Russia needs to talk quietly and carry a heavily studded baseball bat. From Declan Hayes at strategic-culture.org:
Not only does the Western media have no connection to the truth but, outside of sport and weather forecasts, it is not meant to have any such link.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12
If Putin’s Ukrainian issue was merely about dealing with Donald Rumsfeld unknown unknowns, Russia would have put paid to it years ago. But things are infinitely more complicated than that. Putin, which we use as a shorthand for Russia’s High Command, must achieve his strategic objectives, which include but are not confined to eviscerating the Nazi hardliners and their MI6 handlers at the centre of power in Kiev, kicking NATO bag and baggage out of Russia’s front yard, and securing regional stability to benefit the varying geopolitical and economic national interests of Russia and contiguous countries. Even that abbreviated web encompasses a vast array of political, military, informational, and economic dimensions, which are further compounded by the various irredentist movements, diplomatic double crosses, disinformation campaigns, and military interventions NATO use to frustrate Russia’s goals, all while cranking up international pressures and violent, internal Russian dissent.
Although Russia needs a layered, interconnected approach encompassing military actions, diplomatic efforts, and information warfare, to apply some sort of a tourniquet to these torrents, the best I can presently do is to help clarify how these elements must interplay to shape Russia’s policies and actions in Ukraine, and to thereby suggest an appropriately calibrated and nuanced approach to this ongoing conflict and its geopolitical dynamics.
The first thing to note is it is NATO, not Russia, that picked Ukraine as its staging post. There are two pertinent reasons for this. The first of these is that, unlike the Baltic pimple states, NATO’s Banderite spider’s web stayed largely intact after the Third Reich’s surrender. Not only had the Banderite cult vast human and other reserves in such countries as Canada but well-connected English aristocrats like Baroness Birdwood, made the necessary introductions into British High Society at the time of Barbarossa for Yaroslav Stetsko and other leaders of the extreme right-wing Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) for MI6 and their CIA chums to build on. Add in spook-for-hire Reinhard Gehlen, Hitler’s super spy, and MI6 and the CIA had good cause to fancy their chances against their Russian counterparts.
Germany used Poland and Napoleon used Belarus, NATO will use Ukraine?
Beefing up forces around Finland is a good move by the KGB chessmaster.