Russia: President Vladimir Putin deserves kudos for 2014 Sochi Olympics - a job well done

President Vladimir Putin

Even though most of us in the Western Press had initially used every possible occasion to be critical about a variety of issues surrounding  the Sochi Olympics project, the Olympics not only got off to a brilliant start, but also throughout the games showed to be a smooth and perfectly managed operation.

This was recognized by just about everyone afterwards.

Olympic Committee officials went to great lengths to praise these much-maligned Games in their closing news conference.

"They've done a phenomenal job," said USOC chairman Larry Probst, mentioning everything from smooth transportation to Vladimir Putin's presence throughout the previous 15 days. "Putin has really owned these Games," he said.

Like it or not, President Vladimir Putin deserves to receive Kudos, not only for these Olympic games, but also for doing everything in his power to turn Sochi into a household word and exposing a cultural, warm and friendly face of  Russia to the rest of world.

Indeed, Mr. Putin might not be everyone's friend - which great leader ever is- but he will certainly be viewed by historians later as the Russian leader who picked up Russia by the bootstraps, after it was down and nearly out when the Soviet Union fell apart, and turning it into the modern society it is today.   

According to Russian public opinion polls, Mr Putin not only remains popular - his popularity is even rising.  In the latest poll, taken in December 2013, by the independent research organization, the Levada Centre, 68 per cent of respondents said that if new presidential elections were held this they would vote for Putin. This was up by 10 per cent from December 2012.

Why is Mr. Putin so popular at home? The simple answer is that the Russian population of 144 million is much better off today than it has ever been. Real incomes have risen substantially over the past decade, and the share of the population living below the poverty line has fallen.

The range of available consumer goods is worlds apart from when the Soviet Union fell apart little more than two decades ago.  Many of the middle class Russian families are now taking vacations outside their country and in the summer you will now find Russians vacationers just about everywhere in the world with a large contingent  in Turkey and Thailand..

During his two terms as president, Putin signed into law a series of liberal economic reforms, such as the flat income tax of 13 percent, a reduced profits tax, a new Land Code and a new edition (2006) of the Civil Code. Within this period, poverty in Russia was cut by more than half and real GDP has grown rapidly.

Some of the main features of Putin's regime so far have been: development of a corporatist system by pursuing close ties with business organizations, social stability and co-optation of opposition parties.

In 2005, Putin launched National Priority Projects in the fields of health care, education, housing and agriculture. In his May 2006 annual speech, Putin proposed increasing maternity benefits and prenatal care for women. Putin was strident about the need to reform the judiciary considering the present federal judiciary "Sovietesque", wherein many of the judges hand down the same verdicts as they would under the old Soviet judiciary structure, and preferring instead a judiciary that interpreted and implemented the code to the current situation.

In 2005, responsibility for federal prisons was transferred from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Ministry of Justice.

The most high-profile change within the national priority project frameworks was probably the 2006 across-the-board increase in wages in healthcare and education, as well as the decision to modernize equipment in both sectors in 2006 and 2007.

So far during Putin's government, poverty was cut more than half and real GDP has grown rapidly.

In a rare sign of emotion and patriotism, he once said in an interview with Time magazine: "Russia is an ancient country with historical, profound traditions and a very powerful moral foundation. And this foundation is a love for the Motherland and patriotism. Patriotism in the best sense of that word. Incidentally, I think that to a certain extent, to a significant extent, this is also attributable to the American people."

Kudos Mr. Putin, Sochi was a job well done.

EU-Digest

Sochi Olympics Speed Skating: Jorrit Bergsma knocks off Kramer in Dutch 10,000 meters sweep

Sven Kramer and Jorrit Bergsma

Sven Kramer stayed in the right lane this time.

No matter. He was again denied a gold medal in the speedskating race he wanted more than any other.

With a stunner of a finishing kick, Jorrit Bergsma knocked off country man and the world's greatest distance skater, winning the 10,000 meters with an Olympic-record time on Tuesday. "I'm still dazed," Bergsma said.

Kramer gave away a sure gold in speedskating's longest event with an inexplicable mistake while changing lanes at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

This time, he simply got beat by — almost inevitably at the Sochi Games — a fellow Dutchman.
Bergsma turned in the fastest sea-level time ever, 12 minutes, 44.45 seconds, and shattered the Olympic record of 12:58.55 set by South Korea's Lee Seung-hoon four years ago.

Kramer settled for silver in 12:49.02. The bronze went to 37-year-old Bob de Jong.

While the order of finish didn't go as expected, the guys on the podium were no surprise at all.

It was another orange sweep, the fourth 1-2-3 finish for the Netherlands at Adler Arena, its speedskating medal haul climbing to 19 out of a possible 27.

Read more: Jorrit Bergsma knocks off Kramer in 10,000 meters - US News

Russia Would Benefit The Most From US Break-Up With The EU - by Rob Sharp

Unflattering remarks by a top US diplomat to the European Union have come to light over the past week. Victoria Nuland, the State Department’s Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, is reported to have said “Fuck the EU” in a private conversation with our ambassador to the Ukraine, Mr. Geoffrey Pyatt.

The exchange was allegedly bugged by Russian agents, a fact emphasized by the White House and State Department to deflect attention from the remark itself. If the Russians are indeed behind the bugging, declared the State Department, it would constitute “a new low in Russian tradecraft.”

The issue speaks to the frustrations that the United States and other nations, including EU member nations, have experienced while interacting with the supranational organization. While Baroness Catherine Ashton has been widely regarded as successful in her role as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, including her handling of the Ukrainian issue, she has been the lone bright star in what is otherwise a typically slow, indecisive (when not contentious), and overly bureaucratic organization.

The point remains that Nuland is a trained diplomat and her tone with the our ambassadors and other State Department employees sets the timbre for the nature of the relationship between the US and the EU.

Regardless of whether or not she should have considered the possibility that someone might overhear her conversation with Ambassador Pyatt (and given the recent history of intelligence bugging brought to light by Edward Snowden, there is no reason not to suspect clandestine eavesdropping), her language reveals that the United States does not respect her European allies and would rather not collaborate with them. Not exactly what you might call ‘diplomatic.’

Ms. Nuland has since apologized to various European heads of state for her comments and stated that she “will not comment on a private diplomatic conversation.” Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was herself recently an alleged victim of NSA phone-tapping, called Nuland’s remarks “totally unacceptable.” The context of the remarks, however, demonstrates that the U.S. is attempting to stem the influence of Moscow in the governance of the Ukraine as we work with Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon to address the pro-EU demonstrations that have been held constantly across the past few months in Kiev.

In order to build stronger ties between Ukraine and the “West,” the U.S. must suppress Russian interests in the region, thus adding another dimension to the re-emerging cold war developing between our two countries.

With Russia seeking to project its might throughout the Winter Olympic Games, expanding its realpolitik via Syria, opposing same-sex equality, and countering the United States’ position as a global hegemon, the prospect of an allied state the size of the Ukraine defect from the EU membership process and realign itself with Russia raises the specter of the Iron Curtain for many older European and American observers.

By destabilizing our relations with the EU, Moscow could very well scoop up allies looking for leadership, loyalty, and decisiveness in uncertain times. Perhaps that possibility should be the focus of our State Department’s grandiloquence.

Read more: Russia Would Benefit The Most From Our Break-Up With The EU | Article 3

Sochi Olympics: Dominance begins: Netherlands sweeps men's 5,000 - by Paul Myerberg

Gold - Silver and Bronze for the Netherlands

In the world of men's speed skating — and in the long-distance races in particular — the rest of the world is chasing the Netherlands, a country that views Olympic dominance as a quadrennial birthright.

Theirs is a skating powerhouse that stems in large part from the Netherlands' devotion to the sport. While soccer rules on sunny days, speed skating occupies the country's undivided attention throughout the winter, and during Olympic years in particular.

But perhaps never in its skating history have the Dutch experienced a day quite like Saturday, when a trio of skaters completed a clean sweep of the medal podium in the 5,000 meters

Read more: Dominance begins: Netherlands sweeps men's 5,000

Sochi Olympics - the Netherlands: Dutch have it all to dominate the Olympic oval - by Raf Casert

Skating is in the Dutch blood

There is nothing more mythical in Dutch sports than an age-old 11-city race skating across lakes and canals in bone-numbing cold from dawn to dusk. No wonder the Netherlands is the greatest speedskating nation in the world.

And with Sven Kramer and Ireen Wust leading the way on the big Olympic oval in Sochi, they are bent on proving it again.

Time and again over the last half century, the Dutch have been top or near the top of the Olympic speedskating standings - a nation of 16.8 million defying giants like the United States, Russia or Germany. In Sochi too, the Dutch have a realistic chance of a half dozen gold medals on the big oval.

They won more long-track speedskating medals than any other nation in Vancouver, and federation sporting director Arie Koops said the only way forward is to become even more dominating.

"The goal is to improve on Vancouver. And considering our current level of form, that is a realistic goal," he told The Associated Press.

Read more: Dutch have it all to dominate the Olympic oval- by Raf Casert

Sochi Olympics: Sochi forces hunt for potential female suicide bombers - Media Hype Is Counter-productive

Russian security officials are hunting down "several" potential female suicide bombers, one of whom is believed to be in Sochi, where the Winter Olympics will begin next month, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports.

The Canadian Broadcasting news has confirmed eyewitness accounts from Sochi that police have left posters and leaflets about the potential suicide bombers in the area of the Olympic venues. A police letter said that one of them, Ruzanna Ibragimova, a 22-year-old widow of an Islamic militant, was at large in Sochi. Russian authorities have blamed the so-called "black widows" of slain insurgents for previous suicide attacks in the country.

CBS News national security analyst Juan Zarate, who worked on multiple Olympic security plans with foreign leaders, said that women will likely not fly under the radar at Sochi. "Certain females don't attract as much security attention as certain male suicide bombers or fighters but I think now with the ramped-up security around Sochi, females are going to get just as much scrutiny as males,"

Zarate said. Russian President Vladimir Putin has guaranteed safety at the Games but CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports that other officials increasingly wary. On Monday, U.S. military sources confirmed there are plans to provide U.S. assistance in Russia if an evacuation is necessary. Orr reports that aircraft will likely on alert at European bases with two Navy ships patrolling the nearby Black Sea.

CBS News has also learned the FBI will have almost 40 agents stationed throughout Russia to assist with American security.

 Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers says it's prudent precaution. "I think what the U.S. military does almost continuously is plan for all sorts of contingencies," Myers said.

Note EU-Digest: unfortunately all the media hype about potential terrorism attacks during the Sochi Olympics is having a counter productive effect by elevating these crazed and fanatic extremists to celebrity status. It is sensationalism based irresponsible journalism.  

Read more: Sochi forces hunt for potential female suicide bombers - CBS News