Moon debunks Obama jibber jabber on Russia .....
August 03, 2014
Obama's Russia Policies Are Based On Ignorance, Illusions
Obama's Russia policies are based on ignorance and driven by illusions:
President Barack Obama dismissed Russia as a nation that "doesn't make anything" and said in an interview with the Economist magazine that the West needs to be "pretty firm" with China as Beijing pushes to expand its role in the world economy.
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"Immigrants aren't rushing to Moscow in search of opportunity. The life expectancy of the Russian male is around 60 years old. The population is shrinking," he said.
Fact: Russia is making and exporting not only raw materials but also lots of industrial goods, machinery (65%increase over 5 years) and weapons:
Russia has cemented its place as the world's second largest suppliers of arms. In 2012, the country shipped $15.13 billion worth of weapons, up $2 billion from the year before.
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Although Russian arms manufacturers still sell only a third of what their American counterparts achieve, the yearly rate of growth in exports and the over-fulfillment of annual plans cannot fail to please the authorities and defense industry chiefs.
Fact: Russia has strong, net positive migration:
Russia experiences a constant flow of immigration. On average, close to 300,000 legal immigrants enter the country every year; about half are ethnic Russians from the other republics of the former Soviet Union. There is a significant inflow of ethnic Armenians, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz and Tajiks into big Russian cities, something that is viewed unfavorably by some citizens. In addition, there are an estimated 4 million illegal immigrants from the ex-Soviet states in Russia.
Fact: Over the last decade life expectancy in Russia has significantly increased:
Russia - Life expectancy at birth
Date Life expectancy Life expectancy - Men Life expectancy - Women 2012 70.46 64.90 76.30 2011 69.66 64.00 75.60 2010 68.86 63.10 74.90 2009 68.70 62.80 74.70 2008 67.90 61.80 74.20 2007 67.50 61.40 73.90 2006 66.60 60.40 73.20 2005 65.47 58.87 72.40 2004 65.42 58.87 72.30 2003 65.01 58.51 71.83 2002 65.09 58.50 72.00 2001 65.49 59.00 72.30 2000 65.34 59.00 72.00
Fact: Russia has genuine population growth:
[L]last year [..] Russia recorded its first year of natural population growth since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, with the number of births exceeding the number of deaths by 24,013. The trend continued through the beginning of this year, according to data released by the State Statistics Service at the end of May.
All four claims Obama made in the Economist interview quoted above are demonstrably false. They are mere illusions. How qualified then is he to decide on policy issues with regard to Russia?
Reuters.....
Obama: 'Russia doesn't make anything,' West must be firm with China
WASHINGTON
U.S. President Barack Obama makes a statement while at the White House in Washington, August 1, 2014.
CREDIT: REUTERS/LARRY DOWNING
(Reuters) - President Barack Obama dismissed Russia as a nation that "doesn't make anything" and said in an interview with the Economist magazine that the West needs to be "pretty firm" withChina as Beijing pushes to expand its role in the world economy.
Obama has tried to focus U.S. foreign policy on Asia, a response to China's economic and military might. But for months, that "pivot" has been overshadowed by a flurry of international crises, including Russia's support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Russia is the world's third-largest oil producer and second-largest natural gas producer. Europe relies heavily on Russian energy exports, complicating the West's response to theUkraine crisis.
Obama downplayed Moscow's role in the world, dismissing President Vladimir Putin as a leader causing short-term trouble for political gain that will hurt Russia in the long term.
"I do think it's important to keep perspective. Russia doesn't make anything," Obama said in the interview.
"Immigrants aren't rushing to Moscow in search of opportunity. The life expectancy of the Russian male is around 60 years old. The population is shrinking," he said.
Obama told Putin last week that he believes Russia violated the 1988 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces treaty designed to eliminate ground-launched cruise missiles.
Speaking of Russia's "regional challenges," Obama said in the interview: "We have to make sure that they don't escalate where suddenly nuclear weapons are back in the discussion of foreign policy."
Obama described U.S. tensions with China as "manageable."
China is engaged in territorial disputes with its neighbors in the oil-rich South China Sea, and frequently skirmishes with the West over intellectual property issues.
"One thing I will say about China, though, is you also have to be pretty firm with them, because they will push as hard as they can until they meet resistance," Obama told the Economist.
"They're not sentimental, and they are not interested in abstractions. And so simple appeals to international norms are insufficient," he said.
Obama said he believes trade tensions will ease when China shifts "from simply being the low-cost manufacturer of the world" and its companies begin making higher-value items that need intellectual property protections.
"There have to be mechanisms both to be tough with them when we think that they're breaching international norms, but also to show them the potential benefits over the long term," he said.
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