From Consortium News
Vladimir Putin's annual state-of-the-nation speech, delivered before the Federal Assembly in Moscow last Wednesday, is an occasion we must not miss for its very considerable import. The Russian president confirmed in maximally explicit terms that we have entered a new era in U.S.-Russian relations. It's more dangerous than one would wish, but is an interim through which we must pass on the way to achieving our century's primary imperative, global parity between the West and non-West.
Putin's remarks to the assembly comprised of the Duma and the Federation Council (the lower and upper houses of the national legislature) struck an interesting balance. Three-quarters or more of the speech was devoted to domestic affairs -- infrastructure budgeting, climate emissions, prices and family incomes, subsidies for everything from single mothers and "sick pay" to cultural centers and university places for those in underdeveloped regions, and so on through a long list.
Holding together a nation with a sharp urban-rural divide and all the associated imbalances was, per usual with Putin, a major theme. "The country is developing and moving forward," he said, "but this is only taking place when the regions of the Russian Federation are developing."
This is a man who spends most of his time looking inward, still preoccupied with remedying the mess Boris Yeltsin and savage brigades of Western venture and vulture capitalists handed to him 21 years ago.
Plainspeak
Putin's comments on Russian foreign policy and global affairs came last in his speech and are to be understood in this context. They were nothing if not forthright, a refreshing respite from the Newspeak President Joe Biden and his national-security lieutenants serve up incessantly.
Here are a few of the more compelling passages:
"Unfortunately, everyone in the world seems to be used to the practice of politically motivated, illegal economic sanctions and to certain actors' brutal attempts to impose their will on others by force. But today, this practice is degenerating into something even more dangerousI am referring to the recently exposed direct interference in Belarus in an attempt to orchestrate a coup d'e'tat and assassinate the President of that country. At the same time, it is typical that even such flagrant actions have not been condemned by the so-called collective West. Nobody seemed to notice. Everyone pretends nothing is happening.
"Tabaqui, of course, was the sly, conniving jackal in The Jungle Book, who curried favor with Shere Khan, the tiger who held law and custom in contempt and whose exploits were the pretext for imperial interventions in the name of civilizing others in conformity with the standards of Western colonizers."
And finally:
"We really want to maintain good relations with all those engaged in international communication, including, by the way, those with whom we have not been getting along lately, to put it mildly. We really do not want to burn bridges. But if someone mistakes our good intentions for indifference or weakness and intends to burn or even blow up these bridges, they must know that Russia's response will be asymmetrical, swift and tough.
"At the same time, I just have to make it clear, we have enough patience, responsibility, professionalism, self-confidence and certainty in our cause, as well as common sense, when making a decision of any kind. But I hope that no one will think about crossing the 'red line' with regard to Russia. We ourselves will determine in each specific case where it will be drawn."
Agree or disagree with Putin or Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the ablest diplomat around, they are both literate, thoroughly versed in history and its significance for the present, and capable of discriminating analyses that take account of the perspectives of others. Next to them, those who pass as our statesmen -- Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, Sen. Tom Cotton, and other such Scheisse KÃ ¶pfe -- are simply boobs, albeit dangerous boobs.
I quote Putin at length because you will gain no useful understanding of what he had to say from our "allies and partners" this endearing phrase Blinken loves to death in The New York Times and other mainstream media. In the Times account, Putin's address was "replete with threats against the West" and intended to "fan nationalist flames" because he is "facing an increasingly angry and desperate opposition."
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