

Joe Biden, long a staunch supporter of Ukraine, reiterated the U.S. I remember some analyst back in the old pre-Gorbachev days who contemptuously described the old USSR as ''Upper Volta with missiles'' (subsequently Burkina Faso). The colors of the national flag corresponded to the names of its three main tributaries: the Black Volta, the White Volta and the Red Volta. The name Upper Volta indicated that the country contains the upper part of the Volta River. Does North Korea Wish to Become Upper Volta Without Rockets - or Vodka? On 4 August 1984, it changed its name to Burkina Faso. This war is a reminder of how backward Russia still is. This is a country whose economy has been “torn to shreds” by global sanctions. The President proclaimed the month of April 1965 as Cancer Control Month, 1965, on March 4 (Proc. He was the son of a Mossi mother and a Peul father, and personified the diversity of … Moscow has to be locked, marinated and consumed by the Liberal order (much like we did to Marxist ussr) ! Tribune, November 19th, 2010.
#Upper volta with missiles schmidt crack#
Pompeo’s demands include halting all uranium enrichment and development of ballistic missiles, openness to unfettered inspectors, … A crack about the Soviet Union as "Upper Volta with missiles," for example, amuses on the first mention but not on the fourth. The colours of the national flag corresponded to the names of its three main tributaries: the Black Volta, the White Volta and the Red Volta. More than three decades ago, he described USSR as being an 'Obervolta mit raketen' translation 'Upper Volta with missiles'. The adage that Russia is “Upper Volta with nukes”, which Joe Biden repeated in June 2021 when arriving in Geneva for talks with Putin, underestimated Russia’s capacity to sow chaos. “This is no more than cheap PR and an attempt to fulfill an order by Russophobes in the US," he said, in comments distributed by Russian news agencies.As Putin has reminded us, it remains a fully operational nuclear state.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, groused that the allegations should not have been made public. Underscoring the extent to which corruption has begrimed Russian officialdom, US law enforcement officials recently unsealed an indictment charging dozens of current and former Russian diplomats with insurance fraud for allegedly bilking at least $1.5 million from the American Medicaid system. Meanwhile, Georgia was the region’s shining star, making a strong year-on-year improvement to come in at 55.Įlsewhere, Ukraine ranked a disturbingly low 144th, and Moldova came in 102nd.

Azerbaijan (tied with Russia in the 127th place) and Armenia (94th) both made slight progress this year over 2012’s results. The Caucasus was comparatively cleaner, though still rather rank. And Kazakhstan took a wrong turn compared with its 2012 ranking, registering 140th this year. Tajikistan (154th) and Kyrgyzstan (150th) did not lag far behind. Once again, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan found themselves near the very bottom of the rankings, tied in 168th place with Syria. Burkina Faso, the name that Upper Volta adopted back in 1984, ranked 83rd, one of the better results among West African states.Īs for other formerly Soviet countries, the latest Transparency International index presented a depressingly familiar picture: most states in the Caucasus and Central Asia are cesspools of graft, some more malodorous than others.Ĭentral Asia in general could be described as a rabbit hole of venality. The recently released Corruption Perception Index for 2013, compiled by the watchdog group Transparency International, ranks Russia 127th out of 177 countries surveyed. There was a Cold War-era saying – attributed to various Western leaders, including Margaret Thatcher and Helmut Schmidt – that mocked Russia as being nothing more than “Upper Volta with missiles.” These days, when it comes to corruption, Russia can only wish it compared favorably to Upper Volta.
