Allow me to introduce you to the work of Aleksandr Dugin:
When Putin makes appeals to the ultra-nationalists in his base he’s channeling a lot of Dugin’s philosophy. More context re: Putin and his orange fanboi here:
Pet oligarchs are still oligarchs. You’re basically describing a gangster kingpin who managed to “corral” the lesser thugs and wet his beak in their rackets if they want to continue operating. That’s the kind of leader Il Douche kissed up to today while dissing his own citizens and allies. You may be cool with that but don’t expect others to be, especially when the gangster is also actively funding efforts to undermine liberal democracy in the West.
You wouldn’t be the first person in history to confuse ventures for peace with appeasement (or perhaps treason, depending on the outcome of Mueller’s investigation).
Russia didn’t manage to change the fact that the flyover states are solidly racist, seriously? There is no clinging to straws with this, the electoral college wins are decidedly rural white racists.
Ah, Dugin, I swear it comes from the inverse to the Infowars realm. As a person of part Polish ancestry, I am not enthused about a prospect of Russia running amok over east Europe again. I just find it conspiracy theoryish and paranoid.
Whatever, I am so confused by the apparent bullshit of our great leader. 7k nuclear weapons, 2k actively pointed at places where people I love live, let’s just escalate shit against those people, right?
On the brightside, it would end global warming for a few decades.
I’d call that more whataboutism, but Alex Jones makes things up out of whole cloth whereas I’m describing things acknowledged by the “reality based community”. What exactly are you claiming? That Dugin and his books don’t exist? That they don’t have influence on Russia’s military and intelligence and foreign policy elites? That their expansionist concepts aren’t the basis of the ultra-nationalist appeals and promises Putin makes to his mouth-breathing base as part of the restoration of “Russian greatness?”
You don’t have to. The Poles have already given into fear of both Putin and of the invading Muslim bogeymen he conjures up to elect a far-right government without Russia having had to spend a dime as it did elsewhere in the West. Given time, the right-wing thugs who run Russia and the right-wing thugs who run Poland will find their own mutually beneficial accommodation even as they maintain a facade of hostility.
No-one’s talking about “escalating.” Calling people out on their objectively crappy and antagonistic behaviour isn’t “escalating.” Deciding to cancel a summit meeting because of one’s counterpart’s objectively crappy and antagonistic behaviour isn’t “escalating.” Asking the “president” not to publically lick the arse of someone engaging in objectively crappy and antagonistic behaviour isn’t “escalating.”
Look, I’m sure you want “peace in for our time.” On this site, a lot of us know what that phrase really means.
There’s nothing wrong with contrarian views, unless they’re ill-informed and argued in bad faith (fallacies, JAQing off, victim-blaming, etc.) I’m afraid that contrarian views that excuse and downplay the actions of autocrats hostile to liberal democracy, whether foreign or domestic, tend to be both of those things.
Look, as a long time RAW reader and a fan of boingboing long before I entered the boards, I understand the bent here.
What I am saying is that Dugin’s appeal to nationalist elements is irrelevant to Putin’s actual policy. He appeals to mass Russian economic suffering while filling his personal coffers with Oligarch money. Do I believe he sincerely wishes to implement those policies? Hell no.
Even Mitch McConnell is disagreeing with how the meeting went.
Maybe a sign of things to come, but more likely a sign that things are getting serious enough that Trump will walk it back to avoid alienating the R party.
Pretty clear he’s walking a line between keeping their support, while trying to be soft on Russia. If he falls off that tightrope, that’s what’ll do him in. But, given everything we’ve seen so far, I’m afraid it’s a rather wide board and not a tightrope. At least the chasm it bridges across is relatively long.
Yeah, seizing Crimea and messing about in eastern Ukraine and trying to destabilise NATO as a threat to his expansionist aims (after it snubbed him) have nothing to do with Dugin’s programme. Now that’s InfoWars level denial of reality.
You can claim that it’s all about the economy, but that’s not what the facts say. Even when it comes to the economy Putin’s still blaming the West for its woes (something you seem to have bought into in your comment above about “Europe dicking with their economy.”).
Really? I suspect him of either engineering the Syrian refugee crisis, or quickly seeing an opportunity once it began.
It put stress on all western counties, economic and political.
It was a complete distraction from his invasion of the Crimea.
It gave all the far-right groups in Europe and North America a powerful boost, and from that, Trump got a boost, probably more than the Facebook games.
A man who employs butchers like Assad to drive millions of people is not “sugar”.
A fucking Mediterranean base. That is all Russian involvement there is about. Some weapons testing, some combat experience, but are you suggesting the dude is so brilliantly evil that he could engineer a fucking mass humanitarian crisis to wag the dog? Maybe years of drought pummelling Syrian farmers was all part of Putin’s nefarious plan, too? Ever since photoing Reagan at the Kremlin Great Big Bad Putin has been formulating his plot.
Omfg, I swear, this Putin is fucking old, he will be dead in a few years, then his jetsetting daughter will be partying in Monaco.
I mean, it’s not like Russia recently tromped on over with a ton of troops and engineered a bogus election to steal a piece of the Ukraine or anything…
If you’re talking about a full scale blitzkreig of Europe, sure. That ain’t their style–they don’t have the budget for it. But I sure as hell think they will turn Crimea into an annexation template if they are allowed to get away with stealing small enough pieces of countries every dozen years or so.
While Tartus is important, it’s also the centre of Russia’s understandable (from a geopolitical POV) effort to stake out influence in the Middle East. Plus the “minor” matter of, as you note, testing weapons and blooding troops in another country’s civil war. In return for all that he’s quite happy to support the Chinless Wonder’s brutal regime as a client state (no Russia, no Assad). [reminder: whataboutism frowned upon here]
The refugee crisis, like the election of Il Douche, is an unintended side bonus for him that he’s taking the opportunity to exploit. To suggest otherwise is to insult his intelligence, decades of experience, and skill.
Meanwhile, he’s still around and, y’know, meeting with the “president.” Check back here in a few years if you like, but for now maybe stop downplaying the destructiveness of his regime at home and in the West. Or at least save it for Facebook and YouTube comments.
I agree on some points, but I am downplaying in the face of hyperbole. Everyone wants to paint this picture as some mastermind supervillain when all I see is an opportunistic mid level buearocrat.
So a half assed slumlord meets with a half assed mobster, and America should shudder at the loss of dignity? How dare us not having some supposed moral high ground, how dare us? I am just thinking both of these middle management mkay fucks have a key to gamma ray spouting piles of uranium that go kablooey and am wiping my forehead going “whew”.
After Syria moved from Arab Spring to civil war, the economy was dead and Assad probably only had about six months to a year that he could continue to pay for the army. Somebody propped him up big time. Russia has at least two bases in Syria, so they have a strategic interest there.
Long before Trump was on the horizon, Russian media and fake western sites were amplifying the Islamophobia message in a huge way to generate hostility and fear towards refugees, as well as giving a boost to far-right nationalist groups.
I noticed that when the Russians were bombing in Syria, they were frequently doing mass strikes on civilian population centers rather than military targets. Just the thing to help people decide to pack up and leave.
I don’t know if it’s really brilliant so much as coldly calculating and heartless.
