Tag: #Putin

Putin’s Odds (Part 4) – The Trees and the Forest

March 11, 2024

History is meant to work as an educational tool for those generations to follow. It is meant to provide direction for establishing priorities that will guide the deliberations of leaders. Blunders of the past have often resulted from national grievances that have been propagandized to a feverish level by authoritarian regimes with self-serving agendas. When war has been the result, the outcome has often led to catastrophic defeat for the aggressor and a protracted national shame but not without the inevitability of widespread grief shared by the many nations forced to confront the aggressor. … More Putin’s Odds (Part 4) – The Trees and the Forest

Putin’s Odds (Part 3) – Hopes of a Dictator

February 18, 2024

Like-minded authoritarian leaders seem inclined to form alliances to provide some assurance that their conduct, however corrupt and brutal, at least finds approval by their colleagues. These leaders tend to find their own justification in the role they have played in advancing some national purpose. It is actually more the case that they have elevated themselves to a place that allows them to adopt any form of aberrant conduct necessary to achieve goals more suitable for themselves than their nations. When such goals are threatened, as inevitably occurs, the desperate dictator will reach out to his authoritarian colleagues for support hoping it to be available for the duration of his troubles. … More Putin’s Odds (Part 3) – Hopes of a Dictator

Putin’s Odds (Part 2) – The Nature of People

February 5, 2024

The key to authoritarian rule in the 21st century is deception, concealing oneself from serious scrutiny while imposing progressive control over society by a variety of means including the establishment of a secret police to enforce guardrails that prevent the dismantling of that control. Yet circumstances arise whereby a black swan wrenches that control away bringing with it the realization of past deception reinforced by all the grievances left unresolved in the sordid affair. This is the recurring story of authoritarian Russia – the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) – a story on its way again to ending a corrupt regime in some catastrophic fashion. … More Putin’s Odds (Part 2) – The Nature of People

Putin’s Odds (Part 1) – The Dissonance of War and Economy

January 30, 2024

Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine is beset by a confluence of several factors, some apparent and others not so much, each with their own dynamic and shifting significance. The thing about chaos is its relative unpredictability in acute circumstances. The consequent unpredictability makes it difficult to foresee where and when a point of criticality is reached that will dictate an end to the conflict or determine a clear and inevitable path to that end. … More Putin’s Odds (Part 1) – The Dissonance of War and Economy

Orbán and Populism in Europe

January 5, 2024

Just across the border from Estonia on Russian territory stands a very visible sign with a simple statement, “Russia knows no borders,” a characteristically Russian self-indulgent bravado meant to intimidate a smaller nation that has stood firmly with Ukraine in its current war with Russia; a war by which Russia has made clear that it has no regard for the borders of sovereign nations. It stands as warning to any nation in its proximity – the Baltic states, Finland, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia. … More Orbán and Populism in Europe

Funding a War of Resistance 2022-2024

November 26, 2023

Several members of the United States (U.S.) House of Representatives are opposed to the notion that Ukraine requires their support in its war of resistance against Russia arguing, ostensibly, that enough has been provided to-date, that budget priorities should be directed elsewhere while repeating a narrative, without justification, that the distribution of aid to Ukraine has been mismanaged and much has been wasted in the process. The arguments are disingenuous, no more than contrived political statements that demonstrate a profound ignorance of the global consequences of their proposed inaction. … More Funding a War of Resistance 2022-2024

Putin, Latin America, Hybrid Warfare and the U.S. Border

October 21, 2023

For those who think that Vladimir Putin’s Russia and his war in Ukraine have little to do with the domestic situation in the United States (U.S.) and who likewise pay little attention to the influence his regime exerts in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America because it seems of little consequence for themselves or the world at large, it is more than time to reconsider. Since the end of World War II, Russia has been in a state of conflict with the U.S., vying for global advantage both militarily and geopolitically. The dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991 brought this to a temporary halt until Putin came to power in 2000. What followed was the reestablishment of an authoritarian regime with the intention of recreating some facsimile of a Russian empire of the past. In the process, Putin has gained for himself the reputation of an indicted international criminal and demonstrated to the world his disregard for the rule of law and human welfare. Putin’s conduct on the world stage has amounted to a series of atrocities committed within his own Russia, the Republic of Chechnya and the nations of Georgia, Syria, and now Ukraine. … More Putin, Latin America, Hybrid Warfare and the U.S. Border

Pro-Russian Gaslighting in North America – the “Tankies”

October 2, 2023

“Tankie” definition: an individual on the far left or far right of the political spectrum who aligns with corrupt foreign authoritarian regimes to promote their foreign policy agenda, thinking them to be superior to that of their own nation. (Russian translation: “useful idiot”)

“Thinking of things is difficult; therefore, let the herd pronounce judgment.” – Carl G Jung   
With that sarcasm, so goes the global campaign of Russian disinformation in its various forms spread by well-funded media trolls, ill-informed journalists, political hacks and academics whose bias exceeds the guardrails of scholarship: Enter the tankies. The rhetoric is commonplace and repetitive giving one the feeling that, despite its absurdity, the more often it’s said, the more likely it will be taken as “truth.” To be clear, the United States (U.S.) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) did not instigate the war in Ukraine as some scholars are desperate to claim and others are keen to regurgitate. … More Pro-Russian Gaslighting in North America – the “Tankies”

A Russian Identity by Order of Putin

September 1, 2023

A national identity is something innate forged in a manner sufficient to provide peoples of diverse origins, and the generations that follow, the opportunity to mold themselves and their nation into a continuing entity that holds to the same principles which gave birth to that nation. Realization of such an identity is often reaffirmed by national tragedy and a subsequent commitment to overcome it by the gathered strength of the nation’s people. It is also realized by a continued commitment by the nation’s leadership to adhere to the principles initially set forth and to speaking truth to these principles before the people. A constitution is meant to be a palpable reminder to a nation and its leadership of this commitment. … More A Russian Identity by Order of Putin

Domestic Putin (Part 2)

August 12, 2023

The perception of performance of a totalitarian regime centers entirely upon its leader. The attributions of success and failure all find their way to that leader ultimately to provide some reckoning as to whether the costs of submission were worth the necessary sacrifice of individual and societal liberties. Given sufficient time, as these attributes accumulate upon the balance sheet of history, a decision is rendered, from the outside and within, of whether history smiles upon that leader and, accordingly, the complicit nation in question, or turns away in disgust. Seen from without, Vladimir Putin’s Russia is acknowledged now by most nations as belligerent and threatening, devoid of humanity, and untrustworthy. From within, with its current trajectory, it is destined to become a failed state, contaminated by an innate and inherent corruption and incapable of adequately delivering the basic services needed for several of its widespread territories. After more than 20 years, Putin’s leadership has brought shame upon Russia and its people and economic circumstances that will continue to haunt the country in succeeding generations. It is time to look at Putin’s Russia from within. … More Domestic Putin (Part 2)