The Good Russian (TM) strikes again

My Ukrainian friend read it

I’ve been resting with a broken shoulder (snowboarding boomer) and a nasty virus - which I caught from my son.

So I’ve been mostly off Twitter for physical, mental and emotional reasons. Plus Musk. Musk is a sociopath emotional toddler and he vastly irritates me with his Russian speaking points as well as propertarian bro nonsense.

Speaking of Russian speaking points.

Here we have a courageous Russian born, Good Russian (TM), academic telling Ukraine and the West how to end the GENOCIDE war.

Let me repeat that its GENOCIDE WAR.

Which is like the dark joke about the SAmen saving a Jew’s life by stopping kicking him.

That puts all his vaguely disguised Russian imperial Good Russian (TM) nonsense in context.

The old bullshit “My black friend said I was totally not a racist” quickly makes an appearance as mutated by the Good Russian (TM).

This doesn’t come from me so I’m crediting:

So let’s take this apart:

In November 2022, General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, sent shock waves through Western capitals when he declared that the war in Ukraine is unwinnable by purely military means.

General Milley is an Antifa (or China) warrior general brought up in the Boyd school of maneuver warfare who has a pathological fear of World War I and thinks trenches mean defeat and death - in the war America lost. Unlike the flankiness maneuver warfare of Afghanistan which America won.

Stab in the back redux
General Milley, of Trump Lafayette fascist walkout infamy where he and Trump showed the evil Antifa (since when is being antifascist bad? And I don’t count the Soviet claim to anti-fascism) that only good patriot fascist racist Americans have a voice, has been torpedoing Ukraine’s diplomatic and military position in the upper reaches of US government. S…

Milley (Trump pal) doesn’t want to fight Russia, he wants to do Pacific war with China. His opinion can be discounted especially after he was forced to lie that he meant something else.

Complete victory could require a very long war, and it would also mean that its ultimate duration would depend on political factors beyond the West’s control.

Here we go, a disguised variant of the Russian talking point about how difficult it is to defeat mighty Russia (it isn’t) and how the West doesn’t have political will (an old fascist Russian trope). You can take the Russian imperialist out of Russia but not the Russian imperialist out of the Russian.

And Phil won’t like me comparing this to World War II but I will, if you’re fighting a large genocidal power, you need the long war. You don’t negotiate with genocide. Nobody is seriously suggesting total surrender and occupation of Russia, unlike Nazi Germany. I am not.

But a grinding war of attrition has already been hugely damaging for Ukraine and the West, as well as for Russia. Over six million Ukrainians have been forced to flee, the Ukrainian economy is in freefall, and the widespread destruction of the country’s energy infrastructure threatens a humanitarian catastrophe this winter. Even now, Kyiv is on financial life support, maintaining its operations only through billions of dollars of aid from the United States and Europe. The costs of energy in Europe have risen dramatically because of the disruption of usual oil and gas flows.

This is pure Russian propaganda underling how poor Europe is suffering. Yes we are all freezing to death. Pure vile Kremlin propaganda. As to ‘usual oil and gas’, this Good Russian (TM) is simply saying that Europe should get back on the crack cocaine of cheap blackmail Russian fossil fuels. What could go wrong?

Also who forced the Ukrainians to flee? The Good Russian (TM) is saying the West and Ukraine should reward terror genocidal warfare by Russia which has led to ethnic cleansing of the Donbass by… giving Russia concessions.

Good Russian (TM) logic) above.

It is by no means clear that military deterrence would be enough to secure the resulting peace. - Good Russian (TM)
Si vis pacem, para bellum - Roman Empire (two thousand years)

The West survived the threat of Russian (not Soviet, you know my thoughts on the rebranded Russian empire 1917-1991) occupation by military deterrence.

The Good Russian (TM) wants the West not to use deterrence but to GET ALONG with Russia. What could go wrong? Never ever has Russia attacked a weak or perceived as weak neighbor. Ever. Its all Putin’s fault. Not a historical genetic sociopathy in the predatory Russian state. (Genetic as in the state which has genocide in its DNA. Not individual Russians or Russians as a people as born. I virulently detest the state but also oppose othering and racism).

In other words, the West must formulate a major policy vision that obviates the desire of Ukraine and its staunchest supporters to have Russia smashed and neutralized.

He’s putting words in Ukrainian mouths and casting the war as existential: “Look the Ukrainians want to destroy rodina”.

This is the Russian justification for war - the threat of Ukrainian genocide on Russia. Of course it is the opposite but look how professor Good Russian (TM) frames the war as genocidal against Russia. Not against Ukraine.

For more on the Russia justification for war, https://www.icj-cij.org/en/case/182

Though the Russian military has been dispirited by repeated defeats, it has survived. The coming winter will be a crucial test for the Russian army’s ability to endure, but military experts do not predict its collapse. Many more defeats and retreats would be needed to change this assessment.

Rodina is strong! It has great will! Great military! Negotiate with rodina! Bow down to rodina!

While he may be right about Russian resilience and reserves, his conclusion that the West should negotiate because war will be long, is simple surrender to Russia. If you’re fighting genocide war, you fight it to the bitter end.

Not because Russia is strong.

The same is true of Russia’s economy. Many confidently predicted that Russian trade and industry would be crushed by the weight of sanctions imposed by Western governments. Such extreme economic pressure, it was suggested, could be sufficient to force Moscow to withdraw from Ukraine. But economic pressure is rarely enough to end a war. Russia’s economy has shrunk in 2022, but by just three percent, significantly less than some had predicted, and its financial system has proved sustainable and macroeconomically stable. Russia is cut off from many Western supply chains, but it has an extremely large current account surplus, which allows the country’s companies and government to find much of what they need elsewhere.

And plenty of people have said the Russian economic situation is dire. Good Russian (TM) is repeating all the Kremlin talking nts about how the Russian economy is in a great state and will find supplies elsewhere.

Look, this man is a blatant Kremlin propagandist hiding under the Good Russian (TM) cloak. Everything he says accords with Kremlin talking points.

You can’t replace key Western items with Chinese products. You simply can’t.

As to economic pressure ending wars, it can easily and rightly be argued that World War I, a very big war, was ended by economically strangling the Central Powers. Their armies were on the verge of collapse as their economies already had at the end of 1917 and made a last attempt in the West, which when defeated, made it clear there was no hope of victory. And the Americans helped a lot.

During the Cold War, sanctions did not force Moscow to withdraw from Eastern Europe, and today they are unlikely to force Russia to withdraw from Ukraine.

Russian professor makes up history. There were no sanctions to force Russia to withdraw from Eastern Europe. Maybe this is a talking point of Russian fake history which he spews as easily as he does Russian propaganda. Targetted sanctions attacked certain inputs to the Russian (Soviet) military economy. There were also sanctions for the Afghanistan invasion… and guess what happened there. Oil and gas sanctions… well, thank the Germans for their ostpolitik which got them addicted to cheap Russian planet killing fuel while the Americans turned a blind eye to this terrible strategic mistake.

As to sanctions probably not forcing Russian to leave Ukraine, yes, but that means Ukraine’s war must be supported and funded and possibly given a NATO intervention. Not surrender.

As the main architect of this war, Putin is also aware of the potential consequences of defeat.

Russia is good but the Tsar is bad, where have we heard that before. Russia as a state bears responsbility for this genocide war in the same way Germany did for the Holocaust and World War II. Not just Putin and pals.

This is the old Russian habit of blaming the tsar.

It never ever changes.

I have in the past relentlessly attacked the Russian ‘woe is me’ narrative and the ‘good Russian’ narrative that Russians are the real victims, the true victims of its evil Tsars and Stalins and Putins. - (Dustin, not Good Russian (TM)
Russia's Von Stauffenberg moment
I’m not a fan of Von Stauffenberg and think his myth has been promoted to assuage German guilt over their military being more than willing accomplices to genocide and lubensraum death empire building. This is true for nationalist Navalny and was true for the ‘good Germans’ i.e. war criminal Slav hating lebensraum anti-Semite warriors
But although Putin may misunderstand the origins of the Ukrainian nation, his grasp of the important lessons of the twin collapses of the Russian and Soviet states is strong.

Putin blames a Western plot against glorious rodina. And Lenin for ‘creating’ Ukraine.

For the moment, a majority of Russians continue to support the Russian government and are not ready to accept defeat. Many regard Crimea and its stronghold of Sevastopol as worth fighting for. And for many, Putin remains the guarantor of Russian sovereignty and stability. To elite and even many ordinary Russians, the outcome that the Ukrainians and their backers dream of—the defeat of the Russian army and the downfall of Putin—is a political nightmare, threatening economic chaos and lawlessness.

Great rodina is united and strong! Fear us puny Westerners! I am great Good Russian (TM).

But the West’s current approach to simply let the war continue, though morally satisfying and politically popular, is risky. It subjects Ukrainians to the continual horrors of conflict. The death toll and financial cost of fighting will continue to rise.

Good Russian (TM) takes away agency from Ukrainians who are doing the suffering and wants the West to decide on the terms of Ukrainian surrender to Russia.

Also some prices are worth paying.

Like those expressed in my grandfather’s poem about his nameless friends in concentration camps with an analogy to Ukrainians subjected to Russian genocidal occupation.

Comrade Häftling
As a corrupt evil sports politician makes obscene calls for peace during his corrupt organisation’s corrupt tournament of corruption bought with oil money that is killing the planet and the blood of thousands of slave workers, remember the thousands of Ukrainians still in Russian hands are being murdered, tortured, genocided and beg for liberation. Scum…

Good Russian (TM) would sacrifice these Ukrainians to ‘prevent the suffering of Ukrainians’.

Rewarding Russian genocide.

Western denunciations of Russia’s war crimes will not be enough to change Russian minds. Although increasing numbers of Russians no longer trust their own government and media, they do not trust their Western counterparts, either.

So what.

Russian elites and many ordinary Russians believe that it is in their best interests to rally around the flag.

That’s their problem. Not ours. Germany was deluded into terror about occupation during World War II. The occupation turned out to be far milder (too) and repressive than Goebbels promised them. How are Russian feelings our problem?

Except for the Good Russian (TM).

And Macron.

Why Die for Danzig
It would be the moment when Russian political elites would have to decide whether to compromise with the West or fight to the end.

The last thing Russia needs is for its political elites, thieving genocidal kleptocrat sociopaths, to remain in place.

In November 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points convinced Germany’s leadership that they would be fairly dealt with and persuaded them to accept an armistice. This compromise ended World War I. The weakness of the German army and its leaders' realization that Germany had lost the war increased the attractiveness of Wilson's proposals. Rather than allow the remnants of their forces to be annihilated and their country invaded, they accepted Wilson’s terms that promised not to punish Germany. This is the approach that the West must follow today. The West must be prepared to offer a map for the Russian elites and general population, outlining how they can end their isolation, free themselves of sanctions, and remove their pariah status.

I’m finding it hard to express in words how disgustingly bad history this is.

The flawed peace of World War I led directly to the Holocaust and to my grandfather (not a Jew) being in Auschwitz.

WE MUST NOT FOLLOW THE WORLD WAR I path which will only end with a far more vicious genocide war with Russia which could see me shot in a forest and my son gassed to death.

Meanwhile elderly Good Russian (TM) will be writing nonsense, safe with tenure in Canada, about negotiating with President Tsar Navalny.

This map should begin by explaining the risks of continuing the war. It should make clear that Russia cannot win.

Explanations always work with fascist genocidal states. Good Russian (TM) however has repeated the litany of Russian lies and half-truths that explain that Russia is not losing this war while the West and especially Ukraine is losing.

Then the map must outline the gains that Russia will make if it chooses the path of de-escalation.

Rewarding genocide.

As unlikely as it may sound today, a framework, other than NATO, should be convened to ensure Russia’s place in Europe’s security architecture. Revisiting Gorbachev’s vision of “a common European home,” marked by rapprochement rather than deterrence, and dismissed by both the West and Russia today, is a necessity.

Russia is outside of Europe’s security frameworks by choice. This is the worst kind of Macron/Kissinger/Scholtz nonsense. GENOCIDE WAR.

Second, the map must affirm that Western governments will recognize and respect Russia’s leadership, provided that Moscow rigorously obeys the UN Charter and international law, as well as honors Russia’s international treaties, agreements, and commitments.

Yeah, let’s trust Russia to keep its word. What could go wrong.

Third, the West should lay out a timetable for returning Russia’s frozen financial assets after demands for demilitarization and withdrawal are met. Finally, the map must declare that, after the end of the war, all international economic obstacles will be removed.

Notice Good Russian (TM) doesn’t mention reparations.

The West will have to grant international recognition to some people and groups that constitute part of today’s regime.

Sure, that’s why Goring and Himmler were made part of the Adenauer government. (That’s what these Nazis assumed would happen, just like Good Russian (TM) wants the genocidal sociopathic kleptocratic scum of Putin’s inner circle left in power. How about Prime Minister Prigozhin?).

Good Russian (TM) then frames Ukrainians and Zelensky as unreasonable.

I have already written that Zelensky risks actual death through any negotiations but I didn’t criticise the Ukrainian stance of complete withdrawal from Ukraine and reparations and population return. Which are all reasonable terms. Zelensky isn’t demanding an occupation of Moscow as Good Russian (TM) insinuates throughout his piece.

They will demand that peace terms be announced only after Russia accepts its defeat, and perhaps even after Putin is gone.

It worked for Hitler and Nazi Germany.

On the contrary, it would be a prudent, strategic, and realist political move by the West and Ukraine to address the large and growing number of Russians who would prefer peace but abhor a choice between war and defeat.

Again, that’s Russians’ problem.

Sometimes it is a wise strategy to leave an intractable subject for future negotiations.

Like Danzig? Or Moldavia? Or the dozens of post 1991 border conflicts around Russia. That worked out well, didn’t it. Subjects need to be dealt with quickly or they become the catalyst for war. Kicking a problem down the road is an old Russian political tactic which leads to genocide. But Good Russian (TM) doesn’t know that.

The longer this war continues, the worse its consequences. World War I toppled great empires and dynasties across Europe, sowed the seeds of World War II, and led directly to the rise of Mussolini and Hitler.

And Good Russian (TM) is suggesting a repeat of the exact same negotiated nonsense that led to World War II in the aftermath of I. Even down to the sham of the Leipzig trials where Putin’s elites will not be put on trial but random colonels and majors (PS covered in our upcoming book).

Rather than waiting to react to Moscow and Kyiv’s latest actions or hoping for Putin’s imminent downfall, the West must take the initiative at last.

And there it is, the West must force a Good Peace (TM) on Ukraine.

A suggestion from the Good Russian (TM).

I’ll write maybe more on the Good Peace (TM) advocated by Kissinger, Macron, Scholtz and Good Russians (TM) in the future.

As to Good Russians (TM) repeating Kremlin talking points:

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