Important lessons to be drawn from Egypt: Russia's a bit wobbly and damn America!

SOME see a message for Moscow, some see a warning for Washington, some try to flog shoes.

The Moscow Times finds parallels for Russia in its editorial on Thursday:

THERE are still many parallels between Russia, Tunisia and Egypt: a monopolisation of political power, a low per capita gross domestic product, limited economic opportunities, human rights abuses, a lack of free elections and restricted media freedoms, rampant corruption and nepotism, and a huge gap between the rich and poor with an insignificant middle class . . . Let's hope the Kremlin draws the correct lessons from the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia and the unrest in Egypt . . . It seems that the Kremlin under Putin's leadership believes that Russians will tolerate low standards of living, corruption and government abuses forever. But, then again, so did Suharto, Marcos, Mubarak,

Ceausescu and all of history's other fallen autocrats.

Noam Chomsky finds older Russian parallels wanting and blames the US instead in truthout on Thursday:

OBSERVERS compared the events to the toppling of Russian domains in 1989, but there are important differences. Crucially, no Mikhail Gorbachev exists among the great powers that support the Arab dictators. Rather, Washington and its allies keep to the well-established principle that democracy is acceptable only insofar as it conforms to strategic and economic objectives: fine in enemy territory (up to a point), but not in our backyard, please, unless it is properly tamed.

Fidel Castro shows there's more than one way to skin that cat on cubadebate.cu's Reflexiones de Fidel section on Tuesday:

THE die is cast for Mubarak and not even the support of the US can save his government . . . The US continued to conspire against the Arab world, which holds the largest oil reserves on the planet.

The enemy of our enemy is our friend. Left Flank blog yesterday:

A TACTICAL united front with the Islamists -- in these conditions and at this time -- is almost certainly a precondition for the victory of the revolutionary process. Fear of the Muslim Brotherhood right now should be Mubarak's (and Obama's) but not the Left's.

Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Muhammad Badi ties it all together on the Brotherhood's website (translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute):

THE Soviet Union fell dramatically, but the factors that will lead to the collapse of the US are much more powerful than those that led to the collapse of the Soviet empire; for a nation that does not champion moral and human values cannot lead humanity, and its wealth will not avail it once Allah has had His say, as happened with [powerful] nations in the past. The US is now experiencing the beginning of its end, and is heading towards its demise ...

Knock, knock. Our cool-headed Middle East correspondent John Lyons on his Cairo hotel room being raided by six pro-Mubarak goons:

I HAD no idea who they were; I had never seen them as part of hotel security. I asked if they could wait a moment ...

Shoes there. US footwear designer US fashion designer Kenneth Cole tries to pull cash from chaos on Twitter on Thursday:

MILLIONS are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumour is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo.

Knock harder. Blog Nerdlocker captures the volcanic essence of the reaction:

IF you've been jonesing to see a company collapse in real time or see a bigger asshole than James Cameron, you might want to jump on Twitter and join in on the fun. RIP Kenneth Cole clothing, you won't be missed.

On the backfoot. Kenneth Cole reassesses his sole-baring two hours after the original tweet:

RE. Egypt tweet: we weren't intending to make light of a serious situation. We understand the sensitivity of this serious moment.

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