“Via The Drudge Report:

A leading Russian political analyst has said the economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the country is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts.

Professor Igor Panarin said in an interview with the respected daily IZVESTIA published on Monday: “The dollar is not secured by anything. The country’s foreign debt has grown like an avalanche, even though in the early 1980s there was no debt. By 1998, when I first made my prediction, it had exceeded $2 trillion. Now it is more than 11 trillion. This is a pyramid that can only collapse.”

As for the apparently imminent breakup:

He predicted that the U.S. will break up into six parts – the Pacific coast, with its growing Chinese population; the South, with its Hispanics; Texas, where independence movements are on the rise; the Atlantic coast, with its distinct and separate mentality; five of the poorer central states with their large Native American populations; and the northern states, where the influence from Canada is strong.

Does he mean like the Russian-dominated Soviet Union from about 1986-1991? His argument seems to bumume the financial turmoil will cause mbumive revolt.

Asked why he expected the U.S. to break up into separate parts, he said: “A whole range of reasons. Firstly, the financial problems in the U.S. will get worse. Millions of citizens there have lost their savings. Prices and unemployment are on the rise. General Motors and Ford are on the verge of collapse, and this means that whole cities will be left without work. Governors are already insistently demanding money from the federal center. Dissatisfaction is growing, and at the moment it is only being held back by the elections and the hope that Obama can work miracles. But by spring, it will be clear that there are no miracles.”

He also cited the “vulnerable political setup”, “lack of unified national laws”, and “divisions among the elite, which have become clear in these crisis conditions.”

The first has happened before: The Great Depression and, to a lesser extent, in other recessions. No revolts there! The second paragraph is a rather weak argument to me. The political setup of the U.S. has gone on for more than 200 years, and it has some issues, but nothing that’ll cause lots of strife. As for lack of unified laws, well, Americans tend to like state-based legislation. And divisions between the mid and upper clbumes is nothing new, even in Russia.

It seems to me that Panarin doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about, much less a good grasp on the early history of the U.S. I know there are seccessionist movements out there. There are ones in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Alaska. There are also regional ones (a western state bumociation with British Columbia for instance). But such movements hold little or no sway, and I see no reason to think this fiscal crisis will strengthen them further.

Nice try Mr. Panarin. But it’s not happening.”

But what if it was?