To be fair, every racist I've met it also an anti-semite, so it seems to me more logical to claim slavs are more racist (and as such, more anti-semitic) than to claim that all slavs are anti-semitic. This also explains the 'jewish slavs' dilemma quite nicely. They don't 'hate jews', they're simply more likely to be racist, nationalistic pricks, and hate jews as a byproduct.

 

Incidentally, this goes far beyond Putin. Russia, Poland, Baltics, Balkans, Ukraine, Georgia etc etc... are all full of racist eggheads from what I've seen. More so than Britain. But, that's more to do with culture (I can easily find you British racists if you want me to - I just have to go to the other kinds of pubs in my town). So, it's more likely the slavs are less cultured than Westerners, thus more racist, thus more anti-semitic.

 

Secondly, in Israel in particular (from what I gather) russians are the ghetto-people - second-rate scumbags who tend to pollute the atmosphere, refuse to integrate and account for the vast portion of knife crime in a given town. Every country has some of those - in Britain, it's the pakistanis and the polish. In France, it's algerians. In Russia, it's immigrants from Central Asia. In Israel, they happen to be russsophones - mainly, I believe, because when the USSR collapsed, the worst of russophone society who could, left, and went to Israel. You'll no doubt be happy to hear, from a distant relative of mine, that the Russians living in Israel are far worse than russians living in Russia. Ie russians living in Russia are actually quite pleasant people compared to those whom you meet every day.

 

So, can't help you I'm afraid, sucks to be you I guess. Enjoy the scumminess :) 

 

Also, assimilation of the children of Soviet immigrants will be aided by the mandatory military for their new homeland. The same is true of German Americans that fought for the US and against Germany in WWII.

 

 In regards to the message's original question, obviously the ODKB (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan) would come into play. The obvious question is who was attacking Russia. As Russia is seeking entry in the WTO with attempts at turning its country into an innovation based economy, I see no motivation for them to bully anyone right now militarily other than a breakaway state of its own country like Chechnya. Also with Georgia and Ukraine seeking NATO and Ukraine considering EU membership (and Estonia entering in January) I think Russia's days as a world aggressor are over militarily speaking. It does have the ability to harass many targeted neighbors over denying them exports of natural resources, but only at a significant economic disruption to itself as it is a still a commodity based economy. It also would need to coordinate with several other resource rich countries (oil) to avoid a worldwide boycott against Russia (while other resource rich countries increase output to offset the decrease in supply) that could cripple the economy.

 

The USSR's economy was hurt even more by the falling of oil prices in the 80's along with Gorbachev's restructuring attempts.

 

Asking who Russia's allies are is a very difficult question, but seems to be answered by anyone willing to give them money or further their economy. Still they seem to have a very weird relationship of playing nice (like with the US) and then aiding an allies harassers and playing dumb to understand how this could create a conflict of interest. Still though, after the KAL disaster the Soviets/Russians had two ways to take the relationship with America, more hostile or more friendly. The relationship clearly has gone in the right direction in my opinion, and Russia continues to improve relationships with Western countries to avoid mistakes of the past.

 

China may not pose an immediate threat to Russia but China may want Russian Far East land for expansion/natural resources/security.

 

They differ as to where legitimate territorial boundaries would be

 

Also, Japan may want the Kurils back some day.

In your reply to BARCA you stated several things (out of what was actually readable, you type like a 4 year old) that made me roll over laughing, let me point them out.

1.