This morning I looked at the reaction in Europe to Putin’s speech, and I came away with the impression that I have been living among lunatics, who sleep and have the same dream all the time. The West just does not want to see the reality in front of them. I want to believe that in the West there are sober analysts, and not just those mental cases that can be heard all the time from the media.
It is as if they don’t want to see, listen or accept the new reality, and this should come as no surprise, considering the West has demonstrated it has no concerted policy, and all what it does in the absence of sound foreign policy only complicates life all the more and brings the world closer to a nuclear doomsday!
What has happened in Ukraine is being repeated in Europe, where Europe does not want to see Putin as a strong leader and Russia as a country with the potential to fast become the strongest economy in Europe. This underestimation of Russia’s military and economic potential will not play well in the future, and will provide a bad joke on Europe—as it already is, and they have not seen anything yet!
At least a few news outlets are listening when Putin, 71, repeatedly accused the West of being focused on weakening the Eastern European country while issuing a warning, as how“(Western nations) must realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory.”
“All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?” Putin said at his annual state of the nation address on Thursday, the 29th of February.
Different Approaches to Development & Security
Unlike Europe, which relies on an influx of immigrants for its economic development, Putin sees Russia’s future lying in supporting families with children for stable demographic growth within the country.
Europe talks and threatens, but lacks resolve, as recently demonstrated by France in its open threat to deploy troops to Ukraine, from which it backed down after howls of protest from other European capitals, as Europe understands that there will be no closing of ranks to support the French, something that Macron should have known from history.
It was amazing for me to listen to how they commented on Putin’s speech in Europe. They did not even try to understand the very essence of this speech.
DW News only correctly said that the speech consisted of two parts. The first part was devoted to the war in Ukraine (30 minutes), the second – to the Russian economy (two hours). In the first part, Putin said that Russia will do everything that is necessary to eradicate the Nazism and protect the interests of Russia.
Putin outlined in the first part of the speech the directions for the development of the Russian armed forces, and briefly talked about what new weapons will enter the armed forces. He said that the armed forces would be effectively organized economically, and that the USA and NATO would not be able to get Russia into an arms race as it was in the 1980s—a time when about 13% of the GDP went to the needs of the military.
Despite this modernization of the armed forces, the population’s needs for economic and social development will continue to increase. In the second part, Putin said what will the state will do to improve the economic condition of society, and the citizens of Russia, with the prospect of Russia’s development in coming years until 2030.
It should be a no-brainer that nuclear weapons are in full readiness for guaranteed use as per the published doctrine of the Russian Federation, and the Russian military has gained enormous combat experience on the battlefields of eastern Ukraine.
Tests of hypersonic missiles with unlimited range are ending. Russia has conventional weapons that can reach targets in European NATO countries, and far beyond, and the largest nuclear arsenal in the world, one that is being reequipped with new Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) while the US attempt to upgrade its strategic deterrent appears to be failing, with the Minuteman III ICBMs too old to upgrade, and “difficulties” with the replacement Sentinel program.
Apparently, the goal of the West is to drag Russia into an arms race and exhaust it. To ensure that this does not happen, it is necessary for Russia to increase the pace in re-equipping the armed forces, build an effective economy to support the armed forces and strengthen the groups in the West in the direction that oppose the expansion of NATO.
The actions of the West since the collapse of the USSR have led to the dismantling of European security. A new security contour in Eurasia is emerging, and Russia is ready to talk to everyone about this. Without a confident and strong Russia, no world order is possible.
Russia is ready for negotiations with the USA on issues of strategic stability, despite the open and hostile actions of the USA, Putin said. Russia has even prepared a treaty on banning nuclear weapons in space in 2008, and it is in the hands of the USA.
Telling it like it is
If you want to negotiate with us, Putin said, you need to resolve all issues as a whole, including issues that affect Russia’s security.
Today in Russia, about 13 million people live below the poverty line, or 9% of the population. Reducing this indicator is the next task that Putin sets for the government. In the West, the number of people living below the poverty line is constantly increasing, as is the gap between rich and poor. The rich become far richer, the poor, poorer and poorer.
It doesn’t matter which country in Europe we consider, Germany, England or Latvia, the same process is going on everywhere, the number of poor people is increasing, and all this is explained by the need to help Ukraine.
By 2030, investments in all major sectors of the Russian national economy should increase by 70%, both in terms of public investment and in terms of private investment. It seems that all the attempts by the West to make life difficult for Russia are having the opposite impact.
Russia is faced with a situation where it is not safe for either the state or private business and individuals to invest in foreign banks and foreign enterprises, so money needs to be earned in Russia and invested back in Russia, Putin said, if entrepreneurs want to preserve and increase their own capital.
Snapshot of the Reality of “Shock Therapy”
This review should make some sense. It is like revisiting the 90s, but with reverse economic “shock therapy” for the West. It is very much like the advice that Western Macro Economists were giving back in the 90s’ – so the West should take to heart their own advice—sooner rather than later, especially in an election year, both in the US and the RF. Time is proving that sound US foreign and economic policies are sacrificed for the sake of political short-term expediency, economic grain for the few, and to get the most votes for Democratic Party candidates, in the shortest period – by-hook-or-by-crook.
In general, this is all, without going into minute details. What I have tried to explain, for the sake of brevity, is to clarify some of the most important points Putin has made. The Russian leader has also accused the West of fomenting hysteria and a new arms race, and this is pretty much standard operating procedure, especially under the Biden administration.
The question is now: “Will the west listen to Putin? Or will they ape the second monkey and keep their hands firmly over their ears? As a recent saying popular in Russia goes, If the West does not want to listen to Sergey Lavrov (Russian Foreign Minister), they will soon have to listen to Shoigu (Russian Defense Minister)”. In this case, we can say, “If they do not want to listen to Putin, they may have to listen to a far worse sound, that of the Russian Strategic Forces”.
Looking at the degenerates that make up European and US leaders, I can only say, God help us all.
Henry Kamens, columnist, expert on Central Asia and Caucasus, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.