Russian Predicts U.S. Breakup by 2010

Russian professor Igor Panarin has been predicting the eventual breakup of the United States in the year 2010 for more than a decade. And as the zero hour approaches, and the worldwide economic down slide intensifies, Panarin's prediction is being treated with more seriousness, especially in Russia. Panarin claims that recently he has been interviewed about his theory twice a day, primarily for Russian state media.

Panarin says that the odds are better than even that the U.S. will not make it through the next election cycle. "There's a 55-45% chance that a disintegration will occur," he predicts. And the factors which Panarin says will precipitate the breakup read like a list of the most pressing and contentious issues that have vexed the nation for the past 15-20 years: mass immigration; economic decline; and moral degradation. These factors will combine to spark a civil war in the U.S., Panarin says, dissolving the country into six regional superstates that will in turn be incorporated into neighboring powers and rivals. California and the mountain west will become part of or be heavily influenced by China, the upper Midwest will be scooped up by Canada, Texas and the deep South will go to Mexico, and the Atlantic seaboard states will form a group that will align with Europe. That leaves Hawaii and Alaska, which Panarin says will become parts of China and Russia, respectively.

The Kremlin, which has been becoming more and more confrontational towards the United States in recent years, takes Panarin's theory very seriously, even if the White House doesn't. Asked about the prediction, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said, "I'll have to decline to comment." Like any good conspiracy theorist, however, Panarin took that not as a rebuke, but a confirmation that he is correct in his prediction. "The way the answer was phrased was an indication that my views are being listened to very carefully," he said.