Shortly before the massive invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine, President Zelensky tried to reach Vladimir Putin on the telephone. Putin refused to take his call.
Then Zelensky made an emotional appeal to the people of Russia, addressing them in Russian, yet fully aware that the state-controlled media would block his words on Russian media.
Putin said he had to invade to “denazify” Ukraine, which threatened Russia, but this was an absurd lie. Zelensky is Jewish and certainly not a Nazi. He reminded listeners that eight million Ukrainians died in the war against Nazi-ism.
The Washington Post wrote about his appeal:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded with the Russian people late Wednesday to stop their leadership from sending troops across the border and into his country, recording an emotional video appeal that underscored the close ties between the two nations and warned of the despair that would come from a needless war.
Zelensky, speaking in Russian, said Moscow had approved the movement of nearly 200,000 troops into Ukrainian territory, along with thousands of armored vehicles lined up at the border. He said an incursion risked becoming “the start of a big war on the European continent.”
“You are being told this is a plan to free the people of Ukraine,” Zelensky said. “But the Ukrainian people are free.”
His words appealing for peace stood in sharp contrast to a speech delivered Monday by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who delved into Russian history to undermine the notion of Ukraine as an independent nation. He also launched a barrage of accusations against the government in Kyiv that were widely seen as a prelude to an invasion.
By turns wrenching and defiant, Zelensky sought to break through the wall of state-controlled Russian newscasts that have depicted Ukraine as a nation run by Nazis threatening Moscow, though he conceded that his words probably wouldn’t be shown on Russian television.
“The Ukraine on your news and Ukraine in real life are two completely different countries — and the main difference is ours is real,” Zelensky said. “You are told that we are Nazis. How could a people that lost more than 8 million people in the fight against Nazism support Nazism?
“How could I be a Nazi?” Zelensky, who is Jewish, asked, noting that his grandfather spent the entire war as a Soviet soldier but died in an independent Ukraine.
Zelensky said Russians are being told that he is preparing an offensive to retake separatist territory in the Donbas region and “bomb it without questions.” But, he asked, who he would be attacking?
“Luhansk? The house where my best friend’s mother lives? The place where the father of my best friend is buried?” Zelensky said.
“This is our land. This is our history. What are you fighting for and with whom?” he said. “Many of you have been to Ukraine. Many of you have relatives in Ukraine. Some have studied in Ukrainian universities. Some have made friends with Ukrainians. You know our character. You know our people. You know our principles.”
“The people of Ukraine want peace,” he said. “The government of Ukraine wants peace.”
For weeks, Zelensky has complained that the U.S. government has been overly alarmist in warning about the possibility of a large-scale Russian war against Ukraine, damaging the country’s economy in the process.
But on Wednesday, his tone had transformed into that of a leader worried for a people who stand alone against the might of the Russian military despite planeloads of Western weapons and aid.
He warned Russians that if their military invades Ukraine, his nation would defend itself.
“We know for sure we do not need a war — not a cold one, not a hot one, not a hybrid one,” he said. “But if these forces attack us, if you attempt to take away our country, our freedom, our lives, the lives of our children, we will defend ourselves. Not attack — defend. And in attacking, you are going to see our faces. Not our backs, our faces.”
Zelensky spent much of the address warning about the costs of war, which Ukrainian territory has seen more than most.
“War is a grave tragedy, and that tragedy has a great cost in all senses of the word,” Zelensky said. “People lose money, reputations, quality of life, freedom … but most of all people lose their loved ones … They lose themselves.”
It’s intuitively obvious to everyone, even Faux News viewers and the followers of Putin lover Carlson, that this is not a peace-keeping expedition into two troubled regions of the Ukraine. Just look at a map of where Adolf Putin has attacked.
Tzar Putin, not Adolf. :o)
Putin’s going to be really pissed if you don’t add his title in front of his name.
How about Tsar Adolf Putin?
Please, Diane, let’s get back to education.
All one needs to do is look at Israel to see how Jews can be Nazis. The essence of ‘Nazism’ is the posture that one ethnicity is superior to another, and the repression of the other.
“Please, Diane, let’s get back to education.”
You should have stopped there, Daedalus. Don’t further demonstrate your myopic ignorance. Fox News does it much better.
Perhaps you’re right. This blog should be about education, not ‘world affairs’.
As far as ‘myopia’, you need to understand that ‘Fox’ is not the only source of propaganda. Remember ‘babies being ripped from incubators’? ‘Remember the Maine’? Remember Colin Powell holding up the vial of ‘Anthrax’ in the United Nations? Remember the ‘above the fold’ front page NYT ‘weapons of mass destruction’? Non of that was ‘Fox’.
I don’t watch ‘Fox’. In fact, I don’t have a TV. Therefore, I don’t watch MSNBC or CNN (both controlled by oligarchs).
Except for the fact that (a) Daedalus is correct and (b) s/he’s a leftist, not a Faux News watcher, you’re almost on target.
Israelis are not Nazis. I have been to Israel. Have you? A very dear friend retired to Israel to work for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. He was one of the kindest people I know. He was stabbed to death by a Palestinian youth while riding on a bus. Blowing up pizza parlors and restaurants is not a path to peace. Being Jewish is dangerous I every country. I hope for a two-state solution.
I can’t afford to go to Israel.
Many (particularly American) people of Jewish faith find the actions of the Israeli government to be abhorrent. Unfortunately, that ‘government’ seems to be ‘democratically elected’ (if you don’t count the people who can’t vote). It is also engaged in stealing indigenous land. It began well before WWII, so ‘The Holocaust’ is no excuse.
Currently, there is no possibility of a ‘two state’ solution because of ‘facts on the ground’. Would Israel withdraw to the boundaries before 1968 and dismantle all of the ‘settlements’? You know the answer to that.
But, again, this is way off the topic of education, upon which we can agree.
I don’t approve of everything the Israeli government does. I don’t approve of everything the American government does. Arab Israelis do vote and have representatives in the Knesset. There’s strong disagreement about who is indigenous to the land. Since we Americans stole indigenous land, we are not in a position to criticize others. Before the Holocaust, the Jews in Jerusalem were victims of periodic massacres. https://www.camera.org/article/anti-jewish-violence-in-pre-state-palestine-1929-massacres/
You see, my primary interest is education but I have many other interests. I write about them when so moved. My blog is my living room. My readers are my guests.
Now, back to education!
Daedalus,
Please stop. Now you are claiming “Jews” were stealing land during the Ottoman Empire or British rule?
You don’t get to choose the place where you begin history and then announce that at some mythological state to be achieved. Putin is doing that right now.
The current Israeli government has done some abhorrent actions that are well worthy of criticism. But it is also one of the few countries in the middle east where people – including people who are Muslim – can speak freely and vote for representatives. It also has the same refugee problem that is widespread throughout the world and figuring out a solution has been enormously difficult. Try not to simplify it by holding Israel to a higher standard than any other country. Take a look at how Syria or Turkey treats the Kurds and try to understand that if it was that simple, the Kurds would have their own country. Syria was established as an independent nation after WW II, too, and for some 50 years has been ruled by Assad family. And yet “the Jews” in Israel are the ones who somehow get held up as “stealing” land? Why? If you aren’t Native American, are you willing to take your family and return to whatever land your ancestors came from?
Thank you.
Laura Ingraham, who claims to be driven by her right wing Christian religion, called the Ukrainian Pres’ plea for peace, “pathetic.”
Americans can continue to accept the false rhetoric of a “culture war.” Or, they can recognize the threat in international relations and public schools and everything in between is well-organized, well-funded Christian nationalism.
Well, Linda, Christian Nationalism is a real and present danger to our situation in the United States. You hit a nail dead center on that point.
Laura Ingraham (however) is an ‘entertainer’ designed to extract money from you in order to feed the already wealthy.
The U.S. is a composite of demographic groups. The Christian Right catchall, “Abrahamic religions”, makes that demographic unavailable to advocate for Palestine. Palestine’s strategists could review other segments for support, those in the liberal U.S. demographic.
Jewish people (86+%) are liberal but, at slightly more than 2% of the pop., there is greater potential among other liberals. If Palestine had a record of women’s equality (i.e. a unique national feature that appeals to liberals) and could link Israel’s actions directly to an undermining of equality for Palestinian women, there might be groups to target for support in the U.S.
Women do not have equality in Muslim nations. Israel does.
Curiously, many of the most strident voices for Palestinians are Jewish American women. (Medea Benjamin comes to mind, as well as the ‘Jewish Voice for Peace’ group) . The meme that Palestinian women are, somehow, ‘suppressed’ and need to be ‘liberated’ by Israel is total BS. We are fed a line by those in power over the media.
Here (in the US) we need to be far more concerned with ‘Christian Nationalism’ and the need to make sure that all of us have an equal voice.
Ethically and morally, churches, mosques and countries that legitimize lesser rights for women weaken arguments for their support.
Daedalus
Those within Palestine who would like to reward women like Medea Benjamin could do so by making Palestine a beacon of female equality in the Muslim world.
It would negate the “curiously”.
Remember Ahed Tamimi? No ‘veil’, no headscarf, but all fire as she slapped the Israeli soldier who shot her brother? She was sentenced to 8 months in jail, and the Isreali judge told her he hoped she would be raped.
I have never seen pictures of Palestinian women in a burka, or wearing a veil. They clearly feel entitled to express themselves. The problem is that we (in the US) are looking through a fog purposely created to make ‘them’ into the dreaded ‘other’.
Now, Saudi women… well, that’s a totally different story.
Wikipedia entry for “Marriage in the Palestinian Territories”?
The Azov Battalion is described by wikipedia as a neo-nazi organization, but I’m very sure this is much more complicated than “Putin vs the Nazis”.
Yes, it is more complicated. The Azov Battalion is a neo-Nazi group, very likely smaller than the Oathkeepers, the Proud Boys, the Michigan Militia, QAnon, and dozens of other neo-Nazi groups on our soil. The AB is not part of the Ukrainian government.
What frightens me the most about all of this is hearing U.S. government officials talk about a domino effect. Do we never learn from our mistakes in Vietnam? There is no such thing as a domino effect. It’s contrived fiction.
Ukraine is an underdog in this fight and it’s natural to root for the underdog, but a sovereign nation outside of NATO must rely on itself for defense, not on the U.S. as a worldwide police force. I personally have trouble rooting for either side of the shtetl my family had to flee, frankly. Let’s stay out of it.
We will impose sanctions. The sanctions will do little to slow the economy of a Russia using cryptocurrency, disinvestment from international banks, and China’s promise to buy Russian wheat to keep itself relatively independent. Russia will beat Ukraine to a sadly bloody pulp, and annex the territory. And when that happens, let it be the end of the violence. I hope we stay out of it.
By the way, this issue is going to affect the U.S. economy in the short term because of the sanctions and closed oil pipeline. That is very much an education issue. There will be austerity measures. It will hurt schools. It. Will. Hurt. We should stay out of it.
Peace, brothers and sisters. Peace.
The ghost of Neville Chamberlain agrees with this:
“Russia will beat Ukraine to a sadly bloody pulp, and annex the territory. And when that happens, let it be the end of the violence. I hope we stay out of it.”
That’s a little hyperbolic, in my humble opinion. Comparisons to Hitler v world rarely work well.
I didn’t compare to Hitler, I compared to Neville Chamberlain.
But invoking “he’s not Hitler” – what does that mean?
Is Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is more acceptable to you than Hitler’s annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938?
The point is, what you posted was similar to the POV of Neville Chamberlain. And certainly another Munich Agreement type of deal with Putin could lead to peace in our time and all that. Just give Putin Ukraine and I’m sure he’ll be good.
I guess if you believe Putin is a lot more trustworthy than Hitler, one would want to appease him knowing that Putin of course will stop since he has shown so little interest in amassing power.
I foresee the same debacle you describe. It is heartbreaking for the Ukrainian people.
LCT,
I have not heard reference to a “domino effect,” but I think the people of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, and other former Soviet satellites must be terrified. Putin is demonstrating how easy it is to crush a neighboring state and restore it to Soviet/Russian control. He even created two new “nations,” carved out of Ukrainian territory.
My family didn’t flee Ukraine, but I don’t think we can ignore the rise of a heavily armed tyrant who feels empowered to take back whatever he wants.
If you have trouble “rooting for either side,” it is sad. Ukraine did not provoke the invasion. Putin is a power-mad tyrant.
I see your point, but I have a different perspective. They’ve not been using the phrase “domino effect”, but saying that if Ukraine falls, China will attack Taiwan. It’s implied that Taiwan is a domino. I see it as the same argument that if Vietnam fell, other countries would also fall to Communism. That’s how we wound up in Vietnam. I don’t mean to say that I don’t care if Russia defeats Ukraine. I do care.
I just don’t think Putin would attack a former Soviet satellite like Poland, Hungary, Latvia, or Lithuania that is now a NATO member, and I don’t think Taiwan is in imminent danger, so I tone down my support for Ukraine because we, the U.S., with a “centrist” president and rightwing Congress, should be very careful about feeling too sorry for the Ukrainian president and people, lest the drums of war that forever quietly beat in the background get too loud. After all, it’s been months since we were at forever war in Afghanistan, and the dogs of war in the military industrial complex are likely getting hungry for profit. I think the smart move is to stand firm behind NATO members, and show the world that the U.S. has a modicum of restraint. We do not need to ship weapons of war into every conflict.
Russia loves Ukraine so much that it is bombing and destroying everything in its path. Putin will choose the next president. Or will he allow a “fair election” with only one candidate.
If you hate war and killing, you can’t be neutral about what Putin is doing.
This is the first all-out war in Europe since 1945. On one side a bully with a huge military. On the other, a struggling democracy pleading for peace.
Neutrality is impossible.
Putin is a pariah and should be. Many men, women, and children will die to satisfy his lust for power.
LCT,
I don’t know what you mean when you say the US should “stand firm behind NATO members”
Should the US act if China attacks Taiwan?
Should the US act if Putin attacks Estonia or Poland or any other area?
It seems very short sighted to believe that condoning aggression is somehow going to lead to peace and not signal to the aggressor that they have the green light to be more aggressive.
And if the US does nothing at all until Putin attacks a NATO country? Don’t you see how much worse that would be?
And there hasn’t been a rush to war at all. There HAS been a rush to put harsh sanctions or other punishments on Russia.
But doing nothing is basically a green light for Putin to be more aggressive and then you are really talking about full scale military involvement.
Poland is a NATO member. If Poland is attacked by Russia, NATO is at war with Russia. There are nuclear weapons involved in that.
Walk softly, but carry a big stick. Don’t swing the stick around. Just make sure everyone sees you have it.
LCT,
Exactly. Do you want to wage nuclear war with Russia if they invade Poland? I don’t.
I would rather have a strong response to Putin BEFORE he decides to invade Poland. That doesn’t mean sending in American troops, but it also doesn’t mean signalling to Putin that it’s okay.
That’s why the worst war-mongerers are those like Tucker Carlson and our resident Putin defender who are showing to Putin that they will sow discord and divisiveness in the US. If this was the nation banding together to support Ukraine — not with US soldiers, but real support and condemnation — Putin would be foiled.
Poland, as a NATO member, is safe from invasion.
All true, Diane. The appropriate response is disgust. The appropriate response is measured — measured disgust, not anger. Not fire with fire.
FYI, there was a pro-Putin troll posting on here who also invoked the “Putin has to invade Ukraine to fight Nazis” lie and kept posting references to Ukraine Nazis.
I happen to think that people who post dishonest propaganda over and over again should be treated like trolls and not like real people with a different opinion who get the respect that those who genuinely want to discuss an issue from a different point of view should receive.
By treating trolls like honest actors who just have different opinions, their lies are legitimized and normalized – it just enables and empowers them. People who inadvertently post something blatantly untrue would gladly correct it when it is pointed out. People who intentionally post lies as propaganda will not. It’s very easy to tell them apart, and confusing the two is a real danger to democracy. It is the difference between AOC or Bernie Sanders misspeaking and correcting themselves later, and Jim Jordan and Marjorie Taylor Greene who will say whatever they believe empowers their agenda and destroys their enemy, with the truth being completely irrelevant.
Jordan and Taylor Greene should no longer have any credibility. They should be treated like the crazy guy in Times Square shouting incomprehensible sentences. It is possible that among the crazy things the guy is saying might be a few truthful words, but so what — that doesn’t make him someone worth listening to when there are so many other people who might have a similar point of view but aren’t crazy and support their different point of view with actual truthful facts.
And trolls here who spew Russian propaganda should be treated like Marjorie Taylor Greene or the crazy guy in Times Square. It is possible that buried within the dishonest propaganda are some kernels of truth — hey Marjorie Taylor Greene sometimes says some truthful things, too. So what? The fact that so much of what comes out of her mouth is simply sheer nonsense is why she – and others who also spew propaganda – should be marginalized. Not marginalizing these folks are why their numbers have grown and grown and why many Americans actually think that AOC is someone dangerous who they would gladly lock up (or worse). Because the folks who keep telling them that were legitimized by the mainstream media for years instead of being marginalized for their lies.
Excellent comments NYCpsp. Marjorie Taylor Greene? How crazy is she? She was recently spewing her dangerous filth on the Alex Jones Show. Crazier + Craziest = disinformation and lethal propaganda with a dash of pro-Putnism thrown in for good measure. Greene, Jones, Trump, etc., are a menace and danger to our fragile democracy.
“Please, let’s get back to education?!” This blog IS the very foundation of education. Our World and it’s crisis and complexities is what education is All About. We are interconnected. One living system. Affecting kids, families, teachers, funding and our future is the plight of Ukraine, Israel, Russia and Mayberry RFD. Peace On Earth but today, Democracy Is Asserting Her Backbone. And so it is.
There will be protracted guerilla war in Ukraine. It’s going to be long and nasty.
But let\s face it, we live in a world where war criminals like Putin; George Bush, Jr.; and Dick Cheney can get away with it–will never find themselves standing in the dock at the International Criminal Court to account for their war crimes.
Of course, if we are going to freeze Russian assets, we should start with the Trumps.
Bob,
Good point.
And, Biden should freeze Putin’s personal wealth.
It’s my understanding that no one knows where it is.
Too bad the yacht couldn’t have been detained.
I think if the US and Europe cut off Russia from the SWIFT system, the effect on Russia would be devastating. Like “regime-change” devastating. Not sure why that hasn’t been done yet unless (1) the west has so few options left that it doesn’t want to spend them all at once, and/or (2) the west doesn’t want to deal with the domestic political and economic impact.
There are a bunch of downsides. One is that world financial transactions will become balkanized, and that Western countries could be cut off from participation in alternatives like the separate international transaction system that Russia currently operates. Another is that it would make it harder to track criminal activity if there are alternative systems in play.
“Of course, if we are going to freeze Russian assets, we should start with the Trumps.”
Sorry. I forgot. Laws don’t apply to the Trumps. Clearly.
Looks like Hillary Clinton was right about the guise of Tulsi Gabbard. Tulsi’s making the same points about Ukraine that Tucker Carlson is. Gabbard is speaking this evening at CPAC, also present at the conference, Papa John, Charlie Kirk, ..
Separation between the GOP and Putin is diminishing quickly.
This is fairly terrifying to watch.
This is vintage Stalin. Exactly the same MO.
After the workday, Stalin would invite members of his inner circle to come to drinking parties at his nearby dacha. No one dared refuse these invitations. The events would often go on into the wee hours, and everyone would get plastered. Stalin would make a wild assertion and ask someone if he agreed. The person would agree, of course. Then Stalin would contradict him. Then the person would agree with that. Then Stalin would call him an idiot and reassert his original position. Stalin was sadist who took pleasure in watching others squirm, in exercising his absolute power over everyone around him, and in devising ways to protract these displays of utter subjection from subordinates. And sometimes the people thus treated would disappear into the torture chambers of the Lubyanka prison. This place where Lubyanka was built had headquartered the secret police as far back as the time of Catherine the Great.
Very few people now support Stalin (although he was our staunch ally in WWII). However, as we have created both ‘Abu Graiv’ (spelling probably off) and Guantanamo’ shouldn’t we be focused upon that which is totally in control of the US?
As a famous ‘wise man’ once said, “Don’t concern yourself with the splinter in you neighbor’s eye but, instead, attend to the log in your own” (paraphrase, of course).
Nonsense. Putin and Stalin are identical. And whataboutism is not an argument. Yes, the U.S. has repeatedly and horrifically violated the fundamental principle in international law of the territorial integrity of sovereign states. That does not make this instance of such violation somehow acceptable. This is equivalent to saying that we shouldn’t have intervened in the genocide in Rwanda because we committed genocide against indigenous Americans. I assume that you don’t hold that view.
So, Stalin appears to Putin in a dream. Putin says, do you have any advice for me?
Stalin says, “Kill all your enemies and paint the Kremlin blue.”
“Why blue?” asks Putin.
Google “Azov Battalion”. Also, you still can readinld the articles I posted that you obviously haven’t yet that have excerpts of the recorded call with Victoria Nuland hand-picking the Ukrainian leader in 2013 in preparation for deposing their democratically elected leader. And you can familiarize yourself with all the right-wing neo-nazi flags that the Ukrainian military has been flying. I don’t know for sure whether Zelensky himself is nazi or not, but Ukraine is certainly a haven for them.
BTW, saying Zelensky can’t be a nazi because he’s Jewish is like saying Clarence Thomas can’t be a white supremacist because he’s Black. White supremacists are always happy to take self-hating members of marginalized groups and exploit them.
The president in 2013 was Putin’s puppet. He fled to Moscow after months of demonstrations. Watch “Winter on Fire”
Where is your evidence that zelensky is a Nazi?
You are spouting Putin propaganda.
You should sign up to speak on RT in favor of the war.
At D-77: Oh for pity’s sake, Czar Putin ruthlessly and needlessly invades a much smaller country (compared to Russia) and all you can do is spout Putinisms and Putin talking points? At long last, have you no shame.
Joe Jersey,
Yes.
dienne77 is like having Tucker Carlson or Marjorie Taylor Greene on here.
Imagine if all of her posts said “Tucker Carlson” instead of dienne77. The posts would say exactly the same thing because they would sound exactly like Tucker Carlson.
But I promise you that everyone on here would read the posts differently if the exact same words were posted under the name Tucker Carlson. Readers would treat those posts in the manner that they deserve.
Somehow this blog has given undeserved credibility to dienne77, even though the words she posts are the same as what Tucker Carlson says.
It is similar to how the NYT gives undeserved credibility to Jim Jordan or Ted Cruz. Every word that comes out of their mouth should be marginalized because whether or not it is true cannot be discerned when people who constantly tell self-serving lies speak.
And giving those blatant liars credibility amplifies and legitimizes their words. They haven’t earned credibility, but they are treated by the NYT as if they have.
This is how propaganda works. They use names like “dienne77” that people believe are more trustworthy than if they saw that it was really just coming from Tucker Carlson or Jim Jordan.
It is dangerous. But it definitely works.
I bet many people think that something that dienne77 posts might be true and worth reading, while if the exact same post was labeled as coming from Tucker Carlson, they would not even bother to read or read it knowing that it was written by someone who is full of lies.
As teachers, folks here must know that there are students who – you come to learn over time — are just as likely to lie to you as not. And there are students who basically tell the truth. They aren’t given the same credibility because you have to earn credibility.
Do tell us more about how only people who have fallen for Biden’s propaganda are crazy enough to think that Putin is going to invade Ukraine.
Oh, I see, the shells he is raining down on hospitals and schools as we speak are employing special Russian Nazi-seeking technology.
Yes, like the United States, Ukraine has a neo-Nazi problem. And the Azov Battalion is a unit of the Ukrainian National Guard, but this is not because the Ukrainian government is Nazi. It’s because the Azov Battalion showed up to overthrow the Russian puppet.
But all that said. This is the obvious fact: Putin is in the process of carrying out the violent annexation of a sovereign U.N. member state and killing a lot of civilians in the process in violation of fundamental international law. He is a war criminal, and he just added the deaths of those Ukrainian civilians and defenders to his long, long, long, long list of capital crimes. Putin is a mass murderer. End stop.
I thought dienne77 was okay with the American neo-Nazis because they support Trump.
Actually, I think “nazi” has a new definition:
racist antisemite who supports Trump: not a Nazi
Non-racist Jew who opposes Putin’s invasion of his country: a Nazi
Clarence Thomas is a white supremacist?
Does that make dienne77 a fascist?
Nothing is more ludicrous than conflating local neo-Nazi militia group with Zelensky. Sure, they are not really good folks, and they shouldn’t be around for the best interest of Ukrainians. But an attempt to create cultural association with these thugs is not only a fallacy. It’s utterly gross and disingenuous.
Here’s another good piece from Jeffrey Veidlinger, Professor of History and Judaic Studies, University of Michigan. He slams Putin’s Nazi removal claim.
https://theconversation.com/putins-claim-to-rid-ukraine-of-nazis-is-especially-absurd-given-its-history-177959
Based on the activity of the Proud Boys, the Oathkeepers, various private militias, White Supremacists, and QAnon, one could argue that we have a fascist problem in the U.S.
Thanks, Ken. Good article.
The world wouldn’t be in this boat if, as a child, Putin had been given human growth hormone therapy. (He’s 5′ 5″ which possibly provides insight into his performative masculinity). He clings to one of the conservative Christian sects where women are 2nd class citizens.
Ukraine is being subjected to a lot of misery so that Putin can reclaim a youth that’s different, where he’s big man on campus with the girls.
Putin does not look well. I have been wondering whether he’s not willing, in his near-total isolation and facing the end, to risk everything for everyone.
Like Charles Koch