An essay by Andrei Bezrukov, a former colonel of Russian foreign intelligence, now embedded in Moscow’s foreign-policy establishment, frames the war in Ukraine as an existential contest with the West.
Russian schizophrenics presented another "gem" of their "valuable" , imperial collection. The world is multipolar without their bloody beaks, and the nomination of the outdated concept of "the West" as their enemy could be read as either a unifying cry for the masses of zombies, or as a part of previously mentioned schizophrenia (YT-channel "Sarcasmitron" exposed how the idea of exporting Orange revolutions has gotten into their ill heads)
Nothing will change until all of their heads will be torn off their bodies and burned with kerosene. We can strategize as much as we want, but there's only one way of framing the Russian threat without without falling into particularities - and it is theological. Russia is the absolute evil, it doesn't have any essence - its a negation of light, and I don't know if there's anything else to speak about. We must accept that the nuclear weapons will be used, and start preparing, start arming ourselves. The US has joined the ranks of chooligan-countries, every nuclear weapon held by a chooligan state is a threat to humanity, and since they won't disarm themselves - everybody else should have one too, in order to ensure that these bloody gopniks won't reach their bloody hands
I think they wanted to start the de-westification with the war. After Covid and the disastrous retreat from Afghanistan, it looked a lot like the time is right. Surely China would be on their side. But China can just wait and let the West eat itself. No war needed.
Ugh, it's all so sad. The Russians and Ukrainians have both lost so many young men, cut down in prime of lives. Not to mention all the people who have had to leave both countries to pursue (unwillingly) lives elsewhere. But watching this all from the outside, as someone who is neither Russian nor Ukrainian, I have to admit, I can see both sides clearly, and why both sides are right in many ways. But somehow to me, Russia is MORE right. If the position were reversed, and an alliance formed by countries hostile to the US proposed including Canada in its alliance, and then even proposed to set up missiles along the Canadian-American border, imagine what the response from Washington would be. Going further, imagine that, once the US took action and invaded Canada after everything to provoke it had already been done, and then the alliance started supplying Canada with weapons to attack the US? We would then call this what it is, which is a proxy war. And truly, in that sense, the Ukraine-Russia war has been transformed quite clearly into a dreadful and dangerous proxy war. And it is this status as a proxy war which thus makes it vital for Moscow to hold on tight, and less likely that Russia will relent in anything, as it quite naturally sees the conflict as being larger than just between it and Ukraine. Which it now is.
From the description, Bezrukov’s essay sounds like another piece of propaganda nonsense trying to convince Russians that the war in Ukraine is necessary. That’s how the need for unity, mobilization, and all the other hardships is explained.
When there is nothing to show the public on the battlefield or in the economy, that’s when these especially valuable “expert” essays appear.
From the Kremlin’s point of view, if the West buys it and seriously discusses it, all the better. I understand that.
What I don’t understand is why the West needs this.
What is really unfortunate is that Russia has sufficient wealth from extraction that it could make life much better for the people who live within its borders. But first they have to quit attacking other countries and sacrificing hundreds of thousands of young men who could have helped to make the country better. From this essay, it’s clear that that isn’t going to happen.
There was no single great empire in history that existed forever. Some lasted for millennia and some just few hundred years. They all vanished for different reasons but mostly because of degradation and destruction from within. And every great empire had spectacular defeats which were not destructive enough for them to disappear. Current conflicts are very much different from all those fought in the past, primarily because of drones, space intelligence, cyber and real danger of nuclear war... Russian national character is that of the bear which could be very friendly and manageable or wild and destructive. The biggest surprise for me is that Russian bear is still asleep despite many painful needles in his nose and behind. But, if Russian bear will finally wake up then much greater destruction and devastation will unfold in Ukraine...
I want to say how much I valued your piece on Bezrukov’s essay. Publishing an insider’s candid admission of Russian institutional weakness, rather than another recycled threat assessment, is exactly the kind of analytical honesty this space needs. It’s already shaping how I’m thinking about the Kremlin’s psychology at North Pacific Sentinel, particularly alongside Patrushev’s Arctic maneuvering and the nuclear battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov returning to active service after nearly three decades. There’s a shared thread here, using an adversary’s own words and its own hardware to understand their actual strategic logic rather than caricaturing it, and I’d welcome the chance to compare notes between North Pacific Sentinel and Northern Defence Affairs.
I'm an old Cold Warrior. Everybody knew Ukraine was free and independent so long as they didn't entertain nor allow entry of NATO. The Russian Army is larger today by over 2 fully mechanized armies than before the SMO and mobilization was cancelled due to excessive enlistments. The warmongers wanted to FA, let's see how you handle the FO that you lost. Again. Losers.
And Ukraine wasn't about to enter NATO, you had the opportunity for Ukraine to never join NATO before 2014, you had the opportunity of Ukraine never joining NATO in 2022 during Istanbul, and even now if Ukraine had sufficient security guarantees Ukraine could possibly never join NATO.
If the war continues it won't matter if Ukraine joins NATO because a new cold war entirely of Putin's making will set starting on Ukraines frontline but spreading everywhere.
As an old Cold warrior you should know that Europe and Russia should have learnt 2 crucial lessons from the Cold war.
1 Don't start a Cold war, the costs are immense the payoff minimal.
2 Absolutely don't start the cold war against an Economically much stronger block.
Europe learnt this lessons, will Russia? Or do you want to doom your next generation to this fate?
Well then, NATO shouldn't have expanded towards Russia's border now, should they? Oh, and remember when Putin asked to join NATO and was shown the back of the hand? Putin has demonstrated he learned his lesson. Welcome to the world the MIC created. I think the Mackinder fever dream may finally be breaking, NATO can no longer afford this. One can only hope.
1 the framing of NATO as expanding is already a bit strange, since it's countries joining the coalition out of their own volition, with all the latest entries being a direct effect of Russia's agression on it's neighborus (Finland and Sweden)
2 Russia never applied to NATO and never got rejected. The issue was raised as a hypothetical several times with doubts and reticence on both sides. What did happen however was an integration of the military commands, with Russians and NATO officers and generals working together in the same headquarters for IFOR and more. Russia's military actions in Georgia in 2008 strained the cooperation and then the 2014 invasion of Ukraine halted it, while the 2022 invasion made Russia's position very clear.
3 In the US the traditional MIC isn't even able to keep up with the realities of modern warfare or stopping US-EU cooperation, it's a strong lobby but far from the decisionmaker it's made out to be.
In Europe the MIC and military in general athropied until 2022, Europe had been essentially living in this nice dream that buying Russian gas and integrating Russia economically would be sufficient to avoid further Russian invasions, it was a nice dream, maybe one day a reality.
4 Europe can very well afford another cold war given it's larger economic base vis a vis Russia, though walking back from the decades of underinvestment in defense has and continues to be very hard.
Is it a good idea? Absolutely not, is it necessary? As long as current Russian foreign policy continues yes.
As long as Russia aggression continues NATO will not break, it could have some years ago, when Macron declared it "braindead" and it might even lose it's american element, but as long as there is a need for shared defense some organization will have to cover that.
The US is pivoting in any case towards China, the European theater for the US is and will continue to be secondary
I forgot to mention, those countries that "joined" the west were ex-Warsaw Pact countries, you know, countries formerly known to be Nazis. Yeah, the Soviets kept them on a leash.
First of all 3 full countries of the Warsaw pact were allies of the Axis,
Of the remaining ones we have
Poland: conjoined Invaded by Russia and Nazi Germany in 1939 under the molotov Ribben trop pact between the two, helping each other's expansionist policies. An invaded country.
Czecoslovacchia: occupied by Germany due to the allies fear of escalation and passivity. It's attempts at more freedom in the Soviet orbit where crushed in Prague by Soviet tanks, again showing the only Soviet concern was a dictatorial control.
USSR: of which members now joined NATO: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, with Ukraine after the Russian invasion also aspiring to join (who would have thought invading your neighbours drive them away, amazing)
And then we have of course East Germany. I wonder what would happen if we let's say, split Germany in two, one under Soviet orbit and one under NATO, which one would have more freedom, more prosperity and more rights for the individuals firmly rejecting the Nazi ideology? The one that didn't have to keep it's citiziens in the country, west Germany.
Equating NATO/west/whatever your boogyman is to Nazism is the most classic and old trick in Russian propaganda playbook.
The irony that it's Russia complaining. A country much closer to Nazi Germany in form of authoritarian government, expansionist policies and internal repression then any EU member is lost on many.
Final question because a doubt came to be, are you Russian or American? (or both)
Russia is run by lawless thugs that read enough to understand nothing yet corrupt pretty much everything they touch - consider London as a case in point. No NATO country has aggressed Russia. Russia has ruined itself and made itself a Chinese vassal state all on its own. It's clear that if Russia stopped fighting, Russia would continue to exist even if Putin's regime did not. If Ukraine stops fighting, it will be removed from the map. If you're going to carry water for an authoritarian state, at least find a better cut of authoritarian. Praise Xi if you like - it's more respectable than defending a failing kleptocracy. This war has lasted longer than the Eastern Front in WW2 and Russia is advancing slower than either side in WW1. It's an egregious waste of blood and treasure and the current ruling clique in Russia deserves to be liquidated in the best Stalinist tradition by their own abused population, and I, for one, look forward to the day when the whole murderous lot of them end up dead in a Muscovite gutter.
Don't forget that this war and it's consequences has good chances of hitting ordinary Russians first. It's their taxes that Putin is using to fight this costly war, it's their fuel which will remain high and squeeze the savings, it's your family members that could be mobilized in the future all for a pointless war.
This war isn't between Russia and Ukraine & European states, it's between the latter and the current Russia's elite and their worldview.
Russian schizophrenics presented another "gem" of their "valuable" , imperial collection. The world is multipolar without their bloody beaks, and the nomination of the outdated concept of "the West" as their enemy could be read as either a unifying cry for the masses of zombies, or as a part of previously mentioned schizophrenia (YT-channel "Sarcasmitron" exposed how the idea of exporting Orange revolutions has gotten into their ill heads)
Nothing will change until all of their heads will be torn off their bodies and burned with kerosene. We can strategize as much as we want, but there's only one way of framing the Russian threat without without falling into particularities - and it is theological. Russia is the absolute evil, it doesn't have any essence - its a negation of light, and I don't know if there's anything else to speak about. We must accept that the nuclear weapons will be used, and start preparing, start arming ourselves. The US has joined the ranks of chooligan-countries, every nuclear weapon held by a chooligan state is a threat to humanity, and since they won't disarm themselves - everybody else should have one too, in order to ensure that these bloody gopniks won't reach their bloody hands
I think they wanted to start the de-westification with the war. After Covid and the disastrous retreat from Afghanistan, it looked a lot like the time is right. Surely China would be on their side. But China can just wait and let the West eat itself. No war needed.
Ugh, it's all so sad. The Russians and Ukrainians have both lost so many young men, cut down in prime of lives. Not to mention all the people who have had to leave both countries to pursue (unwillingly) lives elsewhere. But watching this all from the outside, as someone who is neither Russian nor Ukrainian, I have to admit, I can see both sides clearly, and why both sides are right in many ways. But somehow to me, Russia is MORE right. If the position were reversed, and an alliance formed by countries hostile to the US proposed including Canada in its alliance, and then even proposed to set up missiles along the Canadian-American border, imagine what the response from Washington would be. Going further, imagine that, once the US took action and invaded Canada after everything to provoke it had already been done, and then the alliance started supplying Canada with weapons to attack the US? We would then call this what it is, which is a proxy war. And truly, in that sense, the Ukraine-Russia war has been transformed quite clearly into a dreadful and dangerous proxy war. And it is this status as a proxy war which thus makes it vital for Moscow to hold on tight, and less likely that Russia will relent in anything, as it quite naturally sees the conflict as being larger than just between it and Ukraine. Which it now is.
The russian elites would do well to realise that their war is ruining russia and their own prospects.
No matter what bots and trolls have to say, russian aggression has consequences for russians.
https://chakhoyan.substack.com/p/russia-the-unmysterious-aggressor
https://eastsplaining.substack.com/p/russia-is-not-invincible
https://waronomics.substack.com/p/russias-last-war
From the description, Bezrukov’s essay sounds like another piece of propaganda nonsense trying to convince Russians that the war in Ukraine is necessary. That’s how the need for unity, mobilization, and all the other hardships is explained.
When there is nothing to show the public on the battlefield or in the economy, that’s when these especially valuable “expert” essays appear.
From the Kremlin’s point of view, if the West buys it and seriously discusses it, all the better. I understand that.
What I don’t understand is why the West needs this.
Sounds a lot like Rita Mae Brown’s definition of insanity.
What is really unfortunate is that Russia has sufficient wealth from extraction that it could make life much better for the people who live within its borders. But first they have to quit attacking other countries and sacrificing hundreds of thousands of young men who could have helped to make the country better. From this essay, it’s clear that that isn’t going to happen.
There was no single great empire in history that existed forever. Some lasted for millennia and some just few hundred years. They all vanished for different reasons but mostly because of degradation and destruction from within. And every great empire had spectacular defeats which were not destructive enough for them to disappear. Current conflicts are very much different from all those fought in the past, primarily because of drones, space intelligence, cyber and real danger of nuclear war... Russian national character is that of the bear which could be very friendly and manageable or wild and destructive. The biggest surprise for me is that Russian bear is still asleep despite many painful needles in his nose and behind. But, if Russian bear will finally wake up then much greater destruction and devastation will unfold in Ukraine...
I want to say how much I valued your piece on Bezrukov’s essay. Publishing an insider’s candid admission of Russian institutional weakness, rather than another recycled threat assessment, is exactly the kind of analytical honesty this space needs. It’s already shaping how I’m thinking about the Kremlin’s psychology at North Pacific Sentinel, particularly alongside Patrushev’s Arctic maneuvering and the nuclear battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov returning to active service after nearly three decades. There’s a shared thread here, using an adversary’s own words and its own hardware to understand their actual strategic logic rather than caricaturing it, and I’d welcome the chance to compare notes between North Pacific Sentinel and Northern Defence Affairs.
I'm an old Cold Warrior. Everybody knew Ukraine was free and independent so long as they didn't entertain nor allow entry of NATO. The Russian Army is larger today by over 2 fully mechanized armies than before the SMO and mobilization was cancelled due to excessive enlistments. The warmongers wanted to FA, let's see how you handle the FO that you lost. Again. Losers.
And Ukraine wasn't about to enter NATO, you had the opportunity for Ukraine to never join NATO before 2014, you had the opportunity of Ukraine never joining NATO in 2022 during Istanbul, and even now if Ukraine had sufficient security guarantees Ukraine could possibly never join NATO.
If the war continues it won't matter if Ukraine joins NATO because a new cold war entirely of Putin's making will set starting on Ukraines frontline but spreading everywhere.
As an old Cold warrior you should know that Europe and Russia should have learnt 2 crucial lessons from the Cold war.
1 Don't start a Cold war, the costs are immense the payoff minimal.
2 Absolutely don't start the cold war against an Economically much stronger block.
Europe learnt this lessons, will Russia? Or do you want to doom your next generation to this fate?
Well then, NATO shouldn't have expanded towards Russia's border now, should they? Oh, and remember when Putin asked to join NATO and was shown the back of the hand? Putin has demonstrated he learned his lesson. Welcome to the world the MIC created. I think the Mackinder fever dream may finally be breaking, NATO can no longer afford this. One can only hope.
1 the framing of NATO as expanding is already a bit strange, since it's countries joining the coalition out of their own volition, with all the latest entries being a direct effect of Russia's agression on it's neighborus (Finland and Sweden)
2 Russia never applied to NATO and never got rejected. The issue was raised as a hypothetical several times with doubts and reticence on both sides. What did happen however was an integration of the military commands, with Russians and NATO officers and generals working together in the same headquarters for IFOR and more. Russia's military actions in Georgia in 2008 strained the cooperation and then the 2014 invasion of Ukraine halted it, while the 2022 invasion made Russia's position very clear.
3 In the US the traditional MIC isn't even able to keep up with the realities of modern warfare or stopping US-EU cooperation, it's a strong lobby but far from the decisionmaker it's made out to be.
In Europe the MIC and military in general athropied until 2022, Europe had been essentially living in this nice dream that buying Russian gas and integrating Russia economically would be sufficient to avoid further Russian invasions, it was a nice dream, maybe one day a reality.
4 Europe can very well afford another cold war given it's larger economic base vis a vis Russia, though walking back from the decades of underinvestment in defense has and continues to be very hard.
Is it a good idea? Absolutely not, is it necessary? As long as current Russian foreign policy continues yes.
As long as Russia aggression continues NATO will not break, it could have some years ago, when Macron declared it "braindead" and it might even lose it's american element, but as long as there is a need for shared defense some organization will have to cover that.
The US is pivoting in any case towards China, the European theater for the US is and will continue to be secondary
I forgot to mention, those countries that "joined" the west were ex-Warsaw Pact countries, you know, countries formerly known to be Nazis. Yeah, the Soviets kept them on a leash.
First of all 3 full countries of the Warsaw pact were allies of the Axis,
Of the remaining ones we have
Poland: conjoined Invaded by Russia and Nazi Germany in 1939 under the molotov Ribben trop pact between the two, helping each other's expansionist policies. An invaded country.
Czecoslovacchia: occupied by Germany due to the allies fear of escalation and passivity. It's attempts at more freedom in the Soviet orbit where crushed in Prague by Soviet tanks, again showing the only Soviet concern was a dictatorial control.
USSR: of which members now joined NATO: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, with Ukraine after the Russian invasion also aspiring to join (who would have thought invading your neighbours drive them away, amazing)
And then we have of course East Germany. I wonder what would happen if we let's say, split Germany in two, one under Soviet orbit and one under NATO, which one would have more freedom, more prosperity and more rights for the individuals firmly rejecting the Nazi ideology? The one that didn't have to keep it's citiziens in the country, west Germany.
Equating NATO/west/whatever your boogyman is to Nazism is the most classic and old trick in Russian propaganda playbook.
The irony that it's Russia complaining. A country much closer to Nazi Germany in form of authoritarian government, expansionist policies and internal repression then any EU member is lost on many.
Final question because a doubt came to be, are you Russian or American? (or both)
Did I also fail to mention that when NATO was formed, it was staffed by Nazi Generals? (Google it)
I'm sorry, I don't have time for propaganda.
Russia is run by lawless thugs that read enough to understand nothing yet corrupt pretty much everything they touch - consider London as a case in point. No NATO country has aggressed Russia. Russia has ruined itself and made itself a Chinese vassal state all on its own. It's clear that if Russia stopped fighting, Russia would continue to exist even if Putin's regime did not. If Ukraine stops fighting, it will be removed from the map. If you're going to carry water for an authoritarian state, at least find a better cut of authoritarian. Praise Xi if you like - it's more respectable than defending a failing kleptocracy. This war has lasted longer than the Eastern Front in WW2 and Russia is advancing slower than either side in WW1. It's an egregious waste of blood and treasure and the current ruling clique in Russia deserves to be liquidated in the best Stalinist tradition by their own abused population, and I, for one, look forward to the day when the whole murderous lot of them end up dead in a Muscovite gutter.
A very comforting view, a dangerous one too.
Don't forget that this war and it's consequences has good chances of hitting ordinary Russians first. It's their taxes that Putin is using to fight this costly war, it's their fuel which will remain high and squeeze the savings, it's your family members that could be mobilized in the future all for a pointless war.
This war isn't between Russia and Ukraine & European states, it's between the latter and the current Russia's elite and their worldview.
Wow. Do you get paid to write stuff like that?