Articles like these are what makes Substack invaluable. I often struggle to put into words a response to articles because I am not a writer. I do, however, recognize truth when I read it, and different perspectives like this find ways to make me re-evaluate my own outlook on things. I look forward to more of these. Thank you.
Alla, as an American, this article makes me think hard and examine my premises and preconceptions. I think many of us have awoken to the extent of the fact (belatedly, I admit) that the naïve assumption we are somehow always 'the Good Guy' is dangerous childishness. That the moral high ground we think we occupy is well-crafted delusion, and the forces that would pick at the carcass of the USSR are the very same that have -- now lacking a suitable meal -- turned inward on the very people they are intended to serve.
Please keep writing. Millions of us are starved for perspective. We know we're being manipulated, but triangulating truth is very difficult. It's imperative for the very existence of humanity that we find and use every tool possible to see clearly through the Narrative -- lest the dogs of nuclear war slip their chain behind our ignorant and stupefied backs.
1. For all the conspiratorial nonsense about "the American military-industrial complex" ... it really is just having your weapons made by private industry instead of the government. Show me any evidence that state-run alternatives are less likely to go to war.
2. For the record, we are all THRILLED in the United States when the USSR fell because it meant no more fears of nuclear annihiliation. Also, after the Cold War ended the U.S. closed half its military bases and slashed military spending, triggering the recession that ended George H. W. Bush's presidency.
3. Russophobia? Yeah right. The truth is that Russia was invited to join both the EU and NATO. Russia chose not to pursue it once they found out that those were democratic organizations where everyone got an equal vote. Not getting to run it the way they did the USSR and the Warsaw pact, at the very least as equals with the U.S., was not in their interests.
4. Once again, Russians completely refuse to deal with Ukraine's feelings or interests in all this. Ukraine, for all of its problems, nevertheless has consistently rejected attempts by Russia to first convince and then force it into an alliance with Russia. Why? Because like almost every other USSR and Warsaw Pact member, it has sought to join the EU and NATO to get away from Russia. The only countries that Russia has in its alliance are similarly impoverished autocracies like Iran, Belarus and Syria as well as the wealthy powerful autocracy China. In other words, not a single democracy anywhere in the world has entered into alliance with Russia beyond mere trade agreements because there is no electoral populace in the world wants it. At some point you need to end the victimization and conspiracy theories and ask why this is so. Please realize that not even countries who also dislike the U.S. and the EU are willing to enter into a true alliance with Russia.
5. It is hilarious that you are still plying the "security interests" lie. The reason is that the next time NATO attacks Russia will be the first. By contrast, Russia has entered 13 wars since 1991 including being involved in several at the same time. The Chechyna war lasted 10 years. Russia is still slaughtering civilians in Syria. This is their second time attacking Ukraine and prior to that Russia attacked Georgia (again for the second time). Russia doesn't need to be defended from the NATO or anyone else. Instead countries join NATO to protect themselves from Russia.
6. You state "why doesn't everyone in Europe just negotiate with Russia!" You pretend as if his hasn't been done. All the time. It was Germany and France that negotiated Minsk II with Ukraine. The EU has signed tons of economic and political agreements with the Russian Federation over the decades. What Russia refuses to acknowledge is that other countries have needs and interests too, and that theirs are just as important as Russia's is. This is your problem: you see the refusal of Ukraine and everyone else to agree to everything that Russia wants as "Russophobia." You view NATO supplying arms to Ukraine as "Russophobia" while Russia does the same in Syria and Central Africa.
Look, you and Russia can retain this tsarist view of the world if you choose (and yes I have read Tolstoy). Just know that the inevitable result will be your defeat and humiliation just as is now going on in Ukraine. You don't understand: Ukraine's actions are not because of NATO or whatever conspiracy theory you choose to believe. They legitimately, sincerely do not want to rejoin Russia in any way shape or form except as equals in a multinational body. (Were Russia to try to join the EU or NATO, Ukraine would be their biggest cheerleaders.) Because this is what the people of Ukraine legitimately want, Russia has absolutely no chance of prevailing here. They may retain Crimea over Ukraine's official protests but even the Russian speakers in Donbass will keep fighting Russia for the next 100 years.
None of this had to happen. Russia could have used their considerable human and natural resources to develop itself into a global tourist center around its rich cultural history and natural beauty. They could have built a world-class educational system that makes a mockery of the western educational decline due to political correctness that would have come up with new theories to revitalize the Russian government and economy. They could have built an outstanding healthcare system that would have attracted western Europeans stuck with the likes of NHS to get actual treatment. They could have built factories to make high quality goods that would have been an alternative to those from China. They could have spent the last 30 years doing all those things at the same time! Instead they chose to be a medieval petro state that is constantly in one war or another and for that you have nothing to blame but yourselves and your own leaders.
Interesting perspective. However I don’t believe the USA “needed” a Russian enemy. To the extent the military industrial complex needed a reason to exist by having an enemy, China, Iran and even North Korea far more fitting. In fact , the biggest problem is that in many ways tge US :moved on” from focusing on the defeated USSR as the arch enemy. I believe we would have been more than willing to accept Russia as a large European regional power as long as it did not invade its neighbors. However Putin appears to really use military conflict with his neighbors to keep control domestically by harnessing patriotism in furtherance of his one man rule. How else can you explain “frozen or active conflicts” in Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Chechnya, and for the last 8 years , The Ukraine.
If anything, this war started by Putin is adverse to the US goal to REDUCE its expenses in Europe to concentrate its efforts to preserve the status quo in Asia.
Thank you for sharing your insight. I can’t speak for every American, but I can speak for myself.
I have never viewed Russia (or even China) as a threat, except to say that the rogue and criminal government we have had for decades (yes, many of us know and desire to course correct) but alas, those in charge - selected, not elected - play dangerous man-child games in order to maintain control over their little part of the world and others, if they can get those, too.
If we can end their oligarch, we can end the chaos they create and come together as one people, instead of whatever they decide to label us in order that we assume each other as the enemy. People just want to live their lives and most of us the world over are sick and tired of the assholes in charge who believe they know what’s best and have the right to manipulate us all. Sure, that sounds naive, but it’s true nonetheless.
My deepest prayers and condolences to all of you enduring these criminal actions taking place. With fondness, love and empathy. 🙏🏻
"Why, instead of calls for pan-European negotiations to ensure our pan-European security “in the name of humanism,” are they pumping up military equipment and inciting hatred under the slogans of defending freedom and democracy?"
There were calls for negotiations. There were efforts to appease and to cooperate with Russia - Ukraine's nato application was rejected, Gas pipelines were built....
But Putin decided to invade another country and start killing people. There's still calls for negotiations, but the west doesn't want to just allow him to take what he want by force. Efforts are also very much to blame Putin rather than incite hatred Russians.
I don't understand why the author thinks people in the West hate Russians on ethnic or any other grounds. You meet people that are antisemites or racists, or who are against Roma/Travellers or think there are too many Polish plumbers. But I've never met someone who is anti-Russian.
This may well change/be changing as there seems to be continued support for Putin and what he's doing, which is hard for people in the West to understand. But before all this, genuinely not a jot.
There’s a lot of money to be made in weapons, and a lot of Russia haters in the US government. Those two facts explain why the US is pushing the Ukraine war as a way to sell more weapons and to bleed Russia.
Russia has done a lot less damage in the world than the US has the last 30 years. If we had brains, we’d be working with Russia rather than fighting against.
Thanks for expressing your ideas and feelings so eloquently. We are born humans, and life, family and geopolitics give us labels. First, though, we are humans. For myself, I have known several Russians, Georgians...even got to see Nikita Khrushchev in Iowa when he came to see our combines and fields. He talked about Ukraine... My parents were privileged to visit Moscow as medical specialists back in the '60s. The world was more unified at one time, but power and dollars got in the way. Be assured that the U.S. and European Union leaders assumed strategies for wealth and power -- not for saving lives of Ukraines (Donetsk and Luhansk as well) or young, Russian servicemen. These "leaders" do not represent the people of those countries. Solzhenitsyn. Dostoevsky, Kafka are still studied here, and caviar, Tchaikovsky, borscht and Bolshoi are Midwest traditions. Have you never seen the Slavic minarets in Cedar Rapids, Iowa? People and politics are often at odds. Thank you for your honesty and I look forward to more submissions!
My article here (https://www.thomaspaines.blog/p/an-open-letter-to-vladimir-vladimirovich) is dated and quite obviously overcome by events. But I would very much like to read a Russian perspective on what I call "the ancient things which have always been and the old things of our family memories." The Russian world view seems driven by both; we have neither.
She makes such a big deal about how Ukraine is part of her and at the same time she completly neglects what Ukrainians have to say to all this. I sounds like she never even spoke to single Ukrainian.
A very nice read. Why is it that I can't find similar alternative views amongst writers in the Western media? It seems they are all more concerned with being 'ideologically aligned' with the prevailing narrative, rather than with independent thinking.
Articles like these are what makes Substack invaluable. I often struggle to put into words a response to articles because I am not a writer. I do, however, recognize truth when I read it, and different perspectives like this find ways to make me re-evaluate my own outlook on things. I look forward to more of these. Thank you.
Alla, as an American, this article makes me think hard and examine my premises and preconceptions. I think many of us have awoken to the extent of the fact (belatedly, I admit) that the naïve assumption we are somehow always 'the Good Guy' is dangerous childishness. That the moral high ground we think we occupy is well-crafted delusion, and the forces that would pick at the carcass of the USSR are the very same that have -- now lacking a suitable meal -- turned inward on the very people they are intended to serve.
Please keep writing. Millions of us are starved for perspective. We know we're being manipulated, but triangulating truth is very difficult. It's imperative for the very existence of humanity that we find and use every tool possible to see clearly through the Narrative -- lest the dogs of nuclear war slip their chain behind our ignorant and stupefied backs.
So much of this is false.
1. For all the conspiratorial nonsense about "the American military-industrial complex" ... it really is just having your weapons made by private industry instead of the government. Show me any evidence that state-run alternatives are less likely to go to war.
2. For the record, we are all THRILLED in the United States when the USSR fell because it meant no more fears of nuclear annihiliation. Also, after the Cold War ended the U.S. closed half its military bases and slashed military spending, triggering the recession that ended George H. W. Bush's presidency.
3. Russophobia? Yeah right. The truth is that Russia was invited to join both the EU and NATO. Russia chose not to pursue it once they found out that those were democratic organizations where everyone got an equal vote. Not getting to run it the way they did the USSR and the Warsaw pact, at the very least as equals with the U.S., was not in their interests.
4. Once again, Russians completely refuse to deal with Ukraine's feelings or interests in all this. Ukraine, for all of its problems, nevertheless has consistently rejected attempts by Russia to first convince and then force it into an alliance with Russia. Why? Because like almost every other USSR and Warsaw Pact member, it has sought to join the EU and NATO to get away from Russia. The only countries that Russia has in its alliance are similarly impoverished autocracies like Iran, Belarus and Syria as well as the wealthy powerful autocracy China. In other words, not a single democracy anywhere in the world has entered into alliance with Russia beyond mere trade agreements because there is no electoral populace in the world wants it. At some point you need to end the victimization and conspiracy theories and ask why this is so. Please realize that not even countries who also dislike the U.S. and the EU are willing to enter into a true alliance with Russia.
5. It is hilarious that you are still plying the "security interests" lie. The reason is that the next time NATO attacks Russia will be the first. By contrast, Russia has entered 13 wars since 1991 including being involved in several at the same time. The Chechyna war lasted 10 years. Russia is still slaughtering civilians in Syria. This is their second time attacking Ukraine and prior to that Russia attacked Georgia (again for the second time). Russia doesn't need to be defended from the NATO or anyone else. Instead countries join NATO to protect themselves from Russia.
6. You state "why doesn't everyone in Europe just negotiate with Russia!" You pretend as if his hasn't been done. All the time. It was Germany and France that negotiated Minsk II with Ukraine. The EU has signed tons of economic and political agreements with the Russian Federation over the decades. What Russia refuses to acknowledge is that other countries have needs and interests too, and that theirs are just as important as Russia's is. This is your problem: you see the refusal of Ukraine and everyone else to agree to everything that Russia wants as "Russophobia." You view NATO supplying arms to Ukraine as "Russophobia" while Russia does the same in Syria and Central Africa.
Look, you and Russia can retain this tsarist view of the world if you choose (and yes I have read Tolstoy). Just know that the inevitable result will be your defeat and humiliation just as is now going on in Ukraine. You don't understand: Ukraine's actions are not because of NATO or whatever conspiracy theory you choose to believe. They legitimately, sincerely do not want to rejoin Russia in any way shape or form except as equals in a multinational body. (Were Russia to try to join the EU or NATO, Ukraine would be their biggest cheerleaders.) Because this is what the people of Ukraine legitimately want, Russia has absolutely no chance of prevailing here. They may retain Crimea over Ukraine's official protests but even the Russian speakers in Donbass will keep fighting Russia for the next 100 years.
None of this had to happen. Russia could have used their considerable human and natural resources to develop itself into a global tourist center around its rich cultural history and natural beauty. They could have built a world-class educational system that makes a mockery of the western educational decline due to political correctness that would have come up with new theories to revitalize the Russian government and economy. They could have built an outstanding healthcare system that would have attracted western Europeans stuck with the likes of NHS to get actual treatment. They could have built factories to make high quality goods that would have been an alternative to those from China. They could have spent the last 30 years doing all those things at the same time! Instead they chose to be a medieval petro state that is constantly in one war or another and for that you have nothing to blame but yourselves and your own leaders.
Interesting perspective. However I don’t believe the USA “needed” a Russian enemy. To the extent the military industrial complex needed a reason to exist by having an enemy, China, Iran and even North Korea far more fitting. In fact , the biggest problem is that in many ways tge US :moved on” from focusing on the defeated USSR as the arch enemy. I believe we would have been more than willing to accept Russia as a large European regional power as long as it did not invade its neighbors. However Putin appears to really use military conflict with his neighbors to keep control domestically by harnessing patriotism in furtherance of his one man rule. How else can you explain “frozen or active conflicts” in Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, Chechnya, and for the last 8 years , The Ukraine.
If anything, this war started by Putin is adverse to the US goal to REDUCE its expenses in Europe to concentrate its efforts to preserve the status quo in Asia.
Thank you for sharing your insight. I can’t speak for every American, but I can speak for myself.
I have never viewed Russia (or even China) as a threat, except to say that the rogue and criminal government we have had for decades (yes, many of us know and desire to course correct) but alas, those in charge - selected, not elected - play dangerous man-child games in order to maintain control over their little part of the world and others, if they can get those, too.
If we can end their oligarch, we can end the chaos they create and come together as one people, instead of whatever they decide to label us in order that we assume each other as the enemy. People just want to live their lives and most of us the world over are sick and tired of the assholes in charge who believe they know what’s best and have the right to manipulate us all. Sure, that sounds naive, but it’s true nonetheless.
My deepest prayers and condolences to all of you enduring these criminal actions taking place. With fondness, love and empathy. 🙏🏻
"Why, instead of calls for pan-European negotiations to ensure our pan-European security “in the name of humanism,” are they pumping up military equipment and inciting hatred under the slogans of defending freedom and democracy?"
There were calls for negotiations. There were efforts to appease and to cooperate with Russia - Ukraine's nato application was rejected, Gas pipelines were built....
But Putin decided to invade another country and start killing people. There's still calls for negotiations, but the west doesn't want to just allow him to take what he want by force. Efforts are also very much to blame Putin rather than incite hatred Russians.
I don't understand why the author thinks people in the West hate Russians on ethnic or any other grounds. You meet people that are antisemites or racists, or who are against Roma/Travellers or think there are too many Polish plumbers. But I've never met someone who is anti-Russian.
This may well change/be changing as there seems to be continued support for Putin and what he's doing, which is hard for people in the West to understand. But before all this, genuinely not a jot.
There’s a lot of money to be made in weapons, and a lot of Russia haters in the US government. Those two facts explain why the US is pushing the Ukraine war as a way to sell more weapons and to bleed Russia.
Russia has done a lot less damage in the world than the US has the last 30 years. If we had brains, we’d be working with Russia rather than fighting against.
Thank you, I'm looking forward to more, and thanks Matt.
A dissembling apologia that doesn't deserve to be called "dissent" and obviously still has too many "useful....." adherents. Who invaded whom??
Thanks for expressing your ideas and feelings so eloquently. We are born humans, and life, family and geopolitics give us labels. First, though, we are humans. For myself, I have known several Russians, Georgians...even got to see Nikita Khrushchev in Iowa when he came to see our combines and fields. He talked about Ukraine... My parents were privileged to visit Moscow as medical specialists back in the '60s. The world was more unified at one time, but power and dollars got in the way. Be assured that the U.S. and European Union leaders assumed strategies for wealth and power -- not for saving lives of Ukraines (Donetsk and Luhansk as well) or young, Russian servicemen. These "leaders" do not represent the people of those countries. Solzhenitsyn. Dostoevsky, Kafka are still studied here, and caviar, Tchaikovsky, borscht and Bolshoi are Midwest traditions. Have you never seen the Slavic minarets in Cedar Rapids, Iowa? People and politics are often at odds. Thank you for your honesty and I look forward to more submissions!
My article here (https://www.thomaspaines.blog/p/an-open-letter-to-vladimir-vladimirovich) is dated and quite obviously overcome by events. But I would very much like to read a Russian perspective on what I call "the ancient things which have always been and the old things of our family memories." The Russian world view seems driven by both; we have neither.
Thank you for your voice, our world needs more. I don't agree with all that you said, but I heard it respectfully. ==>Jim
THANK YOU for writing your heartfelt and impassioned expose of the real roots of this insane war.
She makes such a big deal about how Ukraine is part of her and at the same time she completly neglects what Ukrainians have to say to all this. I sounds like she never even spoke to single Ukrainian.
A very nice read. Why is it that I can't find similar alternative views amongst writers in the Western media? It seems they are all more concerned with being 'ideologically aligned' with the prevailing narrative, rather than with independent thinking.