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Category Archives: North America

Sudan’s Civil War: Smuggled Sudanese Gold Funding Russia in Ukraine

17 Monday Apr 2023

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Africa, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Europe, North America, Russia, South America, Sudan, transnational crime, Ukraine

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Burhan, dictatorship, Hemeti, kleptocracy, malignant narcissists, Medieval v. Modern, Political Criminals, Sudan Civil War, Sudanese Gold Smugglinig

The facts are just nothing new.

Sudan’s General Dagalo Hemeti has had both long-standing family interests in Sudan’s gold trade, and he has had for some time arrangements with Russian President Vladimir Putin involving Wagner Group oversight of smuggled shipments to Russia that bypass western sanctions and help fund Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The west’s hunkering down, bleating about democracy, and pleading for some cessation in violence seems old news as well.

So it goes here for the Sudanese People and others watching the struggles of ordinary good people against thieves taking advantage of their innocence to rob them of their birthright, their dignity, and their humanity. In fact, having displaced the dictator and war criminal Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese have helped into power, in the course of their powerlessness, two dictators in return, both of them former subordinates to al-Bashir. Of the two, Hemeti may have the more powerful relationship with Putin as he flies off-the-books gold to Russia’s dictator and serves as an envoy — for Putin, a diplomatic channel — to Saudi power as well.

Neither Russians nor Sudanese appear to have today a champion whose interests as well as psychology and temperament reside with them. The present three “strongmen”– al-Burhan, Hemeti, and Putin– appear to represent the evil that enriches and aggrandizes itself while lying without conscience to the nation each purports to represent.


Russia’s meddling in Sudan’s gold began in earnest in 2014 after its invasion of Crimea prompted a slew of Western sanctions. Gold shipments proved an effective way of accumulating and transferring wealth, bolstering Russia’s state coffers while sidestepping international financial monitoring systems.

“The downside of gold is that it’s physical and a lot more cumbersome to use than international wire transfers but the flip side is that it’s much harder if not impossible to freeze or seize,” said Daniel McDowell, sanctions specialist and associate professor of Political Science at Syracuse University.

Elbagir, Nima, Barbara Arvanitidis, Tamara Qiblawi, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Mohammed Abo Al Gheit and Darya Tarasova. Video by Alex Platt and Mark Baron Graphics by Sarah-Grace Mankarious, Marco Chacón, Natalie Croker and Henrik Pettersson. “Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin’s war effort in Ukraine.” CNN, July 29, 2022.

Cited or Related Online

ADF. “Russia Uses Wagner To Plunder Sudan’s Gold.” December 6, 2022.

Al-Arshani, Sara. “The two generals fighting in Sudan helped Putin plunder the country’s gold to fund Russia’s war in Ukraine.” Insider, April 15, 2023.

Cole, Brendan. “U.S. Ambassador Details Waking Up to ‘Gunfire’ as Fighting Erupts in Sudan.” Newsweek, April 15, 2023.

Copnall, James. “Sudan crisis: Burhan and Hemedti – the two generals at the heart of the conflict.” BBC, April 17, 2023.

Dahir, Abdi Latif. “Who is Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s military?” The New York Times, April 25, 2023.

Dabanga. “Hemeti charts official Sudan policy on Russia-Ukraine conflict.” March 2022.

Dabanga. “Russian FA visit: Putin appreciative of Sudan’s support.” February 10, 2023.

Dabanga. “Hemeti manoeuvres to brand war against Sudan army as fight against former regime Islamists.” April 17, 2023.

Elbagir, Nima, Barbara Arvanitidis, Tamara Qiblawi, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Mohammed Abo Al Gheit and Darya Tarasova. Video by Alex Platt and Mark Baron Graphics by Sarah-Grace Mankarious, Marco Chacón, Natalie Croker and Henrik Pettersson. “Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin’s war effort in Ukraine.” CNN, July 29, 2022.

Mackinnon, Amy, Robbie Gramer, Jack Detsch. “Russia’s Dreams of a Red Sea Naval Base Are Scuttled–for Now.” Foreign Policy, July 15, 2022.

NOVA News. “Sudan. who is General ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo, the man close to Russia who is behind the attempted coup.” April 16, 2023.

Oppenheim, James S. “Brief Reference: Wagner Group in Africa.” BackChannels, March 28, 2023.

Packer, George. “This Is Not 1943.” The Atlantic, February 3, 2013.

Reuters. “Sudan’s Hemedti seeks deeper Russia ties on Moscow visit.” February 23, 2022.

Walsh, Declan. “‘From Russia With Love’: A Putin Ally Mines Gold and Plays Favorites in Sudan.” The New York Times. June 5, 2022.


Deputy Chairman of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council and commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Gen Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo, called on the international community to support the dialogue between Russia and Ukraine. This is the official position of the Sovereignty Council, he said in a statement to the Russian news channel Sputnik yesterday.

Yesterday’s statement followed Hemeti’s statements last week during his Moscow visit, where he declared support for Russia’s invasion by saying that Russia had a right to defend itself and its people.

Dabanga. “Hemeti charts official Sudan policy on Russia-Ukraine conflict.” March 2022.

Hemeti knows Russia invaded Ukraine on a cooked-up pretext on which Putin could fluff himself at least in his own head.


A July 2022 CNN investigation exposed deepening ties between Moscow and Sudan’s military leadership, who granted Russia access to the east African country’s gold riches in exchange for military and political support. The relationship began in earnest after Moscow’s 2014 invasion of Crimea, when Russia began to eye African gold riches as an avenue to circumvent a slew of Western sanctions.

The 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the wave of sanctions that followed accelerated Russia’s gold plunder in Sudan and further propped up military rule, increasing Wagner activity in the country.

On the day before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Dagalo headed a Sudanese delegation in Moscow to “advance relations” between the two countries.

Elbagir, Nima, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Tamara Qiblawai, Barbara Arvantidis. “Exclusive: Evidence emerges of Russia’s Wagner arming militia leader battling Sudan’s army.” CNN, April 21, 2023.

Addendum: Related Online

Dickens, Olewe. “Mohamed ‘Hemeti’ Dagalo: Top Sudan military figure says coup was a mistake.” February 20, 2023.

Elbagir, Nima, Gianluca Mezzofiore, Tamara Qiblawai, Barbara Arvantidis. “Exclusive: Evidence emerges of Russia’s Wagner arming militia leader battling Sudan’s army.” CNN, April 21, 2023.

Lynch, Justin. “In Sudan, U.S. Policies Paved the Way for War.” Foreign Policy, April 20, 2023.

Uddin Rayhan.”Who is Hemeti? The feared former warlord vying for control in Sudan.” Middle East Eye, April 17, 2023.


Posted to YouTube May 8, 2023.

—33–

Tweets Enshrined: Compressed Political Poetry

15 Saturday Apr 2023

Posted by commart in 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Extreme Brown vs Red-Green, Political Psychology, Russia, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#MaligNarcs, #PolitCrims, DJT, malignant narcissism, Political Criminals, Russian Lies, Trump as Devil

I’ve been collecting memes from Twitter, and because they’re built for mass distribution, I have found the developing catalog handy as accompaniment or main point to my own undeniably crafted tweets. My silly goal: getting to “0” characters with a sharp point.

https://t.co/Q4HyCEfrpQ#DJT's not for #Democracy. As an #AutocraticPersonality or #MalignantNarcissist, he represents #FeudalMedievalAbsolutism and related cheats, ruthless methods, and threats. His base has become a cult fueled on false claims and rumors and held by idolatry.

— J. S. Oppenheim (@JS_Oppenheim) April 13, 2023

None in history have had opportunities so convenient for “speaking truth to power”:

#Russia stands ready to partner with all states in #Anomie #Antisemitism #Barbarism #Corruption #Dictatorship #InternalConflict #Kompromat & both ordinary-and extraordinary-#Theft (#Kleptocracy AKA #RuleByThieves). No political criminal is too small; no state too murderous. pic.twitter.com/ndBzh2bZQv

— J. S. Oppenheim (@JS_Oppenheim) April 13, 2023

Regarding the "rights of people in Donbas"-https://t.co/JpEtYGDtyR One admires your concern & hopes that you will stop taking nourishment from the radiator-distilled potato juice that might account for your delirium & surreal paranoid delusional narcissistic reflection of motive.

— J. S. Oppenheim (@JS_Oppenheim) April 10, 2023

I’ve harped overtime about Malignant Narcissism, its related process, and the Paranoid Delusional Narcissistic Reflection of Motivation.

Perhaps it’s time to let go.

As regards the tweeting, the furious pace of communications buries all “works” and even short periods of time in history may dissolve their relevance. In the end, one has only assembled a snapshot of a political moment encapsulated in the briefest of exchanges.

–33–

Rogue Russian State – A Reduction to Essence

04 Tuesday Apr 2023

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Europe, North America, Russia, Ukraine, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Tsar Nobody, Untrustworthy Russia

I tire of conveying similar “talking points” on Twitter, so here have brought together one tweet and a few exemplary references hauled into TwitterSpace to set the point.

And what did you do to the Budapest Memorandum?
Here's your narrative, 1992-2022-https://t.co/kyRk79vjQH
Perhaps no democracy or western state should have cooperated with you-from the Moscow False flag to today, how many apartment buildings have your bombed or villages destroyed?

— J. S. Oppenheim (@JS_Oppenheim) April 4, 2023

As time buries tweets in Twittersphere cacophony, I’ll follow here with what followed beneath the above post.

Satter, David. “The Unsolved Mystery Behind the Act of Terror That Brought Putin to Power.” National Review, August 17, 2016.

Politkovskaya, Anna. A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Nekrasov, Andrey. Director. Poisoned by Polonium: The Litvinenko File AKA The Murder of Litvinenko–>

***

Very little post-Cold War literature speaks well of Russia, frankly.

I had years ago created in my library a small “Russian Section” but decided against become a librarian as well as a faithful, thorough, and persnickety creator of bibliography. 🙂 Nonetheless, the basic reading has turned out a lasting experience.

Here, I would buttress the three articles noted up top with one more in sync with what has been Moscow’s political style since the early-mid 1990s: Schindler, John. “Exploring Al Queda’s Murky Connection to Russian Intelligence.” Business Insider, June 10, 2014.

***

Does Moscow need the enmity of the world for grinding against?

Or does Russia merely represent what is barbaric, corrupt, evil, greedy, and ruthless between men?

And does Washington need the enmity of Moscow to set is own pace in defense spending and related forces and technology development?

They’re questions worth asking but far beyond my capacity to address.

The one thing well known worldwide is that Moscow has lost all credibility in aboveboard political agreements (like that Budapest Memorandum) and normal diplomatic declarations (e.g., assurances about NOT invading Ukraine even as it positioned for doing so–and now we have the same talk about not using tactical nuclear weapons even as it plans to move weapons of the type into Belarus).

As the United States and others have led the world on the basis of competitive good conduct and productivity in trade — and with the happiness of nations having to do with adjustment to long-term cultural attributes and geopolitical realities–Russia appears to have fallen into the darkest of abyss with its “Tsar Nobody” attempting to accomplish by corruption, force, and theft what he and it have no wish to do peacefully. On Putin’s course, Russia evidently means to destroy, enslave, plunder, and subjugate rival powers.

–33–

(Soviet Era Russian) Heroic Realism

26 Sunday Mar 2023

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Russia, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

DJT, Donald John Trump, Medieval v. Modern, Trump

***

The search string, “Soviet Era Heroic Realism” yielded the second image–it helps to knowingly guess what one is after–which has the caption, “Post World War Two Russian Post–Young builders of Communism, go forth toward the new heights.”

We know how that worked out, and Stalin, at least in atrocious facsimile, appears to be with us yet.

Regarding Trump’s depiction, I have commented via Twitter (on Brigitte Gabriel’s feed) already this morning on Moscow’s Trojan Horse–he’s about that large too–in the Grand Old Party (of Greed), and here will relay the cannon fire in plain text and in a manner more easily accessed–>

***

Independently judge his character-https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/24/trumps-false-or-misleading-claims-total-30573-over-four-years/;

Consider his attacks on our Free Press-https://conflict-backchannels.com/2017/10/23/fake-news-genuine-fake-news-the-real-fake-news-get-your-fake-news-here/;

Look at his closest advisors-https://conflict-backchannels.com/2023/02/07/janus-notes-trumps-arrival-and-perhaps-departure-manafort-to-kise/

#PolitCrims; follow the money-https://conflict-backchannels.com/2021/10/09/trumps-america-in-retrospect-russian-real-estate-entanglements/;

Note how he does business-https://conflict-backchannels.com/2022/10/10/trump-corruption-narcotics-russia-a-glance/

***

Don the Con’s base or cult would in their own self-interest do well to recall his track record as an American businessman: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2022/09/27/djt-the-success-at-failing-two-tweets/.

***

The #GOP’s greatest issue?

Too many in the GOP appear to have stopped working for the United States of America and with fealty to the nation’s Constitution and the laws that have flowed from it and informed #Americans as a coherent and cohesive national community absolutely breathtaking in its compassion, inclusiveness, and vision. While some #Democrats have gone in for petulant historical exhumations and quests for restoration, the whole plus moderate and modern #Republicans have chosen–to judge by the last election–the more traditional American way forward, i.e., by elections fair, free, and secure and with affairs conducted honestly, openly, and with integrity.

“Trump is doing what he has always done. He walks to the line of openly calling for violence and stops just before making overt directives,” Kurt Braddock, an American University professor who studies far-right extremism and the ways in which communication and propaganda contribute to political violence, told Insider.

“In many ways, the implications are the same. His supporters who are looking for an excuse to turn to violence will see this as his implicit approval,” Braddock added.

Haltiwanger, John. “Terrorism experts say Trump’s ‘dangerous’ rhetoric offers his extreme followers ‘an excuse’ for violence if he’s indicted.” Business Insider, March 24, 2023.

Related Online

Bradner, Eric and Kate Sullivan. “Trump baselessly rails against ‘prosecutorial misconduct’ at Waco rlaly as investigations loom.” CNN Politics, March 26, 2023.

Haberman, Maggie, Jonah E. Bromwich and William K. Rashbaum. “Trump, Escalating Attacks, Raises Specter of Violence if He Is Charged.” The New York Times, March 24, 2023.

Haltiwanger, John. “Terrorism experts say Trump’s ‘dangerous’ rhetoric offers his extreme followers ‘an excuse’ for violence if he’s indicted.” Business Insider, March 24, 2023.

Guasco, Michael. “The Misguided Focus on 1619 as the Beginning of Slavery in the U.S. Damages Our Understanding of American History.” Smithsonian Magazine, September 13, 2017.

Oppenheim, James S. “Anthropolitical Psychology.” BackChannels. The page supports a number of URL avenues for further exploration of Donald Trump’s autocratic mentality and the too easily led disposition of his followers.

Oppenheim, James S. “Trump and the Question of Insurrection.” BackChannels, January 9, 2021.

Smith, David. “Trump describes 2024 election as ‘the final battle’ from podium in Waco.” The Guardian, March 25, 2023.

Subramaniam, Tara and Daniel Dale. “Fact check: Trump repeats false claims during rally in Waco, Texas.” CNN Politics, March 26, 2023.

Practically an Afterthought on Donal Trump’s Anti-Democratic Authoritarian Narcissistic Mentality

"“I get along well with Putin,” Trump said, adding that the Russian president discussed Ukraine regularly. “He wanted to get a piece,” Trump said. “Now it looks like he’ll probably end up getting the whole thing.” #DonaldTrump on #UkraineRussiaWar https://t.co/AHf5vVolJI #DTPutin

— J. S. Oppenheim (@JS_Oppenheim) March 26, 2023

–33–

#GOP: #NoConscience, #NoShame

22 Wednesday Mar 2023

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

GOP, Medieval v. Modern, Trump, Whataboutery

https://t.co/WWSFdvWknk; https://t.co/RhWdxl7M1d; https://t.co/nCcU5oQ5mo #GOP-have you no conscience nor shame?#DJT–#Bankruptcies #BusinessFailures #Felons #Frauds#GOP for #CorruptionGreedKompromatIgnorance#ManafortToKise, #ModernAmericans deserve better than your character.

— J. S. Oppenheim (@JS_Oppenheim) March 22, 2023

Alluded to in the above tweet–>

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2021/10/09/trumps-america-in-retrospect-russian-real-estate-entanglements/
https://conflict-backchannels.com/2022/10/10/trump-corruption-narcotics-russia-a-glance/
https://conflict-backchannels.com/2022/09/27/djt-the-success-at-failing-two-tweets/

#ModernAmericans should not be waking up to a daily feed of vitriol for and against #DJT who has proven himself time and again aligned with Moscow (video: “Helsinki Moment”), dependent on Russian wealth for bailouts or profits, incapable of running a straight show, and apparently bereft of such human basics as conscience, ethics, integrity, and normal moral principles and values (take the URLs as suggests: the themes are the thing and may be easily and exhaustively researched online).

–33–

National Security and Drowned Tweets: The Way Twitter Works

09 Thursday Mar 2023

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Extreme Brown vs Red-Green, Political Psychology, Russia, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

American Corruption Greed and Kompromat, American Democracy in Peril, Russian Invasion, Twitter and Tweeting

#ElectionDenialism is a part of a large puzzle that has become clear-https://t.co/kyRk79vjQH 1992-2022

I don't want to be asking (with despair), "What is to be done?" here in the United States.#ModernAmericans need insight, a plan, and the courage of old friends. #Corruption

— J. S. Oppenheim (@JS_Oppenheim) March 9, 2023

#Corruption should have been #CorruptionGreedKompromat.

#ModernAmericans may have a choice right this moment between a “hollowed-out democracy”–a democracy in superficial appearance only–or an authentic democracy, for the above-mentioned hash tag might get at the truth. Our #UnitedStatesOfAmerica just hasn’t been herself lately, and as one must know that Corruption is the Cancer of States, there might be an answer having to do with it.

Where are America’s sworn counterintelligence professionals on the possibility that we might have been compromised by our own tendencies with money and pleasure?

I’ve posed the question.

Has anyone answers?

*

I’ve noticed with my most cogent tweets embedded with BackChannels URLs that . . . no one picks up. For the qualities, which are very good, very few eyes seem to see https://conflict-backchannels.com/2022/07/19/detecting-post-soviet-russias-black-narrative-of-revenge-for-89-and-91/ on the Post-Soviet or Cold War Era, 1992-2022 or, on the Orange AntiChrist (#OrangeAntiChrist) https://conflict-backchannels.com/2022/10/10/trump-corruption-narcotics-russia-a-glance/ .

#WTF indeed.

Probably, if not “shadow banning”, the numbers in other twitterati simply swamp individual expression or voice. Individually, we no longer matter, and collectively, we don’t seem to count.

Related Online

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2021/10/09/trumps-america-in-retrospect-russian-real-estate-entanglements/
Published here October 9, 2021.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/1163931/jeffrey-epstein-boasted-putin-millionaire-secrets/ – Jeffrey Epstein visits Putin.

There’s hardly point in chatyping since my most of my posts, including the above mentioned, convey reference that leads to more reference.

#ModernAmerican #RealAmericans and, for each of us, all our old friends who really believed in democracy in support of rational, responsible, and responsive governance, some way of coming together, of organizing, of being together, would be helpful.

–33–

#HavanaSyndrome Havana Syndrome – A Small Disagreement with ‘Findings’

06 Monday Mar 2023

Posted by commart in 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#HavanaSyndrome, Havana Syndrome

I had caught a glimpse of a now truncated Wikipedia page for the Navy’s first and foremost Science and Technology organization prior to the establishment of the Office of Naval Research, i.e., Office of Scientific Research and Development, so there’s no point now in putting in the URL as a response to the search term “psycho-acoustic research, conscientious objectors” would no longer be found there. That Orwellian absence will, of course, thin support for the contention to nothing.

Almost.

Since when has tinnitus ever been associated with Covid?

And just like that, all of a sudden?

And since when has any “mass psychosis” been associated with unusual experiences of sound?

Oaths of Office

Government officials and military officers in the United States of America take a very special oath of office in their commitments to public service at the executive level. It is an oath not to any agency or person but a pledge to defend the Constitution of the nation itself. Implicit in that pledge is the promise to defend democracy, dignity, freedom, and humanity itself in a structured way envisioned by the Founding Fathers. It seems a long way from those 18th Century visionaries to ourselves now mired in division and suspicious of government, but there is this moment (must I take a screenshot?) on the public page of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence a statement about Truth: “We seek the truth; speak truth to power; and obtain, analyze, and provide intelligence objectively.”

So says the DNI, whom one might remind of Cromwell’s dictum, ““Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”–Lord Acton to Bishop Creighton, 1877.

I would press for further review, and in secret if needs be, of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Office of Naval Research in relation to what has come to be called and puzzled as “Havana Syndrome”.

This morning, I tweeted the following to investigative journalists Michael Isikoff and John Hudson who have recently published on the topic in Yahoo News and The Washington Post.

I wish not to see Americans enslaved — yet another medical mystery! — by a phenomenon as yet unproven to have any basis in biology (oh, well, maybe that will show up tomorrow in new “research”).

My friends who have had tinnitus have associated it with loud music; others have perhaps had some damage related to combat or some macho hours or years at the firing range, and we all do age and may experience some hearing loss, but this seems different and the findings dissatisfying.

Three of the Morning’s Tweets

1.

Just this once (or twice): "psycho-acoustic research" was part of the repertoire of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) prior to becoming the Office of Naval Research. I had picked the term off the OSRD Wikipedia page, which has been altered. #HavanaSignal

— J. S. Oppenheim (@JS_Oppenheim) March 6, 2023

2.

#AmericanCharacterAndIntegrity #OrwellInAmerica #Tinnitus has never before been some generalized population issue. Loud music, firearms use, construction noise x ageing accounts for high ringing and hearing loss, not a repertoire of sounds. #ONR #FBI #GreedInAmerica Someone lied.

— J. S. Oppenheim (@JS_Oppenheim) March 6, 2023

3.

I'm a pro-democracy advocate via my blog-https://t.co/zDTuTBjziz and this Twitter feed.

Related: the death of restaurateur Kent Taylor-https://t.co/cVPb091JHU Funny tinnitus has never been listed before as a post-Covid symptom. A stint in Bermuda had afforded him relief.

— J. S. Oppenheim (@JS_Oppenheim) March 6, 2023

The intrepid may wish to check on Kent Taylor’s stay in Bermuda. I thought I had read that somewhere but can’t find my source online–and not too much into this issue, I hadn’t saved it address. In any case, at the time of his travail, the phenomenon was not so widespread nor so variously described.

–33–

Z->Western End of the Soviet Era & Putinism

28 Tuesday Feb 2023

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Epistemology, Europe, Great Britain and United Kingdom, North America, Political Psychology, Russia, Ukraine

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

East-West Rivalry

ㄥ & 7 = Z

2022-1945 = 77 (years)

Zapad -> West.

As with that other now infamous symbol, “9/11”, Putin’s world appears to delight in rich metonymy: “911” emergency call number in the United States; “9/11/1877”–Felix Dzerzhinsky’s birth date. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, we have had yet another cruel symbolic ‘joke’ from Moscow’s most criminal mind: “Z”.

So far, KGB Putin has driven his “Z” into ideologically westward Ukraine only to see armored columns destroyed time and again while sending into battle ill-trained poorly equipped troops who may rightfully consider themselves “cannon fodder”. The rest is numbers.

Putin’s goal in his malign narcissistic fashion: the imprint in Russian popular memory of his courageous-heroic image–a projection covering fear of his own humiliation, which, ironically, he is now handily creating himself with the useful idiots one might call his enablers; also and still related to his narcissism and all the more criminal for it, his own restoration but viewed in the reflection of restored empire starting with the Soviet “Near Abroad”.

The Damaged West

In the 9/11 narrative, the Russian side has Zawahiri “detained” over the winter of 1996/7. Whatever the American story might be, i.e., hapless blundering while the crews got themselves through jet flying school or the “9/11 Truth” argument, the event put Radical Islam on America’s collective cognitive map–or let’s just call into its “enhanced political perception”–and created a patriotic wake-up that headed full throttle toward the “New Nationalism” that would help along the autocratic, narcissistic, xenophobic campaign that would boost Donald Trump’s ascent to power in 2016. In foreign affairs, the same and similar Muslim-identified terror attacks would ease the way for Erdogan’s archaic autocratic consolidation, Le Pen’s prominence in France (with Putin’s approval and possibly his assistance as well), and Orban’s methodical retrograde reactionary degrading of democracy in Hungary. Even though Russia’s invasion of Ukraine–and the perhaps unintended elevation of Volodymyr Zelensky as a Churchillian world-class leader in time of war–brought the Atlantic Alliance to its feet with its hands reaching for the check books, the most familiar indices of nation strength, i.e., political cohesion and coherence, have been altered.

Toward Western Political Repair and Russia’s Liberation From Tyranny

At this time, a year of war in Europe, mass displacements and migration, and the confrontation with Moscow’s evil have strengthened western resolve, and if the Russian Mafia State is not to drain patience and treasuries by drawing out its war, which might be for Putin & Nefarious Company just another “Frozen Conflict”, the whole will have to methodically degrade and hollow out from within Tsar Nobody’s domain with hope that more noble forces presently intimidated and suffocated by Putin’s manipulations will find their way back to daylight and embark on a path of their own toward greater integrity and responsibility in modern governance.

While NATO works up its own broad-spectrum defense capability-in-response, EU/NATO constituencies may wish to revisit Russian Political Absolutism and secret police state history from the Imperial to Bolshevik to Putin eras and ask how so much power could possibly be wrapped into such myopic and small nut balls. Perhaps where force has worked in relation to domestic order in the past it now primarily inspires contempt and resentment (as it should).

Today’s West should have no place for Tsar Nobody or anyone like him.

Related Online

AFP. “Russians and American share spacecraft despite nation’s enmity over Ukraine.” The Guardian, September 21, 2022.

Amaro, Silvia. “Russia ties haunt far-right candidate Le Pen as France gears up for election day.” CNBC, April 22, 2022.

Arms Control Association. “U.S.-Russian Nuclear Arms Control Agreements at a Glance.” Fact Sheets and Briefs, October 2022.

Chang, Kenneth and Anton Troianovski. “In Space, U.S.-Russian Cooperation Finds a Way Forward.” The New York Times, July 15, 2022.

Coelho, Carlos. “Why Is Russia Losing So Much Military Equipment in Ukraine?” RFE/RL, May 13, 2022.

Cohen, Raphael S., Elina Treyger, Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga, Asha Clark, Kit Conn, Scott W. Harold, Michelle Grisé, Marta Kepe, Soo Kim, Ashley L. Rhoades, Roby Valiaveedu, and Nathan Vest, Little in Common: Prospects for U.S.-China and U.S.-Russia Security Cooperation. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2023.

Cole, Brendan. “True Meaning Behind Russian ‘Z’ Symbol Finally Revealed.” Newsweek, April 19, 2022.

Cooper, Helene, Eric Schmitt, Thomas Gibbons-Neff. “Soaring Death Toll Gives Grim Insight Into Russian Tactics.” The New York Times, February 2, 2023.

Council on Foreign Relations. “U.S.-Russia Nuclear Arms Control”. Timeline.

Dean, Jeff. “The letter Z is becoming a symbol of russia’s war in Ukraine. But what does it mean?” NPR, March 9, 2022.

Epstein, Jake. “Putin brags that Russian weapons are ‘years, perhaps even decades ahead of rivals as his army pulls old Soviet-era tanks out of deep storage due to losses in Ukraine.” Business Insider, August 16, 2022.

Galeotti, Mark. “Narcotics and Nationalism: Russian Drug Policies and Future.” PDF. Improving Global Drug Policy: Comparative Perspectives and UNGASS. Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence, Latin America Initiative, Foreign Policy at Brookings, 2016.

Gavin, Gabriel. “Putin’s push for a new USSR reawakens the bloody chaos of Soviet collapse.” Politico, September 19, 2022.

Gessen, Masha. “‘Z’ Is the Symbol of the New Russian Politics of Aggression.” The New Yorker, March 7, 2022.

Keane, Isabel. “Ukraine losing large number of troops as it boasts about Russian casualties.” New York Post, February 14, 2023.

Keaney, John. “US-Russia Cooperation.” American Security Project. 2017.

McCormick, Kiley. “Fast Reactors and Opportunities for Russian-American Collaboration.” Wilson Center, May 28, 2021.

Oppenheim, James S. “Malignant Narcissistic Process Distilled.” BackChannels, July 10, 2022.

Rahman, Khaleda. “What Marine Le Pen Has Said About Vladimir Putin.” Newsweek, April 19, 2022.

Schindler, John. “Exploring Al Qaeda’s Murky Connection to Russian Intelligence.” Business Insider, June 10, 2014.

Sokolsky, Richard and Eugene Rumer. “U.S.-Russian Relations in 2030.

The White House. “Guidance on Scientific and Technological Cooperation with the Russian Federation for U.S. Government and U.S. Government Affiliated Organizations.” June 11, 2022.

VOA News. “US Contends Russia Violating Nuclear Arms Treaty.” January 31, 2023.

Vexler, Vlad. “Putin: The Problem of Evil in Politics.” Video. YouTube, February 27, 2023.

Wikipedia. “Casualties of the Russo-Ukrainian War.”

Wikipedia. “Felix Dzerzhinsky.”

–33–

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Epigram

Hillel the Elder

"That which is distasteful to thee do not do to another. That is the whole of Torah. The rest is commentary. Now go and study."

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? If not now, when?"

"Whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whosoever that saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world."

Oriana Fallaci
"Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon...I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born."

Talmud 7:16 as Quoted by Rishon Rishon in 2004
Qohelet Raba, 7:16

אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate.

More colloquially translated: "Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind."

Online Source: http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/044412.php

Abraham Isaac Kook

"The purely righteous do not complain about evil, rather they add justice.They do not complain about heresy, rather they add faith.They do not complain about ignorance, rather they add wisdom." From the pages of Arpilei Tohar.

Heinrich Heine
"Where books are burned, in the end people will be burned." -- From Almansor: A Tragedy (1823).

Simon Wiesenthal
Remark Made in the Ballroom of the Imperial Hotel, Vienna, Austria on the occasion of His 90th Birthday: "The Nazis are no more, but we are still here, singing and dancing."

Maimonides
"Truth does not become more true if the whole world were to accept it; nor does it become less true if the whole world were to reject it."

"The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision."

Douglas Adams
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" Epigram appearing in the dedication of Richard Dawkins' The GOD Delusion.

Thucydides
"The Nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools."

Milan Kundera
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting."

Malala Yousafzai
“The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

Tanit Nima Tinat
"Who could die of love?"

What I Have Said About the Jews

My people, not that I speak for them, I nonetheless describe as a "global ethnic commune with its heart in Jerusalem and soul in the Land of Israel."

We have never given up on God, nor have we ever given up on one another.

Many things we have given up, but no one misses, say, animal sacrifice, and as many things we have kept, so we have still to welcome our Sabbath on Friday at sunset and to rest all of Saturday until three stars appear in the sky.

Most of all, through 5,773 years, wherever life has taken us, through the greatest triumphs and the most awful tragedies, we have preserved our tribal identity and soul, and so shall we continue eternally.

Anti-Semitism / Anti-Zionism = Signal of Fascism

I may suggest that anti-Zionism / anti-Semitism are signal (a little bit) of fascist urges, and the Left -- I'm an old liberal: I know my heart -- has been vulnerable to manipulation by what appears to me as a "Red Brown Green Alliance" driven by a handful of powerful autocrats intent on sustaining a medieval worldview in service to their own glorification. (And there I will stop).
One hopes for knowledge to allay fear; one hopes for love to overmatch hate.

Too often, the security found in the parroting of a loyal lie outweighs the integrity to be earned in confronting and voicing an uncomfortable truth.

Those who make their followers believe absurdities may also make them commit atrocities.

Positively Orwellian: Comment Responding to Claim that the Arab Assault on Israel in 1948 Had Not Intended Annihilation

“Revisionism” is the most contemptible path that power takes to abet theft and hide shame by attempting to alter public perception of past events.

On Press Freedom, Commentary, and Journalism

In the free world, talent -- editors, graphic artists, researchers, writers -- gravitate toward the organizations that suit their interests and values. The result: high integrity and highly reliable reportage and both responsible and thoughtful reasoning.

This is not to suggest that partisan presses don't exist or that propaganda doesn't exist in the west, but any reader possessed of critical thinking ability and genuine independence -- not bought, not programmed -- is certainly free to evaluate the works of earnest reporters and scholars.

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