As you know, ANSAT is built in Kazan, the capitol of Tatarstan Republic.

Tatarstan is probably the most powerful “minority” republic, that is populated by the Tatars, a Turkic people who are the descendants of the Golden Horde who were frequently at war with the Russians. Their current situation is like the Quebecois in Canada… unlikely to secede from the host country, but holds firm a strong separate Identity.

Famous Tatars include Marat Safin ( a Tennis player), and Alsou (a pop singer).

Anyways, Ansat means “light” in the local language.

Every line on the map of the world that represents a border is a political creation usually determined by military force. Look at the wars between the English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish. The whole idea of a country is political and was largely created by force. Countries appear and disappear with regularity, especially in Europe.
What is your point? If the Russian empire hadn’t gobbled them up then the Chinese or the Turks or someone else would have. There are no good guys.

So in this way you justify the Soviets action yet

“the West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do.”
If might really was right then rapists would be the good guys…

so if you are anti-West, then are you anti-Soviet as well? or do you hold a double standard even though the Soviets used the same methods as other “Western powers”

The parts of Russia that are east of the Urals are parts of Russia. They are not treated as a colony, and were part of Russia long before any oil was found there or many of the other resources that have been found there too.

indeed many were part of Russia before learning of the existence of the resources of that region..but they became a part of Russia through conquests and annexation, not just areas East of the Urals but even those in the West too. Some may have joined voluntarily with the Russian Empire, but others bitterly opposed it, and others were too miniscule in number to offer decent resistance. But even in that case they continued to fight.

also they certainly were treated more like colonies. take your pick, from the Russian imperial era, the Russians practiced heavy taxes and encouraged ethnic Russian immigration to these areas often in conflict with natives.. during the Soviet era, the Soviets sent many ethnic Russians and Ukrainians to these areas simply to work on the industry of extracting these resources, none of which stays in their own area.. all the raw resources are sent elsewhere (usually to European Russia) for processing and sold by them, not the area of these resources. As such, these resource colonies don’t even earn most of the profits. That is no different from Western Europe or America’s resource colonies in Africa, Asia, etc where they solely provide the raw materials.

Only during Yeltsin’s era did some of these territories like Yakutia and Bashkortostan, fight the federal government and gained greater share of the profits and stronger control of their resources.

you should check out these if you have the time
http://www.amazon.com/Russias-Diamond-Colony-Republic-Sakha/dp/9057024209
http://www.amazon.com/Russias-Conquest-Siberia-Penetration-Colonies/dp/0875951473

Why do I get the express feeling that Korea still hates Japan even into this new century?

its a love hate relationship from my experience with Koreans after teaching English.

They hate the actions of Japan’s leaders. The Koreans are also very proud people and do not take any challenge to their sovereignty very well..such as over Dokdo Islands (or Takeshima in Jpn), but this also includes China as well, they don’t like either foreign policies.

However at the same time many seem to love Japanese media (games, cartoons, etc), their women, etc.. And in other cases, they will even side with Japan when it comes to issues where a non-Asian nation has issues with them. for example they can be sympathetic to American bases in Japan and wanting them out.

there are of course, those who will simply will hate Japan no matter what.. those types exist in any country.

my experience with Japanese on the other hand differs. most of the young generation are nowhere near as nationalistic as youth in neighboring countries. Most simply don’t care about foreign policies and have little interest.. much of their attention is on domestic politics or regular life issues. the older generation (and i mean perhaps those over 50) are different and many do hold superiority complexes. Unfortunately, Korean media has a tendency to focus on these vocal minorities who depict the entire Japan as being nationalistic themselves, when its far from the reality.

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Of course how could the Russians compete with the west? The west has been pilaging the known world of resources for centuries, while the Soviets didn’t really even enter the industrial age till the late 1920s.

I think Yeltsin is overrated too, but as far as pilaging resources.. the Soviets were equally as guilty.. instead of having far off colonies like Western Europe did, they had a continuous land colonies to the east. many of those cities like Tyumen, Yakutsk, etc all exist simply to exploit the prime resource of the region.. then send it somewhere far away for processing and seeing little of the profits from the sales. basically making most of Russia (east of the Urals), the periphery to European Russia.

I don’t know where Strategypage get its sources from, but it reads suspeciously like a tabloid story.

its not just that article, but a number of their other ones too.

In any case, it seems that nationalistic sentiment may may turn this thread into something else..

what does Korea’s relation with China, China’s espionage abilities, etc have to do with Japan and the F-22? very little. Lets get back on track!

hello there, weren’t you a cobra pilot?