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Paul Craig Roberts
Institute for Political Economy
Estonia Declares Russia “Contained”
Estonia Declares Russia “Contained”
Paul Craig Roberts
Here I am again tooting my own horn for the second day in row. How did this come about?
The answer is that with the death of Stephen Cohen the Western world no longer has an objective Russian expert. It has Russophobes who know America is right and Russia is wrong. What the facts are doesn’t matter.
Objectivity has departed “Russian studies.” In its place is propaganda against Russia. Objective commentators, such as Stephen Cohen and myself, have been dismissed as “Putin stooges/agents.” Our place has been taken by ignorant Russophobic warmongers.
Consequently, no one in the Western world is capable of understanding that there are two sides and that in order to avoid worst conflict the other side needs to be understood.
This is impossible for the West, because all that is important is Western hegemony. Therefore, in place of understanding there is a power agenda for which understanding is an obstacle.
Wherever in the propagandistic Western media one reads academic or journalistic or political statements, one only sees delusional lies that vindicate the West and support Washington’s hegemony.
This has spread far beyond Western foreign policy circles. Let’s take this example from Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-neighbors-creating-nato-sea-estonia-defense-minister-2022-9?amp
According to Business Insider’s report, the defense minister of Estonia, a nano-country of zero military capability, has declared that Sweden and Finland’s joining NATO has turned the Baltic Sea into “NATO’s Sea.”
Amazing. None of the NATO countries on the sea have a navy, air force or army capable of confronting Russia. All of these countries can be eliminated in a few minutes by Russian nukes or even by conventional missiles. All that has happened is that Finland and Sweden, formerly safe from conflict, can be drawn into their total destruction by Russophobic Washington neoconservatives, thus proving that their governments are totally irresponsible.
Business Insider’s writer, Sinead Baker, is so much a product of the Washington narrative that she writes that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “prompted Sweden and Finland to join NATO.”
Absolutely not. First of all, Russia did not invade Ukraine. Russia intervened in the former Russian province of Donbass. Second, it was not Russia’s intervention in Donbass that gave the green light for neutral Sweden and Finland to join NATO. It was the conclusion of the two governments that Russia is so militarily incompetent that it cannot subdue a bankrupt third world kleptocracy in a Russian part of Ukraine after seven months of fighting. The Kremlin’s Goody Two Shoes act is destroying Russia’s reputation as a military power.
Finland and Sweden’s leaders accepted the bagful of dollars to join the alliance, because the Kremlin’s half measures in Ukraine destroyed all their fear of Russia.
My conclusion is that the Kremlin’s inability to understand the world in which Russia exists means more hard pressures on Russia until Russia has to surrender or push the button.
The Kremlin lacks realization of the extent of the West’s hostility toward Russia, long the bogyman and the needed justification for the one thousand billion dollar annual budget of the US military/security complex. The Kremlin still seeks agreements when Washington intends the destruction of Russia.
Russia’s leadership seems incapable of breaking from the West. My own expectation is that the Kremlin, once its European enemies are collapsing in winter from lack of energy, will rush in and rescue them with massive flows of Russian gas and oil, hoping that the West’s gratitude will replace the West’s hostility.
The Russians Are Incapable of Learning NOT to Trust the West
Moscow accuses West of breaking ‘grain deal’ pledge
https://www.rt.com/russia/562312-moscow-promise-west-breaking/
https://www.rt.com/russia/562342-russia-ukraine-grain-deal-exports/
https://www.rt.com/russia/562332-west-deceived-poor-nations-grain-putin/
Dmitry Peskov says Russia is still relying on a deal with the West
https://www.rt.com/russia/562163-west-russia-strike-deal-kremlin/
despite “Total War Declared Against Russia”