Бойтесь партийцев, дары приносящих

Существует несколько версий происходящего вокруг беспардонного рейда на поместье Трампа Мар-а-Лаго. Версия первая – документы с грифом “секретно” были “украдены” Трампом из Белого Дома. Версия вторая – “Комиссия 6 января” Конгресса США не обнаружила никаких следов участия Трампа в “государственном перевороте”, поэтому якобы понадобилось правдой или неправдой изъять все имеющиеся документы у Трампа, чтобы наконец-то найти доказательства его виновности. Версия третья – наезд на Трампа связан с выборами 2020 года. Дело в том, что официальное уничтожение всех документов, касающихся выборов 2020 года, начнется за два месяца до выборов 2022 года, то есть всего через несколько недель. Есть еще и четвертая версия, о которой поговорим позже.

Первоначальная версия развалилась всего за несколько дней. Идея о том, что Трамп просто-напросто украл секретные документы, затрещала по швам, когда выяснилось, что все бывшие президенты, в соответствии с законом, в своих резиденциях оборудуют специальные помещения для работы с секретным материалами, которые находятся под охраной Секретной Службы. Если все бывшие президенты имеют в своих резиденция помещения для работы с секретным материалами, то наличие у бывших президентов таких документов не должно никого удивлять.

Дело в том, что Президент в вопросе о секретных документах обладает не просто огромной, но абсолютной властью. Как бы слова “абсолютная власть” не резали слух, но это так. В целом, Президент США ограничен рамками Конституции, но в определенных областях он имеет ничем не ограниченную власть. Причем в некоторых случаях эта власть не может быть ограничена даже Конгрессом.

Все, что связано с грифом секретности, является исключительной и абсолютной прерогативой президента. Как Главнокомандующий, Президент США имеет неограниченное право либо налагать гриф секретности, либо снимать его. Другой пример абсолютной власти Президента – иммиграционная политика. Это право делегировано Президенту Конгрессом в серии законов в 1950-х годах, и может быть отозвано тем же Конгрессом. В отличие от иммиграционных дел, абсолютная власть Президента в секретных делах делегирована Конституцией и не может быть отменена никакими законами и никакими Указами.

Самое интересное, что Президент может засекретить документы, рассекреченные предыдущим президентом, или, наоборот, рассекретить документы, засекреченные предыдущим Президентом. Но в этом случае обладание документами, секретный статус которых изменился по прихоти нового Президента, не может быть доказательством вины, потому что в Америке и законы, и Указы президента не имеют обратной силы. В результате Байден может засекретить сколько угодно документов, которые хранятся у Трампа, но это не приведет к уголовной ответственности бывшего Президента.

Таким образом, апелляция к секретным документам оказалась несостоятельной. Версия о виновности Трампа в беспорядках 6 января 2021 года улетучилась, когда достоянием гласности стали неоднократные призывы Трампа к своим сторонникам не прибегать к насилию ни при каких обстоятельствах. Версия о том, что наглый обыск и изъятие документов как-то связан с выборами 2020 года, развалилась после того, как выяснилось, что адвокаты Трампа сделали электронные копии всех устройств для голосования в 2020 году, так что вся документация сохранится, даже если официальные лица удалят ее со всех аппаратов для голосования.

Так почему же демократы перешли Рубикон? Ведь назад дороги нет, все мосты сожжены, и опасный прецедент уголовного преследования лидера оппозиции создан. Замолчать наезд на бывшего Президента не удастся. Джин вырвался из кувшина, и теперь демократам придется иметь дело с разъяренным электоратом. Пропагандистам не удастся перевести дискуссию на безопасные для администрации Байдена рельсы. Все козыри теперь в руках у Трампа, потому что криминальное судопроизводство требует, чтобы именно сторона обвинения предоставила доказательства вины обвиняемого. (В том, что в скором времени против Трампа будет возбуждено уголовное дело, сомнений нет ни у кого.) В криминальном суде обвиняемый не должен доказывать свою невиновность. Режим Байдена просто обязан предоставить неоспоримые доказательства вины Трампа, иначе политический бумеранг обязательно вернется в точку пуска.

В отличие от предыдущего наезда на Трампа – так называемого “русского дела” – демократы перевели политическую борьбу из сферы контрразведки в сферу криминала, а там, как известно, практически отсутствуют возможности для политического маневра. В “русском деле” Трампу пришлось доказывать свою невиновности, но теперь, всего за три месяца до выборов, демократам самим придется доказывать виновность Трампа. Доказывать так, чтобы ни у кого не было никаких сомнений в том, что Трамп – преступник. Как им это удастся, непонятно. Глупая выходка ФБР спровоцировала политический кризис в Америке, в огне которого могут сгореть все попытки демократов удержать власть. Не будем загадывать, что нас ждет в ноябре 2022 года, но к настоящему времени ситуация такова: из 167 кандидатов-республиканцев, утвержденных Трампом, только 6 проиграли.

Поставьте себя на место демократов. Как они могут повторно включить механизмы фальсификации выборов 2020 года в 2022 году, если ковид уже утратил свой политический потенциал, а вместе с ним канули в лету десятки миллионов бюллетеней, отправленных по почте? Неужели обыск в поместье бывшего Президента хоть как-то поможет демократам выиграть выборы?

Если на это надеются, то они не там ищут. Многие утверждают, что секретные ядерные коды Трамп спрятал под кроватью во время оргии с проститутками в московском отеле, и искать надо именно там. Другие с этим не согласны – они уверены, что искомые документы Трамп тайно подбросил в гроб во время похорон недавно умершей бывшей жены Трампа Иванны. Альтернативная версия принадлежит неизвестному (пока) стукачу из окружения Трампа, который утверждает, что старые колготки Мелании Трамп используются Дональдом Трампом не для хранения чеснока и лука – как это делают все бывшие Президенты-демократы – а для хранения ядерных секретов. Всем этим конспирологическим теориям следуют только те демократы, которые искренне верят в компетентность правительства. Только этим можно объяснить, почему ФБР конфисковало, отказалось это признать, но затем вынуждено было вернуть все три паспорта Трампа (два просроченных и один – действующий дипломатический).

Как известно, адвокаты Трампа передали опись всех еще не переданных в Национальный Архив президентских документов еще в июне, за два месяца до рейда на Мар-а-Лаго. Если бы в описи нашелся хотя бы один-единственный документ, связанный с национальной безопасностью – вне зависимости от грифа секретности – то рейд состоялся бы прямо на следующий день. Очевидно, что ничего, связанного с национальной безопасностью, в Мар-а-Лаго не было. (Если бы было, то вся администрация Байдена должна сидеть в тюрьме за преступную халатность).

Поэтому единственная рабочая гипотеза случившегося – это гипотеза о действиях сторонников Хиллари Клинтон. Напомню, что в марте этого года Трамп подал в суд на два десятка клинтонистов (включая саму мадам) за организацию гнусного “русского дела”. До марта никаких конфликтов между Трампом и Национальным Архивом, как известно, не было. Документы, которые Трампу для его Президентской Библиотеки не нужны, спокойно переезжали в Национальный Архив.

Но клинтонисты в администрации Байдена, вероятно, отметили интересную закономерность – в Национальный Архив не был передан ни один документ, связанный с участием Хиллари Клинтон и ее сторонников в “русском деле”. Трамп рассекретил все эти документы, еще будучи Президентом, и хранил их для того, чтобы доказать свою правоту в суде. Подготовка к судебному иску заняла более года, и сразу после обращения в суд в отношениях между командой Трампа и работниками Национального Архива наметился разлад. Клинтонисты избрали тот единственный способ, который бы позволил сделать иск Трампа бездоказательным – просто изъять все документы по этому делу, используя высосанный из пальца смехотворный конфликт с Архивом.

Белый Дом клянется, что Президент Байден узнал о рейде из Интернета. По одним сведениям, Министерство Юстиции тоже не поставили в известность, по другим – они все знали. Генеральный Прокурор Гарленд сначала заявил, что он тоже ничего не знал, затем выдержал паузу в три дня, а потом вдруг обнародовал, что это именно он утвердил наезд на Трампа.

Таким образом, обыск в поместье Трампа – это очередной эпизод “русского дела”. Именно поэтому агенты ФБР, которые перетряхивали нижнее белье Мелании Трамп – это те же самые агенты из Отдела контрразведки, которые раскручивали “русское дело”, и которые в настоящее время находятся под следствием спецпрокурора Дахэма. Именно поэтому они без разбора конфисковали все, что могли найти – включая паспорта Трампа, которые ни с чем спутать нельзя (и для конфискации которых требуется, по закону, отдельное судебное решение). Их задачей было – не позволить Дональду Трампу выиграть иск против Хиллари Клинтон. В процессе достижения этой цели они уничтожили любые надежды демократов на то, что законодательная власть останется в их руках на вторую половину президентского срока Байдена.

Рейд в Мар-а-Лаго обернулся для демократов политической катастрофой, но винить в этом они должны свою самую одиозную (и самую мафиозную) фракцию. Все опросы общественного мнения – особенно среди независимых избирателей – это доказывают. Гигантское политическое фиаско всего за три месяца до выборов стало возможно только с помощью лично преданного Хиллари Клинтон Федерального Бюро Государственной Безопасности.

Все на выборы – пока они еще есть

Администрация Байдена прошла точку политического невозврата. 8 августа 2022 года все мы легли спать в Америке, а проснулись в Венесуэле. Или на Кубе. Или в путинской России – как кому нравится. Мы явились свидетелями самой агрессивной акции правоохранительных органов, которая когда-либо была инициирована против бывшего американского президента за два с половиной века существования США.

ФБР и Департамент Юстиции долго выжидали. Они знали, что Трамп традиционно проводит лето не во Флориде, а в своем поместье в Бедминстере в центральном Нью-Джерси. Директор ФБР все организовал и уехал в отпуск, как будто он совершенно тут ни при чем. Департамент Юстиции тоже якобы остался в стороне: ордер на обыск поместья Дональда Трампа во Флориде был дан судьей самого низкого уровня – судьей местного муниципалитета. Тем не менее, режим настолько боится Трампа, что было принято решение обыскать его поместье во Флориде не только в его отсутствие, но и в отсутствие его адвокатов. 

Агенты ФБР приказали выключить все камеры наблюдения и не разрешили адвокату и сотрудникам Трампа присутствовать на месте обыска. Кристина Бобб, единственный адвокат Трампа, который был в то время во Флориде, прибыла в резиденцию Трампа через час после начала обыска, и ее продержали на парковке дома Трампа на 30-градусном солнцепеке более 9 часов. Ей вручили копию ордера на обыск только тогда, когда уезжал последний агент. Список конфискованных вещей составлен не был и, соответственно, не был предоставлен адвокату Трампа. Личный сейф Дональда Трампа был взломан и при этом сломан, так что закрыть его обратно агенты не смогли. Агенты также внимательно просмотрели всю одежду и все нижнее белье Мелании Трамп. Все 128 комнат дома Трампа, подвал и гараж были перевернуты вверх дном.

Понятно, что использовать конфискованные таким образом документы в суде нельзя. Но использовать их в политических целях можно. Слить информацию о личной жизни Трампа и Мелании, например.

Предлогом выступило обвинение (пока не обнародованное) в ненадлежащем хранении государственных документов.

Одно из наказаний за нарушение закона о ненадлежащем обращении с государственными документами—”лишение права занимать какую-либо выборную должность в Соединенных Штатах”. Если цель рейда состояла в том, чтобы помешать Трампу баллотироваться на должность президента в 2024 году, то демократы потерпели грандиозное фиаско и просто гарантировали ему второй срок.

Дело в том, что закон о хранении государственных документов касается всех, кроме президентов и кандидатов в президенты. Напомню дело Хиллари Клинтон с ее подпольным сервером электронной почты. Если бы она была рядовым американцем, то должна была бы сидеть в тюрьме. Но во время скандала с электронной почтой она была кандидатом в президенты, а квалификация для должности президента прописана в Конституции США.

Конституция США требует, чтобы кандидат в президенты был рожден в США, достиг 35-летнего возраста, и проживал на территории США последние 14 лет. Всё. Только 3 требования. И Конституция ничего не говорит о нарушении правил хранения государственных документов. Конституция ничего не говорит о том, подвергает ли нынешний обитатель Белого Дома оппозиционного кандидата в президенты судебному преследованию или нет. Формально, политик может сидеть в тюрьме и быть кандидатом в президенты. И такие прецеденты в истории США были. Конституционные нормы полностью игнорируют все те законы, которые придумал Конгресс. Поэтому, если Генеральный Прокурор США Гарланд возбудит уголовное дело против Трампа или даже арестует его, то Трамп все равно будет обладать конституционным правом баллотироваться в президенты в 2024 году.

Только в 2022 году Трамп передал в Национальный Архив большое количество документов. Например, в январе этого года в Национальный Архив было передано 4 ящика документов. Их опись составила около 100 страниц. Туда вошли образцы президентских салфеток, обеденные меню, телефонная книга президента Трампа, расписание официальных встреч бывшего президента, и тому подобное. В феврале этого года Трамп передал в Архив подробную опись содержимого оставшихся 15 ящиков. В обоих случаях никакого противодействия работникам Национального Архива не было. Наоборот, Трамп и его адвокаты всячески помогали работникам Национального Архива получить документы. Об этом свидетельствует февральское заявление Национального Архива, в котором подчеркивается искренность и сотрудничество Трампа в этом деле. Процесс передачи документов шел с мая 2021 года безо всяких проволочек.

Хранение президентских документов имеет множество прецедентов в истории США, точнее, ровно 45 прецедентов. В 44 предыдущих случаях, бывший президент просто забирал все документы, которые находились в Белом Доме на день отъезда, а затем передавал часть документов в Национальный Архив, а часть оставлял себе для комплектования своей президентской библиотеки. При этом какая-то часть документов вообще никуда не попадала, поскольку дело касалось частной жизни президента. До 45-го президента последнее слово всегда было за президентом, в том числе и по вопросу о секретных документах. Например, предшественник Трампа Барак Обама на совершенно законных основаниях полностью очистил Белый Дом от каких-либо документов перед переездом туда Трампа. Для нескольких вагонов документов был арендован хорошо охраняемый склад в Чикаго, и разборка документов Обамой все еще продолжается.

Если за Байдена в 2020 году в самом деле проголосовало 81 миллион американцев, то президенту и его подельникам совершенно не стоило беспокоиться о внезапном и унизительном изъятии такого ценного национального достояния, как президентские салфетки.

Ни в каком страшном сне никто не мог предположить, что ФБР станет негласным помощником республиканцев, по крайней мере на выборах этого года. Их топорная работа катапультирует в Палату Представителей много новых людей, и республиканские кандидаты в Конгресс неожиданно получили поддержку этой самой сильной секретной политической полиции Запада. Пытаясь поставить палки в колеса Трампу, вашингтонское демократическое болото одним промахом вывело на национальный уровень все местные политические гонки в Конгресс США. 

Ни один демократ не осудил выходку американского идеологического филиала КГБ, и ни один республиканец не поддержал конфискацию документов, судьба которых давно была решена Трампом – они должны были в рабочем порядке перекочевать в Национальный Архив. Теперь выборы во всех округах будут фактически референдумом о том, следует ли Америке криминализировать политическую оппозицию или нет. Ни один демократ не обладает достаточной смелостью, чтобы пойти наперекор генеральной линии партии. Демократическая партия США – это партия ленинского типа: если Вашингтонский обком сказал, то вся Демократическая партия обязана безоговорочно подчиниться.

Коварный рейд и безобразный обыск в доме Трампа сыграет также негативную роль и в войне Украины против агрессии страны-соседа, во главе которой стоит недалекий нанофюрер. Украинцы видят в Байдене чуть ли не господа бога, но мы-то знаем, что среди американских граждан Байден, особенно после наезда на Трампа – политический труп. По клятвенному заверению пресс-секретаря Байдена, президента даже не проинформировали о готовящемся рейде. (Верится в это с трудом, но если все-таки это правда, то ситуация еще более зловещая). До выборов менее трех месяцев, а рейтинг Байдена ужасен: его поддерживает лишь около трети американцев.

Если раньше Байден мог разбазаривать свой политический капитал, то теперь ему и разбазаривать-то нечего. Ему будет все труднее находить деньги для помощи Украине, потому что при цене бензина в 4 доллара за галлон выкачать много денег из населения не удастся. Потенциально деньги можно было бы занять на рынке кредитов, но несколько месяцев назад федеральные власти под руководством того же Байдена начали борьбу с инфляцией и постоянно повышают учетную ставку, что делает выплату долга по высоким процентным ставкам проблематичной.

Нанофюрер это знает, поэтому в преддверии смены власти в Белом Доме будет форсировать события – не потому, что он так хочет, а потому, что республиканская администрация в январе 2025 года будет такой, что с ней любому самопровозглашенному диктатору из подворотни лучше дела не иметь. Владимир Обнуленный, как и Леонид Ильич Байден, завис в состоянии цугцванга, при котором любой ход игрока ведет лишь к ухудшению его позиции. Президент Зеленский уже совершил одну досадную ошибку в отношении Америки, не ответив на откровенную просьбу Дональда Трампа о помощи. Из-за отсутствия поддержки Зеленского Трамп получил свой первый импичмент, а Украина—агрессию единственного оставшегося в живых улуса Большой Орды. Надеюсь, что Зеленский выучил этот урок и больше таких непростительных ошибок не будет.

ФБР давно превратилось в военизированное крыло Демократической Партии. Теперь презумпция невиновности в Америке, которая раньше звучала так: “Обвиняемый до решения суда считается невиновным”, выглядит как “Обвиняемый считается виновным до тех пор, пока не будет доказано его членство в Демократической Партии”.

Разумеется, очередной наезд на Трампа никак не связан с потенциальным нарушением порядка хранения президентских документов. События эти связаны не с прошлыми выборами и их последствиями, а с грядущими выборами. Двое родителей создали этот рейд ФБР. Матерью стала позорная Комиссия 6 января, а отцом выступил оглушительный выигрыш тех кандидатов на праймериз, которых утвердил Трамп. При этом, как известно, все те конгрессмены-республиканцы, которые проголосовали за импичмент Трампу, потерпели в праймериз поражения. Провальные результаты Комиссии 6 января наложились на невезение противников Трампа на праймериз, и сумма этих двух событий явилась тем самым триггером, который привел Америку Байдена к присвоению почетного звания “Банановая республика”.

Рейд на резиденцию Трампа ознаменовал начало открытой криминализации оппозиционеров в Америке. Администрация Байдена на следующий же день после обыска в доме Трампа задержала во время семейного путешествия конгрессмена от штата Пенсильвания Скотта Перри, верного союзника Дональда Трампа и бывшего председателя фракции Свободы. Агенты ФБР изъяли у него мобильный телефон и сняли полную копию памяти телефона. Какие еще манипуляции с телефоном были совершены агентами, неизвестно.

Уинстон Черчилль в 1898 году написал, что “Лучше создавать новости, чем принимать их; быть участником, а не критиком”. Видимо, пришло время не просто смотреть, читать, и обсуждать новости, но и принимать активное участи в их создании. Для начала: позвонить в предвыборный штаб противника нынешнего режима и предложить свою помощь. Это надо сделать сегодня – пока телефоны не отобрали.

The First Digital War

After World War II, most people were willing to forgive the Germans.  That was because, under the Nazi regime, many Germans lacked access to accurate information.  Though some of them suspected something, their brainwashed minds forced them to dismiss it as false.  It is expected that the consequences of the present Russian-Ukrainian war will be quite different, because the vast majority of Ukraine is covered by 4G or 4G LTE mobile networks.

Similar to Ukraine, Russia’s mobile networks and Internet coverage are almost 100%, at least in populated areas.  Citizens of Russia have access to truthful information (or whatever remains of it during the war).  Unlike postwar Germany, Russians are not likely to be forgiven this time.  It will no longer be acceptable to say, “We didn’t know” or “We just followed orders.”

The Russian units had been identified before entering Ukrainian territory.  Each commander had been singled out.  Leaks have been reported of a database containing 120 thousand Russian soldiers and officers fighting in Ukraine. The names, addresses, passports, and military identifications of these individuals have been published.  Additionally, a massive data-mining operation with open (and some illegally obtained but commonly available in Russia) sources revealed every Russian invader’s phone numbers, family members, travel patterns, photographs, friends, and parents.  It has never happened before; recall that the Internet does not have a “delete” button.  The world will access everything it knows about the aggressors in perpetuity.  For the first time in history, the victim of the aggression makes sure that every Russian will soon google what their loved one has done in Ukraine.

Today’s generation of Russians, like the rest of the world, have no access to the names of those Soviet “liberators” who raped millions of German girls in 1945.  However, the names of those Russians who raped Ukrainian girls (some of whom were under ten years old) are filed and are potentially accessible on the Internet for everyone to see.  Atrocities committed by Soviet troops in “liberated” by Stalin European countries in World War II are not widely recognized but remembered by the locals.  Some countries are familiar with the Russian “liberators” to a greater degree before World War II, such as Poland, Finland, and the Baltic states.

It is a matter of a state secret that the death toll of Russian soldiers is kept confidential.  However, with bureaucratic punctuality, the Russian Ministry of Defense (or rather the Ministry of Offense) publishes a list of military decorations.  Details such as names, DoBs, army units, etc., are included in the description.  The point is that published data indicates whether a medal was awarded posthumously.  There is an established strict numbering system for military decorations.  The sequence of awards’ numbers with the posthumous mark provides the best estimate of Russians killed in action in Ukraine, as indirectly confirmed by the Russians themselves.  That number is currently an order of magnitude higher than what Russian propaganda claims.

Shortly after the attack, local carriers canceled the registration of Russia-issued cell phones on Ukrainian mobile networks.  Having robbed the local Ukrainian population of cell phones, the attackers became ecstatic that they could now contact their loved ones for free.  However, nobody told them that Ukrainian intelligence has access to all phone calls via Ukrainian networks.  As a result, it is the first war in which practically all communications among the “liberators” are intercepted and recorded.  Moreover, all telephone calls between the invading units and their relatives in Russia were captured and documented, along with all metadata (geolocation, timestamp, and the two telephone numbers).

Ukrainian intelligence quickly traced calls made from the territory of Ukraine to Russian phone numbers.  These stolen Ukrainian cell phone numbers are made into targets of the Ukrainian digital campaign designed to influence the current smartphone user (presumably a Russian soldier) to defect.  Similarly, the corresponding Russian telephone numbers are intended to cultivate distrust, panic, and diverse anti-Putin narratives.  Russian soldiers are receiving frightening text messages: indeed, after the war, we will find you; revenge by Ukrainians is imminent; neither you nor your family members are safe, even if you never depart Russia.  One message reads, “Maybe not today, but tomorrow or in a year, you will die.  We are coming after you.”

The Russians likely had world-class secure communication equipment prior to the invasion.  This equipment, however, is rarely used because of a lack of training.  Thus, virtually no one among the invaders uses scrambled (encrypted) communication modes.  Instead, Russian crews use known radio frequencies operated by inexperienced conscripts.  Ukrainian intelligence received complete knowledge of Russian operations through an open wireless exchange.  At the beginning of the conflict, Ukrainian radio amateurs published known Russian military frequencies, and a worldwide volunteer army of radio amateurs jumped in and drowned Russian radio traffic in interference.

The practice was later suppressed by Ukrainian intelligence because of the importance of SIGINT information.  After that, the international radio amateur community banned Russian radio amateurs from most international contests for the first time in history.  At this time, Russians are still operating openly on short-wave radio and Ukrainian cellular phones.  However, some are still baffled about how Ukrainian long-distance artillery batteries became aware of their precise positions.

Two factors initially shocked the world: the lack of professionalism of the Russian attackers and the significant level of professionalism of Ukrainian defenders.  Today, the world is surprised that the Russians have not much tried to cover up their atrocities perpetrated on the temporarily occupied (and recently liberated) Ukrainian territories.  It appears no one informed them that targeting civilians is a war crime.  The fact stands that some Russians—soldiers and officers— may not have been familiar with the Geneva Convention.  Furthermore, they did not have a great deal of knowledge about Ukraine: nobody in the Russian military was mindful of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, so they foolishly dug trenches in the still-deadly radioactive forest.

The atrocities perpetrated in Ukraine are essentially unerasable.  The high-resolution photographs and recorded metadata will be accepted as evidence by military tribunals after the war.  For example, hackers gained access to a security camera in a Belarussian military post office and uploaded the video online.  Therefore, anybody can witness for several hours what Russian marauders brought with them from Ukraine and sent to their families in Russia—from frying pans to toys to laptops to women’s underwear to toilets (including the used ones).

At this point, the war has reached a complete digital internationalization phase.  Prime Minister Winston Churchill assembled a worldwide coalition to combat the Nazis over two tough years.  President Zelensky used 21st-century digital technology to accomplish the same within just two weeks.  Accordingly, it became the first war in which every square inch of battleground territory was filmed either from space or drones.  Furthermore, it is the first war in which most firefights and post-battle dispositions were captured on cell phones and uploaded to the Internet.  In other words, the current conflict is genuine, the First Digital War.

Military historians have noted for some time that in a duel between armor and a projectile, the projectile consistently prevails.  The first large-scale conflict of the 21st century in Europe may produce another adage: in the end, digital truth always triumphs over digital propaganda, despite initial setbacks.

[Originally published at American Thinker]

Why all of a sudden did Ukraine become the center of the Universe?

The United States Congress recently offered a standing ovation to Ukrainian President Zelensky.  Without a doubt, his country is virtually treated as the 51st state of the United States.  Yet, the United States government deals with Ukrainian borders exponentially better than America’s southern border.  In fairness to Zelensky, he proposed something American conservatives have been advocating for a long time – replacing the corrupt UN with a better international organization.

President Putin had been waiting for stars to align properly for the invasion: Trump is gone, the United States under Obama’s third term cordially cooperates with a profitable (to Russia) Iran deal, the West is obsessed with forced wokenization of its armed forces and eviction of women from women’s sports, Ukraine still dreams of joining balls-less NATO coalition, and Putin’s court nobility feeds him rosy self-propaganda images.

Let us recall Charles Spurgeon’s wise words, “Consider how precious a soul must be when both God and the devil are after it.” A modern rephrasing of this might be, “Why has Ukraine become so valuable that the leadership of Russia and ruling circles of United States are after it?”

Sadly, this post-Soviet state’s well-intended de-Sovietization, de-Leninization, and de-Stalinization had taken the wrong turn.  Unfortunately, though, Democrats decided to exploit the situation rather than assist Ukraine in rectifying it.

As a result, during Obama’s presidency, Ukrainians got an offer they could not refuse, and a well-oiled conveyer belt to transfer money from the West to Ukraine and back had begun.  Everybody benefited from the scheme; it was so well known and accepted that even children of many swamp-dwellers in Washington were introduced to it.  Nevertheless, nobody on the receiving and sending ends of the monetary conveyor dared to ask the simple question of who was the brain behind the scenes who orchestrated it.

One possible answer – which could also explain why Ukraine suddenly became so valuable – is that the Russian KGB planned, implemented, and maintained the “Ukrainian” financial conveyor.  (The term KGB is used here because of its broad acceptance, regardless of the abbreviation currently adopted in Russia for secret intelligence services.)

KGB was always described as “a state within a state.” Naturally, therefore, in most post-Soviet republics, including Ukraine, the vast majority of high-ranking KGB officers were members of the same exclusive club.  (The similar exclusive club had existed for the high-ranking Russian and Ukrainian military.  It explains why Russia could annex Crimea without firing a shot in 2014).  The Kremlin intended that Russia would position itself as the supervisor of financial flows to Washington politicians and, thus, influence American politics while hiding behind the Ukrainian façade.

It may seem as if the plot was brilliant – Russia was able to maintain everyone happy by bribing American politicians using American taxpayer funds.  Of course, there was involvement from corrupt Washington slime and Ukrainian gangs, but the complete story was obscured.  Putin was holding all the cards – and then Trump happened.

President Trump has made several attempts to stop the “Ukrainian” conveyor.  Unfortunately, he had no allies in that endeavor; by that point, many anti-Trump politicians regarded the “Ukrainian” conveyor as an indispensable and valuable source of accessible capital.  In his fight, Trump attempted to involve Zelensky but was unsuccessful; the effort ended in quid pro quo blame and bogus impeachment.  In office for just two months, Zelensky, who was considered an outsider by the Ukrainian powers that be, was never briefed about the conveyer by the previous Ukrainian administration.  Most likely, Zelensky had not fully comprehended the exact nature of Trump’s request during the infamous phone call on July 25, 2019.

Indeed, part of the American taxpayers’ wealth was applied by Putin long before the 2016 elections.  A significant amount of the funds from the “Ukrainian” financial conveyor system were utilized to spread the vicious “Trump is a Russian asset” hoax.  Moreover, the laundered funds had been directed to expel Trump from the White House in 2020.  It is acknowledged that the KGB is proficient at executing such “active measures” against a dedicated foe.  In short, Kremlin had, in fact, influenced several presidential elections in the United States, but, as Mueller Report confirmed, Trump had nothing to do with that.

Currently, there is a steady flow of financial, economic, military, and humanitarian aid into Ukraine; let us hope no one would dare to take the usual cut during wartime.  People, mostly unaware of the “Ukrainian” conveyor and its Kremlin management, are attracted by the bravery of Ukrainians and the undeniable Churchillian strength of Zelensky.  Nevertheless, the actual reason for the current war could be is that both Putin and the Washington establishment wish to bury the conveyer as deeply as possible.  The Democrats do not want any complications because of inevitable exposure, especially in a midterm election year; they desperately need Zelensky in their camp.  On the other hand, Putin wishes to regain control of the conveyer.  In order to do so, he must appoint a marionette as president of Ukraine.

The media lionize President Zelensky; he is portrayed as the ideal hero (at least in ancient Greek terms).  Similarly, President Putin is demonized and made a superb villain, an unquestionable anti-hero (in absolute terms).  In combination with the horrifying images of bombings of civilians in Ukraine, the international darling and the international pariah are excellent instruments for Democrats to keep the American electorate distanced from the dirty under-the-carpet struggle.

When reviewing the first Russo-Ukrainian War, which is clearly not the first, it is vital to keep that hidden tussling in mind.  Voltaire wrote in 1731 in his book History of Charles XII, King of Sweden, that “Ukrania has always aspired to freedom.” Unfortunately, the road to freedom is not one of the straight lines; the story of Ukraine confirms that dirty realpolitik deals plague it.

[Originally published at American Thinker]

Russia’s dire future

Who could unite the ununitable — on both sides of the Atlantic?  President Putin has undoubtedly accomplished the impossible by bringing together the opposing political forces in the West.  No, they did not “unite” in the traditional sense.  Still, pro-socialist circles demonstrate a joint front with pro-conservative forces against the Kremlin.  Moreover, in response to the unprovoked Russian attack, the West condemned it nonstop.  (There are marginal groups of pseudo-conservatives who justify Putin’s aggression, but they are undoubtedly in the minority).

That alone indicates that an extraordinary event has occurred.  However, it is not simply a proverbial perfect storm.  As a matter of fact, we are experiencing a storm of biblical proportions — if one dares to look at the possible future.

At the end of 2021, the left, tarnished in the coronavirus battles (we refer to the pandemic’s political, not biological component), needed a pause.  In the early stages, the left welcomed the pandemic enthusiastically because, as everyone knows, leftists practice the “no crisis to waste” mode of operation.  However, they had no idea how to end it without losing (political) face, and Putin’s aggression has opened an escape hatch.  The coronavirus pandemic further compressed the coil spring until Putin foolishly released it.  By doing so, he has achieved unbelievable things.

While everybody is focused on Ukraine’s suffering, it is time to look at the most probable post-war settlement terms.  Russia has entered a challenging period.  For example, the head of the Russian delegation, which pretends to negotiate with Ukraine, is a former Russian minister of culture, Vladimir Medinsky.  He is known for saying that “the fact that Russia has been preserved and developed, proves that our people have one extra chromosome.”

Well, after a month or so of fighting, the Russian military — possessing an “extra chromosome” —  is no longer respected.  During the height of the nuclear scare, the Soviet Union was covered with propaganda posters like “attention: the enemy is eavesdropping.”  In 2022, Russians must be schooled in “attention: the enemy is taking notice.”  Those concerned about the Soviet-era nukes are, in reality, worrying more about the mental health of the Kremlin nano-fuehrer than the actual missiles and warheads.

China is no doubt paying attention.  Siberia, which is rich in all the elements of the Mendeleev Periodic Table, could be picked up quickly with little resistance — and with the wholehearted support of the local Russian population.  The current inhabitants of South Siberia are practically indistinguishable from the Northern Chinese population.  For the last decade, a Russian citizen in Siberia marrying a Chinese citizen has been widely considered a stroke of good luck.  These Russians would definitely greet the Chinese army — contrary to what Ukrainians did for Russians.

After every day passes without Ukrainian capitulation, Siberia appears to become more and more attractive as an acquisition target rather than well equipped, determined, and supported by Western countries Taiwan.  Like everyone else, China has been stunned by the Ukrainian resistance, but a more significant shock has been the largely unified position of the West.  Although this unity against the aggressor will not deter China’s communists, they will likely put Taiwan on the back burner for now and focus on the low-hanging fruit.

Likewise, the South Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island, currently in Russian hands but previously belonging to Japan, are giving heed.  The Königsberg (today Kaliningrad) region, previously German Prussia, is also tuning in.  So it is no surprise that the Russian citizens in these regions, far from Moscow, are eager to do all it takes to relieve massive economic and financial sanctions by merely switching jurisdictions.

Years from now, upon the end of silly anti-all-Russian hysteria, classics like Tchaikovsky, Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, and Brodsky will be returned in due course, and Russian scientists will be back at American universities.  It’s highly likely that Russia will be almost unrecognizable by that time.  It is possible that Russia might no longer occupy one-seventh of the planet’s landmass.  Another reason is that the devastating sanctions are here to stay, because no one in Washington has the stomach to behave in a pro-Putin manner in the foreseeable future.

The end of Ruzzia as we know it due to economic blockade was brought up exclusively by Russia’s self-inflicted wounds.  Russia unwisely started shelling and bombing neighboring poor Ukraine, with just one-third GDP per capita compared to Russia’s.  Instead of a “victorious little war,” Russia must brace for a multitude of black swan events.  The biblical judgment over Russia is coming, assured by the unprecedented alliance of the left, the right, and the valor of the newborn Ukrainian nation.  Rephrasing William Gibson, the Russian defeat is already here — it is just not evenly distributed.

[Originally published at American Thinker]

Why a no-fly zone over Ukraine won’t work

Several decades ago, a colleague from a neighboring department at my university loaned me a marketing textbook.  Naturally, it was difficult to force a young physicist to read something that does not explore the Schrödinger Equation.  Anyway, I accepted the book, intending to surf it politely for a few minutes and then ignore it.

However, the moment I opened the book, I was hooked.  Since then, I have read and reread it several times.  One of the practicing marketing experts who also taught at the university wrote its introduction.  In particular, he described the type of homework given to his students.  As part of the course, students were required to develop a marketing program for new, high-quality drill bits.

All undergraduates completed the assignment, and all earned an F.

Indeed, the marketing guru substantiated an explanation for such disastrous results.  He noted that humans, in the truest sense of the word, do not need drill bits.  What people actually want is holes, not drill bits.  Thus, there is no need, and subsequently, there is no demand for them.  People need holes in wood, metal, plastic, whatever.  In reality, drill bits are only one part of the range of tools that allow men to accomplish their actual goals: the holes.

Any attempt to persuade individuals to purchase items they do not actually require is ineffective.  Such an endeavor is ultimately not profitable.  The correct, profitable approach is selling people what they truly desire: holes.  The professor argued that marketing should focus on the holes rather than drill bits.  Eventually, people will purchase these drill bits if they are convinced that they will get stunning holes at the end of the process.

Let us fast-forward to 2022.  The Ukrainian citizens call for establishing a no-fly zone over the country.  This is an excellent example of a situation where people demand things they do not actually need.  There is no question that Ukrainians are anxious to stop deadly Russian aerial and missile attacks, and that is a noble goal, but it has nothing to do with NATO’s no-fly zone.  A no-fly zone is one of many tools available to achieve this objective.  According to what is known, military personnel dislike it when civilians offer the mission and mandate specific tools.

Instead, let military professionals choose the methods and tools to stop terrible bombings and shelling of innocent civilians, assuming that the West — and, it seems, the world — wants to offer a helping hand to suffering Ukrainians.  We must stop the chorus of internet military experts who were prominent virologists and world-renowned epidemiologists just a few weeks ago.

Ukrainians should be informed that while the need to stop the bombardments is acknowledged, the external methods to resolve it are not their choice.  Various military, diplomatic, and economic tools are available — and the no-fly zone is just one (and not the most attractive) of them.  (Regarding this matter, we are still awaiting official calls to expel Russia from the United Nations, similar to the expulsion of the Soviet Union from the League of Nations for attacking Finland in 1940.)

One of the solutions would be a Lend-Lease-like program to deliver Ukraine high-tech anti-aircraft batteries.  Ukraine already uses high-tech Turkish drones; they have to be complemented with American-made surface-to-air missiles.

Along with anti-aircraft defense weapons, the United States has historically supported just causes while embracing a façade of neutrality.  There were, for example, approximately one hundred American military pilots who resigned from their commissions in 1940 and 1941 and joined Chiang Kai-shek’s army in the fight against Imperial Japan.  Note that American pilots entered the combat long before the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) squadron became known as the Flying Tigers.  It is noteworthy that the Flying Tigers flew Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighters, made in Buffalo, N.Y., resulting in the first American aces of World War II.

Ukrainians must also observe that Flying Tigers represent a pre-woke American military.  Today’s politically correct military will take much longer to reach the right decisions.  For this reason, Ukraine must fight off the invaders with what it has at this juncture — until Pentagon lawyers and Washington swamp-dwellers are able to explore and crunch risks, profits, and political expediency.

[Originally published by American Thinker]

The Russian Ersatz-Fascism

The unprovoked attack on Ukraine has transformed most Internet pundits from world-renowned virologists and epidemiologists into experts in Eastern Europe geopolitics virtually overnight. Various explanations are offered, ranging from rational (“the restoration of the Soviet Empire” or “the irresponsible expansion of NATO to the East”) to irrational (“megalomaniac” or “madman” Putin).

Well, Putin is neither a-hundred-percent rational or a-hundred-percent irrational. His activities are manifestations of his ideology—and that aspect of the present war in Europe is often overlooked.

In 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin arranged for the transportation of the ashes of the Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin (pronounced as il’in) from Switzerland and reinterment in Russia at the prestigious Donskoi Monastery cemetery in Moscow. Putin’s personal funds were used to install the gravestone. The philosopher’s archive was purchased from the University of Michigan for 40 thousand dollars and relocated to Russia in the following year. Throughout the 21st century, Vladimir Putin has used the philosophical ideas of Ilyin in his speeches.

Why does Putin pay close attention to this obscure philosopher, otherwise unknown to the West?

Ivan Ilyin was a professor at Moscow University who was arrested by the Bolsheviks (Russian Communists) six times and sentenced to death for his anti-communist activities but was instead expelled from Russia. So, along with hundreds of distinguished Russian intellectuals, Ilyin boarded one of what turned out to be the infamous “philosophers’ ships.” Having settled in Germany, Ilyin, together with other expelled Russian academics, established the Russian Scientific Institute in 1923. It was there that he became the ideologue of the White Knight’s Movement of Russian monarchists (or simply White Movement), the philosophical foundation for Putin’s worldview. (During that era, the coloring scheme was pretty conventional—”Red” for communists, “White” for monarchists.)

However, the only reprehensible thing is that Ilyin regarded Fascism and National Socialism as special cases of the monarchist White Movement. Despite this, Ilyin was never a staunch supporter of Italian Fascism or German National Socialism. On the contrary, his entire life was dedicated to propagating the Russian Orthodox Christian version of Fascism.

Moreover, Ilyin made a grave blunder when he assumed the external attributes of Fascism in place of Fascism itself. It did not occur to him that Fascism, created under the leadership of the prominent socialist Benito Mussolini, belongs to the same Left ideology as Socialism and Bolshevism. It was Mussolini who built in Italy true “National Socialism,” in contrast to The Third Reich, which actually created “Aryan Socialism” (sometimes correctly termed “Racial Socialism”). As is well known, Mussolini was outraged because the Nazi Party (National Socialist Workers Party of Germany) appropriated the term “National Socialism,” which, strictly speaking, does not apply to it.

As with many other ideologies, Monarchism can be Left or Right—just as both right-wing totalitarianism and left-wing totalitarianism exist. Likewise, there is right-wing anti-Semitism or left-wing anti-Semitism. There is also right-wing Nationalism and left-wing Nationalism (although the use of the term “nationalism” outside of Germany is most likely incorrect). These isms are not distinct ideologies. Rather, they are external, secondary attributes of one or more underlying ideologies. As humanity has accumulated enough statistics, it is evident that totalitarianism and anti-Semitism are indeed prevalent in left-leaning movements. Although this is only true statically, it does not speak to the ideology’s dynamic character.

Putin has carried out the same mistake as Ilyin; that said, he has done so in the political rather than ideological sphere. There was a dilemma facing Russia two decades ago: as a post-Soviet- Union country, it needed a unifying ideology. Communism was a non-starter; the return to the pre-Soviet Tsarism was not popular. Putin has discovered Ilyin and has accepted the external characteristics of Ilyin’s White Movement as an ideology that would help Russia achieve success. Despite this, Putin, like Ilyin, is trying to combine the incompatible while maintaining the vagueness of the White Movement’s fundamental ideology.

As the apologist of the White Movement, Ilyin himself hesitated in determining where the movement should be placed on the political spectrum: on the Left or the Right. However, Ilyin has avoided the necessity of such a definition; in essence, he sought to develop a supra-ideological—or rather post-ideological ideology.

His 1928 article, “On Russian Fascism,” introduced the idea of a post-ideological social movement, “into where the political party spirit does not penetrate.” In the same article, Ilyin asks a rhetorical question: “When will we realize that there is no salvation in borrowing at all—for it does not matter whether democracy is adopted or fascism?” (Here, Ilyin correctly distinguishes the difference between democracy and Fascism). Ilyin argues that the White Movement “…is already on its way and must continue to follow the paths of independent creativity.” Because of the “independent creativity” of Russian Fascists in exile, the idea was developed that left-wing Fascist ideas of organizing society and right-wing Capitalist ideas could be combined to achieve the primary goal of monarchists—the restoration of the Romanov dynasty in Russia. According to historian James Pool, many wealthy Russian immigrants in Germany were more anti-communist and anti-Semitic than Hitler himself, and they supported the Nazis financially since the early years of The Third Reich.

As a result, this movement has been incorrectly characterized by Ilyin as Left Monarchism, ideologically close to Italian Fascism, but before it and, therefore, its ideological predecessor. In the above quote, Ilyin admits the previously mentioned unforgivable error—he accepts the attributes of Fascism as constituting Fascism in itself and does not see its Left, socialist nature. However, he was pleased to have been deceived because he saw allies in any movement that opposed the Bolsheviks, Communists, or Social Democrats in the struggle against the Bolshevik coup d’état in Russia in 1917.

In his ignorance, Ilyin did not realize that the struggle of the Italian Fascists against the Italian Communists was not a struggle between two opposing forces but an irreconcilable internecine struggle. A similar argument can be established concerning the bloody scuffles between National Socialists and Communists and Social Democrats in pre-war Germany. Later on, after the Second World War, in the 1948 article “On Fascism,” Ilyin complains that “Fascism had made several critical mistakes that determined its political and historical physiognomy and gave the very name its odious tint, which does not get tired to be emphasized by its enemies. Therefore, it is necessary to choose another name for future social and political movements of this kind.” (It should be noted that the quasi-fascist group Antifa, sponsored by the Democrat Party, follows that recommendation).

Fascists in France and later on in Italy never saw themselves outside the socialist framework, but National Socialists in Germany initially positioned themselves as “not Right or Left.” They enjoyed this self-identification in the eyes of the worldwide anti-capitalist movement for some time. Then, suddenly, Joseph Stalin abruptly changed the game’s rules: he decided to exploit the left-right conceptual dichotomy (in an indeed narrow setting) to prosecute the slightest opposition to his dictatorial rule altogether. Any aberration from the orthodox Communist party line—no matter how small—had to be labeled. Hence, the “Right-deviationists” and “Left-deviationists” were born.

The “Left-deviationists” were deemed “too orthodox,” “too revolutionary,” so much, as strange as it may seem, for the taste of bloodthirsty revolutionary Bolsheviks. In contrast, the “Right-deviationists” were considered traitors to the idea of the planet-wide socialist revolution because they dared to consider building a workers’ paradise by cleverly exploiting mechanisms of state capitalism. Unquestionably, the word “capitalism” was anathema for communists. The “Left-deviationists” were on the left from Stalin, and “Right-deviationists” were on his right.

Instead of the rostrum at the French Assembly, Stalin positioned himself at the center of the ideological universe and thus had opened a new page in the “left-right” semantic journey. To rephrase it, Soviet Communists delineated intra-communist opposition as either left- or right-wingers. The left-right labels are no longer utilized to describe opposite political forces; from now on, they characterize deviations relative to the official Soviet Communist party line. Stalin used it initially to incriminate another fellow Bolshevik, his bête noire Leon Trotsky, but eventually, by the 1930s, it grew into a tool for massive party purges.

As it appears, the slide of Leftist ideologies into left-wing totalitarianism is an inevitable consequence and a natural result of all left-wing regimes. There are no exceptions to this rule. Beginning with the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century and ending with Venezuela of the 21st century, all Leftist regimes have evolved towards totalitarianism. (It is interesting to note that the French Revolution happened at about the same historical epoch and for about the same reasons as the American Revolution, but if France chose the Left path of development, then America chose the Right one; the result of these two revolutions speaks for itself).

The Frankfurt School of Socialism adherents were strongly pro-Soviet (a generous amount of them were veritably Stalinists) and, customarily, considered National Socialism a form of deviation to the Right from the mainstream trajectory of Soviet (i.e., International) Socialism. Consequently, they emigrated from pre-war Germany to the United States and brought this particular understanding of the designation.

Ilyin hoped to defeat Left totalitarianism in Soviet Russia with the help of the Fascist “chevaliers.” However, left-wing totalitarianism—into which both Italian Fascism and National Socialism of The Third Reich quickly and naturally evolved—could not destroy the underlying platform that both left-wing ideologies were built upon. Ilyin, even in 1948, contemporary to these events, was still in the thrall of illusions when he asserted that Fascism “arose as a reaction to Bolshevism, as a concentration of state-protective forces to the Right.” Thus, Ilyin supported the post-war myth of the Frankfurt School that Fascism and National Socialism were right-wing movements.

In the article “National Socialism. New spirit. I” (part II was never written), published just four months after Hitler got to power, Ilyin praises the Nazis. He welcomes the “legal self-destruction of the Democratic-parliamentary system” in Germany. He emphasizes that Germany “managed to break the democratic impasse, without violating the constitution.” For Ilyin, the main thing was that in Germany, “everything that is involved in Marxism, social democracy, and Communism is being removed.”

Ilyin’s tragic mistake was that he could not recognize that Fascism and National Socialism are close ideological relatives of Marxism, Communism, and other strains of left-wing ideology.

Ilyin eloquently writes that the seizure of power by the National Socialists is “a coup not of disintegration, but concentration; not destruction, but conversion; not violently lax, but powerfully disciplined and organized; not immense, but dosed. And what is most remarkable is that it causes loyal obedience in all sections of the people.” It is this direction of development of modern Russia that Putin chose for himself, who sees Russia as “powerfully disciplined,” and “causing loyal obedience in all sections of the people.” At the same time, all Putin’s actions are formally carried out, according to Ilyin, “without violating the constitution.”

Ilyin was also struck by the rapidity with which German National Socialism developed. Hitler came to power in January 1933, and the Russian Scientific Institute was placed under the control of the Goebbels Ministry of Propaganda by October of that year. In July 1934, Ilyin was dismissed from the institute, of which he had been a founder (it is known that in March 1934, Ilyin refused to cooperate with the Nazis, although he had before supported them and hoped they would be effective in combatting the Soviet communists).

In 1938, the world-famous Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff saved Ilyin from inevitable imprisonment and death in a concentration camp by paying 4,000 Swiss francs in collateral (about $30,000 today); this allowed Ilyin to not only flee to Switzerland but also to stay there and live without fear of extradition back to The Third Reich. It is worth noting that Rachmaninoff, earlier, in 1923, helped a fellow ex-pat from Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, Igor Sikorsky, by writing him a check for $5,000 (about $75,000 today). That is how Sikorsky’s successful aircraft manufacturing business in America got its start.

In this way, Ilyin’s passion for Germany’s version of Fascism came to an end. Will Putin end his enthusiasm for Ilyin? A former nuclear superpower seeking to build capitalism using totalitarian socialist methods (and the current top leadership of Russia knows of no other method) is doomed to failure.

As such, this conclusion is not based on Putin’s political mistakes but instead on Ilyin’s convoluted, pseudoscientific post-ideological ideology. Essentially, Putin’s political errors result from his post-ideological foundation. In the same way that Ilyin himself was inclined to work with anyone, even the devil, to defeat Soviet communists, Putin decided to use Ilyin’s ideas about the White Movement in order to attain his political objectives.

What are these objectives? To bring back the Soviet Union? To reestablish the Warsaw Pact? No, Putin does not want to repeat the mistakes of the past and is not satisfied with the accomplishments of his predecessors.

The goal of Putin, like Stalin and Lenin before him, is world domination.

Putin, the architect of the KGB Caliphate in Russia, is driven by precisely this desire to dominate the world.

This nano-fuehrer of the White Movement from a St. Petersburg slum, who unexpectedly had catapulted to the Russian presidency, sees himself as the World Sovereign. Capturing parts of Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Syria is more than just an attempt to restore the Soviet Union. It was a dress rehearsal before the attempt to seize world supremacy. Toward this end, Putin created precarious anti-American Axis of China-Russia-Syria-Iran-North Korea (modeled after the Axis countries of The Third Reich-Italy-Japan during the Second World War).

By the way, Ilyin had always put the word “Ukraine” in quotes because he held this country an integral territory of Russia, and his post-Soviet vision of Russia includes Ukraine as an organic part of Russia. In 2014, Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which was a direct result of Ilyin’s worldview. As long as Russia’s leaders support Russian Ersatz-Fascism, they will continue attempts to re-occupy the post-Soviet space.

In addition, Putin regards Ukraine, and all other countries, for that matter, not as sovereign states but rather as rebellious provinces within a future unified Orthodox Fascist Empire. It looks like the vast majority of the world leaders have finally comprehended this; even Switzerland had recently dropped its 207-years of neutrality due to Kremlin’s aggression toward Ukraine. Putin’s principal competitors in the world dominance endeavor—Socialist International (Socintern) and World Economic Forum—are left far behind, for they do not have access to weapons.

Putin punctually fulfills Ilyin’s post-ideological program, which includes Ilyin’s harsh post-war criticism of Fascism.

Having a strongly negative view of Russian and German anti-Semitism, Ilyin was a genuine Russian intellectual. By attracting Russian oligarchs of Jewish origin into power, Putin managed, if not eradicating, at least substantially suppressing manifestations of state anti-Semitism in so traditionally anti-Semitic a country like Russia.

Besides criticizing Fascism, Ilyin also complains about the lack of spirituality present in The Third Reich as well as the Nazi hostility towards Christianity. Putin also rectified the situation by elevating the role of the Russian Orthodox Church. In Ilyin’s opinion, the Nazi Party established a monopoly on party power in The Third Reich. Putin also took this into consideration—in modern Russia, there are many political parties (although not one opposes the Kremlin). Moreover, Putin follows Ilyin’s direct instruction that political parties in post-Soviet Russia are not to act as independent forces; they should plainly exist to institutionalize elections.

Finally, Ilyin criticizes Fascism for creating a totalitarian system; he argues Fascism should be limited only to “authoritarian dictatorship,” capable of “giving religion, the press, science, art, economy and non-Communist parties freedom of judgment and creativity to the extent of their political loyalty.” Putin has apparently taken this recommendation literally. In modern Russia, journalists and citizens are entitled to freedom of expression, but only “to the extent of their loyalty” to the authoritarian regime.

The problem with Putin is that he is building Right-by-definition capitalism in Russia through the use of Left-by-definition ideology.

It is an approach that guarantees the instability of Russian society and its eventual collapse. The policies of Europe are essentially the same as those of Putin’s Russia: right-wing capitalism injected with left-wing ideology. Consequently, Europe favors Putin (to a certain degree, of course) and is against Israel, which has abandoned the Left ideology, and against the United States, which stubbornly refuses to adopt Socialist ideas.

In addition, Putin does not miss many of Ilyin’s recommendations regarding engaging Russian-speaking immigrants outside of Russia. During the time of Ilyin, this was an acute issue. However, now, when roughly thirty million Russian-speaking citizens from the former Soviet Union live outside of Russia, it is Putin’s intention to treat this multi-million contingent ideologically and propagandistically in the spirit of Ilyin.

According to Timothy Snyder, Ilyin was of the opinion that “Russia would save the world not from but with Fascism.” Note that Putin justifies—in a truly Orwellian manner—the current aggression toward Ukraine as an “Anti-Nazi special operation.”

Having no appreciation for the illogic and inconsistency of Ilyin’s post-ideology, Putin meticulously adheres to his teachings and, as a result, introduces one of the bloodiest varieties of Left ideology in Russia. Essentially, he promotes marriage between the aggressive atheism of Italian and German Fascism with the militant theology of the unique Russian Orthodox Christianity. Like Anton Chekhov’s textbook gun, this explosive mixture of contradictions has been hanging over Russia, ready to fire.

Putin earned the disparaging nickname “The Moth” during his affirmative years. This epithet followed him into the Dzerzhinsky Higher School of the KGB and was unofficially attached to him throughout his career with the KGB. However, upon becoming President of Russia, The Moth was in search of a windshield—and found one in Ukraine.

[Originally published by NOQ Report]

9/11 and Evolution of the American Intelligence Services

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001, and the fifth anniversary of the intelligence operation “Crossfire Hurricane,” better known as former President Trump’s “Russiagate.” Although these events are separated in time, they both supply robust evidence of the long-term degradation of the American intelligence services. This corruption has caused incalculable damage to our country.

Of course, it is not about criminal corruption orientated to profit-making. Instead, we are talking about political corruption, the kind that posits a particular ideological foundation.

The precise date the corruption processes began is unlikely to be established. United States intelligence was unable to predict the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 or the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. However, as the events with the downed TWA 800 flight showed, by 1996, the FBI was prepared to fulfill political orders. Recall the Iraqi WMD saga of 2003 or the recent “1/6 armed insurrection” farce of 2021.

Do these events represent just a random sequence? Does the Achilles heel of the American intelligence service lie in incompetence, or are there other factors in play? Such a track record of failures is likely to manifest prima facie evidence of systemic inadequacy of the intelligence apparatus.

The Cold War lasted half a century and stained American society. Ideological polarization has altered not just political parties but public institutions and every institution of government power. Thanks to the “active measures” of the Soviet intelligence networks, the GPU/OGPU/KGB/FSB, many American institutions caught the virus of socialism. Thus, the evolution of the American intelligence agencies to the left proceeded in parallel with the Sovietization of the American education system, Academics, Hollywood, social networks, businesses, and the military.

In the course of the Cold War, the American intelligence agencies also did not stay idle. Unquestionably, they carried out “active measures” against the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet sphere. During this bitter confrontation, a sort of “transfer of ideological viruses” took place. Russian intelligence got the virus of American pragmatism and capitalism. In contrast, American intelligence picked up the virus of carelessness and socialism.

The results of this ideological cross-contamination were quite different, in part because the indoctrination spread differently. The American virus spread “from the bottom up,” i.e., from ordinary Soviet agents living in the West to higher-ranking Moscow bosses. However, the Soviet virus spread “from the top down.” The post-Marxist worldview was implanted into America by appointing to critical positions political activists, donors, and agitators of the Democrat Party and its abundant left-wing satellites. For Americans, the lure of communist ideology turned out to be so powerful that the Russian intelligence forces succeeded in what other countries’ intelligence institutions thought of—to conquer political power in the country.

Incorporating American pragmatism, meanwhile, helped Russian intelligence services solve the strategic task of reorienting terrorists operating outside Russia toward strategic ends. The strategy of injecting a standard ideological needle worldwide was employed to establish a worldwide army of “useful idiots.” For that reason, most of the notable terrorist groups in the world have a post-Marxist foundation. Examples are plentiful: HamasArafat’s Fatah, Kurds subordinated to the Communist Party of Kurdistan, the Baath Party in Syria and Iraq, Mandela’s African National Congress. Many “national liberation movements” in Latin America and Africa are also on this list.

Since the 19th century, ideology and terrorism have been the major export items from Russia. From this perspective, Russian intelligence was the ideological father of 9/11, though they did not take part in its preparation directly. Nevertheless, it was Soviet communists who forged an alliance of Marxist-atheists and Islamist fanatics, something unheard of before in world history.

Thus, transnational terrorism and terrorism franchise wars were born.

AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE FLIRTS WITH COMMUNISM

The American intelligence institutions, which caught the Soviet virus while flirting with communism, were unwilling to oppose their ideological brothers. Here we are talking about the higher echelons of intelligence as part of an all-permeating “interagency,” not about individual agents. The agents performed their work professionally, knew the terrorists’ plans, and warned their leadership. That led to a severe conflict within the American intelligence circles. This conflict represents not just a war of factions that exists in most organizations. The tension within the American intelligence services is, in fact, ideological. 

The events of 9/11 were not just a wake-up call; it was a deafening failure of the “interagency.” The Washington bureaucracy had long been preoccupied with building “walls” to prevent intelligence information sharing since the 1980s. The now-declassified Congressional report confirms: “Prior to September 11th, information was inadequately shared not only within the Intelligence Community, but also between the Community, other federal agencies, and state and local authorities.”

There have been no significant failures on the intelligence front after 9/11. However, there were no notable successes, either. American society has developed an opinion on the bulk of “terrorist conspiracies” uncovered by the intelligence agencies over the past twenty years. The suspicion is that the intelligence establishment themselves created these conspiracies with the help of a network of secret agent-provocateurs.

The next bell that all was not well with American intelligence rang when the list of intelligence organizations of those countries that interfered in the 2016 presidential election became known—Russia, Ukraine, Italy, Great Britain, Australia, the Czech Republic, and Estonia. Of course, the United States intelligence had interfered too. These intelligence organizations worked against Trump, apart from Russia. (The Russian intelligence had acted simultaneously against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Their operation to inject the “Russian dossier” on Trump, concocted by the Russian intelligence through the election campaign of Hillary Clinton, turned out to be quite successful.)

The last alarm bell rang when the United States intelligence agencies organized a cover-up operation for political corruption machinations in 2016. Without a doubt, the surveillance of Trump and his campaign was all-encompassing. Still, American intelligence’s “active measures” on American soil were only partially successful because of the internal ideological conflict. That is why only a few people fell into crudely set traps—Carter PageGeneral FlynnGeorge PapadopoulosPaul ManafortSvetlana Lokhova, and Roger Stone.

As follows from the report of Special Prosecutor Mueller, none of them—like none of Trump’s entourage—was a Kremlin agent. Both opposing sides—left-leaning bosses and right-leaning agents—within the American intelligence knew even before the “Russiagate” investigation launched that the persecuted citizens were not criminals but consumables in a grander political game.

The American intelligence establishment went all-out in 2016. Intelligence agencies donated not just their reputation; they brazenly ratted out and ruined the excellent reputation of one of their freelance agents, Carter Page (who was not just an informant, but a key participant in counter-espionage operations). In order to conceal Page’s work for the CIA, the FBI even resorted to falsifying court documents.

Similarly, the intelligence bosses were not afraid to spoil the reputation of even their most influential freelance agent, President Donald Trump. (As it is known, since 1981, Trump has acted as a “bait” to draw in the interest of the Italian mafia and Russian organized criminal groups.)

Overall, the modus operandi of American intelligence has shifted toward the “end justifies the means.” As a result, the political-intelligence complex has received a baton from the military-industrial complex.

JOSEPH STALIN REJOICES IN HELL

The events of 9/11 set in motion also marked America’s radical shift to the left—and the election of former President Barack Obama. Osama bin Laden’s execution should not be viewed as an isolated episode. The Abbottabad raid took place during the Obama presidency in 2011. Still, President Obama belongs to the strain of leftists that does not tolerate coups, civil wars, and terrorist attacks. This camp prefers slow, subtle societal changes that, accumulated over decades, will ultimately bear the long-awaited socialist fruits (this approach of the left is called gradualism.) With his untimely terrorist attack, Bin Laden, without realizing it, actually went against the long-term plans of the American left and paid for it.

What could the adherents of the left ideology constructively offer America regarding the 9/11 attack? The left came up with something they always regarded as a panacea; another bureaucratic structure was born. In 2002, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was supposed to bring all 17 US intelligence agencies under one roof. The desired roof was created, yet the union was not. Funding for the DHS is astronomical, but there are no impressive results. Perhaps, there probably will not be—the new intelligence Leviathan is not geared towards that.

Funding for the new bureaucratic structure of the DHS (near 50 billion dollars a year) has already exceeded the CIA budget (about 40 billion). Therefore, the DHS acts just as a tool for primitive budget squandering. Nevertheless, under the leadership of DHS in ​​America after 2001, over 50 small terrorist attacks were prevented. However, this is mainly the merit of the FBI. (Note that the FBI’s budget is approximately six times less than DHS’s). DHS is another striking example of how the Washington swamp emulates the Kremlin swamp’s financial, propaganda, and ideological methods. Reports from the Inspector General of the US Department of Justice, including a recent FBI report, exhibit an unattractive picture of corruption. There are bribes, case closings, targeted press releases, information sharing, and outright collusion with the ideologically friendly media.

Journalist Catherine Herridge has compiled a document that compares the dates of FBI agents’ reports on Trump’s “Russiagate” with those in the press. This document reveals prima facie evidence that the FBI has long ceased to be a law enforcement agency. In fact, this organization acts as a political operator, as a branch of the Democrat Party for covert and intelligence operations. Therefore, it can be deemed confirmed that the deliberate leakage of information to the press was a significant component in the leftists’ media strategy. Thus, the FBI has developed into a state political police, headed by a group of political activists.

Twenty years after 9/11, the disconcerting thought that somewhere I had already seen a whole lot of this did not escape me. However, I could not remember exactly where. Then, suddenly, I grasped the reason for this political déjà vu: the American intelligence institutions began emulating many of the standard techniques of Soviet intelligence. (From this perspective, the “Russiagate” was a giant Freudian slip). In addition, the Democratic National Committee started resembling the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. In other words, it felt like the USSR all over again, where the country became occupied by self-appointed neo-aristocrats.

Joseph Stalin, meanwhile, rejoices in hell—graduates of Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale have transformed into his followers. These Ivy League alumni are gradually shifting from Menshevik methods of influencing the masses into Bolshevik ones.

POST-9/11 BLUNDERS

America’s response to 9/11 serves as a vivid illustration of the ideological polarization of society. The right-wingers in America and the left-wingers in America, after a brief hesitation, ultimately took, as expected, directly opposite positions.

For clarity, let us list who the right-wingers in America are: conservatives, partly libertarians, and partly republicans. (Note that the modern Republican party is a conglomerate of villainized conservatives and Vichy Republicans.) The leftists in America, meanwhile, are hiding behind various names: Democrats (partially), Socialists, Democratic Socialists, Communists, Social Democrats, Maoists, Trotskyists, Fascists, Greens, and National Socialists. As Margaret Thatcher once observed, “Socialists have always spent much of their time seeking new titles for their beliefs because the old versions so quickly become outdated and discredited.”

In the first months after the tragedy of 9/11, American society was united under the conservative flags. By Christmas of 2001, however, political winds scattered people. The American right-wingers resumed the day-to-day affairs, while the leftists set up a new Washington DHS bureaucracy and their campaign to “democratize” Afghanistan. They spent hundreds of billions of dollars on both. Still, as a result, another anti-record was shattered—the level of influence of the bureaucracy in Washington increased substantially. By contrast, the degree of democracy in Afghanistan—even before the fall of Kabul—changed little.

The level of indifference and incompetence over Afghanistan witnessed over the past couple of weeks by the Biden administration is staggering. However, this—probably the most strategic humiliation that any dominant power has ever experienced—was plotted long before Biden’s move to the White House. America’s defeat has been preparing since around the time the future head of the CIA, John Brennan, voted in the 1976 presidential election. Then, he supported the die-hard Stalinist and Communist Party candidate Gus Hall.

A month and a half before the capture of Kabul by the Taliban, the American intelligence community announced Kabul would be threatened in at least a year and a half. Four days before the fall of Kabul, intelligence predicted that Kabul could fall in 90 days. The surreal, shambolic forecasts of the American intelligence community are a consequence of endemic ineptitude.

Under President Biden’s command, the military began pulling from Afghanistan, abandoning American citizens, Afghan aids, equipment, machinery, weapons, ammunition, and NATO allies. The unfettered chaos at Kabul airport resulted from canceling former President Trump’s program for swift and safe evacuations of Americans out of crisis zones just two months before the fall of Kabul. In addition, American counter-intelligence left behind the biometric database of all Afghans who worked for the United States. As a result, the clueless American intelligence community has contributed to the most significant and most preventable foreign policy humiliation in American history.

This staggering incompetence of the American intelligence hierarchy is based on Washington, DC, fantasists’ leftist ideology, who emulate the Kremlin dreamers who had sunk into oblivion.

NEW DEPTHS OF OFFICIALDOM’S ABSURDITY

With the arrival of President Biden, the left endorsed a novel target—”domestic terrorism.” Any encroachment or even a hint of encroachment on the status quo evokes a sharp and angry reaction. Again, the parallels with the current situation in Russia, Belarus, China, Cuba, and North Korea are unambiguous here. These countries are well known for their hatred of the dissenting intellect, and the United States has joined them. 

As an archetypical moth-eaten marionette of the left, the President maintains that “white supremacists” have replaced Islamists as the “most lethal terrorist threat” to the United States. The reorientation of the American intelligence agencies from external to “domestic” terrorists has become government policy. The list includes dissidents, nonconformists, and critics of the regime—they include all of them in the column of “violent domestic extremists.” Currently, there are about 2 million American citizens on the list. As an epitome of incompetence, the list was published online and taken down after three weeks.

To this end, President Biden proposed inspiring an American version of Soviet and Nazi stool pigeons. The goal is to report the “unreliable” neighbors, family members, and coworkers to American intelligence agencies. In order to get on the list of “unreliable,” you no longer need to actively plot violence against America and its people—it is enough to disobey the current censorship predicate or express doubts about the Democrat party’s general line on any issue, such as the effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines.

By the end of the second Obama/Biden term, the American intelligence community had been transformed. Currently, they resemble thoroughly corrupt political paramilitaries, targeting those American citizens suspected of political opposition to the American left. For example, General Michael Hayden, former director of the NSA and director of the CIA, advocates exile political opposition to forced vaccination to Afghanistan.

Stalin, Putin, and Xi are not without reason proud of what the American left has achieved. In particular, the center of gravity of American problems has shifted from Moscow and Beijing to Washington, DC. From now on, Russia and China will continue playing by no means ceremonial roles. However, they can open the champagne by now—they have never had such an impressive contingent of their ideological supporters inside the American intelligence community.

Traditionally, the leftists have known they have been in opposition to the American intelligence institutions. So they used the well-known advice of Soviet communist apparatchiks: “The best way to control the opposition is to lead it yourself.”

The current occupant of the White House stands as vivid proof of this transformation. For example, back when Trump began working for the FBI, Senator Biden waged an uncompromising struggle against nominating William Casey as Director of the CIA during the Reagan administration. The stumbling block was Casey’s desire to lift restrictions on covert operations against American citizens imposed by Congress after the Watergate scandal.

Forty years later, as president, Joe Biden is now leading a movement to spy on American citizens.

After President Biden’s move to the White House, the left maintains a clear advantage. That follows because none of the rank-and-file agents have resigned or taken dirty linen in public despite plenty of scandals. Instead, it looks like they have taken an oath not to their country but their pension. That is understandable. What is not clear is—for how long will insouciant American citizens continue funding America’s plunge into madness? Why did we miss the moment when the CIA, FBI, and several other intelligence organizations in America developed into Stasi 2.0?

America’s intelligence institutions have always represented a microcosm of society. However, it is known that the conspiratorial clique does not tolerate any oversight. Moreover, Washington swamp dwellers always exonerate themselves. So, to bring intel back, we must detoxify the entire society of the ideological virus.

Commissars of the ruling class, adherents of the leftist ideology, are in charge of American intelligence. Nevertheless, they command an army of many thousands of ordinary intelligence officers who, to a large degree, do not embrace the leftist ideology. The ideological face-off between the left-wing ruling minority and the majority of the right-wing rank-and-file agents is the engine of the revolution of the American intelligence community.

This article is part of a Human Events Opinion Special Collection released September 11th, 2021: “9/11: A Twenty Year Retrospective.”