RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://quillette.com/2022/03/19/putins-russian-and-pushkins-russia/

When Paolo Nori’s series of lectures on Dostoevsky at the University of Milano-Bicocca was canceled “to avoid any controversy … during a time of strong tensions” related to the Ukraine invasion, he replied: “I realize what is happening in Ukraine is horrible, and I feel like crying just thinking about it. But what is happening in Italy is ridiculous … Not only is being a living Russian wrong in Italy but also being a dead Russian.”

It isn’t only in Italy. In the Netherlands, an exhibit of avant-garde Russian art was canceled, as was a Stravinsky concert in Belgium and a Tchaikovsky performance in Britain. Even the board of the International Cat Federation (Fédération Internationale Féline, or FIFé) banned from its exhibitions not only Russian cat breeders but also cats bred in Russia. Here in the United States, Columbia University Press, having renounced Russian financing, is drastically curtailing its series of Russian classics in translation.

But as Dutch Russian expert Michel Krielaars observed, “there is Putin’s Russia and there is Pushkin’s Russia,” and the two could not differ more. In our frenzied rush to “cancel” everything Russian, we may throw away a literary tradition that displays an especially deep understanding of moral questions in all their depth and complexity. Who should grasp the nature of evil better than those who suffered so much under tsarist tyranny and then still more under the totalitarian regime that replaced it?

A character in one of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s novels asks: “hasn’t it always been understood … that a major writer in our country … is a sort of second government?” If the regime represented political power, the writer embodied moral power. The very phrase “Russian writer” designated not just someone who produces literary works but someone who, like the ancient Hebrew prophets, acts as the people’s conscience.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2022/03/zelenskys-holocaust-denial-should-be-red-line-jews-daniel-greenfield/

Ukraine’s leader Zelensky had previously exploited and lied about the Holocaust, but not as much as he did in his attack on Israel.

First, Zelensky appropriated the Holocaust by falsely claiming that Putin’s invasion is another genocide. It’s wrong, but it’s far from genocide.

“That is why I want to remind you of the words of a great woman from Kyiv, whom you know very well. The words of Golda Meir. They are very famous, everyone has heard of them. Apparently, every Jew. Many, many Ukrainians as well. And certainly no less, Russians: “We intend to remain alive. Our neighbors want to see us dead. This is not a question that leaves much room for compromise.”

The Jews actually faced genocide at the hands of the Nazis and the Ukrainians. They face genocide again at the hands of Ukraine’s Iranian trading partners.

No one who hasn’t completely bought into the insane propaganda believes that Putin is about to kill millions of Ukrainians, to march men, women and children into pits and machine gun them, as the Nazis and Ukrainians did to the Jews at Babi Yar.

https://asiatimes.com/2022/03/chinese-missiles-can-likely-sink-us-carriers-report/

A March 8 Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on China’s naval capabilities cites the view of top US commanders that China’s arsenal of anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBMs) can hit moving targets, effectively closing an area a thousand miles from China’s coast to the American Navy.

The report states: “A December 3, 2020, press report stated that Admiral Philip Davidson, the commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, ‘confirmed, for the first time from the US government side, that China’s People’s Liberation Army has successfully tested an anti-ship ballistic missile against a moving ship.’ China reportedly is also developing hypersonic glide vehicles that, if incorporated into Chinese ASBMs, could make Chinese ASBMs more difficult to intercept.”

Some of the assessments by senior US flag officers have been cited before, but the CRS report gives them additional weight in the context of an overall assessment of Chinese capabilities.

If Chinese missiles can effectively clear the coast of American vessels to a distance of 1,500 kilometers or more, the United States has no effective way of defending Taiwan against a prospective Chinese armed landing.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18337/iran-turkey-fake-peace

What, then, revived Iran’s covert operations in Turkey? For Iran, the “good Turkey” was the one in constant bickering with the West and Israel. The “bad” one is claiming to seek reconciliation with Israel, the Gulf states and Egypt.

Iran’s mullahs are notoriously good at poisoning peace and stability, at home and in their own neighborhood as well as in distant lands, such as Cuba and Venezuela. After a short pause, the long arm of the mullahs is back to Turkey. Twelve (foiled) plots in such a short time is a “message.”

Iran is trying to sabotage the Abraham Accords and their positive transformations in the region by means of subversion in Turkey against Israeli nationals. The Iranians are also vehemently trying to discourage Turkey from reconciling with the Gulf states, Israel and Egypt….

When the UAE moved to normalize relations with Israel, Turkey threatened to downgrade diplomatic ties with Abu Dhabi; and Turkey has been at odds with Egypt since 2013. These frictions have placed Turkey on the side of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, while on the other side are the Gulf states, Israel and Egypt.

Totally isolated and facing a punishing economic crisis, Erdoğan apparently decided to look as if he were changing course and reconcile with Israel and the Gulf states. The effort shows that Erdoğan was on the wrong course to begin with: He apparently thought Turkey’s enemies were Israel and Sunni Arabs while now he should see that the real enemy is Shia Islam, in the form of Iran’s theocracy.

Finally, there is a lesson to Westerners who seem blind to Turkey and Iran. These rogue states are still plotting acts of terror on NATO soil. What more do they have to do for the international community to hold them to account?

The lesson for governments is: Ignore Erdoğan’s threats. Do not keep overestimating him or Turkey’s clout. Keep isolating him to keep him from doing further harm. Isolate him to soften his rigidity on refusing the EastMed pipeline. In other words, if you want to avoid more Turkish damage in the neighborhood, do more to isolate Turkey than you have done in the past decade. And one more thing: The Mediterranean alliance should remain monolithic and, above all, ignore Erdoğan’s threats.

Yair Geller, 75, an Israeli businessman who owns an advanced technologies and engineering company in Turkey, CNC İleri Teknoloji, did not know that his residence in Istanbul was long under surveillance by a cell of assassins operated by the Iranian regime. The assassins did not know that they were long under surveillance by MIT, Turkey’s national intelligence agency.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18336/putin-war-the-next-phase

Most wars are aimed at replacing a status quo regarded as undesirable by one or both adversaries, with a new one acceptable by the winning side and tolerable by the loser.

So far, the European Union and NATO have opted for what amounts to knee-jerk reaction to show that they are doing something without deciding what it is they are actually facing.

Seizing the assets of the oligarchs makes good news copy. But it is doubtful that it will sway Putin away from his adversarial trajectory. In any case, if the oligarchs’ assets were produced by corruption if not actual theft, why did Western democracies welcome them as legitimate “investment”? And, if they were legit to start with, why seize them when the Western legal system excludes guilt by association?

Both the EU and NATO would do well to try and de-couple Putin and the Russian people through information, public diplomacy, and carefully targeted sanctions.

As it heads for its second month, like other wars in history, the war in Ukraine seems to be finding the rhythm and tempo that determines its cruising speed at least for some time.

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2022/03/vladimir-putins-ever-darkening-room/

“A man who starts a war enters a dark room.” I sent out this quote in a tweet a few weeks before the start of the full-scale Russo-Ukrainian war. To avoid any possible misunderstanding, I pointed out that though the words were those of Adolf Hitler whom I would normally quote only to condemn, he had nonetheless established an impressive reputation as an expert on war. And I added: Vladimir Putin, take note.

Apparently, my influence doesn’t extend to the upper reaches of the Kremlin. On February 24 Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine and entered a much darker room than both he and his enemies expected. He is thought to have foreseen a lightning advance on Kiev that would last three days, be welcomed by the Ukrainian population (garlands, confetti, kisses), and climax in a victory parade for which Russian soldiers had already packed their dress uniforms. Most Western experts then forecast a longer campaign and a less welcoming victory—but a victory nonetheless.

Almost three weeks later (at the time of writing), those predictions look absurd. The latest estimates of deaths, refugees and destruction of property (gleaned from several sources) in the war are roughly 6000 to 12,000 Russian soldiers killed, 4000 to 6000 Ukrainians killed, 2.7 million refugees, and $119 billion worth of property damage.

Those estimates are already out of date as I write. His blitzkrieg having failed, Putin has now changed his strategy to a more traditional Russian one of pulverizing Ukraine’s cities and their civilian inhabitants as much as their defence forces by heavy missile and artillery bombardment. Deaths, casualties and destruction are therefore rising fast and likely to get far worse.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/ukraine-cannot-be-asked-to-sign-its-own-death-warrant/

The war in Ukraine appears right now in stark terms: A revanchist Russia seeks the extermination of the Ukrainian state, and the Ukrainian people, with their blood up in a fit of wartime nationalist fervor, are in the mood to fight to the last ditch for their nation. So long as Russia offers Ukraine no option but its annihilation as an independent state — at best, surviving with a foreign-imposed puppet regime — things are likely to continue along those lines. A man who is cornered with no way out will fight on until crushed, and perhaps beyond that in a protracted insurgency. American and European voices offering a “realistic” argument for Ukraine accepting peace terms to avoid further death and destruction have to reckon with the fact that, since time immemorial, there have always been things people feared worse than war.

The diplomatic dilemma in constructing an “off ramp” is that it has to satisfy both sides. As Jim Geraghty argues, it really is not apparent thus far that Vladimir Putin really wants one, or at least is willing to offer one in terms that are a remotely realistic appraisal of the mood of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and the people he represents.

For all of the Churchillian rhetoric surrounding Zelensky and Ukraine right now, it still makes sense for Ukraine to accept peace terms that are, in effect, an admission of defeat. Russia may be bogged down badly and embarrassing Putin and his military on the world stage, but it is still the larger, greater power, it has already occupied Ukrainian territory, the entire war is being fought on Ukrainian soil — not Russian — and Russia has nukes and the sort of leader whose willingness to use them can’t entirely be ruled out. Much as it will batter Ukrainian national pride and the prestige of its allies to admit this, any negotiated settlement will put Russia in a better position than before it entered the war. Compared with the status quo ante, Ukraine’s borders will be reduced. And it may be compelled to distance itself in some ways from the United States and Europe. Zelensky is already floating the possibility that a deal could involve permanently renouncing Ukrainian ambitions to join NATO. Strategic ambiguity will be officially dead, as if the war hasn’t already pronounced a time of death. Ukraine may have to accept being forced further into Russia’s parlous economic orbit and away from the European Union.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18330/russia-funding-environmental-groups

“I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called non-governmental organisations – environmental organisations working against shale gas – to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas.” — NATO’s then Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, The Guardian, June 19, 2014.

The mechanism, which can be summarized as follows: “Funds from the Russian government -> Shell company ‘incorporated’ in Bermuda -> American foundation -> American environmental organizations.” The advantage of Bermuda is that it does not require any disclosure that funds come from a foreign government, contrary to American law. Sea Change must disclose that it has received funds from abroad — in this instance a Bermuda company. Nothing more.

On March 11, 2022, US Representatives Jim Banks and Bill Johnson sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, asking for an investigation into the reported Russian manipulation of American “green groups” that are seemingly funded with “dark money” (anonymous donations). “Russia spent millions promoting anti-energy policies and politicians in the U.S. … Unlike the Russia hoax, Putin’s malign influence on our energy sector is real and deserves further investigation,” Banks said to Fox News Digital.

Below Europe’s soil lie large reserves of shale gas, also known as bedrock gas. The exploitation of these European natural gas reserves would have substantially reduced Europe’s purchases of, and dependence on, Russia’s gas — in particular on its gas giant, Gazprom. The same is true of nuclear power, which offers Westerners an abundant, non-CO2-emitting energy source as an alternative to Russian gas.

Hence the interest, for the Russian government, in mounting a vast disinformation campaign against shale gas and nuclear power in the West, by massively financing the groups most likely “naturally” to oppose it: environmentalist organizations.

Have Western environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs), movements and parties been possible, even unwitting, collaborators with the Russian government for the last ten years?