Russian Scholar Predicts US Collapse Next Year

[TxD]

"Panarin insisted he didn't wish for a U.S. collapse, but he predicted Russia and China would emerge from the economic turmoil stronger and said the two nations should work together, even to create a new currency to replace the U.S. dollar."
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Russian analyst: U.S. will collapse next year

Igor Panarin, the dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's diplomatic academy, tells an audience Tuesday night that the end of the United States is near.

updated 6:58 a.m. CT, Wed., March. 4, 2009
MOSCOW - If you're inclined to believe Igor Panarin, and the Kremlin wouldn't mind if you did, then President Barack Obama will order martial law this year, the United States will split into six rump-states before 2011, and Russia and China will become the backbones of a new world order.

Panarin might be easy to ignore but for the fact that he is a dean at the Foreign Ministry's school for future diplomats and a regular on Russia's state-guided TV channels. And his predictions fit into the anti-American story line of the Kremlin leadership.

"There is a high probability that the collapse of the United States will occur by 2010," Panarin told dozens of students, professors and diplomats Tuesday at the Diplomatic Academy — a lecture the ministry pointedly invited The Associated Press and other foreign media to attend.

The prediction from Panarin, a former spokesman for Russia's Federal Space Agency and reportedly an ex-KGB analyst, meshes with the negative view of the United States that has been flowing from the Kremlin in recent years, in particular from Vladimir Putin.

Putin, the former president who is now prime minister, has likened the United States to Nazi Germany's Third Reich and blames Washington for the global financial crisis that has pounded the Russian economy.

Panarin didn't give many specifics on what underlies his analysis, mostly citing newspapers, magazines and other open sources.

He also noted he had been predicting the demise of the world's wealthiest country for more than a decade now.

Prediction: Alaska will return to Russian control
But he said the recent economic turmoil in the United States and other "social and cultural phenomena" led him to nail down a specific timeframe for "The End" — when the United States will break up into six autonomous regions and Alaska will revert to Russian control.

Panarin argued that Americans are in moral decline, saying their great psychological stress is evident from school shootings, the size of the prison population and the number of gay men.

Turning to economic woes, he cited the slide in major stock indexes, the decline in U.S. gross domestic product and Washington's bailout of banking giant Citigroup as evidence that American dominance of global markets has collapsed.

"I was there recently and things are far from good," he said. "What's happened is the collapse of the American dream."

Panarin insisted he didn't wish for a U.S. collapse, but he predicted Russia and China would emerge from the economic turmoil stronger and said the two nations should work together, even to create a new currency to replace the U.S. dollar.

Asked for comment on how the Foreign Ministry views Panarin's theories, a spokesman said all questions had to be submitted in writing and no answers were likely before Wednesday.

[roberts]

A balkanized America might be good for the less socialist regions that escape CA and NY and DC but I think Panarin is a big fan of Russian nationalism and that colors his prediction.

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[WildBill]

I predict that next year Russia will collapse.

[The Annoyed Man]

This isn't news either. Penarin and other Russian "scholars" first reported this several months ago.

[TxD]

This isn't news either. Penarin and other Russian "scholars" first reported this several months ago.

The only "news" from yesterday's release is that Penarin has set an end time on his prediction for next year.
He hadn't done that previously.

[Kerbouchard]

The scary part is I think he may be right.

[tarkus]

Next year is good for me.

[Oldgringo]

The U.S. has been printing, and continues to print, a lot of money with not much to back it up. Inasmuch as our currency is being devalued as this is being written and inasmuch as the GDP ain't much anymore, who is going to sell us the stuff needed to maintain our place in the world if our currency is not sound?

Anybody?

[tarkus]

The U.S. has been printing, and continues to print, a lot of money with not much to back it up. Inasmuch as our currency is being devalued as this is being written and inasmuch as the GDP ain't much anymore, who is going to sell us the stuff needed to maintain our place in the world if our currency is not sound?

I actually don't think it's a bad thing if someone working a semiskilled or unskilled job has to save a couple bucks a week for a year or two before they buy a big screen TV made in Asia.

In the long run I think it's better if we don't maintain our current place in the world as indebted consumers.