George Soros: Russia poses existential threat to Europe

[Mister Nightowl]

Source: The Guardian

Thursday 23 October 2014 03.55 EDT

George Soros has warned that Russia’s expansionism poses an existential threat to the EU and called for greater material support for Ukraine.

The investor and philanthropist argues that Vladimir Putin’s mix of authoritarianism and aggressive nationalism represents an alternative model to western liberal democracies, referring to the admiration for the Russian president expressed by the Ukip leader Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen, president of France’s Front National, and Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán.

“Europe is facing a challenge from Russia to its very existence. Neither the European leaders nor their citizens are fully aware of this challenge or know how best to deal with it,” Soros writes in an article published in the New York Review of Books.

“Now Russia is presenting an alternative that poses a fundamental challenge to the values and principles on which the European Union was originally founded. It is based on the use of force that manifests itself in repression at home and aggression abroad, as opposed to the rule of law.”

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/23/george-soros-russia-threat-europe-vladimir-putin

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I agree with Soros. One of the very few conservative opinions I hold is that Russia is our enemy, and must be opposed, as in the all too briefly interrupted Cold War. Putin has picked up where the Soviets left off.

[Cha]

2. "Conservatives" love Putin.. he's so "manly".

They should love him.. peas in a pod.

[elleng]

7. YES, Cha,

Last edited Thu Oct 23, 2014, 06:13 PM - Edit history (1)

been saying this forever!

I'M conservative!

[Cha]

14. I've been saying it too ellen.. and now I've found a Graphic!

[jakeXT]

3. repression at home and aggression abroad, as opposed to the rule of law ... lol /nt

[iemitsu]

4. Sounds kind of familiar, huh?

[Octafish]

5. Eerily.

[moondust]

6. In the context of Europe. n/t

[Seeking Serenity]

8. "European society is very advanced, very civilized. Between holocausts."

"The painter Barnett Newman is said to have replied along these lines to a friend who was bemoaning the sorry state of American political life and praising European social democracy."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/09/12/348002248/why-atheists-need-captain-kirk

[Adrahil]

9. The Russian model is much more attractive, wouldn't you say?

What was the point of posting that ridiculous quote?

[Seeking Serenity]

11. A jibe? I guess none, really. (n/t)

[Adrahil]

12. Ok, fair enough. NT

[Comrade Grumpy]

10. "Russia is our enemy and must be opposed. " Sheesh. And I thought it was Oceania.

[sadoldgirl]

13. Well, well, well: right back to the old cold war rhetoric,

which I can understand from Mr. Soros looking where he came from. There are other ways to look at this to at least understand where Russia comes from.

1) It was never a democracy, and those, who hoped for it in 2000, were delusional. Even Gorbachev would never agree to such a change, and he is still loved in Europe.

2) Ask Russians how they would like to get Western missiles positioned right next to their boarder. Remember how we reacted with Cuba?

3) There was an agreement between Yeltsin, Clinton, and the then head of the Ukraine: Ukraine would give up its nuclear weapons with the condition that it would not join NATO. Yet, that would have been in the small print of the EU offer now.

4) Ask most Europeans and they will tell you that Russia never broke a contract; it may have provoked others to start that kind of process, and then,yes, then the contracts were useless.

5) Crimeria belonged to Russia since Catherine the great and was only given to the Ukraine as long as the USSR permitted it.

I don't trust Putin very much, but I also recognize his arguments. So, imho, let's cool down the rhetoric.