The Bible says the 7th head of the beast appears slaughtered but it is healed. (Rev 13:3-8)
The last part of Revelation gives a closer look at the revived beast. It appears at first as a lamb but then speaks as a dragon.
The USA and other western nations had hopes that Russia was going to be a nice democratic partner with open markets - a full fledged member of the New World Order.
Enter Putin. Determined to rebuild a New Russian Power he has set Russia back on course.
I could ramble on - but instead I will from time to time post significant items that may escape those who are absorbed in the politics and economy of the USA.
Here is an item that illustrates how things are changing back to a state of confrontation.
Russia’s influence grows
As democracy movements stumble, Kremlin draws neighbors to its orbit
By Henry Meyer
AP
March 20, 2006
MOSCOW – The Kremlin may be reclaiming a dominant role in its former Soviet
backyard.
In Belarus, Moscow-allied strongman Alexander Lukashenko just won
re-election by a landslide – at least by the official count. And Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s allies could return to government in Sunday’s
Ukrainian parliamentary election, a year after the Orange Revolution.
Such developments set back Western hopes of a democratic tidal wave in the
former Soviet sphere and could further tarnish Putin’s democratic
credentials as he tries to cast himself as a statesman capable of brokering
deals with Iran and Hamas. (And it misleads those who dwell on the earth Rev 13:14)
For Putin, however, asserting dominance over Belarus and Ukraine appears to
be part of his strategy to re-establish Moscow as a global player during
his year of the G-8 presidency.
“Russia wants to restore its superpower status, and that includes putting
these countries back into its orbit,” said Yevgeny Volk, Moscow director of
the conservative U.S think tank Heritage Foundation.
(Rev 17:13 These have one thought and so they give their power and authority to the wild beast)
“It is seeking to reclaim its influence over the former Soviet Union, and
remove that of the United States and European Union,” he added.
Russia was furious at what it saw as Western encroachment on its home turf
after Ukraine’s November 2004 Orange Revolution – the mass protests over
election fraud that brought reformist opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko
to power over the Kremlin’s favored candidate, Viktor Yanukovych.
Months later, the impoverished Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan had its
Tulip Revolution, becoming the third former Soviet state within 18 months
to see opposition forces topple a Soviet-era leader. Georgia’s Rose
Revolution started the process in 2003.
Today, however, Russia is again on the rise as nervous authoritarian
regimes from Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan – where rights groups say government
troops killed hundreds of civilians in a crackdown on protesters last year
– build closer ties to Moscow, partly as a way to cow opposition forces.
Even in Ukraine, disillusionment at political infighting and the economic
collapse that followed the Orange Revolution have brought about a political
comeback for Yanukovych, whose rigged victory in the 2004 presidential
election was annulled by the Supreme Court.
Enjoying strong support in the Russian-speaking east, his party is poised
to win the most seats in the new parliament and earn the right to form the
government, even if it will probably need to govern in an uneasy coalition
with the party of the pro-Western Yushchenko.
“The West’s influence that triumphed in the color revolutions has clearly
become a dead end for these nations,” said Sergei Markov, a
Kremlin-connected political analyst. “In Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan,
people live worse, not better than before.”
By contrast, in Belarus, whose authoritarian president is shunned by
Western nations as Europe’s last dictator, cheap supplies of Russian gas
provide a vital lifeline to the inefficient, state-dominated economy.
Analyst Alexei Malashenko of the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank said on
Ekho Moskvy radio that while the Kremlin sometimes had tense relations with
Belarus, its greatest interest lay in preserving the status quo in Minsk.
He also said that despite loud Western criticism of the Belarus election,
there was no serious attempt to help pro-democratic forces, as happened in
Ukraine.
“There was a strong fight for Ukraine, but no one fought for Belarus,”
Malashenko said.
Analysts agree that Russia’s trump card in the region is its immense energy
resources. They ensure that despite pro-Western inclinations, both Georgia
and Ukraine remain dangerously dependent on their larger neighbor.
A pipeline explosion that cut off Russian supplies to Georgia this winter
left millions shivering in their homes – provoking accusations from the
tiny U.S.-allied Caucasus Mountain state that Russia was deliberately
trying to force it to its knees.
Ukraine meanwhile had to swallow a twofold increase in gas prices after a
bitter New Year’s dispute that saw Moscow turn off the gas taps.
“Russia is using strong economic levers. With the growth of oil and gas
exports it has become much richer than it was in the 1990s and it is
translating this economic might into political influence and power,” said Volk.
At the center of the Russian policy in the region is a determination to
resist the West’s efforts to boost its influence at Russia’s expense, in
what Moscow says is falsely portrayed as a bid to promote democracy.
Russia on Monday accused the United States of trying to enforce its vision
of democracy on others, angrily rejecting President Bush’s criticism that
the Kremlin has rolled back freedoms.