Saturday 19 March 2022

Evaluation of Russia by Martti Kari (former colonel in Finnish military intelligence)

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If you have an hour this talk by a Finnish former colonel in military intelligence,
delivered on December 3, 2018, is very informative about the Russian mind.

He makes the obvious point that Russians are used to and like a strong autocrat. 

Orthodoxy, autocracy and "the people" (narodnost) have always been the three elements of Russianness. 

The Patriarch Kirril was photographed wearing a EUR 30,000 watch. He and the Church are a vital part of Putin's system.

Putin's shameless lying is something Russians understand and accept as normal.

The Russians think they have to save Europe and they did, from Napoleon and Hitler. 

Martti Kari might have added that they helped save Europe from Turkey and Islam in numerous wars with the Sublime Porte.

They consider that they have a mission to unite Slavs. Poles and all the Slavs other than the Russians disagree, of course, but the Serbs and Bulgarians are friendly.

It reminds me of the letters of the Marquis de Custine published in 1839, which did for Russia what De Tocqueville did for America. I was struck when I read Custine, just after going down from university, how similar the Russia of Nicholas I and the Soviet Union were. For example, critics of Nicholas I were put into mental hospitals for thinking Russia was not the ideal country just as critics of Brezhnev were.

Much of what Custine said is true today. 

5 comments:

  1. The Russian public’s confidence in President Vladimir Putin is at 79.6%.

    All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) survey conducted from March 7 to 13.
    https://wciom.ru/analytical-reviews/analiticheskii-obzor/reitingi-doverija-politikam-ocenki-raboty-prezidenta-i-pravitelstva-podderzhka-politicheskikh-partii-20220318

    Toby’s self-claimed ‘moral outrage’ over Ukraine is ineffably tedious. And unbelievably ignorant.
    James D.

    Many believe that I need to support the Ukrainians in their fight for freedom and national autonomy. The truth is, that the Ukrainians are the proxy of the Global American Empire, and that is the only reason that the media has called upon westerners to care about this conflict, rather than any others.

    Lockdowns weren’t a one-off; the vaccinators don’t just vaccinate. The enemies who have oppressed us these past two years are appendages of a much broader system. Climatism, anti-racism, transgender lunacy, Corona, and now the Ukraine: They are all of them expressions of the same malign force; they are all of them the same thing.

    The Globalist EnemyFighting in Ukraine is not about defending freedom; we lost that a long time ago.
    By eugyppiushttps://www.eugyppius.com/p/the-globalist-enemy

    ‘There was no defense against our own preconceptions.’ 

    Kissinger, re US blunder over Egypt in 1973.

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    Replies
    1. Eugyppius is interesting and I understand his point of view. We have indeed lost lots of freedoms but Russian invasion is a dreadful crime (as well as a blunder)

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  2. The Patriarch Kirril was photographed wearing a EUR 30,000 watch, you say? This is surely a sign of the times.

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    Replies
    1. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/kirill-the-patriarch-in-league-with-putin

      Delete
  3. https://konstantinkisin.substack.com/p/one-video-you-must-watch-to-understand?r=7vy3p&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

    ReplyDelete