The West is bidding whether Russia will attack Ukraine for Catholic or Orthodox Christmas, for the New Year, during the Winter Olympics in China, or wait for the Chinese New Year. In the general commotion, no one listens to what the President of Russia is actually saying
A Russian arrives at the border of a western country, shows his passport and covid documents. The customs official looks at him suspiciously with a little hidden fear in his eyes and reads the generals: "Kolya Ivanovich? "Yes." "Occupation?" "No, just tourist", replies Kolja Ivanovic.
Vic reflects the confusion that has reigned for weeks on the Washington-Moscow route. After negotiations between Vladimir Putin and Joseph Biden about the establishment of "stable predictable relations" and a series of bilateral and multilateral negotiations between Russia, NATO and the OSCE, the Western media convey the confusion of Western leaders about "what Putin has in mind". Bidding is on whether they will attack Ukraine on Catholic Christmas, on Orthodox Christmas, on New Year's, when it comes Santa Claus, that is, when the ground freezes and there is no roadway where the German armies once got stuck, during the Winter Olympics in China, or, as someone jokingly wrote, "we will wait for the Chinese New Year".
Journalists, analysts, influencers, pundits present various variants. TV presenters walk on maps on the studio floor showing the directions of a possible Russian invasion. Only they did not take into account what Putin announced that he would do. By the way, this is not the first case where it is presented that he is "hiding his intentions" by telling his "partners" what he will do.
On November 18, 2021, at an extended meeting of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the President of Russia himself ordered, in fact ordered, to send warnings that Russia would react to the approach of NATO heavy weapons to Russia's borders by maintaining "certain tension" on the western borders Russia, but at the same time not to allow "any conflict that we don't need" to occur there.
Ukraine Sphere of InfluencePhoto: Alexei Nikolsky/Sputnik/Kremlin Pool Photo via AP
At the same time, Putin instructed the head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, to "seek serious, long-term guarantees for Russia's security from the West." In accordance with this instruction, the Russian side presented written proposals in the form of drafts of two legally binding international documents, in which they demand that NATO withdraw to the line it was on in 1997, that Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova are not accepted as members, that it is difficult to move weapons beyond Russian borders, etc.
From the structures of NATO, those requests to limit penetration to the east were verbally condemned, with the explanation that sovereign countries have the right to independently decide on their military alliances. It is most likely that NATO will strengthen its forces on the eastern front - Denmark with two F 16s, the Netherlands with two F 35s in Bulgaria, Spain with some ships. The weight of that reinforcement is obviously more provocative than symbolic. Western politicians have ignored Russia's message that they are not sending troops to their western borders because of Ukraine, but because of them.
The propaganda focus was reduced to the determination of the Western alliance to "defend Ukraine" from "Russian aggression", with the sending of Javelin anti-tank missiles (which were once given to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan) and some other military equipment that Biden had previously promised. The withdrawal of staff from the US and British embassies from Kyiv was announced. There have been repeated threats that "atomic economic sanctions" will be imposed on Russia (which, by the way, will harm Russia, but will also mostly affect Germany, which buys Russian gas).
Antony Blinken, Sergey LavrovNegotiations on exiting the crisis: US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Photo: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
The Communist Party of the Russian Federation submitted an initiative for Russia to recognize Donbas, as in 2008 it recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, which the deputies of the majority United Russia reject, because in that case Russia would annul the Minsk Agreement, the fulfillment of which, according to Russia, Ukraine is avoiding. And he avoids it because the federalization of Ukraine would make it impossible to join NATO.
In the meantime, Western propaganda has spread the thesis that Ukraine will not attack Donbass, but that "Russian provocateurs" will do it so that Russia will have a casus belli. The British went further and announced "intelligence" that Russia was preparing to install a pro-Moscow regime in Kiev, and the Russians caught them in the wrong, because the guy they named as the future Ukrainian Prime Minister at the mercy of Putin is actually a former delegate of the Ukrainian Rada who is under Russian sanctions since 2018. And so in a circle.
While waiting for Washington's response to Russia's written requests, the Russians (from Putin, a few steps down) repeated that in the event of the absence of a Western response, or the endless delay of the negotiations; respond with "military-technical measures" in order not to "force the partners to peace". The Russians say quite openly that this means that in that case the appropriate number of Russian missile systems will appear in some places in due course.
The media reports that the Euro-Atlantic Alliance is also talking about intentions to send more troops and planes to the "new Europe", although, as experts warn, it would be better to check the condition of the air raid shelters built in the 1950s, when it was publicly the public was aware of the danger of missile attacks and, God forbid, atomic war.
By the way, in one version of the joke from the beginning of the text, Kolja Ivanovic drove to the border in a tank.
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