Putin's gloating TV stooges laugh at death sentences handed down to two Britons captured fighting in Ukraine

FOR MAILONLINE ^ | 13 June 2022 | WILL STEWART and CHRIS PLEASANCE

[MalPearce]

“Does that make us responsible? I do not think so, but it does mean that whatever mess ensues from this, don’t blame the Russians.”

I agree. We DIDN’T plan this war and we DIDN’T start this war. Putin did both.
And I’m not talking about 2022, or even 2014. He was planning it years before Euromaidan.

Domestically, Dugin and Zhirinovsky approved of Putin’s plan but both guys complained he was taking too long about it. But actually, America really isn’t one of the top five motives behind the invasion of Ukraine. It is a specifically Russian war, based on a specific Russian cultural/philosophical obsession, and bitter loathing for the West is really a by-product of reverse snobbery. Russia has a massive inferiority complex that is well-earned. Even Dugin admits (see the link below) that Russia is by its own volition a Rather Backward society, to put it politely. And he’s one of the architects of the Putin world view.

Yes Putin has a hard-on for rebuilding the Soviet Union, yes he wants the West to “respect” Russia in much the same way that Mafia bosses want “respect” - but that’s very high level. Putin is also motivated by several other things:

1. Hatred - for the people who enabled the collapse of the Soviet Union. Specifically, people like Yeltsin and Gorbachev, the “traitors” who created the “calamity”. The way he sees it, America didn’t beat the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union just surrendered.

2. Envy - Ukraine has oil, gas, grain, steel, and prime coastal territory. Poland has science, manufacturing, and is a powerful voice for eastern Europe in the EU. The Baltics are culturally rich, and an ideal vacation spot. And Russia’s got - shanty towns that look in worse condition than Pripyat. Russia is a failed state whose elite squandered the opportunities offered by the fall of the Berlin Wall, and that’s the consequence.

3. After thirty years of taking tributes from the oligarchs while selling them state assets at pennies on the dollar, Putin’s suddenly noticed that corruption and thievery isn’t just a factor in the rotting state of the country but it’s also the reason why the military equipment that rolled into Ukraine in February was such an embarrassment. Putin needs some big wins, and he needs them quick.

Channel One has replayed an old interview from Zhirinovsky. Zhirinovsky spelt out the action plan for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. He lists the regions of Ukraine that Russia intended to take back. His words: “Donbas, Kharkiv, Odessa, Crimea.”

Bear in mind, Zhirinovsky’s the guy who near-as-dammit gave the exact date AND TIME Putin was planning to launch the Special Military Operation away - last year.

Zhirinovksy’s the same guy who, in 2018, argued with a British journalist that yes Russia DID have boots on the ground in Ukraine, Russia DOESN’T believe in the independent status of Ukraine, and told the journalist “Forget about Ukraine... It’s our territory, our earth, our people. Ukraine, Belarus, Baltic states - ex-republics of the Soviet Union is our zone of influence”.

If I went through every interview with every talking head in Russia where they’ve been saying the same stuff since the mid 1990s, I’d be at the keyboard for days. Russian elites have never actually tried to deny any of this except where it’s been necessary to preserve plausible deniability. Like when Lavrov was denying Russia was about to invade Ukraine, mere days before it happened - but, over two months after Zhirinovsky had already blown the surprise.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1495513521454465036
https://twitter.com/i/status/1535803994831994880
https://twitter.com/i/status/1512682217511682055
https://twitter.com/i/status/1511658409963274246

And here’s a bonus - from 4 years ago, Putin’s Brain, Dugin, wrote this. Putin refers to the Tatar-Mongols in his recent talks, and alluded to them in his earlier essay on the unity of Russia and Ukraine. This article is one of many that provides some useful insights into what Putin’s talking about.

https://www.geopolitika.ru/en/article/pole-russian-circle-moscows-place-sacred-geography-russia