–33–
Three Medieval Stooges and One MODERN Adult Nation
05 Saturday Mar 2022
Category Archives: Conflict – Culture – Language – Psychology
Medieval v Modern: Russia’s Irredentist Quest to Conquer and Reclaim the (Orthodox Religious) Past
27 Sunday Feb 2022
If I could, I would give you tomorrow’s news NOW!
Unfortunately, cluing in the world to yesterday’s news and Russia’s blood-and-soil religious fantasia might be easier.
To such elites, all of whom fall on the spectrum of Western Educated Industrialized Rich and Democratic, WEIRD for short, Putin represents an atavism whose motivations they cannot understand. The Kremlin strongman adheres to a distinctly throwback view of international relations where the use of force is normal, and countries protect their national interests unapologetically, with all the instruments of national power. Putin’s wholehearted embrace of religiously-infused nationalism, which boasts a venerable history in Russia, leaves WEIRDs befuddled yet has real resonance among average Russians. Western doubts that the former KGB man has “a personal relationship with Jesus Christ” miss the point, but then the West has never understood Russian Orthodoxy very well. No matter what Putin really believes, his public embrace of religiously-grounded national conservatism provides his regime with an ideological anchor, one which happens to view Ukraine’s subservience to Russia as a spiritual as well as geostrategic necessity.
Schindler, John. “Putin’s Attack on Ukraine Is a Religious War.” Top Secret Umbra, February 24, 2022.
Related on BackChannels: “Read and Weep: Signal of the Return of Endemic Russian Anti-Semitism: Bausman: Russia Insider: January 15, 2018.
Perhaps EU/NATO should have seen this coming with the truth about 9/11 (i.e., where terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri spent winter 1996-7 courtesy of the KGB) and the reflexively controlled “New Nationalism”.
I’ll go “Full Tonto” on you here and add to the plausibility of the related “Truthers”: “Explosive cutting of a steel girder using Dioplex 30mm” (Alford Tech, YouTube, October 8, 2013); “Jonathan Cole-9/11 Experiments: The Great Thermate Debate-AE911Truth.org (AE911Truth, December 3, 2010).
Of course, Plausibility in no way neutralizes Deniability.
However, add at least one or two sideshows.
On the same day gun rights activist Maria Butina was sentenced to 18 months in prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent, the president stressed his support for gun rights at an NRA meeting.
Mak, Tim. “The NRA, Maria Butina and Trump”. NPR, April 27, 2019.
Okay, no biggie, but Butina most certainly chose to target with her charms a most conservative institution representative of not only America’s heartland but its gun-and-hook and healthy outdoor and clean living heart.
From major flag-bearer of democracy Anne Applebaum:
in the 21st century, we must also contend with a new phenomenon: right-wing intellectuals, now deeply critical of their own societies, who have begun paying court to right-wing dictators who dislike America. And their motives are curiously familiar. All around them, they see degeneracy, racial mixing, demographic change, “political correctness,” same-sex marriage, religious decline. The America that they actually inhabit no longer matches the white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant America that they remember, or think they remember. And so they have begun to look abroad, seeking to find the spiritually unified, ethnically pure nations that, they imagine, are morally stronger than their own. Nations, for example, such as Russia.
Applebaum, Anne. “The False Romance of Russia.” The Atlantic, December 12, 2019.
Donald Trump’s in this too: “Trump again praised ‘smart’ Putin amid Ukraine invasion and said the US had become a ‘stupid country’ (Alia Shoaib, Business Insider, February 27, 2022), and with good reason — on this blog, “Trump’s America in Retrospect: Russian Real Estate Entanglements” (October 9, 2021) — if I do say so myself (and I do).
Mike Pence, far to his credit as regards devotion and pledge of faith to his nation’s ultimately humanist and secular Constitution, has taken a hard line on Russia.
So, in my best Orwellian: Trump Medieval! Pence Modern! And “Pompeo Medieval!”
The Cold War–the west’s struggle against Russia’s Soviet Union and its Communist Party–has been regarded as having ended on December 25, 1991 in relation to the bankrupting of the state in relation to its defeat in Afghanistan in 1989.
With relation to America’s national security interests and international peace, what arrangements were made between the United States and Russian security cultures in 1992?
I have no answers for that.
America’s wacky political paranoia, however–more for entertainment than righteous cause, some portion of Americans has loved The X-Files, made pilgrimage to Area 51, and bought in on UFOs–has also produced a notorious anti-Constitutional Administration (2016-2020) — with its Head of State fully entangled with Russian money — and has done so in defense of lost eras and lost powers.
What happened back there — in 1992, perhaps — to bring us to this passage with a now former authoritarian American president steaming in the wings while a deeply disturbed and piratical Russian power in the figure of one Vladmir Putin makes a mess of modern Ukraine?
I have been breathing for 15 seconds after the last question mark, and I still don’t know. 🙂
However, we of EU/NATO geopolitical space have seen in action Russia’s Active Measures, Cyber Warfare, related Destabilization Measures, Hybrid Warfare, and the twists of a “New Nationalism” accompanied by authoritarianism and mafia drift in Hungary, Italy, Poland, Turkey, and the United States (add France in the making of a big deal about Marine Le Pen) — and on this day a warning and perhaps a bid from Russia presaging nuclear warfare.
Related Online
Applebaum, Anne. “The False Romance of Russia.” The Atlantic, December 12, 2019.
Good Times Bad Times. “Ukraine Defends and Waits for Supplies. Day 3. YT Video. February 26, 2022.
Mak, Tim. “The NRA, Maria Butina and Trump”. NPR, April 27, 2019.
Oppenheim, James S. “United States of America — Basic Training.” BackChannels, February 2, 2017.
Schindler, John. “Putin’s Attack on Ukraine Is a Religious War.” Top Secret Umbra, February 24, 2022.
–33–
Ukraine Pleas to Join EU While Russian Tanks Position for NATO’s Borders
26 Saturday Feb 2022
What are the obligations–ethical, moral, and legal–attending the watching of a crime in process that may be stopped by main force followed by extraordinary strength in defense?
First, the rescuer must survive the disaster too!
🙂
Then comes the business well known to those for whom the preemptive strike has been a requirement, not an option.
As I chatype and type, Russia’s invading assets would seem to be racing toward NATO on rails in Belarus and out on the highways and streets of Ukraine . . . in other words, out in the open.
For all intents, post-Euromaidan Ukraine has demonstrated steadfast devotion to becoming part of the western assembly of open democracies bound beneath credible constitutions and related rule of law while Putin’s Russia has chosen the stance opposite, i.e., a state devoted to a capricious dictatorship and rule of force.
Marina Agaltsova, a lawyer with the Russian human rights group Memorial, said those who did protest were extremely brave, adding that “Russians are deeply terrified of arrests and court trials over rallying people to go out and protest.”
Human rights activist Marina Litvinovich urged Russians not to cry and “not to be afraid, but to just come out and say that they are against the war,” in comments on social media. Calling on people to protest is an offense under Russia’s restrictive laws.
Dixon, Robyn. “Attack on Ukraine brings rare sight in Russia: Protests in cities against Putin and invasion.” The Washington Post, February 24, 2022.
Perhaps I urge fools to rush in, and NATO is no collection of fools, although one may one note the post-9/11 turns toward authoritarianism or polarization in Hungary, Italy, Poland, Turkey, and the United States. Nonetheless, as Putin’s Push comes to shove, the reaffirmation of the security compact appears accomplished. The question at hand would seem to be not “If” but “When” as regards the timing of an engagement. BackChannels may assure readers of this much: Putin, as often as he may get away with this simple dance, will offer NATO hope as regards relief from attack–and then he will take it away. Brutally. Time and again.
So why wait for the monster to finish ravaging Ukraine and positioning his forces on NATO’s eastern flank before stepping into to end that dark carnival of carnage and destruction?
Putin practices treachery, he deceives, lies, and steals through the betrayal of trust: would it not be fit, would it not be best, to play him in kind?
Related Online
Marusic, Damir. “Seeng Putin Plain.” City Journal, February 24, 2022.
Stimpel, Zoe. “America Is Afraid of War. Putin Knows It.” Common Sense, February 24, 2022.
Regarding Russia’s Behavior as a Belligerent and Criminal Political Culture
Politkovskaya, Anna. “A Small Corner of Hell.” Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
The three references were copied from “A Few References to Associate with Post-Soviet Russia’s Long Game” published on BackChannels on February 21, 2022.
–33–
FTAC: Putin’s Defeat
25 Friday Feb 2022
Putin’s not going to stop until stopped by violence.
Putin has cause to believe he has the edge in defense and energy assets as well as global positioning and latency or staging (as global defense assets existing in peace may be turned toward war with an order). As “gifts” to the developed world, Putin also has 2000 tactical nuclear weapons and a number of hypersonic (hard to hit) missiles, and at the very least, he will plant those assets on NATO’s border to sustain his program of intimidation.
By the west’s measured response to Putin’s aggression, it is merely enabling the same while giving up on its principles and values by keeping itself in the respondent mode when the more powerful option, which will come due, will be to seize the initiative and take Putin’s power from him–and, frankly, that for the sake of the Russian People too who have been deeply subjugated by Putin’s governance.
Putin’s Furnace
Where have we seen machinery like the before?
Related Online
Wikipedia. “Mass graves from Soviet mass executions”.
Wikipedia. “Memorial (society)”.
Wikipedia. “Yury A. Dmitriev“.
–33–
A Few References to Associate with Post-Soviet Russia’s Long Game
21 Monday Feb 2022
Blackmail/Kompromat, brutalization, espionage/infiltration, frozen conflicts, international kleptocracy, mass perceptual control, reflexive control, terrorism | x Russia or x KGB x FSB or x Vladimir Putin–you get the idea regarding the dimensions and evils faced by the world’s authentic democracies–and aspiring ones–and their constituencies in relation to Russia’s international character and operations.
The following and very few references may promote greater general curiosity (so one may hope) about Russia’s–and Putin’s Russia most of all–and its avaricious, barbaric, and generally ignoble role in international affairs.
The late historian Richard Pipes noted that Russia sustained a definition and test in sovereignty from which Europe chose to depart as it worked its way out of the medieval zeitgeist. While reading (most likely Russia Under the Old Regime), I did not take the note for citation, but it came down to this: the test of sovereignty in Russian absolute terms involved the ownership and treatment of property and persons as alike, and proof of that power could be found in the sovereign’s ability to destroy either at will and with impunity (my words, not Pipes’).
In Reference, A Glance Into Vladimir Putin’s Russia and its Black Soul
Galeotti, Mark. “Gangster’s paradise: how organised crime took over Russia.” The Guardian, March 23, 2018. Related: a book review of Mark Galeotti’s The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia (Yale University Press, 2018): Shelley, Louise. “A Tangled Web: Organized Crime and Oligarchy in Putin’s Russia.” War on the Rocks, November 15, 2018.
Nevzlin, Leonid. “The Result of 20 Years of Putin: Russia as a Mafia State.” Institute of Modern Russia (IMR), January 24, 2020.
Pipes, Richard. Russia Under the Old Regime. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974.
Politkovskaya, Anna. “A Small Corner of Hell.” Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Wikipedia. “Russian espionage in the United States”.
Afghanistan
Ramani, Samuel. “Russia and the Taliban: Prospective Partners?” RUSI, September 14, 2021.
Rowlatt, Justin. “Russia ‘arming the Afghan Taliban’, says US.” BBC News, March 23, 2018.
Terror
“Moscow will be happy, of course, to host dozens of international conferences, and will periodically suggest that a solution is within reach. But at the end of the day, its interests are best served when Iran, Hezbollah and Assad are in power to make mischief in the region, because that’s when Russia’s influence with the Europeans, with Israel, and the Gulf States is at its peak,” he said.
–33–
Liar, Thief, and Tyrant
20 Sunday Feb 2022
Tags
Damaged Psyche, malignant narcissism, psychology of dictatorship, Ukraine v Russia, Vladimir Putin
One more time . . . .
Malignant Narcissist in Terms-of-Art
Narcissistic Mortification: diminishment or humiliation –>
Narcissistic Covering/Splitting: covering the diminished, humiliated, or shamed damaged self / splitting off a courageous and heroic persona to be presented and sustained before the world –>
Narcissistic Manipulation: manipulation of the behavior and perceptions of others with behaviors ranging from gaslighting and lying to framing others and leveraging their behavior through various strategies –>
Experience of Unlimited Narcissistic Supply: experience of the sustained adoration, adulation, admiration and love of others en masse and without limit.
Related Online
Regarding the ideas represented by terms such as “Malignant Narcissism”, “Reparative Narcissism”, “Narcissistic Personality Disorder”, I’ve chosen to select reference both according to convenience and in response to my own experiences, ideas, and thinking (especially as regards the cited “Paranoid Delusional Narcissistic Reflection of Motivation” that is my own). Whether bullies on the streets, dictators in families, and imperious personalities in politics, the idea that the display of power, whether obviously malign or disingenuously protective (as our Lt. Colonel President Emperor and Tyrant Vladimir Putin so well presents), the relationship between the display of awesome destructive capability coupled with unparalleled wealth belies the heavy armoring and compensation needed to cover a much challenged and derided personality at an earlier stage. “I’ll show you!” and “I’ll show them” and “I will make them pay” suit the outlook of a tyrant whose damaged psyche may never be sufficiently appeased, placated, or repaired. History may come to regard the present Russian president as a man who could master associates, investors, mafia, and military but not himself.
Oppenheim, James S. “Paranoid Delusional Narcissistic Reflection of Motivation.” BackChannels, n.d.
Politkovskaya, Anna. “A Small Corner of Hell.” Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
Wikipedia. “Malignant Narcissism”.
Wikipedia. “Narcissistic Mortification”.
Wikipedia. “Narcissistic supply”.
Wikipedia. “Narcissistic Personality Disorder”.
Wikipedia. “Psychological Abuse”.
–33–
Ukraine is Free!
13 Sunday Feb 2022
If Vovo’s army invades Ukraine, it will royally piss Russian-speaking as well as Ukrainian-speaking Ukrainians.
Vovo knows that.
However, it appears that he’s convinces himself that he should be Lt. Colonel President Emperor Putin!
And he has practically formed and talked his way into an invasion.
And then what?
More kleptocratic mafia for Ukrainians, Russian-speaking included?
Vovo has no power — nor talent, actually — to build wealth himself although, to be fair, he has asked Big Capital to return to Mother Russia although much of it would rather stay in London–and with democracy and the rule of law–than reside in Moscow and the rule of mafia (and Putin the Pirate).
Vovo’s American pooch?
There’s a marvelous Latin-in-English (Roman-sounding, in other words) send-up on Facebook–I hope you may access it.
I would like to make something clear to Christians, Muslims, Palestinians, Europeans, and North Americas (not that I have forgotten Asians or Africans or anyone else): Welcome to the 22nd Century (I’m just a little bit ahead of my time), and we should all be fighting about and for improved Qualities of Living.
And add this ingredient: INTEGRITY!
Oh, Palestinian–may at least one soul recap the historical truth with you–and not against you: for you.
What is Herr Trump’s America’s Grand Old Party of Greed (GOPoG) doing about its very bad case of Greedosis? And what has every European to say about Putin’s “Medievalitis”?
Dismissible!
So one may hope.
And, Oh, Russian–EU/NATO and Y-O-U know that Russia is not Free: https://freedomhouse.org/country/russia/freedom-world/2021 .
***
Come 1992, the Cold War was over, according to the United States.
The Soviet Union had dissolved in bankruptcy on December 25, 1991 (I’m seeing a lot of opting for December 26, so, undoubtedly, as to move the west’s “Christmas Day”, a pagan holiday I myself refer to as “Solstice” — a few days late — off the political dates-in-history map).
Have a look at this apparent “leak”: https://www.businessinsider.com/exploring-al-qaedas-murky-connection-to-russian-intelligence-2014-6 .
So the KGB had a nice talk with Ayman al Zawahiri a few years before he and Osama Bin Laden had air crews learning how to fly (not land) big jets.
In diagram–>
KGB-Zawahiri->9/11->(x Reflexive Control) EU/NATO “New Nationalism” & BREXIT + “blood-and-soil” popularity in Hungary, Italy, and Poland + Full Feudal Retreat in Turkey + You-Know-Who (rhymes with “Dump”) in the New Populist United States.
Hmm.
It turns out that was a pretty good strike for the KGB/FSB sons of the Okhrana.
And today on the edges of Ukraine, Vovo wants to waste Russian and Ukrainian lives.
For what, Mr. Putin?
Your glory?
Leave forts; retrieve all other forces; expect the west to form defenses against barbaric threats from the world’s feudal-medieval epoch.
***
Who reads this blog?
Somebody in China.
I’ve been watching my stats.
Related Online
Live Updates, “Russia-Ukraine Tensions”, The New York Times, February 13, 2022.
Oppenheim, James S. “Paranoid Delusional Narcissistic Reflection of Motivation.” BackChannels, n.d.
–33–
Cold War. Enslavement. Poland. A Glimpse of Communist Occupation
08 Tuesday Feb 2022
Related Online
Snyder, Timothy. “1989: Poland Was First!” The New York Review of Books, December 9, 2009.
Polish History Museum. “The Solidarity and the Fall of the Iron Curtain”.
Wikipedia. “Soviet invasion of Poland”.
Wikipedia. “Soviet repressions of Polish citizens (1939-1946)”.
–33–
BackChannels 