Boris Yeltsin's drunken face is still watching over Russia

 

I keep on thinking that my next post will be a list of my favorite anime, but I keep on making posts about something else instead. It seems that whenever I begin to write about something, it's not easy for me to stop. This post too will be about something else. Since many of my followers follow my channel and my blog because of my videos and posts about history and sociology, some of them want me to post something about current events. Well, since I haven't posted anything about current events for a while, I might as well do so now. The Canada convoy protest took place at the beginning of 2022, but some people still want to know what I think about it. I wasn't keeping track of this protest, but I do know some of what happened in Ottawa. I have a few things to say about this so-called Freedom Convoy. This protest was simply a reaction to the mandates and the restrictions that got introduced in the country. In Canada, like in other Western states, capital and the government work together. Actually, I can even say that the government works for capital. Therefore, the mandates were enforced by the government and by businesses, especially by big business. As some people have said, COVID-19, the disease itself, is an artificial creation. The virus was probably created at the Lugar Research Center in Georgia, which is an American client state. The disease had been taken advantage of by Western oligarchs and by the World Economic Forum. Andrei Fursov, for example, made an hour-long program in which he talked about the WEF and about Klaus Schwab's books. Before that, when the lockdowns got introduced, Fursov said that when an economic crisis appears in the capitalist system, capitalists usually attempt to organize a big war because wars result in population loss, in economic and social disruption, and then in economic recovery. But, nowadays, with all of the nuclear weapons that exist in the world, a big war would lead to catastrophes and even to the possibility that the instigators will be judged and executed. The virus and the lockdowns, according to Fursov, are solving some of the problems that a big war solves. The virus didn't kill a large percentage of the population in Western countries because it wasn't designed to be very deadly, but, together with the lockdowns and the so-called vaccines, it still caused some people to die. One of the big objectives for Western oligarchs in the last several decades has been population reduction, or at least a fall in the birth rate. It's a typical oligarchical policy. Economic growth in Western states has been slowing down for the last several decades, but the population has continued to grow. And people without jobs or good prospects rebel. The larger the number of such people, the more dangerous they become for the establishment. So-called female empowerment, the promotion of gay relationships and marriage, and various distractions do have an effect, but they can't lead to a big fall in the birth rate. Well, COVID-19 had been useful for the oligarchy in this respect. It didn't cause a large number of deaths, but it still caused some deaths and it disrupted the economies of Western countries. There are reports pointing out that some rich people got even wealthier during the pandemic. Perhaps in the future a deadlier virus will be released. But it's clear that the oligarchs don't want to go that far yet. Anyway, since opposition to the mandates and to the restrictions in Western countries was mild and ineffective, nothing was changing and tougher mandates were being introduced. Fursov said that the people in the West, especially in Western Europe, have become so fearful and so obedient that he didn't expect for any serious resistance to take place. In the last several months, Fursov also had a few tough words to say about people in the West. He said that if these people are told to get jabbed, they will get jabbed, and, if they're told to hate Russians, they will hate Russians. He called them walking stomachs. Perhaps this means that he thinks of them as brainless. Leftist parties, at least the ones that still exist, didn't do anything because, since the fall of the Soviet Union, they've been broken up, rendered innocuous, or completely demoralized by the establishment. Therefore, the task of resisting fell to some good old boys, like some of the truck drivers. Obviously, these people aren't affected by the torrent of anti-leftist and anti-communist lies and propaganda, and they had the bravery and the resolve to travel to the capital and to make themselves heard, at least after they realized that their agitations on websites like Twitter have little or no effect. The authorities in Canada attempted to paint them as right-wing extremists, but they were only holding a peaceful protest. Eventually, there was a crackdown and the protesters got dispersed. Still, results were achieved. The Freedom Convoy and the peaceful protests that were taking place in other Western countries at the same time convinced the authorities and the WEF that it's time to cancel the mandates and the restrictions in order to prevent more protests and unrest. The Canada convoy protest didn't interest me much. I wasn't for or against the protest. When the mandates and the restrictions were being enforced, they didn't affect me much. But I'm glad that some of them got abolished because, after some time, they could have affected me in a serious and harmful way. Soon after the operation that's called the COVID-19 pandemic came to an end, the war in Ukraine began. This war allowed the Western establishment to quickly shift focus to something else and to make many people forget about the virus and the hardships that were created because of it. The war in Ukraine has gone on pretty much the way I expected it to go. The Russians have had some successes, though probably not as many successes as they had hoped for. So far, the Russians have been successful in driving the Ukrainian Ground Forces and the Ukrainian Nazis out of the south-eastern provinces that had been under attack. These provinces are actually still under attack because the Ukrainians continue to fire missiles at the urban areas of these provinces, thus killing more people. The anti-Russian regime in Kiev, with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the head, hasn't given up because it receives military support, financial support, and intelligence support from the USA and from other NATO members. Because of this, the Ukrainian government and the armed forces have held out and have continued to resist the Russians. The Russians, of course, haven't captured Kiev, and this is the big reason why the anti-Russian regime in Kiev has continued to resist. Perhaps it was never Vladimir Putin's intention to capture Kiev. There was an offensive toward Kiev by the Russians at the beginning of the special military operation, as Putin has called the intervention, but the Russians pulled back not long after they got close to Kiev and began to focus only on liberating the south-eastern provinces. Perhaps the offensive toward Kiev was carried out in order to shock the Ukrainian government and the armed forces or perhaps it was carried out in order to pummel the Ukrainian armed forces in the north of Ukraine and to divert them from the south-eastern provinces. Or did the Russians really intend to capture Kiev but then pulled back after incurring unwanted losses? I don't really know yet. Whatever the reason was, this offensive toward Kiev allowed the Western media (propaganda apparatus) to portray the Russian intervention as a real invasion and conquest of Ukraine by the Russians at the beginning of the intervention. The Russians probably never intended to capture Kiev because they wanted to avoid serious street fighting and because it was never their intention to conquer Ukraine. Frankly, I never thought that the Russians would be able to conquer Ukraine even if they had attempted to do so. The Russian Federation, which is pretty much a banana republic, still has little or no effective offensive power. Ukraine is also a banana republic, but at least it's getting support from the West. It's pretty obvious that Putin wants to continue to please the Europeans, especially the Germans, because they're the big buyers of Russian raw materials, and these raw materials are very important because they're the only large source of income for the Russian state and for Russian oligarchs. This is why Russian propaganda always features reports about the Russian gas pipelines to Europe and about Russian oil and gas exports. The Russians have almost nothing else to export. Therefore, the few interventions that Putin has conducted so far, his reactions to American imperialism and encroachment, have been limited and short. I think that he doesn't want to conquer Ukraine because he doesn't want to bring irreparable damage to Russian relations with the Europeans. At this time, and for the foreseeable future, he wants to continue to profit from Russian raw material exports to Europe. Therefore, he doesn't want to be seen as a conqueror and as a real threat to the European Union. Of course, there's also the fact that Russia is an oligarchical state that isn't capable of conquering all of Ukraine and of holding on to it. But Putin couldn't simply ignore the plight of the Russians that live in the south-eastern provinces of Ukraine. Accordingly, he launched his "special military operation" in February of 2022. I think that this operation hasn't gone as well as he had hoped. David Petraeus, who has provided his analysis of the conflict, his hopes, and his deceptions, has pointed out that the Russians have lost more soldiers in the few months of fighting in Ukraine than the Soviets lost in the ten years of fighting in Afghanistan. I'd say that the losses of the Russians in Ukraine haven't been massive. For example, the Soviets lost about 80,000 soldiers in the Battle of Berlin alone. Still, for a sickly, right-wing oligarchical state such as the Russian Federation, the losses have been heavy. The losses for Ukraine have been heavy too, but the Ukrainians have done a better job of mobilizing their forces and they're fighting on home soil. Therefore, in September of 2022, Putin announced a partial mobilization. As some people have said, this is something that he didn't want to do. This mobilization has produced a predictable reaction from the Russian masses. The Russians have begun doing what they do best, which is to surrender or to run away. It seems that many men in Russia began running to neighboring countries in order to evade the mobilization. After the Soviet Union collapsed, Russians have lost faith in the government and in the army, for obvious reasons. The new regime carried out many disastrous policies, and things haven't improved much after Putin came to power. Naturally, the people in Russia are demoralized and they have little or no faith in the Russian authorities. Of course, Russians also don't want to get killed or captured in Ukraine, where the Ukrainians engage in torture and in humiliating prisoners of war. Even before all of this happened, however, there were reports of thousands of wealthy Russians and Russian cultural figures fleeing Russia for the West, for Israel, and for other states when the intervention in Ukraine began. Many of these people disseminated anti-Soviet and anti-communist lies and propaganda, and they were pretty much pro-Western Russophobes that used to work and often live in Russia. The fact that there were many of them in Russia, the fact that many of them are famous, and the fact that many of them held high posts in Russia show what a sickly state Russia is. And the ones that have been able to flee Russia so far are only a portion of the pro-Western Russophobes that live in Russia. I wouldn't go quite as far as to call the Russian Federation a basket case (or maybe I would), but it's clear that there are many traitors and potential traitors in the country. The education system in Russia is bad, there is widespread poverty and misery, there is widespread corruption, there are widespread diseases, there is widespread alcoholism, Western culture and products are promoted and supported in Russia, Soviet culture and history are demonized, and the Russian economy is in the toilet, as some American "analysts" would say. And these are only some of the serious problems that exist in the Russian Federation. Well, what I'm getting at is that the poor performance of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine and the problems within Russia itself didn't come as a surprise to me. Still, the intervention in Ukraine hasn't been a complete failure so far. The Russians have at least succeeded in liberating the south-eastern provinces of Ukraine, where the Russians have been aided by local separatists. I think that Putin's big mistake has been to use nationalism in order to rally the Russian masses. He should have used something more effective, like McDonald's or The Coca-Cola Company, which are companies that have been operating in Russia since the very beginning of the 1990s. Russians would never fight and die for their country, especially for an embarrassing country that's only thirty years old. Russians would, however, fight and die for a McDonald's Big Mac, for a bottle of Coca-Cola, or for a Louis Vuitton bag. In fact, the flag of the Russian Federation should have featured a McDonald's Big Mac, a Coca-Cola bottle, or Boris Yeltsin's drunken face in the center. This would have been a flag that the Russians could have rallied behind. Unfortunately for Putin, these and many other Western companies have pulled out of Russia soon after the conflict in Ukraine began. I guess that all of that extensive privatization and all those attempts to favor Western companies haven't worked out well. I didn't plan on making another post about the conflict in Ukraine. This is something that I didn't really want to do. However, I recently spent several hours on watching American news reports and interviews. This is unusual because I almost never watch the news. I was definitely entertained. The Americans sound hopeful now because they think that Putin has bitten off more than he can chew. A few of them even say that the recent failures of the Russians in Ukraine will eventually lead to the fall of Putin. Well, I don't know about that. But the Americans certainly shouldn't soften their offensive at this critical time. It seems that they realize this because they recently got Luke Skywalker to talk to Zelenskyy and to voice his support for the Ukrainian president. That's good, but I personally would have preferred to see Optimus Prime talk to Zelenskyy and voice his support. Well, maybe Optimus Prime isn't available at this time. However, Luke Skywalker shouldn't stop after only one brief talk. He should repeat what he did in the good old days, when he destroyed the Death Star and vanquished the evil Galactic Empire. He should get in a TIE fighter and lead a squadron of TIE fighters piloted by Ukrainian Nazis all the way to the Kremlin in Moscow. Then he should open fire and blast the evil Putin right out of the Kremlin. Then he should land his TIE fighter near the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center, where a crowd of pro-Western Russian neoliberals and Western news reporters will be waiting for him, and receive yet another medal for his heroism. I know that Luke is old now, but I'm sure that he's capable of accomplishing such a mission. After all, he does have the Force on his side.