Putin Writing Military Checks Before His Economy Bounces?

The historical parallel between Czar Vlad Putin's neoRussian Empire and Imperial Japan of the 1930s grows ever more alarmingly closer (via Newsmax Insider):

The Russian economy is collapsing after “years of criminal mismanagement” and the regime of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin could be doomed, according to Russian dissident Garry Kasparov.

The former world chess champion, who was a candidate in the 2008 Russian presidential race, wrote in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal that “there is ample evidence suggesting that the Putin regime is teetering toward collapse. One sign: Russia is beefing up its federal security forces in order to violently repress public protests.”

Those protests are increasing in Russia because “many voters didn't care that their elections were rigged until inflation started squeezing them,” said Kasparov, leader of The Other Russia, an anti-Putin coalition. “Time has run out on the illusion of economic prosperity for the average Russian.”

The Russian National Welfare Fund, which was created to back up the state pension system, is being “raided” to prop up monopolistic industries belonging to Putin's closest allies, and that money is going to service debt instead of developing industry, according to Kasparov.

He noted that Russia recently agreed to a deal with [Red] China to send Russian oil to [Red] China at rock-bottom prices for twenty years in exchange for $25 billion in loans, and observed: “Powerful countries don't cut such deals unless they are desperate for cash. What's happening in Russia is that we are witnessing the survival gambit of a corrupt regime. The question is whether the West will bail out the Russian dictatorship or let it fall.”

Kasparov added that Putin relies heavily on oil revenues to maintain his grip on power, so “it is in his interest to increase tensions in the Middle East as a way of driving up global oil prices. There is no deal the U.S. can cut to stop Putin's Russia from arming Mideast terrorists and helping Iran's nuclear program.”

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was also highly critical of Putin in a recent interview, likening his United Russia party to the worst of the communists he once led and helped bring down, and saying Russia is now a country where the parliament and the judiciary are not fully free. [emphasis added]

Okay, there is more than a passing parallel between Putin's Russia and the future toward which Barack Obama is trying to drag America as well.  But in the mean time I think you can pretty much guarantee that Red Barry and his party will have a bailout package whipped up for Vlad and friends as well, sold to the American people as the means to the "peaceful" end which Mr. Kasparov has already warned will never happen.

In that sense Putin's regime also bears a striking resemblance to its Iranian client.  Just as the mullahgarchy wants nuclear weapons with which to wipe out Israel, bring the U.S. to its knees, and dominate the Middle East, so Vlad dreams of a re-born Evil Empire and will not be bribed out of single-minded pursuit of that goal.  He'll pocket any and all concessions and gifts False Messiah offers, and give nothing meaningful in return.  And B.O. will keep flogging diplomacy right up until World War IV escalates once again.

The above context lends this story a great deal of sense:

Russia could use bases for its strategic bombers on the doorstep of the United States in Cuba and Venezuela to underpin long-distance patrols in the region, a senior air force officer said Saturday.

“This is possible in Cuba,” General Anatoly Zhikharev, chief of the Russian air force’s strategic aviation staff, told the Interfax-AVN military news agency.

The comments were the latest signal that Moscow intends to project its military capability in far-flung corners of the globe despite a tight defence budget and hardware that experts consider in many respects outdated.

Zhikharev indicated that Russia was looking only at occasional use of the facilities — not setting up permanent bases in the region.

Translation: This is the first step toward making Russian bases in Cuba and Venezuela permanent.  And don't forget that Uncle Hugo is also tight with the mullahs and ChiComms as well.

I don't want to say that all four of these enemies of America are colluding with each other in a sustained effort to cripple the United States while it languishes under the rule of an unworthy fool, but that is surely the way to bet.