As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S. (WSJ)

[Nikki Stone1]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html

As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.
In Moscow, Igor Panarin's Forecasts Are All the Rage; America 'Disintegrates' in 2010

By ANDREW OSBORN

MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media. In recent weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. "It's a record," says Prof. Panarin. "But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger."

Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations. But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories....

...He based the forecast on classified data supplied to him by FAPSI analysts, he says. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.

California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia....

[rockymountaindem]

1. If this dude is a former KGB analyst it's no wonder they lost the Cold War

seeing as how he knows zilch about the USA. Could we please stop talking about him and his foolish predictions?

[stillcool]

2. I can see this happening...

but our military would have to be taken over by some global national security/Defense Industry corporations. Sell off the hardware, and head off to Dubai. What's left?

[Tighelander]

3. Russian Propaganda Everyday in San Diego

The local ABC affiliate in San Diego is running, "Russia Today" around 1 or 2 in the morning. I don't know if they buy it, or if they get money for it like an infomercial, but I think it's pretty bad to use the public airwaves for something that's obviously propaganda.

[bananas]

8. TV or radio?

What station?

[Tighelander]

15. It's Channel 10!

It blows my mind, and pisses me off when I see it. If it were the BBC, or Canadjian that would be cool, but you just know that anything from Russia is going to be soviet smoke. I'm planning to complain to the station after the holiday; I should also complain to the FCC too.

[madeline_con]

4. We have idiots here who serve the same purpose.

They make dire predictions about things they have no knowledge of, and do the talk show curcuit.

[jwirr]

5. He isn't saying anything that hasn't been said before with different

make up. "After the Empire" by Emmanuel Todd

[1]

6. i think its pretty much universally agreed that them russians are the smartest...

i mean, look that their own way of doing things...


oh, wait...

[lostnotforgotten]

7. Posted Last week

eom

[gravity]

9. He is an idiot

Look at this map he made



Lets just divide up the United States based on what foreign country they are closest to. South Carolina and Tennessee have more in common with the EU than with Texas.

[stevedeshazer]

10. Agree.

No one with any knowledge of the U.S. would divvy it up like that. It's "moranic".

[Dr.Phool]

13. All them Southerners would now be Mexicans.

Speak Spanish Dammit! This is Mexico.

[snot]

11. One of the most unintentionally reassuring things I've read in a while.

[Dr.Phool]

12. I guess I'd better learn to speak Cuban.

:rofl:

[Tabasco_Dave]

14. My magic 8-ball makes better predictions. n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. California part of China? What the heck?! n/t