The NEW START treaty was signed a decade ago between the United States and Russia. The treaty limited both sides in the number of nuclear warheads available and the number of missiles available to transport them to targets. Yes, it’s a very important treaty between the world’s two primary nuclear powers.
Vladimir Putin just pulled Russia out of the deal.
Should we be alarmed? Yes, of course, any time a major nuclear power pulls out of an agreement like this, we should all take note. But to be honest, if Putin wanted to use nuclear weapons in any capacity for any purpose, he wouldn’t let the niceties of a treaty hold him back. It’s not like the guy has ever passed an integrity test.
Putin’s all boo-hoo because his gamble that the west wouldn’t respond to his invasion of Ukraine has proven to be a major miscalculation. His miscalculation. Yes, aided and abetted by self-serving cronies, but ultimately his. So he wears the embarrassment of his military’s primitive and shockingly inept pursuit of the war. And this guy doesn’t wear embarrassment well. In fact, he will never wear it at all.
The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and Putin has been blubbering about it ever since, calling it the greatest geo-political disaster of the 20th Century. If I may, I’d like to suggest the beginning of the Soviet Union itself as the greatest geo-political disaster of the century, and it was a doozy of a century for disasters.
Armed with the same sense of humiliation, bitterness, and resentment that fuelled the Third Reich, Putin, like Hitler, co-opts these feelings into a sense of nationalism to agitate his population towards actions that he may take to “correct” this historical wrong.
He and his security services have long been at work subverting neighbouring countries that took their opportunity back in 1991 to break free of the Russian yoke. He interferes with all aspects of their existence, attempts to sabotage their democracies, and place Russian-friendly strongmen in charge of their affairs, like the hapless Lukashenko in Belarus. To the Russians, if we can’t own you outright, at least we can make you friendly to us. To create a buffer zone between Russia and the evil, always encroaching West. It views the Americans as puppet-masters hell-bent on the destruction of Russia.
After decades of Soviet occupation, the people of Eastern Europe were right to be suspicious of Russia’s intentions. They had felt the boot before and were loathe to feel it again. So as the years went by, it was only natural that some, and eventually all, would reach out to NATO for protection. NATO, if you recall, is a defensive alliance created to deter aggression for, guess who, the Soviet Union/Russia. Putin, predictably, views this as a betrayal, and sees it as an offensive creep towards Russia’s frontiers by NATO. And that’s why he went to war in Ukraine, to stop the eastern expansion of NATO. And what will that war eventually yield? The eastern expansion of NATO, the very thing he hoped to prevent. Idiot.
Putin, Peskov, Lavrov, Medvedev. The whole clown car has stated that Russia would never be the first to employ nuclear weapons “unless its very own existence was threatened.” That seems to make sense on the surface, except for the fact that we have a pretty good idea who gets to decide that. It’s okay for the Russians to attack Ukraine, commit war crimes there, undeniable crimes against humanity there, but then get all offended when Ukraine hits back. Indignant that the West would help Ukraine, using this as proof of America’s intent to destroy Russia.
What a goddamned baby. He started it, can’t finish it, is at risk of it being finished for him, and pouts that everyone’s against him, and in that he’s absolutely right. Except for his equally attractive buddies of China, North Korea, and Iran (there’s a good-looking crew to have over for supper) he’s got exactly what he was complaining about. Everyone’s against Russia.
We are against Putin. I think we hate him. I feel I hate him. He is a danger to the world.
But that’s Putin, not Russia. Sadly, predictably, the Russian population eats his propaganda wholesale, just as they’ve always listened to Kremlin bullshit over the years. They don’t appear to know anything different. They can be treated horribly by their own leaders, harassed, intimidated, stolen from, lied to, murdered, exploited, drafted and sent off to be killed, and none of it matters. As soon as Putin or somebody likes him cries foul and says that the existence of Russia is at stake, they’ll do what they always do and rally to the colours. It makes them feel good about their national pride. Idiots.
There’s this piece of wisdom out there that says that you get the thing you most wanted to avoid by trying so hard to avoid it. And Putin has fallen right into it. Because he’s not the brilliant geo-political statesman he once thought he was, no more than Hitler was a brilliant general. He’s just a man, flesh and blood, with all the insecurities. Just like the nation he leads, perhaps the most paranoid historically on earth. The Russians are convinced that everyone hates them. They’re not far wrong.
For decades I had hoped for some sort of reconciliation between Russian and the West. But that’s not possible, and there’s a very good reason for it.
Russia.
Nothing is possible in good-faith if Russia is involved. I know people lie, and I know people cheat, all kinds of people, from all walks of life. But for the Russians it seems to be wired in at birth. I wish, honestly, that they would be like Alberta, and just build a fence around themselves and shut up.
We no more want to take over Russia than we wish to have dog shit on our shoe.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 