It’s been a while since I have posted here. Actually, I’m not a blogger and never wanted to be one. Also, I feel that blogging is futile for me. No one cares, no one will listen. It’s discouraging. The [western] world is ready for another Bucha because this world needs to see Russians as cruel creatures who only “look like Europeans, but they are not” ©. Another tiny step further, and they will gladly state that Russians are not humans.
Why does it happen? Well, it is the same good old Europe that is used to resolving its economic problems through colonization, looting and pillage. That’s what was happening after 1492, that’s what was happening and still happens in Africa. Russia has immense resources, and Europe is used to living beyond its means, so now Russia is under attack. It is very logical, very European, very old and stale.
They said that they didn’t want fossil fuels, oh, what a lie. They have always craved those, but for free. And the end justifies the means, remember? No matter how many Ukrainians, Russians, Kyrgyz, Armenians, Azerbaijanians, Tadjik will die. Europe will get more free life blood (gas, coal, ores, cheap labor force, white prostitutes).
You might mention now that Russia also was an expanding Empire. Yes, Empire is an umbrella term for big states where many ethnicities live under the state rule. But in the Russian Empire those people were citizens living on their original lands (not in Reservations). For example, Georgian nobility retained its status and titles after the country voluntarily joined the Russian Empire after numerous appeals. Information is easily available.
But it’s not what I wanted to say. I wanted to write about the so-called siege mentality we are often accused of. I think the link to a German nazi woman, ehm, researcher speaking of Russians already justifies any siege mentality, but I will elaborate.
I am Russian born in Moscow, USSR, in 1982. I had never had anything like a siege mentality before 2014 when it started gradually forming in my heart and mind. It took its final shape on February 24, 2022. Because it is clear: we are under a siege by at least 30 nations.
I have always considered myself an internationalist which is by the way totally in line with my mostly Soviet upbringing and my occupation (I have a degree in linguistics and intercultural communication). Whenever I traveled between 2007 and 2019, I never researched whether locals have any specific, good or bad, attitude towards Russians. I was a well-disposed open-minded tourist ready to spend some money and see the beauties of a new place. And I felt puzzled and confused when older people back home would ask me this question, “And how do they feel about Russians?”. I would only shrug my shoulders and continue telling about what I had seen. I never paid too much attention to how Russians are treated in this or that place. I thought all tourists are guests, are supposed to respect local laws, be polite and spend some cash to support the local economy and express their admiration for a cultural treasure trove they are allowed to see. That’s it. Now, in hindsight, I must admit I was wrong. It was not the case for Europe even back then. And maybe I felt that subcounsciously because after several trips to the EU, I lost interest in the region and focused on various exotic destinations.
Today I perfectly understand what the older generation meant by asking about the attitude to Russians. I will never ever leave the country again without researching before. Call it the siege mentality, if you will, but it is well justified. It is also justified by history of hate towards us and this hatred is traceable and visible when you travel in Europe and in Russia. Whenever western hoards came to Russia, they burnt everything on their way. Smolensk is very old, so is Minsk, but their heritage is destroyed forever. Now look at the beautiful Prague, Krakov or Florence with their medieval buildings intact. Russians would never inflict damage like that, and Europeans in their wars between each other spared their common heritage seen as such. But who cares about white Russian churches and carved wooden decorations? Icons?
Siege mentality? No, it’s called prudence.
Circling back to Ukraine and Ukrainians, the other day two Ukrainian women were beaten in France by a Ukrainian guy. He thought they were Russians even though they were allegedly listening to Ukrainian songs. So much for the difference between us.
Ukraine is being used as a crowbar to destroy Russia from the outside and from the inside. But those who call for a total war on Ukraine are either silly or hostile to us. Ukraine is not our enemy, bewitched, bespelled nazi Ukraine is what Russia was supposed to become as well after the 1990s. It’s just smaller and closer to Europe, I guess. If there is a total war, it will not be against Ukraine. And it’s definitely not something we want or need.
I have Ursula von der Leyen in the title. The main reason I mentioned her is that I hate her as much as Ian hates assault scooters in Moscow. She is basically the head of the EU (head of the European Commission) and she likes to speak about democracy, freedom and liberal values. But I have only one question to her: who has elected you, Ursula?
About the France assault story:
@RT:
Police have arrested a man responsible for assaulting two Ukrainian women in France. While he was initially believed to be Russian, a press release by the prosecutor in Nice on Wednesday has revealed the assailant is in fact a former Ukrainian soldier.
The two victims, Ukrainian refugees Alina and her mother Elena, initially reported that their assailant was a Russian-speaking man who apparently attacked them for listening to Ukrainian music on their phones as they were walking along the beach.
“When we heard how he spoke, we understood” that he was Russian, Alina told local news outlets. The two women sustained several injuries in the attack as doctors say Elena has a broken nose, while Alina may have suffered a concussion.
When it was first reported, the incident drew outrage from Kiev as the media and several officials were quick to report that the assailant was Russian. In response to the reports, many commenters wrote on social media that the incident was an example of how dangerous Russian people were.
The spokesperson for the country’s Foreign Ministry, Oleg Nikolenko, insisted that “the aggressors must be punished” and called for an immediate and thorough investigation into the attack while Ukraine’s Embassy in France denounced the assault as a “heinous incident.”
On Tuesday, French police arrested a man who had confessed to attacking the two women. He turned out to be a 33-year-old man who had arrived in France seven months ago after having previously served in the Ukrainian military. Police say the man admitted assaulting the women, but downplayed the severity of his attack and insisted he merely “slapped” them, as reported by the 20 Minutes news outlet. The Ukrainian also stated that he thought the women he attacked were Russian nationals because of their “Russian accent.”
The Ukrainian guy thought the women were Russians and the women thought the guy was Russian. It’s like the Spiderman pointing at Spiderman meme.
Yup
people in general are like that, as a romanian i’m judged by the actions of other romanians who were there previously. not always good haha and many years ago was always bad.
add in the fact that russian, bulgarian, serb, etc. sound very similiar to a non slavic you got a perfect setup.
the mummies ruling ue took it to a totally different level.
i would more worried about the your ukraine neighbours, with the amount of blood shed the hate will last decades, unfortunately.
To make myself clear: I totall support our president, as for taking anything to a different level, look at the EU nazi leaders.
As a EU citizen, I totally agree with your take on Ursula von der Liar, Maria. I still cannot understand how we are shooting our own foot with these absurd sanctions against Russia, following orders from USA.
Hi Galahad, what country are you in? How do you think this winter is going to go?
Hi Ian,
I’m Spanish, generally speaking our winters are milder than of those countries in central and north Europe. The real problem here is that electric companies decided to invest in renewable energies, with gas-fueled power plants as backup, deactivating and demolishing coal-fired power plants and not investing in more nuclear plants. As the price of electricity, in any given moment, is decided by the most expensive source at the moment, we are seeing rises in household electricity bills of around 250%. It doesn’t matter if one decides to shower with cold water to stick it up to Putin, as gas is used to generate electric power, we are going to pay its cost anyway, in food and transport prices, to begin with.
And, sadly, the general consensus here is that this is Russia’s fault, even though power bills were already rising before the end of 2021, along with inflation on the rest of prices. So I do not expect any public complaints against the Government, as already seen on other European countries.
You should consider writing more often . As for Ursula ( whom I call van Der Looney Tunes ) she is an Autocrat with strong Totalitarian tendencies . If I say that on any forum here I will be dogpiled as unfortunately most people still trust the MSM .
“van Der Looney Tunes” fits that crazy eyes 1,000 yard stare she has all the time.
I watched clips of the State of the EU… she may have those tendencies but she can’t pull it off. Watching her bang the podium was hilarious. A Eurodollar Store Hitler.
“Eurodollar Store Hitler” – omg someone should write a blog post of just your one-liners here.
Call it ‘Randolorian Thought’
Hi,
I’m an Australian rapidly approaching seventy. I have never before seen this level of hysteria against Russia. Our national publicly paid-for source of information, the ABC, is so blatantly pro US that it uploads entire swathes of US generated news on Russia and China – without any verification.
If you listen or watch the ABC our country is surrounded by ‘enemies’, one of them is our biggest trading partner, China.
The Australian attention span is similar to the US – mentioning China or Russia in a positive light is akin to voicing support of rape, murder and genocide. Indeed, to try and explain in a balanced way what is happening in Ukraine is met with outright disbelief and hostility.
Keep up the truth, as honest people know it.
Hi Bill, yes, the Russophonia is insane, I’m not old enough to remember the cold war, but from what I’m hearing and seeing, this is worse than even then.
There is a continuous (and maybe purposeful) confusion being made between Soviet Union and Russia. When USSR turned the war against Nazi Germany, its army also invaded the Baltics, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia. There are multiple stories from great grand parents about “Russian” soldiers looting, raping, destroying everything in their path.Then the Soviets installed puppet governments in those countries. The USSR invaded Czechoslovakia, then Hungary. So you have to understand the reluctance of those populations to be enthusiastic about Russia. In their eyes, Russia is synonymous with USSR. Of course, nobody cared to investigate and find out if those soldiers were actually Russian or Ukrainians or other populations that were under the Soviet umbrella. And Russia didn’t do too much to redeem herself in the eyes of the populations of the former Warsaw Pact.
You know nothing about the Soviet Union as it seems. I’m not going to enlighten you. Hope Ian has much time and you are more likely to trust him. He is an American. Russia doesn’t need to redeem itself. Europe needs. And NATO.
sad to see the similar proverbial american arrogance but this time from russian side, I do hope is more of a ” lost in translation” problem.
Trying to put my self in other people shoes got me on this blog and hopes of find better info than msm.
Hi Gab,
Her response was angry, but I wouldn’t call it arrogant. Wars are awful, but it is reasonable to say that Russia has a history of not launching wars unprovoked. It’s also unfair to characterize what happened in Czech (or Hungary in the previous decade) as invasions, since the USSR was assisting Warsaw Pact countries against violent insurrections. When rioters are literally chasing down Jews in the streets and brutally lynching them, it’s fair to expect that country’s neighbor to respond.
Oh, I may not know about how life was in the Soviet countries, but I do know how life was in one of the countries “liberated” by the soviets.
I was born in 1979, in one of those countries, I grew up in a village.
The communist/totalitarian regime installed by the soviets dispossessed my great grand parents of their land, and they were not landlords or “oligarchs”, owning millions of hectares of land. They owned 3 to 5 hectares.
My grand parents were forced to work without payment on the communal agricultural fields because they were small enterprisey people – they had a workshop making sheepskin coats.
My parents were forced to work without payment on the communal agricultural fields because they were teachers. And also were forced to work without payment in order to be allowed to use, as they saw fit, their 1000 sq meters of land around the house.
Although my parents were working in agriculture, they were not allowed to receive a part of the goods from their work: corn, sugar beet, sugar, sunflower, sunflower oil, wheat, flour.
So I know about the consequences of Soviet Union in my country.
And I only trust those who present evidence to their statements.
Hi Hyp0k3imen0n,
I’m in no way minimizing what happened, but I don’t think it’s fair to blame the corruption of Warsaw Pact countries on the USSR, any more than it is fair to blame their current corruption on the EU. Being greedy and cruel is the personal decision of local politicians and bureaucrats. Was someone from Moscow putting a gun to their heads and forcing them to be cruel and inefficient?
If greedy, say, Polish, rulers prefer to pocket money they get from the outside, it matters little where the money comes from: Moscow or DC . Money from Moscow never came alongside orders to kill your neighbors tho.
Literally every country on that list with the exception of Poland fought on the side of the NAZIs.
As for Poland, read Jan Tomasz Gross, Irena Grudzińska-Gross. Golden Harvest, same applues to Baltic states
Re vdL: The German called her “Pfuschi”: The pet name for Ursula is “Uschi”, and the word “Pfusch” means a badly done work.
This said, the blog below, apparently by a former British public servant, makes some interesting comments(in my mind) in his posts, also regarding Pfuschi:
https://aurelien2022.substack.com/
If badmouthing whatever Russia does has come to new heights since the start of the open war, for quite some years you could summarize western MSM reporting on Russia by “Flood or drought, it’ Putin’s fault”
I have been under the impression that Aurelien was French although I have been told that the author is both Canadian and female . Whichever , they are a good writer and seem to be familiar with the corridors of power in both Paris and London .