First Israel Shamir, Now Paul Craig Roberts - People Are Starting to Reject the 5D Judo-Chess Narrative!

I noticed that Paul Craig Roberts had a good piece up on Unz recently.

It was similar to Israel Shamir’s in tone and general conclusions. Since I shared Shamir’s, I thought I’d share some of PCR’s as well because both men’s analyses vindicate the positions of this blog. Because I’m much smaller, I figured I’d take the risk and stake the controversial critical position several months before the on-the-ground reality was absolutely undeniable.

So, without further ado:

Every day that passes raises my concern that the Kremlin is mishandling a dangerous situation and making it more dangerous. Putin and Lavrov send every wrong signal. The message they should be sending is “Don’t Tread on Me.” Instead, Lavrov whines that his “Western partners” are being mean to Russia, and Putin offers energy so NATO countries can continue their war against Russia and be saved from freezing to death while they are fighting against Russia.

Putin still doesn’t understand that he is at war. He speaks as if Russia is a member of the European Community.

The UN General Assembly passed a resolution demanding that Russia repudiate its reincorporation of four former provinces of Russia and unconditionally withdraw from Ukraine. Lavrov says that Washington is conducting “diplomatic terror” against Russia by controlling by intimidation the General Assembly’s vote.

How could Lavrov have expected any other outcome? If Lavrov wants the vote to go the other way, Russia, instead of the US, must become the country that pays the bills. Is Lavrov so out of touch with reality that he expects the UN to do anything but support Washington, the paymaster?

Ah, Lavrov, Lavrov, Lavrov.

Is there a greater, more incompetent fool in the Kremlin than Lavrov? A: yes, there’s Peskov who is a strong contender for top dunce.

But the guy who told Putin to let the coup in Kiev happen? Who was so sure that Germany and France could be counted on to uphold Minsk I? That elections in Ukraine would put a pro-Russian guy back in charge, eventually? The list of Lavrov’s abject failures ought to be the topic of an entire blogpost just laying it all out. Some day … some day …

I’m lucky in that I never had a high opinion of Lavrov because of the time I spent in the Russian right-wing community where the opinion was that he was either feckless coward or a pro-Globalist shill. I suppose for Westerners this is all new information though.

Aljazeera reports that two days ago Putin offered to ship natural gas to Europe through the one undamaged Nord Stream pipeline. This is the same Europe that is sending railway cars of weapons for Ukraine to use to kill Russians. This is the same Europe that supports Washington’s sanctions against Russia and imposes additional sanctions on its own. This is the same Europe that calls for regime change in Moscow and bans Russian athletes, performances of Russian composers and musicians, steals Russian assets, and refuses to comply with contractual agreements.

But the President of Russia wants to support their war effort against Russia by selling them energy. Does the Kremlin represent Russia, or is the Kremlin a marketing agent for an oil company?

The Kremlin is experiencing budget shortfalls. This is partially because people like Elvira Nabiullina let the West seize billions of roubles by keeping it abroad on the eve of the SMO. Also, because of the COVID lockdowns and the poor “import substitution” effort, the Russian government has had to dip into the rainy day fund to plug some budget gaps.

The federal budget deficit in 2022 will be covered by funds from the National Wealth Fund (NWF), 1 trillion rubles will be allocated for this purpose. The order was signed by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

“To allocate funds from the National Wealth Fund to ensure balance (deficit coverage) of the federal budget in the amount of 1,000,000,000,000 rubles,” the document says.

The instruction was given to the Ministry of Finance in accordance with the law on establishing the features of budget execution in 2022. The Ministry of Finance noted that the funds will be used to fulfill social obligations, as well as to replace government borrowings, repay public debt and provide budget loans to regions.

So, basically, they are making more money because of high energy prices. But that’s not enough to make up for the damage elsewhere.

Anyways, back to PCR:

The German government told Putin “NO,” we prefer for Germans to freeze to death and for German industry and economy to shut down than to displease Washington by buying your natural gas. How long before we see Putin on his knees begging Germany to let him give them the gas?

Putin knows that Washington and NATO Europe are determined to destroy Russia and break the country up into principalities comparable to Germany before the unification of Germany in 1871. Putin recently addressed the Russian people on the West’s declared threat against Russia, so why does he beg Europe to let Russia strengthen Europe against Russia by supplying Europe with energy?

In Washington the neoconservatives who control US foreign policy see the inconsistency between Putin’s words and deeds as Putin’s irresolution and inability to use force. This is why Washington is so confident that Russia can be defeated.

I think Washington is misreading the situation, and so is Putin. Putin is trying to avoid a real war and trying to show Europe that he is a friend and not an enemy. Putin’s play is obvious. He is telling Europe to ditch their Washington master and enjoy warm winters and operating industry with Russian energy. It would even be better for Americans who would continue to have parts for their BMWs, Porsches, Mercedes, and VWs.

Washington sees Putin as a person whose red lines are fictional and undefended. The recent Russian strikes, belatedly after eight months of being at war, against Ukrainian infrastructure are regarded by neoconservatives as being a weak response to the Ukrainian attempt to blow up the Crimea bridge. It was a tit for a tat, not a demonstration that Ukraine faces destruction if Ukraine widens the war beyond the Russian police action in Donbass.

The neoconservatives who make Washington’s war policy regard Putin’s willingness to allow the Ukrainian government to conduct war against Russia while Russia leaves Ukraine protected from attack an indication that Russia lacks the will to really fight.

Consequently, Washington believes that it has the advantage and will continue to escalate the provocations, expecting from the Kremlin only Lavrov’s whining and Putin’s offer of energy aid to NATO Europe.

At some point soon arriving, Russia is going to have to really fight and show the military competence and determination necessary to cause Washington to pull in its horns, or Armageddon will be amongst us.

In a weird way, by being so soft, Putin just encourage the West to escalate, which puts Russia and the world, I suppose, closer to WWIII. Unless this is 5D chess to trigger Armageddon (which I approve of) then it’s counter-productive. I totally agree with Paul here, gonna have to start reading his stuff more.

Israel Shamir Understands and Reports the Limited Russian Intervention in Ukraine in the Same Way as I do

And Israel Shamir wrote up literally what I wrote up a few months prior. Literally everything from the treachery of the megacity Liberal elites to the prisoner shenanigans - just all of it and came to the same conclusions!

Putin has botched what could have been an easy victory that would have concluded before Washington had time to impose sanctions and organize Ukraine’s army and weapons supply. But Putin cannot free himself from his illusions and delusions about the West. Thus, the war has expanded into the conflict that Putin hoped to avoid. The question is whether Putin yet realizes that Russia is at war. He says so in speeches, but his actions are not in agreement with his words. In the end it seems that Putin himself is an Atlanticist Integrationist, not a Russian nationalist.

Israel Shamir says that Putin’s unwillingness to fight a real war means the war will go on, but not necessarily result in nuclear war because neither side wants it. My concern is that Putin’s Goody Two Shoes behavior will continue to encourage more provocations until matters spin out of control. At some point there will be red lines crossed that not even a pro-Western Atlanticist Integrationist can accept.

Has the Slavland Chronicles narrative finally been normalized?

Well, judging by the comments, we still have a ways to go. Too many Saker and Martynov and Orlov acolytes seething and gnashing their teeth. Why are you angry at us!? We’re just the messengers! You’re the ones who let themselves be deceived in the first place!

Speaking of the Three Stooges:

Andrei Martyanov, the Saker, and Dmitry Orlov have seriously misled their pro-Russian audience. Martyanov and Saker stressed the superiority of Russian firepower and tactical operations, which was correct, but they ignored the built-in strategic failure of the Russian “limited operation.” Moreover, the Russian tactical advantage was reduced when the limited forces Putin had been willing to commit became too thin to protect the boundaries of the conquest, and modern weapons from the West and targeting information substantially reduced Russian firepower advantage.

Yeah and anyone who stood up to them got mobbed by their rabid fans.

Still, it feels good to see the tide start turning against these charlatans.

PCR also came up with an interesting explanation in another article for why Putin refuses to escalate which I’ve mentioned before on this blog as well:

The Russian policy toward Ukraine has made no sense since 2014 when the Kremlin accepted the creation by Washington of a hostile neo-Nazi government on Russia’s border. If today’s strikes are only a wrist slap, they will turn out to be counterproductive. The strikes will fuel more Western propaganda, making it easier for Washington to further expand the conflict and create more determination on the part of Ukraine.

A Turkish government official reports that what Putin really wants is not a victory in Ukraine but “a new grand bargain, a new deal, with the West.” Putin’s aim, he says, is to renegotiate the balance of power between Moscow and Washington.

That makes a lot of sense to me, I don’t know about you. It would certainly explain why Russia refuses to engage in active measures against the West. It would also be in-line with what the original agreement leading to the dissolutions of the USSR was all about - integration of Russia into the NWO, but on equal terms.

A lot of Russia’s bizarre behavior, like acquiescing to the WEF/Gates agenda start making more sense. That is, that Russia’s elites want to be allowed into the club, but that they want in on their terms. They want to keep their wealth and they want some of the more distasteful elements like the BLM, LGBTQ stuff to be toned down or to be optional.

“Be reasonable!” they cry out to the West. “No!” the West cackles back at them, as it rubs its hands jewishly.