Robert Hubbell is a blogger who is always informative and insightful. Today he digs into Putin’s aggression and its frightening implications for the other states that were once part of the Soviet Union. Be sure to open the link to Charlie Sykes’s review of the Republicans who are shilling for Putin, led by Tucker Carlson. For more on Putin’s useful idiots, see what Hubbell wrote yesterday.
He writes:
In quick succession on Monday, Putin recognized two Ukrainian provinces as independent nations, endorsed a “mutual aid” treaty with the newly recognized states, and announced that Russia would send “peacekeeping troops” into territory that every other nation in the world recognizes as part of the sovereign nation of Ukraine. One European diplomat described Putin’s lies as follows:
Putin just put Kafka and Orwell to shame: no limits to the dictator’s imagination, no lows too low, no lies too blatant, no red lines too red to cross. What we witnessed tonight might seem surreal for the democratic world. But the way we respond will define us for the generations to come.
There is much to understand about what happened Monday on the ground in Ukraine, but the most consequential development occurred inside the Kremlin—a speech in which Putin effectively claimed dominion over former Soviet republics. Putin denied the legitimacy of Ukraine as a sovereign nation, saying, “modern Ukraine was entirely and completely created by Russia” and “Ukraine never had a tradition of genuine statehood.”
Putin’s theory of Russian dominion can be employed against every former Soviet republic and therefore poses a threat to the peace and stability of Europe. That is why the current crisis over Ukraine matters to the United States— and why the GOP’s embrace of Putin is so dangerous. Indeed, Putin is relying on political division in the U.S. to provide cover for a war against Ukraine that will kill thousands of innocent civilians, politicians, journalists, and people who do not conform to Putin’s view of what constitutes “normal” human behavior. Republicans are providing aid and comfort to an enemy of the United States—a scandal of historic proportions that defies explanation.
Russia’s gambit of “recognizing” regions of sovereign nations as independent states as a pretext for invasion is a recurring theme. Putin used similar strategies to invade parts of Georgia in 2008 and the Ukrainian Crimean Peninsula in 2014. His strategy will not end with the Donbas region of Ukraine in 2022—and Republicans are fools to believe otherwise. The world must punish Russia severely for this latest invasion so that it will never resort to the same strategy again. If we fail to do so, we signal to Putin that his unfounded theory of Russian dominion justifies future expansion. Tonight, that is the message that Republicans are sending to Putin. Charlie Sykes, writing in The Bulwark, has cataloged the sorry list of Republican apologists for Putin. See Charlie Sykes, Putin’s Right-Wing Shills.
As Republicans fall over themselves to praise Putin, President Biden has handled the Ukrainian situation expertly. It is doubtful that any U.S. president could have avoided Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but few could have handled the situation as well. See Loren Thompson in Forbes, Whether Russia Invades Or Not, Biden Has Handled The Ukraine Crisis Well. Thompson writes,
Within the geopolitical and military constraints that limit Washington’s options, President Biden and his security team have exhibited a clear sense of purpose, a willingness to act decisively, and a good deal of imagination in addressing the Russian threat. . . . Meanwhile, the Biden administration has persevered in preparing the diplomatic battlefield for whatever comes next.
The road ahead with Ukraine will be difficult, and there will be plenty of opportunities for failure and disappointment. Every decision Biden makes will be second-guessed by armchair experts who will operate with the benefit of hindsight and an astonishing lack of humility. But everyone who hopes for a strong America on the global stage should support Biden as he tries to navigate a challenge that would test any American president. You can help Biden by knowing the facts about how he is succeeding and ensuring that others know, as well.
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Me: My concern is not how America is perceived on “the global stage.” I worry about Putin’s ambition to restore the USSR, which was a brutal dictatorship. I worry about the future of Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, and all the other former puppet states that gained freedom from a repressive regime when the USSR collapsed. It’s been three decades since that happy moment, and most people under the age of 50 have no memory of the Gulags, the invasion of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
STOP!!! maligning Russia. Ever since the end of WW 2 the word has been ‘against Russia’. As a matter of fact, barely 3 months after WW 2 had ended, Churchill was already making plans to bomb Moscow. The West, under the ‘leadership’ of war mongering US, keeps encroaching on Russian borders…and Russia should just sit back and take it? How would war mongering US feel if foreign troops took up position threatening the US??? A war should take place on US territory – perhaps then Yanx will realize what horrors of war are all about. Watching a war movie on TV while munching on popcorn isn’t quite the same. US/NATO…just what we need.
peskyvera: Are you joking, you cannot be serious. The criticism is of the malignant Russian leadership, not the Russian people or Russia per se. Are you a fan of Stalin or Putin? So you don’t care if Putin carves up the Ukraine and sets up some puppet government subject to Putin’s whims and demands?
peskyvera: If you were actually joking or doing some kind of elaborate satire (which I doubt), my apologies. Big IF.
Do you know anything about Stalin? Do you know anything about Putin? Do you know he has been in power for 20 years and all his opponents have been murdered or imprisoned? Did you read the speech he gave yesterday? He thinks Ukraine is not a nation. His goal is to reassemble the USSR. He said that its dissolution was the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe” of the 20th century. I don’t think that the people of Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Albania, Romania and other Soviet vassals would agree.
Your ignorance of history is breathtaking. When WWII ended, the Soviet union occupied Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Albania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and the Ukraine, all against their will. They held these countries by force for 45 years, Any attempts to break away were met met by military power and crushed. Individuals attempting to escape were captured and executed. Now Putin seeks to reconstitute the Soviet Empire, by force if necessary. No one is encroaching on Russia’s borders. It is Russia that seeks to use it’s military to illegally seize territory in sovereign nations.
Bravo Mr. Gerhhardt, bravo.
As much as Putin has an interest in recreating a Greater Russia, he has attracted the “love” of so many right-wing extremists because his efforts can potentially lead to the destabilization of the Biden administration and an effort by the right to reclaim the presidency (now or later). The Carlsons and Hawleys don’t care about the future of Russia, Europe, or Asia, they want control of the USA and all its wealth and might. Putin is leading them there. The love affair that existed between Putin and Trump is very much alive with those who desperately want to succeed Trump as the first American Dictator.
I know many Americans are against going to war for one reason or another, but if there was ever a reason to do it, it is now.
The US started a war in Iraq based on lies. That was wrong.
The war in Afghanistan was bungled horribly and the victims, the Afghan people, will pay for that probably for decades if not longer.
The war in Vietnam should have never been fought in the first place.
What’s happening in the Ukraine today is no different than North Korea invading South Korea. Then the US led its allies in a war to save South Korea ending in a stalemate with South Korea free to rule itself.
I think if the world watches in horror doing nothing but talking, as Putin invades and slaughters the Ukrainians, he will do it again, and again, and again, until World War III is unavoidable.
Then we will destroy the environment our species needs to survive. But the planet will survive and after our species is gone, recover and adapt through evolutionary changes as it has done before.
If there ever was a time to use military’s force to stop a dictator from starting another world war, now is the time.
My Ukrainian friends, some of whom come from the eastern part of their country, are quite clear about the differences between being Russian and being Ukrainian. They report that Stalin deliberately relocated Russians to their region in order to bolster the territorial claims Putin in now making. It was part of a soviet empire building project. Other people from other areas of the former Soviet Union have reported similar ethnic seeding and blending efforts to me when we talked about where they are from. But, as might be expected, despite such Russian efforts to claim expanded nationhood, they know who they are.
Eric, Stalin did the same “ethnic seeding” in Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia to create a reason to intervene at will “to protect” the Russian minority. Stalin’s crimes against Ukrainians in the 1930s—taking away their grain and creating mass famine—have not been forgotten.
Let’s not forget the Holodomor(famine) caused by the Soviets in 1931-32. About 3.5 million Ukrainians starved to death due to Stalin’s agriculture policies. This event is recognized as a genocide of the Ukrainian people by the Soviets. So please study history and spare us your whining about poor innocent Russia.
This award-winning film shows the Ukrainians rebelling against the last Putin puppet: Winter on Fire
“I worry about Putin’s ambition to restore the USSR, which was a brutal dictatorship.”
Please don’t do that – I almost wet myself at work laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of it. You seriously think Putin wants to restore the USSR? A communist country. You think Putin is Communist? That’s as nutty as the right-wingers thinking Biden is a Commie. You don’t even begin to realize how propagandized you are.
If you really want to understand what’s going on in Ukraine right now, start with the 1991 NATO agreement not to advance NATO any further eastward, then look how far east NATO has encroached since. Then do some reading (from independent sources) on the 2014 U.S. supported coup in Ukraine that deposed the duly elected, Russian supportive government of Ukraine and installed U.S. supportive neo-nazis who have been genociding the ethnic Russions ever since. The rest of the world knows this, just like they know the truth about the Israeli occupation and genocide in the Palestinian territories and the Saudi genocide in Yemen. It’s only Americans who believe the lies thei government tells them.
OMG just yesterday you were crowing that Biden said Putin was going to invade and condemning Biden for being wrong.
Now you are saying that Putin was always going to invade and it is your beloved Putin’s right to invade.
“Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia” if Putin says so.
You have a lot of chutpzah excusing the ethnic cleansing by Russia while criticizing the Israeli policy toward Palestinians. Why doesn’t Putin’s bombing and killing bother you?
FYI – those who don’t know already that dienne77 is a Putin troll can read this and see NO words of criticism of Putin. Not one. Every military incursion is fine with her.
In fact, there isn’t a bigger warmongerer on here these days than dienne77.
I know I’m wasting bandwidth begging you to read alternative sources, but if anyone is interested in truth, this is a decent source: https://www.counterpunch.org/2014/03/05/chronology-of-the-ukrainian-coup/
Please note that the article contains dozens of links backing up its claims. I highly recommend you read them all.
Not a single word of criticism of Putin. Is he really that perfect to you? Or are you not allowed to say anything that isn’t nice.
Watch how easy it is: I think that Biden makes mistakes. Can you say that about Putin?
More: https://countercurrents.org/2018/06/how-and-why-the-u-s-government-perpetrated-the-2014-coup-in-ukraine/
Still can’t say one word of criticism about Putin. Try it. Prove that you aren’t just a troll.
You can’t. Every single person — from Bernie Sanders to AOC – can easily criticize Putin even as they criticize Biden.
You cannot. Putin is untouchable and you aren’t allowed to criticize even his most reprehensible actions that kill many innocent lives. That means you aren’t a progressive, you are just a warmongering troll who hates democracy.
You don’t care what happens to the people of Ukraine. You keep condoning Putin’s war against them.
Is there any line Putin can cross with you?
Why are you so rabidly supportive of Putin’s military invasion of Ukraine and the violent repercussions he plans to unleash on all who don’t join you in your pledge of fealty to Putin?
You are a warmongering hypocrite.
NYC PCP,
Please don’t use such strong language against another reader. Calm down. Stick to facts, not name calling.
As one who likes and admires “strong language” when it is accurate, what exactly is NYCPSP’s “strong language”? I don’t see it. Warmongering hypocrite and and warmongering troll who hates democracy are about as accurate as it gets. Can anyone think of one more that is more precise?
It’s name-calling. I know she disagrees with Dienne’s endless attacks on Biden and her rationalization of whatever Putin does. But she can make her case without ad hominem remarks.
Also, does stick to the facts apply to people other than NYCPSP? It seems not to.
I can’t control the foolishness that Dienne posts. I could block her but I prefer to say ridiculous things in favor of Putin or Trump. I remember her advice in about 2018 that I should ignore Trump because paying attention gave him more than he deserved. I was gobsmacked. How do you ignore the anti-democratic, authoritarian rants of the man who is president? I let it stand because it was foolish on its face.
GregB,
Thank you for noticing the double standard. I am not sure I belong here anymore. I wonder if I just simply posted disingenuous and misleading claims over and over again, and then made nasty and snarky remarks about those who called out my disingenuous posts, I would suddenly get “respect”. This isn’t just about dienne77 but about certain other posters who I try to call out.
I think it is dangerous for lies to be unchallenged on this blog. But maybe that’s why I don’t belong anymore.
I reserve the term “warmongerer” for my replies to this person who has used that phrase over and over and over again without anyone telling her not to use it. I thought it was appropriate to call her the word that she has called so many people in so many posts.
Thought provoking!
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/02/22/perhaps-the-us-should-shut-the-fuck-up-about-respecting-other-countries-sovereignty/
Is shut-the-fuck-up strong language or not? Just trying to figure out the standards. At least I write, shut the f#@k up. Decorum and all that.
I prefer “shut the f#@k up.”
But you can’t change what’s written in a link to access the article!
G O P
Ghouls Of Putin
Putin is a Stalin lover, and he’s no saint. But that doesn’t let other key players off the hook. Ukrainian President Zelensky is doing exactly the opposite to what he pledged in his campaign by refusing to demilitarize south-eastern territory in two breakaway regions– Luhansk and Donetsk, respectively. Yes, Putin broke the Minsk Agreements by incursion. So did Zelensky. Both have a serious problem, for sure. Neither of the two actually ratified the agreements.
Yet, I find mainstream media reporting far more problematic. Their inaccurate and overblown report about imminent threat of Russia. Remember how it came out? Here are the examples.
–Putin is planning to wage World War III.
–Russia is planning to invade Kiev.
–Russia will attack on Feb. 16.
These kind of incendiary reporting is not helping. It only creates confusion and chaos.
I am inherently skeptical of western media reporting on US foreign policy, for what they did and how they served throughout history of America’s war–including Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, etc. I know many commenters here are supportive of Biden administration, but that does not mean he is immune to criticism for instigating hostility that culminated into incursion.
Biden did not move 190,000 Russian troops to Ukraine’s border.
Yet, he was willing to have Ukraine join in the NATO.
Since when do progressives believe that American presidents should be able to tell leaders of other countries which organization they can and cannot join?
I am pretty shocked that now progressives are sounding like they believe the US should be the dictator who tells other countries what to do using the threat of military intervention if a sovereign country does not obey the US. Really? Invoking something from 30 years ago to justify why suddenly progressives are demanding that a sovereign country bend to the will of the US?
Do you support military intervention by the US to show the people of Ukraine that they better follow Biden’s orders not to join NATO? Or do you just support Russia doing all the bombing and killing on the US behalf to punish Ukraine?
You are correct that Biden didn’t believe that anyone in the US except right wing Republicans would be siding with Putin on the issue of the US demanding total control of another country’s decision to join an organization that we all know poses no military threat to Russia.
He probably thought progressives would believe that the Ukraine people should decide their own fate without being bombed.
Some on the left are starting to sound a lot like Charles Lindbergh as Hitler was taking over Europe.
Explain who are openly making such a bold claim. Who are these people?
How much do you think average Americans are familiar with complicated politics in Europe? And what leads you to believe I am supporting Russia? I made it very clear about my take on Putin.
I think the question you should ask is:
“Why is it US business to barge in to the foreign affair that has nothing to do with the interest of ordinary Americans who are dealing with domestic issues–including Covid, education gag order, child poverty, police killing/brutality, student debt crisis?”
or something like
“Why do US leaders think letting Ukraine join in cold war relic of combative military establishment will fix its historical animosity with next-door neighbor, knowing that it will only antagonize the relation in the end?”
I really don’t care what other camp thinks of Putin or people saying Tucker Carlson loves Putin or not. Why does that really matter to people?
What’s really bothering me most is a group of mainstream media pundits capitalizing on this foreign crisis to pitch for same old, saber-rattling moment. “If you don’t support US president, you are un-American” is classic nationalistic propaganda media want people to believe. It’s called Manufactured Consent. Talking heads from MNSBC and CNN today look a lot like neocon war mongers who spread lies to gain support for Iraq War.
*Manufacturing Consent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent
Ken, why do you find it so hard to acknowledge that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is unprovoked aggression? Why do you think that it’s only neocons who deplore Putin’s war of choice on a neighboring country?
Dr. Ravitch
What Putin chose to do is an absolutely horrendous war of aggression. No doubt about it. To be honest, I didn’t believe it would happen until 24th. Obviously, I was not alone. Many western journalists got it wrong and acknowledged that.
I didn’t say neocons are the only ones for instigating that mad man. I know so well how dangerous Putin is long before 2016 Election.
It’s not just about Obama, Trump, or Biden administration. There’s an animosity between Russia and Ukraine for years–and it got just worse in the last 8 years. That’s something we cannot downplay.
Neither of the three–even Trump–are at fault for the monster’s ultimate choice for insurgency. Period.
That should be separated from those have created the situation for brewing tension and hostility for a long term period in diplomacy.
That’s where I have been focusing my points–including this post.
Now the situation has changed, so I think the attention is shifting to how we can stop this madness and hold this Russian lunatic fringe accountable.
This was was unprovoked. The first land war in Europe since 1945.
Actually, he invaded Georgia in 2008. He did the same on Crimea in 2014(and occupied since then). I would say both are unprovoked, too.
He’s been working on this plot for months to make it look like ‘special operation’ in his worldview.