At a recent event in St Petersburg, Putin compared himself to Tsar Peter the Great, saying:
Peter the Great waged the great northern war for 21 years. It would seem that he was at war with Sweden, he took something from them. He did not take anything from them, he returned [what was Russia’s] … When he founded the new capital, none of the European countries recognised the territory as Russian. They all recognised it as Swedish territory. The Slavs together with the Finno-Ugric people had always lived there. Moreover this territory had been under the control of the Russian state … Why did he go there? He went there to take it back and strengthen it, that’s what he was doing. Well, it seems it has also fallen to us to take back and strengthen
This has led various commentators to claim: “See, we told you Putin’s invasion had nothing to do with NATO or the West. Now even he admits it’s just an imperial land grab!” As someone who has claimed that NATO and the West are partly to blame for the war in Ukraine, do I now have to admit that I was wrong? No. And I’ll explain why.
The first reason is that Putin’s ‘Peter the Great’ comparison doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. So if I thought my position was wrong, I would have said so by now.
In other words, there’s quite a bit of evidence that Putin’s an ‘imperialist’ – that he believes Ukraine, or at least parts of Ukraine, rightfully belong to Russia. The most significant piece of evidence in this regard is his rambling 2021 essay ‘On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians’.
So even I admit Putin’s an imperialist – that’s surely case closed? Not so fast.
Saying that Putin’s an ‘imperialist’ isn’t actually a very strong claim. Many people around the world are ‘imperialists’ in this sense. There are Spaniards who see Gibraltar as part of Spain. There are Argentinians who see the Falklands as part of Argentina. There are Mexicans who see Texas as part of Mexico.
The key question is this. When a country’s leaders see a particular foreign territory as, in some sense, part of their own, under what circumstances will they accept the status quo – rather than resorting to conquest? The answer is simple: they will do so when the benefits of accepting the status quo outweigh the costs.
Let’s apply this logic to Russia and Ukraine. What were the costs of invading? There was the possibility that a lot of Russians would die in a bloody war, as well as the possibility that other countries would impose crippling sanctions on Russia’s economy.
And what about the benefits? Aside from the advantages of having a larger territory and population, as well as access to certain natural resources, there were the costs of not invading. And here’s where NATO and the West come in.
Since the end of the Cold War, Russian leaders (not just Putin) have continually expressed their opposition to NATO expansion. And they’ve made clear that NATO membership for Ukraine is an absolute red line. Even the great Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn believed this, telling Der Spiegel magazine:
The situation then became worse when NATO started to spread its influence and draw the ex-Soviet republics into its structure. This was especially painful in the case of Ukraine, a country whose closeness to Russia is defined by literally millions of family ties among our peoples, relatives living on different sides of the national border. At one fell stroke, these families could be torn apart by a new dividing line, the border of a military bloc.
Then comes the reply: “Ukraine wasn’t a member of NATO, and even if it were, what threat would it pose to Russia?” But this is disingenuous.
Ukraine and the US had already made substantial inroads towards NATO membership. And in any case, whether Ukraine eventually joined NATO is less important than the fact it was in a close military alliance with the US – an alliance that formed after a Western-backed coup that toppled a pro-Russian president.
The ways in which this alliance threatened Russian interests (including its security interests) are obvious, and I have outlined them before. To quote myself:
In opposing a hostile military build-up in Ukraine, Russia was behaving in exactly the same way as Australia did after the recent security deal between China and the Solomon Islands. The Australian Prime Minister announced that China must not build a military base “on our doorstep”, and that doing so would be a “red line”. Is this threat an egregious violation of the Solomon Islands’ sovereignty, or is it a predictable reaction to Australia’s regional interests being threatened?
Returning to the main point of this article, a major cost of not invading was the possibility that threats to Russian interests would actually materialise. And it is this cost (i.e., benefit of invading) that could have been eliminated had the West followed a different policy from 2014 onwards.
For example, the West could have not supported the ‘Revolution of Dignity’. It could have not recognised the post-Maidan government (almost a quarter of whose ministers were from a party the EU denounced as “racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic”). It could have insisted that Ukraine respect the rights of its ethnic Russian minority. And above all, it could have recognised that Ukraine would be best served by a policy of neutrality.
There’s a second reason I don’t have to admit that I was wrong. If you’re going to take Putin’s public statements (in this case, his ‘Peter the Great’ comparison) as evidence of his motivations, then you have to consider all his public statements. And the simple fact is that he has mentioned NATO or the West over and over again.
‘NATO’ appears 40 times in his February 21st speech, and another 9 times in his February 24th speech. The latter even clarifies that “the question is not about NATO itself”, which “merely serves as a tool of US foreign policy”. What’s more, since the start of the invasion, Russia has called for legal guarantees that Ukraine will never be allowed into NATO.
I do not dispute that Putin is an ‘imperialist’ who believes Ukraine, or at least parts of Ukraine, rightfully belong to Russia. My claim is simply that if the West had followed a different policy, Putin would not have acted on this belief by launching his brutal and illegal invasion.
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Hundreds of thousands of people arriving here have to live somewhere and presumably that will be in a HOUSE. If we don’t build hundreds of thousands of houses then it is clear to even the dimmest of people that there will NOT be enough HOUSES. But to Liberal Progressives truth is to be locked in a dark room and the key thrown away.
It is an invasion and a replacement. Musulmans, Africans, Ukes, Asians, a few Whitey’s to salt the dish.
As simple as that. The great replacement.
Erase your culture, your history, the anglo-saxons which did not exist apparently, your nationalism.
Open borders with a purpose with you and the ‘natives’ to be erased.
Make the migrants build their own houses…
It’s easier to use financial incentives or change the law and force homeowners/tenants to take-in immigrants if the government deems them to have space.
Didn’t the BBC do a drama about a migrant wave into Europe/UK 20-25 years ago?
Very concerning, especially when one considers who it is we are getting all over Europe. And it’s not like these men are arriving with any papers whatsoever. A re-share as it’s pertinent to this article;
”Unlike the mass migration occurring at the U.S. southern border, where the majority of Latin Americans crossing are Roman Catholic Christians, Europe’s mass migration comprises people with an Eastern and Islamic background who have a worldview at odds with the Judeo-Christian foundation of Europe. Assimilating into the host culture is problematic for most migrants, many of whom are illiterate even in their own language and find learning a European language too difficult. Islamist and fundamentalist Salafist groups prey on frustrated and angry Muslim youths who are incapable or unwilling to integrate. There has been an increase in sexual crimes and homicides and a precipitous rise in antisemitism and attacks on churches. Instead of reporting on jihadist attacks, the mainstream media provide cover for attackers by remaining silent, fearing accusations of “Islamophobia” or attributing the cause to “psychological problems,” but never to Islamism or jihad.
Although the erosion of European culture has been ongoing for decades, the continent is being permanently changed with the unabated flood of Muslim migrants, propelled along by the lack of political will to stop it. Any program that would interrupt the migration momentum would require “mass economic support to sub-Saharan Africa,” which “is not going to happen.” Absent a Marshall Plan for Africa and Afghanistan, “this is really unstoppable.” Over the next fifteen years or so, if Germany sustains its current migration level, it will be almost twenty percent Muslim. This demographic shift will irrevocably strengthen the presence of Sharia law, which runs “parallel” to Europe’s democratic order. “It’s a very sad prognosis for the future of Europe and for the future of Judeo-Christian culture on this continent.”
https://www.meforum.org/64536/soeren-kern-on-europe-alarming-new-migrant-crisis
Indeed, though very large parts of sub-Saharan Africa are Christian and I would not want to live there either.
In some of those parts Islamists are busily trying to kill off Christianity.
Doubtless, though I wouldn’t want to live anywhere in Africa
I take issue with the phrase “Eastern and Islamic background”. The vast majority of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists etc. have no problem integrating and while they don’t share all Judeo-Christian moral values they’re very rarely hostile to the West and want to replace our laws with their own religious laws. It’s only Muslims, or some of them bolstered by zero real condemnation from the rest, that think their values are superior, hate the West and represent a threat.
If you cannot protect your border, you cannot protect your culture and values. Poland Hungary and a few others are showing us how to do this by not accepting EU migrant quotas, despite the usual spitting fury from the mass immigration progressives that are attempting to destroy national identity which they see as the enemy of global governance.
So UK foreign policy and aid does not create safe homelands that people do not want to leave? Perhaps change foreign policy unless this situation is the intended result.
Yes, I was thinking something on similar lines, ie that perhaps it would be a good idea to cancel all the international debt and stop strip mining/exploiting and unsettling/disrupting all these countries …. unless the aim is in fact to trigger so many into coming here.
Reconquer Africa to end the abhorrent conditions in many parts of it would doubtlessly be a worthy goal but not a profitable one. Not to mention that the US left would go bezerk over it as that’s not a problem it’ll ever have to deal with. And there’s also a question of where to find all the people who would have to become soldiers. English OAPs would obviously be of little use here.
Unsayable in the circles Shriver moves in- the “educated” middle class
What’s the educated middle class?
People who are financially comfortably off with university degrees
The same as the uneducated middle class but with O’Levels.
I made the distinction because in my personal experience people on middle class incomes such as small business owners and tradesmen tend to be more socially conservative and happier to speak freely.
I was just making a joke tof. It was too good to miss.
Sorry
Maybe I have a form of “long Covid” that impairs the sense of humour:)
I found the original question somewhat odd….
No need to apologise tof.
This has been clear as the nose on my face for decades but in all the coverage it seems that the cause of the housing shortage is a mystery ..lol
I also think the “official” current population numbers of around 67 million are already way off.I remember reading somewhere that the supermarkets reckon, based on food consumption we are already scraping 80 million or so.
Plus always remember that the published numbers are all based on estimates as lots of illegals do not , by their nature , get included in census numbers ..
I think the water companies have been saying similar – you could argue that food waste means that supermarkets aren’t necessarily accurate about consumption, but the amount of stuff coming out the other end is indisputable.
A link without a paywall;
”Another defeat saw peers back an amendment stating that actions under the Illegal Migration Bill cannot conflict with the UK’s obligations under the UN Refugee Convention, European Convention on Human Rights and other agreements on child protection, trafficking and statelessness.
The new laws are key to the prime minister’s plan to “stop the boats” and aim to allow the government to detain and deport all small boat migrants, without considering their asylum or trafficking claims.
When the bill was introduced to parliament, home secretary Suella Braverman made an unusual statutory declaration that it may not be compatible with the Human Rights Act, but she said elsewhere that it was compatible with international law.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/small-boats-illegal-migration-bill-lords-b2365903.html
“European Convention on Human Rights and other….”
Which will be abolished if, sorry when, the government signs the Pandemic Preparedness Treaty / International Health Regulations.
Germany’s AfD party gaining popularity as citizens are sick and tired of non-stop migration and the dangers these migrants pose. They seemingly can’t even go to swimming pools anymore;
”The AfD has been the only serious party promoting a halt to mass immigration. The “center-right” CDU, which introduced open borders under former Chancellor Angela Merkel, has zero credibility on the issue. The other parties are looking to dramatically increase immigration numbers, with many of them promoting figures as high as 500,000 a year while also racing to naturalize foreigners just in time for them to vote in the next round of national elections.
The report details how the entire Columbiadamm swimming pool in the multicultural neighborhood of Neukölln, Berlin, was closed down due to over 40 warring youth. Welt lays the blame squarely at the feet of “macho culture” from immigrant youth. In Pankow, a swimming pool had to be shut down twice in one week due to mass brawls between young people.
However, the brawls in Berlin were far from isolated incidents. June has seen sexual and physical assaults at swimming pools across the country, including a case where seven different girls were sexually assaulted all at the same pool by different groups of men, including Syrians.
In the German city of Celle, 20 “rampaging youth” attacked swimmers, sexually assaulting them, including beating one female who rejected their advances. When lifeguards attempted to stop them, they threatened them as well. As a result, the entire swimming pool was shut down.
Just seven days ago, Germany’s Bild newspaper, the best-selling newspaper in Germany, featured an article with the headline, “Germany, your bad swimming pools” with the subheadline: “Can’t we just go to the outdoor pool in peace?”
https://rmx.news/crime/migrant-crime-in-june-from-clan-battles-to-pool-brawls-shows-why-germanys-afd-party-is-surging-in-popularity/
If you ever saw any footage of such swimming pools in summer (I did) you’d have noticed that they’re absolutely overcrowded, with maybe half a square meter per person (about 1 1/2 square feet). No wonder that violence ensues from that. The proximate cause for that is that green-left-extreme left coalitions like the one ruling Berlin simply refuse to invest in any local infrastructure save creating ad hoc housing establishments for more immigrants and painting random stuff in rainbow colours (oversimplification, but principally correct).
‘Court of Appeal has today blocked the Government’s Rwanda plan’.
Is the country run by elected politicians or unelected judges?
This is the war being fought in America, Israel and the UK.
Sunak and his globalist pals are happy to be overruled because it keeps the floodgates open.
Blair knew exactly what he was doing when he created the SC.
If the Conservatives meant business (we all know they don’t) they’d cancel it.
Bliar has been working for the Davos Deviants since he first got in to Parliament. He is probably the most treasonous person ever to hold a British passport.
Along with the traitor Heath
Thanks for reminding me. Yes, Heath too.
Why not simply do what France does and deny them the right to a house? If they are instantly better off coming here than staying in the EU they may well not come here. Even better would be to make them significantly worse off by coming here.
As to the depressed birth rate, no surprises there. Mike Yeadon warned of this before the jabs were even released. Now, what happened medically between 2020 and 2021 I wonder?
“U.K. housing crisis is that prices are so high because demand is strong, and demand is strong…..”
Think you’re a bit behind the times the bottom has just dropped out of the housing market as interest rates rise and government policies are discouraging ‘buy to let’. Trying to sell our house is hopeless even though we’ve dropped the price three times in as many weeks.
As for not building enough houses wherever I go there seems to be acres and acres of house building going on without the infrastructure to go with it. Thus water shortages and hosepipe bans absolutely f all to do with “climate change”.
There is another unsayable factor in the housing situation. I used to live on the South Coast, where there are very few immigrants. The local council leader, a Conservative, explained in public meetings that the reason new houses were needed was because the council now has to house 4 generations rather than three. We are living longer and because older people want to hang on to their assets rather than downsize, we have a housing imbalance for young people
Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi would be so pleased with the execution of his plan ….. if he were still around to see it being implemented so ruthlessly.
A partial solution is staring us in the face.
One simple piece of technology which would alleviate the lack of new builds is 3D Printing of houses. A concrete mix is laid according to a computer led 3D plan and all conduits for services are included in the design, saving time, materials and money.
Pioneered by China and taken up successfully in Egypt, Germany and The Netherlands, this would cut the building time to between a half and a quarter of current times and thereby reduce the labour cost andf selling price to a fraction of current prices.
Win, Win, for the country and for young people wanting to get on the housing ladder. Great!.
BUT, this would also reduce the developers’ profit, wouldn’t it. (surprise !, surprise !),
So, it won’t happen, unless the government directs it to be so, or produces incentives (aka EV cars). Too many brown envelopes and foreign holidays on private yachts, I suspect….
Those who agree with mass immigration, and think they are so ‘compassionate’, should
have the migrants live with them, rent free, no taxpayer support.