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How can you tell when a Russian official is lying? When his lips move. Today I have three Youtube videos from folks more informed than I.
In Russia it’s against the law to say “invade” or “war.” Luckily, I am in the land of the free, so I can present today an academic explaining things, a man who was also the Prime Minister of Finland, Alexander Stubb. Very street smart. After defending his fellow politicians for why they can’t admit mistakes, he tells us, for the years leading up to Ukraine, “Five things I got wrong about Russia.”
My pet peeve is leftists, trolls and Russia-lovers who think Russia invaded a sovereign country because NATO “made them do it.” By “expanding.” Even though the great counter to NATO, the “Warsaw Pact” of Russian allies, had happily disbanded because, “Who cares?” The Kremlin never said the word “NATO,” and even if they had, to quote a Canadian, “No rational person believes anything the Russians say.” No, the actual reasons for war are well explained by Stubb. For those who want to jump to a long summary— not a sound bite—I present Stubb’s concluding Youtube video.
https://www.eui.eu/news-hub?id=understanding-the-war-in-ukraine-19-conclusion
I fear certain naive liberals, because I fear they will turn the clock back, once the war is over, saying only Putin himself ever believed in imperialism, and believe that Russia will magically become instantly democratic and peace loving, especially if we increase ties of trade and pipelines. My current prime minister has awfully naive behaviours, of which I blogged on April 5 2021 in The Nature of Despots, and An Innocent Prime Minister.
(Say, I think Putin blew up the unused nordstream undersea pipeline just to make sure his successor didn’t have a better legacy. Like Trump overturning Obama’s accomplishments)
No, I prefer liberals like Stubb. I don’t think the Orcs will instantly start believing in justice. It baffles me that, in Russia, after their experience with the horrors of communism, civilians didn’t set up a counter propaganda word-of-mouth grapevine, or start secret night time “hedgerow schools” the way my people did. But the research is clear: Russians have a different culture, and the majority believe in their State television and President Putin, especially in the rural areas, the traditional power base of autarchs worldwide.
Today I present a Youtube by Cue 22, a charming, lively young lady,
(so unlike the Robot lady’s Youtube who disrespected Arnold Swartzenegger: see my March 25 post A Duped Lady Lies and Replies to Arnold)
She gives a heartfelt breakdown of exactly how the Russian leaders do their propaganda—with enough heart that western liberals and trolls have no excuse for still believing the Kremlin. How the Russians are still “true believers” is beyond me.
… …
… …
Sean Crawford
In a land where I am free to say, “The king is a fink!”
without the government allowing the camel’s nose in the tent, to take away my right to that that specific slogan,
so that… eventually… the whole camel is in the tent and we become just like Arabia, Russia and Iran.
October,
2022
Footnotes:
~Regarding Orcs, embedded in a nation that gets the army and the leaders it deserves (is fit for) the BBC reported on the efforts of a Ukrainian social media team:
… “The team then tried to appeal to the consciences of Russian soldiers by showing images of dead Ukrainian civilians. Again, it seemed to fall on deaf ears.
“We realized they were actually proud of it. They were not condemning this at all,” she says.” …
~I despise immature leftists who infiltrate a “peaceful demonstration” and then (NATO made me do it) say, “The police made us riot.” (By standing while wearing black)
~If you are tempted to organize a counter demonstration, like two immature kids saying “is too!,” “is not!,” “is too!” then you might want to stop and think: During the Cold War some one said democracy is not merely when the communists can book a community centre to speak one night, and some anarchists can book it for the next night, complete with free snacks for the public: Rather, it is when informed citizens attend both events, snack away, and then consider both ideologies. To me, it is fine to put on your counter demonstration the following day—thoughtful adults will still benefit.
