The world needs to defend Ukraine and attack Russia. China will not help Russia, no one will. I have been saying it from the beginning. You might not like it, but it is the correct answer.
Good work! My comment on the original - If the US government hasn't got a deadly enemy, then it does what it can to create one, preferably one that will start and sustain a long war, for this reason, as noted by James Madison - one of the founders of the US, 235 years ago: "In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate. Constant apprehension of war, has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people. It is perhaps questionable, whether the best concerted system of absolute power in Europe could maintain itself, in a situation, where no alarms of external danger could tame the people to the domestic yoke." James Madison, Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia, 29 June 1787. The legitimacy of the current US elected government is strongly doubted by half of the population, supported by the other half. And to confound things, we have what Professor Michael Glennon, of the Fletcher School of International Relations at Tufts University, calls a "double government" - where the real power is exercised by - and policy set by - the unelected "efficient" government, and only announced by the elected "dignified" government. For details, see https://fletcher.tufts.edu/sites/default/files/pubs_glennon-michael-national-security-double-government.pdf
By making the sanctions broad and over-reaching, instead of targeted so as to impede or block Russia's military actions in Ukraine, the Western governments, led by the US, have created enemies of people who might be neutral or even sympathetic. My view is that this polarization is deliberate, it's what the ruling political parties in the US - and perhaps the rest of the West do best - they divide people against themselves, to get them to fight each other, than to fight the various sets of oligarchs who are robbing them blind and driving them into poverty - and erecting systems for total social control and surveillance.
Excuse me. I am an American, I have no ties to Russia and nothing against the country or the people. I have looked into this whole mess without prejudice. The Russians moaning and groaning about Putin ARE Traitors. I do not support the attack on Ukraine but, in view of the actions of the Zelensky regime, U.S. government, NATO, he had to act. Ukraine was a Globalist cat's paw. I am glad somebody has stood up to Soros, Klaus Schwab, and the queer crowd. These are the same creeps trying to destroy the USA. I feel sorry for the innocent Ukrainians, but not for their government. Trannies and pedophiles prancing down the streets of Kiev? Come on, man.
Fantastic article! super insightful, balanced, interesting and well written, a rarity in this day and age. You have yourself a new subscriber!
(The only thing that raised a slight eyebrow; was Abramovich ‘owner’ of channel one until very recently? I thought he was only a minority shareholder since 2010…)
Really terrific read. I’d like to hear more about the “squeezed” boyar clans sitting around the meager fire in the palace, deciding who gets eaten first, either by Peter the Not So Great or by each other.
I have suspected this was the case from the beginning.
I'm 100% Yankee Doodle but American foreign policy has always sucked. Our policy elites are incompetent. This has been the nonstop case since the Spanish American war. The few bright spots were just basically competent and barely managed to undo the damage.
Wilson's decision to meddle in 1917 destroyed an entire century. This is still an echo of that. But now we have an icon of drooling senility in charge who was never really competent and was part of the incompetent machine that started poking the bear most of 2 decades ago.
America has no interest in Ukraine. And we have no interest in defending Europe from its own choices. Provoking a nuclear adversary who will only become more resolute the more we attack - a fact any student of the history of this vast area knows - is at best futile and at worst suicidal.
Interesting article & insight into Russian elites. But the author underestimates the reality of the Nazi influence in Ukraine & that they were planning a military invasion of the Donbas which Russia preempted. Also that refugees from Mariupol taking of the Azov battalions massacring civilians for daring to leave & the torture of Russian POWs near Kharkov by other Nazi battalion officers has galvanised the Russian people bringing back all the memories of Nazis in WW-2 / The Great Patriotic War.
The goal of the sanctions is (or should be) to weaken the apparatus by which Putin operates his war of aggression. The point is not punishment of the Russian people, even if that happens to be a side effect.
As for the elites that rally behind the unchosen dictator, they had no power to influence him anyway, and it’s not clear there’s anything the free world could do to avoid impacting them, even if it were worthwhile to do so.
The elites don’t see a future without Putin? Boo hoo. Tell that to the kids buried under the Mariupol theatre. Meanwhile, Ukraine has no future under the unchosen dictator.
What a good and useful job of reporting! Would it be fair to say that the younger a Russian is now (the less invested), the more likely he/she is to emigrate?
The world needs to defend Ukraine and attack Russia. China will not help Russia, no one will. I have been saying it from the beginning. You might not like it, but it is the correct answer.
Media propaganda = Russophobia! And the World needs to defend NAZI UKRAINE? Anno Domini 1941-1944! What a stupid time! 😅
Good work! My comment on the original - If the US government hasn't got a deadly enemy, then it does what it can to create one, preferably one that will start and sustain a long war, for this reason, as noted by James Madison - one of the founders of the US, 235 years ago: "In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate. Constant apprehension of war, has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger, have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people. It is perhaps questionable, whether the best concerted system of absolute power in Europe could maintain itself, in a situation, where no alarms of external danger could tame the people to the domestic yoke." James Madison, Constitutional Convention, Philadelphia, 29 June 1787. The legitimacy of the current US elected government is strongly doubted by half of the population, supported by the other half. And to confound things, we have what Professor Michael Glennon, of the Fletcher School of International Relations at Tufts University, calls a "double government" - where the real power is exercised by - and policy set by - the unelected "efficient" government, and only announced by the elected "dignified" government. For details, see https://fletcher.tufts.edu/sites/default/files/pubs_glennon-michael-national-security-double-government.pdf
By making the sanctions broad and over-reaching, instead of targeted so as to impede or block Russia's military actions in Ukraine, the Western governments, led by the US, have created enemies of people who might be neutral or even sympathetic. My view is that this polarization is deliberate, it's what the ruling political parties in the US - and perhaps the rest of the West do best - they divide people against themselves, to get them to fight each other, than to fight the various sets of oligarchs who are robbing them blind and driving them into poverty - and erecting systems for total social control and surveillance.
Excuse me. I am an American, I have no ties to Russia and nothing against the country or the people. I have looked into this whole mess without prejudice. The Russians moaning and groaning about Putin ARE Traitors. I do not support the attack on Ukraine but, in view of the actions of the Zelensky regime, U.S. government, NATO, he had to act. Ukraine was a Globalist cat's paw. I am glad somebody has stood up to Soros, Klaus Schwab, and the queer crowd. These are the same creeps trying to destroy the USA. I feel sorry for the innocent Ukrainians, but not for their government. Trannies and pedophiles prancing down the streets of Kiev? Come on, man.
Thank you for the work you put in. This article helped fill in a lot of context, which will be useful in discussion.
Fascinating & important report. Thank you!
Fantastic article! super insightful, balanced, interesting and well written, a rarity in this day and age. You have yourself a new subscriber!
(The only thing that raised a slight eyebrow; was Abramovich ‘owner’ of channel one until very recently? I thought he was only a minority shareholder since 2010…)
Really terrific read. I’d like to hear more about the “squeezed” boyar clans sitting around the meager fire in the palace, deciding who gets eaten first, either by Peter the Not So Great or by each other.
I have suspected this was the case from the beginning.
I'm 100% Yankee Doodle but American foreign policy has always sucked. Our policy elites are incompetent. This has been the nonstop case since the Spanish American war. The few bright spots were just basically competent and barely managed to undo the damage.
Wilson's decision to meddle in 1917 destroyed an entire century. This is still an echo of that. But now we have an icon of drooling senility in charge who was never really competent and was part of the incompetent machine that started poking the bear most of 2 decades ago.
America has no interest in Ukraine. And we have no interest in defending Europe from its own choices. Provoking a nuclear adversary who will only become more resolute the more we attack - a fact any student of the history of this vast area knows - is at best futile and at worst suicidal.
Interesting article & insight into Russian elites. But the author underestimates the reality of the Nazi influence in Ukraine & that they were planning a military invasion of the Donbas which Russia preempted. Also that refugees from Mariupol taking of the Azov battalions massacring civilians for daring to leave & the torture of Russian POWs near Kharkov by other Nazi battalion officers has galvanised the Russian people bringing back all the memories of Nazis in WW-2 / The Great Patriotic War.
Very important article, thanks. Our world need to read more like this...
thank you so much... Great Article... so detailed informative, no wonder Iuliia Loffe is such a fan.
The goal of the sanctions is (or should be) to weaken the apparatus by which Putin operates his war of aggression. The point is not punishment of the Russian people, even if that happens to be a side effect.
As for the elites that rally behind the unchosen dictator, they had no power to influence him anyway, and it’s not clear there’s anything the free world could do to avoid impacting them, even if it were worthwhile to do so.
The elites don’t see a future without Putin? Boo hoo. Tell that to the kids buried under the Mariupol theatre. Meanwhile, Ukraine has no future under the unchosen dictator.
No sedition charges have beef levied against the mostly peaceful protesters.
Thanks so much for the insights Farida!
What a good and useful job of reporting! Would it be fair to say that the younger a Russian is now (the less invested), the more likely he/she is to emigrate?