ANALYSIS – So, Vladimir Putin has been elected to be President of Russia for the next six years. Those who spoke of the beginning of the end, may want to look at the high percentage of people who voted for their former Prime Minister, above 60 per cent, and at who is making the claims of vote rigging, an oligarch exactly the type of leader many Russians clearly do not want.
Putin loves Russia – when he said long live Russia, he meant it, however if Russia is really going to progress it can not continue with the same man in power forever and until real viable alternatives emerge, that is unfortunately what is going to happen.
ABOVE .. RUSSIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ON MAR 5 2012 BELOW ..
ANALYSIS – With his team crashing out of the FA Cup to a hungrier Sunderland, to cap a week when they were taken apart by AC Milan, there will be those who will wonder whether the great man will be there next season.
Most likely he will remain – only Arsene may want to take into account the contributions two of England’s best coaches have made, Tottenham’s Harry Redknapp and the man who masterminded today’s defeat, Martin O’Neil, namely to keep things tight, don’t leave gaps for the opposition to exploit whether at the front or back.
Those of us who were admirers of Arsenal always feared that the lack of one strong player at the back and at the front would cost them in the long run.
Arsenal were so long the purveyors of the beautiful game, but who ever said beauty can’t be backed up by some steel and old-fashioned grit.
Clearly stung by the turnout of Saturday’s demonstration against the parliamentary elections, Vladimir Putin has accused outside forces of attempting to influence the outcome of who leads the country that he loves so much.
That the former KGB man has brought stability is without a shadow of doubt, one only has to look at the state of this former superpower when he came to power.
A decade of Boris Yeltsin had pushed Russia to bankruptcy, defeat in Chechnya – though that was seen by others, including myself, as a magnimous move by the President – and a culture of a gangster economy, now known as the reign of the oligarchs.
Putin set about reversing some of this – no one doubts that everything he did, he did so for the sake of the sacred state of Russia.
But how much of a difference has that made – on the surface Moscow appears properous…
Fabio Capello’s fate was sealed during that World Cup game with Germany when an England team who had until the last ten minutes of the first half been completely outclassed fought back by applying pressure on their much younger rivals.
The same was expected in the second half, but did not occur which allowed Germany to get back into the game on their own terms.
Perhaps, a Martin O Neill or Harry Redknapp would have seen the opportunity, the vastly overpaid and over-rated Fabio Capello did not.
The FA have alot of questions to ask about this whole saga – why did they appoint this man in the first place to run a team of players that were not despite what was being claimed a golden generation.
Truth is England have only once looked like winning a tournament – Euro 96 under the creative genius that was Terry Venables.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Defence announced the passing of another British soldier in the death trap that is Helmand Province.
If the bloodshed continues at its current rate, the figure will by the end of the year reach the grim milestone of 400.
Even though the people of Wootton Basset have made sure that the repatriations are not forgotten, there is a danger that this death and the ones leading up to the four hundredth may pass almost without notice, such is the depressing familiarity of news of each new life lost. That they are doing their duty, is without doubt, however, what those of us in ‘civi-street’ appear not to be asking is why the need – what is Britain doing deploying the second biggest contingent of troops to a war where her contribution is symbollic, just as it was in Iraq, where British soldiers openly said that this was ‘America’s show.’