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6/11/07

John Vinocur: Putin's redlining plan for Eastern Europe

International Herald Tribune

"John Vinocur: Putin's redlining plan for Eastern Europe

PARIS: Location, location, location. On Main Street, you're in business. On Drain Street, around the corner, you're nowhere, and maybe in bankruptcy court.

Project that home truth on the scale of Russia's attempt to reassert itself as a world force, calling the shots again for the countries at its borders from the Baltic to Caucasus:

Vladimir Putin, simon-pure democrat turned real estate broker, suddenly decides that an American missile shield that could block Iranian nukes is not such a lunatic, war-mongering idea after all, and tells George Bush, do I have a location for you! It's Azerbaijan, right on Iran's doorstep, and what a place for a radar installation. Just to accommodate you, we've got one there already."

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