I just finished watching the new Netflix docu-series Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War. I knew before sitting down to watch this series that more than likely it was a bunch of propaganda drivel, but what isn’t these days?
Still, it started innocuous enough. Most of the material in the first 8 or so episodes (it has only 9 segments) was stuff I was already familiar with but there was a lot of detail that filled in some blanks for me. I have gotten pretty good at extracting “data” from biased presentations and leaving the interpretation out of what I glean. Sometimes this is impossible to do cleanly, but more often than not it is doable.
In the last episode, however, I got seriously lost. It was clear the perspective being presented was leaning, or even entirely pushed, to one side, but I had difficulty discerning truth from fiction.
I would appreciate your help.
Could anyone turn me on to some good books or websites that present the truth about Putin and his intentions for Russia? This series, of course, implied that all Putin has done for Russia is steal money from the Oligarchs who swept into Russia during the ‘90s and sucked her dry of money and resources. The series implies that Putin is just a big mob leader who takes a cut from everyone in Russia who has money and gives nothing back to the country. According to this series, Putin is nothing more than a self-serving money and power-hungry narcissist who uses faux nationalism to get his way. That, in fact, he cares nothing at all about Russia.
Some of this is probably true. I am no fan of Putin. But I have been to Moscow several times, the first in 1996, and I can safely say that the place today is light years away from what it was in ’96—in a good way. I can’t see how the evidence would support Putin sucking Russia dry. The United States is worse off in this regard.
I have been an amateur scholar of Russia, both Imperial and Soviet, for all of my adult life, but my knowledge radically drops off at the fall of the Soviet Empire. Is there anyone out there that can shed light on this situation? What are some good books or news sources online that are not propaganda for the left or right? And what is your own opinion?
I highly recommend you pay $5 to watch the documentary "Theaters of War". It is only on Vimeo - you'll understand why Netflix content is so weird these days after you watch it.
Here's the blurb:
<<If you’ve seen Top Gun or Transformers, you may have wondered: Does all of that military machinery on screen come with strings attached? Does the military actually get a crack at the script? With the release of a vast new trove of internal government documents, the answers have come into sharp focus: the US military has exercised editorial control over thousands of films and television programs.
Propelled into a field trip across America, media professor Roger Stahl engages an array of other researchers, bewildered veterans, PR insiders, and industry producers willing to talk. In unsettling detail, he discovers how the military and CIA have pushed official narratives while systematically scrubbing scripts of war crimes, corruption, racism, sexual assault, coups, assassinations, and torture. From The Longest Day to Lone Survivor, Iron Man to Iron Chef, and James Bond to Jack Ryan, the deliberate creation of this other “cinematic universe” is one of the great PR coups of our time. As these activities gain new public scrutiny, new questions arise: How have they managed to fly under the radar for so long? And where do we go from here?>>
Pardon i mispoke in God knows which installment of my reply- the biggest sin a foreign leader can commit is NATIONALIZING a natural resource, not privatizing it, as I incorrectly stated.
Part 4 10) The US made many deals with the Soviet Union that the bs military alliance called NATO would not expand eastward. The US broke every single one of those promises and treaties. (Note I say “US” because the US controls NATO, just like the US controls the UN. It’s just bs to say otherwise and I don’t like bs.)
11) Russia has been invaded before, and the second to last time it cost them 27 million people. The last time it cost them their economy. They’re pretty sick of the US right now.
12) Russia and Ukraine signed countless treaties that Ukraine would not join NATO. Now you may say, well Ukraine can do whatever they want. And I suppose they could. But usually governments are interested in getting along with their neighbors. Usually governments don’t allow half their population to be bombed by their own military. Usually governments don’t have a hidden sponsor like the US who has its own plans.
13) The US thought that the sanctions on Russia would end the war. They did the opposite. Russia is stronger economically than ever. The US has lost what credibility remained when they stole the deposits of Russians in Western countries. You can only steal so much money before people see what you’re doing. The US economy is headed for a catastrophic collapse, and it was made more imminent by the US stupidly seizing Russian money. The Russians have world credibility. Countries want to work with Russia. Countries want cheap Russian oil and gas. Countries see the US for what it is : a bully and a thief.
14) One of the main objectives of arming Ukraine had nothing to do with Ukraine. It has to do with Germany. The US is an empire, and western Europe are its vassals. But Germany wasn’t behaving like a good little subject. German industry was making good money, because Germany signed a deal to buy cheap oil and gas from Russia. So the US empire managers had a great idea- to blow up the pipeline that delivers cheap Russian gas to Germany. Best way to do it and get away with it is to precede it with a big propaganda push about how evil Putin is and how you never can tell just what that guy will do, come join our war, pipeline blows up, whoopsy daisy, evidence abounds it was the US, but the US owns the media so problem solved. Now, Germany has been severed from Russia and the German industrial base is devastated. Completely devastated. Now Germany and Western Europeans buy overpriced natural gas from…. Guess. Who do you think sells them fuel out of the kindness of their hearts (not). Yeah, the US.
It's worse than you could ever imagine. That is what I find out, every time I look into a topic. The truth is worse than you could imagine, and it’s very dangerous to talk about the truth in public. I’m sure I’ve made their list, but prefer not to call too much attention to myself, otherwise I’d post this as an essay on my substack. I’m sorry to leave a comment that is 20 times longer than your post, but I admit I got excited to tell this story, because it is a doozy!
I recommend consortium news for information about US meddling abroad. Other sources I check weekly include: The Duran (a podcast), Scott Ritter (writer and does a show on Rumble), Mark Slavoda, the Grayzone, Mintpress news, and Simplicius the Thinker on Substack. Antiwar.com does a daily podcast of about 30 minutes, I listen to it every day. The guy who does it is a libertarian but I’m cool with that. I’m cool with anybody who questions the establishment narrative. I don’t think left/right means anything anymore. You either understand that we’ve been taken as fools, or you don’t.
A couple links to get you started, most written back when the invasion happened, so you can learn the historical context:
Part 3 Always remember, corporate media isn't there to educate you, it's there to brainwash you. Always ask yourself, Qui bono? Who benefits? Who benefits from this situation?
Here's some of the most important pieces of information:
1) Every country in the world has a right to feel safe within its borders
2) Treaties and agreements are the grown-up methods to accomplish #1.
3) The US overthrew the democratically elected government of Ukraine in 2014 and handpicked the new government
4) Western Ukrainian people want to be part of Europe. Eastern Ukrainian people strongly prefer to be part of Russia, or to at the very least have good relations with Russia. There is no historical country of Ukraine. It has always been part of either the Russian empire or for a very short time the empire that covered Poland and Eastern Europe (not sure the name).
5) Zelensky was a professional actor and comedian who played the president in a tv series that coincidentally aired its finale the week of his actual election for president. See “Agent Zelensky”, a really good documentary by Scott Ritter. It’s easy to find on Rumble. Youtube has probably removed it. All evidence points to Zelensky as an asset of Western intelligence services.
6) When the US overthrew the democratically elected government in Ukraine in 2014, they did it with the help of Nazi militias. I know, sounds crazy. Unfortunately it is true. These Nazis got significant power in the Ukrainian militias, to the point where the Kiev government was bombing its own people in Eastern Ukraine for 8 years. Take a moment to ingest that. You’re being told that the “good guys” are the ones who have bombed civilians for 8 years for no reason other than that they our ethnic Russians. [Assuming you know there’s deep history with Russia and Nazis. Russia lost 27 million people to the Nazis. They invaded Russia via territory now known as Ukraine. Russia defeated the Nazis, not the West. Or at least our role was nothing compared to the sacrifice of the Russian people.]
7) For 8 years, Russian speaking Ukrainians were being murdered by the Kiev government that the US installed.
8) For 8 years, the US had unfettered access to Ukrainian territory. They set up countless bases and bioweapons facilities. This is in addition to the military bases they built on Russia’s border with other countries.
9) The great Zelensky outlawed the Russian language in Ukraine. Note that 1/3 of Ukrainians speak Russian as their 1st language. Zelensky outlawed all political parties except his own. Zelensky imprisoned or had killed all the leaders of the opposition political parties. Zelensky outlawed all media in Ukraine except the US-funded state propaganda channel. Zelensky outlawed speaking anything against the Ukrainian government. About a year ago (it may be different now as the situation has deteriorated real bad), but at one point the narrative was so policed that a Ukrainian could not even “like” a pro-Russian FB post without risking arrest.
Part 2 Putin is, as far as I can perceive, a blessing for Russia and the Russian people, as well as a blessing for Ukrainians in eastern Ukraine. Putin is the guy who picked up the pieces after the United States brought down the Soviet Union and duped the country into selling off its assets to Western oligarchs. Putin came into power and did something our rulers never do- he worked to rebuild Russia for the Russian people instead of the oligarchs.
Now we run into problems here, because it is very difficult to discuss Russia, China, socialism or communism with Westerners because Westerners have been taught since birth that democracy is the ONLY safe and effective form of government, and capitalism is the most safest and most effectivist economic system in the whole world ever, and besides socialism never worked, etc etc.(Note Russia is a capitalist country, but we’re edging on economic system talk here so need to get this out.)
These are lies about alternate economic systems. They are pushed by the deep state to keep their system going. If you owned 75% of the wealth in the world, and you were a sociopath, and you saw that other countries were forming governments that worked for the benefit of the people instead of the benefit of a few wealthy families, you would call your propaganda expert and tell them to hurry up the narrative about how x social system, x economic system, x world leader is terrible, horrible, evil, etc. Your propaganda expert would tell the masses how stupid it is to think any other system is possible, let alone good. And when revolutions occurred abroad, and the people came to power and began organizing their countries for the benefit of all instead of for the profits of a select few, your propagandist would order headlines about how EVIL that country is. They would block all access to true information from the country, so you don’t know better. And they’d send their secret team into that country to bring that government down.
As a general rule, any government that you have been taught to hate is a government that has fended off the wealthy oligarchs and protected their natural resources from looting by the oligarchs. The biggest sin a foreign leader can commit is privatizing a natural resource, like oil and gas. The deep state is perfectly happy with any foreign leader who allows BP and Exxon to loot it. Resist and pay the consequences.
Guess who nationalized the oil and gas industry in Russia, thus keeping out the Western oligarchs? Putin. Guess what that means for the commoners in Russia? It means free health care. It means good, free schools. It means free and clean public transportation. It mean jobs of 40 hour work weeks that afford people their own homes AND a vacation property, no problem. It’s hard to talk about this kind of thing with Westerners because they have been taught that any attempt to nationalize any industry is the stupidest possible thing ever. Westerners think socialism means redistribution of wealth. It does not. Socialism is organizing an economy for the benefit of the people, instead of for profit. Most successful modern socialist governments have a lot of private industry. They just don’t let private industry run their government, like we do in the United States.
You gotta see the irony of the US establishment calling Putin "evil" when 99.9999% of our rulers are clinically diagnosable psychopaths.
It makes sense that you're confused about Ukraine/Russia because all corporate media "news” articles about US-linked violence omit historical perspective. The empire's narrative managers are tasked with writing 3rd grade level bullshit, because they are willing participants in the game. They want to pay their mortgage. They want to be liked. It’s come to the point where most corporate journalists don’t even know they’re idiots! They have no idea what they don't know.
I’ve followed the Ukraine conflict closely because it coincided with my awakening.
We should keep in mind some universal truths.
One, our government’s mission is to please the oligarchs who own the government. Donald Trump was correct in referencing a deep state, but incorrect in characterizing it as composed of civil servants. The deep state are the people who pull the strings of the president and Congress. We do not know who they are. They are powerful, wealthy people who dictate the empire’s actions. The United States is an empire, and we live in the imperial core.
You know how those people who think the vaccine is safe and effective also think Fauci is science and the greatest scientist ever? What do these people say about the doctors and scientists who dissent from the narrative? They say they’re “fringe”, they downplay their credibility, and when that doesn’t work they call them bad people. Americans believe the narrative because it is broadcast 24/7, and even a lot of independent media is controlled by the unseen hand of empire. At this point, if you find a foreign policy article in a google search, it isn’t credible. Google will never voluntarily cough up truth unless you include the name of the outlet in your search.
So we’ve established that we cannot trust our government and they are not working for us. It follows that we cannot trust corporate media- you saw what they did for the safe and effective vaccine. If you had a friend who lied to you about something really important, would you trust that they will tell the truth in other things? Of course not. Question everything. (Continued in another comment)
I know little, but often hear Dennis Prager. He learned Russian and toured there, among other Continental destinations, long ago. Even if he's failed to stay current, he might have worthy suggestions. You might try posting an email at https://dennisprager.com/email-dennis
I don’t trust anything I hear about Russia or Putin from mainstream sources. It’s almost all bad and doesn’t make sense when you see the improvements from 1996. Too many lies have been told about everything for decades. Look at all the lies that are being told about President Trump despite all the positive things that happened during his presidency.
he's pro fake vax. he's pro digital ID. he's pro digital money. he's pro murder. hmmmmmmm, altogether too strange and different from the rest of the world to be understood. might as well just replace all images of the putin with a question mark. never to be deciphered.
Oliver Stone's 'Interviews with Putin." It is available in video and book form. "The Return of Holy Russia " by Gary Lachman. It is not about Putin per se but it does explain him and his relationship to Russian politics and history. 'Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin (Geopolitics in the 21st Century' by Fiona Hill is not pro Putin but it is a good biographical study of him and his politics,
Counterpunch is good resource for coverage of politics, political economy and U.S. foreign policy. I may not always agree with their writers, but I can be sure that the perspectives are fact-based. And the contributors come from many disciplines.
The other excellent source of journalism is Glenn Greenwald, a constitutional lawyer-turned journalist who has a weekly online broadcast, System Update. The episodes are sometimes overly long (he really gets into the weeds) but I trust his analyses in that he has no paymaster. He also interviews people from all walks of the political spectrum and takes on hypocrisy wherever he finds it--left, right and center.
I have loved and admired the Russian people and their creativity since the early sixties, when I worked alongside some in Rome + I was fortunate to visit there in 2013 and 2016. I think the dye was cast in our relationship with Russia, after it was so badly treated following WWII. Since 1991, I find it difficult to follow their politics, including where the oligarchs fit in. I have always thought of Russia as a Sovereign State so, I was bitterly disappointed with their C19 response; furthermore, I think BRICS will be more of the same. Iain Davis (UK) has written extensively on the shift from the present unipolar world order to a multipolar world order - 'their objectives seem indistinguishable from each other' ... sorry I haven't a clearer answer for you Todd
The site is huge, can search for literally anything. Discernment is needed of course but it provides alternative thinking.
Putin seems to have gotten Russia out from under…the IMF, the Rothschild banks, the west’s interference in everyone’s business, etc. I keep going back to his statement of 2017 that if the US didn’t clean their house, he (Putin) would disclose the corruption, pedophilia, trafficking himself. And he seems to be doing that in his own way.
During Trump’s visit, Putin handed him the ball - the ball is now in your court, do your thing. And so much has come out since then.
Putin is one of only two people I want to shake their hand when this is done. The other is Syria’s Assad. They both stood up against the US and the West and will not allow any takeover of their country.
But then again I read sites like Above Top Secret and Before Its News and Global Research and and …. Sifting through their articles produces a lot of nuggets.
I suggest reading the english transcripts on http://www.en.kremlin.ru/. Putin is an administrator/bureaucrat more than anything. He spends the vast majority of his time meeting officials from around his very large country , and most of these are about economic and social welfare.
Also I would recommend karlof1@substack.com where most of the important Putin and Lavrov activities and speeches etc are recorded.
No-one who spends anytime reading these would say Putin is a war leader or crook or anything other than a Russian patriot trying his best to withstand western aggression and recover the destitution of the 90s when millions of Russians died.
The psyop from the west is a mirror reflection of their own intentions. Russia is the largest country on earth, with vast natural resources, and a relatively small population. The very last thing it needs is more territory. But it does want to protect natural Russian blood, and does not want the US/NATO to station nukes near its border ( as neither would the US if the roles were reversed in say Mexico); hence Ukraine.
There is a reason you and every one else are confused that is how most of the West wants you to be. They want us to perceive their narrative. But, in the same breadth , Putin does the same as a counter measure. It's a chess game to them and we are the pawns.
All one can do, is as you are doing, and that is look at what both do, and as you will find as some have already pointed out, there is really not much difference between the perceived two enemy sides and perhaps the U.S. is even worse.
Does Putin want to regain Russia's old glory and will he move on from the Ukraine? Doubtful, although some say he has said that. Was it taken out of context? Who knows? What would he really gain. One only needs to look at all the U.S. and NATO bases that surround Russia, to realize that , yes, he might be just a tad pissed about things. Can you blame him?
So it basically comes down to look at all the facts, good and bad about Putin and Russia, and as some have pointed out there are some good writers on the subject - Andrew Korybko, Riley Waggaman aka (Edward Slavsquat), who both have Substacks and Pepe Escobar who writes for the Asia Times, Strategic Culture Foundation, the Cradle and more.
I have not watched the series but will say that the demonization of Putin ( and others from time to time ) is a tool used by the west / US / UK to further the objectives of the military industrial complex …… we need bad guys and threats . If these fade a bit we drum up some new ones !
One thing I forgot to ask in my original post and I would love to hear comment on is this:
Do you think Putin intends to re-create the Russian Empire and he is just starting with Ukraine and will continue his aggression into the Baltic states or other nations that made up the Soviet Union. Or do you think he will stop with Ukraine once he has that secure?
if it weren't for that Great Satan of our time, “Russian disinformation”, we would all realize that our politicians are selfless "public servants" who sacrifice their lives to protect us from evil enemies like Putin, who devote every day to upflifting the weak and downtrodden, and who are paragons of bravery and integrity;
if it weren't for that Great Satan of our time, “Russian disinformation”, the entire world would be holding hands across borders, realizing that we are all brothers equal in the eyes of God, and that there is no such thing as "illegal" immigration, because no one is illegal and Science is Real and Love is Love!
Down with “Russian disinformation”! Once it's vanquished we can all come together and fulfill our destiny and at last become one single uniform obedient unthinking blob of processed humanity.
Sorry for the chopped up response, but I keep having afterthoughts! Perhaps one of the most instructive ways to think about what is going on at the level of the oligarchies across the globe, is to have a look at the Club of Rome map which divides the world up into 10 regions, one of the largest of which is Eurasia dominated by Russia. This vision was promulgated by Kissinger, and may be understood as simply a stepping stone towards the One World Government. If you look at each of the regions, there is a central nation whose influence dominates the surround, and one may be justified in thinking that at some point, if such a split occurs (as it appears to be happening already at a functional if not a formal level) in the near future, the leaders of each of these respective regions will get together and decide amongst themselves how to conduct the behavior of planet earth ... Conspiracy theory at its ultimate human level🤐
Further, I find it most instructive to listen to military historians like Mr. Hanson, as opposed to cultural historians, in order to get a clearer view of Russian intent.
I like to read and listen to Victor Davis Hanson, not so much for his opinion but for his collection of facts that are more geopolitically responsive and wider reaching than many other analysts who tend to get too tunnel- visioned about it all. Keeping in mind, of course that he represents many of the opinions of what I would call the rational right, as opposed to the alt, unthinking right, and is associated with one of the most conservative think tanks, the Hoover Institute. This can be easily balanced by listening to mainstream interpretations of said facts, which seem to be unfailingly rabid polemics designed to create the will to war in the west.
The West/US-UK centered empire covets Russia’s national resources and wants to forever be the sole military superpower and thus despises Putin as he is in the way.
Look into the (Paul) Wolfowiz doctrine circa early-mid 1990s.
Dr Paul Craig Roberts has his own website and has been commenting on Putin for many years. It is from him I got the impression that Putin is in fact the best statesman in the world over the past 2 decades
Jacques Baud is highly recommended, not only his recent book on the Russia-Ukraine situation (as mentioned below), but also his Jan 2023 book on Putin, check https://amzn.eu/d/9hnIlKS -
Then one could read the books of Dmitri Trenin, like "Russia" or "What is Russia up to in the Middle East" -
While I am certainly no expert, I know that Putin is a billionaire. And he didn't not enter office that way. I don't know what Putin feels for Russia or what his intentions are for its people, but the stories of his theft and extortion, if anything, are under reported. To understand him fully, I think you need to go back to his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, the real 'mob leader,' in order to understand how and why Putin succeeded him in the first place. Spoiler alert: Putin was put in place to protect Yeltsin from certain prosecution for high crimes against the state.
The fact that 77.4% of the population went to the polls to vote (their support) for Putin at the astonishing rate of 88.7% tells a story. The citizens of Russia do not agree with his Western detractors. He is regraded in his own country as a hero, and for reason: he has made Russian's economy the most robust in Europe, he has stood in the face of American aggression the world over - with great success, he has brought Russian's relations with China to their best place ever in history; in the face of concerted US efforts to sanction food supplies to Russia, he made Russia an independent powerhouse of agriculture, he has modernized Russian's weapons systems (hypersonic missiles, cavitating torpedos, etc) making Russia unrivalled in weapons, he bullet proofed Rusia's banking system and monetary position, made Russia central to the creation of Brics, and along with his resistance to US aggression had made Russia a model and leader to the global south and other nations, elevating Russian's foreign policy establishment to unheard of heights. The west hates Putin because he is in their way, and loved by Russians for the same reason.
People in Central Europe are starting to think they’d be better off under Russia….
These same families lost everything to communism under USSR
I highly recommend you pay $5 to watch the documentary "Theaters of War". It is only on Vimeo - you'll understand why Netflix content is so weird these days after you watch it.
Here's the blurb:
<<If you’ve seen Top Gun or Transformers, you may have wondered: Does all of that military machinery on screen come with strings attached? Does the military actually get a crack at the script? With the release of a vast new trove of internal government documents, the answers have come into sharp focus: the US military has exercised editorial control over thousands of films and television programs.
Propelled into a field trip across America, media professor Roger Stahl engages an array of other researchers, bewildered veterans, PR insiders, and industry producers willing to talk. In unsettling detail, he discovers how the military and CIA have pushed official narratives while systematically scrubbing scripts of war crimes, corruption, racism, sexual assault, coups, assassinations, and torture. From The Longest Day to Lone Survivor, Iron Man to Iron Chef, and James Bond to Jack Ryan, the deliberate creation of this other “cinematic universe” is one of the great PR coups of our time. As these activities gain new public scrutiny, new questions arise: How have they managed to fly under the radar for so long? And where do we go from here?>>
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/theatersofwar
Pardon i mispoke in God knows which installment of my reply- the biggest sin a foreign leader can commit is NATIONALIZING a natural resource, not privatizing it, as I incorrectly stated.
Part 4 10) The US made many deals with the Soviet Union that the bs military alliance called NATO would not expand eastward. The US broke every single one of those promises and treaties. (Note I say “US” because the US controls NATO, just like the US controls the UN. It’s just bs to say otherwise and I don’t like bs.)
11) Russia has been invaded before, and the second to last time it cost them 27 million people. The last time it cost them their economy. They’re pretty sick of the US right now.
12) Russia and Ukraine signed countless treaties that Ukraine would not join NATO. Now you may say, well Ukraine can do whatever they want. And I suppose they could. But usually governments are interested in getting along with their neighbors. Usually governments don’t allow half their population to be bombed by their own military. Usually governments don’t have a hidden sponsor like the US who has its own plans.
13) The US thought that the sanctions on Russia would end the war. They did the opposite. Russia is stronger economically than ever. The US has lost what credibility remained when they stole the deposits of Russians in Western countries. You can only steal so much money before people see what you’re doing. The US economy is headed for a catastrophic collapse, and it was made more imminent by the US stupidly seizing Russian money. The Russians have world credibility. Countries want to work with Russia. Countries want cheap Russian oil and gas. Countries see the US for what it is : a bully and a thief.
14) One of the main objectives of arming Ukraine had nothing to do with Ukraine. It has to do with Germany. The US is an empire, and western Europe are its vassals. But Germany wasn’t behaving like a good little subject. German industry was making good money, because Germany signed a deal to buy cheap oil and gas from Russia. So the US empire managers had a great idea- to blow up the pipeline that delivers cheap Russian gas to Germany. Best way to do it and get away with it is to precede it with a big propaganda push about how evil Putin is and how you never can tell just what that guy will do, come join our war, pipeline blows up, whoopsy daisy, evidence abounds it was the US, but the US owns the media so problem solved. Now, Germany has been severed from Russia and the German industrial base is devastated. Completely devastated. Now Germany and Western Europeans buy overpriced natural gas from…. Guess. Who do you think sells them fuel out of the kindness of their hearts (not). Yeah, the US.
It's worse than you could ever imagine. That is what I find out, every time I look into a topic. The truth is worse than you could imagine, and it’s very dangerous to talk about the truth in public. I’m sure I’ve made their list, but prefer not to call too much attention to myself, otherwise I’d post this as an essay on my substack. I’m sorry to leave a comment that is 20 times longer than your post, but I admit I got excited to tell this story, because it is a doozy!
I recommend consortium news for information about US meddling abroad. Other sources I check weekly include: The Duran (a podcast), Scott Ritter (writer and does a show on Rumble), Mark Slavoda, the Grayzone, Mintpress news, and Simplicius the Thinker on Substack. Antiwar.com does a daily podcast of about 30 minutes, I listen to it every day. The guy who does it is a libertarian but I’m cool with that. I’m cool with anybody who questions the establishment narrative. I don’t think left/right means anything anymore. You either understand that we’ve been taken as fools, or you don’t.
A couple links to get you started, most written back when the invasion happened, so you can learn the historical context:
2/24/22 Joe Lauria in Consortium News - https://consortiumnews.com/2022/02/24/what-putin-says-are-the-causes-aims-of-russias-military-action/
3/2/2022 Scott Ritter on why Putin was smart to enter Ukraine - https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/02/putin-crazy-like-a-fox/
3/29/22 Scott Ritter in Consortium News on anticipatory self-defense - https://consortiumnews.com/2022/03/29/russia-ukraine-the-law-of-war-crime-of-aggression/
Thanks again for the question, and apologies again for such a long comment.
Part 3 Always remember, corporate media isn't there to educate you, it's there to brainwash you. Always ask yourself, Qui bono? Who benefits? Who benefits from this situation?
Here's some of the most important pieces of information:
1) Every country in the world has a right to feel safe within its borders
2) Treaties and agreements are the grown-up methods to accomplish #1.
3) The US overthrew the democratically elected government of Ukraine in 2014 and handpicked the new government
4) Western Ukrainian people want to be part of Europe. Eastern Ukrainian people strongly prefer to be part of Russia, or to at the very least have good relations with Russia. There is no historical country of Ukraine. It has always been part of either the Russian empire or for a very short time the empire that covered Poland and Eastern Europe (not sure the name).
5) Zelensky was a professional actor and comedian who played the president in a tv series that coincidentally aired its finale the week of his actual election for president. See “Agent Zelensky”, a really good documentary by Scott Ritter. It’s easy to find on Rumble. Youtube has probably removed it. All evidence points to Zelensky as an asset of Western intelligence services.
6) When the US overthrew the democratically elected government in Ukraine in 2014, they did it with the help of Nazi militias. I know, sounds crazy. Unfortunately it is true. These Nazis got significant power in the Ukrainian militias, to the point where the Kiev government was bombing its own people in Eastern Ukraine for 8 years. Take a moment to ingest that. You’re being told that the “good guys” are the ones who have bombed civilians for 8 years for no reason other than that they our ethnic Russians. [Assuming you know there’s deep history with Russia and Nazis. Russia lost 27 million people to the Nazis. They invaded Russia via territory now known as Ukraine. Russia defeated the Nazis, not the West. Or at least our role was nothing compared to the sacrifice of the Russian people.]
7) For 8 years, Russian speaking Ukrainians were being murdered by the Kiev government that the US installed.
8) For 8 years, the US had unfettered access to Ukrainian territory. They set up countless bases and bioweapons facilities. This is in addition to the military bases they built on Russia’s border with other countries.
9) The great Zelensky outlawed the Russian language in Ukraine. Note that 1/3 of Ukrainians speak Russian as their 1st language. Zelensky outlawed all political parties except his own. Zelensky imprisoned or had killed all the leaders of the opposition political parties. Zelensky outlawed all media in Ukraine except the US-funded state propaganda channel. Zelensky outlawed speaking anything against the Ukrainian government. About a year ago (it may be different now as the situation has deteriorated real bad), but at one point the narrative was so policed that a Ukrainian could not even “like” a pro-Russian FB post without risking arrest.
Part 2 Putin is, as far as I can perceive, a blessing for Russia and the Russian people, as well as a blessing for Ukrainians in eastern Ukraine. Putin is the guy who picked up the pieces after the United States brought down the Soviet Union and duped the country into selling off its assets to Western oligarchs. Putin came into power and did something our rulers never do- he worked to rebuild Russia for the Russian people instead of the oligarchs.
Now we run into problems here, because it is very difficult to discuss Russia, China, socialism or communism with Westerners because Westerners have been taught since birth that democracy is the ONLY safe and effective form of government, and capitalism is the most safest and most effectivist economic system in the whole world ever, and besides socialism never worked, etc etc.(Note Russia is a capitalist country, but we’re edging on economic system talk here so need to get this out.)
These are lies about alternate economic systems. They are pushed by the deep state to keep their system going. If you owned 75% of the wealth in the world, and you were a sociopath, and you saw that other countries were forming governments that worked for the benefit of the people instead of the benefit of a few wealthy families, you would call your propaganda expert and tell them to hurry up the narrative about how x social system, x economic system, x world leader is terrible, horrible, evil, etc. Your propaganda expert would tell the masses how stupid it is to think any other system is possible, let alone good. And when revolutions occurred abroad, and the people came to power and began organizing their countries for the benefit of all instead of for the profits of a select few, your propagandist would order headlines about how EVIL that country is. They would block all access to true information from the country, so you don’t know better. And they’d send their secret team into that country to bring that government down.
As a general rule, any government that you have been taught to hate is a government that has fended off the wealthy oligarchs and protected their natural resources from looting by the oligarchs. The biggest sin a foreign leader can commit is privatizing a natural resource, like oil and gas. The deep state is perfectly happy with any foreign leader who allows BP and Exxon to loot it. Resist and pay the consequences.
Guess who nationalized the oil and gas industry in Russia, thus keeping out the Western oligarchs? Putin. Guess what that means for the commoners in Russia? It means free health care. It means good, free schools. It means free and clean public transportation. It mean jobs of 40 hour work weeks that afford people their own homes AND a vacation property, no problem. It’s hard to talk about this kind of thing with Westerners because they have been taught that any attempt to nationalize any industry is the stupidest possible thing ever. Westerners think socialism means redistribution of wealth. It does not. Socialism is organizing an economy for the benefit of the people, instead of for profit. Most successful modern socialist governments have a lot of private industry. They just don’t let private industry run their government, like we do in the United States.
You gotta see the irony of the US establishment calling Putin "evil" when 99.9999% of our rulers are clinically diagnosable psychopaths.
It makes sense that you're confused about Ukraine/Russia because all corporate media "news” articles about US-linked violence omit historical perspective. The empire's narrative managers are tasked with writing 3rd grade level bullshit, because they are willing participants in the game. They want to pay their mortgage. They want to be liked. It’s come to the point where most corporate journalists don’t even know they’re idiots! They have no idea what they don't know.
Part 1 Thank you for this post.
I’ve followed the Ukraine conflict closely because it coincided with my awakening.
We should keep in mind some universal truths.
One, our government’s mission is to please the oligarchs who own the government. Donald Trump was correct in referencing a deep state, but incorrect in characterizing it as composed of civil servants. The deep state are the people who pull the strings of the president and Congress. We do not know who they are. They are powerful, wealthy people who dictate the empire’s actions. The United States is an empire, and we live in the imperial core.
You know how those people who think the vaccine is safe and effective also think Fauci is science and the greatest scientist ever? What do these people say about the doctors and scientists who dissent from the narrative? They say they’re “fringe”, they downplay their credibility, and when that doesn’t work they call them bad people. Americans believe the narrative because it is broadcast 24/7, and even a lot of independent media is controlled by the unseen hand of empire. At this point, if you find a foreign policy article in a google search, it isn’t credible. Google will never voluntarily cough up truth unless you include the name of the outlet in your search.
So we’ve established that we cannot trust our government and they are not working for us. It follows that we cannot trust corporate media- you saw what they did for the safe and effective vaccine. If you had a friend who lied to you about something really important, would you trust that they will tell the truth in other things? Of course not. Question everything. (Continued in another comment)
This is not about Putin, per se, but here's a link to the Bolshevik Revolution. It's fascinating.
https://rumble.com/v2jhqvk-the-bolshevik-revolution-darkness-descends.html
I know little, but often hear Dennis Prager. He learned Russian and toured there, among other Continental destinations, long ago. Even if he's failed to stay current, he might have worthy suggestions. You might try posting an email at https://dennisprager.com/email-dennis
I don’t trust anything I hear about Russia or Putin from mainstream sources. It’s almost all bad and doesn’t make sense when you see the improvements from 1996. Too many lies have been told about everything for decades. Look at all the lies that are being told about President Trump despite all the positive things that happened during his presidency.
he's pro fake vax. he's pro digital ID. he's pro digital money. he's pro murder. hmmmmmmm, altogether too strange and different from the rest of the world to be understood. might as well just replace all images of the putin with a question mark. never to be deciphered.
Information Clearinghouse
Pepe Escobar - At The Cradle.Gilbert Doctorow
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/
Oliver Stone's 'Interviews with Putin." It is available in video and book form. "The Return of Holy Russia " by Gary Lachman. It is not about Putin per se but it does explain him and his relationship to Russian politics and history. 'Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin (Geopolitics in the 21st Century' by Fiona Hill is not pro Putin but it is a good biographical study of him and his politics,
Counterpunch is good resource for coverage of politics, political economy and U.S. foreign policy. I may not always agree with their writers, but I can be sure that the perspectives are fact-based. And the contributors come from many disciplines.
The other excellent source of journalism is Glenn Greenwald, a constitutional lawyer-turned journalist who has a weekly online broadcast, System Update. The episodes are sometimes overly long (he really gets into the weeds) but I trust his analyses in that he has no paymaster. He also interviews people from all walks of the political spectrum and takes on hypocrisy wherever he finds it--left, right and center.
For another perspective, I would read Martin Armstrong's blog entries that anything to do with Putin, Russia and Ukraine.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/
I have loved and admired the Russian people and their creativity since the early sixties, when I worked alongside some in Rome + I was fortunate to visit there in 2013 and 2016. I think the dye was cast in our relationship with Russia, after it was so badly treated following WWII. Since 1991, I find it difficult to follow their politics, including where the oligarchs fit in. I have always thought of Russia as a Sovereign State so, I was bitterly disappointed with their C19 response; furthermore, I think BRICS will be more of the same. Iain Davis (UK) has written extensively on the shift from the present unipolar world order to a multipolar world order - 'their objectives seem indistinguishable from each other' ... sorry I haven't a clearer answer for you Todd
I would strongly suggest tuning into :
https://theduran.locals.com
The Duran
with Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris.
Amazing and objective analysis on current world events.
And thank you for your thoughtful, interesting and honest posts!
The bottom line...the citizens have been vaxxed, he is a part of the WEF. Whatever else is irrelevant to me.
https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica2/sociopol_russia216.htm
The site is huge, can search for literally anything. Discernment is needed of course but it provides alternative thinking.
Putin seems to have gotten Russia out from under…the IMF, the Rothschild banks, the west’s interference in everyone’s business, etc. I keep going back to his statement of 2017 that if the US didn’t clean their house, he (Putin) would disclose the corruption, pedophilia, trafficking himself. And he seems to be doing that in his own way.
During Trump’s visit, Putin handed him the ball - the ball is now in your court, do your thing. And so much has come out since then.
Putin is one of only two people I want to shake their hand when this is done. The other is Syria’s Assad. They both stood up against the US and the West and will not allow any takeover of their country.
But then again I read sites like Above Top Secret and Before Its News and Global Research and and …. Sifting through their articles produces a lot of nuggets.
I suggest reading the english transcripts on http://www.en.kremlin.ru/. Putin is an administrator/bureaucrat more than anything. He spends the vast majority of his time meeting officials from around his very large country , and most of these are about economic and social welfare.
Also I would recommend karlof1@substack.com where most of the important Putin and Lavrov activities and speeches etc are recorded.
No-one who spends anytime reading these would say Putin is a war leader or crook or anything other than a Russian patriot trying his best to withstand western aggression and recover the destitution of the 90s when millions of Russians died.
The psyop from the west is a mirror reflection of their own intentions. Russia is the largest country on earth, with vast natural resources, and a relatively small population. The very last thing it needs is more territory. But it does want to protect natural Russian blood, and does not want the US/NATO to station nukes near its border ( as neither would the US if the roles were reversed in say Mexico); hence Ukraine.
There is a reason you and every one else are confused that is how most of the West wants you to be. They want us to perceive their narrative. But, in the same breadth , Putin does the same as a counter measure. It's a chess game to them and we are the pawns.
All one can do, is as you are doing, and that is look at what both do, and as you will find as some have already pointed out, there is really not much difference between the perceived two enemy sides and perhaps the U.S. is even worse.
Does Putin want to regain Russia's old glory and will he move on from the Ukraine? Doubtful, although some say he has said that. Was it taken out of context? Who knows? What would he really gain. One only needs to look at all the U.S. and NATO bases that surround Russia, to realize that , yes, he might be just a tad pissed about things. Can you blame him?
So it basically comes down to look at all the facts, good and bad about Putin and Russia, and as some have pointed out there are some good writers on the subject - Andrew Korybko, Riley Waggaman aka (Edward Slavsquat), who both have Substacks and Pepe Escobar who writes for the Asia Times, Strategic Culture Foundation, the Cradle and more.
I have not watched the series but will say that the demonization of Putin ( and others from time to time ) is a tool used by the west / US / UK to further the objectives of the military industrial complex …… we need bad guys and threats . If these fade a bit we drum up some new ones !
One thing I forgot to ask in my original post and I would love to hear comment on is this:
Do you think Putin intends to re-create the Russian Empire and he is just starting with Ukraine and will continue his aggression into the Baltic states or other nations that made up the Soviet Union. Or do you think he will stop with Ukraine once he has that secure?
if it weren't for that Great Satan of our time, “Russian disinformation”, we would all realize that our politicians are selfless "public servants" who sacrifice their lives to protect us from evil enemies like Putin, who devote every day to upflifting the weak and downtrodden, and who are paragons of bravery and integrity;
if it weren't for that Great Satan of our time, “Russian disinformation”, the entire world would be holding hands across borders, realizing that we are all brothers equal in the eyes of God, and that there is no such thing as "illegal" immigration, because no one is illegal and Science is Real and Love is Love!
Down with “Russian disinformation”! Once it's vanquished we can all come together and fulfill our destiny and at last become one single uniform obedient unthinking blob of processed humanity.
Sorry for the chopped up response, but I keep having afterthoughts! Perhaps one of the most instructive ways to think about what is going on at the level of the oligarchies across the globe, is to have a look at the Club of Rome map which divides the world up into 10 regions, one of the largest of which is Eurasia dominated by Russia. This vision was promulgated by Kissinger, and may be understood as simply a stepping stone towards the One World Government. If you look at each of the regions, there is a central nation whose influence dominates the surround, and one may be justified in thinking that at some point, if such a split occurs (as it appears to be happening already at a functional if not a formal level) in the near future, the leaders of each of these respective regions will get together and decide amongst themselves how to conduct the behavior of planet earth ... Conspiracy theory at its ultimate human level🤐
All the things the west says about Putin is pure projection
But NAVALNY! Question- who is Gonzalo Lira.Who killed Gonzalo Lira?
1- he is former KGB. Yup, I have been told my entire life (67 years) how bad the KGB is and how great the CIA is (and Bush and LBJ).
2- He kills reporters. How many reporters did Clinton/NATO kill in a single air strike in the Balkans? 28?
3- He invades countries without provocation. US- Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya (We came, we saw, he died cackle cackle cackleetc.,.
4- He became rich as a politician. Isn’t that the American way?
5- He jails his political enemies… he doesn’t need to since he is so popular. Does the U.S. regime jail its s political enemies?
6- he interferes in elections. Hahahahahahaha
Further, I find it most instructive to listen to military historians like Mr. Hanson, as opposed to cultural historians, in order to get a clearer view of Russian intent.
I like to read and listen to Victor Davis Hanson, not so much for his opinion but for his collection of facts that are more geopolitically responsive and wider reaching than many other analysts who tend to get too tunnel- visioned about it all. Keeping in mind, of course that he represents many of the opinions of what I would call the rational right, as opposed to the alt, unthinking right, and is associated with one of the most conservative think tanks, the Hoover Institute. This can be easily balanced by listening to mainstream interpretations of said facts, which seem to be unfailingly rabid polemics designed to create the will to war in the west.
The West/US-UK centered empire covets Russia’s national resources and wants to forever be the sole military superpower and thus despises Putin as he is in the way.
Look into the (Paul) Wolfowiz doctrine circa early-mid 1990s.
Dr Paul Craig Roberts has his own website and has been commenting on Putin for many years. It is from him I got the impression that Putin is in fact the best statesman in the world over the past 2 decades
Excellent shrewd question, thanks!
Jacques Baud is highly recommended, not only his recent book on the Russia-Ukraine situation (as mentioned below), but also his Jan 2023 book on Putin, check https://amzn.eu/d/9hnIlKS -
Then one could read the books of Dmitri Trenin, like "Russia" or "What is Russia up to in the Middle East" -
This article by Marlene Laruelle (George Washington University), in my opinion provides an interesting overview - https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/11/26/vladimir-the-terrible-fit-the-needs-of-the-u-s-military-industrial-complex-for-an-evil-foreign-enemy-but-the-real-putin-is-well-regarded-by-many-russians-f/ (I don't know how her perspective developed after Feb 2022)
Last but not least, I found several analyses by professor Glenn Diesen (Noway) impressive.
While I am certainly no expert, I know that Putin is a billionaire. And he didn't not enter office that way. I don't know what Putin feels for Russia or what his intentions are for its people, but the stories of his theft and extortion, if anything, are under reported. To understand him fully, I think you need to go back to his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, the real 'mob leader,' in order to understand how and why Putin succeeded him in the first place. Spoiler alert: Putin was put in place to protect Yeltsin from certain prosecution for high crimes against the state.
"Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty" - J. Gobbels
The description of Putin seems to match the pattern of behaviour of some western leaders
The fact that 77.4% of the population went to the polls to vote (their support) for Putin at the astonishing rate of 88.7% tells a story. The citizens of Russia do not agree with his Western detractors. He is regraded in his own country as a hero, and for reason: he has made Russian's economy the most robust in Europe, he has stood in the face of American aggression the world over - with great success, he has brought Russian's relations with China to their best place ever in history; in the face of concerted US efforts to sanction food supplies to Russia, he made Russia an independent powerhouse of agriculture, he has modernized Russian's weapons systems (hypersonic missiles, cavitating torpedos, etc) making Russia unrivalled in weapons, he bullet proofed Rusia's banking system and monetary position, made Russia central to the creation of Brics, and along with his resistance to US aggression had made Russia a model and leader to the global south and other nations, elevating Russian's foreign policy establishment to unheard of heights. The west hates Putin because he is in their way, and loved by Russians for the same reason.
Riley Waggaman is a good source - also known as Edward Slavsquat <edwardslavsquat@substack.com>
The Russian Art of War By Jacques Baud