Anti-democratic Britain

 "Britain’s deranged war on cars, our looming ban on gas boilers, the debanking scandal, the failure to prosecute crime, the attempted cancellation of women, the sabotage of the Brexit agenda, the scale of migration: welcome to anti-democratic Britain, where the beleaguered majority is increasingly subject to the whims of an entitled, activist elite that often seems to despise the people over which it exercises so much power...." (Allister Heath today in theDailyTelegraph).

The elite has done this since the 1950s when the Conservative governments ignored popular fury about immigration. (The UK  was virtually all white in 1950.) Later the city centres were destroyed and replaced with brutalist architecture. We joined the EEC ('the Common Market') despite the public opposing it. These three changes transformed the country - only one could be undone, after 43 years and after our country had been transformed by European laws and ideas.

'Statistics of Hot Summers'

“STATISTICS OF HOT SUMMERS.
The excessive heat which prevail. at present (says a Paris paper) gives some interest to the following account of remarkably bot summers :—” In 1132 the earth opened, and the rivers and spring; disappeared in Alsace. The Rhine was dried up. In 1152 the heat was to great that eggs were cooked in the sand. In 1160, at the battle of Bela, a great number of soldiers died from the heat. In 1276 and 1277, in France, there was an absolute failure of the crops of grass and oats. In 1303 and 1304, the Seine, the Loire, the Rhine, and the Danube, were passed over dry-footed. In 1393 and 1394, great numbers of animals fell dead, and the crops were scorched up. In 1440 the heat was excessive. In 1538, 1539, 1540, 1541, the rivers were almost entirely dried up. In 1556 there was a great drought over all Europe. In 1615 and 1616, the heat was overwhelming in France, Italy, and the Netherlands. In 1646 there were fifty-eight consecutive days of excessive heat. In 1678 excessive heat. The same was the case in the first three years of the 18th century. In 1718 it did not rain once from the month of April to the month of October. The crops were burnt up ; the riven were dried up, and the theatres were closed by decree of the Lieutenant of Police. The thermometer marked 36 degrees Reaumur (113 of Fahrenheit). In gardens which were watered, fruit trees flowered twice. In 1723 and 1724, the heat was extreme. In 1746. summer very hot and very dry, which absolutely calcined the crops. During several months no rain fell. In 1748, 1754, 1760, 1767, 1778, and 1749, the heat was excessive. In 1811, the year of the celebrated comet, the summer was very warm and the wine delicious, men at Semmes. In 1818 the theatres contained closed for nearly a month, owing to the heat. The maximum heat was 35 degrees (110.75 Fahrenheit.) In 1830, whilst fighting was fining on on the 27th. 28th, and 29th July, the thermometer marked 36 degrees centigrade (97.75 Fahrenheit). In 1832, in the insurrection of the 5th and 6th of June, the thermometer marked 35 degrees centigrade. In 1695 the Seine was almost dried up. In 1850, in the month of June, on the second appearance of the cholera, the thermometer marked 34 degrees centigrade. The highest temperature which man can support for a certain time varies from 40 to 45 degrees (104 to 113 of Fahrenheit.) Frequent accidents, however, occur at a less elevated temperature.”





18 Jul 1852, 7 – The Observer at Newspapers.com

“Hot Weather.—Many a man has mopped his brow during the summer months of 1884, declaring it was the hottest weather the world ever knew, which, of course, would not be true, for the extreme heat in the record of the past has not been approached during the late summer.


In 627, the heat was so great in France and Germany, says the London Standard, that all springs dried up; water became so scarce that many people died of thirst.

In 879, work in the field had to be given up; agricultural laborers persisting in their work were struck down in a few minutes, so powerful was the sun. In 993, the sun’s rays were so fierce that vegetation burned up as under the action of fire. In 1000, rivers ran dry under the protracted heat, the fish were left dry in heaps and putrefied in a few hours. Men and animals venturing in the sun in the summer of 1022 fell down dying.

In 1132, not only did the rivers dry up, but the ground cracked and became baked to the hardness of stone. The Rhine in Alsace nearly dried up. Italy was visited with terrific heat in 1189; vegetation and plants were burned up. During the battle of Bela, in 1200, there were more victims made by the sun than by weapons ; men fell down sunstruck in regular rows. The sun of 1277 was also severe; there was an absolute dearth of forage.

In 1303 and 1304, the Rhine, Loire and Seine ran dry. In 1615, the heat throughout Europe became excessive. Scotland suffered particularly in 1625 ; men and beasts died in scores. Meat could be cooked by merely exposing it to the sun. Not a soul dared to venture out between noon and 4 p.m. In 1718, many shops had to be closed; the theatres were never opened for several months. Not a drop of water fell during six months.

In 1753 the thermometer rose to one hundred and eighteen degrees. In 1779, the heat at Bologna was so great that a large number of people died. In July, 1793, the heat became intolerable. Vegetables were burned up and fruit dried upon the trees. The furniture and woodwork in dwelling-houses cracked and split up; meat became bad in an hour.

In Paris in 1846, the thermometer marked one hundred and twenty-five degrees in the sun. The summers of 1859, 1860, 1869, 1870, 1874, etc., although excessively hot, were not attended by any disaster.”



Gaillard’s Medical Journal – Google Books


“Summer Heat Precedents.
A German writer, dealing with certain prognostications (usually heard at this time of the year) of great summer heat, goes back for precedents. In 637, he says, the springs were dried up and men fainted with the heat. In 879 II was impossible to work in the open fields. In the year 993 the nuts on the trees were roasted, as if in a baker’s oven. In 1000 the rivers in France dried up, and the stench from the dead fish and other matter brought a pestilence into the land. The heat in the year 1014 dried up the rivers and the brooks In Alsace-Lorraine. The Rhine was dried lap in the year 1132. In he year 1152 the heat was eo great that eggs could be cooked in the sand. In 1227 it is re. corded that many men and animals came to their death through the intense heat. In the year 1303 the waters of the Rhine and the Danube were partially dried upend the people passed over on foot. The crops were burned no in the : year 1394, and in 1538 the Seine and Loire were as dry land. In 1536 a great drought swept through Europe. In 1 1014 in France, and even in Switzer-lard, the brooks and the ditches were dried up. Not less hot were the years 1048. 1779 and 1701. In the year 1715 • from the month of March till October not a drop of rain fell, the temperature arose to 38 degrees Reamer and in favored places the fruit trees blossomed a second time. Extraordinarily hot were the year. 1724, 1746, 1756 and 1811. The summer of 1815 was so hot -the thermometer standing at 40 degrees Reaumur -that the places of amusement had to he closed.—London Daily News.



The Day – Google News Archive Search





A RECORD OF HOT SUMMERS.

IN 637 the heat was so great in France and Germany that all springs dried up, and water became so scarce that many people died of thirst.

In 873 work in the field had to be given up ; agricultural labourers persisting in their work were struck down in a few minutes, so powerful was the sun.

In 993 the sun’s rays were so fierce that vegetation burned up as under the action of fire.

In 1000 rivers ran dry under the protracted heat ; the fish were left dry in heaps, and putrified in a few hours. The stench that ensued produced the plague.

Men and animals venturing in the sun in the summer of 1022 fell down dying; the throat parched to a tinder and the blood rushed to the brain.

In 1132 not only did the rivers dry up but the ground cracked on every side, and became baked to the hardness of stone. The Rhine in Alsace nearly dried up.

Italy was visited with terrific heat in 1139; vegetations and plants were burned up.

During the battle of Bela, in 1260, there were more victims made by the sun than by weapons; men fell down sunstruck in regular rows.

In 1303 and 1304 the Rhine, Loire, and Seine ran dry.

Scotland suffered particularly in 1625; men and beasts die in scores.

The heat in several French departments during the summer of 1705 was equal to that in a glass furnace. Meat could be cooked by merely exposing it to the sun. Not a soul dared venture out between noon and 4 p.m.

In 1718 the thermometer rose to 118 deg.

In 1779 the heat at Bologna was so great that a great number of people was stifled. There was not sufficient air for the breath, and people had to take refuge under-ground.

In July, 1793, the heat became intolerable. Vegetables were burned up, and fruit dried upon the trees. The furniture and woodwork in dwelling-houses cracked and split up; meat went bad in an hour.

The rivers ran dry in several provinces during 1811; expedients had to be devised for the grinding of corn.

In 1822 a protracted heat was accompanied by storms and earthquakes; during the drought legions of mice overran Lorraine and Alsace, committing incalculable damage.

In 1832 the heat brought about cholera in France; 20,000 persons fell victims to the visitation in Paris alone.

In 1846 the thermometer marked 125 deg. in the sun.

Quotations

Sylvia Plath

“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”

Asked what was the difference between men and women Monsignor Alfred Gilbey answered "I can't conceive."

The Russia Hoax and 'the most overt coup in history'

George Friedman, Stratfor CEO, 19 December 2014:

"At the beginning of this year, Ukraine had a slightly pro-Russian but badly shaken government. It suited Moscow: Russia does not want to completely control Ukraine or occupy it - it is enough that Ukraine does not join NATO and the EU. The authorities of the Russian Federation cannot allow a situation in which the Western armed forces will be located a hundred kilometers from Kursk or Voronezh.
"The United States was interested in forming a pro-Western government in Ukraine. They saw that Russia was on the rise and sought to prevent it from consolidating its position in the post-Soviet space. The success of pro-Western forces in Ukraine would make it possible to contain Russia.
"Russia calls the events of the beginning of the year a US-organized coup d'état. And it really was the most overt coup d'état in history."

Semi-official but deniable negotiations between Moscow and Washington

Washington, thank God, is talking to Moscow and attempting to find a way of ending the war in Ukraine, according țo this very interesting and encouraging conversation with a former US senior official, published in the Moscow Times. The problem is not the Russian government leaders, who never wanted the war and privately admit it is a mistake, but Vladimir Putin.  

From his vantage point, sitting across from senior Kremlin officials and advisers, it was apparent that the greatest issue was that the Russians were unable to articulate what exactly they wanted and needed. 

“They don't know how to define victory or defeat. In fact, some of the elites to whom we spoke had never wanted the war in the first place, even saying it had been a complete mistake,” he said. 

“But now they’re at war — suffering a humiliating defeat is not an option for these guys.”

They chose the wrong person to mug in Nigel Farage

He mugged them back.

In case you don't know, his bank account at Coutt's was closed for what turned out, when he demanded and received the internal documents using the EU's GDPR laws, political reasons.

The bank officials thought he was bad for their reputation but their reputation and share price have fallen through the floor now. The CEO of Coutt's and its parent NatWest have resigned.

A rare victory for the forces of light.

But the Conservative government should have fought woke for 13 wasted years, not noticed it now when forced to by Nigel Farage. 

Quotations

Sir Roger Scruton, 'On Rousseau':

 

“The dead and the unborn are as much members of society as the living. To dishonour the dead is to reject the relation on which society is built – the relation of obligation between generations.”


Malaparte:

Tarkovsky:

 

David Ignatius in the Washington Post:

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose“

The United States is the strongest military power in the world and the American political system the most democratic. That does not mean other countries, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, with far different histories, cultures and religions, will accept Washington’s advice or direction on their forms of government.

Walter Pincus in his last article in the Washington Post after forty years on December 29, 2015 . The paper has declined vastly since then. As for democracy the USA was very democratic until the Civil War and even till Franklin Roosevelt, but Switzerland is much more democratic as she has referendums at national level and no powerful military industrial complex or widespread corruption.

Former Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovych perfectly predicted Russian invasion in 2019

This video clip is eerie. Did President Zelensky also expect the invasion and thought it necessary to preserve Ukrainian independence? I imagine so - and if so were both men unaware that Russia could destroy Ukraine?

In 2019 Oleksiy Arestovych, advisor to the Office of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, eerily predicted, with stunning accuracy, how events in Ukraine would unfold in 2022.

In an interview with Ukrainian news channel "Apostrophe.ua," Arestovych believed that Nato accession was Ukraine's only hope of securing its independence. "If we don't join Nato, it's gonna be absorption by Russia within 10-12 years," he said.

However, the choice was not simple and Ukraine has found itself stuck between a rock and a hard place, while also stating that any talk of Ukrainian accession to Nato would "provoke Russia to launch a large-scale military operation against Ukraine." Ukraine's price for joining Nato, he said, would be large-scale war with Russia.

Arestovych believed that Russia would have the goal of degrading Ukrainian infrastructure and turning the country into a "devastated territory" in order to make the territory of Ukraine "uninteresting" to Nato. Russia would seek to destroy as much of Ukraine as it could prior to it being accepted into Nato, due to Russia not wanting to confront Nato directly, Arestovych said. Ukraine becomes "uninteresting to Nato as a devastated territory," he said.

Title of 1 February 2008 cable from the U.S. Ambassador in Moscow to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice: "NYET MEANS NYET: RUSSIA’S NATO ENLARGEMENT RED LINES."

I just came across Professor Robert Wade of the LSE - these are excerpts from something he wrote in Le Monde  in 2015. He points out that the threat from Russia was exaggerated during the Cold War, something that is certainly true. Writing in 2015 he thought the Russian threat again exaggerated. 

The full essay is here and is worth reading. 

The distinguished Washington Post columnist Walter Pincus explained on 12 January why it is so dangerous – to us in the West – to keep framing security issues in the cold war framework, as though Russia and China constitute our major threats. He starts with the US Navy’s current claim that it must spend hundreds of billions of dollars in order to keep ahead of Russia and China’s rapid upgrading of blue-water naval capabilities. Then he shows how far behind the US Russia and China are, using the examples of nuclear-powered supercarriers and advanced submarines. He goes on to observe: “These days, terrorists are the first threat, and not a single one will be deterred by a nuclear warhead.”

So why does “US vs. Russia” and “US vs. China” continue to dominate the security agenda and security budget? Pincus’ short answer is that the defence firms earn vast profits from no-competition capital-intensive projects to build armaments against Russia and China; but much less from labour-intensive projects to build capabilities against terrorists.

Whether Russia invaded the eastern provinces is even less clear. A group of eight retired US intelligence analysts wrote to Chancellor Merkel on 30 August 2014, alarmed at the anti-Russian hysteria sweeping official Washington and the spectre of a new cold war. They reported the contents of a (leaked) 1 February 2008 cable from the U.S. embassy in Moscow to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. The cable said that U.S. Ambassador William Burns was called in by foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, who explained Russia’s strong opposition to Nato membership for Ukraine.

Quotations

Søren Kierkegaard:

"Truth always rests with the minority, and the minority is always stronger than the majority, because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion, while the strength of a majority is illusory, formed by the gangs who have no opinion—and who, therefore, in the next instant (when it is evident that the minority is the stronger) assume its opinion ... while Truth again reverts to a new minority."

Jeffrey Sachs in the left-wing Jewish magazine Tikkun, June 29 2022:

"The war in Ukraine is the culmination of a 30-year project of the American neoconservative movement. The Biden Administration is packed with the same neocons who championed the US wars of choice in Serbia (1999), Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003), Syria (2011), Libya (2011), and who did so much to provoke Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The neocon track record is one of unmitigated disaster, yet Biden has staffed his team with neocons. As a result, Biden is steering Ukraine, the US, and the European Union towards yet another geopolitical debacle. If Europe has any insight, it will separate itself from these US foreign policy debacles."

"The neocon outlook is based on an overriding false premise: that the US military, financial, technological, and economic superiority enables it to dictate terms in all regions of the world. It is a position of both remarkable hubris and remarkable disdain of evidence. Since the 1950s, the US has been stymied or defeated in nearly every regional conflict in which it has participated."


Michael Anton in Compact, July 21 2023:

"Remoralization Never or Rarely Happens Within the Same Society or Regime

"There are very few examples of a formerly moral or at least somewhat virtuous people becoming dissolute and then remoralizing absent some sort of collapse and reset. Some will point to Britain in the Victorian era. OK, let’s stipulate that. Can you think of any others?

"What caused the Victorian example? It was, first, a religious movement led by dissenting Protestants and, second, the result of a widely expanding middle class insisting on 'middle-class morality.'"


Hadley Freeman in an article about Captain Tom:

"Maybe it’s because English people get so nervy about patriotism — is it embarrassing? Is it racist? — that they channel those feelings into other, less suitable outlets, known as national treasures. So whereas in the US it would be bad to say you hate the American flag, in Britain it would be unforgivable to say you hate Stephen Fry."

It's odd, isn't it, how unsaintly many British "national treasures" are: Barbara Windsor, Elizabeth Hurley, Mr Fry himself. Few are edifying Christians of the sort the Victorians admired (think General Gordon or Florence Nightingale).

The same goes for the foreign triptych of heroes, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Gandhi. 

Despite her being a woman Mother Theresa of Calcutta is no longer a heroine, being far too conservative and Catholic. 

Liberalism is the great problem but it's a symptom of a declining civilisation, rather than a force in itself

A historian I met once said to me that socialism is an absolutely terrible ideology, but the worst thing about socialists is that they are liberals too. 

He was right.

I sent an English friend of mine in his early fifties, who belonged to the Liberal Democrats and wanted to be an MP, a story from the Daily Mail about nine year olds in England being shown videos in sex education classes of men ejaculating. He has a daughter. 

He replied,

"This was a discussion even when I was at school. Healthy debate when it's appropriate. People won't always get it right."

Wherever you look the problem is the liberal outlook.

So the Ukrainians blew up the pipeline

I can be shockingly naive. I actually read about the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipeline and how it was the Russians who were probably to blame without seeing at first that this was absurd. I just accepted the nonsense for a few days.

Propaganda is insidious.

I was rightly incensed that the media that pretended that the Russians were to blame then suppressed the evidence in Seymour Hersh's scoop that it was the Americans. 

Nevertheless, the evidence from his anonymous source has been shown to have as many holes in it as the pipeline. Who gave it to Mr Hersh? 

Who blew up the pipeline? I really didn't know until the Russian "pranksters" Vovan & Lexus, pretending to be President Zelensky, asked Henry Kissinger who he thought was guilty. Dr Kissinger responded after a very, very long pause: "I thought you were."

As he thinks that then so do I, for all the difficulties in believing the Ukrainians were capable of it, the biggest difficulty being that the Ukrainian navy is in the Black Sea not the Baltic. 

But who else could it be? Had it been the Americans surely the secret wouldn't have been kept, as Anglo-American Russia expert Fiona Hill said. She also thinks it's the Ukrainians and, wrong headed though she is about Donald Trump and much else, she is not stupid.

If not the Ukrainians then I can't think of any other suspects other than the Americans. But I trust Kissinger's instinct.

  

General Franco on his legacy

General Franco fascinates me but I haven't read nearly enough about him and most of what I read was written by Communists or by people who wish the Stalinists had won the civil war. 

Stalinists like England's Jack Jones, the mighty 1970s trade union leader, Malraux, Koestler, Hemingway and various Eastern Europeans like Petru Roman's father Walter. The Republican side was full of people who helped Stalin rule Eastern Europe after the Second World War. 

On the other hand many people backed the Nationalists, from the Catholic Church and therefore Hilaire Belloc to JRR Tolkien, Gertrude Stein and Winston Churchill.

I was very interested to learn from the Spectator today that near the end of his life the Generalissimo predicted that after his death:

‘Spain will go a long way down the road that [the West] wants: democracy, pornography, drugs and so on. There will be a lot of crazy things but nothing terminal.’

How did he know?

‘Because I’m leaving something that I didn’t find on taking over the government of this country 40 years ago: the Spanish middle class… There won’t be another civil war.’

I remember an Anglo-Spanish friend laughing about how growth in Spain after his death never equalled what it was in his last years. His lasting monument, however, is not his tomb in the Valley of the Fallen (it's been moved anyway) but the jerrybuilt tourist resorts.

He saved his people from some bad things, though. It does not get much worse than Communism.

Andrew Roberts has said that how Hitler is judged in two hundred years time will depend on what happens in the next two hundred years. If things go well for democracy he will be judged as he is now, if not not. 

The same apples to Franco. 

If the ethnic Spanish become a minority in Spain he will become attractive to many Spaniards.

The same applies, of course, to the much more benign (even saintly, some thought) figure Dr Salazar, who always balanced the Portuguese books.

John McCain in Kiev in December 2013 saying he wants to overthrow the Ukrainian government

I remember back in 2014 arguing with friends that there was no evidence that the Americans caused the 2014 Kiev revolution. There is not but their activities might very well have been decisive. What on earth were they doing?

In 2014 I pointed out the billions America admitted spending in Ukraine to a British diplomat who replied by asking how much were the Russians spending there.

l should have told him that the Russians were supporting the legal government of Ukraine. 

Esprit d'esclalier.

Certainly the Americans had no right try to replace the Ukrainian government. 

Certainly that is why the current war is happening, although American folly does not justify the Russian invasion.

Please watch this short clip. I found it on Twitter along with this tweet.

In December 2013 John McCain, live from Kyiv, tells CNN the US delegation in Ukraine is seeking to "bring about" a "transition" in the country (remove the government) and declares how "pleased" he is that Victoria Nuland is with him on the scene, attempting to achieve this goal.

I was certainly right to decide that Obama would make a better president than McCain.

A friend of mine who worked with her says 'Toria' Nuland like all other intelligent people has for many years believed that Putin wanted to restore the Soviet or Czarist empire. 

If she thought that she was unfit to be employed by State.

I don't think she is evil,  a word so much bandied about. She is a misguided ideologue, though I don't understand what her ideology is. 

It's not patriotism as Americans understood the word in Coolidge's day. It's liberal imperialism, I suppose. 

This is from the New York Times.  Anonymous senior US officials are frustrated that Ukrainians won't sacrifice enough of their soldiers.  For US interests or Ukrainian ones?

A really great American foreign policy analyst says this. Why don't the papers or TV stations report views like his?

Edward N Luttwak

@ELuttwak

·

57m

Nothing will be achieved by reciprocal attacks on major infrastructures. Now that Ukraine's offensive has failed to change the map because the Russian army is getting stronger from the tumble of 2022, what is needed ASAP is a US peace plan. Ukraine has won its freedom. Enough

Quotations

“The ‘production’ of souls is more important than the production of tanks.” Stalin

"We live in our desires rather than in our achievements." George Moore

"I oppose all change, of whatever nature, as a matter of policy." Mgr. Alfred Gilbey

John Mearsheimer warned us

When I discovered John Mearsheimer very many years ago it was a revelation. I saw he was the first writer I had read who understood geopolitics now in the way AJP Taylor understood it in the 19th and 20th centuries.  

In this very insightful essay from last month he says a peace is not possible because both sides now have maximalist objectives and the result will be Ukraine as a rump state. He blames the Americans for leading Ukraine to this, something he and Kissinger warned the world about many years ago. Of course Putin alone is to blame for the war but of course Mearsheimer is right.  As Kissinger said, to be America's friend is fatal.

That goes for other countries besides Ukraine. 

I didn't imagine I'd see a worse American President than Bush the Younger but today I decided that Joe Biden is even worse. 

 

Victoria Nuland versus Douglas Macgregor.

She says 10,000 Russians have died in the counter-offensive. Douglas Macgregor says only hundreds of Russians have died in the offensive compared to 20,000 or more Ukrainians. I wonder what the truth is.

I certainly do not trust her. I think her wholly malign. I don't see the evidence for what be says. He mentions that it comes from newspapers and records of funerals but he does not give us a link to the information online.

Zelensky's former adviser makes the same proposal for peace that I did in this blog last week

 

What Putin meant when he said the collapse of the Soviet empire “was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Russians in a broadcast in April 2005 that the collapse of the Soviet empire “was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century”. People think that this means that he is a Communist or that he wants to take back the other Soviet republics. Neither is true. 

Discount writers who quote that statement to mean either of those things. They are probably neo-cons and certainly don't understand.

Remember that Putin enlarged on it later, saying: “Anyone who doesn’t regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains.”

Christopher Caldwell, in an article I just re-read that he wrote in 2017, says:

The degradation of Russia’s position represented by the Serbian War is what Putin was alluding to when he famously described the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” This statement is often misunderstood or mischaracterized: he did not mean by it any desire to return to Communism.

I don't know if Putin only meant the Kosovo war. I can see nothing on the net to support Caldwell's statement and there were many other indications of Russian weakness that Yeltsin presided over, but the Kosovo war was a huge humiliation for Russia. Putin was talking about how Russia had fallen into grave decay. 

The whole article is interesting,  especially in hindsight. I think Christopher  Caldwell is the best political writer living, better even than Douglas Murray. He is genuinely writing contemporary history.