Radio War Nerd EP #374 — Understanding Putin, with Philip Short

Putins war in Ukraine is about security for the Russian state and its territorial interests. US would invade Mexico should China install military alliance and bases along our border. But this war fought between US (Nato) and Russia over Ukraine is not the peoples war. Nobody should die to defend the riches of the oligarchs who fund these wars to protect their loot. Read Marx on imperialism and capitalism.

I'm catching up here, but two things. Just want to say that I'm stealing the Dolan line that there is a lot of rather unseemly cheering for the fact that the Washington Generals are back.

Radio Squid Jigger

You wouldn't lie about your gains would you?

PW

Hot 🔥

Koob

@Nicholas Levis Unfortunately, I'm not aware of any scholarship or even solid reporting on this. I thought it was mentioned in Mark's "Prisoners's of the Caspian", but it's not. BTW, Mark, the links on NSFW don't work anymore (https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/prisoners-of-the-caspian-part-one/6cb7e546ba52d42567ab0fe870f9c2784fb1eb47/#unlock-dispatch) Looks like in 2003 Georgians admitted that Gochiaev "might be in Pankisi" (https://civil.ge/archives/103247). The strangest part is that actually he may be still alive. According to this 2019 (!) report a cache of weapons was found with his fingerprints - https://www-kommersant-ru.translate.goog/doc/4027330?ysclid=lgvwnr9mzh393702813&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp. Who knows...

Squatted 405 while listening to this ep 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻

Jethro Mojave

This was pretty interesting and occasionally illuminating, but the guy is an old Anglo and i want to cram a crumpet down his throat when he's being an old anglo about the russians not going to be friends with the Chinese because they are European.

Welfare state

I appreciate the 2005 link from the CFR, when even after Iraq there was still a small leftover of War-on-Terror consensus between US and RF. Can you help out with a news report or scholarship link reporting on the FSB's story about the perpetrators, their organization, how and where they were rounded up, etc.? Or was this an announcement that it had happened, without details? Thank you!

Nicholas Levis

I’m sincerely curious how he could write the Mao’s biography with Chinese culture being even much farther East than the Russian. If he could only collaborate on it with Carl Zha. 🙂

A good interview. It’s a sign of the times that such a relatively neutral non-emotional approach is causing an apoplectic reaction among the believers in evil incarnate. Sounds like Short did a lot of digging to fill 800 pages. That being said, I’m a little skeptical (I know, before reading the book) that a Brit with still relatively shallow understanding of the culture can can correctly analyze the facts he had unearthed. His comments about Soviet people of the 70s only support my skepticism. But I’m curious to read his book regardless, just need to find time for 800 pages.

At the time, FSB named the alleged perpetrators. All of them, allegedly, ended up dead. The alleged organizer allegedly killed in Pankisi Gorge. Back then, CFR openly called it a terrorism heaven. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/terrorism-havens-georgia

My friend Mayer Vishner said when you confronted Tom Forcade the founder of High Times and cofounder of the Zippies on a lie he’d look at you blankly and say “Yeah I lied.”

Jon Spiegler

Regarding the apartment bombings, the book may have detail but this treatment is not adequate. No mention of the Ryazan exercise and arrests. (Doesn't that constitute a leak of sorts?) Who says Putin was in on it even if it was an FSB operation? MI6 and CIA would not have considered Putin an enemy to condemn for it at the time, and anyway, who says they know and if they do, what good is their word absent evidence--then or now? Did I miss the arrests and prosecutions? Have RF authorities ever made an attribution to specific perpetrators? I'm open to the idea that Chechen breakaways did it (and just happened to give Putin just what he needed at the time), as they were launching attacks in Russia, outside of Chechnya. But this presentation is not very persuasive as a case closed.

Nicholas Levis

In 2020, NATO action officer Florian Encke responsible for NATO-Ukraine relations wrote an article inciting or threatening Zelensky to attack Crimea: "Clearly, the fight for independence remains Ukraine’s national task. It is up to Ukrainians to decide how to restore territorial integrity without undermining sovereignty and independence." https://www.nato.int/docu/review/articles/2020/07/08/an-independent-and-sovereign-ukraine-is-key-to-euro-atlantic-security/index.html Few months later in March 2021, Zelensky came up with formal, official strategy to take Crimea

Adam Tooze's book mentions a historical analogue to EU's present interest in splintering Russia into statelets small enough to incorporate into EU because EU finds it difficult to compete with USA. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2008/02/book-f08.html

great interview. one for the ages. Putin's transformation from learned cautiousness to his original risk-taking nature happened in early 2021. Evidence for this comes from unprecedented statements from Russian officials after Zelensky announced a strategy to take Crimea, a strategy formally backed by EU officials. EU council president went to the conference that discussed taking Crimea. Russian officials close to Putin warned that Zelensky govt was like "children playing with matches" and that it would be the "end of Ukraine". Why did EU formally back (and perhaps incited) Zelensky's Crimea strategy? Putin had realized EU was upto something. Recent article by FP columnist described EU's plans: "Western analysts [are planning for] the West to benefit from the fracture [of Russia] by luring resource-rich successor nations into its ambit. They argue that when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 the West was blindsided and failed to fully capitalize on the momentous opportunity." https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/04/17/the-west-is-preparing-for-russias-disintegration/