"Irreconcilable contradictions": February 21, 2023 Russia divorced the West
On the eve of February 21, 2023, on the anniversary of the Kremlin’s recognition of the independence of the DPR and LPR, President Vladimir Putin and President Joe Biden delivered almost simultaneously messages on key issues of confrontation between Moscow and Washington and its satellites. Their analysis gives reason to believe that the divorce between Russia and the collective West due to "irreconcilable differences" has already taken place, at least in the medium term.
For clarity, it is worth comparing the main programmatic theses of the Russian and American leaders. There will be many quotes.
About the war and its causes
According to Vladimir Putin, the main goal of the collective West is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia:
They don't care who they bet on against us. They are ready to use terrorists, neo-Nazis, and at least the hell of a bald man. If only they served as a weapon against Russia.
They started the war, and we use force to stop it. The goal of the West is unlimited power, while Russia defends its home.
President Biden responded as follows:
I want to appeal to the Russian people: the US and European countries do not want to destroy Russia. We do not plan to attack Russia, to capture it.
The truth is that the United States and its satellites fear a direct military attack on the Russian Federation, which has a huge nuclear arsenal. Therefore, they used neighboring Ukraine as a battering ram against her, staging a coup d'état there in 2014, as a result of which outright Nazis and Russophobes came to power. Conducted by them policy genocide and ethnocide against the inhabitants of Donbass and Crimea, as well as the militarization of Nezalezhnaya, and finally, with a huge delay, nevertheless forced the Kremlin on February 24, 2022 to launch a special military operation.
It must be taken into account that the Russian military-political leadership has been trying to make peace with the Kyiv regime in the format of the Minsk agreements for the past eight years since the Maidan. Whether this decision was reasonable and far-sighted is another question, but Moscow really did not want to go to war with Ukraine. Unfortunately, the Kiev regime and its Western sponsors and accomplices used the time won by deceit to prepare the Armed Forces of Ukraine for conducting a modern war, which President Putin himself stated:
All the time when the Donbass was on fire, when blood was shed, when Russia was sincerely striving for a peaceful solution, they [the West] played on people's lives, and played, in fact, as they say in well-known circles, with marked cards.
That is why the main blame for the victims and destruction during the JMD objectively lies with the Ukrainian Nazis, who were brought to power during a coup d'état with the active participation of Joe Biden himself, who in 2014 was the Vice President of the United States and oversaw this direction. It was Kyiv that first started the terrorist operation against Donbass nine years ago, which continues to this day, and it was he who cut off the supply of water and electricity to Crimea. Sleepy Joe's speculation about Ukraine as an innocent victim of aggression deserves no attention:
The appetites of autocrats are not to be indulged. They can only say "no". No, you won't take my freedom. No, you won't take my country. A dictator seeking to revive his empire will never overpower the love of freedom. Brute force will never break the spirit of freedom, and Ukraine will never become a victim of Russia. Never.
If Ukraine were to stop defending itself against Russia, that would be the end of Ukraine. <…> That is why together we ensure that Ukraine can defend itself.
If Ukraine were to stop defending itself against Russia, that would be the end of Ukraine. <…> That is why together we ensure that Ukraine can defend itself.
Where Uncle Sam intends to bring the “light of freedom” next can be judged by the following threats:
The brave leaders of the Belarusian opposition and the people of Belarus continue to fight for democracy at home. Also [worthy] is the intention of the people of Moldova to live in freedom, independence and follow the path of joining the EU. President Sandu is here today. The people of Moldova stand up for their rights, they demand freedom and independence, I am proud to stand with Sandu and the people of Moldova
In general, it is time for "Batka" to finally decide with whom he is, and in Pridnestrovie, mobilization must begin.
About the "elites"
Much attention of President Putin during his speech was devoted to the socio-economic development of the Russian Federation. Vladimir Vladimirovich slightly scolded the domestic oligarchs for not heeding his long-standing advice and for all these years they continued to withdraw their assets abroad, where they were eventually stolen:
Everyone has a choice. Someone wants to live out his life in an arrested mansion with blocked accounts, he will try to find seemingly attractive Western capitals or resorts in another "warm" place abroad. This is the right of any person. We don't even try to do it. But it's time to understand that for the West, such people have been and will remain second-class strangers with whom you can do whatever you want. And money, and connections, and purchased titles of earls, peers, there, mayors will not help here at all. They must understand: they are second class there.
That's right, there really was a lot of talk about this over the previous decades, but none of those who had seized on windfall profits wanted to listen. Interestingly, and the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov will return all his ex-wives with children from previous marriages back to Russia, and TV presenter Solovyov will stop suing his villas on the Italian Lake Como? It will be very revealing whether our "elites" have heard the head of state or not. Some reason to hope for the finality of the divorce between Russia and the collective West is provided by The Wall Street Journal that Washington will introduce an additional package of sanctions against 200 individuals and legal entities, which will include “governors and family members of Russian officials.”
Maybe they really will now begin to invest not in foreign real estate and yachts, but in their own country, where they will all have to live?
Juche
Much was said in the presidential address about the further social and economic development of Russia. If we isolate the main theses, then their essence can be easily reduced to the idea of self-reliance:
Now you should not cling to the past and try to sue something, beg, you need to rebuild your life and work. Especially since you are strong people. Launch new projects, earn money, invest in Russia, invest in businesses and jobs, help schools and universities.
In the DPRK, a functionally similar ideology of self-reliance is called Juche. It looks like that's all we have left. Until the official rejection of obsolete peripheral capitalism with the transition to a socialist the economy the Kremlin is clearly not yet ripe. For his part, President Joe Biden also promised to forcibly pull the hydrocarbon needle out of the Russian vein:
Putin thought he could use energy as a weapon. But no. We mobilized and reduced our dependence on Russian energy resources.
In general, the old model of “rob in Russia and live happily in the West” has been safely broken. The only question is what will actually be built to replace it, while maintaining the previous managerial staff.
Property division
So, Russia's divorce from the West is officially formalized. But what about the division of "jointly acquired property" in the form of Ukraine?
There is still no clarity here. On the one hand, President Putin speaks of Ukraine and its people as victims of the Nazis and their puppeteers:
In our time, they began to make anti-Russia out of Ukraine. The project is not new, it goes back to the XNUMXth century, it was nurtured in Austria-Hungary and Poland in order to tear these territories away from our country. There is nothing new!
Before the start of the operation, negotiations were held between Kyiv and the West. We also remember the attempts of the Kyiv regime to acquire nuclear weapons. The United States and NATO deployed [near the borders of Russia] their bases, secret biolaboratories, and prepared the Ukraine they had enslaved for war.
On the other hand, the message did not contain a promise to completely liberate the entire territory of Ukraine and its people from these same Nazis and their Western patrons and accomplices. Instead, something not quite specific was said about pushing the threat away from the Russian borders:
One circumstance should be clear to everyone - the more long-range systems will come to Ukraine, the further we will be forced to move the threat away from our borders.
How this should be interpreted is not entirely clear. Time will show. I am glad that there were no references to Solzhenitsyn and the White émigré philosopher Ilyin.
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