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Zelenskyy talks to Lex Fridman

Lex Fridman, a rather well-known American YouTuber, recorded a talk with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Two hours and a half. We are not going to retell what was said during the talk: the reader is strongly advised to familiarize himself with it. It is far more worthwhile to have a first-hand experience with a leader of a nation rather than listening to hours of reports and analyses by experts from the proverbial CNN or BBC. Whether or not the reader is going to listen to the talk, we only want to offer our take on the interview.

President Zelensky makes a bad impression overall. He talks a lot and he talks little sense. Watching the interview, you get the impression that the roles ought to be swapped and swapped in reality, not in imagination: Lex Fridman ought to be Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy ought to take the interview. Lex Fridman looks elegant and talks sense; Volodymyr Zelenskyy looks like a member of a technical staff and spurts out a lot of meaningless verbosity. Lex Fridman cares about peace, about putting an end to the hostilities, while Volodymyr Zelenskyy only thinks about revenge and builds castles in the air to the tune of joining Ukraine to NATO or putting Russia’s president on trial.

Both gentlemen come from Ukraine, with this difference that Lex Fridman has lived for the last thirty years in the United States; both gentlemen are of Jewish descent; Russian is the mother tongue of either. Though they both are native speakers of Russian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy refuses to speak in Russian, although Lex Fridman encourages him to, although Lex Fridman more often than not uses Russian throughout the talk. Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a point of using Ukrainian or English, but since Ukrainian is not his mother tongue, he keeps switching from Ukrainian to English, to Russian and then back to English, to Ukrainian, to Russian. Volodymyr Zelenskyy keeps switching to Russian because that’s the language in which he can accurately convey what he means. If you decide to watch the interview, select at least for a while the original version, without English dubbing, without AI translation and voice-over: you’ll hear Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak the way he naturally does.

Though Lex Fridman adores his guest and lavishes the Ukrainian President with compliments, you get the impression that he grows irritated with him. Why? Because Volodymyr Zelenskyy has little to say, because Volodymyr Zelenskyy is fixated on a couple of ideas that are unfeasible, because Volodymyr Zelenskyy switches from language to language. While Lex Fridman needs an interpreter when Ukraine’s president speaks Ukrainian, to top it all Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s English is not fluent, which makes the communication hard. Just one tiny thing: the Ukrainian President keeps saying ‘wery’ rather than ‘very’, which is not a matter of accent as his apologists might be ready to say or a particular difficulty of English phonetics for a Russian-speaking man. No. Russian has the sound ‘v’ like in ‘very’ in all word positions, including words which like – вера /vera/ = faith, веры /very/ = of the faith – resemble the English word ‘very.’ Strange that he did not pick up the pronunciation of this one of the most frequently used words either at school or later in life. A detail? Yes, sure enough, but a detail that might reveal the Ukrainian President’s perception and cognition of reality: due to his frequent meetings with foreign politicians and diplomats, Volodymyr Zelenskyy hears ‘very’ almost every day several times and reproduces it as ‘wery.’ A small divergence from reality in terms of language that translates into a huge divergence from reality in other fields of the President’s. Russians occupy a quarter of his country, with the West being incapable of doing anything about it, but Volodymyr Zelenskyy is daydreaming about regaining all territorial losses, demands compensation and court martial for the aggressor; a million Ukrainian soldiers are estimated to have been killed or wounded, but Volodymyr Zelenskyy maintains that Russian casualties amount to 788.000; the West is slowly giving up on Ukraine, but President Zelenskyy says that Putin fears Trump, and so on, and so forth. Daydreaming, wishful thinking, conjuring up alternative realities, in a word: ‘wery’ replacing ‘very.’

While speaking Russian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses Lex Fridman with the familiar singular ‘you’ rather than the official plural ‘you’ (something like using French ‘tu’ rather than ‘vous’, or German ‘du’ rather than ‘Sie’), while Lex Fridman keeps addressing the President with the formal and respectful plural ‘you.’ One would expect reciprocity on the part of the President.

Now compare the command of the English language and especially the content of speech, of statements, the concisenesses and precision of thought between what the Ukrainian president presents and what Sergei Lavrov, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, presents. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is lacking some dignity that becomes a diplomat, a dignity that Sergei Lavrov has. The Ukrainian President is fond of selecting words that are offensive – Putin is a killer, Putin is deaf (to arguments), Putin does not like his own country, Putin’s head is sick, Putin is a mammoth, Putin is about to conquer the world – words that make it difficult or impossible for the President of Ukraine to have any talks with the Russian leader. What if – just imagine – what if President Trump coerces President Zelenskyy to sit down at the negotiation table with President Putin? Ukraine’s President will lose face, will lose his integrity: he’ll be forced to talk to the killer, the mammoth, the madman.

Throughout the interview Lex Fridman behaves like a statesman: serious timbre of voice, language that is toned down, elegant clothes. Contrarily, Volodymyr Zelenskyy behaves like a garrulous plebeian dressed in wacky garb.

This longish interview is disappointing and pretty boring. It does not compare in any respect with the interviews given by Vladimir Putin or Sergei Lavrov. Yet, watch it at least for half an hour. Evaluate the personality, character, manners of the leader of Ukraine. That’s a good insight into his psyche, his mentality. It somehow reveals how he guides his country through turbulent waters. And remember one more time: of the few ways of accessing this video, select the original three-language version at least for a while. Do not let the AI make you believe that Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s English is better than it is. In the introduction to the whole material, Lex Fridman explains how to choose a language version.

The 155th Anna of Kiev Brigade finger-points to the sinking ship

The 155th Anna of Kiev Brigade has recenlty made a name for itself: 1.700 soldiers are said to have gone AWOL before the unit reached the front line. The 155th Anna of Kiev Brigade was one of the planned 14 brigades that were supposed to be equipped and trained by NATO, with the human resources being supplied by Ukraine. That was the Zelensky plan. Indeed, the said brigade was formed in Ukraine, relocated to France, and then, again, deployed to Ukraine, the Pokrovsk region. As it arrived there, it transpired that it was diminished by the several hundred men, as mentioned above.

Desertion happens in any army, at any time. Some men have been made soldiers against their will, against their physical and mental capabilities; yes, some men have been professional soldiers and some have volunteered to join the ranks out of the patriotic sentiment or simply for money, but then the harsh experience of the real war in the trenches, the carnage and the death of the many comrades at arms have played havoc with their psyche, turning them into deserters.

As said, there is no one army where there is no desertion. What is important is in which of the feuding sides the number of soldiers going AWOL is larger; what is important is also which is the most prevalent driving force motivating soldiers to leave the ranks without permission.

It does not require much mental effort to realize that desertion afflicts first and foremost the losing side. Simple human psyche. We prefer to collaborate with or even serve the winners, but, conversely, we sever our connections with losers, even if the losers are somehow strongly related to us. Desertion haunted the Napoleonic troops trailing back from Moscow, desertion haunted Hitler’s troops when the Soviet cannonade could be heard in Berlin. Desertion is at present afflicting the Ukrainian army.

The war has long been lost. The comparison of human and material resources at the disposal of the warring countries tells the whole story. Lightweight against heavyweight. A lynx against a tiger. A sports car against a racing car. Who was silly enough to think that the former had any chance?

I hear you say: Ukraine had a chance because it was helped by the West. Was it? Let us assume it was. Go and help as much as you can a lightweight fighter against a heavyweight fighter; go and put a lynx on a dope against a tiger; go and equip a sports car in such a way as to make it beat a racing car. Good luck with your efforts!

Desertions are barometers. Deserting soldiers are those proverbial rodents (no insult intended) leaving the sinking ship. They know that the ship is sinking. Despite the statements and actions of all the crew and the passengers, when those small rodents who occupy the lowest social rank – just like rank-and-files in an army – leave, they know that the ship is sinking for certain. Those up and above the social ladder (on upper ship decks) may cherish silly hopes and harbour silly expectations, but those at the social and army bottom know best.

They know best because they have been bussified for months and sent to the meat-grinder. They know it best because they – we mean the common people – have been suffering these three years in the trenches, with their families suffering privation back at home. They know best because we all know that the United States wants to end this war.

Do you know that Ukrainians have coined a new word? We have used this word in the foregoing paragraph. The word is bussification. No need to reveal the association it evokes in everybody’s mind. Bussification, because Ukrainian men are hunted down and rounded up in the streets and shops and institutions, and then bussed and drafted into the army. Very often women turn up in defence of such a poor guy and try to chase away or at least shame and shout down the oprichniki of the Kiev government, those bounty hunters who perform this task.

Oprichniki or oprichniks were a corps of the state police in Rus’ under Tsar Ivan the Terrible. They were feared by the nation, by the common people. Bounty hunters were individuals in the Old West who would pursue an outlaw and either catch him or kill him for money. Those Ukrainian units of oprichniki or bounty hunters do pretty much the same: they either get paid for hunting people down or they let themselves be bribed in return for leaving someone out of the draft.

All of which haunts the common people, those who do not have money or connections, those who did not manage to leave the country. The billionaires and the millionaires enjoy themselves in the West; the politicians are not drafted by definition; the officers usually are somewhere in the rear. The common man bears the brunt.

With all this in mind, soldiers, Ukrainian soldiers, are confronted with a life decision of either going AWOL or being killed or maimed, as the case may be. If 1.700 soldiers desert from one brigade alone – a brigade can consist of anywhere from 1.500 to 5.000 soldiers – if – assuming the brigade counted close to 5.000 men – one third goes AWOL with all the supervision and discipline, it speaks volumes.

In 2024 the Ukrainian parliament issued a special law that all deserters who came back to the units before the end of the year would be pardoned for desertion. Few came back. Does a law like that not reveal the problem? The problem of massive AWOL cases? You do not draft laws unless there is a need – a pressing need – for them.

To wind up this sad reflection: Which indicator about the prospects of the ongoing war carries more weight: a bellicose declaration of a NATO Secretary-General (or any other personage of this status) or the fact that cannon fodder has said that enough is enough? You can take a horse to water but you cannot make him drink. Rutte or Biden (or Trump for that matter, or Macron, or Scholz, or Starmer, or Zelensky) can bussify Ukrainians, but they cannot turn them into soldiers, even in France. Enough is enough.

Gefira 89: Once a liar, always a liar

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Such will be the wishes that the EU leaders are going to say to each other. No, not such. Christmas will be left out of it. Maybe a Merry Climate and a Happy Wokeism! The aging blonde model on an EU catwalk is going the say these words, along with the bunch of other woke women who are in charge of the fate of the millions of European Europeans and African Europeans and Asian Europeans. Such and similar wishes are going to be uttered by the bellicose peace-loving men from NATO. The bellicose peace-loving commissioners and high representatives are going to ensure us that Putin has lost the war and that Ukraine has won it; that we are defending values against anti-values, and so on. The usual stuff.

So, a Merry Climate and a Happy Wokeism, our dear readers! What does the coming year have in store for us? Yes, you guessed it right: more of the same. The same climate change insanity and the same wokeism; the same myriads of sanctions and the same wars for democracy and human rights around the globe; the same ugliness of the European Song Contest and the same millions of immigrants; the same complaints about the far-right and the same riots by Antifa; the same inflation coupled with financial crises, and the same expenditure on military purposes.

So, abandoning the far-right, intolerant, outdated wishes of a Merry Christmas and replacing them with a Merry Climate and a Happy Wokeism, brace yourself for the same problems, the same pandemics of lunacy, the same hatreds and the same biases, the same double-standards and the same wild accusations. Brace yourself for mendacity and surrealism; brace yourself for a continuation of a world turned inside out and upside down. If you want to have a clear picture of the days to come, watch the latest Jaguar ad. If you haven’t seen it yet, please do. If you feel comfortable in a world like the one from this commercial – then lucky you! If, however, you perceive the world encapsulated in this ad as repulsive, then lasciate ogni speranza.

Gefira Financial Bulletin #89 is available now

Mendacity, Mendacity, Mendacity
Data protection and Climate protection
Mario Draghi or why Europe’s economy is lagging behind
America first, but America of which Americans?

Ukraine will follow in Syria’s footsteps

What do Syria and Ukraine have in common? What do these two countries, separated from one another by thousands of miles, characterized by a different culture and religion, share? Oh yes, they share the same fate, albeit not played out concurrently.

Syria. We have all been notified of the collapse of the “Assad regime”. How did that come about? In a simple way. The Russian support for President Assad was withdrawn, leaving the rebellious forces free to act and that was it. The state of Syria fell like a house of cards.

Ukraine. We will soon be notified of the collapse of the “Zelensky government”. How will it come about? In a simple way. The American support for President Zelensky will be withdrawn, leaving the Russian forces free to act and that will be it. The state of Ukraine will fall like a house of cards.

Sure enough, the details differ. It is a bunch of states – Israel, Turkey, the United States – that were Syria’s enemies, it is one state – Russia – that is Ukraine’s enemy. The territories captured by Turkey and Israel in Syria may be held by the respective countries for good or temporarily; the territories captured by Russia in Ukraine are captured for good. Syria’s president has been and is going to be referred to as dictator by the Western media and politicians; Ukraine’s president, however, has been and is going to be called a heroic fighter for freedom and democracy by the same media.

There are also phenomena that are similar. Syria after Assad is going to remain a destabilized country, just like Libya, just like Iraq, just like Afghanistan. Ukraine after Zelensky, too, is going to be a destabilized country, though surely in a different way due to its different ethnic composition and its heritage. Syria has lost a huge number of its citizens, and so has Ukraine. Neither Syrians, nor Ukrainians are going to go back to their countries: especially those Syrians and those Ukrainians who have settled in Europe.

Assad’s fall has been heralded as the West’s victory, Russia’s defeat. Zelensky’s fall will be heralded as Russia’s victory and the West’s debacle. Except that it won’t. The Western media and politicians will continue their mantra of “Putin has lost this war.”

Why will Ukraine follow in Syria’s footsteps? Why has Syria preceded Ukraine? Because both states have been created artificially. Upon the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War a few million Arabs inhabiting the Middle East have been made to become Syrians while other millions of Arabs have been made to become Jordanians or Lebanese. Upon the disintegration of the Russian Empire after the First World War a few million Russians have been made to become Ukrainians, while other few million have been made to become Belorussians. During their supposedly independent existence both Syria and Ukraine have been playthings at the hands of their neighbours and the world’s hegemons.

Ah, one more peculiar difference. Terrorist organizations fought against Assad, while other terrorist organizations fought for Zelensky. That is to say, whether those organizations are terrorist depends a lot on who labels them terrorist. Terrorists who fight for us are no terrorists, as the well-known diplomatic maxim says. Similarly, presidents who are with us are democratic leaders who manage democratic governments; presidents who are against us are – yes! yes! – dictators and their governments are regimes. Simple, is it not?

So long as Russians were capable of supporting Assad that long he could be the country’s president. The moment that support was withdrawn, he fled to Moscow. So long as Americans are capable of supporting Zelensky that long he will be the country’s president. The moment that support is withdrawn, he will flee to somewhere in the West. Or will be killed. No, he will be involved in an accident. He will be killed in that he will be involved in an accident. Or maybe there will be an attempt at poisoning him, which he will miraculously survive to eventually die under mysterious circumstances.

Two countries, two chessboards. The big players will eventually shake hands over those chessboards, establishing a new pecking order between them. For a time being, that is. The two chessboards will be left with but few playing pieces, with most of the others being destroyed or dispelled in the world. The two chessboards – Syria and Ukraine – are just two entities in a larger set of chessboards: Yugoslavia, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, you name it. The big players will find new chessboards to settle their accounts. New rogue states will appear, a new mantra of “this or that dictator must go” will be heard. It might be Iran, it might be Turkey; it might be Belarus, it might be Georgia. There are many chessboards around the globe with which the big players can settle their accounts.

Ukraine’s President Zelensky seems to be glad of the fall of President Bashar al-Assad. Has president Zelensky given it a thought? If he is clever enough, he ought to see in President Bashar al-Assad himself, he ought to see in President Bashar al-Assad’s fate his own fate. If he is clever enough and sufficiently judicious, he ought to be making arrangements for a quick plane flight from Kiev to Washington, or Paris, or London. With the whole family. It is not that President Zelensky needs to fear Russians: he needs to fear Ukrainians. He does not need to fear the dead – though, who knows? they may come to haunt him in his night dreams – but he needs to fear the living. Those with amputated limbs, those whose sons and brothers, husbands and fathers have fallen. President Zelensky needs to fear the millions of relatives of those who have lost their lives and their health in order that the West might spite Putin and Russia, in order that Ukraine might lose a quarter of its territory, in order that he might travel the world over away from, far away from, the hostilities on the ground.

Who’s Next or What’s Next?

An avalanche of events within a couple of days. [1] an attempt that resembled a Kiev-like coup d’état in Tbilisi, Georgia; [2] the results of the presidential election in Romania recognized as invalid; [3] Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad toppled. What’s coming next?

The unrest in Tbilisi, Georgia, has been compounded by Ukraine and the Baltic States, which imposed sanctions on Georgia! Yes, Ukraine, which is supposedly struggling hard for survival, and the three teeny-weeny Baltic States imposed sanction on Georgia, on the ruling Georgian Georgian Dream party, which won the parliamentary election. The Maidan in Tbilisi or the colour revolution – whichever name we assign to the event – is being played out just as it was played out in Belgrade or Kiev or Minsk or, or, or. The West’s Red Guards* – especially the youth – have taken to the streets, using all the tricks that have already been utilized in other places, at other times. European Union flags (the fingerprints of the powers behind) are waved, women approach the police troops with flowers, children participate, interviews are conducted on the spot during which people shed tears to show how oppressed they have been, posters are shown to the cameras with legend demanding the resignation of the current government and complaining about violence, lack of democracy, and lack of human rights. Everything is copied from other places, from other times.

The presidential election in Romania has been annulled by Romania’s supreme court – although a day earlier the same court announced the validity of the voting process and voting results – because voters might have been misled by misinformation about the candidates provided to them by… TikTok. No need to add that the results have been annulled for this simple reason that it was Calin Georgescu who won the majority of votes, and Calin Georgescu appears to be a Romanian Viktor Orbán, which is precisely something that the European Union cannot come to terms with. Brussels has enough trouble with the Hungarian Orbán, and Slovakia’s Robert Fico. The annulment and the resultant repeat of the election is something that the European Union is used to applying. This practice first began with referendums held in particular countries about their accession to the European Moloch. If a referendum revealed that the majority of the voters were against having their country joined to the EU, the referendum was repeated, until the desired result was obtained. Romanians must understand that they need to elect an EU-backed candidate or else they will prove that they do not know what democracy is all about and will be forced to elect again, and again, and again.

The intensification of the civil war in Syria has within the last two weeks gained momentum and eventually brought about the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad, habitually referred to by the Western media as a dictator. The president is rumoured to have fled to Russia. Damascus, Syria’s capital, has been taken over by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, which, depending on your political stance, may be categorized as a rebel, terrorist or opposition organization. The West has eventually hunted Bashar al-Assad down, a target that has been pursued for years. Israeli troops are also reported to have entered southern Syria. Was the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad government occasioned by the fact that its major supporter – Russia – has been engaged in Ukraine? Or maybe the United States has struck a secret deal with Russia according to which Moscow will give up on Syria, while Washington will give up on Ukraine?

Meanwhile the cooperation between Moscow and Minsk is tightening to the effect that the famed Oreshnik** missile launch-pads will be deployed to Belarus.

All of which suggests the following development of events:

[1] Syria is likely to become another Libya or another Iraq in that it is going to face a long period of disability marked by warring factions and a lack of a central government. The country might be occupied partly by Turkey, partly by Israel.

[2] Iran may be next on the kill list. That’s the last state in the Middle East that is regarded by Israel – and hence by the United States – as an enemy.

[3] The next Maidan will be attempted in Minsk, Belarus, because Alexandr Lukashenko, Belorussian president, is again a candidate in the presidential election that is scheduled for January 26, 2025. Minsk has already survived such a Maidan, so the Belorussian authorities will be well prepared to crush another one.

[4] Any possible elections in Hungary may be declared null and void if Viktor Orbán wins again, failing which the Hungarian prime minister may as well reckon with an assassination (see the Robert Fico case in Slovakia).

[5] The European Union is evidently turning into an aggressive and dictatorial political bloc that will tolerate no swerving from the course charted in Brussels. Disobedient governments will experience Maidans, or have their elections annulled, or face sanctions, or have their leaders assassinated. Taking into account that it is Germany that leads the European Union, one might say that a Fourth Reich is in the making.

[6] Belarus and Georgia, two countries that have historically been either part of Russia (Belarus), or united with Russia by means of a political union (Georgia), in the face of all the political pressure, economic sanctions and enormous interference from the West, might be pushed into Moscow’s embrace. The same conclusion might be drawn by the other Caucasian states as well as the states of Central Asia. They all might be pushed into Moscow’s embrace . The resultant union might be like that between Russia and Belarus. In other words the Russian Empire is about to be re-created (certainly not the Soviet Union, as this possible political structure is not going to indulge in communist ideas).

Who knows? It might be that in a few years’ time history will turn full circle with the re-birth of the Russian Empire. A rump Ukraine will probably become a buffer-zone state, as Moscow may not be willing to incorporate Ukraine’s westernmost regions inhabited by rabidly anti-Russian Ukrainians, and the West will not be strong enough to draw this westernmost part into its sphere of interests.

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*Red Guards – these were the shock troops, made up of predominantly of young people, who – as the Communist Party’s battering ram – carried out the Cultural Revolution in Maoist China, suppressing opposition from conservative and prudent sections of Chinese society.

**Oreshnik – that hypersonic missile that recently hit Yuzhmash, a military plant in Ukraine. Though it was not fitted with either a nuclear or any other explosive device, the damage it caused is comparable to that caused by an A-bomb.

Russia doesn’t care about sanctions

Having conducted an interview with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Tucker Carlson has done recently the same with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. In this eighty-minute talk the interlocutors covered all the current political problems, focusing on Ukraine. Minister Sergei Lavrov enumerated major events leading up to the current war, facts that the Western man in the street is either ignorant of because the Western media choose not to present them, or facts that the Western man in the street is familiar with, but has been provided with an entirely different interpretation. We are not going to repeat all the points that were mentioned during the Carlson-Lavrov talk. What we are going to do is to call the reader’s attention to the following passage from the interview.

Tucker Carlson asked Sergei Lavrov about conditions the fulfilment of which would induce Russia to discontinue the military operation. The Russian foreign minister repeated the three principal demands:

[1] Ukraine must not be a member of NATO or indeed of any alliance nor even be allowed to conduct military exercises on its territory with the participation of foreign troops;

[2] the territorial changes must be accepted: that is, not only the incorporation of Crimea into Russia, but also the fact that the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporozhye, and Kherson have now constitutionally become parts of Russia by the will of the people living there;

[3] the basic human rights as they are stipulated in the UN Charter about freedom of religious belief, preservation of the native language (in this case Russian) and the like must be abided by in Ukraine.

As Minister Lavrov finished the enumeration of Russia’s demands, Tucker Carlson – probably thinking that Sergei Lavrov forgot about one more point – asked whether Russia wouldn’t like to have the sanctions lifted. To this, Sergei Lavrov replied that sanctions were of little or no importance to Russia because

[1] Russia has learnt to live with them;

[2] Russia has become stronger because of them; and because

[3] Russia has learnt that autarky (economic self-sufficiency) is the best guarantor of independence.

This really should not come as a surprise to anyone. Iran, which is a much smaller country than Russia, has lived under sanctions for over forty years now; Cuba, a very small country, has coped with sanctions for a much longer period. Both these countries continue to survive and to challenge the United States. Russia has all the natural resources that an economy needs, and Russia has really learnt to rely on itself, or – to be more precise – Russia has learnt not to rely on the West, and not to trust the West, which was also what Minister Lavrov said.

Third front – Syria

When we think about the Crimean War of 1853-1856, we tend to think about fights that took place in the Crimean peninsula. The very name suggests it. It was the time when the Western powers – predominantly England and France, supported by Turkey and the Kingdom of Sardinia – made an attempt at weakening Russia. The hostilities, however, were not confined to the said peninsula. Russia’s enemies attempted landing troops, shelling ports and cities also along the Russian coastline of the Baltic and White Seas as well as in the Far East and the Caucasus.

Much the same happened when after the October Revolution of 1917 the Western powers tried to crush nascent Soviet Russia: they sent troops to intervene from the north (the Baltic Sea), from the south (the Black Sea) and in the Far East.

When today the West is waging a proxy war against Russia, it is, too, trying to engage Moscow in as many places as it is possible. Hence the Kremlin does not pay attention merely to Ukraine: it needs to be on guard in many other places simultaneously. Recently we have informed our readers about the riots in Georgia, where the Kiev-Maidan scenario is playing out a second time, and Georgia is being primed to become another Ukraine i.e. a state that will act aggressively towards Russia. so, willy-nilly, Moscow needs to divert some of Russia’s resources and troops to the Caucasus.

As if that were not enough, it is also in recent days that the long-term conflict in Syria has been reinvigorated, with the Turkish troops capturing Aleppo, and with the ISIS units making assaults here and there. Why in Syria? Because Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has been supported by Russia (and Iran), because Russians have saved him from being toppled by the United States, because Russians are militarily present in Syria. Under such circumstances, the Kremlin needs to attend to Ukraine, to Georgia, and Syria simultaneously; Russia must also have reserves and remain on its guard as to where else a new conflict is likely to erupt.

True, the interests of particular nations in the region are opposed and of long historical standing. The Middle East – once a part of the Ottoman Empire – emerged as a mosaic of mainly Arab states at the end of World War One. The French and the British played major roles in creating “nations” and drawing or re-drawing state borders. The famed Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 was all about weakening Turkey and granting control of the Middle East to these two European powers. Yes, Russia was to participate in all this, but since Russia collapsed due to two revolutions and the ensuing civil war, it was the French and the British that remained in the region as dominant powers. Some of the national borders were drawn by means of a ruler (look at a map) with no regard for the ethnic or religious reality.

The Balfour Declaration of 1917 promising the establishment of a home for the Jewish people added yet another piece to the Middle East political puzzle. The tensions in the region were exacerbated by the ever growing influx of the Jewish people to Palestine after World War Two. The ethnic composition of the Middle East underwent an appreciable change. The Arab – Muslim – world stood up to the expansion of the State of Israel, with Israel being eventually backed by the United States, while some of the Arab nations relied on the support of the Soviet Union.

Of the two American allies – Saudi Arabia and Iran – the latter changed its course in 1979 and became hostile to Washington. Saudi Arabia – drawn into the American sphere of interests – has long participated in the notorious worldwide scheme of backing the dollar as the world currency of international exchange in that Saudi Arabia would sell oil exclusively for dollars and made the other OPEC countries do the same. Riyadh remained on hostile terms with Tehran for decades. It is only recently that Riyadh – also due to the political influence of Beijing – re-purposed its foreign policy and buried the war hatched with Tehran.

Today, Turkey is reviving its dreams of recreating the Ottoman Empire. Ankara is active in Syria, but also in Africa (especially in Libya), and is attempting to extend its political leverage to all Turkish peoples in Central Asia, some of which used to be Soviet republics, some of which live in the far east of the Russian Federation.

The Middle East, the Caucasus (Georgia, but also Armenia along with Azerbaijan) and Ukraine: three conflagrations in which Russia is involved, into which Russia is drawn. Three conflagrations that tap into Russia’s resources. The United States might be aiming at either extending Moscow’s activities and thus weakening Russia, or at toppling Bashar al-Assad (Assad must go! as Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton used to repeat), or at both.

Georgia – repeat of Ukraine

These days there are street riots being held in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital city. Why? Well, because the ruling Dream Party has announced a delay in joining Georgia to the European Union (does it not remind you of something?), and while Georgia’s president – Salome Zourabichvili – has opposed the ruling party and called on the citizens to protest. The protests are supported by the West – the United States and the European Union – which claims that the recent parliamentary election were fraudulent. Georgia, according to the West, ought to hold new elections till Georgians elect the pro-Western parties. Sorry, till Georgians restore democracy and human rights.

Who is Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili, the woman who encourages protests against Georgia’s government and parliamentary majority? For all practical purposes she is French: she was born in France, educated in France, held French citizenship and made a career in the French diplomatic corps, acting among others as French ambassador to… Georgia. Ah yes, she was born to Georgian parents, but that’s about everything that makes her Georgian. Also Zbigniew Brzeziński was born to Polish parents, yet he identified as an American. By the way, during her educational career Salome Zourabichvili attended Columbia University, where she studied under the tutelage of… yes, Zbigniew Brzeziński. That’s how much Georgian Salome Zourabichvili is. But back to the street riots.

It somehow happens so that whenever a nation elects parties, prime ministers, presidents or heads of state that are even slightly not pro-Western, such a nation immediately has a revolution on its hands and is immediately beset with accusations of running foul of democracy and violating human rights. At present, that’s the fate of Georgia. More to it. A nation that is sceptical towards the West is automatically accused of acting on Russia’s advice, Russia’s orders, for Russia’s money. At present, that’s precisely what the Georgian Dream Party is accused of. It’s all as simple as that.

Now, the street riots in Tbilisi are comparable to the street riots that took place in Kiev in 2013/2014. Precisely the same forces were at play in Ukraine’s capital as are now in Georgia’s capital. Young, impressionable people yell their demand to join Georgia to the European Union – because, as we all know, there is no salvation outside the European Union – while the police are trying to keep the rioters under control, which they fail, as did their counterparts in Kiev ten years earlier, because their orders are to handle the rioters with kid gloves (such were also the orders that the Ukrainian police took ten years earlier). Soon, if not already, the rioters will start jumping and chanting “Who’s not jumping is a Moskal*(=Russian)!” as their Ukrainian counterparts did in 2013/2014 in Kiev. Because – you did expect it, didn’t you? – the delay that their ruling party announced in joining Georgia to the European Union was dictated by – yes! yes! – Russia. How otherwise? Just as it was in 2013 in the case of Ukraine! Again this Russian serpent suggesting a poisonous apple this time to Georgians who are on the threshold of entering the Garden of Eden known as the European Union. And – who knows? – on the threshold of joining peaceful-loving, defensive NATO. The ongoing war in Ukraine and the hundreds of thousands of victims do not seem to make an impression on Georgian protesters. Evidently, they also want to sit in the trenches, to have their arms and legs torn away by bombs and grenades, to have their cities shelled, to have their cemeteries filled to overflowing with corpses of very young men, draped with Georgian national flags. No price is too high for preserving democracy and human rights, is it?

Before Salome Zourabichvili as president, Georgia had one Mikheil Saakashvili as its head of state. Do you remember him? An adventurer that very few could rival. He took power in Georgia by means of… street riots and one of the many colour revolutions, accusing the acting government of… fraudulent elections. The same script is enacted again and again around the globe, and nobody seems to take notice. As president, Mikheil Saakashvili applied a shock therapy to the nation, purging the police and the administration, raising the military budget, yet lowering social expenditure and what not. He soon ran foul of his nation and prior to the next presidential election, with no hope of being reelected, he fled the country amid accusations of having opposition activists tortured. He landed a job in… Ukraine, of all the places, becoming governor of the Odessa region. And you know what? He wholeheartedly supported the Kiev Maidan of 2013/2014!

It did not last long till Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko – surely out of gratitude for his services – deprived him of Ukrainian citizenship. To be the governor of the Odessa region Mikheil Saakashvili needed to acquire Ukrainian citizenship, just as Salome Zourabichvili needed to renounce her French citizenship prior to running for president in Georgia. Such a formality. How often and how easily the pawns at the hands of the managers of the world change their citizenship! How often they hold citizenship of two or three countries simultaneously! But then, that’s probably one of those sacrosanct “hyooman rytes”. Such individuals, those who are our and presidents, renounce or accept citizenship the way you and me change clothes from casual to professional to casual, as the circumstances dictate.

You won’t really be surprised if you learn that – I quote Wikipedia – Mikheil Saakashvili “received an LL.M. from Columbia Law School […] took classes at the School of International and Public Affairs and the George Washington University Law School [and] received a diploma from the [talk of the wolf!] International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.” What a talented guy!

We have such talented men and women across Europe and across the world. They have necessarily been raised by the powers that be at Western universities or institutes, where they have been trained in – why – democracy and human rights!

It appears Georgia – just like any country – must have rulers with the Western blessing or else. Or else, Georgia will have unruly youth in Tbilisi’s centre chanting “Кто не скачет, тот москаль!” [He who is not jumping is a Moskal(=Russian)!]. This chanting and this jumping is repeated again and again and again in various cities across the world and… nobody seems to take notice of this pattern. Strange – or perhaps admirable – how the West manages to always have crowds of people in the streets of various capital cities at the West’s beckoning. In Moscow, in Tbilisi, in Kiev, in Minsk, in Warsaw, in Budapest, in Belgrade, in the Arabic states and about anywhere in the world.

The young men are protesting today to have their limbs cut off tomorrow. They are rioting today to have their dead bodies wrapped in Georgian national flags tomorrow. They are following the bidding of the managers of the world today to be slaughtered like lambs tomorrow. They could watch Ukraine and learn from Ukraine’s fate, but learn they will not. When push comes to shove, Salome Zourabichvili will travel the world over in search of support – the way Zelensky has been doing so for the past three years – to eventually find a sanctuary in her native France or elsewhere in the West. When push comes to shove, Georgian youth will desperately pay through the nose to illegally leave the country and thus avoid conscription. Only the lucky will be able to leave, though. The majority will be drafted and will pay the price the way their Ukrainian peers have been paying the price for the last three years. The Georgian youth could learn from the fate of Ukraine but learn they will not. Sadly. They think they fight for democracy and human rights. It never occurs to them that they are tools – disposable tools – replaceable pawns – biodegradable pieces on “The Grand Chessboard” of the Brzezińskis of this world.

*Moskal (москаль) (literally: inhabitant of Moscow and the region) is an ethnic slur for a Russian.

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