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Cf Strelkov’s ominous prophesy with that of Rudolf Abel’s [‘Let’s see how they greet me’ from Bridge of Spies] 😇 --> youtu.be/1PQjqoCgYdA?t=101

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Another weird development here is that Prigozhin has stopped his criticisms of MoD, he says they are being supplied adequately, he says Wagner is working with VDV in Bakhmut, and MoD has started mentioning Wagner in their updates. So something is up. Just a coincidence that the Kremlin is going after one group of patriots while surrendering to another? It looks to me like yet another compromise amongst the elite/ruling thieves. Prigozhin gets his supplies and some tangible support which I imagine the upper management of MoD was not happy about but now they get to go after less well connected but equally hated critics.

On a somewhat good note some powerful people have at least come out in support of the medic. I forget what oblast the guy was charged in but the governor came out against the prosecution and from what I understand offered to pay whatever fine he might get charged with. A governor counter signalling Moscow on behalf of a fighter is a good sign. Before it was just the governor of Crimea that had enough balls to openly disagree with the prevailing Kremlin narratives but getting another on board is nice to see.

The inner fighting and shit throwing amongst the Russian Patriotic community is such a bummer though. Its funny and entertaining watching Western dissedents go after eachother but with Russia the stakes are so much higher that its just not funny anymore. Just imagine if Strelkov had a shred of access to Prigozhins resources. He would have nothing whatsoever to worry about.

Its a lot easier for me to relate to Strelkovs idealism and uncompromising death grip on his principles than Prigozhins Patriotic opportunism. But I don't know. Russia really is the 3rd Rome if we are talking politics and well...in Rome and Constantinople politics were settled at sword point and killing your former allies was an acceptable practice that no one batted an eye at. I guess Im not sure where the line between admirable principles and completely avoidable martyrdom that accomplishes nothing is located with Strelkov.

Dont get me wrong I would spit on anyone who gets in bed with bonafide Gref, Chubias, and Abramovich tier Kremlinites. But the total inability of Russias pragmatic patriotic crooks and idealist to find any common ground is disheartening. For example Strelkov loathed Zarchencko and Tartarsky. Well they are dead now, almost definitely with Moscows blessing and pretty likely with Moscows passive help. So they are all in the same damn boat. Like no matter how much you hate them for not living up to your own principles you might as well as a citizen of the 3rd Rome start doing some Roman politics and take your allies of convenience where you can find them.

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As Marko stated, when in the trenches do not attack the men fighting beside you. The right needs to learn from the left who march in lockstep despite hating one another. They would rather be 'beautiful losers' instead of getting their hands dirty, unfortunate as politics is a mudpit.

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I'm not sure what Strelkov's idealism is based on. It seems vague. But because his ideals are hard to understand, it is hard to understand why he clings to them so strongly.

I obviously do the same, but with identity. I will never back down an inch on the question of ethnos and identity. If you don't have an identity or an ideal, then you just become a mercenary. Which is what the modern world encourages.

What do you think about Zarchencko?

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Strelkov describes himself as an Orthodox Christian and a Russian Patriotic Authoritarian. He also appears to be a complete moral purist and borderline aesthetic, and the moral purism would derive from Orthodox Christianity I presume. Strelkov will associate himself with Stalinist like Murz and Krachkov who meet his standard of Patriotism and moral uprightness as well as monarchist so he isnt exactly an ideological purist but he apparently wont come compromise at all if he even remotely suspects that somebodys personal intentions arent 100% selfless.

Strelkov would have been one of those White Army warlords that absolutely refused to take an oath to Kerensky and therefore the Western Allies wouldn't have given him a penny or a single bullet. He would have enjoyed the respect of people who value uncompromising morals but without any resources he wouldnt be able to influence the course of events. He would have been a beacon of integrity amongst the mostly sell out Whites and evil reds but resources win wars. That did happen to any Whites who wouldn't promise to not bring back the Monarchy.

In short Strelkovs morals preclude him from being able to engage in any sort of Machiavellian/Roman politics but Im not sure that is a virtue in itself these days. Especially with Russia. I feel like Strelkov would be indifferent as to whether it was Trotsky or Stalin running the USSR because both were bad. But one doesn't have to be a sovak to just acknowledge that its better that Trotsky lost. Today that kind of attitude just totally reduces Strelkov to being a spectator and commentator and nothing more.

Again I don't mean he should be doing fund raisers for united Russia or Sberbank commercials. I just mean that Strelkov used to almost never criticise Putin and his orbiters directly on principle. He did however criticise Donbass vets/commanders quite openly, and he was criticizing Prigozhin before he ever started criticizing Putin. Well your principled loyalty to the Tsar got you nothing and now that you are criticizing the Tsar finally you have no friends with resources to cover you. Like all he had to do was be neutral towards Wagner and Prigozhin and he might have some cover when the Kremlinites come for him. Of course Strelkov would genuinely rather hang than take a kopeck from Prigozhin but is that seriously very useful and meaningful right now? Is the arch principled but dead/neutralised Strelkov really the best for Russia?

I don't really know a whole lot about Zarchenckos back story tbh. As far as I can tell he was just a very charismatic patriotic thug. He probably really did plan on profiting off of stealing local infastructure and resources from the Oligarchs that had originally stolen them when the USSR was dismantled. He like many, many others at the time didnt realize that Moscow was already solidly in the rootless cosmopolitan camp and that by messing with the Ukrainian Oligarchs interest he was messing with Moscows dear partners and it cost him his life.

Strelkov wanted an army of White Guard idealist to show up for the Russian spring but he got a bunch of patriotic gopniks and apparently became totally despondent over that. But if the Gopnicks are the ones most likely to show up...well than just work with what you got i guess.

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Russia would be in a better state if patriotic gopniks ran it that’s for sure.

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Nice article. This part especially stood out to me: "I take it quite calmly. Participation in social and political activities and journalism on sensitive political topics implies a willingness to answer for one’s words, therefore, if someone does not like my speeches, it is [appeal to the investigating authorities] a civil right of those who do not like it. So far, I haven't received anything officially... I'm not going to change my position in any way, no matter what sanctions I will follow for this."

He's really a man's man, and he doesn't have to take steroids and pump up his muscles to do it.

Also, I don't know who this substack author is, but I saw this Note on my feed this morning and thought it was interesting: https://substack.com/profile/3307905-nikita-petrov/note/c-14688419

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Yeah there was such a law. The guy you linked is cringe though.

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You mean nikita petrov? in what way is he 'cringe' ?

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from what I can tell he's a liberal self-exile no?

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It seems like Strelkov might end up as a kind of Russian Socrates...

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Well I don't like reading what he says. It is not what I want to hear. But it may well be the truth. In which case this is the most important source I have, for it is the only one I know that says these things.

What does he say? Terrible things for me to hear:

Russia's military machine is totally rotten.

Russia the State has deep problems.

Supposed Russians allies are not allies at all.

Russia's military policy is dooming the war to failure anyway (even if the military were good).

The oligarchs to this day have such a stranglehold on the nation they dictate war policy de facto.

The Russian state is resorting to USSR type tactics: imprison dissenters, squash free speech.

I don't know where the truth is but I fear it might be right here.

I've seen enough indications already, to my mind.

The war is certainly not being prosecuted as it might.

The 'best' western commentators like Macgregor and Ritter are clearly endlessly parroting their same mantra to where they can be discounted as mere echoes reverberating...

and more....

I tried to read more from him but his other articles are behind paywalls. I am always reluctant to pay yet more to get behind yet more paywalls so at this time I didn't go.

And that's the last note, to my mind, that puts things in perspective. You see there's a lack of completeness, or we might even say 'honesty' in all the war reporting that I know of. That whole bunch of the usual YT 'observers', those supposedly more 'elevated' such as Ritter and Macgregor and everywhere else you go.

And it is twofold to my mind:

1. None of them bother to use any other speech forms than those used by the US and Kiev propagandists wherein the word 'Ukraine' really means only 'Kiev Ukrainians', who, you know, are actually the invading villains trying hard to kill their brother Ukrainians and not all Ukrainians at all. And the word 'Russian' gets applied to ALL military efforts against these Kiev Ukrainians and thereby gives the impression there's nothing in the theatre except a war between 'the whole of Ukraine' and 'Russia'.

Which is what the US and Kiev want us to believe. It casts Russia in the light of invader of Ukraine - all Ukraine, menacing all Ukrainians. Completely distorting reality which we could describe as a Civil War with Russia helping the weaker side.

What's that matter?

Well it is that simplistic and erroneous MSM, US and Kiev narrative which causes the masses to condone, to allow, the appropriation of their wealth and future to prop up Kiev. For they see it in simple moralistic terms: we are supporting underdog Ukraine against wicked Russia.

So the billions in support pour on. It is critically, crucially important. It has been said numerous times that this is a 'war of propaganda' yet none of these 'elevated' observers bother to take notice of that and adjust their speech/behaviour to suit and thereby by default support the lying narrative.

2. None of them call for peace. None of them 'count the dead' so to speak. Enumerate the harm as it spreads out across the nation from the dead soldier to his friends and family and generations beyond.

Yep.

It looks like nothing more than a video game to them. Their channels are 'monetized' and the war is a handy hobbyhorse for them affording them a moment in the sun and some revenue.

So overall I don't think much of them and mistrust their tales.

And I see Rolo has apparently a definite tendency that way, too.

So I bide my time and keep watching. And looking for better venues, sources... anyone... ?

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Sorry, but my big, surly slav brain and all my slavlands knowledge needs to be monetized somehow.

A man's gotta eat. But if I wanted just the money, i'd copy the ritter/macgregor model. theres no money in telling the truth.

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That's interesting. You leap immediately into sarcastic self deprecation. Why would you do that? Yep. We all gotta eat. But we don't all gotta eat by the money we earn or make on the web. That'd be one of the hardest possible ways of getting your tucker I'm thinking. I'd sure starve to death.

I only said you apparently had a 'tendency'.

And I wasn't talking about monetizing itself, was I ? I was talking about that bunch of russophile or supposed 'neutral' western observers very mainly on Youtube and who are just about all I have for sources of accurate information seeming to me to be more interested in their monetization than in spreading true information and very obviously much more interested in their monetization than in stopping the war because they never mention that bit at all.

That's what I was talking about.

Suggesting you may have a tendency in THAT direction.

And I still wonder it.

Gotta admit Ritter and Macgregor are largely unmonetized. They do lots of free 'interviews' .

But they have a tendency in THAT direction because they never call for peace and they don't use the correct language.

So don't worry Rolo. I've got no objections about you going for money as hard as you can.

p.s.

I see down below there you remark 'the psyops never end' and that's what i'm on about: the psyops. To use the US and Kiev and MSM language, memes, phrases, definitions is to become part of their psyop.

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>That'd be one of the hardest possible ways of getting your tucker I'm thinking.

I believe that IT work is beneath me. I self-identify as a writer now. I get off on being a poor writer.

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I can understand it. Time honoured... :)

You're IT too, though, or were before you saw the light?

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No, I was always writing and traveling.

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So I don't understand the 'IT work is beneath me' thing then..

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In my opinion the black pilled take is almost always the most accurate one in this fallen world; but the more black pilled a person’s take is, the smaller their audience size is. So I don’t think it makes sense to accuse Rolo of shilling; all the biggest pro-Russia accounts are pushing various forms of hopium.

And I get it — people need hope, even if empty, and being consistently blackpilled is a very hard way to live. If Rolo wanted to shill there’s plenty of better ways for him to do it.

For example, I saw Brian Cates post the other day on Substack notes, a name I hadn’t heard in forever. This is a guy that pushed the Q scam daily for 5 years, then pivoted away when it became no longer tenable to push it, and a bunch of his dumb audience followed him onto his next scams, apparently. The sheep cry out for a shepard to fleece them…

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The hapless mortals cannot bear the dark truth of my black cube, so they blanket themselves in lies. They shall never escape

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He is entitled to sell his produce for an agreed upon sum... equivalent exchange 101

That stupid sexy paywall does tempt me sometimes, but I am also afraid of the blackpills found within. Already close to an overdose...

The truth does not pay for it hurts

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the Demiurge wants you to not pay me money to read my stuff.

just think about it. no other explanation. fight da powah!

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Condemned to speaking the truth, many such cases

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So Russia and the US are punishing truth-tellers at the same time; I'm not finding the timing coincidental. They want prominent voices silenced for something on the horizon. The Pentagon leak almost confirms the 5D nonsense and runs counter to reality. It just feels like another fake and gay theater act will be presented and no one will be free to call it out.

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Its concerning, especially the last article you wrote on Russia's Multiculturalism problem. Those tactics they use are the same they use in the west. The police here in Europe have no problem beating and smashing skulls in of white patriots and ordinary civillians if they are demonstratic peacefully but if migrants or asylum seekers do crimes far worse the police shit their pants in 7 colours and are afraid to do anything. What this war has showed to me is that Russia is not really that much diffrent then the west, altho it tries hard to be morally superior it looks to me it just looks like a facade they create to outside world viewers. In a way i can understand why Ukrainians fight and defend the way they do, i mean why replace 1 corrupt tyrant for another? The Russian government has made claims and garantuees that it cant uphold, and even got pro Russian Ukrainians executed from the territories Ukraine re-conquered in areas like Kherson/Kharkov and Izyum by Ukrainian secret police. I remember everyone getting hyped up that these newly conquered territories became de-facto Russian lands and that it would be a direct attack on Russia, with nucleair consequences as some in the Russian government warned. But nothing happend as usual. After this many became dis-illusioned. I think Strelkov knows first hand what is going on as he has been in this fight for so long and even went to the front himself. If they want to lock him up it shows how badly things really are. If we look at the frontline the Russians are still launching head on assault in Bakhmut, its almost been 8 months now which is even longer then the battle of Stalingrad, and the Ukrainians are still controlling half of the city, they are even prepping demolition on building before they withdraw and remote detonate it when the Wagner troops enter it. Its alll just idiotic, assaulting cities head on in street fighting causes heavy casualties and the battle of Stalingrad and Mariupol showed. I still dont get it why the Russians dont just encircle it and force the defenders to retreat or starve. It was the tactics the soviets used after Stalingrad because they know it otherwise meant heavy losses. Yet the Russians somehow seem to have forgotten their war traditions from the past.

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The Kremlin is too good for this world, such pure angelic beings are doomed to be deceived by the evil west forever.

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" I still dont get it why the Russians dont just encircle it and force the defenders to retreat or starve. It was the tactics the soviets used after Stalingrad because they know it otherwise meant heavy losses. Yet the Russians somehow seem to have forgotten their war traditions from the past. "

Because prolonging the " theater act " is the purpose.

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For all I know you are spot-on.

However governments do not need reasons to clamp down on dissident speech. Either they do, or they (eventually) stop being governments. Its a survival strategy for them.

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On a side note, that's a damn fine diagnosis and rebuttal of the lame "pessimist" label. I plan on using it the next time some midwit dismisses Schopenhauer or Spengler as a "pessimist."

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I stole it from Yockey.

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Well, like I say, only steal from the best. Of course linking it with "conspiracy theorist" is a new touch, since Intell didn't float that one until after Yockey was out of the way.

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The terms change, but the psyops never end.

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Pessimist = Realist 90% of the time

Then we have this guy:

Friederich Nietzsche famously said, "Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man."

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