Forum… Or Against ‘em

After flying into an airport, Vladimir Putin made his way up to the customs desk. “Occupation?” the customs officer inquired. “No, just visiting this time,” Vladimir responded. The world we live in today is growing more complicated by the minute. Thinking of Russia, Belarus, Chechnya and the Ukraine keeps me up at night…
A bit of history: In 1991 the  Soviet Union was on the ropes. Mikhail Gorbachev had instituted a host of reforms which the Soviet establishment detested, including decentralizing much of the central government’s power to the republics. At that point, On August 18, a group of hard-line members of the Communist Party staged a  coup d’état attempt. Spontaneously, a group of government workers loyal to Gorbachev and weary of the restrictions of the Russian form of communism hatched a campaign of civil resistance that stymied the plotters. In one of the most dramatic turns of events in the 20th Century,  when the plotters turned to Russian Republic President Boris Yeltsin for support while Gorbachev was being held under house arrest in Crimea, Yeltsin  spurned them, instead taking refuge in the Russian White House in Moscow, making a memorable speech from atop the turret of a tank onto which he had climbed in which he defied the Old Guard. Troops rallied by the plotters  surrounded  the White House, but after Yeltsin’s stirring speech in defense of the new age and a mass of popular demonstrations in favor of Gorbachev. they defected. By 21 August most of the coup leaders fled Moscow and Gorbachev was liberated from his captors and returned to Moscow. The return to paralyzing communism was averted…
Vladimir Putin yet harbors visions of reestablishing the Old Soviet Union. Next time, the world may not be as fortunate as it was in 1991…

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