#we must humiliate putin

[tomorrowusa]

Putin probably won’t be watching Eurovision 2023

For starters, Russia has been banned from Eurovision for its unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. And the logo for Eurovision 2023 includes the colors of the Ukrainian flag. 🇺🇦

Ukraine won Eurovision 2022 and the winner of the previous Eurovision gets to be the host of the following Eurovision. But because Putin is still bombing schools, maternity hospitals, museums, and playgrounds in Ukraine it was decided to hold it in Liverpool in the Ukraine-friendly UK.

Although Sweden (which wants to join NATO) is regarded as the favorite for 2023, Ukraine itself still has a chance to win.

But it’s the Croatian entry which will make Putin throw empty vodka bottles across his long table at the TV screen.

The band Let 3, who have been on the Croatian music scene for decades, have a song which is a thinly veiled attack on Putin.

Eurovision 2023 Croatia Profile: 'Mama ŠČ!' by Let 3

'Mama ŠČ!' was written by Damir Martinović and Zoran Prodanović. It is an anti-war song, according to the band and they say that the "šč" is in the song because:

"'Šč' is the first letter of the oldest alphabet in the world. After Armageddon, which will happen sooner or later, a rocket will land on the ground, which will contain the first alphabet".

The band claims that the song is a metaphor for the Russian Federation, and that they are mocking dictators for being "childish". There is thought that the tractor, which is mentioned numerous times in the song, symbolises Alexander Lukashenko, Belarusian president, who has supported Russia's invasion of Ukraine, by gifting a tractor to Vladimir Putin for his 70th birthday. The song criticises both leaders, calling them "psychopaths". The song, can, of course be interpreted in many different ways.

This song even got the attention of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

[T]he artist from Croatia, Let 3, who is playing a song called “Mama ŠČ”, a critique of the war in Ukraine that portrays Vladimir Putin in Russia and Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus as children who think that the world is their toy. Dressed as former dictators in drag next to fake nuclear weapons, the song goes, “Armageddon granny / that little psychopath / a little vile psychopath.”

In all its satirical anti-Putin and anti-Lukashenko glory, here is “Mama ŠČ!” by Let 3.

In case you’re wondering, ŠČ is a phoneme that occurs in Slavic languages, For example: In Ukrainian and Russian it is written щ; in Polish it’s szcz; in other Slavic languages using Latin script (like Croatian) it is šč.

The way that Let 3 pronounce ŠČ in the song is not that difficult – in case you wish to sing along. 

Start with the English phrase fresh cheese. Then snip off the bits at each end so that you're left with freshcheese. Too many English speakers underestimate their ability to pronounce foreign words – but that’s another story.

So if you don’t know who to vote for but really wish to stick it to Putin and his Belarusian puppet Alexander Lukashenko, vote for Croatia.

#eurovision 2023 #liverpool #ukraine #let 3 #mama šč #croatia #hrvatska #invasion of ukraine #vladimir putin #russia #alexander lukashenko #aliaksandar lukashenka #belarus #we must humiliate putin #making fun of putin #євробачення 2023 #мама щ #россия #владимир путин #беларусь #александр лукашенко #аляксандр лукашэнка #путин хуйло #лукашэнка – путинский пудель #россия проигрывает войну #путин – это лжедмитрий iv а не пётр великий #геть з україни #україна переможе #слава україні! #героям слава!

[animentality]

Tumblr is made of stronger stuff than most social media, I think. 

We survived being sold and the porn ban and being sold again.

The finale of Supernatural. 

We have witnessed the rise and fall of Facebook and now Twitter. Who knows what else we will witness, the death of Instagram, the execution of TikTok. Maybe we’ll see the rise of MySpace again, from the ashes. 

The death by firing squad of LinkedIn, maybe. 

I know I will go down with this ship, if there is any iceberg powerful enough to crack its hull in two. 

Let it come. 

I will see us through to the end. 

This is my embarrassing home of almost ten years. This site saw me go from a 15 year old teenager to a 25 year old tired adult. 

I shall continue until either it or I give out. Whether that’s in ten years or a hundred. Whether I am 35 or 95. 

Walk arm in arm with cringe posting, flower crowns, night blogging, indiecore, Mishapocalypse, Klance death cults, SU Nazi discourse, She-Ra paramilitary death squads, turbo gay hell, Putin Destiel Election, oh the stories I have to NEVER TELL ANOTHER LIVING SOUL. 

I hate it here. It’s so embarrassing. It’s humiliating. 

I can never leave. 

I couldn’t go. Could never say goodbye. 

As long as you are here, I must stay. 

As long as you remain, I must also persist. 

#twitter #tumblr #facebook #myspace #tiktok

[ohsalome]

How does a state become fascist? How did Russia do it?

A special kind of nationalism is needed here. To convince people that you were once great. That once you were a military empire — and then you were humiliated. This is what Hitler once said: “Germany was great, had colonies in Africa, but we were humiliated at Versailles

Under the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919, which ended the First World War, Germany had to get rid of its numerous colonies in Africa, China and Micronesia, cede significant territories in Europe and pay reparations to the victorious states of the war in the amount of $442 billion at 2012 prices.. Our empire was taken from us, and our people in other countries and former territories faced genocide. We need a strong ruler to come and restore our empire. To show that we are a big powerful player. And Iʼm ready to do it.”

Putin behaved the same way. He even said that if Russia does not regain its greatness, it will destroy the world.

Also, often in countries that become fascist, there are many economic problems. And nationalism, this feeling of power, can replace food — you will draw your happiness from this feeling, or from the awareness of yourself as a German or a white American. After that, you say that representative democracy is evil. That it allows the existence of LGBT people and the like, that the state is weak because of democracy. Fascism appeals to conservative, religious people who would not call themselves fascists. He tells them: we will protect you from your children becoming gay, from someone destroying your churches. And they often call all their opponents communists. And they get votes. Sound familiar, right?

[...]

It is ironic that the Russians, who were once rightly regarded as the victors over fascism and who now practice fascism, call their war "anti-fascist."

It is necessary to pay attention not to words, but to ideology. Putin can say that he is a liberator — but he is closer to Hitler than to Brezhnev, to Peter I than to communists. And this is an important argument in favor of why the Russians should not leave a single piece of Ukrainian land. For the same reasons why it was not possible to leave, for example, Warsaw under the Nazis.

Now Putin is talking about Ukrainians like Hitler was talking about Jews. He says that there can be no Ukrainians, only Russians, and that all Ukrainians are actually Russians. This position means that he is going to get rid of everyone who speaks the Ukrainian language. That is why all this delusion of the West about territorial concessions must stop.

#ukraine #war in ukraine #russia #russian invasion of ukraine #politics #russo ukrainian war #russian invasion in ukraine #fascism #nazism #yale #Jason Stanley #political philosophy

[itsyveinthesky]

Edit: There is now an official English translation of the whole article by Meduza themselves: https://meduza.io/en/feature/2023/06/03/the-only-thing-worse-than-war-is-losing-one

Meduza is a Russian- and English-language independent news website, headquartered in Riga, Latvia. It was founded in 2014 by a group of former employees of the then-independent Lenta.ru news website.

It asked the readers that supported the war to explalin why.

Sadly the answers paint a very bleak pictures of even young Russians reading independent media.

Some translated statements (feel free to correct if translated wrongly)

Andrey

35 years old, Volgograd

War ends when one side wins. Russia's defeat would mean national humiliation, which cannot be allowed. Consequently, one must win - there is no choice anymore.

Alexei

24 years old, Yakutsk

I do not support the war, but I do not want Russia to lose either.

Pavel

30 years old, Germany

I am angry at both sides of the conflict.

Anonymous reader

38 years old, city not specified

The only thing worse than a war is a lost war. It was an insane mistake to start it, but now it must be won, or else we will have the woe of the defeated. I don't support Putin, damn him.

Anonymous reader

36 years old, Tyumen

I'm not going to pay reparations for the mistakes of others for the next 20 years. No one talks to the losing side.

Nikolai

27 years old, Austria

I think the Western point of view is not quite right and agree with Putin's terminology of a unipolar world with double standards.

Artem

40 years old, Berlin

I have lived in Germany for 20 years and have never seen such propaganda. Western politicians and media have taken an absolutely one-sided position: Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is a heroic state, Putin is always wrong, everyone looks into Zelensky's mouth.

Ruslan

28 years old, Kazan

I neither support nor condemn Russia for the war. I believe that since Russia started the war, it showed the weakness of its diplomacy and its inability to negotiate with a neighbouring state. However, I also do not support the point of view of those who compare Russia almost to Nazi Germany.

First of all, Ukraine had a choice; it could have reached an agreement with us in the early days of the war before things went too far and met our demands. It would have lost territories, but would have kept itself as a state. Is land more important than human lives? Therefore, Ukraine also bears some of the blame for the lives of those people who died. I am sure that people living in the territories that would have been handed over to Russia would certainly not have made their lives worse. Perhaps somewhere even better.

Sergey

27 years old, Perm

I support the actions of my president and my country. Yes, initially I didn't quite understand the point of this whole "operation", but after a while I saw the Russophobic statements both from Ukraine and from the European Union and the United States. Anyone with critical thinking and at least some common sense understands: Russia is not a "terrorist state", we are only defending our interests and sovereignty. That is why I, like most Russian citizens, fully support the UAS, and if I have to go to war, then I will go.

My personal favourite

Anonymous reader

30 years old, Astana

In a year and a half, [my] authority figures and moral compasses have turned into traitors (who wish harm to the citizens of their country, call for sanctions and do not try to lift them), shameful people (who offer to surrender to mercy and blame themselves), infirmities and liars.

I still believe that Russia got into this war for nothing, very much for nothing. But the way out offered by those [politicians] I [used to] hope for is shameful, painful, humiliating and deceitful. It is better to wait for those who will replace Putin: Russia is full of smart people.

Repenting for three [next] lives, giving up nuclear weapons and paying reparations - thanks, no thanks. I hope that the war will end as soon as possible and that as few people as possible will die in it, both Russian citizens in the first place and citizens of Ukraine, and if I have to go to war, then I will.

#russia #ukraine #journalism #then again #The Russians had access to all the information in the world when they attacked Georgia in 2008 or when they attacked Ukraine in 2014 #war in ukraine #yeah ok wasn't smart to start the war but suffering through the consequences?no thanks

[mariacallous]

In the summer of 2022, as it became clear that Vladimir Putin had made a vast strategic error,  a cry went up from concerned and caring Western statesmen that on no account must the dictator be “humiliated”.

Emmanual Macron was adamant that, despite the Kremlin launching an unprovoked war of imperial expansion and committing countless crimes against humanity, the West must offer it an “exit ramp.” Meanwhile, the Biden administration treated Ukraine like a prisoner under torture: it provided enough weapons to keep the country alive but not the modern aircraft, tanks and long-range missiles it needed to escape the pain Russia inflicted.

Western governments feared crossing a “red line” and provoking Putin into nuclear war. Or they worried that a decisive Russian defeat would lead to Putin’s overthrow and chaos descending on the Russian Federation.

Chaos in Russia? My God, that would be intolerable, even though the West seems more than willing to tolerate chaos in Europe.

For in this dark winter the question is now what happens if the West is humiliated?  Where are our red lines?  And what is our exit ramp?  

Western success or failure remains in our own hands. The Institute for the Study of War is stating no more than the obvious when it says that, if the US and Europe stop their aid, Ukraine will fall. And that, if the West maintains and increases support, Russian cannot win.

I said these statements were obvious, and so they should be. Yet both the US and the EU are denying their force.  The European Union allowed Putin’s client Viktor Orban to veto a €50 billion aid package. Meanwhile in the US, pro-Trump Republicans are blocking  support to Ukraine (and to Israel and Taiwan) for the time being, and there is the prospect that Donald Trump will win the presidency in November 2024, and block it forever.

We know what a Russian victory will mean for Ukraine. In the areas of the country Russian troops have conquered, they hunted down local leaders who might inspire resistance, tortured, raped and murdered

What would happen to the West is a question that deserves more attention than it receives, however. The West isn’t a fixed place. If the term means anything it is a description of common beliefs and alliances shared across democratic nations. If the defeat of Ukraine shows that those beliefs are fatuous, Putinist politics will receive an enormous boost; not just in Russia, where the imperial and dictatorship would see its legitimacy enhanced, but also in Europe and North America.

Russian success would mean that, contrary to everything we were taught since 1945, dictators can reorder Europe’s borders by force, and occupy and terrorise an independent country. As that knowledge sinks in, the atmosphere in the West will turn foul and foul Western movements will thrive.

Talking about changes in the atmosphere or zeitgeist feels airy and imprecise; an improper subject for serious journalism. But the argument of this piece is that all societies manage with norms they take to be inviolable. When those norms fail everything changes.

If Russia can engage in unprovoked aggression and colonial land seizures, and get away with it, Donald Trump can deny the results of a legitimate election and incite insurrection, and still get to be US president again.

Trump, indeed, has already shown that he understands the dark currents of our time better than his critics. 

In June 2016, the then candidate Trump welcomed the “leave” victory in the UK’s Brexit referendum, seeing it as a sign that he would win the US presidential election in November of that year. Many journalists, myself included, thought he was an idiot. Potential Republican voters knew little and cared less about debates about British sovereignty and the Common Agricultural Policy, we reasoned. But Trump knew better. He understood that because the UK “scored a great victory” over the “global elite,”  and had torn up the old rules, enough American voters might be prepared to do the same.

 If US weapons delays continue into 2024 and Ukraine staggers or falls, it will help Trump’s prospects and the prospects of Europe’s far right parties. Every Russian success is a jeering attack on human rights and the liberal order. All enemies of liberalism benefit from Putin’s victories.

Imagining a Ukrainian defeat is not to play some kind of grim parlour game. The weapons embargoes hurt. They make planning for the future of the war impossible. Phillips O’Brien, a leading military historian,  says that “Ukraine has no idea what it will have in terms of… the equipment it will need to fight the war because it has no idea what the US will do in terms of aid. I’m struggling to think of a more difficult strategic planning situation.”

Like most historians and military strategists, he is astonished that we can even be talking about a Ukrainian defeat. The balance of forces is such that we should not need to contemplate it. First, credit must go to the courage of the Ukrainian armed forces.   Contrary to all the expectations of the supposedly competent Western intelligence services, they did not fold in February 2022, but inflicted vast losses on the Russian army and defeated the Russian navy in the Black Sea.

And then there is the brute audit of power.

Russia is a vicious state with a relatively small economy and delusions of imperial grandeur. As of 2023, NATO had approximately 3.36 million active military personnel compared with 1.33 million active military personnel in the Russian military. NATO had 20,633 aircraft to Russia’s 4,182, and 2,151 military ships, to Russia’s 598.   From any normal military perspective, an outgunned mafia state, should not be able to win a proxy war against the west.

If it does, three conclusions will follow, none of them comforting.

The power of malign minorities to dictate to the rest of us will be on full display. Most Americans and a majority of politicians in the US Congress want to help Ukraine. But a minority on the Republican right is blocking them, and the Biden administration is so lacking in political skill it cannot mobilise the majority to break the deadlock. Hungary, meanwhile, is a tiny quasi-dictatorship, and Viktor Orban is a Putin ally. If the European Union were a self-confident alliance of democracies, it would expel it. As things stand, it prefers to let Orban dictate European priorities instead.

I mention useless liberal leadership because so much of liberal commentary focuses on the far right. Journalist should be honest and report that the war is revealing a failure of nerve in the liberal mainstream. Everyone quotes from The Second Coming in moments like these, but Yeats’s lines are unavoidable: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”

If Ukraine loses, the liberal centre will not hold. The decision of the Biden administration to keep Ukraine as a tortured prisoner, without the weapons systems it needs to break free, will not just seem a cruel policy but a colossal strategic mistake, which threw away the chance to weaken the West’s enemies.

The mistake so many of us living comfortable and secure lives make is to believe that we can escape the consequences; that what happens in Ukraine will stay in Ukraine.

In fact, refugees will flood westwards, destabilising Europe and encouraging the far right. War won’t stop. Ukrainians will take to the forests and mountains and fight guerilla campaigns.  Emboldened by victory and confident that the West lacks the will to resist, Russia will push again into Moldova and the Baltic States.

Every cliché dictators utter about the flabbiness of selfish democracies will be proved true. Russia and indeed China will be able to tell the world that the United States and NATO were unreliable allies, who lacked the endurance for the long haul. Tyrants from Xi to Maduro will be licking their lips. Every illiberal movement on the planet will see Putin’s victory as their victory 

It does not have to be this way. But unless in 2024 Western governments stand up for what they say they believe in, it will be.

[nachoaveragejoe234]

Since I had to block a bozo who defends the hate of Russian civilians, (redjaybathood), here is proof of anti-Russian sentiment towards civilians, it's not propaganda and you ain't a tankie for calling it out.

OK, so I have to respond. Firstly, my criticism doesn't mean "I think Putin's behaviour is the right thing."

Let me ask you something. Why don't you lame Chinese civilians for their government? Why don't you call them names? Their leader is also a communist who threatens other countries. Why aren't Chinese civilians considered tankies? Why don't North Korean civilians get treated like they're part of the problem? Cherry picking.

Next, you're literally doing what the OP and many other people are calling out. Hating the civilians for existing and living in a dictatorship.

And since you freaked that I didnt send the links even though you can look it up yourself (meaning you're lazy), fine. Here we go. Now let's see if you try to accuse me of lying. This is the sentiment that lead to the Japanese internment camps which everyone agrees were wrong, but I know people would cheer for Russian ones. There's a LOT of Russia-bashing, believe it or not.

And serious actual hate crimes and attacks. All called "propaganda" by bigots.

That's arson if you don't speak German.

If a foreign minister needs to call you out, it's not propaganda.

NOTE: Dubs being put on hiatus, Russian non politial products like snacks and drinks being removed or given WARNINGS in stores, none of that happens to other "evil" countries like China. Selective outrage? I'd say so. And literal paragraphs about hate from the Wiki page.

All of these are civilians who are being treated like shit on the ASSUMPTION that if you're Russian, you must hate peace. Dictators are not the people. People are brainwashed. You don't have the right to judge the peopleof a dictatorship because they aren't born evil, they're taught to obey the dictator. It happened with Hitler. It happened with Stalin. It happened with Mussolini. It happened with Pol Pot. It happened with Milosevic. It happened with Hirohito. It happens with Xi. It happens with Kim Jong Un. Why is it that when it happens with Putin, and ONLY with Putin, are the civilians suddenly just as problematic as the leader? You can't judge an entire nationality based on a select number of people you've seen who agree (or pretend to agree, as many may not actually agree but pretend. If all you view them as is cowards, but you don't hold the same values to other citizens of dictatorships, you are in fact, a BIGOT and it's not problematic or propaganda or false to say so. I made myself very clear. If you still disagree that's your problem and you are a toxic person. Jesus fucking Christ)

Tell me again how being Russian automatically makes you a bad person and how civilians aren't victims just because they are living in a corrupt country. You judge the entire population based on what fringe nationalists and some brainwashed people say. Blanket statements about an entire nationality or race are NOT okay. Peoplewho criticizes this aren't automatically pro-tyranny. Not that you care or believe that.

As a bonus, let's talk about how America and Canada (my country) used to HATE UKRAINE, and they had Ukrainian internment camps.

Your reaction to this should NOT be "I don't think Ukrainians deserve peace". BOTH RUSSIA AND UKRAINE DESERVE PEACE AND TO BE FREE FROM HATE. THE HATE GOES IN ALL DIRECTIONS. THAT'S THE REASON WAR IS A THING. PUTIN NEEDS TO STOP FIGHTING. PEOPLE NEED TO STOP JUDGING CITIZENS OF A DICTATORSHIP FOR BEING FROM A DICTATORSHIP. THE MORE RUSSIANS THAT CALL OUT PUTIN ANY WAY THEY CAN THE BETTER. ALL OF THESE STATEMENTS CAN AND SHOULD CO-EXIST AND I YOU DON'T THINK SO, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM. "BUT THEIR LEADER!" "BUT I'M UKRAINIAN" "BUT LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE SAY" "SHUT UP TANKIE" "ORC/RUZZIAN AREN'T SLURS THEY'RE TRUE". ARE NOT EXCUSES. The orcs and Ruzzians are Putin and his lackeys, not the people who live in said tyrant's cities. Obviously people should help Ukraine, that's absolutely fine. But people should not do or say anything the people above have said. It's pretty easy to find out of touch comments on Twitter and Quora that blanket the entire population as the same "evil commie tankie orc zombies". People calling out this stuff aren't trying to make a competition of "who has it worse" when in fact war harms EVERYONE.

That's all I can say. Don't like this? Then you should really think.

#slavophobia #tw: xenophobia #tw: hate crime #anti russian sentiment

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

Well ... who would have thought that thinks are going to develope so fast...

Here's a little recap (chronological):

- Kherson is liberated

- Zelenskyy visits Kherson; the Kremlins barely comment it, but they're outraged that Zelenskyy visits "Russian territory" and says Kherson will always be annexed and Russian

- during his speech in Kherson, Zelenskyy says that the liberation of Kherson is the start of the end of the war - many experts agree with him: the majority says that giving up Kherson and running away is the biggest humiliation for Russia so far and a sign that they're losing the war / can no longer win

- Putin doesn't attend G20, Lavrov travels for him, but all the other leaders refuse to have the traditional "family group photo" with Lavrov; fake news about Lavrov being hospitalised appear; unconfirmed news about Ukraine also liberating settlements across the Dnipro and continuing with their counter-offensive are published; meanwhile the public's anger about Russia's G20 participation grows - the hastag #G19 gets started

- Zelenskyy gives a speech at the G20 meeting, introducing the Ukraine Peace Plan: 10 points for peace and to start negotiations and to end this war and saying again that Ukraine is ready for diplomacy and negotiations, but not with Putin as President and under the conditions that all fighting stops immediately and all Russian soldiers and military personnel gets removed from all Ukranian territory - Ukraine gets the territory from 1991 back

- the Kremlin doesn't comment the G20 speech, Lavrov speaks and blames everyone else and defends the war with all kind of bullshit

- Lavrov suddenly leaves Indonesia - it's unclear if G20 threw him out or if he leaves in his own; he immediately returns to Russia

‼️ - almost at the same time air raid alert in all of Ukraine (despite Crimea): in one of the worst missile attacks since the start of the war in February, Russian missiles rain down on Kyiv and other cities; people die, critical energy infrastructure is destroyed, civilian targets

‼️ - two Russian missiles hit Poland, close to the Ukrainian border; it's unclear so far if by accident or on purpose (remember: Poland is NATO member and one of the biggest and strongest supporters of Ukraine); two people die

‼️ - after first investigations it is confirmed that the missiles are Russian

‼️ - voice get loud that this is an attack on a NATO country and Article 5 must be activated; still nothing from the Kremlins about the attack

‼️ - the Polish PM convened the emergency meeting of the Committee of the Council of Ministers for National Security & Defense Affairs (9PM local time); Duda hasn't said anything so far; no official statement from the Polish government at this point

‼️ - Estonia is the first country to release a statement, saying they are ready to defend every inch of NATO territory

‼️ - according to unconfirmed rumours, Polish Air Force launched fighter jets from the airfield in Tomaszów Lubelski

- more and more politicans and leader release statement about Poland, say they support Poland and give their condolences

‼️ - Pentagon releases a statement: no clear statement regarding Article 5 of NATO, but a reminder that "we have made it crystal clear that we will protect every inch of NATO territory"

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s surprise arrival in Washington on Wednesday for a meeting with President Joe Biden and a speech before Congress has unhinged the always-seething anti-Ukraine Trumpian right, triggering a deluge of snark and grievance. For instance, after the Washington Examiner’s Byron York tut-tutted that Zelensky was about to tell Congress that U.S. aid to Ukraine so far was not enough, the former First Son weighed in with this:

“National conservative” pundit and Newsweek opinion editor Josh Hammer, who played the “obviously Putin is a thug and Ukraine is the victim here, but . . .” game in the early days of the war, went full Putin this time around.

To top it off, Hammer, who shares Zelensky’s Jewish heritage, also accused the Ukrainian President of being a bad Jew—unseemly under any circumstances, but all the more so considering that only a few days earlier, Hammer had been spotted at a New York Young Republicans’ Club Gala in the company of various alt-right types with, shall we say, a complicated relationship to anti-Semitism. (Among them: Rep. Marjorie “Jewish Space Lasers” Taylor Greene, the founders of the white-nationalist website VDARE, and erstwhile Jew-baiting troll Jack Posobiec.)

Hammer’s deputy op-ed editor, progressive-turned-populist Batya Ungar-Sargon (for whom, I must mention, I used to write during her stint as an editor at the Forward), at least made an effort to stay classy while making a de facto pitch for throwing Ukraine under the bus:

That’s more than can be said for the vast majority of the “no money for Ukraine” crowd, from the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh (“Get this grifting leech out of our country please”) to Tucker Carlson, who referred to Zelensky as a “Ukrainian strip club manager”—apparently because he was dressed in a olive-drab sweatshirt—and asserted that “it may be impossible to imagine a more humiliating scenario for the greatest country on Earth.” He also insisted that Zelensky is seeking not just to “push the Russian army back to pre-invasion borders,” which even Carlson conceded “sounds reasonable,” but to topple Vladimir Putin and bring about “regime change” in Russia. After Zelensky’s speech to Congress, Carlson brought on former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, the “maverick” Democrat from Hawaii, to sing along with his assertions that Zelensky was actually an autocrat muzzling critical media outlets, jailing opposition politicians, and now trying to shut down an entire church because he finds it insufficiently loyal.

(In reality, the situation involving the Moscow-affiliated branch of the Orthodox Church—one of the two Orthodox denominations in Ukraine—is massively complicated; in wartime, there are legitimate security concerns about its clergy’s reported activities in support of the invaders. However, a quote Carlson attributes to Zelensky, threatening “economic and restrictive sanctions [on] any Christian caught worshiping in unapproved ways,” does not seem to have any source other than Carlson himself.)

Then there was this from Red State commentator Brandon Morse, asserting that Zelensky has done much more damage to the United States than the January 6th rioters:

A few other right-wing pundits, including career plagiarist-turned-conspiracy-theory-peddler Benny Johnson and Turning Point USA grifting leech Charlie Kirk, homed in on the really important stuff: Zelensky’s outfit.

Of course Zelensky’s clothes were meant to visually convey the fact that he’s in the middle of a brutal war. When you’re just back from a visit to the front lines in an area that looks like a ghost warscape from World War I come back to life, you’ve earned the right to make that particular fashion statement—even on a visit to Washington, D.C.

But wait, is it a military outfit or a mafia one? The American Spectator’s Melissa Mackenzie has got the goods:

I could go on and on. But perhaps this parade of indecency should come back full circle to a literal obscenity from Don Jr.: a photoshopped image that put a naked Hunter Biden next to Zelensky on the podium addressing Congress. (Warning: this tweet may be hazardous to your eyes.) It’s vile, of course. It’s also the sort of thing you post when you have no substantive way to attack someone.

* * *

The extent and purpose of U.S. military aid to Ukraine is certainly a legitimate subject for debate. Right now, there is a powerful consensus in the United States and Europe that Ukraine, for all the flaws and imperfections of its still-young democracy, is fighting for freedom against an authoritarian Goliath and that its fight is also a fight for the free world and its values.

The question of why the Trumpian populist right is so consumed with hatred for Ukraine—a hatred that clearly goes beyond concerns about U.S. spending, a very small portion of our military budget, or about the nonexistent involvement of American troops—doesn’t have a simple answer. Partly, it’s simply partisanship: If the libs are for it, we’re against it, and the more offensively the better. (And if the pre-Trump Republican establishment is also for it, then we’re even more against it.) Partly, it’s the belief that Ukrainian democracy is a Biden/Obama/Hillary Clinton/”Deep State” project, all the more suspect because it’s related to Trump’s first impeachment. Partly, it’s the “national conservative” distaste for liberalism—not only in its American progressive iteration, but in the more fundamental sense that includes conservatives like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: the outlook based on individual freedom and personal autonomy, equality before the law, limited government, and an international order rooted in those values. Many NatCons are far more sympathetic to Russia’s crusade against secular liberalism than to Ukraine’s desire for integration into liberal, secular Europe.

Whatever the reason, the anti-Ukraine animus on the right is quite real and widespread. (When journalist Bari Weiss, who has a largely “anti-woke” following, retweeted a Hanukkah greeting from Zelensky, the responses from her followers in the thread were mostly hostile.) But right now, it also smells of desperation. Ukraine’s cause is still massively popular in the United States, with two-thirds of Americans supportive of sending money and arms. Disingenuous laments about the poor Ukrainians exploited by American and European globalists ring hollow and false when the vast majority of Ukrainians are so clearly determined to resist the invasion. And Zelensky, as the smarter among the aid opponents, like Ungar-Sargon, can see, is a genuine hero: patriotic, incredibly courageous and charismatic, and a speaker so compelling that even congressional right-wingers who initially refused to join in the standing ovations (including Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, and Andrew Clyde) finally rose up during the last portions of his speech.

There’s a nineteenth-century Russian fable called “The Elephant and the Pug” in which a pug yaps furiously at an elephant to get attention and show off how tough it is, while the elephant simply ignores it. Zelensky would obviously be the elephant in this scenario; but that would make the Zelensky haters the pugs—and that’s frankly a hideous insult to pugs.

#us politics #news #the bulwark #2022 #republicans #conservatives #gop #volodymyr zelensky #ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky #ukrainian crisis #ukriane #stand with ukraine #russo ukrainian war #russia #valdimir putin #fuck putin #twitter #tweet #Byron York #donald trump jr. #Josh Hammer #newsweek #Batya Ungar-Sargon #tucker carlson #Orthodox Church #benny johnson #charlie kirk #Melissa Mackenzie

[loneberry]

Nuclear War (again)

“Nuclear powers must avert those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a humiliating retreat or a nuclear war.” —John F. Kennedy

On NPR Up First this morning there is an interview with nuclear expert Matthew Bunn from the Harvard Kennedy School, who puts the odds of Putin using nukes at 10 - 20 percent. This is not comforting at all. Even 2 percent is too high.

Some say: Putin won’t use nukes because doing so is irrational—NATO would put him in his place. Well, invading Ukraine was irrational. Implementing a broad conscription was irrational. Yet the most hawkish military commentators inside Russia are consistently getting their way, and they’re now clamoring for the use of nukes. If Putin is faced with battlefield defeat and/or the defeat of his regime, I’m not sure he would see the use of nukes as the most irrational option, especially since every move he makes is predicated on the belief that the west is weak and cowardly.

Let’s play this out. If Putin uses tactical nukes in Ukraine, what will the response be? The most hawkish members of NATO will likely respond militarily. If Poland or one of the Baltic states strikes Russian targets or gets embroiled in a war with Russia, then all of NATO (including the US) will be dragged in under Article 5 of NATO (the principle of collective defense). The distance on the escalation ladder between “tactical” nukes and ICBMs is short (this is why many reject the term “tactical nuclear weapons” outright and assert that the breaking of the nuclear taboo would be catastrophic). A direct confrontation between nuclear superpowers (Russia and the US) should be avoided at all costs.

Some say, well, NATO doesn’t have to respond with nukes. They could just strike Russian military targets, such as Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, using conventional missiles. Sure. But then NATO is at war with Russia and we are in WWIII, i.e. a direct confrontation between the nuclear superpowers of the US and Russia. We are where we were in the early days of the war when stupid but well-meaning people chanted and tweeted “NATO close the skies!”

Yet Biden resisted those insane cries, which were also coming from Zelenskyy and even some corners of his own administration. It turns out that the only upside of living in a gerontocracy is that Biden has lived through the age of mutually assured destruction. The present never rewards restraint—all incentives push toward the most hawkish posture. But history does reward restraint. Remember General Curtis LeMay hounding John F Kennedy to bomb Cuba’s missile sites and invade Cuba? Remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, the psychopathic and grim calculus of Only a third of humanity would be wiped off the planet?

A question remains: What should the US do if Russia uses tactical nukes? First, implement more sanctions on Russia, including secondary sanctions on India and China if they continue to buy discounted Russian oil. (Though China and India might voluntarily ditch Russia if they used nukes.) Second, supply more arms to Ukraine, including missile defense systems and potentially more powerful arms. Such a move would still be escalatory but potentially the least escalatory of all the options. Ukraine has a highly effective military that has proven they can make good use of western-supplied arms. And of course, the goal at every juncture should be a negotiated settlement and end to this madness.

#war #nuclear war #cold war #cuban missile crisis #russia #ukraine

[beardedmrbean]

This guy : "Great for France, instead of electing the worst possible candidate, they elected the second worst !"

This guy, a month later : "Why does France's president suck ?"

Submitted by @givrally

I made a note in the tags of a news post about Macron, here's the opening bit from the article.

French President Emmanuel Macron has sparked a new wave of criticism and incomprehension over his calls to avoid humiliating Russia in Ukraine, showing up splits in the Western alliance.

Speaking to French media last Friday, Macron reiterated his belief that Russian leader Vladimir Putin must be given an exit from what he called his "historic and fundamental mistake" of invading Ukraine.

"We must not humiliate Russia so that the day when the fighting stops we can build an exit ramp through diplomatic means," the French head of state said, reprising an argument he made in early May. ____________________________________

This looks like what the dude is bitching about too.

Not saying Macron was even close to the best choice for president, but honestly I can see right where he's coming from when he's saying what he's saying here.

People may say, but why should we give him an out and not humiliate him.

I gotta assume that Macron has actually opened up a history book before.

Why do we not want to humiliate him and Russia by proxy?

It's a good question, I'm gonna answer it with a picture.

Going the humiliation route ended really bad for France last time they did it. Didn't end well for most of Europe really. Swiss did OK.

Adam up there is an idiot for 100 different reasons, one of the bigger ones is being angry that the French president doesn't want to chance history repeating itself if he can help it.

I can't 100% say that's Macron's motivation, but it would be mine and it makes sense I think.

Foch wanted his pound of flesh, didn't realize how much it would cost at the time I imagine.

#submission #givrally

[nordic-noire]

On peace...

As we settle to celebrate Christmas and New Year with our friends & family, it's worth remembering not everyone has the privilege to do so, at least not in peace. Russia's terror bombing will continue in a futile effort to break Ukraine. It's worth remembering Kyiv isn't as afraid of Putin as it is of us seizing our support.

Whatever inconveniences we face pale in comparison with potentially spending Christmas eve in a bomb shelter. Our rising energy prices pale in comparison with blackouts as Russia uses Iranian drones to cripple Ukrainian civilian infrastructure to force them to negotiate an end to Putin's humiliating war.

Moscow and Tehran truly have found each other, one waging a war of terror against its peaceful neighbor, the other brutally executing protesters in order to enforce barbaric laws. In response, Ukraine is receiving new air defense capabilities, including Patriot batteries. Putin's war is doing exactly what he didn't want to happen- bringing NATO air defense systems closer to his borders.

Ukraine is fighting our war for an international rules based order for us; it's destroying Putin's military for us; the least we can do is to ensure they have the continued support to win. Anyone calling for Ukraine to be pressured into negotiating is playing into Kremlin's hands.

Moving into 2023, our support for Ukraine must be unapologetic. Putin doesn't care about his dead, but Russia must be made to see he is destroying his own people as he continues feeding ill-trained and under-equipped reservists into the meat grinder. Ukraine may yet have a peaceful Christmas one day; but it should be on their own terms.

'True peace is not merely the absence of war, it is the presence of justice.'

#current events #Ukraine #war #fuck russia #Christmas #foreign policy #realpolitik #military #opinion #slava ukraini #Kyiv #peace #Russia

[bllsbailey]

Biden Delivers State of the Union Address

President Joe Biden delivered a loud and angry State of the Union Address in his 51st all-time appearance. 

Already 20 minutes late, he began his speech by screaming that America needs to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin by providing more aid to Ukraine. The 46th president stated that if the country does not continue to support Ukraine “the free world would be at risk.”

He then changed topics to Roe v. Wade referring to it as reproductive rights instead of as “abortion.” He thanked Vice President Kamala Harris for defending what he calls reproductive rights and claimed that Republicans want a national ban on abortions. 

Biden then scolded the Supreme Court for overturning Roe v. Wade.

Biden basically threatens the Supreme Court justices to their faces over abortion and struggles to read the teleprompter while doing it. pic.twitter.com/zMJvgPqbjg— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 8, 2024

Biden switched to COVID, a topic that was met with Republicans yelling “liar” after he stated that Donald Trump failed the American people during the pandemic. 

Biden then touted the economy, saying it was the “envy for the entire world.” During his discussion of the economy he also claimed that he fixed the inflation rates, saying it has “dropped from 9% to 3%- the lowest in the world!” under his presidency.

The 46th president continued to talk louder after saying crime has gone down. Those statements were met with yelling from many Republicans who attended the speech. The president claimed that crime rates have gone down by 30% since he took office. 

🚨WATCH: Biden gets absolutely HUMILIATED by savage heckler screaming at him mid-speech while talking about low crime rates in America pic.twitter.com/hBTKbM28XI— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 8, 2024

Biden touched on taxes. He stated that everyone needs to pay their fair share, alluding to the billionaires in the country. Biden said that billionaires need to pay 25% in taxes. The Democrat blamed Trump as the reason the federal deficit exploded. He also stated that Trump kept adding to the national debt during his tenure. 

The over 50-year politician then continued his loud State of the Union Address, stating that the GOP is to blame for the border crisis. He said Republicans do not want to sign the bill proposed by his administration.

Biden did not mention the surge in murders committed in the U.S. by illegal aliens until Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) pressed him from the crowd on Laken Riley, the nursing student who was allegedly killed in Georgia by an illegal immigrant. The president then butchered Laken Riley’s name, calling her “Lincoln Riley.” 

Biden ended his speech by talking about Israel and Gaza.

“A temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day,” Biden said. “And Israel must also do its part. Israel must allow more aid into Gaza and ensure that humanitarian workers aren’t caught in the cross fire.” “Israel also has a fundamental responsibility though to protect innocent civilians in Gaza,” Biden added.

Biden said the only solution to the conflict would be a two-state solution.

He ended his speech addressing perceptions of his age and how’s he’s been called “too young” and “too old” throughout his career.

“My fellow Americans, the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are — it’s how old our ideas are,” Biden said. “Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are the oldest of ideas. But you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back.”

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

[the-eternal-quest-for-balance]

The CIA, at Barry Sotero's instructions, designed and implemented the 2014 Coup in Ukraine.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is what we know for certain. Despite repeated entreaties from Vladimir Putin to President Joe Biden and other Western leaders to provide assurances that Ukraine would not be admitted to NATO, the West told Putin to screw off and continued building up Ukraine’s military. The U.S. and its NATO allies believed that Russia’s military was weak and ineffective. Western leaders also believed that Russia’s economy was vulnerable to Western economic sanctions and that an economic collapse in Russia would catapult Putin from power.

The Western plan was simple, audacious and delusional — i.e., using Ukraine as a military proxy, defeat Russia and humiliate Vladimir Putin; apply Western economic sanctions that would devastate the Russian economy and further erode support for Putin; break up the Russia Republic into 41 new countries. Sounds crazy, but take a look at what Angel Vohra wrote in Foreign Policy Magazine in April 2023:

The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, an independent U.S. government agency with members from the U.S. House of Representatives, Senate, and departments of defense, state, and commerce, has declared that decolonizing Russia should be a “moral and strategic objective.” The Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum, comprising exiled politicians and journalists from Russia, held a meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels earlier this year and is advertising three events in different American cities this month. It has even released a map of a dismembered Russia, split into 41 different countries, in a post-Putin world, assuming he loses in Ukraine and is ousted. Western analysts are increasingly pushing the theory that Russian disintegration is coming and that the West must not only prepare to manage any possible spillover of any ensuing civil wars but also to benefit from the fracture by luring resource-rich successor nations into its ambit. They argue that when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 the West was blindsided and failed to fully capitalize on the momentous opportunity. It must now strategize to end the Russian threat once and for all, instead of providing an off-ramp to Putin.

[mariacallous]

On Thursday, November 30, the Russian Supreme Court will consider a request from the Justice Ministry to ban the “international LGBT movement” as an “extremist” organization. Exactly what constitutes this “movement” is unclear — it was invented by ministry officials. But the absurdity of the case shouldn’t overshadow the danger it poses: the court’s decision could lead to millions of queer people being declared illegal. We asked our readers to share the realities of life as an LGBTQ+ person in Russia, how they view the authorities’ new initiative, and what advice they have to offer to other members of their community. We’ve translated some of the most notable responses we received and are publishing them below.

Irina

Yekaterinburg

My girlfriend and I have been together for 20 years now, and for the last ten of those years, we’ve been unable not only to hold hands but even just to fix each other’s hair or wipe a smudge off one another’s faces — for fear of attracting unwanted attention.

After my father found out I was a lesbian, he didn’t speak to me for 11 years — right up until his death. My mom condemns and refuses to accept me. My neighbors have called me a faggot and a dyke. Because I spent my childhood and adolescence in a sort of cocoon, it was very painful when I came out. So I can imagine what’s about to happen; we’ve already gone through it and survived it.

[Right now,] it’s better to direct one’s energy at preventing Putin from getting reelected. Then we can fight for whatever rights we want. The Putin regime persecutes all types of “otherness.” Until there’s regime change, there’s no point in whining about it.

The gradual stigmatization of LGBTQ+ people in Russia was always going to lead to something like a ban of the LGBTQ movement as “extremist.” I’m not surprised; I’ve already stopped rolling my eyes at the absurdity of the laws our government enacts.

Ayur

Moscow

I’m 33. It's funny that the so-called Supreme Court is recognizing me as an “extremist” on my birthday, November 30.

After [the start of] the [full-scale] war, I started thinking more often about how I’d like to have children, thinking about what kind of parent I’d be. It seems that from an early age, so many gay men put an internal block on thinking about it because it’s less traumatic that way.

This year, my grandmother routinely asked me if I had a girlfriend, because “it’s time to start having [kids],” otherwise “when the kids go to college, you’ll be an old man.” The conversation weighed heavily on me. I thought that people who are childless for medical reasons must feel similar emotions when they’re asked: “So, when are you having kids?” Realizing I’m essentially childless in my current circumstances, even though I’m healthy, became really distressing.

[The prospective "LGBT movement" ban] is a hybrid replacement for Article 121 of the Soviet Criminal Code. The idea is that any mention of LGBTQ+ people should disappear from the public sphere, although physical elimination isn’t implied. Although I was expecting something like this, I’m deeply hurt. It’s humiliating and scary. 

Vladislav

St. Petersburg

I’m someone you could say is openly gay: I don’t explicitly tell people about my sexuality, but it’s not a secret to anyone. I wear a woman’s earring on my right ear, I have effeminate mannerisms, and my political views are liberal. I believe it’s extremely important not to hide one’s orientation. The best way to dismantle stigmas is for people to come out. It’s practically impossible to force someone to change their views by forcing the opposite view on them, but it’s possible to be oneself, live openly, and not demand anything from anyone. And that’s when things are normalized and people get used to it.

When I learned about the Justice Ministry’s initiative, I started crying. “Extremist” status will make any openness illegal and will put our community in an even more vulnerable position. In situations like this, it’s more important than ever to come together and support each other. Together, we’ll get through this. But as for me personally, even after the LGBTQ+ community is criminalized, I’m not going to try any harder to hide my orientation. Sure, rainbow symbols might disappear from my social media, but I won’t take my earring out and I won’t act more masculine. I definitely won’t stop going on dates. Fortunately, they’re not reinstating Article 121 of the Criminal Code of the USSR (which banned homosexuality among men). I’m soberly assessing the risks.

Yelena

Rostov-on-Don

I’m an educated, well-read person. I left Russia, and I’m not going back. I could have done some good in my native country, I could have helped people, made their lives better. But no. I miss home, but I no longer have a home there.

People don’t choose their sexual orientation. If that were possible, would a gay person who was unfortunate enough to have been born in the Caucasus really choose to remain gay? I didn’t choose to be a lesbian, just like I didn’t choose my eye color. Persecuting LGBTQ+ people is just as illogical as persecuting redheads. Which might just happen soon: judging by everything going on, Russia hasn’t left the Middle Ages.

I’ve been through a lot of terrible things in my life. How many times have people offered to rape you so you’ll become a “normal woman?” Is that what you want for your children? For people to offer to rape them to make them “normal?” And if it is, do you seriously believe that’s normal?

We’re first on the [Russian authorities’] list. When we’re gone, they’ll come for you. Because an unhappy country always needs an internal enemy, a traitor, a spy, who can be hated and who has to be fought against. After we’re gone, that enemy will be you.

Sasha

Tomsk

It feels like my whole life has been in spite of, not thanks to, circumstances. It’s as if everyone wants you, your thoughts and emotions, to never have existed. They burn you out using every trick in the book. I think they’re well aware of how this affects people, particularly children and teenagers.

But I still want to love and will love. I want to be happy and I will be happy. Despite everything, I exist. We exist.

[fovarosiblog]

Lefordítottam a Google Translate segítségével a cikket angolra:

The speaker should not slander Hungary

Yesterday, a Hungarian delegation arrived in Sweden. "We want to see more respect," says Zsolt Németh, chairman of the Hungarian Foreign Affairs Committee, to TT.

Like Turkey, Hungary takes advantage of Sweden's NATO application for its own purposes. During Tuesday, the delegation, which consists of members from Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's governing party Fidesz, will visit the Riksdag.

The meeting will be hosted by Speaker Andreas Norlén . As long as he doesn't get involved in foreign policy. Then there is a great risk that he will commit the same blunder that Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Foreign Minister Tobias Billström did with Turkey.

Their policy of appeasement has only encouraged Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to demand even more.

Hungary is simply trying to demand respect like a gangster instead of rightfully earning it. Putin's best friend

Fidesz is a conservative and nationalist party that has been in Hungary's government since 2010. During the decade or so in power, democracy in the country has been pushed back.

The courts, media and universities have been politicized and corruption has escalated.

Restrictive articles on abortion have been introduced into the constitution and women are encouraged to stay at home and give birth to more children.

Orbán is also Putin's closest friend in the EU. Recently, the Hungarian Prime Minister said that Russia will win the war and that Ukraine is "the land of nobody".

Conducts hate campaigns

Fidesz has made it difficult for organizations that work with human rights. At the same time, Viktor Orbán has run racist and anti-Semitic campaigns, in which he has particularly painted George Soros, who has a Jewish background, as his main opponent.

Hungary is the EU country that receives the most financial support. But finally the EU Commission has put its foot down.

In December, over six billion euros were frozen from the Union's corona recovery fund for Hungary. In order to pay out the money, the country must demonstrate measures to strengthen democracy and the rule of law.

All Swedish parties except the Sweden Democrats supported the decision. SD enjoys when Sweden is humiliated

Now it is Sweden Democrats who warmly welcome the Hungarian delegation. Hungary is often mentioned as a forerunner of SD and it is not difficult to see how party representatives are cozying up to Sweden being forced to "show respect" for the opponents of liberal democracy.

It's not a pretty sight.

[garudabluffs]

Oct 13, 2022    Two Voices from Russia & Ukraine on Putin, Resistance Inside Russia & Their Views on Anti-Imperialism

“The invasion of Ukraine is not some type of historical inertia. The ideology of Putin is a product of the past two centuries,”  says Hanna Perekhoda, a Ukrainian graduate history student at the University of Lausanne, whose family in Donetsk was thrown into war eight years ago. Berlin-based Russian climate activist Arshak Makichyan, who fled his country in March, says that while he doesn’t believe negotiations with Putin are possible, the international community should engage Russian civil society as part of any solution toward ending the war.”

AMY GOODMAN: Thirty-five nations, including China and India, abstained from the U.N. vote condemning Russia’s annexation. This is Geng Shuang, China’s deputy U.N. ambassador.

GENG SHUANG: [translated] We have always believed that any action taken by the General Assembly should be conducive to the deescalation of the situation, should be conducive to the early resumption of dialogue and should be conducive to the promotion of a political solution to this crisis. The draft resolution submitted to this emergency special session for voting will not help achieve the above-mentioned objectives. Therefore, the Chinese delegation will abstain.

Could you elaborate on that and explain the reasons that you think Russia launched this invasion?

HANNA PEREKHODA: “Well, yes. For me, one of the dimensions of Russian contemporary imperialist ideology is that it is driven by the resentment of a fallen empire, and what is important, by a resentment of a nationalizing empire. Actually, the national narrative of Ukraine and that of Russia are kind of in a total contradiction in this sense: Ukraine, as a political community, can only survive outside of Russia, because Russia denies its right to exist, while for Russian nationalists, Russian nationalist elites, their nation is incomplete, if not impossible, without Ukraine within it. So, these two narratives are kind of mutually exclusive. And these kind of nationalizing empires, like Russia, today’s Russia, are very dangerous, because in the current Russian perspective, Ukrainians must recognize that they are Russians; otherwise, they must be destroyed. And this is not a marginal discourse; this is something you hear every day on the Russian state TV channels.”

to have negotiations with people like them. But we need to start a dialogue with Russian civil society, because Russian civil society is part of solutions. We do understand that imperialism is bad. We do understand that fascism is bad. And we are trying to oppose Putin. We’re trying to create ways to oppose him. And there is an antiwar movement in Russia, and they deserve every kind of help that is possible. And we need to talk about it, I think.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask Hanna Perekhoda, as you speak to us from Switzerland, again, born and raised in Donbas, studied in Moscow just before the invasion. You talk about in order for conditions of peace to be achieved, Russia has got to withdraw from Ukraine. You also advocate the dissolution not only of NATO but also the Russian-dominated military alliance. Can you talk about this and how your anti-imperialist views have changed, or not, through this invasion and occupation by Russia of Ukraine?

HANNA PEREKHODA: OK. Well, this is a very complex question. And I think I would go in the same — more or less, the same direction as the previous speaker. I think there is a kind of — my position on imperialism was provoked, and my thinking about it was provoked, by a stereotype which I heard a lot in the Western countries in the left milieus, a stereotype that says that this war started because Putin was scared by NATO or because he was humiliated by the West. In my opinion, it’s quite the opposite. He started the war when NATO was weak, and he felt like everybody would let him do it, like, because it was always the case until now. He knows that the rich countries, dependent on fossil fuels, on oil and gas, that these countries continued, actually, to trade with him for years when he was already killing Chechens or Syrians. And even when he started a war in Ukraine eight years ago, nothing changed fundamentally. So, yes, I agree with my previous speaker, and it’s something that I want to emphasize every time I speak or write on this issue. The key word for me is “impunity” and economic cynicism of the Global North, of the rich Northern countries and Western countries.

And I think when we talk about this war, we tend to overestimate the extent to which the behavior of Russian elites is motivated by real security concerns. Yes, their attack on Ukraine is basically an attempt to preserve the security, but it is not the security of Russia that they preserve. They are preserving the security of their political regime. And to ignore the difference between the two means that we forget that Russia is not Putin. And I want to say the same thing as the previous speaker, that it is Russia, it’s Russian ordinary people, and their interests are exactly on the opposite to the interests of Putin and his mafia.

ARSHAK MAKICHYAN: Yes. So, Russian people, they don’t support the war. They are afraid to oppose the war, I think.

LISTEN READ MORE Transcript https://www.democracynow.org/2022/10/13/russian_war_ukraine_putin_nato_annexation

#Ukraine citizens on Russian invasion