• Home
  • About
  • Concepts, Coins, and Terms
    • Anthropolitical Psychology
      • Civilizational Narcissism
      • Conflict – Language Uptake – Social Programming and Scripting – A Suggestion
        • Language Uptake – Programming – On Learning to Listen
        • Mouth –> Ear –> Mind –> Heart System
        • Social Grammar
      • Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy
      • Malignant Narcissism
      • Narcissistic Scripting
      • Normative Remirroring
      • Paranoid Delusional Narcissistic Reflection of Motivation
    • FTAC – “From The Awesome Conversation”
    • God Mob
    • Intellectual Battlespace
    • Islamic Small Wars
    • New Old Now Old Far Out and Lost Left
    • Political Spychology
    • Shimmer
  • Library
    • About Language
    • Russian Section
  • Comments and Contact

BackChannels

~ Conflict, Culture, Language, Psychology

BackChannels

Tag Archives: Ukraine v Russia

Nordstream Explosions: Putin’s Probable False Flag

28 Wednesday Sep 2022

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Psychology, Political Spychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Nordstream False Flag Operation, Nordstream Sabotage, Ukraine v Russia

Putin probably ascended to office on the excitement, fear, and hope associated with the “Moscow Apartment Bombings”, quite probably a KGB/FSB false flag operation to produce his presidency. Best paired supporting reference: 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, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003–create violence ascribable to Chechen Rebels; promote the war by unleashing the same now familiar Russian Army barbarism on Chechen villagers; “win” the war (by putting in place an Islamist warlord–Ramzan Kadyrov–to contain it; and become a national “hero” thereby. Call it Putin’s modus operandi and linked firm to his “malignant narcissism“–(related process)–and related penchant for political theater and the perceptual control of others from which he derives power.

Call it madness too.

September 28, 2022.

Chances are Putin will “slow walk” on repairs, forcing Europe to intercede in stopping the leak while investigating it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin neither advances Russia’s conventional interests nor defends them: what he does is indulge in his own “messianic delusions of grandeur”, which ties to his malignant narcissistic psychosis, to project and sustain his own heroic image, cover and fend off personal humiliation, and in the end obtain unlimited “narcissistic supply”, i.e., the adoration of a mob too ignorant to comprehend either his evil or his sickness (essentially Narcissistic Personality Disorder).

Related Online

Bertrand, Natasha and Katie Bo Lillis. “US warned European allies this summer that Nord Stream pipelines could be attacked.” CNN Politics, September 28, 2022.

Pronczuk, Monika, Melissa Eddy, Oleg Matsnev, Johanna Lemola. “The top E.U. diplomat says the Nord Stream Leaks resulted from a ‘deliberate act.'” The New York Times, September 28, 2021.


Addendum

Addressing the Helsinki Security Forum on Friday, 30 September 2022, the NATO Deputy Secretary Mircea Geoană said that the damage to two pipelines in the Baltic Sea this week are of “deep concern” and noted that all “currently available information indicates that this is the result of deliberate, reckless, and irresponsible acts of sabotage”. He said that NATO supports the investigations underway to determine the origin of the damage; and that “allies have been exchanging information including with Finland and Sweden in this sense”.

NATO. “Deputy Secretary General at the Helsinki Security Forum: Finland and Sweden will make our Alliance stronger.” September 30, 2022.

AP, from September 27, 2022 and posted to YouTube October 2, 2022.

###

FTAC: On NATO’s Avoidance of Potential Nuclear Exchange Involving Russia’s Emperor Putin

10 Thursday Mar 2022

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Europe, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Great Britain and United Kingdom, North America, Political Psychology, Russia, Ukraine

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

EU/NATO Response in Ukraine, medieval v modern, Putin's Mental Health, Ukraine v Russia

The West had perhaps thought the Cold War over on December 25, 1991 with the announcement at noon of the Soviet Union’s dissolving itself in bankruptcy, but here with are with a post-Soviet KGB/FSB President Putin in power who while demonstrating his idea of logical reasoning repeatedly proves himself barbaric, inhuman, and irrational and only best in his expression of unhelpful and wholly destructive madness. He appears to have no insight as regards his own malign and narcissistic disorder, but his army knows it, his generals see it, his inner circle suffer for it and none appear able to stop him.

It would appear that KGB Lt. Colonel President Emperor Tsar Putin has given himself the power to destroy Russia pretty much on his own through the employ of those he has managed to suborn to himself and who now appear to tremble before him.

For Ukrainians, who are but the latest to catch Tsar Putin’s cross-hairs, the question comes up as to why EU/NATO so far refuses Ukraine offensive weapons sufficient for controlling its air space. The Atlantic Council circulated a germane answer in the form of a survey of experts and simple chi-square chart, and this morning when both plea and question came up on Facebook, I felt bound to respond.

From the Awesome Conversation

In what follows, I’ve added URLs where they would be otherwise absent in plain text.

Out of laziness, perhaps, I’ve chosen to plant surprises, helpful ones, in the URLs and forego the creating of standard reference (a “Related Online” section has been otherwise a BackChannels desktop publishing tradition).


Here’s the thinking regarding NATO’s official avoidance of war with Russia beneath the black cloud of Mutually Assured Destructed attached to any exchange of nuclear weapons and related and possibly out of control (worse: computer-controlled, according to Putin) escalation.

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/the-big-story/what-are-the-risks-and-benefits-of-us-nato-military-options-in-ukraine-our-strategic-risk-calculator-has-answers/

Note: Russia boasts two related threat assets: 2000 “tactical nuclear weapons” and fast-and-crooked (rather like Russia’s leadership itself) “hypersonic missiles“. Both may be easily looked up online.

Where the United States has forsworn first use of a nuclear device, Russia’s mafia-style doctrine has gambled on a smaller is larger option–and it is because the world has this smaller-leverages-larger nutcase getting everything he wants predicated on his demonstrations of ability to launch wars by proxy, his show of barbarism, especially in Syria (now Ukraine, and who’s next?), his support for “frozen conflicts” and terrorist organizations, and his employment of methods of political blackmail and compromise (look up Jeffrey Epstein’s visit to Moscow) and intimidation, he presents before all the challenge of shutting down what he would regard as his life’s work, piece of ____t that he is.

The first steps have been to erode his financing, hit his backers, and get Mother Russia — i.e., someone more authentically representing her — to take care of him.

The medieval world hates the modern–and His Malignance hates what he cannot absolutely control and plunder.


Update: An Argument for Increased Ukrainian Surface-to-Air Defenses

Rogoway, Tyler and Thomas Newdick. “Ukraine Needs Ground-Based Air Defenses Way More Than MiGs. Here Are the Best Options.” The Warzone, The Drive, March 10, 2022.

–33–

Three Medieval Stooges and One MODERN Adult Nation

05 Saturday Mar 2022

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, International Development, Iran, Russia, Syria, Ukraine

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

medieval v modern, Ukraine v Russia

Thousands of Ukrainians are continuing to express support to European integration and protesting against decision of Ukrainian government to refuse signing of association with EU in Vilnius. 27 November 2013. Kyiv, Ukraine.

March 5, 2022: In the Kharkiv region, the Ukrainian army seized 30 units of Russian equipment.

“I want you to know why thousands of people all over my country are on the streets. There is only one reason. We want to be free from a dictatorship. We want to be free from the politicians who work only for themselves, who are ready to shoot, to beat, to injure people just for saving their money, just for saving their houses, just for saving their power. I want these people who are here, who have dignity, who are brave–I want them to live a normal life. We are civilized people, but our government are barbarians. That’s not a Soviet Union. We want our courts not to be corrupted. We want to be free . . . .” Posted to YouTube by A Whisper to a Roar, February 10, 2014.

–33–

Medieval v Modern: Russia’s Irredentist Quest to Conquer and Reclaim the (Orthodox Religious) Past

27 Sunday Feb 2022

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Russia, Ukraine

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine v Russia

Russian soldiers killed: 3,500; Russian tanks destroyed: 100+; Russian combat vehicles destroyed: 500+; Russian jets shot down: 14.

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.

I’ve heard that religious wars are the bloodiest as there are no ends to arguments about the Divine or even its existence.

Screen capture February 20, 2022.

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.

Financial Times. “Ukraine war news from February 27: Moscow places nuclear forces on high alert, BP exits stake in Rosneft, Norwegian oil fund divests from Russia.” Live Updating Ukraine coverage. Financial Times, February 27, 2022.

Good Times Bad Times. “Ukraine Defends and Waits for Supplies. Day 3. YT Video. February 26, 2022.

Hayden, Michael Edison. “U.S. White Nationalists Group Linked to Pro-Kremlin Propagandist.” Southern Poverty Law Center, October 6, 2020.

Michel, Casey. “How Russia infiltrated the world of American religious-right filmmaking.” Think Progress, February 8, 2019.

Mak, Tim. “The NRA, Maria Butina and Trump”. NPR, April 27, 2019.

Oppenheim, James S. “Trump’s America in Retrospect: Russian Real Estate Entanglements.” BackChannels, October 9, 2021.

Oppenheim, James S. “United States of America — Basic Training.” BackChannels, February 2, 2017.

Rampton, Roberta. “U.S. Vice President Pence’s hawkish tone on Russia contrasts with Trump approach.” Reuters, August 4, 2017.

Samuels, Brett. “Pence: Biden’s Russia sanctions ‘don’t go nearly far enough’.” The Hill, February 25, 2022.

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

Schindler, John. “Putin’s Attack on Ukraine Is a Religious War.” Top Secret Umbra, February 24, 2022.

Shoaib, Alia. “Trump again praised ‘smart’ Putin amid Ukraine invasion and said the US had become a ‘stupid country’.” Business Insider, February 27, 2022.

Sosa, Michele Gama. “The Deadliest Religious Conflicts in History Explained.” Grunge, January 24, 2022.

Stewart, Katherine. “Christian Nationalism Is One of Trump’s Most Powerful Weapons.” Opinion. The New York Times, January 6, 2022.

Tsvetkova, Maria. “Russia, Ukraine agree to talks; Putin puts nuclear forces on alert.” Reuters, February 27, 2022.

Vasovic, Aleksandar and Alexander Marrow. “Russia, Ukraine agree to talks; Putin puts nuclear forces on alert.” Reuters, February 27, 2022.

Walker, Carter. “Who’s Charles Bausman? A closer look at the pro-Putin blogger who moved to Lancaster.” Lancaster Online, October 30, 2021.

Wikipedia. “Aleksandr Dugin“.

Wikipedia. “Night Wolves”.

Wikipedia. “Russia Insider”.

Wirestone, Clay. “Former Kansas congressman Pompeo quick to heap praise on Russia’s ruthless Putin.” Kansas Reflector, February 23, 2022.


–33–

Ukraine’s Black Thursday

24 Thursday Feb 2022

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Eastern Europe, Political Psychology, Russia, Ukraine

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine v Russia, Ukraine's Black Thursday


The Sun, February 24, 2022.

Posted by the Telegraph to YouTube February 23, 2022. Related to Hall, Sam, India McTaggart, Marcus Parekh, Genevieve Holl-Allen and Nick Allen. “US warns Ukraine of ‘imminent’ full scale invasion by Russia.” The Telegraph, February 23, 2022.

Posted to YouTube by The Guardian, February 24, 2022.

Guardian News, February 24, 2022.

11Alive, February 24, 2022.

“War is Peace / Freedom is Slavery / Ignorance is Bliss” plus Putin’s own additions: “Chaos is Order / Life is Death”.

Early today, Vladimir Putin AKA “Vladolph” AKA “Putler”, Russia’s President by way of assassinations, defenestrations, detentions, and rigged elections, launched his invasion of Ukraine, a young democracy on its western flank, turning back the clock to the 1930s and and further to feudal-medieval barbarism.


President Biden, February 24, 2022.

PBS NewsHour, February 24, 2022.

Ukrainians flee to Romania via border crossing in Chernivtsi Region in Western Ukraine

Live: #Russia launches war with #Ukraine #RussiaUkraineCrisis #UkraineRussia #Ukraina pic.twitter.com/l0MigS98vM

— Ivan Katchanovski (@I_Katchanovski) February 24, 2022

–33–

Liar, Thief, and Tyrant

20 Sunday Feb 2022

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Epistemology, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Russia, Ukraine

≈ 2 Comments

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.

Galeotti, Mark. “Active Measures: Russia’s Covert Geopolitical Operations.” Security Insights (George C. Marshall, European Center for Security Studies), No. 031, June 2019.

Kamphuis, Christian (Major, Royal Netherlands Army). “Reflexive Control.” Militaire Spectator, June 21, 2018.

Kowalewski, Annie. “Disinformation and Reflexive Control: The New Cold War.” Georgetown Security Studies Review, February 1, 2017.

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.

Raypole, Crystal. “The Insecurity Behind Narcissistic Personality (NPD) Explained.” Good Therapy, November 7, 2019.

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

Schalkwijk, Frans and Patrick Luyten, Theo Ingenhoven, and Jack Dekker. “Narcissistic Personality Disorder: Are Psychodynamic Theories and the Alternative DSM-5 Model for Personality Disorders Finally Going to Meet?” Frontiers in Psychology, 12:676733, 2021.

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

Thomas, Timothy L. “Russia’s Reflexive Control Theory and the Military.” PDF. Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 17:237-256, 2004.

Tiplady-Bishop, Lottie. “Jeffrey Epstein boasted about ‘flying to Moscow to visit Vladimir Putin’ as secrets behind his millions are revealed.” The U.S. Sun, July 19, 2020.

Wikipedia. “Active Measures”.

Wikipedia. “Malignant Narcissism”.

Wikipedia. “Narcissistic Mortification”.

Wikipedia. “Narcissistic supply”.

Wikipedia. “Narcissistic Personality Disorder”.

Wikipedia. “Psychological Abuse”.


Posted by CEPA to YouTube on October 24, 2019.

Posted by MSNBC to YouTube on February 18, 2022.

–33–

FTAC: So Russia Remains in Ukraine: A Comment

24 Saturday Apr 2021

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Kirch Strait Bridge, Raid or Trade, Ukraine v Russia

Observed: similarity between Blinken and Pompeo’s articulation of Washington’s support for Ukraine despite the stark differences owned by their respective bosses, Trump and Biden.

From the Awesome Conversation


Stable governance associated with democracies needs must have purpose and vision greater than the length of any given Administrator’s tenure. With relation to East-West Conflict and Washington’s stance, I’ve come to believe that Putin’s Moscow has come to represent a retrograde feudal enterprise revolving around its “great leader” and his monopoly on political power that much includes the dark “mafia state” side and its association with “frozen conflicts” and numerous dictatorships. Given that perspective, and Washington’s now lowered but still present interest in “truth, justice, and the American way” — just boil the BS down to “Integrity” — the shield set before Putin’s darker and older world requires a canny reinforcement before any western demonstration of brute physical strength.

In effect, our conventional and nuclear weapons have created a world in which the potential costs of war far exceed the prospects of profit for winning. That may leave the majors “flicking” and “trading punches” (like brothers) while working other cultural and financial maneuvers to expand their footprints (e.g., Russia’s “passportization” of its “near abroad”) or cultural longevity and relevance (more China’s game at this time).

To the side and regarding Nordstream 2 — or, for that matter, Turkish Stream: Putin has succeeded in reverting a portion of EU/NATO to the feudal mode in spirit or fact. I would consider Hungary, Italy, Poland, and Turkey compromised democracies x leadership or x mafia and related internal politics, but I think Germany more robust and capable of discouraging Putin’s sense of mission to this point.

Finally, and regarding Crimea and the region north, Russia has entrenched itself militarily and produced a major bridge (2018, I think) for solidifying its invasion through trade between Crimea and Russia IF it can boost control of basic services (water first) and economic development.

The Vikings often arrived with “raid or trade” in mind.

Not much has changed.


Kerch Strait Bridge, 2018.

One may expect Russia to defend its investment, now that it has raised its own ante, in Crimea, but it will have to do that through its own development and trade and not with further theft.

Ukraine’s history with Russia has its deeply interwoven aspects in relation to political control in Kiev, but if history has been rough, it has perhaps been most abysmal for Ukraine in the 20th Century and left its mark with the Holodomer associated with Stalin.

Last week, Putin fixed his image as both the most daring and fragile of malignant narcissists. The eyes of the world were on him and the ambiguities attending his demonstration, positioning, and rehearsal for the conventional wholesale invasion of Ukraine in a manner befitting medieval war with the world most modern and devastating weapons, including the thermobaric “Mother of All Bombs”. We may thank God for the apparent but well watched “return to base” of so many forces minus a few tanks (were they that expensive to move back?). 🙂

Well, bridges make a difference, don’t they?

They are never one-way streets.


Related Online

Dickinson, Peter. “All roads lead to Ukraine in Putin’s global hybrid war.” Atlantic Council, January 5, 2021.

Meyer, Christoph. “Europe has no excuse for letting Russia surprise it again.” Politico, April 21, 2021.

Smith, Hannah Lucinda. “They Cheered Russian Rule. Now Some Have Buyer’s Remorse.” The Atlantic, June 18, 2019.

–33–

Ukraine: Russia’s Invasion Force and Western Posture

15 Thursday Apr 2021

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Eurasia, Political Psychology, Russia, Ukraine

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

NATO's Obligation, Russia's Invasion Force, Ukraine v Russia

Has The West lost courage and heart before Russia’s continuous press to undermine EU/NATO political coherence, cohesion, and resolve?

Have Moscow / Moscow-Tehran-associated chaos and conflict and their fallout in mass migration tired the western public and made some parts benevolent and others mean?

Have Moscow-aided (Taliban) and Tehran-sponsored terrorism (Hamas, Hezbollah) made us — citizens of the west — defensive and smaller than we were 20 years ago?

Have western leaders been compromised?

This juxtaposition represents a conjecture:

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

Tiplady-Bishop, Lottie. “Costcow: Jeffrey Epstein boasted about ‘flying to Moscow to visit Vladimir Putin’ as secrets behind his millions are revealed.” The U.S. Sun, July 19, 2020.

There should be a song, “Kompromat” being so much a theme with Moscow’s mafia-style influence on the world’s foreign affairs. Whether or not some number of western leaders or their subalterns — or family members — have been compromised and leveraged — and some have already been made to bow to Russian energy projects — is something I wouldn’t even pretend to know, but I would consider it possible.

Would Russian tanks invading Ukraine then not be bombed by Ukrainian and NATO forces — or defending Russian jets not be driven from the skies by the same?

We are about 20-1/2 years out from September 11, 2001 and our Soviet/post-Soviet old Cold War foe appears on the warpath unstoppable, facing only western opprobrium and sanctions, neither of which appear to have affected any of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, martial and political designs, philosophies, or, perhaps, critical inner-circle relationships.

Shall we all wring our hands and say, “Oh dear”?

Should Putin not “take” Ukraine and plant nukes, for example, in Crimea — he is already defending that wholly invaded space (see, for example, Newdick, Thomas. “Russia Still Uses This Cold War Relic of an Underground Anti-Ship Missile System in Crimea.” The Warzone, The Drive, October 18, 2020)?

Where do American and related European posturing and prostration before Moscow (or Tehran) end?

Will Russia’s tanks be rolling into Ukraine before I publish this post?

Or after?

I have more questions than answers this morning.

The only man on earth who would seem to have answers would be the Russian president (whether Russians like him or not).

***


The Daily Mirror has had cause to report an assault force of 107,000 troops “amassed at Ukraine’s border” — a little more tease before you click to the piece:

EXCLUSIVE: Russia will soon have an assault force of 107,000 troops along Ukraine’s border, with an estimated 1,300 battle tanks, 3,700 drones, 1,300 artillery and mortar units and 380 multiple launch rocket systems —

Hughes, Chris. “Russia paints ‘invasion stripes’ on assault vehicles as forces gather near Ukraine border.” The Daily Mirror, April 14, 2021.


RUSSIAN tanks painted with “invasion stripes” are gathering on Ukraine’s border as Putin is reportedly set to deploy 30,000 more troops.

A local in the Russian Astrakhan region, 350 miles from the border, filmed the BTR 80 armoured vehicles with white crosses painted on them.

Ibrahim, Magda, Mark Hodge. “Trouble and Stripe: Russia paints ‘invasion stripes’ on tanks as Putin ‘deploys ANOTHER 30,000 troops to Ukraine.” The Sun, April 15, 2021.
April 15, 2021.
April 15, 2021.

🇺🇦🇷🇺US President Joe #Biden and German Chancellor Angela #Merkel agreed to call on #Russia to reduce its troops on the border with #Ukraine on Wednesday.

It's a move that reaffirmed their support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

James Vasina reports⤵️ pic.twitter.com/YZniFf4eeL

— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) April 15, 2021

April 15, 2021.
April 14, 2021.

–33–

← Older posts
  • Compassion
  • Empathy
  • Justice
  • Humility
  • Inclusion
  • Integrity
____________

Caution: The possession of anti-Semitic / anti-Zionist thought may be the measure of the owner's own enslavement to criminal and medieval absolute power.
___________

Recent Posts

  • Over Coffee–Opinion, Reading, and Viewing Recommended: Russian Payoffs to European Politicians; Chinese Balloon; Ilhan Omar
  • Ukraine Defense: Courageous, Righteous, and Tough People
  • Nicolas Tenzer On A Russia That Must Be Condemned, Defeated, Taken Apart, and Taken Down
  • FTAC: Why Putin Won’t Stop Until Stopped
  • KGB FSB ROC M-O-N-E-Y
  • FNS: Morning Lies

Categories

  • 21st Century Feudal
  • 21st Century Modern
  • A Little Wisdom
  • Also in Media
  • American Domestic Affairs
  • Anti-Semitism
  • Asides
  • BCND – BackChannels News Day
  • Books
  • Conflict – Culture – Language – Psychology
  • COVID-19
  • Epistemology
  • Events and Other PSA's
  • Extreme Brown vs Red-Green
  • Fast News Share
  • foreign aid
  • Free Speech
  • FTAC
  • FTAC – From The Awesome Conversation
  • International Development
  • Islamic Small Wars
    • Gaza Suzerain
  • Journal
    • Library
  • Journalism
  • Links
  • Notes On Reading BackChannels
  • Philology
  • Philosophy
  • Poetry
  • Political Psychology
  • Political Spychology
  • Politics
  • Psychology
    • Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy
  • Qualities of Living (QOL)
  • Referral
  • Regions
    • Africa
      • Central African Republic
      • Guinea
      • Kenya
      • Libya
      • Mali
      • Morocco
      • Nigeria
      • South Africa
      • Sudan
      • Tunisia
      • Zimbabwe
    • Asia
      • Afghanistan
      • Burma
      • China
      • India
      • Myanmar
      • North Korea
      • Pakistan
      • Turkey
    • Caribbean Basin
      • Cuba
    • Central America
      • El Salvador
      • Guatemala
      • Honduras
      • Mexico
    • Eastern Europe
      • Serbia
    • Eurasia
      • Armenia
      • Azerbaijan
      • Russia
      • Ukrain
      • Ukraine
    • Europe
      • France
      • Germany
      • Hungary
      • Poland
    • Great Britain and United Kingdom
    • Iberian Peninsula
    • Middle East
      • Egypt
      • Gaza
      • Iran
      • Iraq
      • Israel
        • Palestinia
      • Jordan
      • Kurdistan
      • Lebanon
      • Palestinian Territories
      • Qatar
      • Saudi Arabia
      • Syria
      • United Arab Emirates
      • Yemen
    • North America
      • Canada
      • United States of America
    • Norther Europe
    • Northern Europe
      • Sweden
    • South America
      • Argentina
      • Brazil
      • Columbia
      • Ecuador
      • Venezuela
    • South Pacific
      • Australia
      • New Zealand
      • Papua New Guinea
      • West Papua
  • Religion
  • Spain
  • Syndicate Red Brown Green
  • transnational crime
  • Uncategorized
  • Visual Data

Europe

  • Defending History
  • Hungarian Spectrum
  • Yanukovych Leaks

Great Britain

  • Stand for Peace

Israeli and Jewish Affairs

  • Chloe Simone Valdary

Journals

  • Amil Imani
  • New Age Islam

Middle East

  • Human Rights & Democracy for Iran
  • Middle East Research and Information Project

Organizations

  • Anti-Slavery
  • Atlantic Council
  • Fight Hatred
  • Human Rights First Society
  • International Network Against Cyberhate
  • The Center for Victims of Torture

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

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.

Archives

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • BackChannels
    • Join 352 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • BackChannels
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar