Russian Wonk Predicts U.S. Civil War in 2010

Academic gets Kremlin love, becomes Russian media sensation thanks to his end-of-America scenario (spoiler alert: NYC to join European Union!)

By ELIZABETH BOUGEROL

Updated 8:24 AM CST, Tue, Jul 7, 2009

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When people say crazy things to a camera in America, it's called entertainment (reality television, specifically). When they say crazy things in Russia - especially when those crazy things involve a detailed scenario describing the inevitable disintegration of the United States, and thereby dovetail nicely with the Kremlin's dreamiest dreams - it's heralded as stone-cold fact and blasted all over the media (which the Kremlin owns and runs, of course).

If you haven't heard of good-time-Charlie Igor Panarin - an academic ex-KGB dude who, for the record, is a non-crackpot, well-respected thinker who backs up his guesstimates with real-world government stats - the Wall Street Journal has a handy primer on his thories. Nutshell: Panarin predicts the U.S. will fall apart in 2010, thanks to a combination of economic mayhem, immigration, and moral degradation! His theories aren't just sparked by the current recession headlines - he's been hawking this story for about a decade, but the current political climate there and socio-economic climate here is making folks especially receptive to the idea.

So what does this new, non-U.S. look like? Here's Panarin's doomsday scenario, in handy bullet-point form:

He's calling a civil war for June or July 2010. The U.S. will splinter into six pieces, which'll be nabbed by various other countries like so many flatscreens during a looting.
Alaska will fall back under Russian control (can someone please get an official Sarah Palin comment on this? Please?).
The Republic of California will be under Chinese control (or at least its influence).
D.C. and New York will form something called "Atlantic America," and possibly even join the European Union. (We know some people for whom this is pretty much a dream scenario.)
Canada will grab a bunch of states and form the "Central North American Republic."
The "Texas Republic" will cover a handful of southern states which may join Mexico.