Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine

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A bit over a month ago Russia invaded Ukraine. Everyone in the West is talking about this terrible action by Russia and the war going on over there. Putin’s action in invading Ukraine has been condemned by almost every nation around the world. And the western nations have placed every sanction they could think of on Russia. Many western companies have pulled out of Russia, including McDonalds, in protest, to show support for Ukraine. Everyone in the West seems to be attempting, in some way, to show their support for Ukraine. There is universal condemnation of Putin.

First I want to say that I think what Putin did was a terrible, obscene thing to do. I would certainly condemn it. I think it would be very difficult to defend this action. However, I do wish to say some things. For the last thirty years, ever since the Russians threw off Communism, I have felt that America was not treating Russia right. It has been treating her like an enemy. If it had been me, after Russia threw off Communism, I would have been Russia’s best friend. I would have done everything in my power to help her become a well-functioning democracy. I would have attempted to make a friend of Russia. Instead, the West, prompted probably mostly by the United States, has been ringing Russia with nuclear missiles. I have noticed this and I am sure this fact was noticed by the Russians, too. The Russians are not stupid. You understand who your friends and enemies are by their actions. If you treat a person like an enemy, what do you think will happen? You will make an enemy of them. The Russians perceive Americans, NATO, and the entire West to be their enemies. And they are feeling very insecure. I think I would be feeling very insecure, also. All of the countries around Russia have joined NATO and Ukraine also has asked to join NATO. Putin said that Ukraine joining NATO was something he wasn’t going to allow. He claims the western nations had caused him to believe they wouldn’t put nuclear missiles around Russia and tricked him. He feels he was tricked by the West. One can understand his feelings. It is all about fear. You have to understand both sides of a story. Do you remember we wouldn’t allow Russia to put missiles in Cuba. Do you remember that? Why do you suppose we reacted as we did? Well, Putin felt so strongly about this idea of Ukraine joining NATO that he invaded Ukraine. Putin does strike me as a very serious, intelligent, and capable person. Putin feels angry, hard towards the United States. I understand why. I think it would be fair to say that the US is guilty of building a fire in the Ukraine and then fanning it (the fire of democratic aspirations) and our prime motive was to weaken, undermine Russia. In the article Never Forget the Real Reason Russia Went to War | Opinion the authors state “What alarmed Russia so profoundly that it reacted militarily was the explicit effort to pry Ukraine out of Moscow's orbit and bring it into NATO.” We had by our international meddling and manipulation put them into a position that they viewed as an existential threat to their country. A threat had been presented to them that they felt they had to deal with just as we felt we had to respond to the action of Russia trying to put nuclear missiles in Cuba. However, just as there are usually two sides to a story there are two sides here. One can argue that a democracy is the best form of government and one cannot blame the Ukrainians for wanting the freedoms of a democracy. After all, Russia under Putin is drifting more and more toward a totalitarian type government similar in ways to that of the old Soviet Union.

Putin is quite obviously a dictator who is unwilling to accept any opposition. Demonstrators are treated roughly and people who oppose him end up in prison or dead. I don’t approve of that but there have long been dictators in this world and some people believe that that is the best type of government. With all of my disillusionment with what I have seen in America, all of the great depravity, degeneracy and Woke foolishness I see here, I sometimes wonder if a dictatorship might be a better system myself.

Russia has never had any real experience with a democracy in all of its history. After the fall of the Soviet Union everything went to pieces in Russia. There was a long period of social and economic chaos in the 1990's. Then Putin took the helm and everything straightened out. Perhaps a democracy just wouldn’t work in Russia. Perhaps they need a dictatorial type government.

It is my impression that the Russians are a conservative people. I have read works of Leo Tolstoy and other Russian authors and been impressed by them. I have read works of their mathematicians and been impressed by their works. I have a positive opinion of Russians in general. From things I have heard Putin say I have gotten the idea that he doesn’t think very highly of the “progressive” outlooks and values of the Liberal West. I think this is especially true in regard to homosexuality and all of the Western intellectual foolishness in regard to fluid genders and our preoccupation with gender pronouns, etc. He, and I believe most Russians, do not approve of homosexuality. I think the Russians have clung to Christian outlooks and standards much more than the West. I believe they have retained a moral integrity that the modern West has lost. You might say a lot of bad things of a person but the very worst thing you can say of a person, in my opinion, is that he is morally depraved. And I think the modern West is morally depraved. I think modern liberalism has slowly taken western man down into the very depths of high depravity.

Because of all this, I think I could converse better with Putin than I could most people around me. In spite of the wrong things he has done, because of his conservative outlook, we would have a certain commonality of viewpoint and values. In a way, I would have more in common with him than with all these politicians and other people who are so loudly condemning him.

I have just watched the following YouTube video:

YouTube Can Putin Be Overthrown Or Stopped? Assassinations & Arrests Offer Clues On Who Putin Fears Most

After listening to this video it is hard to think well of Validimir Putin. It does sound like he is a detestable thug. He may be trying to do, and have done, good things for Russia but he is still a thug.

Some YouTube videos that I think give a lot of insight into the background behind this Ukrainian conflict are

YouTube Vladimir Pozner How the United States Created Vladimir Putin

YouTube John Mearsheimer Why is Ukraine the West’s Fault?

You Tube "United States Is Corrupted!" - The Russian-Ukrainian War Valuetainment

I think it is true that we have been meddling over in the Ukraine with the motive of creating a proAmerican state there armed with nuclear missiles. The Russians know that and feel threatened. They correctly view NATO as their enemy. Putin wants to prevent Ukraine from becoming a NATO country.

Putin has demanded not only that Ukraine not become a member of NATO but that NATO remove all their nuclear missiles from Poland and all of the Baltic countries. You know that NATO will not agree to that.

There are two possible assumptions here. One is that Putin is a good, intelligent, decent fellow who is only concerned about the good of Russia and is acting for Russia’s best interest. There is, however, another way of looking at this. We can make the assumption that Putin is a thug, a hoodlum, mainly concerned about himself, who only understands strength. Perhaps Putin has looked over the current president of the United States and has sized up him up as being cowardly and weak and decided that now is the right time to make his move. He views Biden as a coward and so he moves boldly ahead. President Biden has indeed shown great signs of fear and timidity. He has repeatedly publicly announced that we will not take any actions that might get us into a war with Russia — such as creating a “no fly zone’ or even allowing Poland to give planes to Ukraine. Even if one felt that way I would not think it would be necessary to announce it. You do not have to advertize your fear and timidity. There is only one way to deal with a bully. That is with courage and action. Otherwise the bully will walk all over you. President Biden reminds me of a fellow watching some bully beating up some young child and, from a good distance away, deriding him and yelling insults at him, but at the same time being careful to maintain a good safe distance. He does safe things but doesn’t take any risks.

It is true that Russia has a nuclear capability that could turn America into a radioactive wasteland in a matter of minutes. However, initiating a nuclear assault would almost surely bring Russia’s destruction as well. Is Putin a sort of person who would do foolish and irrational things? I doubt it.

In writing this piece I have, over several days, revised it several times as I have looked at more and more YouTube videos. I have discovered the following:

YouTube Frontline Putin's Way

YouTube Frontline Putin's Road to War

YouTube Why Russia Hacked our Election The Aspen Institute

They are the best videos on Putin I have seen yet and a “must see”. They give a background on Putin and on his rise to power. They give an excellent insight into his character, the corrupt system that gave rise to him, the highly devious and criminal way in which he rose to power, how he and others thwarted all investigations into the criminal acts that gave him power, and how he has turned Russia into a kleptocratic dictatorship based on corruption. They show how he dare not lose his grip on power for fear of being tried for his crimes. And they show how he has been able to manipulate the Russian public by uniting them in hatred for the West.

It is charged that Putin has established a Kleptocracy in Russia. See Wikipedia article Kleptocracy.

I think that in order to look at Putin with fairness and perspective, to judge him, we must consider the huge amount of political corruption in countries around the world. See Wikipedia article Political Corruption. Political corruption is pretty much universal today, and probably has been universal throughout history, in most countries. And with regard to the murders he is suspected to be behind, I would suggest considering the topic of “Extrajudicial killing” and the extent to which it has been employed in countries around the world. See the Wikipedia article Extrajudicial killing. In the United States a much used form of extrajudicial killing is extrajudicial drone executions. The US first used drones during the Bush administration for targeted killings in 2002, when the CIA attempted to target Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. President Obama immensely expanded the program as a part of the war on terror. In comparison to Bush’s 57 authorized strikes, Obama authorized 563 drone strikes targeting terrorists in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen, hoping to combat al-Qaeda while reducing anti-American sentiment towards the strikes. Then the program was again greatly expanded under Trump. These drone strikes usually involve a lot of “collateral damage” in the form of civilian deaths. See Civilian casualties from U.S. drone strikes. When the USA was exiting Afghanistan a family of ten innocent people were killed in Kabul by a drone strike due to faulty information. Who was held accountable? No one. It was just an unfortunate mistake. Who cares?

From the time of the very first drone strike I have been shocked by the practice. You are killing people with no trial, no chance to speak for themselves. Killing them on the basis of what someone else has said, hearsay. Would you condone killing an American without a trial? Why would you condone killing a foreigner without a trial? I could hardly believe we had gotten to the point of doing such a thing. Killing someone without a trial is murder. I would call it murder. I think the USA has a lot of blood on its hands. It shows a real lack of concern for human life. See

YouTube The war you don’t see: Why propaganda hides the true face of war.

America is no saint.

Let us go back to our original topic. The topic is for us a lesson in human relations. Putin and the Russian people have come to hate America and the West because they have sensed that we are their enemies because of the way we have circled them with nuclear tipped missiles. And perhaps also have come to detest us for our decadent liberal, pro-homosexual values and outlooks. Putin is determined that he will not allow us to create another nuclear armed pro-Western state in Ukraine (for the same reason as we have our Monroe Doctrine and won’t allow enemy countries to establish bases in our hemisphere). So Putin has created a false accusation, a pretense, for a war against Ukraine, and sent his army into Ukraine with all of the savagery of a hun — committing all kinds of human atrocities. Moreover, like an angry person in some family quarrel he has gone to making ugly threats, threats intended to frighten and intimidate. He has threatened to launch his gigantic nuclear arsenal against us and annihilate us with the push of a button. And Western leaders, sissies and cowards as many of them are, are shaking in their boots. They are determined that they are not going to do anything that might make him too angry, might cause him carry out his threats. So they refuse to give Ukraine airplanes and the latest and best in weaponry that the Ukrainians need in fighting such a huge, overpowering enemy. Germany is afraid of Russia because she is dependent on Russian gas and oil and doesn’t want to push her too far. (So she doesn’t want to send Ukraine the latest heavy tanks she needs.) NATO is very timid in all this and doesn’t want to become involved.

The soft decadent West had become complacent and was caught off guard. They thought the era of nuclear threats was in the past and have been caught with their pants down, playing from a weak hand. They have forgotten the wisdom of a rough world, the importance of strength, the importance of playing from a position of strength. They are cowards who don’t understand the importance of courage in dealing with bullies.

A soft, decadent, liberal West with a pro-homosexual, anti-Christian ideology preoccupied with depraved, degenerate values and beliefs (love of homosexuality, preoccupation with things like non-binary gender, gender fluidity, and usage of all of the correct inclusive non-binary pronouns) is suddenly confronted with a threat of nuclear annihilation from a tough, rough, brutal tyrant and they are scared.

I would say that Putin could best be likened to a very intelligent, hard, tough, determined, ruthless mafia boss sitting in the top position of a large and powerful country. The Russians support him because he rescued the country out of the chaos of the 1990's and they are grateful for it.

It is my understanding that the Russian Orthodox Church views the West as highly immoral and depraved due to its attitude on homosexuality, among other things. I think the Russians tend to be quite conservative in outlook and I am guessing that they share this view of the Russian Orthodox church with regard to the West. I suspect that this basic reality gives an insight into the great divide separating Russia from the West — the antagonisms between the two.

See Putin’s propaganda machine shifts its tone on Ukraine CBS News

In listening to this video I believe that Putin is sincere in what he says there and indeed correct in what he says there. The West is indeed wicked and depraved in the very highest degree. Homosexuality is wickedness of the very highest order. I believe that. This is the teaching of the Bible. My outlooks are based on the Bible. The West will indeed surely pay for all of its high wickedness. If not in this life, then in the next. Satan rules this world but in the end Satan and all who followed him will get what they deserve. See

Russia in 'Holy War' in Ukraine Against 'Satanic' West, LGBT: Commander

One Year Into War, Putin Is Crafting the Russia He Craves

This man has just spoken more sense than I have heard in a long, long time.

The West believes strongly in democracy but not everyone does. A person who didn’t might compare democracy to a wagon hitched to ten wildcats. The wildcats spend all their time fighting among themselves and the wagon goes nowhere. Suppose one day in one of our national elections the American people voted in a Communistic government. Would I accept that result and submit to living under a Communist government because I believe in democracy? No. I would either leave the country or fight. But the vote represented the voice of the people, and the assumption is that the wish of the majority should rule. If I really believe in democracy I should accept the outcome of the vote. So do I really believe in democracy? Well, only within certain parameters. Only if the vote gives an outcome I am willing to accept. Do I really have confidence in the good judgment of the common man? No. Not really. So I am not sure how much I really believe in democracy.