Russia is now unleashing its massive military assault on Ukraine and shattering every international norm in the process. Putin himself has shocked the world with his authoritarian actions and rhetoric. We are watching the blind rage of megalomania played out on a world stage. The only voice that seems to resonate in this madness is that of Putin himself. There has, however, been one voice that seemed to embody the best of our international and law values. It is the voice of Kenyan U.N. Ambassador Martin Kimani. While many of you have likely heard parts of his incredible address, I thought that this would be an important time to hear his remarks, which include criticism of all of the world powers.
Here are his remarks on the violent thrashing of “dead empires.”
Notably, Kimani has a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Hampshire (1996). He also a master’s degree (2003) and a PhD (2013) from King’s College and the University of London.
Jonathan Turley — EU, maybe also UK, banning the Russian “news” services Sputnik and RT. Any comment?
“Woe to you, oh, Earth and Sea, for the Devil sends the Beast with wrath, for he knows the time is short.”
Familarize yourself with the Beast:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_putin
NATO isn’t the only defensive organization. NATO isn’t the end-all be-all, one-stop shopping for all of your defensive service needs. There can be an ad-hoc defense organization, like the coalition of countries that kicked Iraq out of Kuwait. When Kuwait needed help, they got it, so why can’t Ukraine?
Putin will lose whatever game of chicken he wants to play. Optics, theatrics, bluffing, and drama will not save him. He is afraid of injury and death. Putin cowers in a mountain lair, while Zelensky is in the thick of battle. If Putin were in that scene in Footloose with Kevin Bacon, Putin would have been the first to swerve his tractor. It might escalate, but not that much. Putin will back down if it goes to far. Getting him to back down will prevent further hostilities. This is what Trump did with his missile strikes against Syria and Iran.
The United States has the upper hand over Russia. The red lines of a pre-ordained loser in a game of chicken are irrelevant.
“Madness” is arming Ukraine and pushing for it’s accession to NATO membership. The US government has known for a long time that this is a red line for the entire Russian political body and yet we brazenly step right over it. The only conclusion is that we deliberately pushed Russia to defend it’s sovereignty.
And now we have crazies pushing us closer to a direct military confrontation with a nuclear superpower. Should our troops begin fighting Russian forces then nuclear war would become imminent. That is true madness.
Finally, a commenter who is actually rational and sane. 99% of the comments of this site lack any depth, nuance or intellectual discussion about Russia’s legitimate national security interests. All of the comments are ridiculous,childish, and laughable. They also show a complete lack of knowledge about history regarding that part of the world. American’s do not even know anything about the past 8 years of history regarding Ukraine,, Russia, and the US let alone the pasy 20 years. Putin is a rational actor, not some cartoon character that the US has created and sold to the ignorant American people. Ukraine is not a democracy. The US overthrew their democracy in 2014 and the current President of Ukraine (who is a complete moron) has been throwing his political opponents in prison, he has charged his predecessor with treason and his is under house arrest, Zelensky has shut down tv stations, newspapers, anyone who dares criticize him, they have outlawed political parties one of which represented a third of all Ukrainians, his government has outlawed speaking the Russian language even though a large amount of Ukrainians are from Russian descent, he has been conducting a war in the east mainly against civilians thus killing 15,000 people, and Ukraine is the most corrupt nation in Europe and because of this many western politicians have made a fortune off of this corrupt system, ( this is why there is no way in hell Ukraine will be admitted into the EU), before the Obama coup Ukraine was a growing country, but now it is the poorest state in Europe. And finally, the Western press conveniently failed to tell the American public that Ukraine has had 120,000 troops at the front line, shelling the civilian population daily before Russia had stationed any troops near their own border.
The US would not tolerate nuclear weapons or any offensive weapons aimed at the US in Mexico or Canada so why would Russia tolerate an aggressive, armed to the teeth neighbor? Zelensky, a few days before the war started, stated his intention to re-arm the country with nuclear weapons. This was the final straw and Russian had not choice, but to act and rid Ukraine of militarists and nazis in order to protect its won people. The US and NATO is responsible for 81% of all wars since after 1945. The US invaded Vietnam based on a lie and flawed theory thus murdering 3 million Vietnamese and then the US invaded Iraq and killed 500,000 Iraqi’s based on a lie, yet the US has the audacity to lecture Russia on right and wrong. After the debacle in Iraq, people like Turley promised never again will we be fooled and tricked into war yet less that 15 years after the Iraq war the US is now doing the exact same thing and using the exact same propaganda tactics and people like Turley is once again being played a fool and he does not seem to mind it too much.
Putin is a dictator, has “made a fortune off of this corrupt system” of oligarchs in Russia, and has killed or imprisoned opponents within Russia. This is a wrongful war.
Say what you wish about Putin, but based on weighing the various components that bring on a war of this nature, Biden permitted the war to happen, and his policies since have made things worse.
Here is a link to Abundance International, which runs orphanages in Ukraine. The founder remarked that they are funded half through private donations, and half through the government. He was very concerned that this war would physically threaten the orphans, and interfere with funding. If they run out of money, they cannot feed them. Tragically, his concerns were well founded, as one of his orphanages was hit by Russian bombs.
If you would like to donate, here is the link:
https://abundanceinternational.org/about-us/
Here is another link to Project Dynamo. This is a private organization that helped evacuate Americans and Afghan allies from Afghanistan. They are now helping evacuate Americans from Ukraine.
https://www.projectdynamo.org
Putin fumes in his mountain ‘lair’ as Ukraine proves hard to conquer
https://nypost.com/2022/02/26/putin-fumes-in-lair-as-ukraine-proves-hard-to-conquer/
It’s good to hear that the US and Europe finally decided to remove at least some Russian banks from SWIFT.
Wise words from Mr. Kimani. Yes, since Putin feels entitled to take what he can hold, it falls on deaf ears.
Does Putin care what Kenya thinks? What the US thinks?
What will get through to Putin is either stark destruction of Russia’s economy, using all available avenues, including SWIFT, or a tactical defense of Ukraine. If Russia is removed from SWIFT, then the US and other countries will need to help Europe with oil and liquified natural gas.
Karen:
If you think sanctions will deter Russia from pacifying Ukraine you’re dreaming. It is in its security interests to have a stable southern border and quell the Ukrainian civil war that the Minsk Protocols were supposed to resolve 7 years ago. Putin is doing what Russian leaders have done for generations: aid Ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s two breakaway provinces, maintain border security and protect warm water ports.
Putin isn’t in a blind rage, and he’s not irrational.
He’s seizing the rich resources of Ukraine. By leveraging European dependence upon Russia oil and gas, he can make them stand down.
Perhaps he’ll negotiate with Europe to withdraw, only keeping a portion of Ukraine. That’s still a win for him.
Ukraine is rich in oil and gas, uranium, black topsoil for farming, among other things. Since Biden did not try to remove him from SWIFT, and Europe relies upon Russian oil, then he is still financially solvent. He can weather the fall of the ruble in the international money markets, boosted by Ukraine’s natural resources.
I’d say he’s crazy like a fox. Obama and Biden didn’t force him to return the Crimea. He successfully lobbied against Ukraine gaining entry to NATO. Now that Biden is back in office, he’s struck again.
Ukrainians want to identify with Western Europe, rather than the deprivation of Eastern Europe and Russia. Putin can’t have that, not with Ukraine’s resources.
We are all fools to allow Russia access to Ukraine’s uranium deposits.
Karen+S — Actually, Ukraine has very little crude oil and what natural gas is produced is consumed locally. Ukraine has no uranium ore and uranium reserves elsewhere are more than ample for the current market. Ukraine does have both metallurgical grade coal and iron ore, so iron products are produced as well as other metals.
Higher profits are obtained in manufactured goods, noticeably Andropov airplanes but plenty of other items.
Still higher profits are found in the internet business, where Kiev became quite a potent player.
I doubt that any of that entered into V.V. Putin’s “reasoning”. I fear he has become Vlad the Mad.