Russian professor predicts end of U.S.

From the Wall Street Journal:

MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media.

(Click to enlarge. Graphic: Wall Street Journal)

In recent weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. "It's a record," says Prof. Panarin. "But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger."

Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.

But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.

A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.

Article here. Actually, I think if something like this did occur, I don't think Mexico would own the new "Texas Republic", comprised of Texas and all those Southern states; the Texas Republic would own Mexico. There would be less corruption (on account of all the dead or imprisoned Mexican government officials), and Mexicans would be better off as a result. Same for the "Central North-American Republic" -- it wouldn't be part of Canada; Canada would be part of the Central North-American Republic. Sadly, the East and West coastal republics, with all their leftie elites, would probably go as advertised (to the Europeans and China, respectively). Won't all those California lefties be surprised when they experience all the "joys" of Chinese communism. Surf's up, comrade!