Steve Cohen: “I think too much of the Russian military's activities have been either ignored or downplayed in order to serve our own…”

“I think too much of the Russian military's activities have been either ignored or downplayed in order to serve our own political ends, and yet as we look to that part of the world, it is very disturbing. We are seeing on the political front at least a succession of moderates who are resigning from office who see and detect a very substantial reactionary drift. The voices of the extremists are becoming louder. Those of the moderates tend to be drowning out. In conjunction with that, we are seeing the military engage in what I call the protectionist racket by bringing governments nearly to the point of collapse and then offering protection provided they agree to join the Commonwealth of Independent States, which is now under the control of the Russian military. So you see a spread of the influence of the Russian military, and we may very well see simply a replacement of the Russian flag over states that formerly had the banner and the flag of the U.S.S.R.”