What exactly inspired the poorest nation in Europe led by a supposed incorruptible “servant of the people” to think that fighting a war against one of the most powerful nations on Earth, was a good idea? How does getting hundreds of thousands of your strongest people killed or torn up fighting an unwinnable war serve them?
Famous actors being elected to political office has a long history around the world. Is it believed by their backers that actors are already famous and better at lying then non-actors? Convincing people to accept policies beneficial to the politician’s backers is more likely to be accomplished by an accomplished liar I imagine. Which is what acting is all about after all. Getting people to believe you are someone you are not, is the basis of acting.
In India it’s seen as a regular part of a famous actor’s circle of life. After becoming famous it is expected that the actor, male or female, may go into politics. And not just actors, famous religious people go into politics in India because they possess the same type of fame and skill. A successful preacher convinces you they are speaking for God. No small amount of acting skill is required to be a successful preacher (unless of course God actually is speaking through you).
Therefore there are certain realities you should be aware of if an actor or preacher turned politician tries to convince you of something 1) They likely have been selected by backers who need a professional liar to enact unpopular policies 2) They are very experienced or even trained at an acting school to get people to believe they are sincere.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine is a unique case in the history of actors turned politician because his rich backer went to the unique length of creating a TV show specifically for him to play an ordinary honest person overcoming corruption to become president.
Imagine if comic actor Jon Stewart after the end of hosting The Daily Show ran for president. The Daily Show presented Jon Stewart as an honest news anchor exposing the foibles and corruption of the political class. At its peak Jon Stewart was the most trusted man in America based solely on that scripted TV comedy show.
Zelenskyy was a comic actor just like Jon Stewart, and he also acted out a written script playing the role of “the purely good honest everyman taking on the corrupt political world.” What was Zelenskyy’s real life political platform? If Jon Stewart ran for president what would you expect his platform to be? Recently he got a lot of attention for arguing with conservative influencers over a bill before Congress. Stewart argued that he was not being political, that all he wanted was for all political sides to come together to fix an obvious problem. In other words the Jon Stewart persona from The Daily Show, the honest concerned equal opportunity offender towards politics who only cares for the truth, came alive by Jon Stewart doing the exact same act in real life.
It didn’t matter if he was sincere or not. What matters is that our past history of seeing the scripted fake Jon Stewart playing the pure-hearted muckraking news anchor made it much easier for us to believe that Jon Stewart was being truly honest in his real world political activism.
That is also how Zelenskyy came to power in Ukraine. The persona his TV show built for him gained the trust of the people of Ukraine to accept that when he ran for office he was the real world embodiment of that TV character. He presented himself with the same political principles, the same goals, and the same heart as his scripted character — who just wanted to end the fighting with Russia and make peace. He had played the president of Ukraine on TV just like how Jon Stewart played the pure and honest anchorman who is only interested in serving the people. Zelenskyy’s show was called “Servant of The People.”
Jon Stewart became the most trusted man in America specifically because he was seen as mostly non-partisan even though it was obvious he was a liberal or progressive. His non-partisan posture on The Daily Show created a belief about him that he is only interested in the truth regardless of the partisan political sides of an issue. The little they saw of him ever since the end of his show did not change that perception. So while Stephen Colbert from The Daily Show is now ridiculed by a large percentage of the population because of his overly dramatic or what some call cringey partisan political posturing, Jon Stewart is still regularly commended by liberals and non-liberals as an honest person.
And that is also similar to Zelenskyy’s rise to power in Ukraine. Jimmy Stewart from the classic movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) played an idealistic hero who gets appointed to fill a senators seat in Washington and then encounters a corrupt system he fights to overcome.
“Mr. Smith Goes to Kiev” aka “Servant of The People” was a show underwritten and promoted by one of the richest people in Ukraine who also owned the TV channel it played on.
When the war first started on Feb 24, Joe Biden said:
“No one expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happening, That has to sh- — this is going to take time. And we have to show resolve so he knows what’s coming and so the people of Russia know what he’s brought on them. That’s what this is all about. We will limit Russia’s ability to do business in dollars, euros, pounds and yen to be part of the global economy, we’re going to limit their ability to do that. We’re going to stunt the ability to finance and grow the Russian military, and we’re going to impair their ability to compete in the high-tech 21st century economy.”
US intel had claimed to have intercepted Russian plans for the invasion back in October 2021. The Washington Post and German newspaper BILD reported back on December 3, 2021 that the US shared that intel with their European NATO partners in November. Before and after the war started media outlets reported that the sanctions had been pre-planned and readied by the US and their NATO partners just in case Russia went ahead with the invasion. Which is why Joe Biden in the above quote on the 1st day of the war implied he knew the war was coming and that previous sanctions were not expected to stop it. Back in December Putin demanded Ukraine codify being off-limits to NATO, and also for Ukraine to follow what they had agreed on in the Minsk Agreement: to stop attacking Donetsk and Luhansk, and to accept Crimea as part of Russia, etc. Over a week before the war started Ukraine forces suddenly began a massive daily shelling and bombing campaign of Donetsk and Luhansk. According to UN observers they were shelling thousands of times a day, increasing day by day. Clearly Ukraine had given their response and was daring Russia to attack. Sanctions were ready and clearly the Alliance was itching to try to destroy the Russian government.
We know that because a week after the war started British PM Boris Johnson’s spokesperson said:
“The measures we are introducing, that large parts of the world are introducing, are to bring down the Putin regime.”
The war wasn’t to defend Ukraine, the war could have been easily prevented if they cared about Ukraine, they in fact provoked the war because they want regime change in Russia. Ukraine was probably told to force the war to start so the elites of America and Europe could try to bring Putin down by sanctions.
At the same time British minister for the armed forces wrote in The Daily Telegraph:
“His failure must be complete; Ukrainian sovereignty must be restored, and the Russian people empowered to see how little he cares for them. In showing them that, Putin’s days as President will surely be numbered and so too will those of the kleptocratic elite that surround him. He’ll lose power and he won’t get to choose his successor.”
In 2013, just before the coup plotters in Ukraine forcibly murdered their way into power and pushed out the friendly-to-Russia government — which had just rejected an offer by the EU for financial aid if they submitted to re-organizing to make Ukraine more compliant with neoliberal policies (lower wages, privatization, etc.) Carl Gersham, director of the National Endowment for Democracy, which is commonly seen as the public face of American regime change operations, said:
“Ukraine’s choice to join Europe will accelerate the demise of the ideology of Russian imperialism that Putin represents. There are signs of the emergence of a new Russian nationalism: the strong performance by opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow’s recent mayoral election and polls that show greater opposition to Putin in the Russian provinces, his traditional support base. This nationalism is concerned not with the restoration of Russia’s imperial greatness, which would be inconceivable if Ukraine joined Europe, but with fighting corruption and addressing the severe economic and social problems of the Russian people. Russians, too, face a choice, and Putin may find himself on the losing end not just in the near abroad but within Russia itself.”
Carl also said “Ukraine is the biggest prize” because Ukraine was seen as what Zbigniew Brzezinski in his book The Grand Chessboard said was the most important “Pivotal Nation” in the world. If Ukraine as a partner is denied to Russia, that would keep Russia from being an empire, keep them from strong influence in Europe, and therefore relegated to being an Asian power alone. So Ukraine must be kept out of the Russian sphere of influence according to that doctrine which is popular among American elites.
Regime change in Russia had been desired by the Liberal International Order (LIO) aka The Rules Based Order, for a long time, but they couldn’t find a way to get it done. So it looks like they hired an actor to convince Ukrainians it was a good idea to go to war with Russia. They convinced Zelenskyy to lead the Ukrainian people into a maelstrom of hot lead because they want to bring down the Russian government by sanctions. Just like when the USSR became an obsessive target of the LIO after WWII. After the USSR remained committed to expanding communism around the world after WWII, the LIO tried everything they could think of to bring them down. All unsuccessfully. The USSR ended because the leaders of Russia and Ukraine etc. saw their rivalry with the west as a waste of time and energy so they simply disbanded the USSR. Hardliners tried to stop them, but Boris Yeltsin with the help of the military stopped the hardliners and that was the end of the Soviet Union. It wasn’t Reagan, it wasn’t the CIA. They just didn’t see any point in fighting for something they no longer believed in, they could see that their political system was not bringing them the same level of wealth as the capitalist system, which they coveted.
Russia had been a thorn in the side of the LIO’s attempt to bring the world under their sole dominion for the last 70 years. They thought the problem was over when the USSR dissolved and split apart. Russia at that time came under the influence of American and European businessmen and security agencies. They worked with various ex-leaders, ex-security service people, and with organized criminals and business people, to divide the spoils of the fall of the Soviet Union. But people from the old KGB had other ideas. Seeing what was happening and not liking it, Putin and his friends were in positions of power which enabled them to kick out some of the new oligarchs, jail some, and send the foreigners packing. They took control over a ship of state that was listing so badly it was about to sink. The standard of living had fallen dramatically from Soviet times, organized crime was rampant because it was so hard to make money legally, foreign oligarchs were working with ex-Communist leaders and criminals to loot the nation.
At first Putin was tolerated by the LIO oligarchy, but in 2007 he gave a speech to a room full of their media and political representatives that left them with their mouths literally gaping.
Putin had thrown down a gauntlet by letting it be known that there was a new big dog in town. Russia was not going to go along with a “unipolar” world where Russia played second fiddle to the lead of Wall St and The City of London, nor to Paris, Berlin, Brussels and the rest of The EU oligarchy. The “unipolar moment” after the fall of the communist bloc was according to Putin, over. He then went about over a number of years trying to prove he meant business. He sent in troops to fight in support of Russians living in Georgia, and in support of his foreign friends. Wars in Syria, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Libya, made it clear that Putin was in fact, serious. No one could stop him.
Putin again proved that was the case after the coup in Ukraine in 2014 after the US put in power an anti-Russian regime. Putin was asked by the Russian populations of Crimea and the Donbas to help them from the new anti-Russian agenda of the “Maidan” nationalist regime. And he did. The LIO thought they had Syria so much on the ropes that they made many plans to divide and exploit Syria after its regime fell — until it turned out it was a little too soon to count their chickens. Russia had a very important navy base in Syria. Syria had also been a friendly ally for a long time, so of course Putin had to join the fight. A certain defeat and dismemberment of Syria to be fed on by ravenous LIO oligarchs was not to be.
After that it became clear to the “Rules Based Order” that Putin really was serious. There was nothing they could do to challenge him unless they were willing to go nuclear. Which they weren’t because armageddon is not worth being denied exploiting Syria or Ukraine. Something must be done though to remove Putin and his government, they thought. Hmm, what could that be?
The coup in Ukraine in 2014 removed the leadership that had rejected becoming a vassal of the IMF in exchange for money. Ukraine needed money, lots of it, and Russia not only offered money and discounts on gas, but also without all the strings attached which would have made Ukraine essentially a puppet of western financiers. That reality began to be realized after the coup with the installation of Arseny Yatsenyuk — whom you may remember was mentioned in the infamous phone call during the coup as the choice of Obama’s representative Victoria Nuland — to be the new prime minister of the new coup regime.
In March 2014, the acting Prime Minister, Arseny Yatsenyuk, welcomed strict and painful structural reforms as part of the $17 billion IMF loan package, dismissing the need to negotiate any terms. The IMF austerity reforms will affect monetary and exchange rate policies, the financial sector, fiscal policies, the energy sector, governance, and the business climate. The loan is also a precondition for the release of further financial support from the EU and the US. If fully adopted, the reforms may lead to significant price increases of essential consumer goods, a 47 to 66% increase in personal income tax rates, and a 50% increase in gas bills. It is feared that these measures will have a devastating social impact, resulting in a collapse of the standard of living and dramatic increases in poverty.
From: Walking on the West Side: the World Bank and the IMF in the Ukraine Conflict
As it becomes clear to the LIO that Ukraine has not only lost but will be conquered and taken apart, Zelenskyy may be seen worth more to his backers as a scapegoat to take the heat off of them as the power behind the throne. But he could have made contingency plans for just such a thing by threatening the release of information implicating western leaders for all manner of corruption, if such a thing exists, if they betray him. Is that why they seem so beholden to him? I mean their leaders and their media literally worships him as the second coming. Seems odd.
The oligarchs of the LIO were too stupid to see how this would play out even though it was obvious to so many. They didn’t expect to defeat Russia on the battlefield, I am sure of that. Russia had too much going for them to lose a conventional war against Ukraine, and the LIO military experts knew that. But they fought Russia anyway because they wanted to impose a sanctions regime so harsh as to completely sever Russian economic integration with the wider world. They hoped that would inspire Russian elites to overthrow Putin. That was their play. They gambled big.
They lost big.
Russia wins big because the sanctions backfired. The EU and the world economy had not only grown to depend on Russian commodities, but also on the good graces of Russia’s allies: China and the super powerful Arab monarchs who have so much control over the costs of the world economy. Russia had too many friends in high places to need to depend on the LIO. The plan was that the LIO oligarchy would intimidate the world into going along with the sanctions.
Obviously that would not work since China, the oil and gas rich Arab states, India, and so many others had developed close partnerships with the biggest Russian energy and other commodities companies in recent years. But the leading people of the LIO were ignorant of that, they were convinced by war profiteers that it would work out. Just like they were convinced by profiteers that the obvious flaws of their kooky kovid plans would also work out just fine and not cause the massive damage to the world that it has. 40 new billionaires came out of that according to Forbes, but most of the world’s economy was devastated because the leaders of the LIO were assured nothing bad would happen if they shut everything down for as long as they did — except of course for the big box stores. All the small business people though were devastated.
The people leading the LIO are mostly to-the-manor-born ultra-rich people, they are not ultra-smart experts on world affairs, the experts work for them. Other leaders of the LIO made their fortunes from knowing how to code really well, or knowing how to hire really smart and lucky people to invest for them, etc. — but they are not especially wise in the ways of the rest of the world. The study and expertise needed to be an expert in all the political and economic realities of the real world is not interesting to the really rich, they have the freedom to spend their time only on their interests to the exclusion of learning a lot about everything else. They hire experts to advise them on everything else. If those experts are corrupt, well…profiteers took advantage of the ignorance of the super rich leaders of the LIO. Their acquiescence to self-interested experts working for various corporations behind their backs ended up ruining the world economy: 1st by a kooky kovid response which shut down much of the world solely to make profits for a small group of profiteers; and then by convincing 1st world politicians to support an insane war on Russia via Ukraine’s destruction and boomerang sanctions — which again saw a small group of profiteers make a massive profit from the war. And we see how that has led the world to the brink. Meanwhile the super rich leaders of the LIO fiddle with their hobbies…while the world is falling apart at its seams.
