Tag Archives: Vladimir Putin

Vladimir V. Putin Loses His Mind And Becomes A War Criminal Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has just announced a “special military operation” to “de-Nazify the Ukrainian government” so as to halt the supposed “genocide” being committed against Russian speakers in Ukraine.  There is not a shred of justification for any of this.  The extreme nationalist fascist groups in Ukraine do not support and are not part of the current Ukrainian...

Online Voting  Yes, a wonderful innovation!!!  No, I had not heard of this before, although maybe somebody reading this had encountered it.  So, where is this fabulous innovation being adopted?  Why Mother Russia!  So polls showed the United Russia Party that supports Vladimir Putin getting only 30% support for the Duma election that just happened.  But while I have not seen specific numbers, it is my understanding that they have been reelected as...

Putin is coming across as very adroit. But it must also be mentioned — which Pepe Escobar doesn't do here — that securing the Middle East and Central Asia is existential for Russia.Jihadis present a major threat to Russia on their own and they are also a proxy force in US hybrid warfare.Putin is not just being a nice guy in helping out Assad. Russia has a major strategic interest in Mideast stability, which entails eradication of terrorism that can be directed at Russia from the south and...

Putin apparently conflicts with the Stavka (Russian General Staff) and Foreign Ministry.(Xi is facing similar pressure from the PLA (People's Liberation Army) over what it perceives as Western aggression in the South China Sea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.)Dances with BearsPUTIN ENDORSES NETANYAHU FOR RE-ELECTION – SHOIGU AND LAVROV REACT John Helmer

Paul Robinson shows how the attempt to create a "Putin is rehabilitating Stalin" meme is based on reaching and is clearly an exercise in propaganda.Robinson makes the point that celebrating Stalin as the victor in WWII and revering his leadership as Russia's savior from a dire future under the Reich does not imply condoning his other excesses.I would add that the US founding fathers are also celebrated and revered even though some of them, George Washington, for example, were slave-owners,...

This is probably a "should-read" but I consider it a must-read — all the way to the end, including two short works on freedom by Ivan Ilyin that Paul Robinson has translated for this post.IrrussianalityFreedomPaul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

While I agree with most of what Fred Weir writes here, I also think that Putin understands more about the Western liberal tradition that arose during the Enlightenment than Weir thinks. Nor was Russia a stranger to Enlightenment ideas then. Weir is also wrong in thinking that Russia has no liberal tradition. In fact, Russia adopted its own version of the Western liberalism in the period called "the Russian Enlightenment, which adapted Western thought to the situation prevailing at the time...

If you are aware of John Helmer's blog Dancing with Bears, frequently linked to here, you may be interest in this. Otherwise, not so much.IrrussianalityBook Review – John HelmerPaul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

Damned if you do, and damned if you don't. The cries about rampant corruption in Russia have been going on the West since the collapse of the USSR. A couple of years ago, President Putin appointed a special investigator prosecutor to put an end to it. Now that officials are being held to account, the West is crying, "purge."Same with China and President Xi.Look at the credentials of the author and go figure.Project SyndicatePutin’s Art of the Purge Andrei Kolesnikov | senior fellow and the...

Big — potentially, that is. Have to wait and see what it means. Kudrin is anathema to the Russian "deep state" (intel and military). There is apparently something of a power struggle going on in Russia now between the Western liberals and the conservative deep state, with the deep state holding the power if push comes to shove. Putin seems to be caught in the middle. “If Kudrin joined the administration or government, it would indicate that they have agreed on a certain agenda of change,...