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.

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Meshing with the Kremlin’s view
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.

Persuasive?
It wasn't clear how persuasive the 20-minute lecture was. One instructor asked Panarin whether his predictions more accurately describe Russia, which is undergoing its worst economic crisis in a decade as well as a demographic collapse that has led some scholars to predict the country's demise.

Panarin dismissed that idea: "The collapse of Russia will not occur."

But Alexei Malashenko, a scholar-in-residence at the Carnegie Moscow Center who did not attend the lecture, sided with the skeptical instructor, saying Russia is the country that is on the verge of disintegration.

"I can't imagine at all how the United States could ever fall apart," Malashenko told the AP.

Wishfull Thinking

Well. We're a bit overdue for a good 'ol revolution.

iirc from the Political Science class I took several years ago then the life span of a true democracy is about 200 years.

NOT that I'm siding with this guys argument, I'm just saying I wouldn't be the least bit surprised of something went down, and the way we all live changed. And I'm not talking about Obama's little "Change We Can Believe In" slogan either...

Unites States of.......... CHINA!

Every other country is eating us alive because while they spend money on education, health, public works, we throw our money at wasteful ridiculous spending *iraq, afghanistan, bailout car companies that refuse to change with the time*

Making cheap products overseas is so much worse than making more expensive products in the USA, when we have people making money.

Mmmhmm. We have the best colleges in the world. Too bad they're populated by students from China and India because our primary schools are a disaster and our high school graduates are note even close to ready for college.. Oh and the foreign government usually pays to send the kids to our schools, casue they;re so damn expensive too.

Mmmhmm. We have the best colleges in the world. Too bad they're populated by students from China and India because our primary schools are a disaster and our high school graduates are note even close to ready for college.. Oh and the foreign government usually pays to send the kids to our schools, casue they;re so damn expensive too.

So... how expensive *is* 4 years of college then? (honest question)

Unites States of.......... CHINA!

At least our shirts will be clean.

I seem to remember reading that same article 6 months ago. The Russians have been saying that same crap for years. Wishful thinking from their envious asses.

So... how expensive *is* 4 years of college then? (honest question)

I'm paying $18k right now for out-of-state public university. Private institutions are way more.

Problem is, if secondary school becomes subsidized by the government, i.e. free, then the quality of education will go down. That's why U.S. colleges are the best and the most expensive, because they are the best and the most expensive! You get what you pay for...

we throw our money at wasteful ridiculous spending *iraq, afghanistan, bailout car companies that refuse to change with the time*



Now this, I actually agree with. The spending in Iraq and Afghanistan is insane, but I dislike the car company bailout even more. There are two major causes of the car industry failure in this country: Poorly engineered, overpriced products, and unions driving up wages and benefits far beyond what the employees are worth.

Cause they don't get kids interested in the sciences and engineering in primary school. Every kid either wanted to be in the arts, the band, or one of the sports teams.

And I'm sure a lot of the money goes to waste. Like preparing kids for standardized tests. And teaching U.S. history 6 times before they graduate, with maaaaaybe a bit of European history. And classes get slowed down by the troublemakers and slow kids.

Actually, the U.S. gov't spends alot of money on education, the problem is all these little materialistic punks want to be bankers or lawyers, students enrolling in science and engineering are few.

The "dumbing of America".

The problem with America's education system is the fact that American kids have zero work ethic. It's not even about materialism, it's the fact that they are lazy, and the parents are in complete denial.

A lot of people want to blame the system: Not enough money, not enough teachers, not enough of this, not enough of that.

It's about not having enough whoop ass at home. The parents don't bother making the kids respect their teachers. The parents don't ensure the child is doing their homework. The parents don't get involved.

My 6 year old is learning to read. Why? Because the school teaches her, and Lynn and I reinforce it every single night. My 6 year old practices her reading every day. Just wait until she's in "real" school, not kindergarten.

And classes get slowed down by the troublemakers and slow kids.

And that is yet another problem with our school system. They go at the pace of the slowest kid, and when you have either a dipshit or a fuckhead, it hurts everyone else.

And don't forget that for a LOT of smart kids (and theres a lot of them out there..like me!) that primary school doesn't challenge them at all, thereby doesn't teach them how to study and so on and so forth. I STILL suck at studying, two years into engineering.

And don't forget that for a LOT of smart kids (and theres a lot of them out there..like me!) that primary school doesn't challenge them at all, thereby doesn't teach them how to study and so on and so forth. I STILL suck at studying, two years into engineering.


I was extremely bored in school......nothing at all to challenge except for Math and Computers.

I'm paying $18k right now for out-of-state public university. Private institutions are way more.

That is per year I assume, correct?

And don't forget that for a LOT of smart kids (and theres a lot of them out there..like me!) that primary school doesn't challenge them at all, thereby doesn't teach them how to study and so on and so forth. I STILL suck at studying, two years into engineering.

:raises hand: Yup... I'm one of those, always got bored in school because the subject matter was too easy, and therefore not really worth my time. So I did less then spectacular grade wise. Give me a challenge that would have 90% of the population saying "well fuck that!" and I'm all for it though!

Go figure.. lol

Yah I left school in 11th grade due to me fucking off because of boredom. American school system sucks and Kev hit it right on the head, its geared towards the dumbest person in the class.

When I was in elementary school (2nd grade to be exact) I was already taking middle school/junior high courses and tests because I actually had a teacher that realized the reason I was so "ADD".

Fast forward to junior high/high school and Im so fucking bored of studying the SAME SHIT over and over I started skipping school, smoking pot and fucking up. Withdrew from school at 16 and had the 2nd highest GED score in the county at the time with ZERO studying for it. Thankfully I was able to get an actual HS Diploma instead of a GED certificate, I dont think I have had to use it once in my lifetime. :usa:

Our curriculum is shit and I feel bad for the upcoming generations, they truly are fucked.