One of the frequent arguments made by apologists for Russia is the claim that, in the early 1990s when the Soviet Union was collapsing, Russia was promised that NATO would not expand further eastward — that is, NATO would refrain from welcoming new member states in Eastern Europe.
Anyone who argues "Oh, but NATO expansion!" Is at best naive, ignorant and too lazy to work out the fallacy of such a statement, and at worst, knows such arguments are a fantasy but repeats the line incessantly which suggests some over-riding need to align with the Kremlin mafia bosses. It would be far too easy to put it down to money, and even though that may be the case for some online social influencers, there's also a sizable number of people who think Russia is the embodiment of the Marxist-Leninist ideal of communism and therefore the ends justify the means, regardless of the barbarity of it all.
I agree with all your arguments. Ukraine is our conscience, and our political leaders should not be afraid to take whatever steps necessary to put an end to Russia's brutal oppression abroad, be that Ukraine, Syria, Central Africa etc. Hopefully too, Russians everywhere opposed to their brutal regime will find ways to bring about change from within, for this must weigh down on their conscience as much as anyone's. And yes, I disagree with people who say "all Russians", as we've witnessed how the Kremlin brutalise even its own people when they as much as hold any form of protest.
I shall save this piece for ease of future reference.
Most Russian oppositionists are not ethnical Russians. They are Türkic, Georgians, Azeri Türks, Northern Caucasians, Jews, Russian Germans or Poles, the Russians mostly despise the "democratic" opposition, also because the oppositionists are ethnically alien to them.
Yes!! Agree wholeheartedly! The fucking problem is that no one will do anything because they are too afraid…you are right we are facing a tremendous folly of destruction if we can’t step up and defend Ukraine. Bring them into NATO and stand and destroy Putin.
I think eventually Ukraine will be accepted into NATO and/or the NATO troops will intervene. It's just very said that it took so much Ukrainian suffering to do what could have been done at the start of the full-scale invasion or even before it.
I think the posturing is such a US thing but actually Putin has everyone beat hands down…our posturing has hurt us in not being able to take action. NATO needs to stand and protect-and I hope that Ukraine is brought into the group as well. Thanks for your writing!
The idea that NATO's expansion is any threat to Russia is nothing but Russian propaganda or rather fantasy. None of the NATO members has the least ambition to take over or dismantle Russia. Russia has so many political and economic problems we wouldn't want Russia if they gave it to us.
I want to copy and paste here my comment from Counter-Currents
To Europe hard times are coming.
Firstly, the globalist elites, which are someway incorrectly called the “world government”, are clearly reorienting themselves from the US to China, and now China will be the only superpower, and its vassal Russia will be the overseer and “prison guard” in Europe, the “gendarme of Europe” of a new type, just like it was in the 19th century in the Holy Alliance.
Secondly, they deliberately let Trump win the election in order to make him a scapegoat for the collapse of the US. The US is unlikely to fall apart, but they will return to isolationism, maybe not quite the Monroe type, but they will leave Europe. The Americans do not want to interfere in European affairs anyway, and they never wanted to. In the end, the vital interests of the US are the Pacific Ocean and the Middle East, but not Europe.
Thirdly, we see the emergence of a New Greater Chinese Empire, which in addition to the PRC also includes the DPRK as a direct subordinate, and vassals on a longer leash – Iran with its Palestinian proxies, Pakistan, Russia. Well, and Africa has simply already been bought by Beijing. In general, such a new Chinese empire will own the most powerful armies in the world – the PLA and the Russian army, the largest nuclear arsenals, the world factory in PRC, the world’s mineral resources in Russia and PRC, especially energy like oil and gas in Russia and Iran, (and well, the war in Donbass is for the lithium for China, and not for some stupid “Russian world”), grain reserves (occupied Southern Ukraine), and lobbyists and fifth columns of PRC and Russia all over the world. Soon the PRC will grab Taiwan and also get a world monopoly on chips. (And Lukashenko with his potatoes will also have a monopoly on potato chips).
History shows that Russia has won major wars only as part of coalitions. Both the French and the Germans were defeated not by respectively the Russian Empire and the USSR alone, but by the anti-Napoleonic and anti-Hitler coalitions. And now Russia is also part of the coalition. This coalition is invincible, because it consists of the VIVID peoples, which are not afraid to fight and to die. Here I would add, that Ukraine once again found itself – though not through its own fault – on the wrong side, but on the side of the rotten and impotent West, which is not capable and will not fight even for ITS own survival, not to mention saving someone else.
Old wise Chinese Sun Tzu taught that the best thing is to win wars without fighting. So the PRC is winning, and this is also beneficial to Russia, among other things, it gets rid of its excess population, which it will not need in the New Chinese empire, because neither 140 nor even 100 million Russians are needed for the extraction of Siberian minerals and their transportation to the world factory China.
And in this “New World” Europe and Europeans are not needed at all. For the world elites the Europeans are not useful workers, because they eat too much and want to have bigger salaries. The Asians for creative jobs and Africans for manual jobs are more profitable. And Europeans are also bad subjects, because they used to have and want to have some civil rights and freedoms. It is better to replace them with another peoples which will obey without questions and objections and work for a bowl of stew.
One of the best pieces ever written on the war. Thank you, mr. Kerimoglu. Happy and thankful you wrote it.
Thank you very much for your nice words! I hope to do more.
Appreciate your writing and thoughts. Keep it up!
Anyone who argues "Oh, but NATO expansion!" Is at best naive, ignorant and too lazy to work out the fallacy of such a statement, and at worst, knows such arguments are a fantasy but repeats the line incessantly which suggests some over-riding need to align with the Kremlin mafia bosses. It would be far too easy to put it down to money, and even though that may be the case for some online social influencers, there's also a sizable number of people who think Russia is the embodiment of the Marxist-Leninist ideal of communism and therefore the ends justify the means, regardless of the barbarity of it all.
I agree with all your arguments. Ukraine is our conscience, and our political leaders should not be afraid to take whatever steps necessary to put an end to Russia's brutal oppression abroad, be that Ukraine, Syria, Central Africa etc. Hopefully too, Russians everywhere opposed to their brutal regime will find ways to bring about change from within, for this must weigh down on their conscience as much as anyone's. And yes, I disagree with people who say "all Russians", as we've witnessed how the Kremlin brutalise even its own people when they as much as hold any form of protest.
I shall save this piece for ease of future reference.
Most Russian oppositionists are not ethnical Russians. They are Türkic, Georgians, Azeri Türks, Northern Caucasians, Jews, Russian Germans or Poles, the Russians mostly despise the "democratic" opposition, also because the oppositionists are ethnically alien to them.
Yes!! Agree wholeheartedly! The fucking problem is that no one will do anything because they are too afraid…you are right we are facing a tremendous folly of destruction if we can’t step up and defend Ukraine. Bring them into NATO and stand and destroy Putin.
I think eventually Ukraine will be accepted into NATO and/or the NATO troops will intervene. It's just very said that it took so much Ukrainian suffering to do what could have been done at the start of the full-scale invasion or even before it.
Cemil-
I think the posturing is such a US thing but actually Putin has everyone beat hands down…our posturing has hurt us in not being able to take action. NATO needs to stand and protect-and I hope that Ukraine is brought into the group as well. Thanks for your writing!
The idea that NATO's expansion is any threat to Russia is nothing but Russian propaganda or rather fantasy. None of the NATO members has the least ambition to take over or dismantle Russia. Russia has so many political and economic problems we wouldn't want Russia if they gave it to us.
Yes, of course. But sadly a lot of people in the West and elsewhere fall for this idiocy. And that is the problem.
I want to copy and paste here my comment from Counter-Currents
To Europe hard times are coming.
Firstly, the globalist elites, which are someway incorrectly called the “world government”, are clearly reorienting themselves from the US to China, and now China will be the only superpower, and its vassal Russia will be the overseer and “prison guard” in Europe, the “gendarme of Europe” of a new type, just like it was in the 19th century in the Holy Alliance.
Secondly, they deliberately let Trump win the election in order to make him a scapegoat for the collapse of the US. The US is unlikely to fall apart, but they will return to isolationism, maybe not quite the Monroe type, but they will leave Europe. The Americans do not want to interfere in European affairs anyway, and they never wanted to. In the end, the vital interests of the US are the Pacific Ocean and the Middle East, but not Europe.
Thirdly, we see the emergence of a New Greater Chinese Empire, which in addition to the PRC also includes the DPRK as a direct subordinate, and vassals on a longer leash – Iran with its Palestinian proxies, Pakistan, Russia. Well, and Africa has simply already been bought by Beijing. In general, such a new Chinese empire will own the most powerful armies in the world – the PLA and the Russian army, the largest nuclear arsenals, the world factory in PRC, the world’s mineral resources in Russia and PRC, especially energy like oil and gas in Russia and Iran, (and well, the war in Donbass is for the lithium for China, and not for some stupid “Russian world”), grain reserves (occupied Southern Ukraine), and lobbyists and fifth columns of PRC and Russia all over the world. Soon the PRC will grab Taiwan and also get a world monopoly on chips. (And Lukashenko with his potatoes will also have a monopoly on potato chips).
History shows that Russia has won major wars only as part of coalitions. Both the French and the Germans were defeated not by respectively the Russian Empire and the USSR alone, but by the anti-Napoleonic and anti-Hitler coalitions. And now Russia is also part of the coalition. This coalition is invincible, because it consists of the VIVID peoples, which are not afraid to fight and to die. Here I would add, that Ukraine once again found itself – though not through its own fault – on the wrong side, but on the side of the rotten and impotent West, which is not capable and will not fight even for ITS own survival, not to mention saving someone else.
Old wise Chinese Sun Tzu taught that the best thing is to win wars without fighting. So the PRC is winning, and this is also beneficial to Russia, among other things, it gets rid of its excess population, which it will not need in the New Chinese empire, because neither 140 nor even 100 million Russians are needed for the extraction of Siberian minerals and their transportation to the world factory China.
And in this “New World” Europe and Europeans are not needed at all. For the world elites the Europeans are not useful workers, because they eat too much and want to have bigger salaries. The Asians for creative jobs and Africans for manual jobs are more profitable. And Europeans are also bad subjects, because they used to have and want to have some civil rights and freedoms. It is better to replace them with another peoples which will obey without questions and objections and work for a bowl of stew.