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Rosenberg has established a trend of being able to predict major international events, a trend that continues to this day. I thought of Epicenter as Vladimir Putin arrived in Iran in October. He became the first Russian leader to visit Tehran since Josef Stalin. Chapter titles in Epicenter came to mind: “A Czar Rises in Russia!” (chap. 7); “Kremlin Joins Axis of Evil—Forms Military Alliance with Iran” (chap. 8); “Moscow Extends Military Alliance to Include Arab, Islamic World” (chap. 9); and “Global Tensions Soar as Russia Targets Israel” (chap. 10). All these and more were written in 2006! “Epicenter gives you the headlines before they happen!” declares the promotional announcement for the book. However, Rosenberg admits it’s not him that is “foretelling the future”; it’s his source—the Bible.
During the Putin visit to Tehran, I spoke with Rosenberg. Not surprisingly, he said, “The fact that Vladimir Putin is in Iran building a military, political, and economic alliance with Iran is incredibly dangerous. Iran is the most dangerous terrorist state on the face of the planet. Iran is building not just nuclear facilities but feverishly trying to build, buy, or steal nuclear weapons. Iran is run by a leader—Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—who believes the end of the world is rapidly approaching, and that the way to hasten the coming of the Islamic messiah, known as the Mahdi or the 12th Imam, Ahmadinejad believes, is to annihilate two countries—Israel, whom he calls the Little Satan, and the United States, whom he calls the Great Satan. So you’ve got Iran, driven by radical Shiite eschatology or end-time theology, planning a genocide against Judeo–Christian civilization, and here’s the president of Russia giving new weapons and international credibility to Iran. I think this could be a prophetic development!” he said.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Moscow—just days before Putin went to Iran—to express US concerns. “I think there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin. I have told the Russians that,” Rice told journalists after she met with Russian human-rights activists. A US official described Russia as “the number two military power in the world, second only to the United States.”
Rosenberg described Putin as “a czar in the making.” He told me that the Russian leader believes the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century was the collapse of the Soviet Union, described by many as “the evil empire.” The passion of Putin’s life is the restoration of the superpower he knew Mother Russia to be in the glory days, Rosenberg said.
In spite of prodding from the West for a democratic system in Russia, Putin has steadfastly maintained his steely objectives. He canceled the gubernatorial elections in Russia and appointed the governors himself. He took over the oil and gas industries. The Kremlin now controls Russian television and radio stations. Political opponents have been ousted, and more will follow in the elections set for December. No–name, mid-level bureaucrats (nonentities) have been given titles in the Duma (Russian legislature), so they can be moved on at the right time.
Under Putin’s leadership, Russia has dramatically increased its military arsenal. The budget for his next defense program is US $200 billion. He has boldly made lucrative customers out of US adversaries, Iran and Syria. This should not be a surprise. In Munich last February, Putin said, “One state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way…This is nourishing the arms race with the desire of countries to get nuclear weapons.” He expressed dissatisfaction with US plans to establish an antimissile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic that would detect missiles launched from North Korea and Iran.
Putin: “No One Could Stop Me!”
Putin, who served in the East German KGB from1985 to 1990, knows how to plot his course, bide his time, recruit his contacts, and close for the kill. In his autobiography, he wrote of his early ambitions to become a spy. “It seemed unattainable, [like] flying to Mars,” he wrote. While in the ninth grade, he went to the local KGB office in Leningrad (where he was born on October 7, 1952) to make inquiries. Told that he needed to obtain qualifications, Putin asked what degree he should get.[cs1] [cs2] “A law degree,” his KGB adviser replied. “I understand,” said Putin, who then set his sights on a law degree at Leningrad State University, where he duly enrolled in 1970. There, besides law, he also studied German and spent his spare time on judo, a new passion. “Judo,” he wrote, “is not just a hobby, but a philosophy.” He enjoyed the discipline required to be a judoka and went on to gain his black belt.
His wife Lyudmila described him as a workaholic. “No one could stop me,” he wrote. Years later when he was prime minister, he said: “Why did the Soviet Union break up? Because things were allowed to happen: laxness. And if we continue like this, Russia will fall apart, and it will happen so fast, you can’t even imagine it.”
In the 2000 election, Putin obtained 53% of the vote, and four years later, he was reelected with a 71% landslide. In its analysis of his poll numbers, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said that the margin reflected his popularity, but also referred to the “dearth of meaningful debate and genuine pluralism” within the Russian community.
Nashi: “Our People Stand Up for Putin!”
In Russia today, a very obvious concern is the growing energy and power of Nashi (meaning ”ours”), a fledgling nationwide youth movement which began in 2005. Nashi is training a new generation of 100,000 young Russians. Some, they say, will be ready for leadership roles by 2009. Their training incorporates geopolitics, history, and economics taught in 25 different institutes across Russia.
An August 2007 International Herald Tribune article by historian Paul Kennedy said Nashi members are taught “Russian traditions and marriage and a detestation of foreigners.” The question is whether that “detestation” is aimed at American imperialists, Chechen terrorists, or Estonian ingrates. Nashi is to be delegated community roles such as maintaining order in the streets. There are fears they will be aggressive and racist. “Vast numbers have recently been mobilized to harass the British and Estonian ambassadors in Moscow, following Moscow’s disputes with those two countries.”
There have been reports of wild Nashi summer camps, where young Russians are heavily indoctrinated with nationalism and pride for a new, reformed, powerful Russia. “Our people stand up for Putin!” a Nashi leader told the BBC. Kennedy wrote, “According to the Financial Times, Nashi is training 60,000 ‘leaders’ to monitor voting and conduct exit polls in elections this coming December and March. I find all this pretty creepy.” Rosenberg likened Nashi to the Hitler youth movement and the personality cults promoted by Stalin and North Korea.
In his article, Kennedy also highlighted a new manual for high school history teachers, which seeks to instill new pride in teenagers for Russian history and build a new national solidarity. We have seen what Palestinian “history” teaches, and how children are subjected to grave hysterical fairy tales rather than historical facts. Putin personally congratulated the authors of the manual, who officially teach Russian teenagers that “entry into the club of democratic nations involves surrendering part of your national sovereignty to the US.”
Other alarming concerns about Russia and Putin are:
The Ezekiel Option
In his interview with me, Rosenberg emphasized Ezekiel 38 and 39 and pointed to the war of Gog of the land of Magog (ancient name for Russia). These chapters were written 2,500 years ago and have not been fulfilled to this day. Ezekiel said a Russian dictator would arise and forge an alliance with Iran (Persia). Rosenberg believes the visit to Tehran by Putin was the early stages of these prophecies coming true. He warned that the total fulfillment of those two chapters may take a long time, but he emphasized that “the events…taking place are quite historic, dramatic developments.”
In an addendum of Epicenter, called “Frequently Asked Questions,” Rosenberg wrote: “I often think of the words of Gandalf from the last film of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Return of the King. As events unfold and the clouds of war are brewing, Gandalf says, ‘The board is set. The pieces are moving.’ As I write this, I would say the board is almost set, and God is putting the pieces in place for the final drama to begin.”
By Ron Ross, BFP Israel Mosaic Radio
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