6. National Attitudes
This is a new navigation tool toward current thought in various national settings, (if we can apprehend them)? Who are the thought leaders? Do they have any influence?
In the west they mostly seem censored and denigrated. You are “either with us: or against us”. that makes talk of peace a traitorous act. I believe in many regions (also Russia), people have flexible attitudes. If they convince themselves long-term best scenarios are difficult, maybe short-term personal advantage is enough for now.
You could just call these people "vipers", or wiggly snakes, but let's leave that aside, and just call it "real-politic". They are the collective morals of this modern (helpless) age. What do I stand for???? ME - OF COURSE.
__________________
Europe is in a very interesting stage. All of their contradiction are blatantly showing through the cracks. It is a time of fracture and great European transparency, much to their chagrin.
___________________
China is very obscure. Who speaks out in China? The official thought is “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, (for a new age).” What the hell does that mean? I can’t decode it. Market, Development, Technology, both Economic and Political power, Globalism. So much to unwind.
___________________
IRAN has power but patience. Why jump into a confrontation? (I can’t translate Farsi.)
___________________
INDEX: Contemporary Thought on foreign and domestic Russian Policy.
How can we know people’s true objectives on the international scene? It should be obvious that true goals are held in secret, not to allow premature opposition. The heads of state have a role to propagate a national narrative. We are the “good guys” and our policies are for the betterment of all.
1. Review of Russia's Foreign Policy Climate 2012 - 2018
No book can be comprehensive abut Russian foreign policy without considering the (now) 3 years of war in the Ukraine. This is only the "run-up" to the Ukrainian war, (written in 2019), so it must be incomplete. But it is a vital groundwork to remember all the twists and turns. You can find on line:
2. BACKGROUND ON UKRAINE, Yanukovych 2002 – 2014
Here is an overview of the main stages of the crisis as it unfolded—from President Viktor Yanukovych's sudden withdrawal from negotiations with the European Union about an Association Agreement (AA), in November 2013, until September 2014, when the ceasefire agreed to by Moscow and Kyiv marked the end of the summer military campaign. We can also look be…
3. Another look at the Euro-Maidan and its Snipers
A deep voice crackled over the radio. ‘Work, on my mark. With a three-second countdown.’ The silence was broken again seven seconds later as a second voice came on the frequency. ‘Okay, ready.’ ‘Ready’, said a third voice. ‘Three. Two. One.’ There followed the echoed sound of high-velocity rifle shots. ‘Three. Two. One.’ More shots. Then later: ‘Forty-f…
4. The American people are not going to war with Russia over Ukraine, full stop.
IN THE WEST, the post-Yanukovych government in Kiev seemed like heaven on Earth, a place for the birth of democracy; in Moscow, it seemed like hell, an anti-Russian cabal in its own backyard. “Unacceptable” was Putin's response. He had a plan, and he had every intention of putting it into effect. 4,525 words
5. The Generals coup d'état 1991, Yeltsin, and the 1993 Ostankino affair.
Here we are backing up to the time of dissolving the Soviet Union. The State Emergency Committee (GKChP) coup cemented Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Soviet Republic, as the dominant leader of the land and stripped the hardliners of their legitimacy. This drove a stake through the heart of the Union, leading directly to its demise four months l…
6. SHOCK THERAPY, The Harvard Boys - “Do Russia”, series 1 of 4
We in the west, and listening to narratives on how “we won the cold war” have no idea of what the Russian people were subjected to. I would say; neither did we care, being convinced that Russians were our ENEMY and deserved disaster. This post is a series
7. SHOCK THERAPY, The Harvard Boys - and the Troika, series 2 of 4
On top of the insult and danger of Western incorporation of former Warsaw Pact states into the NATO alliance, was the “shock therapy” economic policy of the “Harvard Boys” from the Harvard Institute of International Development (HIID) working on grants totaling tens of millions of dollars from USAID.[488] These included Undersecretary of the Treasury La…
8. OUN, Ukrainian for, Orhanizatsiia Ukraïns’kykh Natsionalistiv
We have been talking about the Orange Revolution and then the Euro-Maidan in 2014. I in no way say that the Soviet Union didn’t mistreat these people before, (and all people). That is another discourse that we are not considering here. It can be your call; what are the justifications in the cycle of HURT-HATE-&-REVENGE? But let’s go back further than…
9. Whitewashing Terrorists into National Heroes (Nazis)
Creating “The Book of Facts” During Yushchenko’s reign, his government repeatedly moved to make national heroes out of the OUN and UPA. They claimed these SS henchmen were wonderful, inclusive organizations that not only saved Jews but fought as their allies against both Hitler and Stalin.[725] They said
10. How and Why Putin got elected, & extent of his power
The Yeltsin campaign heralded the arrival of ‘political technology’ – the application of Western-style political communications and instruments to a partly authoritarian Russian context. The Soviet Union had been ruled by brute force and ideology, while the new era dawning in 1996 was ruled by post-modernistic manipulations and television.
11. First Years of the Putin Kremlin
We aim at managing dissent rather than crushing it. This ensures that every opposition political persuasion had a voice provided by a Kremlin-backed political party or movement. Liberals, nationalists, statists, environmentalists, rightists, leftists – all were represented (infiltrated) by a series of doppelgangers, (clones), stooges and pastiches in a …
13. I will try to sort out early excesses of the Putin Kremlin
‘Surkov created the Russian political system of the 2000s, and he almost single-handedly ran it’. The system Surkov presided over from 1999 to 2011, under three presidents, was aimed at managing dissent rather than crushing it. (I repeat this paragraph from last post #11.)
14. The Russian way of Deterrence, Dmitry Adamsky 2023, from chapter 5
In parallel, the Russian expert community has begun its systematic examination of the war. As in the West, exploration in the field of “strategic deterrence” is likely to become one of the avenues of Russian postwar learning. There is already sufficient evidence from Ukraine to pose initial questions about Moscow’s wartime behavior and to frame the post…
15. SEVEN CONSIDERATIONS TO THE RUSSIAN WAY OF DETERRENCE AND DEEPER QUESTIONS
[NOTE TO READERS; I haven’t been posting for almost a month, (although I had this episode ready). I am still committed to the Library. Recently I have engaged with outside projects that take me out of the office and away from the computer. We bought some land last year, and now I am installing a water-system. This is intense work and I am doing mos…
INDEX: Special Topics on the Soviet Union
Way before knowing of Substack, I endeavored to better understand Asian and Russian people with a large translation project digging into the Soviet Union. Principally, I wanted to know why it collapsed with what seemed like an unexpected swiftness. After reading, I determined that there were no single nor tight group of related causes, but there was alw…
So let’s look into Russia for a start: (guided by our guest “Perspectives”.)
5 p. INDEX FILE, National attitudes, and how they differ (guest post)
In Russia there are 13 political parties:Party name Share of the 2022 vote United Russia (Putin) 49.82% Communist KPRF 18.93% Liberal Democratic LDPR 7.55% Just Russia for Truth 7.46% New People …
6 p. National Attitudes, focusing first on Russia, with Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin
There are so many entry points into why Rogozin had a first-person view of the breakup of the Soviet Union. He had worked almost a decade at the Committee of Youth Organizations, the KMO. “I loved my new job right from the start. The level of political responsibility of a young professional in the Committee of Youth Organizations was not inferior to th…
7 p. National Attitudes, the Chechen war used to break up the USSR
First of all, the factors of the Soviet Breakup are so little understood in the west. We think that the West won the cold war?
.