Posted on 02/28/2022 8:20:47 AM PST by datura
One of the questions asked over and over about Putin’s callous invasion of an inoffensive neighbor, an invasion that is mysteriously rationalized by an amazing number of people on the right who were apoplectic over Trudeau’s brutality with the Freedom Convoy, is what was his objective. It’s obvious that he was torqued about Ukraine flirting with EU and NATO membership, but if he wanted regime change, a few million dollars, an AstroTurfed mob, and a GRU or Spetsznaz hit squad could have accomplished that (look at how easily Putin installed his previous stooge, Yanukovych) with much less melodrama and loss of life.
Some have postulated that Putin launched this invasion as a way of warning any country thinking about joining NATO that NATO would do nothing to help them.
Good questions. If we don’t understand what motivated Putin to engage in this adventure, it becomes much more difficult to anticipate and deter future instances of him acting out.
What follows next, I think, fills in the blank spaces on what was behind the Ukraine invasion. I present it with grave reservations because I’m not all that familiar with the sources and am relying on the credibility of Christo Gorzev, an award-winning investigative journalist who is now the Executive Director of Bellingcat. Allegedly, the Russians have accused Bellingcat of being a front for Western intelligence; I don’t have an opinion on that. My sole experience in following their coverage following the downing of Ukrainian Airlines flight PS752 by an Iranian SAM found them to be so slavishly pro-Iran that I wondered if they were on retainer (It Looks Increasingly Likely That Iran Accidentally Shot Down That Ukrainian Airliner). Anyway, here goes.
So, the same essay appeared on Saturday in at least three Russian outlets, including Sputnik. Then it disappeared without notice. You can read the archive.org version here; I’ve provided some key snippets below.
A new world is being born before our eyes. Russia’s military operation in Ukraine has ushered in a new era – and in three dimensions at once. And of course, in the fourth, internal Russian. Here begins a new period both in ideology and in the very model of our socio-economic system – but this is worth talking about separately a little later.
Russia is restoring its unity – the tragedy of 1991, this terrible catastrophe in our history, its unnatural dislocation, has been overcome. Yes, at a great cost, yes, through the tragic events of a virtual civil war, because now brothers, separated by belonging to the Russian and Ukrainian armies, are still shooting at each other, but there will be no more Ukraine as anti-Russia. Russia is restoring its historical fullness, gathering the Russian world, the Russian people together – in its entirety of Great Russians, Belarusians and Little Russians. If we had abandoned this, if we had allowed the temporary division to take hold for centuries, then we would not only betray the memory of our ancestors, but would also be cursed by our descendants for allowing the disintegration of the Russian land.
… Now this problem is gone – Ukraine has returned to Russia. This does not mean that its statehood will be liquidated, but it will be reorganized, re-established and returned to its natural state of part of the Russian world. In what borders, in what form will the alliance with Russia be fixed (through the CSTO and the Eurasian Union or the Union State of Russia and Belarus )? This will be decided after the end is put in the history of Ukraine as anti-Russia. In any case, the period of the split of the Russian people is coming to an end.
And here begins the second dimension of the coming new era – it concerns Russia’s relations with the West. Not even Russia, but the Russian world, that is, three states, Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, acting in geopolitical terms as a single whole. These relations have entered a new stage – the West sees the return of Russia to its historical borders in Europe . And he is loudly indignant at this, although in the depths of his soul he must admit to himself that it could not be otherwise.
… Because the construction of a new world order – and this is the third dimension of current events – is accelerating, and its contours are more and more clearly visible through the spreading cover of Anglo-Saxon globalization. A multipolar world has finally become a reality – the operation in Ukraine is not capable of rallying anyone but the West against Russia. Because the rest of the world sees and understands perfectly well – this is a conflict between Russia and the West, this is a response to the geopolitical expansion of the Atlanticists, this is Russia’s return of its historical space and its place in the world.
As I’ve noted a couple of times, my professional assessment is that Russia thought the Ukraine operation would be over by Happy Hour on Friday. Everything indicates they were moving on a tight timetable that assumed the flight of the Ukrainian government, the collapse of the Ukrainian armed forces, and the passivity of the Ukrainian people. The article would have coincided with photo ops taken in Kiev as soon as a new government was installed. When that didn’t happen, Russia acted like CNN covering up a mistake.
The content of the essay fits in very well with what we’ve seen from Russia for the past few years. I think the fact that the essay talks about uniting the Russian people and Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus acting as one polity is much closer to the view I expressed yesterday than to the idea that Putin wants to recreate the USSR. This is a quote from Putin’s Threats to Sweden and Finland Are Much More Real Than They Are Being Given Credit For; “If you think the goal is a reconstituted USSR, I believe you have it wrong. The goal is the Russia of Nicholas II. He’s not interested in Potemkin Soviet Socialist Republics. He sees Ukraine and Belarus, and Moldova as integral parts of Greater Russia.”
It is also interesting that Putin is targeting the entire international security order as it has existed since 1945. In fact, he’s actually trying to reestablish the security environment as it was on the eve of World War I with multiple centers of gravity and endless opportunities for Russia to expand her influence into areas where NATO has frozen her out.
I’m sure we’ll see more on this over the next days; if it turns out to be accurate, we’ve had a window open into Putin’s thinking that clarifies what his endgame is. Whether Joey SoftServe and the White Rage Warriors are up to dealing with it remains to be seen.
Bkmrk
Reconquista.
Stopped reading right there.
Fortunately it was the first sentence.
Реконкиста
The article says the two sides are “still shooting at each other”, it just makes the leap to assuming Russia will prevail.
So Putin sees himself not as an imperialist, but as the Abe Lincoln of greater Russia.
“Who are the immediate players behind Putin in Russia?
What do they want?”
No no, who’s giving the “immediate players” THEIR orders?
If we are going imagine secret boogie men behind every tree there’s no end to it.
I keep seeing references to Putin's supposed support from the right, but I haven't actually seen people on the right supporting Putin's move into Ukraine. What's going on here?
Yes - and Putin evidently believes that the reintegration into the new Soviet Union somehow “frees” the people of Ukraine. No, it only soothes the pain felt by the Russian elites about losing Ukraine.
The following is just my opinion as well as a hunch of mine. Russia and the US have always been on opposite sides of the spectrum and needless to say an outright war to settle any scores is obviously not an option. I further believe hat Putin has never warmed up to the idea to “The New World Order” or the idea of a “World Government” Some people who have never heard about it think that’s crazy, but that’s been in the works for decades and finally those people behind the scenes are going full bore and giving it all the push they can with Klaus Schwab as one of the main leaders, along with many leaders in industry, as well as technology following right behind, of course one of them being Bill Gates, as all those big wigs stand to gain should this scheme become reality, I hope for your as well as my sake it never will.
The push for this so called “New World Order” could also be seen, at least by some careful observers; how many governments world wide almost acted in “Unisom” and fell in line one by one as if all were singing the same song, originating from the same songbook when it came to responding to this Chinese created virus. Following up with draconian restrictions, new rules, forfeiture of civil rights as well as curtailing freedom etc. No doubt, some of you may have gotten a taste when they saw what crap Justin Trudeau tried to inflict upon his constituencies and how ruthless he and his cohorts went about to enforce it. That’s what dictatorship is all about.
In other words it was more or less just what you may call a “Dry run” for “The Powers to be” to find out how the public would respond and then tailor any further actions accordingly. Of course Putin had a mind of his own and did not fall for this “Crap”, call it scheme and for this reason they decided to punish him as he was the person who would NOT CONFORM TO THEIR WISHES. And the people of the Ukraine are being used as poor pawns to be used in this power struggle. I may be wrong, as I have been many times before, but in this case I don’t think so.
Very interesting!
Hitler took over Austria because he believed it to be part of Germany same with Czechoslovakia the following year. When will it end for Putin?
Indeed. The end goal of this invasion is the creation of the NewSSR.
Uniting Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and perhaps some of the Stans into a new country under Putin’s control.
bkmrk
Good question. Has their been a tacit NWO agreement with Putin? Faux media outrage is cover…
It also follows very closely quips from Putin in the past ten years. If so, whatever the “discussions” lead to, the result in Putin’s mind will be Ukraine in my fold. The blather of buffer state was BS, Ukraine is not the only area where Putin abuts NATO.
And China views Taiwan (formosa) as a breakaway province. Hum.
Well, one thing is for SURE, and that is a ONE WORLD order...the Bible is clear on its prophecy about the future and so we have to believe that we are in the end times or atleast the start of the end times.
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