David Craig, on February 11th, 2022Friday/weekend blog
I admit some bias as I studied Russian language, literature and history and spent several months there when it was the Soviet Union.
But, knowing a little about Russian history, I believe that in the current more than minor contretemps between Putin and the West, Putin is quite justified in demanding that NATO stops its expansion eastwards towards Russia’s borders.
I do realise that Vlad ‘the Impaler’ Putin may not be the kind of person you would invite round to your mother’s house for tea and cucumber sandwiches as he has an awkward habit of having people killed – often rather painfully using radioactive isotopes. But Putin’s tendency to murder people he doesn’t like doesn’t mean that he’s not justified in his current opposition to further NATO expansion.
After its formation in 1949 with twelve founding members, NATO grew by including Greece and Turkey in 1952 and West Germany in 1955, and then later Spain in 1982. After the Cold War ended, and Germany reunited in 1990, there was a debate in NATO about continued expansion eastward. In 1999, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic joined NATO, amid much debate within the organization and Russian opposition.
Another expansion came with the accession of seven Central and East European countries: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. These nations were first invited to start talks of membership during the 2002 Prague summit, and joined NATO shortly before the 2004 Istanbul summit. Albania and Croatia joined on 1 April 2009, prior to the 2009 Strasbourg-Kehl summit.
Looked at from the Russian point of view, I can understand Moscow’s increasing nervousness as NATO troops moved ever closer to Russia’s borders. Meanwhile, I believe NATO has shown extraordinary arrogance and stupidity as it continuously expanded, contemptuously ignoring Russian concerns. Moreover, by constantly moving of its military forces ever closer to Russia’s borders, NATO has pushed Russia into the arms of our real enemy, the Chinese Communist Party. Dumb!
The most recent member states to be added to NATO are Montenegro on 5 June 2017 and North Macedonia on 27 March 2020.
This map shows how NATO has expanded ever further East towards Russia’s borders since it was formed in 1949:
(map from Wikipedia section on NATO expansion – By User: Patrickneil, based off of Image:EU1976-1995.svg by glentamara – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4794601)
As of 2021, NATO officially recognizes three aspiring members: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, and Ukraine.
All three are uncomfortably close to Russia’s borders.
I can fully understand Russian unease as NATO moves its tanks, missiles, divisions and military bases ever closer to Russia’s borders. And I can understand that NATO’s attempts to get countries like Georgia and Ukraine to join are a step too far for the Russians.
After all, the USA wasn’t too pleased when Russia started putting its missiles into Cuba in 1962:
And I suspect the USA would be more than peeved if Russia or China entered into a military alliance with say Venezuela or Mexico and suddenly well-armed Russian or Chinese divisions were within spitting distance of the USA’s southern border.
And now Putin has decided to face down the West, there is wild panic as our third-rate, net-zero-obsessed leaders try to work out what to do.
Boris’s and Biden’s deflection tactics?
Worryingly, both bumbling Bunter Boris and senile Joe Biden are in trouble domestically as both are seen to be incompetent, dishonest and are increasingly unpopular. How convenient it would be for both if they could stir up a little conflict with Russia. This would deflect from their domestic political failures and allow both to posture as great Churchillian international statesmen.
Meanwhile our mainstream media do everything they can to portray Putin and Lavrov as the villains of the piece and Boris and Biden as plucky defenders of democracy and freedom.
But as Samuel Johnson warned us:
The only adult on the West’s side at the moment seems to be the puffed-up, vertically-challenged, gerontophiliac French popinjay Macron. He seems to be trying to find a diplomatic solution to ease Russia’s (IMHO genuine) concerns. As for our would-be mini-Thatcher Foreign Secretary, Elizabeth Truss, Sergei Lavrov met his British counterpart, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, for talks in Moscow and said the talks were, he said, ‘a bit like talking to a deaf person. It’s like they’re listening to us but not hearing.’
Crestfallen Cressida
So, it appears that the ghastly Cressida Dick, promoted (I believe) because she ticked a few of the right ‘diversity’ boxes – female and married to another woman – rather than for any skill in catching wrong-uns has finally been booted out.
Though I note that the main reason given for her welcome departure is apparently her failure to deal with racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, discrimination and misogyny etc etc etc in the Met and not the politicisation of the Met – giving up catching real criminals to focus on politically-correct woke nonsense like taking the knee to BLM rioters and scouring the Internet for anyone committing ‘thought crimes’.
This suggests that Cressida’s replacement will not be some hard-nosed, crime-fighting traditional policeman. But instead he/she/ze will be even more politically-correct, more woke, more Common Purpose, more allergic to catching and prosecuting real criminals and more inclined to allow the BLM and eco-loon mobs to run riot than even the utterly useless Cressida.
Here’s a video I wrote and produced in 2018 about Cressida’s astonishing rise through the ranks:
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I agree with you David.
The west’s attitude towards Russia has always been ‘we are right, you are wrong’. The UK seems to think that it still has an empire and that everyone should listen to what it has to say. At this time, it’s just Boris trying to take away attention from himself.
Why not let Russia join NATO?
I’m always amused when Western leaders, and their docile ‘Intelligence’ agencies, base their policies towards Russia on their own pre-determined opinions of Vladimir Putin’s character and how he will react as an ‘Authoritarian, bloodthirsty dictator’, just like Hitler or Stalin.
Hitler was a common soldier, a noisy demagogue, and an obsessed racist. Stalin was a bank robber, and a sinister conspiracist who habitually distrusted and often ruthlessly disposed of even his closest and most loyal colleagues.
Putin started out as a KGB spy. What are the main personality requirements for the profession of spy? The ability to be quiet and secret, and infinite patience. The opposite, in fact, of your standard-issue dictator.
Secondly, Putin’s personal sporting passion is Judo, in which he holds a decent Dan grade and about which he has written and published his own textbook, for charity. Anyone who has studied Judo knows that its basic principle is to turn your opponent’s own strength and momentum against himself (sound familiar?). And also knows that both practice and free-fighting means frequently being dumped on your backside, as well as being strangled or locked into submission – a sure means of having the edge taken off a septic ego. It’s difficult to imagine either Stalin or Hitler submitting themselves to such indignities.
Putin came to power in 1999, and has, probably thanks to the, er, idiosyncrasies of the Russian voting system, led Russia in some form or another for the following twenty-three years.
That makes him by far the longest-serving and most experienced current leader of any major power. As anyone who practices any profession knows, you can’t teach experience, and there can be few varieties of crises, internal or external, with which Putin has not had to deal during his time as virtual ‘Tsar’ of Russia.
Just like David, for me Putin is probably not a guy I’d choose to have a fun evening with over a couple of pints (that goes for most politicians, to be honest). But the sight of comparative neophytes like Biden and Johnson, who will soon vanish from the world political scene un-mourned by anyone, thrashing about like headless chickens in attempts to compete with such a canny, complex operator as Putin, based on a wishful-thinking analysis of his character, experience, and abilities is, frankly, embarrassing.
As for the eventual finale of the Cressida Dick shambles –
this should, following Dany Cotton’s forced resignation as London fire chief in the wake of Grenfell, be another object lesson in the dangers of Diversity hiring.
Diversity hiring should never be an option where peoples’ lives are at stake. In positions where someone is responsible for the safety of the general public, it should always be the best qualified, most experienced and able person for the job, irrespective of race, gender, or sexual preference, who gets the gig.
Dame Dick was a classic example of someone who was way out of her depth but didn’t even realize it. She totally failed in both her allotted tasks – of regaining control of law and order on the streets, and of turning the Met into a nice shiny politically correct institution that offends nobody.
Home Secretary Patel extended Dick’s contract last year. This was no surprise – mediocre people often hire other mediocre people in order not to be shown up by anyone brighter than they are, and God knows Priti is a Home Secretary who could give even Theresa May a run for her money as far as terminally useless Home Secretaries go.
All signs that democracy results in the election of weak leaders. They use the system to bribe the electorate with promises and benefits to get elected but turn out to be totally useless in a crisis. Then, as Jeffrey points out, they in turn appoint more mediocre people. But would anybody in the West want Putin or Xi Jinping as leaders and want to live under their regimes? We don’t seem to want strong leaders. All I see is the slow advance of socialism in the West and the state of our economies could bring it about. China and Russia just need to be patient and our leaders will do the job for them and we will have global socialism.
I have never been convinced by anything Cressida Dick has said but she has an impossible job because the police have become increasingly controlled by politicians and the media. Who will want to replace her in the present environment? It is just the same with Boris. Those who want him to go have no idea who should replace him.
Liz Truss looks a bit over promoted not helped by apparently telling Russia she wanted them out of Rostov and Voronezh regions which would appear to be a declaration of war.
I think Boris dead cat of poking the bear who has genuine grievance over Nato expansion has truly failed. Although given how shambolic the west appears to be its probably better to let Ukraine join Nato as it will be easier to invade if needed. In the meantime sell Europe all the overpriced gas you can Mr Putin given it is their own green stupidity that has driven prices so high in the first place.
As for Dick of the Yard. She was obviously negotiated away by Khan. He needs the money to prop up money pit TFL and their £250,000 a year train drivers sitting at home. Once she agreed to investigate party gate there was a deal to be done. Of course she is 61 with 40 years service so really this is retirement but Khan has spun it for Boris and no doubt gained lots of tax payers money in the process.
Obviously the whole show has ruled out the use of nuclear and tactical weapons in any scenario. Tactical nuclear weapons could wipe out any invasion.
“We live in an age which is so possessed by demons, that soon we shall only be able to do goodness and justice in the deepest secrecy, as if it were a crime.” – Franz Kafka
The thing is, does Putin really believe that anyone in the West is actually a threat to Russia ?.
I do not believe there is any military threat from any European country that justifies the tension that Putin is creating.
This sabre rattling can only be because Putin is trying to divert the attention of the Russian people from the basket place Russia really is. Much the same way and for the same reasons as North Korea or even China.
People want comfort,food & entertainmnet . If the government of a country cannot create such an environment, they ask their peoples to make patriotic sacrafices and say their neighbours are threatening you.
It could be described as a godsend for the Thatcher government when Argentina invaded the Falklands as at the time, it seemed like we were almost in a revolution / civil war situation.( a bit exaggerated I know).
The trouble with these Pol Pot type leaders is that if we ignore them they get more ambitious and if we face them down, never mind actually fight them, this also costs a fortune in many ways such as having to spend fortunes on the military, that in a happier world could be spent on better things.
It’s a paper , stone , scissors scenario and has been going on for 10,000 years.
The pandemic illusion is on its way out and the huge fallout from it is kicking in globally. So it looks to me as if the UN-based communist globalist club is choreographing keeping as many disorientating and dispiriting balls up in the air as it can as a distraction while it makes up its mind on how to keep its totalitarian power grab going.
I am betting that Putin will not launch an invasion. I am also betting that Boris will not go. Just as I am sure that Biden did not win the 2020 election.
Quite, Brenda.
Have we seen any shots from spy satellites showing the huge military build up on the Ukrainian border with Russia? – I haven’t. It must be pretty obvious.
That load of lying xxxx seems to be using George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty Four as a user manual.
We should all know by now the extent to which that shower of xxxx makes use of fiction to bring us under their control.