St. Petersburg’s first mayor and Putin mentor Anatoly Sobchak gives a sobering and darkly prophetic interview where he correctly outlines not only the injustice of Ukraine filching the land given to it by Russia after splitting from the USSR, but how Ukraine will now become a ‘time bomb’ as it arms itself for a future clash that would endanger mankind itself.
What you witnessed in the late 60s of communism in Eastern Europe is well documented and true. But cannot compare with today's govt anywhere. Communism has disappeared everywhere except North Korea. What we have instead is various flavours of market economy combined with various degrees of authoritarian govts. Meanwhile in the west we always had fascism, wrongly called capitalism and wrongly taking Adam Smith as its patron saint. Fascism was well hidden under the guise of fake 'democracy' until recently. Now it's ugly face is out in the open and more people than ever before recognize the system for what it is - govt by corporate control, i.e. fascism.
Despite some of his antics, Zhirinovsky held the banner for being one of, if not the largest opposition figure to the United Russia party for his exact sentiments towards the west and correct views of the balkanization, and subsequent radicalization and militarization of the former Soviet republics. Like many great minds and visionaries, the public is unable to appreciate the gift of his insight until after tragedy has struck, and we pay the price. I will be watching the Victory Day parade with anticipation of Putin's speech to see how his sentiments change. Last year was grave and quite direct but not hostile. I figure we will see harsher language and a more 'Zhirik' sounding rhetoric to follow this time around.
Just saw this email. First thing on my list tomorrow. I have to read you slowly or I may miss a hidden gem. Wanted to see if you knew much about the Soviet Collapse? Curious if you thought America could look anything like that? Have heard the Russians remained pretty civilized towards one another but admittedly know very little about it. Honestly it’s probably one of my greatest concerns about potentially happening in the US. While I don’t have a crystal ball I am skeptical Americans can remain calm and civil in those times. Too many factions where our differences have been conditioned for hostility…..thanks for all you do sir. I believe I owe you another tip. Maybe will just sign up this time so I can pester you with more silly questions 😉
Had a chance to go through this a bit ago. I have been curious about Yugoslavia. There’s a guy survivalists like to read named Selko who went through it.
The US certainly does like balkanization. If there’s one thing our government and cia are good at its creating chaos. In fact they like it so much I believe that is the strategy being deployed today right here at home. I think you just confirmed it Simplicius.
Import millions of people, create division by targeting straight white men/families. Then wait for the gasoline of an economic emergency to throw on the fire. IMHO There’s a good chance that is what we are in the midst of here.
This makes me even more curious about the events/aftermaths of both the Yugoslavian and USSR collapse. Going to sign up as a member later today. Would love to see your thoughts on the matter and what it could mean for the USA.
The Civil War piece was some of your greatest work. Critical thinking makes the odds certain we are headed that way IF the country can stay out of complete chaos. Wondering what would look like if chaos is unavoidable.
YU went up in flames because Serbs didn’t want to be divided up into new states. Russians tolerated this because they thought the new states were “friendly”.
A week or two ago, the (fluent French speaking) Chinese ambassador to France said that there is no basis in international law on accepting the sovereignty of the 15 former Soviet Republics as independent countries.
And he's right. But somehow, the world just kind of shrugged and said, "Ignoring all other Soviet laws and referendums, we're gonna pretend like the 15 republics and their current borders are set in stone forever." There is literally no basis in any kind of law (international or otherwise) for this, whatsoever.
Result? All of them except for LIthuania and Belarus had either a bloody civil war or violent inter-ethnic clashes or a border dispute, or a combination thereof. 13 out of 15 (including Russia itself) went up in flames.
In fact they pretended to be horrified at the Chinese ambassador's statement when as you point out, he was just stating the facts based on international law. Of course the west now has no use for law, preferring "rules-based" order which means no rules whatsoever. I remember the Irish being forced to vote over and over for EU treaties they did not want to sign. I didn't realize it was happening all over the place. The west has gone full fascist power politics now and won't stop until the economy collapses and we go through a dark period of chaos with no assurance we'll come out better on the other side. I was raised as a liberal/leftie, more left than liberal, but I see now the weakness of that position is a complete lack of recognition of how fragile order truly is, how easy it is to destroy it and difficult to rebuild. I don't know the exact shape of what's coming but I know it ain't gonna be good.
Yes, your historical roundup confirms present-day realities. Russia - since the fall of the Soviet Union - has been the permanent victim of the US/Western Mafia's criminality and imperial covetousness.
Since Putin took the helm Russia has been on the side of truth and justice in international matters, and continued to be the victim of the ages-long Anglo conspiracy.
I take a bit of strength from the fact that the anglo banking cartel, which has dominated the world for a few hundred years, is finally facing a challenge to its colonial/neo-colonial looting enterprise. The world is being offered an alternative to outright pillage and plunder and between Russia and China they have the power to actually pull it off. The banksters are still in denial but it won't last much longer. When they finally are forced to face reality, expect a financial collapse like we haven't seen since... perhaps ever.
You forget the Spanish and Portuguese empires, which were established earlier and lasted longer, although in a state of prolonged decay. What they did not do was to set up an international financial and economic mafia for the long term, as the Anglos did - it was not out of good intentions but the result of idiotic religious fanaticism, which precludes wisdom and long-term perspective; the Anglian oligarchy dispensed with religion altogether, although the nations were blessed with Biblical knowledge for many a generation, but such popular knowledge had no influence on their criminal depredations around the world whatsoever.
The comments about the dissolution of the USSR invalidating internal boundary changes during its period of rule are interesting. They provide a way for a power such as China that supports the sovereignty of states and their territorial integrity to have wriggle room in brokering a settlement in which Ukraine loses territory. Whilst still being able to say that territorial integrity has not been compromised.
Of course, despite the simplistic way that western media propaganda seeks to portray the world, all of these “principles” are malleable. One could argue perhaps that external territorial settlements brokered by the USSR are also invalid. That would require Ukraine, Belorussia and Lithuania to return territory to Poland! Ultimately, what matters will be pragmatic need and some face saving legal formula will be found to validate it with respect to international law. Just as happened with Kosovo, albeit the west chooses to ignore that one.
The references to referenda are also interesting. Very similar really to how international law is applied. Their results are used to justify what political elites want to do. When the answer does not fit, then just as with international law they are ignored and convoluted rationales are found to justify doing so. The Brexit referendum is a case in point. It has been honoured in theory but the UK deep state / financial elite is still doing everything it can to reverse that decision.
As devil's advocate - Ukraine voted for independence on its own referendum later. This is the answer that is usually given to the USSR referendum in discussions, and if one is intellectually honest, it has to be admitted that the two cancel each other out.
Thank you for bringing up this interview, these days Sobchak is vilified (deservedly though) as shifty political operator (which he was) but it has been largelly forgotten how smart he actually was, which brought him to his position in the first place.
However, Crimea also tried more than once, including two referendum efforts, to distance itself from Ukraine and renew its Russian association. On one of those occasions it received direct threats from Kiev if it were to go ahead. If one is intellectually honest, Ukraine's current pretense to be the protector of western democratic values and the vanguard of European integrity is more than a little hypocritical.
If the state response of Poland to the independence declaration of Kosovo - a reaction eagerly awaited by the west at the time - is examined and the tick-off factors Sikorski claimed were representative of de-facto independence, it would be clear that Crimea satisfied them all; it was even called 'the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and had a fully-functioning municipal government and its own institutions operating outside central control.
The most bizarre aspect of the US created Neo-Nazi Ukraine, is seeing gullible Western progressives being so brainwashed by the MSM narrative, of a LGBT Anti-fascist freedom force fighting the Nazi Russians, they give up their lives to fight side by side with actual extreme right wing nationalist neo-Nazis. Like that dead gay progressive Bernie reddit bro that got killed recently, he actually thought he was fighting Trump backed Nazi Russians, while marching with with Ukrainian holding Nazi flags. This is a circus.
Or that black activist guy from Ohio who died in Ukraine recently--mentioned in the last SImplicius post. Once he got there among the Nazis, was he welcomed and made to feel comfortable ("Step right this way, Mr Cannon Fodder, sir ...") by the racist Azov types? I mean, these weirdos have virtually identical DNA to Russians, yet swear that the Rooskis are a different and inferior race. Mind boggling.
I would love to know what that black guy experienced among them. Probably we will never know now, unless he kept a blog or diary.
I saw that one too, incredible. He said the American Army had neo-nazis, so he went to fight for even worse neo-nazis in a war zone, what a weird time. The foreign fighters are probably managed, most likely with embedded CIA operatives too, so who knows where they take them. The ones there only for the money are probably watched too, considering the stories that have come out of many of them just stealing or selling weapons and supplies. Its complete chaos there, the evil and corrupt are most likely making lots of money this past year.
I don't, I just came upon it on reddit, I only skimmed it since I don't really like reading gore or watch combat footage, spectating that stuff is insane in my opinion, so its just the gist from what I remembered. You can just search for the dead ones on Reddit, if the links are still up. tbh the details of the biographies are blurry with the other redditors that went to Ukraine in that Reddit battalion or whatever it was called, but its the general zeitgeist.
Nitpicking about the Yugoslavia map, Serbia did not include B&H and Montenegro, those were republics of Yugoslavia. Very interesting figures about USSR, had no idea about such huge disparity.
You are dead on the money when you allude that the preferred technique for Washington - and to a lesser extent the EU - where elections are concerned is to cause them to be run again until the desired results are achieved. In the cases of referendum and leadership vote the overall thrust is the same; infer irregularities and claim that the sacred democratic process was tampered with, and continue exploiting dissatisfaction until the aim is achieved. But in the case of presidential and national elections, a useful tool for the west has been the willingness of the target countries to permit western representatives to conduct exit polling. This is simply inviting those leaving the polls to disclose how they voted - no danger in that, surely? Most former-Soviet countries are eager to prove their transparency chops, and are happy to let the west sample the vote after it has been carried out. But this has been used over and over, first in Serbia, then Georgia and then Ukraine, to discredit the election's result. Western election monitors simply claim their results, based on what voters told them immediately after voting, were greatly different from the tally claimed by the winner. Therefore, the winner must be lying!! Run it again, and enough of your tricks! Accusations of ballot-box stuffing and carousel voting are dusted off, even though western government officials entrusted with briefing their press often do not even know what the latter term means, when challenged.
Advance polls, at least in Russia - sampling to see how decided voters intend to vote - have been almost boring in their predictions. If they say something like 70% plan to vote for United Russia, the actual vote comes out remarkably close to that - but the west affects to be greatly surprised; oh, exit polls indicate the challenger got much more of the vote!
I expect this to stop as if it had hit a wall in future; there is no purpose at all to allowing western election monitors to oversee any portion of the vote in countries the west plainly wants to destabilize. They will simply have to accept that the vote result is the will of the people, and if they don't like it, that's too bad. It looks as if Russian cooperation with western meddling against itself is over for good, and I expect China will follow suit. The western empire has made the biggest mistake of its life, in only a couple of short years of neoconservative decision-making, but the reckoning will endure for a generation.
Fantastic! Good to see the Production/Consumption statistic.
What validates the late stage of USSR statistics is the state of the Ukraine's economy after 2014 .. down and to the right and now they are suckling at the West's teat (not for long).
The list of ignored referendums is interesting. In the Netherlands there has been the possibility to hold consultative referendums from 2005 up to 2018. Probably due to undesired outcomes every time (against anything EU), the law allowing consultative referendums was abolished. One needs to keep up with democracy, but not too much. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referendums_in_the_Netherlands.
It is clear other countries had their own undesired outcomes that were subsequently ignored.
It is good to live in the US empire with the best democracy money can buy. Democracy is way too important to leave to chance.
What you witnessed in the late 60s of communism in Eastern Europe is well documented and true. But cannot compare with today's govt anywhere. Communism has disappeared everywhere except North Korea. What we have instead is various flavours of market economy combined with various degrees of authoritarian govts. Meanwhile in the west we always had fascism, wrongly called capitalism and wrongly taking Adam Smith as its patron saint. Fascism was well hidden under the guise of fake 'democracy' until recently. Now it's ugly face is out in the open and more people than ever before recognize the system for what it is - govt by corporate control, i.e. fascism.
Despite some of his antics, Zhirinovsky held the banner for being one of, if not the largest opposition figure to the United Russia party for his exact sentiments towards the west and correct views of the balkanization, and subsequent radicalization and militarization of the former Soviet republics. Like many great minds and visionaries, the public is unable to appreciate the gift of his insight until after tragedy has struck, and we pay the price. I will be watching the Victory Day parade with anticipation of Putin's speech to see how his sentiments change. Last year was grave and quite direct but not hostile. I figure we will see harsher language and a more 'Zhirik' sounding rhetoric to follow this time around.
Just saw this email. First thing on my list tomorrow. I have to read you slowly or I may miss a hidden gem. Wanted to see if you knew much about the Soviet Collapse? Curious if you thought America could look anything like that? Have heard the Russians remained pretty civilized towards one another but admittedly know very little about it. Honestly it’s probably one of my greatest concerns about potentially happening in the US. While I don’t have a crystal ball I am skeptical Americans can remain calm and civil in those times. Too many factions where our differences have been conditioned for hostility…..thanks for all you do sir. I believe I owe you another tip. Maybe will just sign up this time so I can pester you with more silly questions 😉
Had a chance to go through this a bit ago. I have been curious about Yugoslavia. There’s a guy survivalists like to read named Selko who went through it.
The US certainly does like balkanization. If there’s one thing our government and cia are good at its creating chaos. In fact they like it so much I believe that is the strategy being deployed today right here at home. I think you just confirmed it Simplicius.
Import millions of people, create division by targeting straight white men/families. Then wait for the gasoline of an economic emergency to throw on the fire. IMHO There’s a good chance that is what we are in the midst of here.
This makes me even more curious about the events/aftermaths of both the Yugoslavian and USSR collapse. Going to sign up as a member later today. Would love to see your thoughts on the matter and what it could mean for the USA.
The Civil War piece was some of your greatest work. Critical thinking makes the odds certain we are headed that way IF the country can stay out of complete chaos. Wondering what would look like if chaos is unavoidable.
YU went up in flames because Serbs didn’t want to be divided up into new states. Russians tolerated this because they thought the new states were “friendly”.
A week or two ago, the (fluent French speaking) Chinese ambassador to France said that there is no basis in international law on accepting the sovereignty of the 15 former Soviet Republics as independent countries.
And he's right. But somehow, the world just kind of shrugged and said, "Ignoring all other Soviet laws and referendums, we're gonna pretend like the 15 republics and their current borders are set in stone forever." There is literally no basis in any kind of law (international or otherwise) for this, whatsoever.
Result? All of them except for LIthuania and Belarus had either a bloody civil war or violent inter-ethnic clashes or a border dispute, or a combination thereof. 13 out of 15 (including Russia itself) went up in flames.
*golf clap*
In fact they pretended to be horrified at the Chinese ambassador's statement when as you point out, he was just stating the facts based on international law. Of course the west now has no use for law, preferring "rules-based" order which means no rules whatsoever. I remember the Irish being forced to vote over and over for EU treaties they did not want to sign. I didn't realize it was happening all over the place. The west has gone full fascist power politics now and won't stop until the economy collapses and we go through a dark period of chaos with no assurance we'll come out better on the other side. I was raised as a liberal/leftie, more left than liberal, but I see now the weakness of that position is a complete lack of recognition of how fragile order truly is, how easy it is to destroy it and difficult to rebuild. I don't know the exact shape of what's coming but I know it ain't gonna be good.
Yes, your historical roundup confirms present-day realities. Russia - since the fall of the Soviet Union - has been the permanent victim of the US/Western Mafia's criminality and imperial covetousness.
Since Putin took the helm Russia has been on the side of truth and justice in international matters, and continued to be the victim of the ages-long Anglo conspiracy.
About 500 years of the Anglo Saxon Empire to be more exact.
I take a bit of strength from the fact that the anglo banking cartel, which has dominated the world for a few hundred years, is finally facing a challenge to its colonial/neo-colonial looting enterprise. The world is being offered an alternative to outright pillage and plunder and between Russia and China they have the power to actually pull it off. The banksters are still in denial but it won't last much longer. When they finally are forced to face reality, expect a financial collapse like we haven't seen since... perhaps ever.
You forget the Spanish and Portuguese empires, which were established earlier and lasted longer, although in a state of prolonged decay. What they did not do was to set up an international financial and economic mafia for the long term, as the Anglos did - it was not out of good intentions but the result of idiotic religious fanaticism, which precludes wisdom and long-term perspective; the Anglian oligarchy dispensed with religion altogether, although the nations were blessed with Biblical knowledge for many a generation, but such popular knowledge had no influence on their criminal depredations around the world whatsoever.
The comments about the dissolution of the USSR invalidating internal boundary changes during its period of rule are interesting. They provide a way for a power such as China that supports the sovereignty of states and their territorial integrity to have wriggle room in brokering a settlement in which Ukraine loses territory. Whilst still being able to say that territorial integrity has not been compromised.
Of course, despite the simplistic way that western media propaganda seeks to portray the world, all of these “principles” are malleable. One could argue perhaps that external territorial settlements brokered by the USSR are also invalid. That would require Ukraine, Belorussia and Lithuania to return territory to Poland! Ultimately, what matters will be pragmatic need and some face saving legal formula will be found to validate it with respect to international law. Just as happened with Kosovo, albeit the west chooses to ignore that one.
The references to referenda are also interesting. Very similar really to how international law is applied. Their results are used to justify what political elites want to do. When the answer does not fit, then just as with international law they are ignored and convoluted rationales are found to justify doing so. The Brexit referendum is a case in point. It has been honoured in theory but the UK deep state / financial elite is still doing everything it can to reverse that decision.
As devil's advocate - Ukraine voted for independence on its own referendum later. This is the answer that is usually given to the USSR referendum in discussions, and if one is intellectually honest, it has to be admitted that the two cancel each other out.
Thank you for bringing up this interview, these days Sobchak is vilified (deservedly though) as shifty political operator (which he was) but it has been largelly forgotten how smart he actually was, which brought him to his position in the first place.
However, Crimea also tried more than once, including two referendum efforts, to distance itself from Ukraine and renew its Russian association. On one of those occasions it received direct threats from Kiev if it were to go ahead. If one is intellectually honest, Ukraine's current pretense to be the protector of western democratic values and the vanguard of European integrity is more than a little hypocritical.
If the state response of Poland to the independence declaration of Kosovo - a reaction eagerly awaited by the west at the time - is examined and the tick-off factors Sikorski claimed were representative of de-facto independence, it would be clear that Crimea satisfied them all; it was even called 'the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and had a fully-functioning municipal government and its own institutions operating outside central control.
The most bizarre aspect of the US created Neo-Nazi Ukraine, is seeing gullible Western progressives being so brainwashed by the MSM narrative, of a LGBT Anti-fascist freedom force fighting the Nazi Russians, they give up their lives to fight side by side with actual extreme right wing nationalist neo-Nazis. Like that dead gay progressive Bernie reddit bro that got killed recently, he actually thought he was fighting Trump backed Nazi Russians, while marching with with Ukrainian holding Nazi flags. This is a circus.
Or that black activist guy from Ohio who died in Ukraine recently--mentioned in the last SImplicius post. Once he got there among the Nazis, was he welcomed and made to feel comfortable ("Step right this way, Mr Cannon Fodder, sir ...") by the racist Azov types? I mean, these weirdos have virtually identical DNA to Russians, yet swear that the Rooskis are a different and inferior race. Mind boggling.
I would love to know what that black guy experienced among them. Probably we will never know now, unless he kept a blog or diary.
I saw that one too, incredible. He said the American Army had neo-nazis, so he went to fight for even worse neo-nazis in a war zone, what a weird time. The foreign fighters are probably managed, most likely with embedded CIA operatives too, so who knows where they take them. The ones there only for the money are probably watched too, considering the stories that have come out of many of them just stealing or selling weapons and supplies. Its complete chaos there, the evil and corrupt are most likely making lots of money this past year.
That's nutz. Do you have a link to the gay Bernie Bro who went over there and got killed?
I don't, I just came upon it on reddit, I only skimmed it since I don't really like reading gore or watch combat footage, spectating that stuff is insane in my opinion, so its just the gist from what I remembered. You can just search for the dead ones on Reddit, if the links are still up. tbh the details of the biographies are blurry with the other redditors that went to Ukraine in that Reddit battalion or whatever it was called, but its the general zeitgeist.
Nitpicking about the Yugoslavia map, Serbia did not include B&H and Montenegro, those were republics of Yugoslavia. Very interesting figures about USSR, had no idea about such huge disparity.
Nice to see finally a very detailed depiction of "Ukraine's" territorial gains throughout time.
You are dead on the money when you allude that the preferred technique for Washington - and to a lesser extent the EU - where elections are concerned is to cause them to be run again until the desired results are achieved. In the cases of referendum and leadership vote the overall thrust is the same; infer irregularities and claim that the sacred democratic process was tampered with, and continue exploiting dissatisfaction until the aim is achieved. But in the case of presidential and national elections, a useful tool for the west has been the willingness of the target countries to permit western representatives to conduct exit polling. This is simply inviting those leaving the polls to disclose how they voted - no danger in that, surely? Most former-Soviet countries are eager to prove their transparency chops, and are happy to let the west sample the vote after it has been carried out. But this has been used over and over, first in Serbia, then Georgia and then Ukraine, to discredit the election's result. Western election monitors simply claim their results, based on what voters told them immediately after voting, were greatly different from the tally claimed by the winner. Therefore, the winner must be lying!! Run it again, and enough of your tricks! Accusations of ballot-box stuffing and carousel voting are dusted off, even though western government officials entrusted with briefing their press often do not even know what the latter term means, when challenged.
Advance polls, at least in Russia - sampling to see how decided voters intend to vote - have been almost boring in their predictions. If they say something like 70% plan to vote for United Russia, the actual vote comes out remarkably close to that - but the west affects to be greatly surprised; oh, exit polls indicate the challenger got much more of the vote!
I expect this to stop as if it had hit a wall in future; there is no purpose at all to allowing western election monitors to oversee any portion of the vote in countries the west plainly wants to destabilize. They will simply have to accept that the vote result is the will of the people, and if they don't like it, that's too bad. It looks as if Russian cooperation with western meddling against itself is over for good, and I expect China will follow suit. The western empire has made the biggest mistake of its life, in only a couple of short years of neoconservative decision-making, but the reckoning will endure for a generation.
Fantastic! Good to see the Production/Consumption statistic.
What validates the late stage of USSR statistics is the state of the Ukraine's economy after 2014 .. down and to the right and now they are suckling at the West's teat (not for long).
For a recent history of Ukraine documentary style, https://rumble.com/vwxxi8-ukraine-on-fire.html
The list of ignored referendums is interesting. In the Netherlands there has been the possibility to hold consultative referendums from 2005 up to 2018. Probably due to undesired outcomes every time (against anything EU), the law allowing consultative referendums was abolished. One needs to keep up with democracy, but not too much. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referendums_in_the_Netherlands.
It is clear other countries had their own undesired outcomes that were subsequently ignored.
It is good to live in the US empire with the best democracy money can buy. Democracy is way too important to leave to chance.
Great Article. Thanx a lot.
But it was crystal clear decades before.
It has started massively after Stalin´s death by Trotskyists.
After Stalin´s death they´ve come traitors to the leadership of country
and in to all key governmental offices. Traitors´ve made actions directly against
Soviet Civilization/people. Their decisions and resolutions was hidden genocide of
Soviet Civilization/people. It takes decades. Nowdays Russian Federation and his People
can face manifestations of sabotage and terroristical actions, kind of guerrilla warfare by ukronazis.
Brat ("Bother") premiered at the cinema I worked at. Great movie.
What Happens If the West Decides to Negotiate an End to the War in Ukraine and Russia Does Not (Really) Go Along?
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/05/what-happens-if-the-west-decides-to-negotiate-an-end-to-the-war-in-ukraine-and-russia-does-not-really-go-along.html
Using Poison in Ukraine’s Depleted Hope of Victory.
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/05/02/using-poison-in-ukraines-depleted-hope-of-victory/