here is what's in store for you this week:
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Every week I remind you what this brief is for: navigating our present and future. This week, a live demonstration — on the newest surge of alarmist Western coverage about a “cornered” Putin.
The three times in history a cornered russia actually had to back down. Two of them ended with the Kremlin calling for peace talks.
The lever that moves ordinary russians harder than sanctions do.
How in 1993 and 1994 the Baltic states forced russian imperial troops to roll away.
“Cornered, Vladimir Putin plans to escalate his war.” “The risk of Russian sabotage in Europe: a fight that spirals out of control.” “Putin is desperate. But that’s when he’s at his most dangerous.” “Putin is in a corner. He may need to attack NATO.”
If you are outside Ukraine and have been reading the news, you might have already noticed a surge in such headlines.
Is it connected to the Kremlin’s war machine taking heavier blows from Ukrainian mid-range and deep strikes? Knowing russian cognitive warfare, I do not believe in coincidence. I won’t speculate either. But this coverage is alarmist and fear-peddling, and its premise is that a cornered Putin is about to lash out — as if five years of massacring Ukrainians were not escalation enough.
But here’s where this kind of coverage clashes with everything we know about the nature of russian imperial warfare.
Russian Colonialism 101 is the first newsletter to shed light on Russian colonialism and is part of the Volya Hub network. What is happening to Ukraine has happened many times before, and the rest of the world has been conditioned to overlook or misdiagnose it. This isn’t history. It’s how you stop being shocked by what was always predictable.
“Even though I lived I and worked in Ukraine for a few years, I feel woefully ignorant about Ukrainian culture. I recognize some names, but I have not actually grappled with the content of their art. I want to know the history and come to a better understanding of real Ukrainian culture. And to guard against false equivalency or continued unquestioning valuation of Russian culture. “
by Janet Demiray, a paying supporter of Russian Colonialism 101.
