Expressive Video: Tatiana Limanova gives the middle finger to Obama

We didn't hear a whole lot of discord between Russia and the U.S. during the APEC meeting in Hawaii. But at least one Russian journalist found something to be upset about.

Russian news anchor Tatiana Limanova gave U.S. President Barack Obama the middle finger during a TV segment about Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's appearance at APEC.

It appears, based on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the exchange rate of the Euro posted at the bottom of the screen, that the newscast was aired on Nov. 11. The segment was uploaded to YouTube on Nov. 19 and has gone viral over the web.

In a no-nonsense tone, Limanova introduces the segment by saying Medvedev gave a presentation in front of APEC organizers. Then she notes that the Russian president is soon to be taking over APEC leadership responsibilities that were previously held by American President Barack Obama. It's when she says his name that she jabs her middle finger into the air in the traditional obscene salute.

Limanova works for REN-TV, one of Russia's largest privately-owned news channels. The Moscow-based network has a purported audience of 113 million.

Watch the video for yourself:

It's Almost Like the Russians Smell Weakness or Something

Russia has greeted our decision to scrap a land-based missile-defense system partially based in Poland by . . . going forward with plans to deploy their own missiles in Kaliningrad, a Russian territory that borders Poland.

Way to go, Mr. President. We make a concession, they concede nothing.

Doing Business With Russia

What could go wrong ...

Russia Collasping ?

The U.K. Guardian says that Russia is “close to economic collapse.”

Russia is now lurching towards a major economic crisis, experts predicted today, following news that the price of oil had slumped to under $50 a barrel.

The collapse in the value of oil was likely to have several catastrophic consequences for Russia including a possible devaluation of the rouble and a severe drop in living standards next year, they warned. . . .

The fall in oil prices from $147 this July to below $50 today has blown a gaping hole in the government’s budget calculations. It is now facing a $150bn shortfall in its spending plans - and will have to slash expenditure in 2009. . . .

The oil slump, however, exacerbates Russia’s already severe economic problems. Since May Russian markets have lost 70% of their value. Russia’s central bank, meanwhile, has been spent $57.5bn in two months trying to prop up the country’s ailing currency.

“If the current trend continues with the government supporting the rouble, oil prices falling and a slowing economy we are going to have a major crisis,” said Chris Weafer, an analyst with the Moscow brokerage Uralsib.

He added: “There will be more pressure on the rouble and an extremely difficult first quarter next year.” Russia was more vulnerable than other countries because it was still an oil state, and had failed to diversify its economy, Weafer added.

No word how this figures into the current military exercises off Venezuela.

Russia's Medvedev Salutes Obama

And for laughs ... If the first toon wasn't enough for you

Russian Police Kill Online Journalist

Doing the job that journalism won't do, reporting on what is really going on in Georgia and the abuses of the Russian Army, Russia have killed a Russian blogger.

THE OWNER and editor of a web site that was critical of police abuse of the citizens of a troubled southern Russian province was arrested and apparently shot to death by police on Sunday.

Ingushetiya police arrested Magomed Yevloyev, proprietor of the website Ingushetiya.ru, on a plane from Moscow after it landed, according to deputy editor Ruslan Kautiyev.

Kautiyev said Yevloyev was taken away in a car by police and dumped beside the road a short time later with a gunshot wound to the head. He subsequently died at a hospital.

A court had ordered Yevloyev's web site shut down in June due to government allegations that it was publishing "extremist" views. Yevloyev complied, but continued online publication on a new web site with a different name.

Template for the Obama and Democrats view of their fairness doctrine. His website appears to be shutdown.

Where Are The Peace Protesters ?

WAR FOR OIL ---

Victor Davis Hansen sums it up thus ...

The long-suffering Russian people resent the loss of global influence and empire, but not necessarily the Soviet Union and its gulags that once ensured such stature. The invasion restores a sense of Russian nationalism and power to its populace without the stink of Stalinism, and is indeed cloaked as a sort of humanitarian intervention on behalf of beleaguered Ossetians.

There will be no Russian demonstrations about an “illegal war,” much less nonsense about “blood for oil,” but instead rejoicing at the payback of an uppity former province that felt its Western credentials somehow trumped Russian tanks. How ironic that the Western heartthrob, the old Marxist Mikhail Gorbachev, is now both lamenting Western encouragement of Georgian “aggression,” while simultaneously gloating over the return of Russian military daring.

...

The Russians have sized up the moral bankruptcy of the Western Left. They know that half-a-million Europeans would turn out to damn their patron the United States for removing a dictator and fostering democracy, but not more than a half-dozen would do the same to criticize their long-time enemy from bombing a constitutional state.

I might also add, the Russians have taken the measure of Obama and found him just right for their plans to rebuild the Soviet Union, and decided to roll troops into Georgia. Not a good sign.

Remember Jimmy Carter? Yes that one, the doofus President? Well he set the mullahs up in Iran so they could have a nice country terror base, plenty of oil money to fund terrorists, and then they could spread their terror worldwide.

Code Pinkers, the Georgians need you now. How about a bus load of human shields. Pick your best. Or are you just another tool of the Democrat Marxists in Congress, seems so. You International peaceniks, Amnesty International, chime in anytime .... crickets, all I hear is crickets. Damn crickets.