One late August day in Bulgaria my father told me that the U.S. will split in 2010. "I read it on dir.bg," he said. The story came from some Russian professor. I sneered at the ridiculous news my father had been reading and told him to invest in higher quality information sources.
A couple of days later walking down Varna's streets, I froze in surprise as I saw the headlines at a newsstand. They read something along the lines of "2010 Marks the End for the U.S." Again, a Russian professor was mentioned in the caption. I passed the newsstand with yet another sneer but tormented by curiosity.
Finally, I surfed the Web to find more information about this Russian professor. His name is Igor Panarin and he is supposedly an expert on U.S.-Russian relations. He has been giving talks about the fall of the U.S. for some time now. The Russian state press, of course, felt instantly drawn to his predictions and political analysis about the fall of the States.
Wallstreet Journal's Andrew Osborn wrote a very insightful piece on Mr. Panarin. In Osborn's article readers can view a map of the U.S. and the way it is going to dissolve into six parts: the Californian Republic, the Central North-American Republic, Atlantic America, the Texas Republic, Alaska and Hawaii. Interestingly enough, Alaska will return to Russia. The other five parts will be under the influence of other world leaders like China, Japan, Canada and the EU.
Despite the absurdity of Panarin's predictions, Russian and Bulgarian media seem to have picked up the story and are blasting it to the crowds.
Readers are confused enough with the predictions for a 2010 apocalypse. Please, Mr. Panarin, give the States two more years so that all countries can fall together.
Photo credit: BL1961