Are you going to pretend that Finland and Sweden are part of the Rus too?
Or that nuclear brinksmanship is a joke?
—
Again, I’m no Kremlinologist. But I’m guessing the average Russian oligarch or FSB general would rather not die in a nuclear war over Ukraine. Ukraine! Way more fun to hang out with Ms. Chelyabinsk 2021.
And history suggests strongman regimes collapse very suddenly - especially when the collapse comes from the elites rather a popular uprising. One minute you’re giving orders, the next you’re on a one-way hall pass to Lubyanka, conveniently connected via underground tunnel to the Kremlin.
"To Putin apologists: At what point do you wake up?"
"Again, I’m no Kremlinologist. But I’m guessing the average..."
Read those two lines, Alex. That's your problem right there - name calling people who might know more than you about this subject in one breath, and then professing your ignorance in the next.
We're not apologists for anything, we just don't swallow every media narrative hook, line, and sinker.
We're not going to run around yelling "Putin man bad" without more data. We are very interested in how much money various U.S. politicians andtheir children have made in Ukraine. And we want to get our own damn house in order before we charge into a foreign war that doesn't affect us.
Not a good idea to use terms like apologist, just sounds like the msm when they called people's scepticism of the wmd story Saddam apologists.
Nato troops on Russia border is always going to be seen as a threat to Russia. What do you think the US would do if Russia tried to get troops into Canada?
Okay, please stop with the "Putin apologist." You're pulling the same crap as those who called people "granny killers" and "anti-vaxxers" did. Many things can be true at one. Putin is not a nice guy who shouldn't have invaded Ukraine. Ukraine, and Zelensky, have not exactly been on the up and up (go find Jimmy Dore's videos from Feb 24th and 26th entitled "The Truth About Ukraine" and "White Wash"). Our elite are up to their eyebrows in this sh-t and have caused it for their own interests and there is nobody, other than the elites in this country, that needs to suffer for that, not through high gas prices and higher taxes to build up our military, much less being sent overseas to die in a war. If we're going to feed anyone to the war machine, it should be the talking heads in the media and our politicians. So please just stop. COVID should have taught you at least one thing: you CANNOT trust anything that is filtered through our government or our media.
What no mention of the International Biden crime family? Come on Alex---Uncle Joe won't open up US oil fields to hurt Putin but instead continues to purchase Russian oil thus supporting the evil Vlad Putin.
If being a *Putin apologist*---cough, cough, ahem, Alex---is a euphemism for being literate in Russian/Ukrainian/Baltic/East Asian global history and geo-politics, then I am proudly a Putin apologist.
I guess you are just a one-trick pony with Covid. You have squandered any credibility remaining, in your pattern of ad hominem flung toward those who disagree with your frankly uneducated tantrums.
And so you now understand the idiom---*journalists* ARE the enemy of the people.
Under the circumstances, I don't think Putin is in any position to threaten the Finns. There's some serious history there. If the Ukrainians are a problem now, go ahead, Vlad. Poke the Finns.
Meanwhile I'm keeping a tally of Everything Joe Biden has Fucked Up in Less Than Two Years.
And TV Talking Heads are questioning if Putin has lost his marbles. I give you Joe "Brandon."
So we have a battle of wits between unarmed opponents.
The US is the only country that gets to have its military in any country it wishes. And most of our citizens think that is just fine and dandy because we are the good guys. And most of those countries think it is just fine because it means we pay for their protection and our and their bureaucrats get to skim personal profits off the top. It doesn't matter whether Putin or any other leader or dictator is nice or a big meany, we need to get the hell out of all other countries and see what the international picture looks like when we aren't tipping the scales one way or the other. Our tax dollars should be spent on US!
I think CNN or the NYT have a spot for you. Your lack of awareness of the history of the region, of Russia, and of NATO's actions over decades, and your unwillingness to "do the science", i.e. your homework, before mindlessly spouting a shop-worn narrative is very surprising and disappointing. Time to step out of your narrative bubble.
Are you going to call me a Putin apologist when I point out, as many geopolitical experts have pointed out, that this war would not have happened if the West had respected the agreements with Russia not to expand NATO eastward? Are you going to call me a Putin apologist for pointing out that the West now sending weapons to Ukraine is tantamount to murder, because the only thing it accomplishes is the killing of young innocent Russians and Ukranians? Are you going to call me a Putin apologist when I point out there could be a political settlement TODAY, with many lives saved, if the West would acquiesce to sone reasonable demands of the Russians. Are you going to call me a Putin apologist when I point out that making Putin the bogeyman is media mind control BULLSHIT. I could go on for the rest of time on, but since there seems to be no end to your hubris why bother.
Remember the lies of Trump Russian Collusion? Remember the two years of lies over covid? Remember the Garland DOJ targeting parents who stood up to school boards? Remember the corrupt FBI, CIA, DOJ, CDC, BigPharma, BigTech, remember Tony "Science" Fauci? Remember Bill Gates? The USA has been meddling in Ukraine for years. Remember Barisma? Hunter Biden sitting on a Ukrainian energy board? Remember Biden telling some Ukrainia official to fire the person investigating Hunter? AND WE'RE APOLOGISTS? Amazing. Basically ever national USA institution is corrupt, but suddenly PUTIN MAN BAD! Where have I heard all that before? But go ahead and keep doubling down, Alex.
Alex, as much as I appreciate all your COVID journalism, your knowledge of the Slavic world is simply non-existent to be voicing an opinion. Your ignorance of the topic makes you no better than a vaccine-pusher, or COVID hysteric. Understanding the Western World and its hostile actions towards Eastern Europe, I suggest reading Intermarium by Mackinder.
Ukraine, unfortunately was becoming a western puppet. The western media turned a blind eye to the genocide in Donbas. For the last 8 long years the people of Luhansk and Donetsk have had there homes, school, and hospitals shelled. Thousands of casualties, men, women, and children, have died under the nationalistic, and down right Nazi behavior of the current government.
Western media has ignored the cries of the Donbas region as to not shine any light on there legitimate plight; only because of the false belief that it furthers Russia's political interest, a laughable concept.
After 8 years of shelling, of murder innocent women and children, with no running water (which the Ukrainians turned off long ago), after no access to basic necessities to life; the fascist Nazi-like Ukrainian puppet government was planning take back those regions by any force necessary.
Nobody likes war Alex, but the western world will never ever admit that the Ukrainians aren't anything more than the victim here, of an unprovoked attack. You cannot possibly be that blind or ignorant of the facts to think that surely something else is array. Why not educate yourself on Ukraine, and Russian speakers within it. Why not educate yourself on why a fascist Nationalist government which was put in place after the US sponsored Maidan, would have been extremely damaging to the Russian speakers of Ukraine.
Or better yet? stop typing. The biggest problem in todays world is an opinion by those who simply have no qualification to issue one. If COVID has taught you anything; its easy to mass market an opinion from the Western World.
1) When the USSR fell, the George H.W. Bush administration pledged to Gorbachev that NATO would not push further east in Europe as that would be recognized as a legitimate national security concern to Russia. Since that pledge in 1991, NATO has invited, among others, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Slovakia, and they have all joined NATO. The only two large countries left, both of which have long borders with Russia, are Belarus and Ukraine. U.S. foreign policymakers and experts, for years after the fall of the USSR, acknowledged that eastward expansion of NATO was, and had to be, a red line for Russia and that such a position was entirely rational. Putin has always insisted, again and again, that this push of NATO eastward was a provocation that would not have good outcomes. Here we are at those bad outcomes.
2) Yanukovych was elected president of Ukraine in 2010 in a democratically free and fair election. In time, he rejected the Ukrainian-European Association Agreement and decided to strengthen Ukraine’s ties to Russia.
3) The U.S. and the West took issue with this and in 2014 promoted and paid $6 billion for an uprising in Ukraine against the Yanukovych government. This was, simply put, another regime change operation. The orchestration of the coup by the U.S. was documented by the leaked phone call between Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state at that time and then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. They discussed, among other things, who should replace Yanukovych once he was ousted.
4) The protests were fueled by the U.S. and the West, as protests were paid for, encouraged and egged on. Those Ukrainians who wanted Yanukovych gone were Ruossophobic ultra-nationalists and neo-Nazis. It is known but not widely reported by the MSM, then or now, that the snipers who ratcheted up the protests by shooting both protestors and policemen were not sent and instructed by Yanukovych but by others, most likely some fascistic anti-Russia element. This was what a violent, armed coup, an actual insurrection, looks like. Yanukovych and other officials had to flee the country with their families as armed militiamen stormed the halls of government.
5) Ultra-nationalist militia members began attacks on ethnic Russians, gay people, Jews, and others who are considered by the pro-Nazi extremists to be untermenschen, sub-humans. The pro-West, “democratic” authorities installed after the coup did nothing to stop the attacks or prosecute the extremists.
6) The militias were incorporated into the Ukrainian armed forces.
7) A 2017 Amnesty International report stated that Kiev had lost control of the radical groups. Some statements from militia members over the years since the coup have stated that eventually they might have to oust the existing government and install a more ultra-nationalist regime.
8) Attacks by Ukrainian forces and militias on the Donbas region where ethnic Russians live, including Donetsk and Luhansk (these two cities have asked Putin to recognize them as independent republics), have continued unabated for the years since the coup.
9) Putin is a realpolitik leader. He is not a new Hitler, nor a madman. The neocons hate him and Russia. The American people have been indoctrinated for a long time to despise him and Russians.
10) All of the above is overly simplified. Surely every point is more complex and far from black and white. But the mainstream narrative doesn't much care about these points.
It appears to me that that the U.S. has been playing a bait-the-bear game for a long time. Putting into effect the idea that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” the U.S. has enabled and fed the growth of fascism in Ukraine. Paying and propping up “rebels” in every country in which we have intervened and brought about regime change has resulted not in “democracy” and “freedom,” but in failed states, intensified ethnic rivalry and hatred, and social chaos.
Read Putin’s speech made on 2/24 (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-24/full-transcript-vladimir-putin-s-televised-address-to-russia-on-ukraine-feb-24). It is nothing if not rational and sensible. That does not make him a “good” guy. We could even go down the rabbit hole and consider the possibility that he is a WEFer. The Democrats and Republicans put on good theater, causing confusion, division, and disillusionment rather than enlightening the public by telling truth and acting out of moral conviction. Most of the politicians on both sides act like outright foes while seeking power and privilege and profit from the same wellspring of corruption. Maybe this Ukraine crisis is also theater, but on the international stage. Who knows!
@Alex, sounds as if you actually (still) believe the Trump-Russia Collusion hoax, PROVEN to be a DEMOCRAT spying operation and psyop against Trump. Where are your "unreported truths?" Is this more of your NYT roots and anti-Trump/Populist resentment coming out? In comments, I've seen no "Putin apologists" as you allege. Rather, I see comments from logical people who question everything from media large and small. I wonder why so many people in one place would question their media, government, Intel. Hmm. Let me think about this and get back to you. Sheesh!
In a world where we are told Evil is Good, men can have babies, vaccines work, freedom truckers are terrorists, and Joe Biden is competent, is it possible that the messaging on this conflict is also upside-down?
When corrupt Western governments all pull for one side in a conflict, perhaps we should be skeptical? It is possible that this is a conflict of competing evil philosophies and one of them has to lose before the other can be defeated?
Either way, it won’t be Alex that shapes my opinion when he has trouble figuring out his own.
Alex , stick to vax issues where you have some credibility. Your cartoonish dabbling in foreign policy is strictly “blue check”. Pointing out the 30. years of State Department and “Intelligence Community" shenanigans in Ukraine is hardly "Putin apologetics" . If it is then your criticism of Big Pharma/Establishment Covid propaganda must also be anti-science hysteria . Grow up Alex, the world of realpolitik is more complicated than your fantasy bubble where Atticus Finch is a Deus ex machina waiting to slay the horrible Putin.
Seems to me that Putin is only trying to scare us with a little nuclear sabre rattling. And it will work. After all, we are the same West that spent the last two years terrorized by a virus with a kill rate of nearly zero.
Alex, at what point are you going to realize that NATO (which no longer has any legitimate reason to even exist after the collapse of the USSR) expanding closer & closer to Russia's borders has been a continuous, sustained act of aggression?
Putin has tried reasoning with Western powers for many years over this, but his peaceful attempts at cooperation & diplomacy were continually, disrespectfully ignored.
If an anti-U.S. military organization inducted Canada into its membership, and expressed interest in Mexico joining too, and intended to set up "defensive" weaponry that could strike the U.S. within minutes, how do you think U.S. leaders would respond?
On another note, I'm heartened by the comments on this thread. Would the author of this Substack have drawn as solid a lesson from what he's written as they have.
Ukraine joining NATO is a security threat to RF. They’ve tried to settle the civil war in Ukraine using diplomacy for 8 years. With all due respect, you’re on the wrong side of history on this one.
Ukraine is a giant money laundering machine for the deep state. Putin doesn't want Ukraine to have threatening weapons near their border any more than we wanted Cuba to have them. The deep staters of the US have bioweapons labs set up in Ukraine probably to create more gain of function problems to help them in creating more chaos to further their global reset ambitions.
The whole country has been hijacked by the deep staters. Why are Pelosi's, Kerry's, and Biden's kids set up in high paying token positions in companies in Ukraine? They are probably helping to do the laundry. Putin may be helping himself out by preventing an adversary from setting up offensive or defensive weapons on his border while at the same time rooting out the corruption. of the deep state in Ukraine. That would surely explain why all the dirty democrats are screaming bloody murder about this country that we don't even have an agreement with. What they are possibly trying to prevent is the loss of their money making laundering machine.
"To Putin apologists: At what point do you wake up?"
"Again, I’m no Kremlinologist. But I’m guessing the average..."
Read those two lines, Alex. That's your problem right there - name calling people who might know more than you about this subject in one breath, and then professing your ignorance in the next.
We're not apologists for anything, we just don't swallow every media narrative hook, line, and sinker.
We're not going to run around yelling "Putin man bad" without more data. We are very interested in how much money various U.S. politicians andtheir children have made in Ukraine. And we want to get our own damn house in order before we charge into a foreign war that doesn't affect us.
Calling people you don't agree with names? Did you learn nothing from the Covid hysteria?
don't confuse nuanced opinions with support for Putin
Not a good idea to use terms like apologist, just sounds like the msm when they called people's scepticism of the wmd story Saddam apologists.
Nato troops on Russia border is always going to be seen as a threat to Russia. What do you think the US would do if Russia tried to get troops into Canada?
Why don’t you dive into the history of what brought us to this point instead of sounding like the MSM. Maybe you do belong on Twitter.
You can take the journalist out of the mainstream, but you can't take the mainstream out of the journalist.
Stick with Covid. You are out of your league here.
Covid is done, and Berenstein's takes on everything else are stone cold. Time to unsub tbh.
Most people aren’t apologist, they just don’t bother to choose sides between authoritarian regimes
I am trying to figure out who are the Putin apologist are that you speak of? Please explain who are these people?
Okay, please stop with the "Putin apologist." You're pulling the same crap as those who called people "granny killers" and "anti-vaxxers" did. Many things can be true at one. Putin is not a nice guy who shouldn't have invaded Ukraine. Ukraine, and Zelensky, have not exactly been on the up and up (go find Jimmy Dore's videos from Feb 24th and 26th entitled "The Truth About Ukraine" and "White Wash"). Our elite are up to their eyebrows in this sh-t and have caused it for their own interests and there is nobody, other than the elites in this country, that needs to suffer for that, not through high gas prices and higher taxes to build up our military, much less being sent overseas to die in a war. If we're going to feed anyone to the war machine, it should be the talking heads in the media and our politicians. So please just stop. COVID should have taught you at least one thing: you CANNOT trust anything that is filtered through our government or our media.
Glad to see Berenson got his payment from the WEF!
What no mention of the International Biden crime family? Come on Alex---Uncle Joe won't open up US oil fields to hurt Putin but instead continues to purchase Russian oil thus supporting the evil Vlad Putin.
If being a *Putin apologist*---cough, cough, ahem, Alex---is a euphemism for being literate in Russian/Ukrainian/Baltic/East Asian global history and geo-politics, then I am proudly a Putin apologist.
I guess you are just a one-trick pony with Covid. You have squandered any credibility remaining, in your pattern of ad hominem flung toward those who disagree with your frankly uneducated tantrums.
And so you now understand the idiom---*journalists* ARE the enemy of the people.
🙏🏻 for all innocent civilians…
Now…
Remind me again:
1) why I hate Russia & love Ukraine
2)why I should surrender my first born kid to protect a corrupt country
3)why US politicians use Ukraine as a slush fund/money laundering facility & I should defend this
4)why the Ukrainian opposition leader is under house arrest & opposition media been shut down…
5)why so much pro-Ukraine propaganda coming out of England & other Western nations?
6)WHY IS JOE BIDEN ON VACATION THIS WEEKEND?
I could go on…but why bother? This is Joe Biden’s fault. Call me names..whatever.
I have no skin in the game but now we have Sunday morning nuke threats & my gas is gonna be $7 a gallon.
81 million votes are pretty quiet.
Thanks Joe.
Under the circumstances, I don't think Putin is in any position to threaten the Finns. There's some serious history there. If the Ukrainians are a problem now, go ahead, Vlad. Poke the Finns.
Meanwhile I'm keeping a tally of Everything Joe Biden has Fucked Up in Less Than Two Years.
And TV Talking Heads are questioning if Putin has lost his marbles. I give you Joe "Brandon."
So we have a battle of wits between unarmed opponents.
The US is the only country that gets to have its military in any country it wishes. And most of our citizens think that is just fine and dandy because we are the good guys. And most of those countries think it is just fine because it means we pay for their protection and our and their bureaucrats get to skim personal profits off the top. It doesn't matter whether Putin or any other leader or dictator is nice or a big meany, we need to get the hell out of all other countries and see what the international picture looks like when we aren't tipping the scales one way or the other. Our tax dollars should be spent on US!
I think CNN or the NYT have a spot for you. Your lack of awareness of the history of the region, of Russia, and of NATO's actions over decades, and your unwillingness to "do the science", i.e. your homework, before mindlessly spouting a shop-worn narrative is very surprising and disappointing. Time to step out of your narrative bubble.
Dude, this is strike two.
Alex looks more and more like controlled opposition and neocon.
Are you going to call me a Putin apologist when I point out, as many geopolitical experts have pointed out, that this war would not have happened if the West had respected the agreements with Russia not to expand NATO eastward? Are you going to call me a Putin apologist for pointing out that the West now sending weapons to Ukraine is tantamount to murder, because the only thing it accomplishes is the killing of young innocent Russians and Ukranians? Are you going to call me a Putin apologist when I point out there could be a political settlement TODAY, with many lives saved, if the West would acquiesce to sone reasonable demands of the Russians. Are you going to call me a Putin apologist when I point out that making Putin the bogeyman is media mind control BULLSHIT. I could go on for the rest of time on, but since there seems to be no end to your hubris why bother.
Remember the lies of Trump Russian Collusion? Remember the two years of lies over covid? Remember the Garland DOJ targeting parents who stood up to school boards? Remember the corrupt FBI, CIA, DOJ, CDC, BigPharma, BigTech, remember Tony "Science" Fauci? Remember Bill Gates? The USA has been meddling in Ukraine for years. Remember Barisma? Hunter Biden sitting on a Ukrainian energy board? Remember Biden telling some Ukrainia official to fire the person investigating Hunter? AND WE'RE APOLOGISTS? Amazing. Basically ever national USA institution is corrupt, but suddenly PUTIN MAN BAD! Where have I heard all that before? But go ahead and keep doubling down, Alex.
At what point does NATO stop moving east? When in Moscow?
Alex, as much as I appreciate all your COVID journalism, your knowledge of the Slavic world is simply non-existent to be voicing an opinion. Your ignorance of the topic makes you no better than a vaccine-pusher, or COVID hysteric. Understanding the Western World and its hostile actions towards Eastern Europe, I suggest reading Intermarium by Mackinder.
Ukraine, unfortunately was becoming a western puppet. The western media turned a blind eye to the genocide in Donbas. For the last 8 long years the people of Luhansk and Donetsk have had there homes, school, and hospitals shelled. Thousands of casualties, men, women, and children, have died under the nationalistic, and down right Nazi behavior of the current government.
Western media has ignored the cries of the Donbas region as to not shine any light on there legitimate plight; only because of the false belief that it furthers Russia's political interest, a laughable concept.
After 8 years of shelling, of murder innocent women and children, with no running water (which the Ukrainians turned off long ago), after no access to basic necessities to life; the fascist Nazi-like Ukrainian puppet government was planning take back those regions by any force necessary.
Nobody likes war Alex, but the western world will never ever admit that the Ukrainians aren't anything more than the victim here, of an unprovoked attack. You cannot possibly be that blind or ignorant of the facts to think that surely something else is array. Why not educate yourself on Ukraine, and Russian speakers within it. Why not educate yourself on why a fascist Nationalist government which was put in place after the US sponsored Maidan, would have been extremely damaging to the Russian speakers of Ukraine.
Or better yet? stop typing. The biggest problem in todays world is an opinion by those who simply have no qualification to issue one. If COVID has taught you anything; its easy to mass market an opinion from the Western World.
LOL Alex thinking there are loads of Putin apologists out there.
Funny, Malone just did a post about the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect and lo and behold - exhibit A, Alex Berenson!
MSM has been pathologically lying for 2 years and all of a sudden they are beacons of truth on a war that is 4 days old ?
Putin is a lot of things, but a cartoon madman he is not.
Your snark fails here. How a bout doing some investigative journalism like you do with Covid?
1) When the USSR fell, the George H.W. Bush administration pledged to Gorbachev that NATO would not push further east in Europe as that would be recognized as a legitimate national security concern to Russia. Since that pledge in 1991, NATO has invited, among others, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Slovakia, and they have all joined NATO. The only two large countries left, both of which have long borders with Russia, are Belarus and Ukraine. U.S. foreign policymakers and experts, for years after the fall of the USSR, acknowledged that eastward expansion of NATO was, and had to be, a red line for Russia and that such a position was entirely rational. Putin has always insisted, again and again, that this push of NATO eastward was a provocation that would not have good outcomes. Here we are at those bad outcomes.
2) Yanukovych was elected president of Ukraine in 2010 in a democratically free and fair election. In time, he rejected the Ukrainian-European Association Agreement and decided to strengthen Ukraine’s ties to Russia.
3) The U.S. and the West took issue with this and in 2014 promoted and paid $6 billion for an uprising in Ukraine against the Yanukovych government. This was, simply put, another regime change operation. The orchestration of the coup by the U.S. was documented by the leaked phone call between Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state at that time and then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. They discussed, among other things, who should replace Yanukovych once he was ousted.
4) The protests were fueled by the U.S. and the West, as protests were paid for, encouraged and egged on. Those Ukrainians who wanted Yanukovych gone were Ruossophobic ultra-nationalists and neo-Nazis. It is known but not widely reported by the MSM, then or now, that the snipers who ratcheted up the protests by shooting both protestors and policemen were not sent and instructed by Yanukovych but by others, most likely some fascistic anti-Russia element. This was what a violent, armed coup, an actual insurrection, looks like. Yanukovych and other officials had to flee the country with their families as armed militiamen stormed the halls of government.
5) Ultra-nationalist militia members began attacks on ethnic Russians, gay people, Jews, and others who are considered by the pro-Nazi extremists to be untermenschen, sub-humans. The pro-West, “democratic” authorities installed after the coup did nothing to stop the attacks or prosecute the extremists.
6) The militias were incorporated into the Ukrainian armed forces.
7) A 2017 Amnesty International report stated that Kiev had lost control of the radical groups. Some statements from militia members over the years since the coup have stated that eventually they might have to oust the existing government and install a more ultra-nationalist regime.
8) Attacks by Ukrainian forces and militias on the Donbas region where ethnic Russians live, including Donetsk and Luhansk (these two cities have asked Putin to recognize them as independent republics), have continued unabated for the years since the coup.
9) Putin is a realpolitik leader. He is not a new Hitler, nor a madman. The neocons hate him and Russia. The American people have been indoctrinated for a long time to despise him and Russians.
10) All of the above is overly simplified. Surely every point is more complex and far from black and white. But the mainstream narrative doesn't much care about these points.
It appears to me that that the U.S. has been playing a bait-the-bear game for a long time. Putting into effect the idea that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” the U.S. has enabled and fed the growth of fascism in Ukraine. Paying and propping up “rebels” in every country in which we have intervened and brought about regime change has resulted not in “democracy” and “freedom,” but in failed states, intensified ethnic rivalry and hatred, and social chaos.
Read Putin’s speech made on 2/24 (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-24/full-transcript-vladimir-putin-s-televised-address-to-russia-on-ukraine-feb-24). It is nothing if not rational and sensible. That does not make him a “good” guy. We could even go down the rabbit hole and consider the possibility that he is a WEFer. The Democrats and Republicans put on good theater, causing confusion, division, and disillusionment rather than enlightening the public by telling truth and acting out of moral conviction. Most of the politicians on both sides act like outright foes while seeking power and privilege and profit from the same wellspring of corruption. Maybe this Ukraine crisis is also theater, but on the international stage. Who knows!
Alex: The MSM is not providing factual data with respect to COVID numbers and risks to people getting the vaxx.
Also Alex: The MSM and the representation of the war between Russia and Ukraine is spot on and Putin is a monster.
Discernment into the fact that there are MANY factors at play here would be wise.
@Alex, sounds as if you actually (still) believe the Trump-Russia Collusion hoax, PROVEN to be a DEMOCRAT spying operation and psyop against Trump. Where are your "unreported truths?" Is this more of your NYT roots and anti-Trump/Populist resentment coming out? In comments, I've seen no "Putin apologists" as you allege. Rather, I see comments from logical people who question everything from media large and small. I wonder why so many people in one place would question their media, government, Intel. Hmm. Let me think about this and get back to you. Sheesh!
You really should do your homework before you spout off.
If the last two years taught anyone anything it is that propaganda is a two way street.
When commenting on these topics, being able to read in other languages helps. Putin places nuclear "deterrent" forces on alert. Lying by omission.
In a world where we are told Evil is Good, men can have babies, vaccines work, freedom truckers are terrorists, and Joe Biden is competent, is it possible that the messaging on this conflict is also upside-down?
When corrupt Western governments all pull for one side in a conflict, perhaps we should be skeptical? It is possible that this is a conflict of competing evil philosophies and one of them has to lose before the other can be defeated?
Either way, it won’t be Alex that shapes my opinion when he has trouble figuring out his own.
Stick to the Rona. You're not doing this "branching out thing" very well.
To all the anti-vaxxers, I mean Putin apologists, no discussion other than the given narrative is allowed.
https://nakedemperor.substack.com/p/a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words-e05?utm_source=url
Alex , stick to vax issues where you have some credibility. Your cartoonish dabbling in foreign policy is strictly “blue check”. Pointing out the 30. years of State Department and “Intelligence Community" shenanigans in Ukraine is hardly "Putin apologetics" . If it is then your criticism of Big Pharma/Establishment Covid propaganda must also be anti-science hysteria . Grow up Alex, the world of realpolitik is more complicated than your fantasy bubble where Atticus Finch is a Deus ex machina waiting to slay the horrible Putin.
Seems to me that Putin is only trying to scare us with a little nuclear sabre rattling. And it will work. After all, we are the same West that spent the last two years terrorized by a virus with a kill rate of nearly zero.
Alex truly thinks he is the smartest person in the room.
Alex, at what point are you going to realize that NATO (which no longer has any legitimate reason to even exist after the collapse of the USSR) expanding closer & closer to Russia's borders has been a continuous, sustained act of aggression?
Putin has tried reasoning with Western powers for many years over this, but his peaceful attempts at cooperation & diplomacy were continually, disrespectfully ignored.
If an anti-U.S. military organization inducted Canada into its membership, and expressed interest in Mexico joining too, and intended to set up "defensive" weaponry that could strike the U.S. within minutes, how do you think U.S. leaders would respond?
If you want measured analysis go to Glenn Greenwald on substack or his rumble videos. Glenn doesn’t insult his paying subscribers.
I'm not sure I've ever heard of a Putin apologist, not even on the shit hole called Twitter.
I think the arrival of this war is a fascinating coincidence - the COVID emergency was winding down, and now - we have a war emergency.
How did that go again? Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. And...
On another note, I'm heartened by the comments on this thread. Would the author of this Substack have drawn as solid a lesson from what he's written as they have.
Lots of people who appeared to be sane suddenly have "Putin Derangement Syndrome." It's remarkable.
Where does Germany stand on all this? After all, it is in their backyard. Meanwhile, our backyard, our southern boarder, is being invaded.
Ukraine joining NATO is a security threat to RF. They’ve tried to settle the civil war in Ukraine using diplomacy for 8 years. With all due respect, you’re on the wrong side of history on this one.
The people are surprisingly awake. They can see through both the neoliberal and neocon war propaganda.
Ukraine is a giant money laundering machine for the deep state. Putin doesn't want Ukraine to have threatening weapons near their border any more than we wanted Cuba to have them. The deep staters of the US have bioweapons labs set up in Ukraine probably to create more gain of function problems to help them in creating more chaos to further their global reset ambitions.
The whole country has been hijacked by the deep staters. Why are Pelosi's, Kerry's, and Biden's kids set up in high paying token positions in companies in Ukraine? They are probably helping to do the laundry. Putin may be helping himself out by preventing an adversary from setting up offensive or defensive weapons on his border while at the same time rooting out the corruption. of the deep state in Ukraine. That would surely explain why all the dirty democrats are screaming bloody murder about this country that we don't even have an agreement with. What they are possibly trying to prevent is the loss of their money making laundering machine.