Twilight Zone: What Does Putin Want? Why Is There No US, NATO or EU Diplomacy
Twilight Zone: What Does Putin Want? Why Is There No US, NATO or EU Diplomacy
A New Column By C.W. Thompson, for The Truth Barrier
C.W. Thompson is The Truth Barrier’s new Ukraine/Russia correspondent. I bring you here his first dispatch, (I asked that he compose the pieces as emails to me.) Over time, you will learn more about his background and how he knows what he knows. In the meantime, help me welcome him to our forum.
—CF
Sept 27, 2022
Hi Celia,
There is so much to say- the entire US/NATO media apparatus is jawboning and spinning things SO MUCH HARDER than I have ever seen- even in 2013-15 when they claimed they had the Syrian state and Assad on the ropes. The UFA (Ukraine armed forces) put forth a quality defense from Feb-August- but they were slowly retreating the entire time, their success was a matter of "We conceded ground, but we did impose costs on the other side". In May, this kind of defense is something that can be "spun". By August, this kind of defense is no longer "spinnable". Ukraine's budget (both military and basic needs) is entirely bankrolled by the US congress month to month. The UFA needed a public victory so that over the winter, they could pretend this war effort is "winnable".
There is a lot now to say about "force structure", which is a fancy way to say "How did [national army] invest their resources over the last 10,15,20 years?" The Russians undercommitted legitimate infantry battalions to a specific front (there were 3 main fronts attacked in Sept, the souther Kherson front held, which was the primary). With their intel advantage, the US showed the UFA how to take advantage of this at the right time. It was a humiliating miscalculation for Russia- they are abandoning people they claim to be protecting!!! But it is not an "operational" or "strategic" setback (these terms have fancy implications).
Bottom line is simple: ALL IT IS FORCING THE RUSSIANS TO DO, IS DOUBLE DOWN. THEY CAN AND THEY WILL. ANYONE PRETENDING OTHERWISE DOES NOT CARE ABOUT THE UKRAINIAN PEOPLE.
Russia has a variety of "goals" it can pursue. Obviously, the Kremlin fantasy is for iconic cities like Odessa to say "We realize we were mistaken, joining the EU is a scam, we welcome Russian administration, we were always Russian speakers and we need to stop the conflict". This is not happening right now- so they will downgrade to a more realistic end outcome- can we secure Kherson [which implies securing the rivers that feed Crimea's agriculture. This is a NON-NEGOTIABLE need for Russia- whereas retaking Odessa is a "luxury"]. Once you start filtering Russian goals through this (inexact) lens, it starts to become apparent that this could all be negotiated, and you see the crime the US is committing by trying to keep this war FESTERING into 2023,,, 2024....
Much more to say..... that's a start!
—C.W. Thompson
Additional material below, from the field:
More from Eva K. Bartlett here.
And below, footage from the NATO bombings that Sept 19. Some images blurred by YouTube.
thank you for initiating this correspondence
tangential to the first installment but I thought you might wish to have this, cc. something Putin has made clear that he wants for the Russian federation:
=From: Mitchel Cohen <mitchelcohen@mindspring.com>
to [NoSpray Coalition] Monsanto connection to Ukraine
Date: March 15, 2022 at 1:24:51 PM PDT
NO ONE has been publicly discussing GMOs, pesticides, and organic agriculture in the context of this war. And yet, global competition between capitalist countries does play a role, even if not the leading one.
Jim Dingeman asked what I was talking about -- I suppose that's what he means by "WTF" and not the World Trade Federation -- on the agriculture issue. :-)
I wrote in my book 3 years ago, "The Fight Against Monsanto's Roundup: The Politics of Pesticides" (SkyHorse, 2019) the following:
In June 2016, Russia’s State Duma adopted the third and final reading of a government bill to introduce a total ban on the cultivation and breeding of genetically modified plants and animals, except for scientific research purposes.25 Far from the ban hurting their economies, as Monsanto and other pesticide-producing corporations would have us believe, the United States, which had been the world’s leading wheat exporter, is now losing its position to Russia and Canada. Russia claims that this is in part due to several economic factors and also to the preference of much of the world for non-GMO food.26 (from Carolina Cositore's chapter), and then ....
In the face of Monsanto’s plans to open its first plant in Russia,34 Russian President Vladimir Putin signed Federal Law No.358 on July 3, 2016 prohibiting cultivation of genetically engineered plants and breeding of genetically engineered animals on the territory of the Russian Federation.35
President Putin had earlier said that “measures should be taken to protect the Russian market and consumers from GMO products, as their use could have unforeseen consequences,” news agency RIA Novosti reported.36
Leticia Goncalves, who heads Monsanto’s operations in Europe and the Middle East, was not perturbed. “We still believe that Ukraine and Russia both are long-term opportunities for our business and we want to make sure we are in a position to accelerate our business growth despite the short-term geopolitical and macroeconomic challenges.”37
But, contra Monsanto, President Putin envisioned a future in which Russia would become “the world’s largest supplier of ecologically clean and high-quality organic food.” He’s called on the country to become completely self-sufficient in food production by 2020: “We are not only able to feed ourselves taking into account our lands, water resourcesRussia is able to become the largest world supplier of healthy, ecologically clean and high-quality food which the Western producers have long lost, especially given the fact that demand for such products in the world market is steadily growing.”38
NOTES
25 Sustainable Pulse, Jan. 25, 2016.
26 The International Reporter, April 24, 2016 “Russian Organic Wheat Takes World by Storm, US GMO Glyphosate Losing Out!” www.theinternationalreporter.org/2016/04/24/russian-organic-wheat-takes-world-by-storm-us-gmo-glyphosate-losing-out/ .
34. “As Crisis Hits, Seed Giant Monsanto Sees Business in Russia and Ukraine,” The Moscow Times, January 23, 2015.
35 US Department of Agriculture GAIN report, https://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent %20GAIN%20Publications/Russia%20Bans%20Cultivation%20and% 20Breeding%20of%20GE%20Crops%20and%20Animal_Moscow_Russian% 20Federation_7-12-2016.pdf. For more information see FAS/Moscow GAIN report GMO Registration for Cultivation Postponed 6/27/2014.pdf; Russian “Producers Consider It Reasonable to Ban GMO products,” 05/07/2016, http://ria.ru/economy/20160705/1459098131.html.
36 “Russia to Ban Genetically Modified Organisms in Food Production,” Moscow Times, Sept. 20, 2015.
37 Moscow Times, January 23, 2015, op cit. “Ukraine is the world’s sixth largest grain grower this season, and Goncalves said the region remained a priority for Monsanto.”
38 Eduard Korniyenko, “Putin Wants Russia to Become World’s Biggest Exporter of Non-GMO Food,” Reuters, December 3, 2015.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SprayNo" group.’’’'
please sir,...lets stop sending trillions of quatloos to biden, pelosi, bono, et al- via ukraine...