Steyn performs an autopsy on a nearly moribund Russian bear, but beware the death-throes of a dangerous beast

By Aussiegirl

Mark Steyn paints a devastating portrait of of a dying mother Russia, complete with AIDS, a plummeting birth rate, falling life-expectancies, draining wealth and internal Muslim revolt of its outlying regions. Coupled with Russia's penchant for allying itself with America's enemies, this spells big trouble for the U.S. Time to peer into that soul again and see what's really there. One of Steyn's finest efforts. A must read.

The Spectator.co.uk

So the world’s largest country is dying and the only question is how violent its death throes are. Yesterday’s Russia was characterised by Churchill as a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Today’s has come unwrapped: it’s a crisis in a disaster inside a catastrophe. Most of the big international problems operate within certain geographic constraints: Africa has Aids, the Middle East has Islamists, North Korea has nukes. But Russia’s got the lot: an African-level Aids crisis and an Islamist separatist movement sitting on top of the biggest pile of nukes on the planet. Of course, the nuclear materials are all in ‘secure’ facilities — more secure, one hopes, than the secure public buildings in Nalchik that the Islamists took over with such ease last week.