Ukraine's Next

Russia eyes Ukraine.

NATO and the U.S. did next to nothing to stop Putin's oil grab in Georgia, so Ukraine will be next, all the better to blackmail Europe for both energy and food.

We have forgotten the lessons of Munich, and are content to watch eastern Europe be gobbled up again by an evil power.

We could have stopped Hitler in the Rhine.

We could have stopped him in Austria.

We could have stopped him in Czechoslovakia.

Instead, we waited until Poland was destroyed and the Wehrmacht rolled through Paris to try to stop him.

We could have stopped Putin in Georgia.

Will we stop him in Ukraine?

Or will we continue to adopt the long-discredited lie that if we just give him this particular people to enslave, he will not seek to clap the irons on the rest of us?

To Understand Russian Strategy, Follow the Oil

Powerline has an analysis of the Georgian situation which will be familiar to the MoltenThinkers.

Russia's aim is a pipeline from Iran up through the former Soviet 'stans to Moscow. This will allow Russia to continue to rake in petrodollars while being able to turn off energy supplies to any nation which crosses her.

The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia

Strategy Page has the skinny.

The Devil Went Down To Georgia

...looking for some oil to steal.

Putin's lot are not unpredictable. You simply need to follow the route of an oil pipeline from Iran to Moscow. The Russian regime rests entirely on petrodollars.

Putin wants Georgia because it's a better pipeline route.

We will do precisely nothing about this. If we're not interested in taking on the Iranians, who are building nukes and slaughtering Americans right in front of us, why would we be interested in taking on the Russians?

Putin Names A Patsy

Er, a successor:

President Vladimir Putin chose a little-known government official to become Russia's new prime minister Wednesday, a surprise move that set off fevered speculation over whether loyal technocrat Viktor Zubkov was being groomed to replace Putin next spring.

The move came a few hours after Putin dissolved the Cabinet of his long-serving prime minister, Mikhail Fradkov, saying he needed to appoint a government better suited to the election campaign and to "prepare the country" for life after the elections.

The nomination of Zubkov, who has overseen investigations into suspicious financial transactions, caught much of the political elite off guard, which appeared to be Putin's intention.

Most observers said they did not see Zubkov as Putin's successor, but rather as a caretaker prime minister, perhaps to be replaced closer to the March presidential vote. Others said they considered his appointment a signal of Putin's intention to retain control after he leaves the presidency.

Put me in with "others" on this one.

Putin made his fortune and secured his power base by keeping his hands on the levers of power and ruthlessly destroying any threat to him. He will not go gently into that good night while someone else might use the same levers to strip him of both.

Rather, he'll pick a low-key bureaucrat who just so happens to have dirt on every Russian apparatchik thanks to his role as corruption "buster".

Putin will then continue to wield power through his toady and anyone who tries to stand in the way will find their dirt made public (if they don't find themselves dead like Litivenko first.)

One thing about those self-appointed "Kremlinologists" in the Left Wing Media---they don't know jack about Russia, never have, never will. Watch who thrives and who dies if you want to know what's really going on.

Here's One the FBI Will Surely Characterize As "Random Street Crime"

Prominent Vladimir Putin critic shot in D.C.:

Police are investigating a shooting that wounded a prominent intelligence expert.

Fifty-three-year-old Paul Joyal was shot Thursday night outside his house in the 2300 block of Lackawanna Street in Adelphi.

Joyal is known for his expertise on intelligence and terrorism and his contacts in the former Soviet Union.

He has also been a long-time critic of the the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The shooting came four days after he told "Dateline NBC" that he believes the Russian government was involved in the fatal poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London.

Anyone else think Dubya might want to put on his bifocals before looking into Putin's heart the next time around?