Rusia

Russia’s Invasion Could Unleash Forces the Kremlin Can’t Control

Russian forces have struck targets across Ukraine and seized key facilities and swaths of territory. The Ukrainian military is no match for this Russian juggernaut. Although some reports suggest Ukrainian troops have rebuffed attacks in certain parts of the country, it seems more likely that Russian President Vladimir Putin will decide just how far Russia goes into Ukraine. As a retired Russian-speaking CIA operations officer who served in Central Asia and managed agency counterinsurgency operations, I did not think Putin would have attacked Ukraine unless he had already devised a reliable end game, given the costs of an intractable conflict. But Putin’s best-laid plans might easily unravel in the face of popular Ukrainian national resistance and an insurgency.

On February 24, 2022, anti-liberal philosopher Alexander Dugin, in an article titled “It’s All About Ukraine’s Liberation,” stated that Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine is not only to restore the “territorial integrity” of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR),[1] but is about the “liberation” of the whole of Ukraine. Dugin said that the first goal is the “liberation” of Novorossiya (“New Russia”), the name given in the 18th century to the lands of the Black Sea littoral, incorporated into Russia as a result of wars with the Ottoman Empire. It includes Kharkov, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Nikolayev, and Odessa.

Having decided first to recognize the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk and then mount a special operation to reverse the pro-Western Maidan revolution of 2014, Russia’s leadership realized that there would be consequences to these actions. As the West made it clear from the outset that its response would take the form of imposing severe sanctions rather than a military, the issue of the economic damage that Russia would sustain naturally surfaced. President Vladimir Putin in his address announcing the special operation conceded that Russia’s economy would be affected but claimed that the government had taken measures to cushion the blow.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will have an impact beyond Europe. Follow along for the latest updates affecting the Mideast region.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could develop into the largest state-on-state conflict Europe has seen since World War II. But the war’s effects will not be limited to the continent.

Countries around the world are watching intensely to see if Russia will further escalate its ongoing standoff with Ukraine, after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Monday recognizing the independence of the breakaway Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and subsequently deployed Russian troops to both to carry out what he referred to as a “peacekeeping mission.”

The Russian invasion of Ukraine this morning ends several months of doubt and debate over the purpose of Moscow’s military buildup at the two countries’ border. Washington’s repeated warnings of an imminent military operation proved not to be the hysteria that Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed them as. In the end, Putin’s manufactured crisis was not an attempt at coercive diplomacy, or if it was, it was a failed one.

The Threatened Peoples of East Asia and Europe Can Stop the U.S. Drive to Restore its Global Domination.

“This is not going to be a war of Ukraine and Russia. This is going to be a European war, a full-fledged war.” So spoke Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky just days after berating the U.S. for beating the drums of war.

In January 2022, a draft of a document, titled “The Fundamentals Of Public Policy To Preserve And Strengthen Traditional Russian Spiritual And Moral Values,” was published on the Federal Portal of the Drafts of Regulations for public discussion. Once confirmed by presidential decree, it will become law.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared the beginning of a military operation in Ukraine. The military operation comes after the recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR). In an urgent address on February 24, Putin said that following a request from the “authorities” of Donetsk and Lugansk for assistance, Russia “will seek demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine” and will “press for bringing to justice those who have committed numerous bloody crimes against peaceful civilians, including Russian citizens.”