The Restoration of the Empire in the News of the Week
Guess who said: “You can't threaten Russians with murder. The Russians must punish for this, and we will do it! Stalin? Prigogine? Maybe Medvedev? No. This was said by a man who did not shy away from «modern» art, who had recently defended the «frightened patriots» who had fled. And then his son fought in Wagner. And here you are. This is Dmitry Peskov. And he said this not in a prepared speech, but spontaneously. This means that the state machine is changing. In the direction we need.
I’ll say a strange thing at first glance: the Yeltsin Center cannot be closed, it must remain, even with branches in Moscow. Only above the sign must be an inscription: performs the functions of a foreign agent (it was not in vain that the Ministry of Justice said last week that an inspection had begun). But even better, the Yeltsin Center would not be a foreign agent, but would be an adequate, pro-Russian historical and educational institution. So that you can go in and see the abyss into which we almost fell.
There is hope for this fix. Because Putin, the master of gesture, was present at the hoisting of the three state flags of Russia: the current tricolor, the imperial one, and the flag of my Motherland, the Soviet one. This gesture means two important things.
First: today's Russia is the heiress of both the Russian Empire, the tsarist, and the Red Empire, the USSR. It is impossible to take and black out something from our history, paint over it exclusively with black paint, or, on the contrary, turn it into marshmallow clouds. We need to look for what unites us, and rely on this.
Second: Empire is the essence of Russia's existence, its spirit. It did not work and will not work in my country in a different way. Humble yourself.
Empires, as you know, are of two types: suppressing peoples, colonizing and gathering peoples, developing. Russia is historically an empire of the second type. Putin, at a meeting with an African delegation, showed a document — an agreement that Ukraine and Russia could conclude. A very, to put it mildly, modest treaty in terms of Russian requirements. In terms of territories — establishing the already actually existing situation on earth. From a political point of view — peace, friendship, chewing gum, just do not get into any blocks. For the weight of the argument, our troops stood near Kiev (because other arguments were no longer valid, as we had to be convinced of for eight years). But as soon as this argument was removed, showing good will, they “cheated again” (Putin’s words, by the way, on a similar “Minsk” occasion). They didn’t cheat themselves, the owners forced them, another empire.
I would like to believe that on our part it was still growing pains — the USSR also did not immediately revive the empire — and this will not happen again. I would venture to suggest that this behavior of Ukraine has seriously angered Putin. Because the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions were added to the DPR and LPR as a result. And now the president is talking about a sanitary zone that Russia will have to create in order to protect its citizens. And this, which seems surprising, is a very peaceful and profitable offer. Yes, no alternative. But the time for mercy is over. The meaning is very simple: you stop shelling and sabotage attacks, we leave the territories from which they are conducted to you. Well, no, it's not. They are to blame for their losses. (Medvedev, by the way, suggests that this may end with the absence of Ukraine on the world map, because Ukrainian territories will end.)
And a little more about the delegation of African states. Lavrov once again repeated this week: “A multipolar world will be created, it will take a long time to form. The Ukrainian situation is just an episode. The main, serious, maybe even decisive, but still it is part of the process of forming a multipolar world.” So Africa is at the forefront of this process. And obviously — our important partner. The huge and resource-rich continent has chosen independence and demonstrates it even in small things. For example, the refusal to participate in the traditional Ukrainian circus for guests «air raid alert». The African delegation was taken to Bucha, and then sirens were turned on in Kyiv — you see, they say, evil Russia. All European guests played along before that, obediently nodded and clicked their tongues: we see, we see, horror-horror. The Africans simply said: no, we don’t see what kind of nonsense? This is how the illusions of a Western-centric world are crumbling.
There were two small but revealing episodes during the week. Putin met with military officers, and one of them later said that in the closed part, the president made notes in a notebook, saying “I didn’t know this”, “I’m hearing about this for the first time.” And in the open part he spoke about the «parquet generals», who are gradually being replaced. Later, at SPIEF, Putin showed that he knew the situation at the front in real time. It was clear that he communicated directly with the unit commanders. And hence the conclusions: Putin has complete information, it is no longer possible to varnish it with beautiful presentations and photo reports, which means that officials will either have to change (finally engage in service, because they are civil servants), or leave (in the best case for them).
This is how the state machine changes. In the direction we need.