Not a step back![1]
By Ken Leslie for the Saker Blog
1. A tale of two kingdoms
Given the precarious geopolitical situation, some Russia supporters might feel that the worst thing now for Russia would be to rock the boat and enrage the West by retaliating against the hybrid war waged against it. In my view, the worst is the Baghdad Bob-like complacency and refusal to understand how serious the things are. For make no mistake, no anxious giggling or bravado (or Russian love of affectionate nicknames) can hide the severity of the current situation. If you are of a weaker disposition, skip the next several paragraphs and land on the juicy, positive bits.
I cannot (and am not trying to) offer an in-depth geopolitical analysis of the current situation in the manner of the Saker. What I can do is produce a parable (or is it allegory?) on how a determined and resourceful victim of constant and total attack must respond in order to save itself and make its enemies pay for all the inflicted pain and suffering—with interest (for after all that is what the bully likes more than anything else). What follows is a completely fictional account of a life-and-death conflict between cultures and religions and any similarities with real countries and characters are purely incidental.
Some 30 years ago, a new era in world history was loudly announced by the supposed victors of a protracted war against a large, semi-pagan people that inhabited large swaths of the continent of Sunlandia. Their vast land was called Dayland. Once they had had a large land empire which crashed and burned in the fires of a revolution fomented by its mortal enemies after having survived countless invasions by sundry power-crazed maniacs and constant enmity by the inhabitants of the lands in which the sun sets (to be called Nightland). But, no, not even the destruction of the empire and its religious importance was not enough to satisfy the haters. The new communist state was immediately shunned by the Nightlanders and retained its pariah status for all its 73 years of existence. Not only that, during its incarnation as a land of workers and peasants (nothing wrong with that), it experienced the most horrible holocaust in modern history (another great country assailed from the East, let’s call it “Mornland” suffered at least to the same extent from a different fascist tyrant). An all too brief interlude of hope and glory (apologies to John Boorman) was immediately replaced by the next phase of the never-ending conflict—isolation and attrition, nuclear threats, sanctions and sabotage, proxy wars, intelligence, economic and cultural battles, the list goes on.
Although exsanguinated by the horrors of the holocide by a semi-formal union of the countries to the West of it and exhausted by external pressures, the great county went on to achieve miracles in improving the living standards and literacy rates of its population to the extent unheard of until then. Other miracles were performed by the country in various fields of science and technology and the example set by its heroic struggle inspired countless anti-colonial and anti-imperialist movements which resulted in a fundamental reshaping of the World’s political map. Alas, it was not to last. In spite of great achievements and its crucial role as the bringer of balance to the world affairs, the great (in all senses) country broke up tragically if relatively peacefully. With its demise, the darkening cumulus cloud that had hovered over my head for at least a decade, turned into a giant fat cumulonimbus ready to explode with thunder and lightning.
Although for many people those early years of the new order were the years of hope, soon, the hope was cruelly quashed. Instead of learning the lessons of the “war in all-but-name”, the victors were blinded by their greed and unearned sense of superiority. Instead of healing the wounds of the past, they set out to deepen them by restoring the platform from which most wars of destruction had come. By breaking up federations of the heathen sub-humans, co-opting them into a new feudal system, building a power block around the genocidal transgressor and bleeding the defeated country dry, the Nightland was demonstrating for all to see that its intent was never peaceful.
The first clear inkling of things to come was a beastly aggression committed on a brave and innocent people whose only crime was to have resisted the renewed push towards the East. Conveniently forgotten and explained away by the evil masterminds as a charitable intervention, the war signalled the new phase in the war against Dayland. The border between Nightland and Dayland was pushed about 1500 km eastward. Dayland’s former allies were turned into its worst and most belligerent enemies. With every step to the right, Nightland was gaining and Dayland was losing—friends, trade and influence. Like many times before in its extraordinary history, the country was fortunate in one respect. An exceptional man appeared from nowhere to pull Dayland out of the quagmire and set it on the path of resurgence and renewed greatness. Well, this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
We, who care about Dayland are cursing the sheer gall and bloodthirst of the criminal aggressors. Some of us are asking—is this offensive ever going to stop? Most of us know the answer—never! As long as Dayland exists with its strange mix of peoples, faiths and worldviews, it must not live. All we have left is the hope that the leadership of Dayland will be able to deal with the oncoming peril. There is a creeping worry that without a more muscular response, the country will eventually succumb to a death by a thousand cuts. So, here is an overview of the principles that should guide Dayland’s fightback—before it becomes too late.
2. The problem
Before I can talk about means, I must address the causes. Despite its size and advanced society, Dayland has no overt allies and the slightly tepid embrace of Mornland is not sufficient to compensate for this. Note, I am saying overt—that means no partners who are committed to the joint defence and who would mobilise their forces if Dayland were to be attacked. It doesn’t even have potential allies as in countries that would eventually fight on Dayland’s side. Admittedly, some of this information is very secret and there might be exceptions. The one worrying aspect is that this has never been the case before. One does not need to be a historian to realise that whenever an attack came from the dark side, at least half of Nightland was either neutral or on Dayland’s side. Some people will interject: “Oh, they are divided, at odds, it’s an illusion maintained by the printing presses, they would get a bloody nose” etc.
All of these statements are questionable.[2] The currently dominant empire of the Nightland has pretty much absolute control over its minions. Minor disputes are normal within any military, political and economic union. Note that none of the predicted cataclysmic ruptures between the partners in crime ever happened. No great economic crisis that has been predicted since before the occupation of the Borderlands has taken place. If anything, the push towards the lands of the light has intensified—the two are not mutually exclusive. Briefly, things are not looking good for Dayland, not because it is not doing well, but because a large portion of the “developed” world is still allied against it and this in itself is unprecedented and must be dealt with pronto.
The “problem” of the title is that such a situation always calls for active steps and measures aimed at weakening, confusing and discouraging the attacking opponent. Of course, such steps should always be combined with defensive and diplomatic moves but to remove the threat, a serious aggressive pushback on the part of Dayland is needed as soon as possible. When I say “aggressive”, I don’t mean crudely so. What I mean is that a fundamental change of heart is necessary. Over a thousand years of defensive wars have conditioned Dayland’s soldiers and politicians to avoid conflict as long as possible. Whether this is because of deficiencies in forward planning or deep morality is moot—the pattern of procrastination and delaying the inevitable has characterised Dayland’s military, diplomatic and political strategies for a very long time. This would not be much of a problem if it didn’t result in significant (and avoidable) losses and casualties.
Actually, it has become something of a cliché, general Winter and all. Daylanders are supposed to suffer horribly and even if they wake up in the end and prevail, the destruction wrought on them will set them back several decades—enough to strengthen Nightland and ensure its supremacy for the foreseeable future. It is this point that was countered by the great statesman who is currently at the helm of Dayland. He’d promised his opponents that Dayland would never again fight a war on its territory. Recently he had announced a substantial change to the country’s nuclear doctrine which from now on will treat any incoming missiles as nuclear—no petty stuff. And yet, this is far from enough. How come, you’ll ask? Well, if the president’s warnings and veiled threats had been sufficient, the Big Bad Wolf would not be knocking on the last piggy’s door. Admittedly, this door is made of a sturdier stuff than the previous ones but nevertheless—the fact that he has come so far should alert everybody at how precarious the situation is. We are one semi-successful colour revolution away from the ultimate victory of Nightland.
No human kindness will dissuade the scum of the earth to desist and embrace the path of peace and co-operation. The Mephistophelian financiers, venal leeches in the media, talentless parasites infesting countless NGOs and “institutes”, petty bureaucrats tasked with pulling down monuments and places of worship, businessmen sabotaging their own companies for the sake of a hidden hand and moronic generals issuing bloodcurdling threats while installing their missiles ever closer to Dayland’s borders—all of these despicable people must be given a message that they will understand and hopefully rethink their course.
3. The solution
Clearly, this is a vast topic and I have only a couple of thousand words (which I’m wasting) to outline a strategy that might or might not be successful but certainly represents a viable departure from the current dilatory posture by Dayland’s government. I shall deliberately ignore some recent attempts at countering the offensive and focus on what’s possible. One of the common quandaries in situations of this kind is that 95% of modern warfare is conducted secretly, in ways that are not only unknown but unknowable by us mere mortals. This is a world of secret institutions with large budgets and no democratic oversight, sophisticated intelligence capabilities and covert action. Although this is probably true to some extent, it makes one susceptible to a fallacy that human agency has no place in a modern war. This is analogous to what I call “cryptographer’s fallacy” which states that a brute force increase in the complexity of a cypher renders it unbreakable. As long as there is a faintest trace of human activity buried under the layers of technological obfuscation, human origins of the cypher remain discernible and actionable. This is my reasoning behind writing this. However sophisticated the enemy might appear, they cannot completely camouflage their weak spots. Even if they don’t possess any, intelligent and creative approach to counter-terror must bear fruit. The key here is unpredictability—not of the kind espoused by Donald Trump but something much more elaborate and advanced—something worthy of Russia’s genius.
Here, let me list a few principles that Dayland should embrace in order to produce a combination of a pushback and payback that is so badly needed at this moment.
3.1. By delaying the pushback, you are only making things worse for yourself. The damage/time function is passed its crossing point. The time to act is now.
3.2. There is no need to be mindlessly aggressive in the manner of the USA. The knowledge that such offensive weapons are available and can be used is often enough to dissuade the opponent. But remember, they have to be able to cause real pain.
3.3. This proposal runs against everything you have been taught and made to believe is right. Targeting “non-military” assets is an important part of this. You will have to stoop to your enemy’s level in order to rise again free from existential threat. And this time you must be ruthless—as ruthless as they are. Those sweet voices telling you to be “better” than your enemy do not necessarily wish you well.
3.4. Aggression is necessary and important in all aspects of statecraft. This does not mean a crude unyielding attack against all and sundry (this is not possible at the moment anyway) but a targeted, co-ordinated yet sub-threshold campaign of: sabotage, political warfare, targeted elimination of external and internal threats, painful reciprocal punishments for every inimical gesture and a ramping up of the threat of armed retaliation.
3.5. For this to work, you must dispense with any hopes that you will ever be accepted as equals by the West. The destruction of two of your previous incarnations in a span of about 60 years and the total war against the current one should be sobering enough. You must work for a new world in which your and other peoples will exist free from the existential threat posed by the eternal vulture.
3.6. Your adversary is neither superior nor supreme. His power rests on the pillage of ancient cultures and peoples and his time as the ruler of the world is coming to an end. That makes him dangerous but also prone to errors. Act like the brave guerrillas of old. Avoid direct punches (set battles) but fight back as fiercely as you can. It is not so much about results but attitude. He must know that any inimical moves will be costly and painful for him and his lackeys.
3.7. Once you accept the above, a whole new arsenal of subtle weapons will become accessible. This includes a myriad of fine-grain activities and micro-scale operations which can achieve remarkable results if capably co-ordinated and efficiently carried out. If you succeed in putting these in motion, you will not need hypersonic weapons (although they do help).
4. The strategy
It is here that things become interesting and difficult. How can a strategy be designed that is so sophisticated that the enemy cannot parry it (while its implementation does not involve undue effort)? First, one has to recognise that the power differential means that there is little room for error. Even more important than this is a lack of predictability which confounds the adversary and transfers initiative to the defending camp. And although the defender has fewer means to retaliate, he can make up for it by leveraging his assets and using them to his maximum advantage. These are not always visible. For example, … oh hell, enough of this silly charade! The ongoing stereotype about Russia is “gas and hackers”.
Although corny and offensive, the stereotype holds a grain of truth. For years, analysts have been speculating on the importance of gas pipelines as an appropriate deterrent. However, after five years of toing and froing on the gas front, it is becoming clear that this kind of weapon is very ineffective. The reasons are: a) it can be easily neutralised or bypassed and b) even if it’s not, it always leads to an eventual loss of influence (workings of the market, anti-Russian Western courts etc.). While it may be useful to have somewhere in the arsenal, history tells us that Russia would never use petrochemicals as a weapon even against its worst enemies. By contrast, the relentless “meddling” campaign in the West reminds us that Russia’s programmers and computer scientists are its top asset and I hope they are sufficiently incentivised to stay in Russia and protect her from the perennial aggressor. The future wars will be largely electronic.
In order to deprive Russia of freedom of action and oxygen of public sympathy, the West has embarked on an unprecedented coordinated campaign of demonisation of Russia as well as persecution, expulsion, arrest and assassination of its citizens. The degree of agreement in public opinion achieved by the new Nazis is mindboggling and I am not using this word lightly. All across the Western world Russian diplomatic property is being confiscated, ambassadors are being killed and diplomats expelled in their hundreds. The very mention of “Russia” is sufficient to trigger adverse associations in the majority of Westerners. Sanction after sanction is fired at the Russian state and its functionaries and capital projects are sabotaged without impunity.
What has been very surprising all the way through this escalating crisis is the apparent meekness of the Russian response to the enemy’s blows. By this I don’t mean complete inaction, but the belief that things are not irretrievably bad, that one event or another (e.g. election) could turn this crusade around and allow the Russians to breathe freely. Unfortunately, highly nuanced diplomatic warnings, allusions to possible outcomes, the tactic of always leaving an escape hatch ajar so that the partnyor doesn’t for one moment have to consider the consequences of his transgressions—are less than ineffective. For the adversary assumes that Russia is more afraid of an escalation (which is happening anyway) than offending or angering the evil behemoth (which is happening anyway).[3]
While going through the motions, the Americans are tightening the screws as we speak. Even the criminal geopolitical reprobate—Germany—dares threaten Russia openly without any meaningful response (Navalny, Byelorussia, Moldova, Ukraine etc.). In a word, Russia’s posture is dangerously passive. Although useful once, when a parity existed in the deadly power between the West and the East, this posture has long outlived its usefulness. It appears as a timorous, peace-at-all costs-seeking response to serious aggressive moves. The aggressor knows that Russian benevolence is not a consequence of power because this is only shown rarely and in exceptional circumstances (like the Americans who occasionally but very rarely give Russia a pat on the back). Rather, in Russia’s case it’s becoming a trope, a cliched modus operandi which hopes to appease the enemy and stay his merciless hand. But his hand won’t be stayed. He has ignored Russia’s pleading and president Putin’s warnings and is marching on. I am convinced that a change of tack is sorely needed. Judo might appear defensive but its ultimate aim is slamming an opponent against the tatami—and worse.
The three requirements that should guide a successful response strategy by Russia are:
4a. A deep change of heart
This point is perhaps the most important because it requires the most extensive social and psychological intervention. What do I mean by a “DCH”? In order to remove the curse of the West from its borders, first Russia needs to remove the West from its hearts. None of the super advanced hypersonic weapons will be worth a dime if those who are supposed to fire them idolise Hollywood and rap and fantasise about living in California or Bavaria (e. g. Gorbachev). I know that this sounds over the top but we are in an over-the-top situation where no rational dialogue is possible. We are dealing with an opponent who understands only brute force and considers Russians nothing more than dangerous semi-humans. I know, you’ll hear Americans say—oh, I’ve had Russian neighbours and they are lovely people, hard-working, keeping themselves to themselves blah blah. Aren’t you tired of that ….? The future for Russia will be very grim unless it breaks off its dependence on the West as an eternal magnetic pole of virtue and civilisation. Shakespeare, Dante, Goethe and Molière are dead and nothing will bring them back. Moreover, they have nothing to do with the unthinking racist, fascist, imperialist and chauvinist West as it is now.
The West is not a Nirvana of tolerance, gentility and democracy. It’s an artificial predatory organism whose genocidal hunger grows in proportion to the number of innocent lives it has snuffed out. It can sustain social peace at home as long as it is allowed to rob, steal and traduce abroad. Its long-term prospects being bleak, it is intent on dragging the world into the abyss not unlike what a dying Balrog did to Gandalf the Grey (damn that British propaganda). I am not advocating a total break with the West but a watchful, vary mistrust inspired by the awareness of West’s true intentions towards Russia. While it is difficult if not impossible to control the feelings of the millions of ordinary Russians, the example must come from the top. Credit where credit’s due—I am seeing a belated attempt to disrupt the activity of enemy agents inside Russia. I’ll quote Colonel Cassad: “Better late than never”.
4b. Aggressive forward posture
Emotionally, the hardest part for anybody who understands the underlying dynamics of the “European” imperialism and cares about Russia is the reactive posture of the Russian governing structures in the face of dehumanising treatment by the West. The cliches such as “open doors”, “international law”, “peaceful coexistence” and “always ready” etc. only embolden the enemy and show up Russian policy as weak, dilatory and unprepared to respond in kind (even if it Russia’s true strength is much greater).[4] This needs to change very soon if Russia is to stand any chance of regaining initiative in international relations. At the same time, the avalanche of slander and sabotage was so vast that waiting for it to rumble its way down the mountainside might have seemed like a good strategy.
Examples abound, for instance the humiliating treatment of Russia by the Bulgarians (South Stream, diplomat expulsions etc.). What should have been done was to expose Bulgaria to the maximum pressure especially economic and diplomatic. Subtle co-ordinated campaign of harassment of Bulgarian diplomats, businessmen and spies should have been par for the course. A concerted effort to harm Bulgaria might not have destroyed the country but could have contributed to a change in policy. If large gestures were out of question, an accumulation of small steps would have more than sufficed. But nothing ever came of it. The Bulgarians harassed Russian diplomats instead and the whole messy saga was forgotten. What hasn’t changed is the inimical posture by the country which owes its birth and survival to Russia. A more recent insulting treatment of Sergei Lavrov by the Croatian and “Bosnian” apparatchiks stick in one’s craw and reinforce the impression of severe weakness of the Russian foreign policy.
The recent shameful pronouncements by a Jewish president of the Ukraine whose grandfather had fought in the Red Army to the effect that Russia was guilty of starting WWII has been met by a mild rebuke from the Russian foreign ministry. A similar non-response was given following the threat by a Vukro-Nazi to deprive the population of Crimea of running water. Where are all the GRU illegals, Spetznaz snipers and sappers? What about the monuments to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War?
Every insult or threat directed at a Russian citizen (or symbol) irrespective of their status needs to be answered in kind. Let me give you a broad-brush example. For every Russian arrested abroad without a clear criminal case, a national of the offending country should be held in custody until the Russian has been released. If this is not possible, a company belonging to the offending country should be closed down and its property nationalised. For every Russian diplomat dying under less than completely innocent circumstances or being expelled, a foreign diplomat should be expelled in turn or a consulate closed down. This might be costly in the short term but would soon disabuse the barbarians of the notion that Russians are a meek and forgiving sort. Of course, these crude examples should be elaborated in order to confuse the enemy.
Sanctions are a matter of state policy but under no circumstances should they (or counter-sanctions) be applied half-heartedly. All sanctions must be treated as weapons of war. Consequently, they must never be used as a “warning” or a “slap”. Why? Because this kind of response must have been factored in by the enemy at the planning stage. Either they should be aimed at seriously harming the opponent or should be left in the rifle locker. I have the impression that Russia has been applying all of its economic weapons half-heartedly and very reluctantly.
Immediate and painful retaliation must follow any attack on Russia’s interests. Why? Because the cliché about “best served cold” is often just an excuse of the powerless. If the retaliation is not contingent on and contiguous with the original crime, it loses its meaning and its potency. Let me return to the South Stream—Russian pipeline that should have solved the problems of gas supply for the whole of Southern and Central Europe—was cancelled after a single visit to the quisling Bulgarian regime by a rabidly Russophobe US senator. After all the billions of roubles spent and thousands of hours of political, diplomatic and engineering work invested in the project, Russia’s only link with the Balkans was closed down irreversibly in a day. Russia’s response? Zilch, nada. Can this go on?
4c. Unpredictability/flexibility
If response in kind is not possible (I refuse to believe this), then small-scale but unpredictable retaliatory steps are the order of the day. One could argue that Russia’s responses are highly predictable. To illustrate—ever since say 2007, has Russia ONCE made a pro-active move that would inflict pain on its adversaries BEFORE they’d struck Russia? One can drown in excuses—Russians are trying to prevent a war (why is it their duty to do so?), they are polite (typical patronising Western head-patting) and a million others. A great deal has been made of President Putin’s stealthy moves in the Crimea and Syria. YES, that is the right way to go about things in foreign policy but at ALL LEVELS and most of the time (and often in advance of the enemy’s move). Instead of the Duma deliberating at how and when to respond (which leaves Russia an open book to its adversaries), a semi-clandestine organisation within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs needs to be formed which would work out strategies and scheduling of retaliatory responses in advance. This should be based on pseudo-random schedules where the timing and content of individual steps are not easily predicted. Furthermore, such steps should be individually intractable and only understandable when viewed as parts of a higher-level whole.
There is no reason why such strategies cannot be tweaked and adapted to real-life scenarios very quickly. The point is that the enemy reads Russia’s responses as a kind of simple code that is easy to break. “We shall respond symmetrically!” Who cares—the enemy knows this already. You should confound them by responding in a manner that gives your response maximum power. This is particularly important for a country that can compete with the West in terms of intellect but not money. In other words, I am asking for a wholesale change in strategy—from nuclear bombers to mini drone swarms (each element is insignificant but coordinated, large numbers of weak elements are capable of causing substantial damage).
I need to reiterate in conclusion that some of what I described above is starting to percolate into the official pronouncements and actions of the Russian government. They have changed Russia’s nuclear posture, restricted the space for activities of various foreign organisations and possibly social media. Further, the tone of Russian diplomacy has changed considerably in the last six to 12 months (although not perhaps as much as I would wish). This of course is very welcome but again predictable and easily ignored.[5] So in the spirit of the great victory of the Soviet people, I humbly propose: Not a step back!
- This is an informal title of the Order 227 issued on 28th July 1942 by Joseph Stalin with the aim of stopping the seemingly unceasing advance by the Germans and their allies. This essay is a polemic and not an attempt at objective analysis. ↑
- As I am finishing this piece, I read that Britain has exited the EU. I consider this a positive sign—the idea of a “united West” (a complete abomination and a death sentence for Russia) has gone for good. Furthermore, the Russian government has undertaken a number of positive and necessary steps aimed at reversing the enemy’s advance. ↑
- I have studied this weakness of Russian statecraft in some depth. A very similar thing occurred in the years preceding WWI when Germany decided to assert its dominance in the Balkans. Russians tried to accommodate the brazen and insulting German demands until the very last moment. To those who disagree—if I am wrong, why is the West continuing with its aggressive plans despite all the warnings by Russia? ↑
- Here we encounter an interesting problem. Constantly underplaying one’s strength is as dangerous as the opposite. For this reason alone, a more aggressive posture by Russia is called for. ↑
- This is another danger of predictable behaviour. The enemy is incentivised to ignore it until it’s too late. By the way, public deliberation is fine as long as it has the potential of producing unexpected outcomes. ↑
Great article. I’ve been saying the same thing for years. And get accused of being anti-Russian for criticizing bad policy. I remember thinking when the Ukraine coup happened that Russia would react and team with Ukrainian patriots to stop it before it became the disaster we have now. But they did nothing outside of Crimea.And only at the last minute after being shamed before the Russian people did they half heartedly help save half the small area of Donbass that was left after the Ukrainian attacks.And whether that area will survive who knows.Since they have no guarantee of Russian aid if they are attacked again. That at the very least ,even if unofficially, should have been given,as a warning to Ukraine to not attack them.
Thank you Uncle,
Donbass was on my mind the whole time.
The Donbass, where the war of 1914-1917 and 1941-1945 resumed in our time.
A friend in near Donbass posted this:
Odessa journalist Yuri Tkachev summed up seven years since the ′′ revolution of dignity “.
′′ I made a small selection of Euromaidan achievements here, I mean how Ukraine has changed over the past 7 years. No speculations and labels, just numbers.
1. The trade volume in the interbank market decreased from an average of $ 1,2 billion a day in 2013 to 200-300 million in 2020.
2. Export volume decreased from 63 to 47 billion US dollars. At the same time, the share of vegetable and mineral raw materials in export increased from 25 to 36 %.
3. The ratio of public debt to GDP increased from 40 to 60 percent.
4. Industrial production decreased by 19,8 %.
5. Milk production in Ukraine decreased from 11,5 to 6,9 million tons per year; egg production decreased from 19,6 to 16,7 billion pieces.
6. Ukrainian bank s’ credit briefcase decreased from 100 to 39,5 billion dollars.
7. Retail volume decreased from 104,7 to 40,5 billion US dollars.
8. The average monthly income of the average Ukrainian family decreased from 560 to 460 dollars.
9. The average Ukrainian family began to consume 6,5 % less dairy products, 16,7 % less fish and seafood, 3,5 % less fruits and berries, 6,4 % less vegetables…
10. The share of utility bills in the structure of expenses of the average family increased from 8 to 13 %..
In November 2020, the European Commission stated that Ukraine has already overtaken most EU countries… at the cost of electricity: in Ukraine, the average cost of 1 megawatt-hours is 40 euros, while on average in Europe-24 euros ..
Citizens of Ukraine pay more European neighbors for gas too. If the spot market of the Dutch hub TTF in October could buy 1 thousand cubic meters of natural gas for $ 150, then Ukrainian citizens buy blue fuel from their own state approximately $ 226 per thousand cubic meters “.
Dear Uncle,
The rotting of the Ukraine is more of a headache for Russia – the Ukraine is one of the important centres of Russian statehood, spirituality and culture. The criminals who activated the uniate death squads don’t care. And most Ukrainians are happy to rot as long as they can suck up to their German masters (like the Byelorussian opposition and all the other scum).
The man that first posted that is part of a small group in one of the small cities of Zaporizhzhia Oblast .That oblast borders Donetsk.When the main part of the fighting was going on I used to talk to another member of their group about conditions there under the neo-nazis. He told me that the neo-nazis had been billeted in their oblast to control the population.That that oblast was very pro-Russian,and many considered themselves as Russian.Russian was by far the main language there in the cities and towns.The neo-nazis patrolled the oblast showing their power to scare people.He hoped that they would be liberated.But since that didn’t happen most people have accepted living under a dictatorship of fear,and try to be careful what they say or write.And are being forced to speak the west Ukrainian official Ukrainian dialect which they are having to learn.The local non-Russian dialect was a peasant West Russian dialect not official Ukrainian. He was afraid his son would get in trouble with the neo-nazis so sent him to Kharkov to college to get him away from them.During the Soviet days after the war,and even more after the Ukraine became independent people from West Ukraine moved to the eastern oblasts,and the Kiev region.The main economy of Ukraine is located there.And bandera West Ukraine is a poor region,so people immigrated to the more Russian speaking regions.And brought their pro-nationalist nazi politics with them.So all the cities and the bigger small towns have small 5th column people in them.Ready to inform on their neighbors is they get out of line.The way they can show resistance today is to vote for the opposition party that was allowed to operate after they banned the Party of Regions (Yanukovych’s party). Had Russia at the start supported patriots in Ukraine and stopped the overthrow they would have been welcomed by most of the peaceful people in most of pre-1939 area Ukraine.They could have withdrawn then leaving the clean-up to the pro-Russian Ukrainians.Most people today don’t remember that the neo-nazis had to purge the military to get them to be loyal to them.They murdered soldiers and officers they didn’t trust.As well as forcing many other officers to resign in mass.
Dear UB,
A poigniant and succinct portrait of a national tragedy.
I hope some of the commentators read this and reflect.
Thank you
I know of some people who were there when it all started, it angers me quite a bit, but it helps to put this all into a more meta-historical perspective. Can’t keep freedom from the human heart for very long, or the desire for truth and goodness.
The suffering people of Donbass are in our hearts and minds but let us not forget Kosovo and Srpska Krajina. They will need liberating too.
Yes, Vladimir,
The Donbass is the magic crossroads where fates of empires are decided. It is populated by exceptional people – the best of Slav race. I plea with Russia to free them once and for all.
In God’s own time this will happen, but He expects good people to do the right things at that right time.
Russia cannot just sweep over Donbass and call it a day. It is safer to leave a frozen conflict that prevents the Ukraine from joining NATO. However, if NATO collaboration starts happening anyway, without official membership, this may constrain Russia to act preemptively and attack the Ukraine before NATO is tied by art. 5.
Dear Jean-Marie,
The problem is (I think Saker wrote about this in 2014) that the Ukraine is de facto in NATO if not de jure and has been since the early 1990s. I am not saying that they should attack Ukraine but think how many ways of sabotaging, damaging, harming and maiming its enemies Russia possesses in its arsenal – all well below the open warfare threshold.
I am reading that the amount of Russian gas flowing through the Ukraine has fallen drastically – yet the Russians are still paying vukro-zionist oligarchs the same amount of money – as they did before Maidan. You can always excuse these dodgy dealings (Medvedchuk/Baer is our guy etc) but I can’t do it any longer.
I find it very hard to disagree with you in this case Hr Leslie.
Thank you, Per,
Perhaps the Russians are heeding some of our grumblings and are slowly waking up from a long hibernation. A large number of positive measures has been promulgated recently – let’s hope for the best.
As is commonly understood, Putin plays the long game and seems to prefer to allow the idiocy to continue to play without any significant damage.
However. I agree with thrust of this article; it is long past time that the Russian Govt decides that is simply not worth the effort to attempt to deal with the Europeans and/or the Americans and their blob.
Seemingly, the shift is becoming more noticeable in that it is noteworthy that Lavrov has stated that it is no longer constructive to attempt to work with the Europeans.
Moreover, from a quote from Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov in a recent interview: “We are definitely not expecting anything good, (from biden admin) It would be strange to expect good things from people, many of whom made their careers on Russophobia and throwing mud at my country.”
Finally, an observation by “The General Staff of Russia’s armed forces has noted the outspoken anti-Russian nature of NATO’s training activities and growing provocations near Russia’s borders, the chief of the General Staff of Russia’s armed forces, First Deputy Defense Minister Valery Gerasimov told a news briefing for foreign military attaches.”
In substance this speech emphasized the defensive nature of Russian nuclear forces but stated clearly the msg: “do not f____K with us as we will destroy any attacker-period!
Thank you, Taras, but all of this is still in vain. They are continuing and unless Russia gives a serious signal of its intent to harm and damage, it is all hot air. Russia cannot launch its missiles just because ukro nazis are slaughtering dozens of Russians every day. It can’t launch Poseidon just because dirty EU courts demand £50 billion in punitive costs to satisfy the satanic Khodorkovsky and his even more satanic masters.
Those who think that fancy weapons matter misunderstand the nature of this war by thousand cuts.
“Those who think that fancy weapons matter misunderstand the nature of this war by thousand cuts.”
Yes, this is true.
America in particular and the West in general are waging a Hybrid World War against Russia (not to mention against other nations like China, Iran, Venezuela, Syria etc.) that is based on:
-Mass media demonization campaigns
-Political balkanization or regime change operations disguised as “pro-democracy” or “human rights” campaigns
-Covert Ops that function as provocations like the Alexei Navalny and Sergei Skripal “poisonings” or the MH17 airliner shootdown.
-Economic sanctions and the weaponizing American Dollar Imperialism
-Sponsorship of jihadist terror proxies or other insurgent terror groups like in Syria or Libya–even as America claims to fighting a “War on Terrorism.”
We are now inside of a Hybrid World War.
Whether this World War escalates and “goes kinetic” into conventional or nuclear war is the real question.
Thank you, anon,
That is precisely the case. As for your last sentence:
– The West hopes that it won’t – that the current level of torture is enough.
– Russia should counter the current attack powerfully so that it doesn’t go “hot”.
Ken,
Are you trying to teach fish how to swim ( piscem natare doces) ?
Do you really think that the Putin’s team (of which he himself said many times is highly professional, and proved itself many times starting with war in Chechnia, …, Nagorno-Karabah) doesn’t know who they are fighting, how, when, and with what means, toward which ends?
I can understand your impatience with senseless slaughter everywhere
but, even in a kinetic war, certain amount of patience (right place/time)
is mandatory.
RF carefully stated that they are not in a business of saving/protecting
this world, only itself and her friends, allies and those who think they may become so in the future. And is even very polite to its ‘partners’ who can not keep the terms of most agreements.
Furthermore, Putin’s team, unlike their opponents, do not tell lies, at least I have not detected one. They don’t respond to insults, lies, provocations, insinuations, and similar, except when deemed absolutely necessary (e.g. rewriting history of WWII) saving time, effort and energy
associated with futile exercises.
In other words, I can not think of a better style or moral attitude, meta-strategy if you will. That posture, in itself, represents I think, about 1/5 of their winning strategy. The 2nd 1/5 is total devotion of RF to military and its innovation as an ultimate defense against attempted destruction. The 3rd 1/5 is enormous economic investment in organic food and grains, import substitution, infrastructure, civil aviation, railway and shipping industry, Arctic development, etc, that is essential not only in time of war. The 4th 1/5 is investment in education, health, family support. The 5th 1/5 is support of Russian Orthodox Church, culture, sport, ecology, and protection of retired, old, disabled.
As far as I can tell, it is an unbeatable strategy both in short and long run.
Regards, Spiral
this
A good place to start Russia’s corrections is to adopt the USAs election system to truly reflect the will of the peeeeple.
It is my sincere hope that you are merely joking and not seriously suggesting this farce in America as reflecting the will of the American people…
It was a very sad joke.
Sad indeed. I have watched the elite-induced decline my entire life, and pray always for genuine representation of the American people.
Something besides President Kennedy died on November 22nd 1963.
Are you trying to teach fish how to swim ( piscem natare doces) ?
Do you really think that the Putin’s team (of which he himself said many times is highly professional, and proved itself many times starting with war in Chechnia, …, Nagorno-Karabah) doesn’t know who they are fighting, how, when, and with what means, toward which ends?
I certainly do because the fish has been wobbling and getting caught in all kinds of nets and hooks. I am highly intelligent and sensitive and my every neuron is telling me that Russia can be doing much better (once it sheds its traditional inertia, forbearance, inferiority complex, belief in the goodness of its enemies etc.
I can understand your impatience with senseless slaughter everywhere
but, even in a kinetic war, certain amount of patience (right place/time)
is mandatory.
It is a question of individual threshold. Mine is lower than yours and I have very good arguments why it is well placed. Russia’s response is non-existent. Patience and lack of retaliation has long ceased to be a virtue in Russia’s case.
RF carefully stated that they are not in a business of saving/protecting
this world, only itself and her friends, allies and those who think they may become so in the future. And is even very polite to its ‘partners’ who can not keep the terms of most agreements.
That is the main problem – they don’t particularly stand for their friends either. And that is what I’m questioning. Apart from a couple of semi-friends, Russia has no allies. Why not? Not a single country that would go to war for Russia. Why?
Furthermore, Putin’s team, unlike their opponents, do not tell lies, at least I have not detected one. They don’t respond to insults, lies, provocations, insinuations, and similar, except when deemed absolutely necessary (e.g. rewriting history of WWII) saving time, effort and energy
associated with futile exercises.
There is something to this yet it fails. Western blows are costly, they hurt and they cause Russia harm. To dismiss them as futile is dangerous.
In other words, I can not think of a better style or moral attitude, meta-strategy if you will. That posture, in itself, represents I think, about 1/5 of their winning strategy. The 2nd 1/5 is total devotion of RF to military and its innovation as an ultimate defense against attempted destruction. The 3rd 1/5 is enormous economic investment in organic food and grains, import substitution, infrastructure, civil aviation, railway and shipping industry, Arctic development, etc, that is essential not only in time of war. The 4th 1/5 is investment in education, health, family support. The 5th 1/5 is support of Russian Orthodox Church, culture, sport, ecology, and protection of retired, old, disabled.
As far as I can tell, it is an unbeatable strategy both in short and long run.
I like the way you outline Russia’s strengths – I hinted at those in my essay. However, that is not in question. In question is the will of the leadership to risk something in order to avert the enemy, to harm them and make them stop and pay. This takes a certain kind of courage that the Russians don’t seem to possess. Why? Simply because they have NEVER done anything like this. It is not Russian army that is approaching Berlin but NATO (including the Germans) that is moving towards Moscow. How many Russian diplomats, businessmen, politicians and artists have been killed by Russia’s enemies? How many brave soldiers and pilots? Just look at the South Stream example – in anybody’s book that is shameful to say the least. Not a single response. Russian attaches are being kicked out of various countries like cigarette smugglers. Russians are dying every single day from the bullets fired by the Uniate Catholicised Russian Russophobes. Not a word.
My apparatus is telling me that Russians themselves have had enough of the constant appeasement of evil. Perhaps a new, more assertive generation needs to take up responsibility before the traditional inertia can be exorcised for good.
Regards, Ken
My footnote should answer all your questions:
To those who disagree—if I am wrong, why is the West continuing with its aggressive plans despite all the warnings by Russia?
Dr. Rudolf Steiner stated more than 100 years ago that Russian people will be special cultural factor in 6. civilisation era. Their soul is perfect, they know-sense that cosmos reflects on sacred Russian soil.
ahrimanic forces are born in materialistic souless west, progressing towards east and destroying planet in same time.
Friends of humanity should sacrifice their fisical bodies to stop them!
Ni šagu nazad bratja!
Agreed, Kapetan
Its continuing b/c the west is still in a very deep state of denial, insulated from the bottom up so as to not alert or disturb the top of the pyramid.
This is the only way to keep the boat afloat and once the capt is tipped off that the iceberg cant not be avoided, does the alarm sound and rats begin to jump ship, the alarm has yet to sound though the berg has been spotted in the distant horizon.
This time the berg is the enemy, to be destroyed by the titanic.
Good luck with that.
The rats are ready to move to other climes. The southern hemisphere looks enticing. Baby bush and others have their bug out bags ready. Have you?
All of you advocating stronger Russian response are either forgetting, ignoring or purposefully hiding the following truth:
– Russia’s industry is still not prepared for total blockade from the west
By recent public recognition of the head designer for the main Russian UAV fleet even the latest model Orion-E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEHXdogxgwM that just entered the production is dependent on foreign technology and even projection for the even larger model that is just in design and proposal level won’t be completely free of foreign components though it approaching to 100%.
The most interesting part of the interview starts at 13:56 https://youtu.be/Zrw7kiv7ivI?t=836 switch to English automatic translation. Check even 14:50.
So even in this crucial area Russia still struggles to completely replace imported components.
Russias microelectronics industry is at least 2 generations behind the most modern western ones (China is one generation behind and producing its own photographic machines, in probably 3 years it will catch up most modern technology held by Dutch company).
So Russia is still not prepared to cut ties with West unless grossly provoked.
Russia’s airplane industry is still not able to produce broad range of the civilian airplanes. This will change in the coming 3-4 years with serial production of almost completely domestic MS-21 and Il-114-300.
It is projected that in 2026-2027 Russia will be starting test production of the largest civilian jet engine PD-35 and some time in 2028-2029 they will start delivering the largest civilian airplanes: Il-96-400 with 2 instead of 4 engines and Russian/Chinese CRAIC CR929.
Il-96-400 is certain (time schedule could change due to engine production delay) while CRAIC CR929 is still very uncertain.
Anyhow this is just an illustration of the different big obstacles for the “not a step back” approach.
Russia needs 7-8 more years and that is why West is in panic mode trying in every possible way to provoke Russia to (over)react and give to casus belli to overtly start new cold war with Russia knowingly that for every passing year it is approaching the point of no return.
Russia is still reorienting its fossil industry to the east both through huge hydrocarbon projects like new pipelines, new LNG-terminals and huge processing plants like recently finished ЗапСибнефтехим https://youtu.be/p4278QwQ_ck and recently started construction of АГХК https://youtu.be/Bg1PVc0vAY0 as well as expanding of the nuclear powered icebreaker fleet with new leader class https://youtu.be/G9AkHCAeDhM besides slightly smaller models from the project 22220 https://youtu.be/FY2gALZyMdE (Арктика, at least 4 more will be manufactured).
I believe Russian leadership is concisely using sanctions to indirectly force its industry to decouple from the foreign components without having to do it administratively which would alienate public and give fuel to West propaganda. But they don’t want those foreign sanctions to brake the neck of the domestic industry. It is difficult to keep balance but I believe they have smoothed out big oscillations and are now just fine adjusting in one or the other direction.
American election turbulence and Corona has bought Russia 2-3 years of extra time without experiencing drastic increase of tensions with West.
In the end these https://youtu.be/UtAYy1AdqXk are Russian flight industry achievements just during 2020 in roughly 3 minutes (in Russian).
Despite your strident tone, I like your explanation – I think it has merit (not that it matters). At the same time, you will always find an excuse if you want to. The enemy knows that Russia is not ready. That is why they are attacking. They will not wait for a time that’s convenient for the Russians.
Yes, I overreact sometimes and I apologize for acting like that.
I really appreciate your readiness to participate in discussion with the commentators.
I’m so tired of having to read unopposed antirussian propaganda, wrapped in criticism of Russian passiveness in Syria and Donbas, been “cowards” for not using nukes on Turkey, UK or even USA, “betraying” orthodox brothers in Armenia or the most irritating for not saving us Serbs from ourselves.
That is widespread among “my” people (Serbians) so I tend to lose temper sometimes and overreact.
Back you your reply: Yeah, you can always find an excuse to criticize Russia too ;)
Personally, been no historian, I’m pretty familiar with WWII and in recent years I’ve thought myself mostly about Russian participation.
“Not a step back” was desperate move that was primarily caused by the same person(s) that managed to bring Russia to such a desperate position. It was also direct cause for literately millions of solder lives and POV’s.
They first managed to let Germans almost destroy vastly superior army counting both in number of soldiers and (quality of) arms loosing 3.000 of most modern airplanes on ground in the first 24 hours of the war.
They first decapitated basically complete army leadership (inclusive most competent military engineers) with a few exceptions in the end of 30’s.
Then on the Zhukhovs initiative due to colossal losses and inexperienced low rank officers leading army divisions + having political commissars (and byrocrats been) superior to almost any officer rank Stalin rehabilitated a number of generals who wore put in the fire in the most critical phase (late summer 1941) when there was real danger of losing Moscow as well as let professional officers getting more independence regarding military decisions.
At a time every military unit on the front had a “rear gard” unit led by same political commissars who would mount machine-guns above the trenches as soon as “ordinary” soldiers were forced out in frontal attacks and machine-gun everyone who would retreat even after the most stupid assault orders where soldiers were literally slaughtered en masse while running on the well entrenched and prepared German machine-guns (such a kind of suicidal attacks were pretty frequent in the first year of the war).
Basically 100’s of thousands up to half a million of soldiers were annihilated in a cauldrons in a period of 10-15 days partially due to “not a step back” orders.
So I would say using “not a step back” tactics is very doubtful one not just because of the events I described above. Applying such a tactic deprives you of any kind of maneuverability and is most often recipe for a disaster.
I would compare it to gambling – going all in. Sometimes you are successful but most often not.
Hi,
Thanks, I’ll try and be succinct. Please READ my article again – the part about predictability. Think – there is no gambling or going “all in” – there is a highly intelligent, creative and proactive strategy which does not allow the enemy to gain the initiative.
Second – didn’t Stalin procrastinate when he should have hit the Germans? Isn’t that the problem we are discussing here?
Regarding second:
Stalin is, in my opinion, very, very complicated story.
I would say Stalin had built an extremely dysfunctional system based on fear.
Side story: For couple of years I was working with one of British government agency in a (for us) big contract which went under British Admiralty. Again to make story short we were extremely frustrated by their indecisiveness and as soon as you got them to lower the defensive guard they would be replaced (after 6 months).
After expressing our frustration one Irish guy, who was contractor and spending most of the time with us not in England, described for us what was the cause:
1. As government employee you start very low with low salary
2. You are constantly and automatically getting promoted in small steps (6 months) UNLESS you make mistake, in such a case you can kiss goodby your career permanently,which leads to
3. … nobody ever making any decision which have almost ANY level of risk to be interpreted as “wrong”
You are almost never rewarded for any good decision (if anybody ever notice or care about it) but you will most certainly be “punished” for making wrong decision (that won’t pass unnoticed).
The similar but much worse situation was in Soviet army or society in general during the 30’s but if we limit ourselves to pre-war Soviet army we have the following situation:
1. If you do anything either good or bed you risk to be severely punished. On one hand incompetent politcoms would punish you for been to smart or threatening their authority or anything else they perceive as been counter-revolutionary. On the other hand making mistakes (we are all making them all the time) by doing as best you can would lead to been punished for destroying property etc.
As officer or solder you’ve seen countless persons all around you been punished and disappear even those that you personally would vouch with your life are honest, good and competent persons.
2. This fear based structure would paralyze any army structure. You would rather have you airplanes neatly parked, locked up and kept on the ground without order from the highest level then let them fly even in case of war because risking been severe punishment for acting independently compensate for any reward you would get acting independently. Copy-paste to all other army structures and you’ve got Soviet army in the eve of Barbarossa.
The first thing Germans hit was communications (besides airfields) which basically halted almost complete army.
Fear is much, much stronger motivator then reward (3 or 5 times stronger if I remember it well).
I believe Stalin was also buying the time (he bought almost 2 years with Libbentorp-Molotov pact) but he was probably not aware of consequences of fear he consciously spread in the society.
Fear can be strong motivator for positive achievements if used sparsely in the right situation and right proportion but it has much larger cumulative negative effect when been motivator for not reacting.
Adrenaline rush can also be positive in an extreme situation when you need to react quickly but if you have constant high level of adrenaline you will burn out very quickly.
I lean towards the following: Soviet army and Russian people won despite Stalin (and security apparatus) not because of them.
So no, I wouldn’t say we are discussing the same thing.
Please,
Would Stalin have saved millions had he struck the Nazis in mid-June? Of course he would have. Nothing complicated about that. All I am saying is that Russia is surrounded and under constant attack. It should strike somewhere before it is paralysed by the thousand cuts.
I’ll end it here.
Question: would the ussr fared better had it not dismantled prepared barriers against German attack?
Ken,
Any comments about Icebreaker?
The Red Army had a superior strategic military doctrine in the Great Patriotic War in any case, somewhat diminishing the stories of the great inferiority of Soviet forces against the Fascists;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_operation
But the lesson is clear, and should have an awareness that the US is not an enemy of Russia, and Russia is not an enemy of the US, and this applies to China as well. Only a few seem to know who the enemies and allies are anymore.
I believe this is the most prescient comment in this thread. There are many in the US, that want to attack the psychopathic globalist zionazis running the country into the ground here. I agree with the sentiment, however one must make the blow count, To die on a hill that achieves little is a waste of death.
World war one and two plotted and started by england.
see
Docherty, Gerry; MacGregor, James (2013-07-04). Hidden History: The Secret Origins of the First World War (Kindle Locations 753-755). Mainstream Publishing. Kindle Edition.l
if anglo controleld west want war with russia-and its head of anglo evil empire england is always planning something against one country or another then it is time for russia to wake up and hit one
The English plotted to have Germany fight against Russia in first world war and thus destroying both powers in Europe.
Second World War was also plotted and started by evil English race.
The england and its stooge US (and its allies) both support and fight ISIS, ISIL, IS at the same time, in Syria, Iraq and wherever else they brew it. End result? Chaos but chaos which serves a purpose: out of chaos comes a divide and conquer type of new British world dominance
Instead of the Jesuitical Russophobe and Anglophobe literature you suggest, I propose A. S. Avetyan’s: Russo-German Diplomatic Relations on the Eve of World War I (in Russian). The author is a communist who blames both sides for “imperialism”. Yet, the litany of Germany’s predatory moves against Russia starting immediately after unification is staggering and primary sources clearly show that Germany was guilty of the gravest crime in 1914. The same happened in 1939 and is also happening now after reunification. I assure you – this is the last time.
Perhaps time to have another look at Suvorov’s Icebreaker.
Explains much for a discreteted work.
A look at archives could clarify much.
Professor Andrei Fursov has made some excellent comments about ”Suvorov” and his revisionism;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PnOXZeINL0&t=170s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT6UTr26YzM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6bkQxqS2EA
The Red Army covered itself in Glory from the very start of the Great Patriotic War (consider the defense of the Brest fortress alone!), and this revisionism of today is destroying the future by destroying the past…
The Fascists attacked first, and Stalin had no plan to attack first, but to take the coming blow.
Dear Vladimir,
This is the dirtiest tactic deployed by Satan himself. Use discredited traitors to besmirch the greatest victory of all time. You don’t have anything like that in your own bloody history so you cannot allow the Russians to claim it.
You are too kind to trolls (if you allow me) – there is no reason to explain anything to them – the troll could have read the statements by assorted British and American statesmen and generals.
Long live the proud victors of the Great Patriotic War – from Moldova to Kamchatka!
Oh, I have to be very restrained with the trolls my friend; it actually runs counter to my nature to do so. However I hold out the hope that perhaps another curious person who does not know that facts will see the truth and be open to it.
It really was the greatest and most crushing victory of all time, which the Fascists are still trying to recover from and avenge.
Dear Vladimir,
Your approach is really superior but I like to add a bit of fire to the proceedings. Like that officer on the stamp :-)
To me, the question is this: Are the West and America in particular acting from a position of strength?
Or from a position of weakness?
Is the West aggressively seeking to destabilize, regime change, economic sanction, bomb, and invade other nations because they are confident or because they are desperate?
If the former, then the threat of the West is indeed existential in nature.
If the latter, then the threat of the West is that of a pathetic, has-been civilization that is lashing out of its own fear and pathetic character.
A complex dialectic of this tipe would dictate both. They are strong but at the same time overconfident and by demonising their adversary they fail to appreciate his strengths. It is all about gaining significant assets without expending any of yours. Here, America is helped by Russia’s almost supine position (“oh, we will still attend the talks, “our partners are making the situation difficult” and thousand other obvious trivialities.
This is a logical thesis, and I appreciate Mr Leslie’s efforts. I would, however, offer some counterpoints.
I suspect it was God himself who gave Russia President Putin; never has the old cliche of: “the right man at the right time” been more appropriate. It is crystal clear that his strategy has been to rebuild and strengthen Russia, from a weak starting position. To do this he has had to buy time, and this meant not giving the West any pretext. I think we are nearing the end of this phase. For all practical purposes Russia is self sufficient; and, it cannot be conquered militarily – realistically it could totally destroy any country in the world within a few hours, should it wish, including the US. It may be that Putin’s task, and time, is nearly over and a new leader takes Russia into the next phase.
I think the current policies of strengthening the internal economy and bringing people out of poverty is the right move because it further builds internal cohesion.
It must be borne in mind that the West is currently falling apart spectacularly, whilst the East is going from strength to strength. There is a strong argument that says: “let this process continue to its inevitable conclusion; no need to interfere”. Some of us, me included, would like to see some overt payback, but chess is chess, and the Russians are grandmasters. With regard to payback, well there is some: its undeniable that the US is losing the Middle East; I don’t doubt for one minute that the Iranian attack on US bases had Russia’s blessing. And the West has lost China and the East. And the US is impotent to respond.
With regards the gas wars – Southstream and Nordstream – Europe should be careful what it wishes. If these supply routes are cancelled, perhaps by Russia, then Europe and its industries go back to the dark ages, literally.
I appreciate Mr Leslie’s arguments, and there are many of us who would like to see more stick than carrot. But I suspect in 50 years from now we will observe a very different world order borne out from careful, and patient, strategy. Occasionally one has to sacrifice a few pieces to win the game.
Dear cdvision,
I like the tenor of your comment but please let me convince you that my arguments have merit.
1. Russia does not need to be conquered militarily. Offensive moves on Byelorussia, a coup in Chechenia/Dagestan, an anti-Russian satrap in Kazakhstan – it’s pretty much all over. Russia would be left without possibility of oxygenation to slowly wither.
2. Gas wars were actual five years ago. Just remember that the USSR was transporting huge amounts of oil etc. to Hitler knowing that there would be war. It never stopped for a day during the Cold war. They’ve tried to turn their predictability into a virtue. Well, it’s not working that well.
3. One has to sacrifice a few pieces but not hundreds of diplomats, ambassadors, businessmen, innocent Russians abroad, contracts, business opportunities lost through sanctions. Billions and billions of hard-earned rubles spent on projects that are shut down by subhuman beasts a la Brennan and McCain. Pain is capable of restoring sanity. Pity the Russians are so reluctant to administer it.
Unlike the passing parade of complete nobodies running the western poodle parade dog-and-tail-wag show, V. Putin has already well earned the title (and ongoing epitaph) of “… the great” — no doubt a deep source of Fact that torments the fake ‘leadership’ cohort of self-declared adversaries.
But his final act (and Russia’s ongoing challenge, to retain the power to do so) will be to find the correct replacement (person, tone, and strategy, etc). The signs are good in the short-medium term, but who knows what the powers of corruption have been eating away at with their eyes on the longer-term.
The parasitic Hîabiru Cult (*) currently occupying Palestine will eventually need another blood sucking opportunity to host their delusions of exception once the existing situation changes — and the 5,000 year old Chinese civilization (re-awoken) won’t easily fall and give up their own middle-kingdom ‘mandate from heaven’ for the usual middle-east nonsense that underpins Zionism etc.
(*) – see a comment on another recent thread for reference.
One thing that will blind any friend of Russia to what is right or wrong is a Judeophobic monomania so all-encompassing that it makes Christianity itself appear to be a weapon of those people, and rejects Christ. That will help neither yourself nor your alleged friendship with Russia.
You are correct,
It blinds people as to who is leading the crusade and is quite harmful.
The false fascist satanic “Christianity” hates the Jews as much as it does the Orthodox and the Protestants.
We should restore the balance.
Yes, as we’ve discussed before; who is more powerful, the man who holds the moneybag, or the man who actually owns the money-and owns the man holding the bag too? Because everyone including the money men know that the ones who can kill them with a word are the ones in charge. It’s why so many of them live like there is no tomorrow…
Mr. Leslie,
A good thought provoking article. I very much appreciate it.
However, I have thought, for some time, that currently the U.S.’s strength is primarily economic.
As the Saker wrote in a previous article, the U.S.’s (West’s) war on Russia takes place in three spheres, informational, economic and military. The U.S. once dominated all three spheres. However, due to overuse, its effectiveness in the informational sphere is declining. Likewise, as the Saker has analyzed, militarily Russia has achieved the ability to deter and, in many areas, it has superiority over the U.S.
Today, it is the economic sphere that is the primary source of the U.S.’s strength. And this is based on the status of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Economically, the U.S. has long since ceased to be a first rate industrial power. But the reserve status of the dollar has enabled the U.S. to continue to maintain the illusion of economic power and to exert this power to cower its allies and attack its enemies.
I was convinced from the outset that the disagreement between Russia and Saudi Arabia in March, that resulted in the collapse of the oil market, was not so much targeted at Saudi Arabia, but rather was an attack on the U.S. dollar. The collapse of financial markets around the world that resulted from this Russian action, combined with the fallout from the escalating pandemic, forced the Federal Reserve into a massive money printing operation, from which it now will never be able to escape. And a direct consequence of the never ending money printing will be the demise of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. It is no longer a question of if, but only of when. The Russian action in March helped to significantly speed up the timetable. Along with the demise of the dollar will also go the U.S.’s superpower status.
Perhaps Russia’s patience is not so much a result of a ‘Baghdad Bob-like complacency and refusal to understand how serious the things are’, but rather to allow time for events, that have already been set in motion, to play out.
One can rationalize to oneself that allowing for time to correct events is the prudent thing to do, while one sinks into a morass of complacency/apathy. Or worse, use rationalizations in public while looking to serve one’s own well being and to the Devil with the people, the nation…
Vladimir, dh-mtl means there are measures that have already been and have already set consequent events in motion, and all the Russians have to do is simply wait patiently for those consequences to arrive – perhaps massaging certain things to help the process along to its expected ripening.
I don’t know how right dh-mtl is, but that’s what he (or she) meant.
And I share this reading, although I am just as frustrated as Ken Leslie – whom I thank for an important and profound piece. French blogger Philippe Grasset (“dedefensa”) has frequently commented – with admiration, not frustration – “Putin’s heroic patience”.
But to Ken Leslie and a lot of us, this trait can be maddening…
Still, it may turn out that we’re wrong to be impatient.
Patience is a virtue, but there are steps that need to be taken in the internal cultural, spiritual, socio-economic and political realms that desperately must be enacted within Russia if she is to survive.
And, there are things those of us who are still sane and people of good will in the West that can be done also. The West is not done for either, if the West returns to what she once was a thousand years ago.
Dear RMM,
I think what Vladimir means is that justice doesn’t only need to be done – it has to be SEEN to be done. I don’t think we are frustrated – we all consider President Putin the supreme statesman of this era. It is more a sense that even allowing for all kinds of faux pas and shortcomings – there is something missing – an ingredient – that is necessary for a balanced foreign policy. Russia has signalled to its enemies that it will not do anything nasty to them – and I think this is dangerous, counterproductive and self-defeating.
At the same time, thank you very much for your flattering assessment. I am just articulating what some (or many) are thinking.
You are correct my friend, that is my implication, that justice must be seen to be done, so that the people know and see with their own eyes that the balance has been restored somewhat towards those things which keep a society running; peace and law and order, for the common good, and the wicked and selfish punished.
A recent impression I’ve gotten, and I could be completely wrong, is that the Sputnik vaccine is essentially a strategic move aimed at disrupting the Great Reset plans right at their heart. If people have a choice of vaccine to “protect society” from the corona virus that does not involve the prospect of electronic tagging/surveillance and so on, and notably does not involve this new untested experimental RNA technology, they will be better able to avoid that. My impression of the Great Reset is that it is a Hail Mary pass by the western globalists, revealing their true intentions in a grab for power John Michael Greer has dubbed “corporate Stalinism.”
I think a lot is going on unseen by any of us mere mortals out here in blogland. I took a recent tirade against Russia as the globalists’ response to something or other Russia had done to cause pain, possibly release of the vaccine.
Dear Patricia,
The total war against Russia is that – total and the vaccine is just one small facet of it. They would rather harm their populations than admit that the Slav Untermenschen have beaten them to it.
Dear DH,
Of course, affairs of state are large-scale events and require large amounts of time on the human scale to unfold. Nevertheless, when I consult history and go through the last 20 years of Russian behaviour, I am pretty confident that something else is at work–perhaps an unhealthy aversion to conflict (from which I suffer myself).
Dear Mr. Leslie,
When I look back over the last 20 years, I see a Russia and China that are immensely strengthened. I also see a West that is increasingly in economic difficulties, riven with internal dissent, essentially thrown out of the Middle-East and unable to impose its will, even in its own back yard (e.g. Venezuela).
I see in the U.S.’s and West’s actions against Russia, and China, more than just a hint of desperation. Time is running out on them and their plans for Global Dominance.
As the saying goes ‘When your enemy is digging himself a hole, don’t distract him’. The last thing that Russia needs right now is to unite the West against it by setting itself up as an aggressor, whether provoked or unprovoked.
Dear DH,
That’s right but the West is using your logic to slam Russia into the corner. If you were Russia’s enemy you would advise it to sit quietly and take the beating no?
No one needs a world without Russia, except the atlanticist satan’s demons. The demons have not had success in all of creations time, and this time is ending. I think Kirill tells with Putin as well as generals and economists. I think there is more strength in this than most humans are aware of. The Christ blessed army knows it also.
True, Davi,
But God helps those who help themselves.
Let’s not forget that!
To have a Christ-adoring sovereign is the best option as well.
That is, the People as Christ Adoring Sovereign, the logical and inevitable ”leaven in the dough” response to Orthodox Christianity in the social and collective sense. All mankind are brothers and sisters, equal in the eyes of God.
“Let me return to the South Stream—Russian pipeline that should have solved the problems of gas supply for the whole of Southern and Central Europe—was cancelled after a single visit to the quisling Bulgarian regime by a rabidly Russophobe US senator. After all the billions of roubles spent and thousands of hours of political, diplomatic and engineering work invested in the project, Russia’s only link with the Balkans was closed down irreversibly in a day. Russia’s response? Zilch, nada.”
No, not “zilch, nada”. Russia’s response was Turkstream. So they still get to export their gas to Bulgaria, albeit indirectly. And, incidentally, no hot war either.
“We shall respond symmetrically!” Who cares—the enemy knows this already. You should confound them by responding in a manner that gives your response maximum power. ”
Russia didn’t announce that they would “respond symmetrically” in advance of their actual response to the economic sanctions imposed by the US after the Crimea surprise. Instead, they banned agricultural imports from Europe, to further general surprise and European dismay – see for example the “Polish apples” effect
https://www.dw.com/en/polish-apples-feel-the-crunch/a-19294384
– and boosting Russian agriculture into the bargain. “The enemy” may know this now, after the event, but they evidently didn’t expect it before it happened, as revealed by their response. By not telegraphing the move in advance, Russia did indeed give it maximum power.
Dear Ted,
These are tiny insignificant steps that cause mirth in the enemy capitals? Apples? Turks kill a couple of pilots and the Russians stop buying tomatoes? Europe is doing fine – and if you say Russia is doing fine, Europe still wins because it is now completely quarantined from its enemy.
Turkstream was paid by immense concessions to the Turk’s appetites in the Balkans and the Caucasus. Hardly ideal. Again, none of these wriggles challenge what I’ve written.
Mr. Leslie:
The response to the recent provocation at Peter the Great Bay was firm enough—personally I would have enjoyed a ramming incident but the point was made. What bothers me is that there are factions running around the USA and, I presume the world, of the deep state fighting each other in “dark” space with hidden ops. These will get nastier as Biden and his techno buddies gain power. These people are immature emotionally, mentally, physically often times and certainly spiritually. “We break it—you fix it” is their motto and it can get costly. They have a grandiose sense of competency fueled by rampant hubris due to their scorn of history and their contempt of the “common man”. i.e. “anyone can be bought”
Many of the US allies, however, are in positions where they must look good and reasonable and this is where Russia’s diplomacy matters. There is much going on under the radar or via “back doors”. Even Maria Butina’s release, I hazard a guess, was effected by such quiet negotiations. Maybe everyone knows that the “partner” lingo is ironic most of the time but a steady stance of quiet politeness and professionalism publicly does engender respect and ,once and awhile, reciprocity. Not everyone in the West in power at least at mid levels is a sell-out scoundrel but they have to answer to those who are.
So it seems as if there is a double “war” going on—one of secret ops , unreported tit for tats and one of diplomatic finesse.
I share your view on that and note it is an Eastern approach likely to appeal to Asia.
Dear Teranam,
Of course, you’re right. But sometimes you need to hurt your enemy so they think twice. If you are not capable of this, you might as well give up now.
Excellent article Mr. Leslie!
The thoughts that you raise to the surface as it were, are a welcome contribution. Russia needs to act, but to act she must know herself if she is to act wisely. I say this because the Enemy knows Russia all too well, Russia having defeated the plans of the Enemy over and over again for centuries now, plans for Russia’s destruction, and thus inter-related are the plans for the destruction of all the Slavic peoples, the destruction of cultural, ethno-racial and socio-economic justice for all peoples in the entire world, and not least in their calculations, the destruction of Orthodox Christianity.
Russia bears the spiritual scars of this conflict within her, and so far refuses to see how deep the internal wound goes. If this wound is healed, than absolutely nothing from the hand of men will ever break this mighty nation ever again.
Dear Vladimir,
Again you have explained the essence. Russia is hurt badly and all I am doing is trying to help it heal the wound.
The wounds will be healed by God’s grace. For now Russia and all of us (Slavic or not) stumble and suffer towards the realization that without Christ we cannot do anything good.
Russia under the respected president Putin acted essentially in the best way that was feasible. Needed to appear passive from the outside and be active in dealing with its internal struggles, which largely involve the soul and the mindset of the nation. A great a lot have been achieved and there’s a bit more left to visit and heal. I think that Biden as a president is going to be a struggle and a blessing for Russia and the Orthodox Church, because in that conflict, which will be more of a soul and mind conflict than an actual one (even not so much economical conflict or propaganda in itself), the Russian nation and humanity by extension is going to obtain better understanding and find its rightful place. This is where the major challenge always have been, not so much what the USA would do or say.
Yes, after fixing the remaining little things, Russia will definitely gradually become more proactive and put strict boundaries on things. It’s extremely delusional and crazy that a bunch of weak players believe that they can afford bullying Russia. This is very much reminiscent of how dogs behave and is part of the animalistic lowness of human nature. Everyone probably have seen how a bunch of small street dogs jump around a big strong dog, encouraged by being in a group or a multitude and by the seeming benevolence of the large dog. This goes on until the strong dog shows teeth and snaps off the head of one of the little guys. Then, all of them run in random directions to save their own skin with their tails between their legs and making scared whiny noises. That’s exactly how this is going to play out.
About Bulgaria and South stream: Bulgaria was run into the ground and devoured by its “friends” in the west to stop the project (and other projects) and they couldn’t possibly do anything because of too many deficiencies. A proper vision inside Bulgaria (and the majority of nation on the Balkans) is simply lacking, also largely due to long history and many very deep wounds that people have hard time processing properly. Any proactive strong action from Russia would have changed nothing and would simply be a torture. Putin is a smart man, he understands that. Many smaller countries lack the capacity and perspective to properly handle any good economic development or to deal even with their own strengths and weaknesses. The last century was simply a terrifying experience for humanity and left a lot of us in a very weak position.
Dear Band,
This is how Russophobes procure cheap excuses for their treachery – we are small, we are helpless, help us brother etc. Tragically, these are mainly Slavs (see my article on Byelorussia).
Whatever the reasons, Russia should have squashed them – you would have noticed a very different reality. The underhand Romanians would have been much more reluctant to install US missiles and murderous vukrops might have thought twice before killing Russians.
There are no “small things”. These are matters of destiny. Russia is fighting for its life as we speak. Every stab in the back counts.
It has just occurred to me – the Germans are using exactly the same tactic. Every time they advance towards Russia, sanction it or expel its diplomats – oooh, it’s the eeevil Anglo-Zionists – honest, guv! In the meantime, Germany has achieved EVERYTHING it couldn’t in two world wars and more.
Despicable! Own your own criminality! I hope the Russians are aware of this.
I’ve come around to that thinking myself, using their allies and servants (who do not mind anyway) as the ”fall guy” for everything that happens.
@KL
I dunno ’bout you, but I think the idea is that today’s Germany is (forced into?) doing this at the behest of the USA (hence the “Anglo-Zionists”), since it’s an occupied nation, it has no independent foreign policy, the governmental elites are USian puppets, etc.. Or so I’ve been told on this website and various others. Anyway, I could be wrong, but that’s my observation from discussions in said sites.
Dear Digby,
This is a very important question. The monumental harm done to the world by Germany has been all but forgotten and replaced by a rather nebulous Anglo-Zionist moniker.
Germany has achieved Everything it has ever wanted AFTER WWII on the back of Anglo-Zionist military power. Therein lies their genius.
Yes Ken, it’s really simple. The common narrative is flat out wrong if the Anglo-Zionists wind up getting little of what they want, and if the Germanic Fascists wind up getting almost all of what they wish in the same time frame.
People don’t see it because they aren’t supposed to see it.
Dear Vladimir,
I see us (in the humblest possible way) as those few in the West who were warning the world about Hitler while their governments were swooning over the Fuehrer’s “vision” for Europe (communist cleansing then, Russian cleansing now). That makes me feel a bit better. They were ignored, laughed at until the tanks started rolling.
Thank you
You’re most welcome. Today I happened to have rented at the local video rental store an adaptation of true story of Yugoslav Partisans in the mountains of what is now Slovenia;
”Breakthrough”
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11006500/
And this is the sort of thing what some of the ignorers who are laughing now could be facing in a few years, if not earlier. Of course the Crypto-Fascists of today had to break apart countries like Yugoslavia before they ever try to conquer these lands again, which is easier to do when these lands are divided first. Same with Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union as with Yugoslavia.
And in the West Partisans may have to fight an irregular war against Fascists in the future themselves, I hope not.
I have no respect for Germany anymore. Yes, probably the claims of Germany acting under influence and occupation are truthful, but they also want to act in that way. I think they are expecting power vacuum to appear and they want to utilize it fully to situate themselves as a superpower. They clearly have superpower ambitions badly hidden under their low-quality mask of fake “non-interventionism” and “pacifism”. However, it seems very obvious that they will fail.
Also, Nazism was never fully defeated, but it will neither ever succeed.
Yes, Germany (maybe not the German people as a whole) is an enemy of Russia in the full sense of the word and the Russian leadership knows that better than anyone. Western Europe is an exhausted desperate sub-continent and a depleted land. They have no choice but to seek to expand, since they failed in their greed and tradings.
It is very true that the West seems to have succeeded in what world wars and other major conflicts fell short to achieve. This is like an evidence or like a symbol of that:
https://www.stalkerzone.org/a-nazi-junkers-87-freely-flew-over-the-zhytomyr-region/
However, they are clearly very weak and what appears as success on their side is simply a delusion, part of the fog of war. German leadership considers themselves at war with Russia. They admitted to that and it is also very obvious. I think that Putin is fighting the war wonderfully.
Dear Band,
They are not weak – they are stronger than Britain (falling apart), France (lurching from a strike to riot) and even the US (imploding as we speak). Germany is hugely talented, resilient, industrious, well-organised nation capable of great feats of industry and culture (this latter in the past). Unfortunately, MORE THAN OTHERS, they are also capable of exceptional cruelty, racial hatred and need to dominate the continent.
They are the second largest arms exporter in the world – I would never underestimate them. And they are at it again.
One thing is certain about Germany in any case regardless of appearances; one cannot underestimate their ability to be a threat to their neighbors.
The author conflates “The West” with the Ruling Elites of the West, and what is becoming incredibly clear even to the deplorables, is a gulf is developing between those Elites and the 99% of the Western PEOPLE. By all means humble the Elites, even help the 99% IDENTIFY the enemy of the 99%, which are the very Elites pulling strings.
The primary failure of the people of the West is recognizing THEIR COMMON ENEMY, which is the moneyed minority pulling the strings in the Western world.
Dear Paul,
No conflation. Those same people were happy to march on Stalingrad in 1942. Otherwise they would not have allowed such beastly treatment of Russia. There is an easy solution – people should work on the destruction of the EU and the restoration of the GDR. If you agree, we can start tomorrow.
By chance, Ken Leslie, your emotional governance fiction is not translating into reality. It takes indeed very strong cool minds to navigate the state ships of Dayland and of Mornland out of the madness of Western dualism and its “me me me is good versus the other is evil” view of the world.
Dayland and Mornland think exclusively about how to keep as healthy as possible while Nightland passes away as a result of its societal atomization.
The core Geo-political question of our time is who will be the first to fall societally among the 3 protagonists in your story. The future will indeed belong to those who succeed to stand on their feet…
Dear Laodan,
Not if your strategy becomes one big cliche and you always end up as a dunce, sanctioned reprobate, liar, sport cheat, underhand mafioso – please, I am getting emotional now. Don’t talk to me about cool minds – tell me about warm hearts!
One declaration from Russia would put the Western “elite” (chosen plutocrats) on the backfoot: “Lockdown is over, now that we have vaccine”.
I believe that China silently adopted this policy some time ago (No Lockdown, hence strong economy) but a frank declaration by Russia would open Western eyes to the inferiority of their own “elites” (Fr. “chosen people”) as economic Leaders.
This will be the same path the Biden/Harris Administration will chose for America; ”the restrictions are over, we have the vaccines”, because they will not want to preside over a destroyed economy and will have a compliant media to assist them in their efforts to convince the American public that they have things under control. Biden and the establishment no longer need the more radical in their camp, and will turn righwards because they will have no choice. It will be like President Clinton in the 1990’s who ran ”left” but governed ”right”, a process his advisor Dick Morris called ”triangulation”.
Ironically, the author doesn’t seem to care much
about the crucial, prevalent political circumstances in today’s world. I read the entire piece and not even once did I find a tangible explanation to the West’s insatiable war drive against the Russian Federation — mostly psychological memes about the impact of alleged meekness on Russia’s part when dealing with incorrigible, violently insane scum and imbeciles.
Well, lighten up! The super-elephant in the room is the Sino-Russian initiatives and their global reach outside the West. This is what really hurts the latter. The two countries that were supposed to be smashed and grabbed 30 years ago got their act together. The West, for its part, went on happily destroying its own productive and fiscal base and now it doesn’t really seem to care about its social cohesion either. What it does care about is the prospect of losing its iron grip on the global majority which it raped and enslaved for centuries.
Really, are we supposed to be ”impressed” by Bulgaria’s pathetic clowns (or Gównopolska’s) when swathes of oppressed countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America are lining up behind Russia and China? Make no mistake: As far as I’m concerned, Russia is fully entitled to unceremoniously nuke the Euro-trash, but as long as Russia and China stay committed to their absolutely crucial ongoing global projects, that’s what’s going to defeat the ”unbeatable” West for good.
At the risk of being accused of showing littleness, I remember reading KL:s submission Two clicks to midnight which was a pitch black doom and gloom sermon about Belarus. While it received a groundswell of approval in the comments — a total capitulation before Western imperialism no less — I couldn’t believe my senses. The essay and the ensuing capitulationist response flew right in the face of plain reality as Lukashenko, the Belarusian KGB, and the Russian government had already defeated the putsch swiftly. Thank God Russia’s leadership is up to the task.
I have little problem with Russia’s top leadership, but there’s only so much a handful of good men can do if the culture itself is being degraded by the tidal wave of spiritual filth from the West. If the deeper issues are not addressed, whatever the good leadership does will be for nothing. It isn’t ”doom and gloom” to say these things because the means of solving these problems are there to use and have been all along. Only the will is lacking, because Russia is still bewitched by the same spell so many of us in the West are under.
Amen, Vladimir. There is nothing metaphysical about the evil coming from the West. Most of the time it thrives because the side of the good Does Nothing To Check It.
I think part of the problem is more than an epistemological one; truly knowing what is right almost all of us know deep down.
Reminds me of a story about some Greek spectators at the ancient Olympics, an old and frail man was trying to find a seat to watch the games and nobody in the crowd would do anything to help him and the entire Spartan contingent watching the games rose up as one man to offer one of their seats to the old fellow. The crowd cheered in belated admiration, but the old man cried out; ”All Greeks know what is right, but only Spartans will do it!”
Our refusal comes from the will, not the intellect. What we simply need is a change of heart.
Can’t add anything to this.
Some of the moves by Russia are given no press coverage, which may make them seem to have not occurred. A couple of years ago Russia started upgrading naval facilities in Cuba. Later, two TU 160s landed in Venezuela. Now, Iranian tankers are sailing unobstructed to Venezuela. To highlight these occurrences in the M$M would be to glaringly show and document the ineffectiveness of u.s. bluster. Indeed, it would seem the only governments who take the threats seriously are the european stooges. You see?: nato goes for the Baltic States, which Russia has said are of no concern, the the Russians go for the Caribbean, which is so disconcerting to uncle $cam that he can’t even mention it. And there may be other situations: i strongly feel that obama didn’t start a bombing/no-fly-zone policy over Syria because someone told him something; and it was along the lines of: and we will destroy the place from where these munitions came. And they did vaporize a nato/pisraeli/isis C&C center in Syria in response to the shelling of Russian personnel.
As to Ukraine, Russia gained hugely from the influx of talent fleeing the failed state. Maybe Russia didn’t intervene more forcefully because she thought the Ukrainians too unmanageable. The complete smoothness of the Crimea referendum and re-joining with Russia hints at a great deal of planning and precise intelligence of the coup plans.
Patience must be a fundamental aspect of strategy. The u.s. bombed a Chinese embassy in the 1990s. And the Chinese seemingly did nothing. Now, China has development deals with most of the nations of Africa, and a naval base in Pakistan near the mouth of Persian Gulf. If one could call this a ‘response’, it is overwhelming.
I appreciate the article and the many comments it has engendered.
Dear Larry,
That is like saying that a bombed house has produced a lot of very useful glass chips.
Imagine if Russia had annexed Canada or Mexico etc. Would we be talking about influx of talent? No, America would have dealt with the occupier notwithstanding lack of ethnic ties. The Ukraine is the centre of the Russian civilisation which has been turned into Russia’s greatest enemy. It was a major defeat and no Russian can ever see it as anything else.
The problem lies their in hearts and minds of quite many “intellectual” young Russians in Moscow and Sankt Petersburg – those believing fantasies of west. For instance there is no peace movement at all in west nowadays. Western young generation is mostly fake.
Dear Matias,
You touch on a very important point. President Putin has tried to create a compromise capitalist Russia, Russia without vision beyond interest. In my opinion Russia without vision cannot exist.
Yes, every country needs to have some kind of governing cultural framework by which it’s leadership grants a common vision to all of that countries people, or else it simply just collapses internally no matter how strong it appears or what resources it possesses.
The article is based on a fundamental misunderstanding.
The Hostile Elite, in fact the Eternal Enemy, does not care, if it wins over the East. It wants to win over the West. And it has.
This is their victory. And now you assume that it wants to win the East. Oh yes, you are right, of course it wants, and in fact it will, because you in the East are already governed by them, admit it or not. You kneel in front of them just as much.
The game they are playing needs, always, an enemy. It is their way to play the game against us, White people. To deceive. It is their secret service motto: “War by deception”. You have been deceived to believe that it is the West and the people of West that wants to attack East. It is not. The Enemy is the Hostile Elite that attacks White People everywhere.
They corrupt the worst people in the West by giving them money and power. They expect back total control of their slaves. And they get it. For instance, all western leaders want uncontrolled mass immigration, because they are paid to love it, they will become rich, if they allow their people to be attacked by foreign hordes.
This is the picture in every western country, without exception. Even Hungary kneels in front of this Elite, no matter what they say.
We, the people of West, are not in war with the East. We are at war with people of The Eternal Enemy. You, the people of Solzhenitsyn, should know this. You have paid the highest price.
Yes, Valhalla,
Germany is guilty of killing between 30 and 40 million Slavs in less than 30 years. That kind of enemy must be eliminated forever – especially since it is attacking again. No mercy this time. To Valhalla!
I see.
And yet I see it totally, differently, dear Anubis64.
No, it is not the Germans, not at all. The enemy is the same group that orchestrated the Bolshevik Revolution. These people organized The Killing Fields of 1930’s, well before the National Socialism had any luck with the peoples of any country. Tens of millions of Russians were harvested by this enemy, which operates with deception.
There would not have been the Second World War without these killers, these ruthless psychopaths. It is so easy to see. They always find a proxy, whether it is “the proletariat”, “the race”, “the immigrant”, “the homo”, you name it. They sow the hate and they reap the profits of the hate. They could not care less about the proxies. Did You see THEM giving up anything from theirs, for the proletariat? Let me laugh.
Dear Valhalla,
Ideologies change. The Drang nach Osten is a constant.
It is not the Germans. It is the english who plotted both world wars and then cold war.
When exposed they blame Germans or Jews or Russians
Please desist. Pour a large g&t (or Schnapps?) and read “The last taboo” by yours truly (on this site). You’ll feel enlightened all of a sudden.
If it’s the ”English” at fault, then explain the fact that the House of ”Windsor” (Hanover) is Germanic. And explain why every other Royal House in Europe is too, including the non-royal aristocracy.
And explain whose money it is that lies in the accounts of the City while you’re at it.
You see, the Russians are listening!
Here is another wonderful piece of news indicating that the bear is slowly limbering up for a good mauling of the intruders.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-blacklists-german-intelligence-officials-ongoing-showdown-eu
Still reactive/defensive but much more meaningful. Well done, Mr President.
https://www.rt.com/russia/511094-fine-bill-media-outlets-shadow-banning/
But what can be done when eg rt and sputnik reporters are banned from such things as French state news presentations…also UK I seem to remember and of course actions against such news agencies claiming Russian state control ……and international journalist associations independant ..and representative bodies that do seem to have influence…..do nothing? Sighs .
Only occaisionally eg a beeb reporter is “explained ” to buy Pres Putin….and Peskov humilates them….but not much else .
Netanyahu, Putin exchange New Year greetings Leaders talk by telephone about Middle East developments; Russian president says he attaches ‘much significance to friendly relations with Israel’ By TOI STAFF 28 December 2020,
Israel bombs Syria again last night….second time in several days…..https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202012291081604432-syrian-air-defences-respond-to-israeli-aggression-in-damascus-airspace—sana/
Maybe if these kinf of situations are finally solved it might serve as an example to the west…who is beginning to realise their military posturising is very very expensive…. that cyber attack is actually much much cheaper( and everything that goes with it) eg propaganda…media manipulations…. Skripal and similar false flags and provocations…diplomatic situations and manipulations eg constant allegations of election interference and discovery of spies…lies re Russia is attacking undersea IT cables…preparing chemical attacks against UK cities and planning to carry out possible(note …not yet probable) engineered Ebola virus attacks against UK.
Russia seems to be hoping-?- that these absurdities will become evidently pointless and exposed to the wests own peoples( themselves under attack in order to be manipulated to support these absurdities).
But Putin and team and friends must be demonised at all costs.. now Russian life…systems and peoples must be demonised at all costs(remember the claim that it is Russian genetics are dangerous in themselves .. USA collecting bio samples for their worldwide biolabs …RT documentary available now)…its diaspora is individually vulnerable to attack…..the dichotemy of that Russia must be isolated. ..controlled….denigrated….brought to nought…..but if Russia ” retreats” for self protection and societal consolidation( eg withdraw from UN OPCW PACE OSCE for example) that only serves to further incentivise the west.
Mean while the Syrian situation drags on especially the northeast….if only Iraq and Iran could be “allowed “to do much more there ??????? And Erdogans hopes of being a founder member of some kind of valid regional organisation or some sort of new cabal in the middle east….friend or foe…or will that end up like his forever promised membership of EU ….and let alone his Nato situation?
Yes, I find that hard to understand. You expend blood and money to help your ally and then let them be bombed with impunity. Something is wrong there, whatever they say.
It is entirely possible that the Russian government is not fully on board with the idea of Iranian regional hegemony any more than they are with Israel or Saudi Arabia or Turkey playing that role. Russia is primarily in Syria to destroy the Jihadist threat, that’s it. ”mission creep” is not something the Russians do.
Ironically, the author doesn’t seem to care much about the crucial, prevalent political circumstances in today’s world. I read the entire piece and not even once did I find a tangible explanation to the West’s insatiable war drive against the Russian Federation — mostly psychological memes about the impact of alleged meekness on Russia’s part when dealing with incorrigible, violently insane scum and imbeciles.
Well, lighten up! The super-elephant in the room is the Sino-Russian initiatives and their global reach outside the West. This is what really hurts the latter. The two countries that were supposed to be smashed and grabbed 30 years ago got their act together. The West, for its part, went on happily destroying its own productive and fiscal base and now it doesn’t really seem to care about its social cohesion either. What it does care about is the prospect of losing its iron grip on the global majority which it raped and enslaved for centuries.
Really, are we supposed to be ”impressed” by Bulgaria’s pathetic clowns (or Gównopolska’s) ? As far as I’m concerned, Russia is fully entitled to unceremoniously nuke the Euro-trash, but as long as Russia and China stay committed to their absolutely crucial ongoing global projects, that’s what’s going to defeat the ”unbeatable” West for good.
At the risk of being accused of showing littleness, I remember reading KL:s submission Two clicks to midnight which was a pitch black doom and gloom sermon about Belarus. While it received a groundswell of approval in the comments — a total capitulation before Western imperialism no less — I couldn’t believe my senses. The essay and the ensuing capitulationist response flew right in the face of plain reality as Lukashenko, the Belarusian KGB, and the Russian government had already defeated the putsch swiftly. Thank God Russia’s leadership is up to the task.
I’m not quite sure what your diatribe is about – it’s more to do with your dislike of my writing than the content of my article. You haven’t even read my article properly so I will not dignify you with a response.
Oh, ok – here is the explanation you crave: The West is a racist crusading entity which brooks no competition especially from a Slav country. It needs to be put down like a rabid dog – England’s exit from the EU Reich is a good omen though.
The very fact that you accept a coup in Minsk as something natural should tell you how “isolated” you are from reality. Russia should be fomenting coups in Czechia and further west.
The first sentence above sounds, well, interesting. If anything, I found the quelling of the putsch most natural and appropriate. Lukashenko and the Belarusian KGB backed up by the majority population as well as by the Russian government against Gównopolska, Lithuania, and Svetlana ”BHL” Tikhanovskaya — how could possibly anybody have the slightest faith in the nonsense?
Russia fomenting coups in some wisely selected places — go for it! I love to see and hear the Zionazis whenever their temper tantrums are genuine, driven by real pain.
The ideal of course is not to have to inflict actual pain at all, or receive it. Your advice is still of the reactive sort, whereas the best solution is an innoculation against the evil that has overcome the West for centuries now. If you want to get rid of a 5th column, you don’t encourage the ideas that create it to take root in the first place, ideas that spread in the institutions of society.
Dear Vladimir,
Of course it is not about hurting people but making them understand that they will get hurt if they keep hurting you. Why is this so difficult to understand? It is like operant conditioning – you do something bad, you get an electric shock. Pigeons respond to it – so do people, especially stupid zealots.
I definitely get your point brother, and those of us in the West who have sanity and are of good will have an obligation to the whole world to clean up the mess in the West.
But to use an expression I heard in Russia; ”there just doesn’t seem to be enough shovels”
God bless you and all the good people in the West.
The lack of understanding of the Western tactics is staggering. In about a month they have revived a German concept of anti-Russian Byelorussia, together with flags and fake heroes. Number of deluded lumpen-middle class have fallen for it. There are multiple BND centres ringing Byelorussia that are ready to keep applying the pressure, funding the “opposition” sabotaging the country etc. Whether cracks occur now or later is moot. The point is – the enemy has inched closer to its goal.
As I wrote few comments above my believe is that Russian leadership is trying to wisely use foreign stupid moves to achieve effects that they wouldn’t be able to achieve otherwise in an easy way.
West has through stupid and premature move against Lukashenko, pushed both him and Belarus firmly into the Russia’s arms.
Russia is probably going to institutionaly and irreversibly integrate Belarus into its own sphere. I suspect it will happen step by step in a similar way China is doing it with Hong Kong: one country two systems.
I don’t really think the West is stupid. It might be evil, cowardly etc. but not stupid.
Second, Byelorussia IS Russia so everything else is papering over cracks.
Russia needs to work on dismantling the EU and returning Germany to its pre 1989 borders.
While they’re at it, should Russia also have the USA and UK (and possibly Israel) broken up as well?
Yes, if they try to destroy Russia in two giant holocausts in less than 30 years, kill about 40 million Slavs and cripple the country almost beyond salvage. By all means.
Sorry, here comes a coup de grace
After all the criminality that has no analogue in history, the Germans are now brazenly attacking Russia and undermining its security – after the Russians a) failed to exterminate them in 1945 and b) allowed unification in 1989 – both against the wishes of the British and the French. Trust me, there won’t be a third time.
Am I correct in thinking, by the way, that many Germans in East Germany miss the DDR?
According to some polls, 50% of Germans would have preferred the GDR. I think it was a wonderful creation – a Germany without the stain of racism and chauvinism. Being a lover of many things German, I would have been happy there. As I was in Leipzig.
Do you notice the problem?
Are you not wondering why someone (with some knowledge of history)
would say something like that? Why not reflect on the fact that 30 years
after being reunited Germany is attacking Russia again?
I can assure you of one thing – unless they start pulling back and change
their racist policy, there will be no Germany (I am clairvoyant like that).
I believe you grossly overestimate in this case western politicians’ competence.
During my almost 30 years in “west” I really started to understand and appreciate Einsteins words about human stupidity i.e. its limitlessness.
First of all politicians with integrity, charisma and intelligence has been a very, very scarce commodity for a long time.
Just look at the defense ministers of the Germany, Denmark, Norway and … one other country (can’t remember which). I mean kudos for females in general but you would have to try hard to make worse choice for such positions.
A few years ago Swedish Post Office which was publicly owned merged with Danish one, which was half a size and with huge economic problems while Swedish one was in a good shape, slimmed and effective. To make story short one former politician (again happened to be female) was appointed to be a director in Sweden and led the negotiations with Denmark.
Instead of synergy effects the result was, if I remember it well, around 700 millions SEK in losses for the Swedish owners (government) who had to go in and save the company while it became very lucrative deal for the Denmark. The company is still straggling today.
“Analyses”: The reason for the disaster is explained by Swedish “polite” business culture which was confronted with Danish hard-line business culture. Danish part would higher their voices, behaved rude and Swedish would cave in.
This “analyses” was published in the most respected liberal newspaper (Dagens Nyheter) and didn’t raise any discussion.
No consequences for the former politician because she was just naive and too nice (nobody dared to question her competence probably because it would be considered gender discrimination). We wore supposed to feel sorry for her.
Widespread gender and transgender warriors has eroded the competence requirements at almost any level, first in the public sector but by administrative regulations (laws) it was spread to the large and medium private companies.
And during the past 30-40 years they have been building the incompetence pyramid, as I would call it, where you recruit incompetent or less competent person on the lowest manager level, because of the gender (in the beginning) and political correctness (in later phase), and incompetent persons tend to recruit less competent subordinate who would not threaten their authority.
In the beginning you have small base in lower echalons but it first slowly grows and spreads and after some number of years the process accelerate. Repeat it for a half a century and you’ll end up in the huge incompetence pyramid.
One Swedish researcher published a book a number of years ago (4-5?) where he investigated historical intelligence level among the leaders in the world. In most of the investigated countries the average intelligence level has been constantly increasing for the past maybe 70-80 years (I can’t remember when they started to collect the data) … except for one country. Yes, you guested it right: Sweden, where it has been on decline for the last 30-40 years.
Unfortunately I never read the book and forgot what was the name and afterwards I couldn’t find any trace about either article or the book (what a strange coincidence). Therefore I can’t say anything about other EU-countries but my guess is that data is showing similar tendencies though Sweden started very early so the results are probably worse (process is slow in the beginning but after number of years it starts to accelerate).
So even research gives me right :)
From my contacts in the “local” recruitment business I’ve heard that they’ve divided the intelligence level in 3 categories for recruitment of the managers (using different IQ tests). They say they would not recruit person who falls in either highest or lowest category. Ideal “level” would be upper middle but never from the highest category.
If I remember it well middle area is 2/3rds while highest and lowest are 1/6ths each.
You can connect the dots on your own.
A rather long winded essay to say that appeasement doesn’t work, but worthwhile nonetheless. Replace Nazi Germany with the Fascist US and its lapdogs, and it’s essentially a replay of WWII, which was itself essentially a replay of WWI. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Not surprising when you consider that the elite bloodlines at the top responsible for all this crap haven’t changed in the interim either. What part will the new entrants, the Chinese, have to play in all this? Remains to be seen, but my money’s on them. The sun is already shining brightly on the new Chinese 21st century, even as the west enters a terminally self-imposed total solar eclipse.
I’m sorry but it’s much more than that. If you try and unpick my points on strategy, you’ll find some very interesting possibilities.
If you read my previous essays you’ll find that the US (foreign policy-wise) is nothing but a Fourth Reich. My view is that they will implode soon and that all that is left will be the German EU Reich, England and Russia. What does that remind you of?
In Russia’s system of ultra-subtle diplomatic signalling, this equals a kick in the a**.
https://rusvesna.su/news/1609323171
Putin did not wish a Happy New Year to Zelensky and Ukrainians.
Months after Twitter shadow-bans RT, Putin signs law to fine & block social media giants that censor Russian media sources
RT
https://www.rt.com/russia/511094-fine-bill-media-outlets-shadow-banning/
But please Russia get much better news current affairs out westwards……
Regarding WW1, Russia conspired, through its deep state which hoodwinked the Tsar, to wage war against Germany along with the Anglo deep state and the Khazarians and the French deep state. Russia was promised the Dardanelles which explains Churchill’s Gallipoli debacle.
A major hack has just been inflicted on the USG which they have been covering up for months. It is bigger than they admit. E.G., Medicare is moving towards complete disfunctionality.
There may be a gamma radiation cloud hovering over the NE U.S. The USG did not bother to warn its citizens, whom it considers its enemies as well. “You are either for us or against us.” This cloud is capable of giving every American a fatal dose. Is this aggressive enough? It is not aggressive enough to change the evil ones’ course of action which is relentless and escalating aggression.
Another whitewash absolving Germany of any responsibility for the disasters of the 20th century, laying total blame for it on the usual suspects the Germans always trot out, while purposely confounding effects with causes, symptoms with the disease.
Guess the surname of the founder of the Georgetown university.
Exactly so, Mr Leslie, exactly so.
Plot for world war 1
World war first was plotted by
Cecil Rhodes, Alfred Milner, and others during the Boer Wars when they got British soldiers to fight and die so that Rhodes could get more gold mines. They bypassed the democratic process by making secret deals with France (Poincaré) and Russia. They promised France Alsace-Lorraine and Russia the Dardanelles to join in a war with Germany. They lit the fuse in the Balkans including the Sarajevo assassination and tricked the Czar into mobilizing. Churchill, a member, agreed to protect France’s Atlantic coast, so France could focus on the Mediterranean. Germany was the last to mobilize, because they did not want to fight on 2 fronts. Why didn’t the British rebel against these traitors who cause the murder of so many of their soldiers and others? Herbert Hoover, a ruthless mining engineer who worked for the Rothschilds, became a high government official who was in charge of food relief for Europe after WW1. In exchange for the food he took in most of the governments’ records regarding the start of WW1 and had trainloads of the documents securely store at a college in Califormia (Standford?), That was how they changed the history books.
Dear Avatar,
Germany is a criminal entity that has caused two world wars and killed tens of millions of people. German chauvinists were already carving up “the East” in the 19th Century. No shilling can change that. The Russians remember, the world remembers. Now that Britain has signalled its unwillingness to carry Germany’s ammunition, you’ll see a different dynamic. I assure you that people are assiduously working at ending the cancerous EU growth and pushing Germany into its Cold war borders.
The gall! After the greatest crime in history, the Germans are attacking Russia again and you deign to defend them?
Of course he is, my friend. They want is many years of engineered weakness and disintegrations and cultural decline, and conflict between former allies against the Fascists as possible, before they try to openly take over nations again
How do you teach them the fateful lesson? This is what people don’t want to consider. This has been happening time after time and it is all forgotten after a couple of decades and now criminal Germany rules Europe and undermines Russia while Russia is struggling to survive.
My dear friend, don’t you think there comes a point where you have to retaliate and more just so that the mindless bloodthirsty aggressor realises once and for all that they can not attack the Slavs with impunity (they wouldn’t dare attack France and England now). Is it not possible to tell them – start pulling back now or we shall make sure you suffer (using very polished and finely-tweaked phrases)?
To borrow a line from an old ”Spaghetti Western” with Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef in it;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auX-4QzDOrI
Something like that! Apparently, someone in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is arguing that the EU is not likely to expand eastwards.
Is this because they’ve had enough of cheap Balkan fodder or because they’ve been badly hurt by Brexit, I don’t know. The remaining flim-flam (Serbias, Northern Macedonias etc.) will be left to Erdogan’s tender mercies. They are also experiencing problems with Poland and Hungary and this needs to be addressed before they can continue implementing their “vision”.
Perhaps now’s the time for Russia to start returning to the Balkans instead of reassuring its greedy and treacherous partnyors that the EU is sacred and untouchable.
Well, I think it will be a multi-tracked strategy for the EU Elites on all fronts, and Erdogan will be useful for them in a number of respects, as he always has been.
Russia definitely needs to build up it’s relations with Balkans/Eastern European Slavic peoples.
I hope they figure it out soon because as you have well stated the west has no intention of stopping and every intention of either subjugating Russia or destroying Russia if need be. Some good thinkers here believe a real fighting war will never happen. I still disagree. The madmen on the other side don’t care if millions of their own are nuked as long as Russia is utterly defeated.
For what it’s worth, which isn’t much, when Lugasnsk and Donestk Republics held their referendum and unanimously voted to rejoin Russia as Crimea had already done, I would have sent in the tanks and troops immediately to secure the new border. Welcome home!
I would have done the same Craig – and that’s what I am talking about.
If you look at what I’ve written, there is no need for a kinetic war. A thousand small steps that demoralise, confuse and drain the will to fight back. And here, in the domain of the soft power, they don’t have peers.
I was raised to blindly hate the communist threat. Then the collapse of the Soviet Union. In my study of history, my view of Russia has changed completely.I hope the common folks can change this. Wishful thinking…
Same here.
I would add these:
In cases like Navalny’s, when accused of the poisoning, Russia should immediately accuse the West of it (no proof needed), and for example, expel diplomats to underscore Russia’s seriousness. Instead, Russia tries to reason with the West (“bo-o-o-oring” – Bart Simpson), an approach the West, like a school bully, scorns. Russia hasn’t developed a reflex for this yet, and seems to think that, with Western public, logic will prevail over marketing.
In the case of the Ukraine’s cutting off water supply to the Crimea by building a dam, the simplest (because press a button and a missile launches), cheapest (because no land troops), and safest (because no NATO yet, and no bombers needed) solution would be to bomb the dam to destroy it, and then, or simultaneously, for good measure, bomb a couple of more dams, or equivalent objects, in the Banderite heartland, away from Russian areas of the Ukraine. Then, politically, just shrug it off saying something like “Russia reserves the right to defend itself”.
Thank you Zonggor,
While we might debate exact modalities of retaliation, that is precisely the posture that is needed.
That is utterly wrong geopolitical and ethical reasoning, by both Zonggor and Ken. It perhaps satisfies their
impatience and desires of armchair generals, but have they ever asked themselves, like Putin would, if this
violence is going to achieve RF and Ukraine populations goals?
V. V. Putin himself emphasized many, many times that he considers Ukrainian population as brothers and sisters of Russians (who just happen to be temporarily occupied) . He will, therefore, avoid any loss of life, unless absolutely necessary as defense. He has also told them, in an unambiguous way, that he is willing to help them, if and when asked (legally, as in Syria, Libya, Belarus), by whatever means, provided they show the strength, will and organization to liberate themselves, like they did in Krim, Lugansk and Donetsk. He does not need or want to absorb Ukraine in RF and thus absorb debts, reconstruction, and variety of other unfavorable things (like Ukro-nazis). That is, mon amis, unbeatable long and short term ethical posture consistent with RF geopolical goal of having whole or part of Ukraine like Belarus and Kazakhstan: free, friendly, independent, committed to alternative Sino-Russian economic development.
Best regards, Spiral
Sometimes a would-be expert opinion is just fear trolling – what would happen to all the fake friends of Russia in the West if it came true?
In a more constructive spirit
– Why should the Russia’s fate depend on the whims of Lukashenko, Aliev or whoever is in favour with the CIA in the heart of the Rus at that moment?
It is not going to work until the Western poison is leached from the Slavic Europe and Eurasia.
Best regards to you
It appears that the UN is indulging in anti-Russian fillibustering re Ukraine’s water supply to the Crimea.
Natalya Poklonskaya, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, called the statement of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) about the mission’s lack of access to Crimea as “b******t”.
Источник: https://rusvesna.su/news/1609358049
Your solution might be the only viable one.
Consistently the UNHR thingy has been against Russia( and a lack of real actual genuine concern re Donbass) rather than acknowledging human rights have had to be stabilised if not improved in Crimea(less crime…corruption..decent pensions energy water road rail infrastructure economy etc)….and that Russia has its own systems of dealing with these issues instead of having western models imposed upon them despite Erdogans “concerns” for Crimean Tatars…and of course the EU and others attempts at tackling corruption in Ukraine a complete travesty with failing economy and health system..though Erdogan and Zelensky are best buddies so to speak…..
Generally, people who oppose any pushback by Russia have been conditioned to consider the EU for example as something “natural”, something that has the right to spread its tentacles towards Russia and rule the continent. After all they have been doing it since the 8th Century and it’s the same old story right?
What I am saying is, the tables must be turned. There is nothing natural or preordained in the arrogant, imperialist and warmongering EU racket that has co-opted all the Slav statelets (after destroying three Slav federations) as cannon fodder against Russia. Russia can only thrive if it erases the bloodthirsty ghost of Barbarossa (whether in its German or Anglo guise) for good.
Ken, cannot agree more with you here. But there is a big “BUT”. I have read your very intelligent offering and have read your replies to lots of comments here and I will admit, I understand very well where you are coming from. But there is another factor to consider, which you have overlooked. Yes, Russia could and perhaps should respond immediately to various provocations – the stronger that response, the better, but, on the other hand – what exactly is THAT going to achive? If one is dealing with more or less someone reasonable, perhaps this response would bring some positive outcomes, but here, unfortunately, Russia is dealing with an absolutely deranged bunch of the delusional PSYCHOPATHS. To them, any rise, any response out of Russia would confirm to them that they are winning, despite the responses, and therefore, they will just “doubledown”! You must understand this. Russia is not giving them any chances, as it absolutely clearly comprehends as to what they are dealing with here. And, believe me, they DO retaliate when it’s absolutely required, and very adequately! Make no mistake there. Ever.
You heard the expression – the best revenge is to become successful. That is exactly the Russia’s strategy – and, once again, believe me, they are well on their way! Here is something else that you will not find in your mass media – Russian government has just passed a decree, authorising the new governmental set up for the future development and implementation. That will include, all across the board, involvement of various top political structures, including central control, local governors, various essential organisations, etc – all working in tandem, to the same goal – implementing the huge and ambitious development plans – all linked by online, up-to-date info, accessable to all of them. That totally eliminates all the possible corruption and graft and will produce the results VVP is looking for in his mighty and essential projects. Give Russia another couple of years and all this western garbage will not matter a jot for them! Until then, they will keep this deranged and dying West under total control – their way!
Dear Katerina,
Perhaps my language is a bit too harsh and people confuse my advice for relentless regression. If you read carefully what I’ve written THERE IS NOT A SINGLE EXAMPLE SINCE… 1999 or Russia taking a preemptive proactive step against an enemy nation. Please think about it. It is not me urging Russia to be unduly aggressive. I have seen THOUSANDS of horrible insulting incidents where Russia has taken a beating from very weak states and hardly responding let alone retaliating. This is wrong – it never happens to other states. Why is Russia an exception that should take a beating all the time?
Grand plans are fine but the enemy doesn’t care for Russia’s timetable. I desperately want to believe you but really don’t see it. The youth is obsessed with the West, as is most of the elite. Winning this was will be extremely difficult – and it needn’t be so only if Russian experts started thinking outside the box and inventing novel creative strategies of resistance.
Ken, I have already stated that I agree with you in general, but the fact is that Russia does not need the “West” to survive and prosper. Not at all! Look at history – how many times Russia has been attacked by this “West” and where exactly did it end for this West? The problem is that it has been too long (75 years) since this so-called West felt the Russian boot up it’s a.se, and therefore it obviously needs a reminder. You do NOT f.ck with RUSSIA!!
So, I would not be clutching my pearls when it comes to Russia defending it’s interests, they came a long way since the 90s and the best all of us can do is to sit back and watch how the superior intellect and abilities defeat the so-called “exceptional” nations. One can add several adjectives after “exceptional” – like the garbage, the idiots, the pathethic twats, in other words – you name it! So, please, get this into perspective – Russia is not going to be defeated by anyone. So, relax.
Russia will not be defeated, this is true for she is the portion of the All-Pure Mother of God. But what trials must she go through?
Better to defuse the threats peacefully and firmly first, as much as can be done, to weaken the enemies overall strategic effort.
I agree with you re the final outcome. It’s a matter of great and constant suffering which could be alleviated by a proper application of force. This might have helped in 1914, 1941 and 1991 too.
A question bugging me….reading one biographical version of Stalin and another of Tolstoi….must get round to Lenin….has or how does Russia acknowledge or come to terms with the huge Stalin purges of military.. beaurocrats and “politicals”…two opposing viewpoints – ? -that they were thought at the time “required” (perhaps justifiable)n some manner to keep Russia centralised and sustainable.. the other being of some kind of hysteria or paranoia and the political government system got out of control …if this is put wrongly please correct me. Apparently peoples cried openly at Stalin’s death….and many still look back to the days of such societal order that they could percieve then.
Are these still very very sensitive issues- let alone – still being questioned and contested although most records are held by the Russian government and are available? The west still wishes to use these events to the current Russian state to continue their justification of the fear of Russia…. will Russia always be tainted so to speak having been able to move on sufficiently from such events so that it can withstand? Is Russia still having to bear the cross of these events? I wonder how they are taught about in todays educational system. Cheers.
This geopolitical perspective from Professor Andrei Fursov might help you in your thinking, at least to get started;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6bkQxqS2EA
In the last century Russia had TWO enormous and shocking upheavals that no other country could have survived – bolshevik revolution (instigated, sponsored and carried out) by Zhidovski cabal, and the collapse of the USSR, aided and facilitated by internal traitors, like Gorbachev and Yeltsin. In-between it had to fight the most horrendous and devastating war, to just simply survive. Please, take ALL THAT into account, when you write about Russia. No other country could have survived what Russia had to go thru. And not just survived – prospered! This country is truly under the God’s protection and you know why? Russian souls are pure and wish no malice to anyone. The ONLY exception is when one “crosses the line” – after that, run for cover! Russia will always defend and protect itself and will do it most adequately! Russians are also good learners – they never forget or FORGIVE! Nothing that had transpired will ever be allowed to repeat itself – they have learned their lesson of dealing with the West the hard way. Never again! Lots of people, not being Russians, do NOT understand or even comprehend this, but the fact is, the Russians are the best buddy one could have in this world right now as they would stand by you through thick and thin. You just need to get on the right side of them, do not betray that relationship and do not sell yourself out. China has managed to do just that! The relationship there is mutually strong and getting stronger – both are against a very evil and powerful enemy that they are fighting together. They also could do with others joining them in that fight – that is if they want to survive. So, my advice would be to truly consider where do you think the future is heading and, act accordingly.
Apologies for all the typos – it’s very late here.
And now that micro-criminal entity created by the Jesuits and Austria-Hungary – Albania – is slandering Russia which was trying to help it with the COVID vaccine. Another candidate for historical oblivion.
The greatest military force of all time (for that is what I unfortunately call It) is what It is precisely because, not in spite of, It’s not bearing physical arms directly. This particular military force is therefore without equal in the development of the strategic and tactical arts of victory over it’s opponents.
How? By the mind, and the formation of minds.
Dear Ken
I wonder if there is a comparison to be made here usefully with China. In April of this year, the Australian Government, in an act of monumental stupidity, called for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19. Understandably, the Chinese were livid at this and ever since, in response to each new provocation, have been calmly and steadily applying tariffs to one Australian import after another. Recently, a senior Chinese Government official was happy to tweet an image of a work by a young Chinese artist depicting an Australian soldier slitting the throat of an Afghani child. Also recently was the Chinese diplomat to the UN Security Council very publicly, swiftly and sharply wishing “good riddance” to a German ‘colleague’ in response to a gratuitous parting slur from the latter. My point is that the Chinese seem to have the self-confidence to be willing to respond immediately and with interest to provocation. The Russians, much less so. Why the difference?
Thank you for the thought-provoking piece and the enlightening discussion that has ensued in the comments.
Dear Simon,
Thank you for your kind words. I’m not sure about China but they are definitely on the sharp end of the CIA/MI6?BND dagger. Think Hong Kong. For a time it looked if the city would succumb to the onslaught of the black “cagoules”. Then all of a sudden it was over as if it had never happened. That was a good omen.
There is something particularly despicable about Australians (who are generally good sorts) trying to deal with the chip on their shoulder (cultural cringe etc.). They are on the brink of destroying Australia’s future in exchange for a slimy pat on the back from the US gerontocrat-in-chief. The Chinese are currently delivering massive slaps that are reverberating all the way to Coogee Beach.
To recapitulate, the Russians are too soft and forgiving. Whatever the reason, it should change pronto.
America went from what helping the Soviets to attacking the Russians? Read and consider:
9 FILLING STATIONS CLOSE,
GAS SHORTAGE LINK DENIED
Headlines of this nature were being seen more and more frequently in many areas of the nation. In studying the various articles, I discovered that the announcement was received by many Americans with mingled consternation and confusion. One article read as follows:
The national energy “crisis,” here yesterday and gone tomorrow, seems almost elusive, and the experts disagree even on its existence. Now it seems the people directly affected by the current fuel shortages give
different opinions, as two stories by Associated Press at left, and International Press at right, reflect. Is
there an Energy Crisis? Facts are facts, but it depends on who you ask and when. As I followed the reactions of our nation’s leaders, I turned my eyes and interest again to the Dallas Morning News, January 16. The top half of l1-A was devoted to an article headlined,
PRODUCERS ASK HIGHER GAS PRICES.
And on the bottom half of the same page, ran a second headline:
KOSYGIN TOURS OIL GAS AREA IN USSR TO BOOST DEVELOPMENT PLANS.
The two stories on the same page did not come as a total surprise to some of us who had followed the evelopments of these events for several months. On November 12,1972, I was in Eugene, Oregon. I picked up the daily paper, the Register Guard, and read an article reprinted from the Washington Star, which said,
Washington Star News reports U.S. may buy as much as forty billion dollars’ worth of natural gas from Russia
during the next twenty-five years. U.S. companies backed by federal financing would buy 36.5 trillion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas. The head of one of the oil and gas producers’ groups said Russian gas would cost six times more than the wholesale price of U.S. gas.In response to that announcement in November, Tom
Medders, Jr., head of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said, It is disturbing that our government is willing to encourage development of the Soviet Union’s gas at such a cost when it is pursuing regulatory policies that are discouraging the needful capital expenditures to develop our own natural gas resources at home.
Serious-minded leaders, such as Senator Henry Jackson and Commerce Secretary Peter Peterson, and others, raised the question,
Would it not be unwise to make our nation dependent on an energy source that was held in the hands of a foreign nation?
In spite of the fact the alarms were being sounded, there was every indication that Americans would be subjected to gas rationing in the near future. Men as prominent as Mr.O’Leary, member of the Atomic Energy Commission, predicted rationing in the near future.
Russian Wheat
While America was discussing the purchasing of 36lrillion cubic feet of Russian gas, the Russians were occupied with the task of importing 20 million tons of wheat, which they had purchased from the United States, at a price of over $ I billion. Although the Russian press sought to keep this tremendous importation of wheat a secret from their own people, the free world was told it was because of a drought in the USSR. Some indicated the drought in Russia was the worst in a hundred years, and affected 27.5 million acres of land.
Several years previously, I recalled reading an article by Sterling Slappey. His article carried the headline,
SOVIET WHEAT PURCHASES LINKED TO ALCOHOL NEEDS.
Mr. Slappey quoted a report from the reputable German Institute of Industries. They declared the Soviets had
greater need for wheat to distill into industrial alcohol than to turn into bread. They said that it took nine tons of wheat to make two tons of alcohol, which in turn would make one ton of synthetic rubber. They also declared the Russians needed 550,000 tons of industrial alcohol for the purposes mentioned. Some who read Slappey’s article and his quotations from the Institute of German Industries, said,
We do not mind as taxpayers subsidizing cheap wheat for Russian bread, but we would resent subsidizing the
wheat purchase to the USSR if it were to be used for military production.
Was the fuel crisis in America genuine, or was it somehow linked to the possible purchase of Russian gas? If the suggested deal with Russia should develop as outlined, the 25-year contract for $40 billion worth of Russian gas would be the biggest transaction in the history of man.
Cantelon pgs 77 79
It’s the military Industrial complex? as LBJ said or better yet this scene
https://youtu.be/9FnO3igOkOk
Here, Mr Lavrov explains Russian foreign policy. I don’t think he would give much time for my proposals :-)
“Sergey Lavrov: Our strength is that Russia, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council with a unique geostrategic position and considerable military-political, economic and cultural potential, has a
peaceful and predictable
foreign policy. We remain open to joint efforts, based on mutual respect, with anyone who is willing to reciprocate. The main task for Russian diplomacy is to create favourable external conditions for sustainable domestic development, which means that we must build up multifaceted international cooperation and create a ‘good neighbourliness belt’ around the country in the broad sense of the word.
Strange the “favored nation” status of the Soviet Union at one time. More interesting history gas and then what butter etc??:
“admit that the only God was Mao-Tse-tung, head of’ the Communistic Government.
A former Communist said,
They asked me to forget Katyn Forest. Forget the slave labor camps, forget the genocide of the captive
nations, forget the butchery of Budapest, forget the annihilation of 30 million people, forget their anti-God,
anti-Christ, anti-church, and anti-home doctrines, and to forget all that is dear and place our faith in them.
With amazing courage some of Russia’s finest writers have dared to express the true feelings of their hearts.
Alex Solzhenitsyn, considered by many to be Russia’s greatest author writes, The USSR is guilty of committing spiritual murder, a variant of the gas chamber but more cruel.
In an edition of the Los Angeles Times in April, 1973, Murray Seeger tells how the government leaders in Russia seek to control men’s minds and spirits. He describes the heavy volume of anti-religious action and propaganda which have been continued in all parts of Russia against many different faiths ever since the Bolshevik Revolution took place 55 years ago. In light of the Communist attitude toward Christians and
Jews, are men not justified in asking why this government should receive favored treatment?
Why should American taxpayers pay $300 million in taxes to subsidize cheap wheat for the USSR? Or why should Russia get 200,000 tons of butter from The European Common Market for 20 cents per pound, when the British pay 60 cents for the same butter? Perhaps some of the international bankers might shed some light on this. They might tell us how the communist banks were able to borrow 40 billion Eurodollars six months before the dollar was devalued 10% on February 6, 1973 and comment on the extraordinary good fortune of their timing. For when this debt is repaid it will be repaid with dollars valued at 90 cents which means a net profit of 4 billion for the borrowers.
Only one thing is clear wrote one economist from Europe, “and that is the mystery that surrounds these strange actions.”
That Russia was receiving favored treatment was beyond question.’ It had been ever since the birth of the United Nations. When it was organized in 1945 there were only 50 nations of the world represented in the UN. In the l0 vears following its birth Communism had spread throughout the world at a rate of 44 square miles per hour.’
As new nations were being born -and being admitted to the UN, the roster revealed the young and struggling nations being admitted were often those who had accepted the doctrine and principles of Communism. This doctrine thrived especially in underdeveloped areas, estimated to be at least 72% of the whole’
With the apparent domination of Communistic personalities in control “of UNESCO and the International Police Force, reflected in the UN Charter it is difficult to understand how the United States could be removed much further from the position of leadership.
In the 21 years following the-establishment of the UN there were 22 presidents of UN General Assembly. Not
one was an American The same could be said about the highest office that of Secretary-General.
Dear Sir Ken Leslie,
Bravo to you for an excellent article. I hope that my short reply finds you and yours in good stead.
In re: The despicables must receive a message.
Have no fear! Russia is in the driver’s seat and the message will come at a time of Russia’s own choosing.
In re (2): Most modern warfare is conducted covertly and beyond comprehension of mere mortals.
Absolutely correct! Therefore the cogitations from most armchair admirals and generals will be one of a great confoundation when the message arrives at the appointed hour.
Please remember that the “west” is fighting a battle which they view through the prism of WWII.
In sum: The message will come at a time when the “west” least expects it.
Grace, Mercy, and Peace to all!
Tikhon
Thank you, Tikhon,
I’ll try and share your optimism!
Slava, moy Brat!
Dear Avatar,
The two jesuits’ “hidden” history can hardly erase the crimes of the German genocidal military machine. Britain and Russia allied every time the Germans or the French tried to claim the continent. Now the EU Reich is being watched from two sides again. I would celebrate – no more united “Christian” West – no?
Perhaps there are some powerful people in the West that realize what’s going on and finally are starting to see this as a matter of national survival?
For some reason, those evil British are not chasing the Russians any longer.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9105973/Royal-Navy-sends-warships-Channel-warn-French-trawlers-stay-away-British-fish.html
Looked in the article and found no mention of Russia. Not sure how this indicates that Britain isn’t ‘chasing the Russians any longer’.
With all respect, you are nitpicking. Tell me, if they are busy chasing the French in the Channel (with a limited number of vessels), how are they going to “project” into the Black Sea? Impossible – and I believe a conscious change in policy.
After the Russian ambassador to Zagreb shamefully bowed his head before the genocidal Ustasha Tudjman, the Croats open a new terminal for the reception of US gas. Wonderful.
https://rusvesna.su/news/1609680042
Gas and energy? After reading and studying about Peak Oil I always wonder too myself which country will be the first to go down and this in spite of the fact that peak oil could be wrong? As for Croatia what don’t they have their own or hey if Serbia or Slovenia has plenty why not buy or trade from them?
Beyond any of this is this fascinating video about the energy mineral unobtanium:
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/climate/what-the-gore-gates-schwab-are-too-arrogant-to-admit/
Maybe the reception of US gas is to hasten the US fall? The sooner they run out the better their demise they may be thinking? Or maybe the Coat needs a new villa on the waterfront for his wife and thinks about siphoning off a few million by reselling the US gas to some other needful European nation. Dollar more important than the ruble?
My question however, is what are the Croatians paying the US with? Gold perhaps? Or????
Dear Milan,
They are paying with something they possess more of than any other group of people – readiness to kill their brothers and sisters in order to please a master who sees them as human detritus – same with the vukrops.
My suspicion is that when the time is right the Croats and Galicians and others such as they will be propagandized once more and be granted honorary fake Germanic ancestry status; descendents of ”Goths” and ”Gepids” ”Vandals” and ”Lombards” and so forth.
That is why I am gearing up to start awarding TRUE Slavic ancestry status to 80% of Germans. Given that Hitler used Slavic children to improve German genes, I’m sure many will be flattered.
And i’m pretty sure it reflects the genuine reality in any case.
”Peak Oil” is by no means wrong. But the answers to Peak Oil decline ultimately are either Socialism or War, Socialism or Barbarism.
The Western Elites already know this and have since at least since the 1950’s with the work of M. King Hubbert. So they have chosen the path of World Population control, which is War and Barbarism, Fascism.
@ Vladimir
Sovereignty must go, that means also the interests which sovereignty protects must be recognized as outmoded in character and dangerous in operation.
—Professor Laski of Oxford
The only escape from total destruction of civilization will be a world government, or we will perish in a war of the atom.
—Harold Urey
In the field of atomic energy, there must be set up a world power.
—Robert J. Oppenheimer
World government has become inevitable.
—Arthur Compton Cantelon
One world Government is in the making. Whether we like it or not, we are moving toward a one-world government.
—Dr. Ralph Barton Perry of Harvard
Either we will find a way to establish world government, or we will perish in a war of the atom.
—Raymond Swing to Albert Einstein
The secret of the bomb should be committed to a world government, and the USA should immediately announce its readiness to give it to a world government.
—Albert Einstein
We shall have a world government whether or not we like it. The only question is, whether world government will be achieved by conquest or consent.
—James Warburg, February 17, 1950 before the U.S. Senate
It is necessary to discover a head capable of directing it, endowed with an intelligence surpassing the most elevated human level.
—H.G. Wells
One world government is just code word for theocracy is it not? Isn’t this ultimately what the Jews want?
You people work tirelessly to get everyone to ignore the one elephant in the room, because there is already a man who rules the West behind a screen of elites and technocratic managers (including Jewish HofJuden retainers…) and who will not allow for any rival, who does not share his throne.
Dear Vladimir,
You are absolutely correct – Jews, Freemasons, Illuminati, evil Anglos, Fabians, Protestants – reads like a modern inquisition list. Everybody but the main culprit. Now, especially for you Vladimir, here is Gestapo’s little black book that would have been opened in case of the conquest of Britain. Compare with the above:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Book_(list)
Now that’s some book, lol…
Seems that it’s a list of the ”usual suspects”, all right. I’m one of those people who can’t be too much of a revisionist when it comes to Great Britain and WWII. For after all I think even the Anglophile Hitler would have indeed invaded England had Goering succeeded in defeating the RAF and gained the essential mastery of the skies over the British Isles.
There’s no need to be too revisionist Vladimir. That is what many of Russia’s enemies want. The British could have easily sided with Hitler (ok, not easily) and had their Empire preserved in exchange for allowing Germany to rule Europe.
They have lost blood and empire and Germany is still ruling Europe.
I recall seeing some people argue that England declared war on Germany for its failure to defeat Russia (after all, England had its own plans to attack the USSR too). Others claim England saw Germany’s industriousness as a threat to British Empire hegemony. Don’t quote me on either one.
Dear Anon,
That is true – the British were particularly alarmed by the speed of the German industrial growth and its naval ambitions. At the same time, there is overwhelming evidence that Germany and Austria-Hungary were responsible for WWI (irrespective of their bleating about Anglo-masons and Illuminati and other rubbish).
Germany could have remained peaceful vis-a-vis Russia but the old racial/religious hatred prevailed. And it’s alive today.
Yes, Hitler was an anglophile – but for a particular kind of anglo – many right-wing Tories, industrialists, military and media leaders loved Hitler. They would have fitted in well with a super-capitalist oligarchy that was Hitler’s Germany (Krupp, Porsche, Schacht, Ford, IBS, IBM, ITT etc.). Unfortunately, there were these others – “leftie tossers” (Boris’s funny reply), Jews, liberals, communists and unionists (as in workers’ unions), freemasons and generally decent ordinary people who would not have been happy with a turbo-charged Tory dictatorship (with clicking heels, whips and Black Marys all over the place). So much so, that even the old imperialist Churchill sided with the latter in the greatest U turn of all times.
Note that Laski and H. G. Wells are both on the Gestapo elimination list – perhaps Gerry could reflect. Although I have nothing against people openly declaring for Nazism – it is often easier and less messy.
Instead of sending Assange to the delights of the CIA supermax inquisition, British judge says no. See the pattern?
Definitely a pattern, as this article shows;
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-belarus-election-vatican/pope-accepts-resignation-of-belarus-archbishop-who-angered-lukashenko-idUSKBN2980JI
Forces are pulling back here and there…But the article definitely indicates that Lukashenko knows what was really behind the attempted revolution in Belarus, does it not?
Excellent, Vladimir!
The Pope got found out and had to replace his Cerberus in order to be able to continue poisoning the Byelorussian air. Lukashenko is almost helpless in the face of such evil power. Stalin infamously said “and how many divisions does the Pope have” only to have his empire torn to shreds by a Polish Zyklon-B hunchback salesman working in cahoots with the Catholic CIA.
The likes of Kondrushevich are disposable tools – the next reprobate will be more subtle in coordinating the Western intelligence attacks.
Indeed. The late Jesuit Malachi Martin writes all about it-sometimes with veiled language-in his book; ”the Keys of this Blood”;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Keys_of_This_Blood
From the Wiki article;
”Martin wrote this book as a geopolitical and georeligious analysis of the last decades of the 20th century. He identifies this period as the millennium end-game for a new world order, which has three main contenders. It will establish the first ever one-world government. Pope John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev, and international business leaders are in competition to establish this one world government and that this competition will intensify around the turn of the 21st century (around 2000). The book further claims to be an inside account of what the pope is doing to win this geopolitical struggle and how he played an instrumental role in the collapse of the Iron Curtain.
Martin identifies the three main players vying for world domination in the world today and thus lays the ground for his historical analysis: materialism with the East and West in their communism or socialism and capitalism or liberalism, which he places on one side together, and the Roman Catholic Church, the only truly geopolitical spiritual organization in existence today. One of the two sides must win, for they cannot coexist.
Martin introduces the concept of superforce in the book. Superforce is the unofficial name given by Martin for a more or less formal group of people within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church (82). Martin claimed that this superforce is a sort of ecclesiastical version of a hostile corporate takeover team and that it was made up of churchmen of such rank and power within the Vatican and at key points of the hierarchic structure that they controlled the most vital organs and sinews of that structure, worldwide. The goal of this organisation consist in a fundamental shift in church teachings.[1]
The book was translated into Spanish, Polish and German.”
Thank you, Vladimir,
Something intrigues me though. How can anyone talk about spirituality when referring to the Vatican? I do appreciate that there must be honest clerics etc. but the whole setup is one which traduces spirituality and is about amassing worldly power. When were they “spiritual”? The sack of Magdeburg? The rapine of South Americas? The Borgias? Attempts at converting various continents which have led to bloody wars? Pius XII? Vojtyla?
It is a mega corporation that is without peer in terms of organisation, reach, efficiency of its intelligence apparatus etc. And it is attacking the Slavic East again. There has to be a payback.
For the Papacy and the Vatican in general, it’s been a long and gradual spiritual decline, since the schism, into total moral corruption that has become clear as a bell even for it’s most zealous followers. It’s been a kind of race for them between this spiritual corruption and the Vatican’s earthly plans, to see which will be undone first by the other.
Dear Gerry,
Contrary to what many say, it is never just about money or economy. It is about power and the Croats are obviously latching on to the same US bullshit scheme that has claimed the Poles.
There is thankfully no united West. As another example, apart from Brexit, there are quite a few French-Chinese marriages among the cadets of some French military schools. There’s also a video on twitter that shows buckets of chloroquine being sent from China to a French military pharmacy (although, incidentally, its sale and prescription are banned). And today, I saw a tearful zerohedge article on the growth of EU-China collaboration. Could some sort of Eurasia be forming?
Dear Jean-Marie,
The story of French geopolitical posture in the 21st Century is an interesting one. There are a couple of Frances in there. One is Gaullist and this is dead quiet at the moment. I’m sure many, including Russia would like to see more of it (remember the Normandie-Niemen squadron).
The other one is “atlanticist”, pro-German and inimical to any peaceful settlement in Europe – it was this France that was the first to arm Croat nationalists in 1993 and send military advisors and take part in the bombing of Yugoslavia (never forgiven or forgotten by their Serb ex-allies) and take part in every punitive measure against the Russia promulgated by the sub-Nazi EU Reich.
It is up to France to decide which path it will take. I can advise if asked.
A propos the help for Croat Catholic criminals in 1993 – Baladur’s government took part in an even worse genocide – the Vatican and France-backed mega-slaughter of the Tutsis by the Hutus of Rwanda in 1994.
From Wikipedia: On 5 August 2008, the government of Rwanda issued a report accusing Balladur of involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed more than 500,000 people. He and other French officials were accused in the report of giving political, military, diplomatic, and logistical support during the genocide to Rwanda’s extremist government and the Hutu forces that slaughtered minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.[6]
If you retort – but De Gaulle was a staunch Catholic, I’ll reply – yes but he was out of favour with the Vatican and Pius XII who much preferred Petain (read American Catholic newspapers from 1940) until the very end. De Gaulle (like Churchill and Roosevelt) stood against Vatican’s hero. Things started to change after Stalingrad and De Gaulle was granted an audience with Pius only in 1944 – when even the staunchest fans of Hitler knew that he was a goner.
The answer is easy though. France has a historical opportunity to renounce its treacherous course of the last 30 years and return to a sovereignist, Gaullist path that would enable it to restore some of its glory and contribute substantially to peace in Europe. Perhaps this will happen once the French realise that the Germans alone are the winners of the Charlemagne/Funk EU project.
Weaning Russians from Hollywood and all the rest of the Western bogus culture necessarily has to go through an Orthodox revival. In turn, this requires reenergizing religion by (1) reforming rituals without losing their sublimity and (2) involving male citizens by more appeal to reason and logic. This is actually happening and could accelerate if Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev is the next patriarch.
That is an interesting suggestion but I think Vladimir is the person to comment on this.
I gave it a shot my friend, definitely something needs to be done but the history must be dealt with before anything else when it comes to the spiritual/religious dimension of this crisis.
Thank you, we have an interesting discussion here.
You’re welcome. I believe that it is.
We have to proceed with a mindset that is permeated with the free spirit of true democracy and egalitarianism, the Christian way, the Slavic way, for the common good of all. That is, if we wish to have victory and justice. This cannot happen until the spiritual wounds of this modern age are healed.
But we are, Vladimir, we love humanity and do not hate – we must learn to hate evil (and not the evildoer if possible) and never let it raise its ugly head again – as it is doing now. Only then can we heal the wounds.
In the West and elsewhere, many otherwise good Christians have this false idea that they aren’t allowed to ”hate”. It is true that we must forgive our personal enemies and ”turn the other cheek” and ”forgive seventy times seven times”, but nowhere is it said in Scripture or the Fathers that we must not hate the evil of enemies of God and of man, hate the evil of the enemies of our nations who wish to exterminate and to enslave us. So it is the the Prophet St. King David says in the Psalms that he ”hates with a perfect hatred” the enemies of God.
Emulating Tolstoy or Gandhi is not an option. There are holy warriors, and there is holy war.
Yes, this is the essence of what I’m writing about. Thank you.
And thank you also for Malachi Martin – very interesting.
No problem, you’re most welcome. And Martin? He was a Jesuit, released from his vows formally but in mine and other’s opinions-remained an agent. He revealed a lot of things but in a manner that always subtly suggested a pro-Vatican narrative.
I am not quite sure that you’re on the right track here,, speaking as a man of both worlds to a degree. The Vatican went that route of false rationalism and has now almost entirely rationalized away the very core of Christian belief.
The Orthodox Christian faith (I am one myself) would ”revive” if the Raskol or Schism would be healed, with a return to the Orthodoxy of Old Russia, of the so-called ”Old Believers”. Your proscription of ”reforms” was what started the poisoning of Russia by the West in the first place, with Crypto-Papists and Jesuit agents like Paisius Lagarides and Arseny the Greek carrying out the false and senseless ”reforms” of Patriarch Nikon (with ”reformed” liturgies for Russian use pre-printed from a Jesuit printing press in Venice!), who himself was deprived of his seat when it became too dangerously obvious that he was an agent of the Vatican.
I agree that the pushbacks from 3.1 to 3.4, which you mentioned, should be implemented. A major power would have already done so. Why should one suppose Russia has not intelligently acted for its benefit and towards the destruction of its enemies ?
An interesting article by Dmitry Orlov –
“Russia’s Maddening Patience – Why Doesn’t She Strike Back When Attacked?”
may present some answers –
https://russia-insider.com/en/politics/russias-maddening-patience-why-doesnt-she-strike-back-when-attacked/ri23653
Dear Gavishti,
Mr Orlov is very astute and he certainly knows Russia better than I do. Nevertheless, and although I agree with much of what he says, there is a taste of post-hoc justification of the type “we are muddling through so muddling through must be good”.
I disagree. Russia has the potential to be a geopolitical Kaiju – to run circles round its opponents. It’s a cliche, a stereotype that Russians are clumsy and slow and zombified and take lots of blows before waking up. Why live up to a nasty Western stereotype?
In your essay you state –
” 2. The problem
Before I can talk about means, I must address the causes. Despite its size and advanced society, Dayland has no overt allies… ”
Who will then help when Russia
‘run circles round its opponents’ ?
According to Aristotle ‘ Patience is bitter but it’s fruit is sweet ‘.
I never stated that Russians are slow and clumsy, please don’t put words in my mouth. Russia is more than capable of handling these piffling problems as envisioned by you. Why then should it flog a dead horse, it will be a wasted effort. It’s energy and effort will be better utilized for the benefit of its citizens.
Sorry, I was arguing with D. Orlov’s argument, not yours. I agreed with what you said.
Let me answer your question, sorry.
Some of the reasons for Russia’s passivity include:
– A massive investment in the “European” option, i.e. “playing the German card”. Most of the Russian elite is very reluctant to upset German industrialists and politicians and this has been the case since the 1960s. The failed vision of the EU as a “reliable” partner (I hate that word – so un-Russian) is now coming home to roost but the people in power still cling on to it.
– Justified fear of repercussions. These are already severe and it is a question of how much more the people could take – hence the focus on reducing poverty etc. (I’m all for it!). For the first time, Russia has no overt allies and this might be crucial.
– A certain inferiority complex. This is perhaps too strong but is easily detectable. Notice the way they proudly talk about the “Steinmeier formula” by a notorious phat Russophobe. While most nations suffer from some version of this in my opinion this is very pernicious in Russia’s case and also the main spiritual trap that needs to be neutralised.
One must not underestimate the perfidy of the British which is one of their protected brands. I see that the obese witch Karen Pierce (UK representative at the UN) is slobbering about “defeating Russia and China in the COVID vaccine war”. This coming from a country that is an international pariah in terms of number of cases and deaths and now renowned for torturing a world-leading journalist. Good riddance!
I think this illustrates my point well.
Dimitry Peskov (V. V. Putin’s Press Secretary; translated from Aftershock) in an interview with Vladimir Solovyov:
Ukraine has crossed the “red lines”, but Vladimir Putin would not “shoot himself in the foot” to get revenge on his partners.
“Shooting oneself in the foot in order to take revenge on someone is not his approach. The reaction is thoughtful, well-thought-out, reasoned,” Peskov said, commenting on the interaction with Kiev.
Am I alone in thinking that Peskov needs to go? The whole point of having the power of Russia in one’s hands is that you DON’T shoot yourself in the foot, you …. And if this is not a blunder but another supine signal to the ukronazis that Russia will never hurt them however beastly they are to the Russians, the purge of Russian ruling circles needs to be much more thorough.
For shame!
It is illustrative, I agree. Hard to see if there even is a ”red line”, but I’m sure the Russian people have one.
Dear Vladimir,
Here is what ex-KGB general Nikolai Leonov has to say about the causes of unrest in Byelorussia. But nobody wants to know and that could be our downfall. Not even the Russians dare name the ancient evil.
Meanwhile, Catholicism was gaining strength in Belarus. There was a rapid construction of new churches, much more than Orthodox. But nobody sounded the alarm. And we see what a negative role the religious factor plays in inciting confrontation.
Источник: https://rusvesna.su/news/1609854978
It appears to be that way. And from his perspective (which I share to a degree) this really has been a huge disaster since 1989-1991 for sure, and has a continuity to this day.
Thank you, Vladimir and thank you all the other contributors – it is always a pleasure for me to discuss these topics with you – I always learn something!
Over and out
Ken
Well my friend I definitely have learned from you, and everyone here, so I thank you!