Putin is like Joe Stalin, in the political imaginations of the Neo-Conservatives & Neo-Liberals!

Old Socialist comments.

Is any of this a surprise?

Headline: Why Vladimir Putin has Ukraine in his sights

Sub-headline: The Russian president’s historical nostalgia and fear of democracy are driving a new crisis

This isn’t quite enough for The Financial Times Warriors, so we are presented with this piece of hysterical cartoon propaganda, as if their readership isn’t safely moored in The Marvel Universe of Hero’s vs Villains ! James Ferguson’s cartoon looks familiar, a mangy Russian Bear looks menacing, as it holds a flag of blue and yellow, in its claws , and the talons of the American Eagle, are just visible in the upper right hand corner? The cartoon has been cropped, as a red talon cannot denote peaceful interventionism?

Mr. Rachman’s inauspicious opening paragraph:

When Vladimir Putin talks about Ukraine, he sounds like a spurned, abusive husband. A 5,000-word essay that the Russian president published in July, entitled “On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians”, is full of protestations of undying love for Ukrainians — combined with threats of violence if the love is not reciprocated. Ukrainians are variously portrayed as the blood brothers of Russians and as neo-Nazis.

https://www.ft.com/content/b403898a-0dfb-41b3-a8c6-a53866ff0859

The Reader needn’t waste her time, nor fret about what the actual respectable bourgeoise Party Line on Putin is!

Headline: Contextualizing Putin's "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians"

August 2, 2021

Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent essay, "On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians," which was published on the Kremlin's website in Russian, English and Ukrainian, elaborates on his frequently stated assertion that Ukrainians and Russians are "one people." In what Anne Applebaum called “essentially a call to arms," Putin posits that Ukraine can only be sovereign in partnership with Russia, doesn't need the Donbas and nullified its claims on Crimea with its declaration of independence from the Soviet Union, and has been weakened by the West's efforts to undermine the unity of the Slavs.

Responses to the 5000-word article have ranged from deep concern to near dismissal, with some likening its statements to a justification for war and others pointing to its lack of novelty and suggesting that the primary audience is President Volodymyr Zelensky as he met with leaders in the West. (Zelensky, for his part, offered the tongue-in-cheek response that Putin must have a lot of extra time on his hands.) The discussions inspired by the essay have explored questions such as: Why is Russia so obsessed with Ukraine? Where do the facts diverge from myth? What is Putin's motivation for writing this document? 

In August 2017, we published an interview with Serhii Plokhii (Plokhy) about his book Lost Kingdom: The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation, which addresses many of the themes emerging in discussions in the wake of Putin's statements. We are reposting the interview below for those who are interested in learning more about Russian nationalism and the intersection of history and myth, past and present.

In the coming weeks, we will also publish excerpts from Plokhii's forthcoming book The Frontline in open access on our HURI Books website. 

…

https://huri.harvard.edu/news/putin-historical-unity

Note the mention of Russophobe/Neo-Con Anne Applebaum:

HURI: Anne Applebaum said during a lecture at the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium, “If Stalin feared that Ukrainian nationalism could bring down the Soviet regime, Putin fears that Ukraine’s example could bring down his own regime, a modern autocratic kleptocracy.” Putin emphasizes the “sameness” of the nations, which would seem to increase the power of Ukraine’s example to undermine his regime. Do you think the the drive to call Ukrainians the same as Russians is informed not only by foreign policy, but also by domestic considerations? 

And quite tellingly, the utter absence of indigenous fascists political actors Right Sector, Svoboda and The Azov Battalion, in both Rachman’s and the HURI essay!

Old Socialist

P. S. This reader wonders what exactly Joe Biden and Blinken will do, when confronted by The Warrior Queens Victoria Nuland, Susan Rice, Samantha Power ?