SurrealPolitiks S01E015 - Russia and You

To speak of the news today, would be to speak of a recent coup attempt in Russia. I have no small degree of concern for the implications of this, and will beg the pardon of the audience if I appear at times to be exceedingly cautious. I have made a name for myself with unfiltered commentary, and even in this decidedly tamer format than earned me my notoriety, I have made every attempt to be as forthcoming as I can be about how I view a situation. 

Today, by contrast, I am a bit more reserved. The destabilization of the Russian Federation is a thing I fear no less, and perhaps just a bit more, than the chaos engulfing my own country. Russia is to me a symbol of hope. A post communist society, led by a ruler who enjoys the support of his people. Vladimir Putin retains this support despite his long reign, hardships on his population, and the necessity, at times for measures deemed harsh by many. 

Americans who have run afoul of the ruling class have found safe haven in Russia. Edward Snowden, and Tara Reade, are just two of the more prominent names on this list. But the list is longer than most of us could hope to know, and it will be beyond the scope of my preparations today to rattle off more names. 

Prior to my compulsory vacation beginning in early 2020, during the first annual impeachment of Donald J. Trump, I had come to believe that Ukraine played a central role in the corruption of our politics, and that Russia had been made a convenient scapegoat to distract from Democrat malfeasance. All that has unfolded since has only made me more certain of this fact. 

So, Russia matters to me, and to you, a great deal. They are fighting, in some sense, the same forces as we are. They have, in no small part, the same enemies and, importantly, the resources to wage that conflict. 

And so, quite unilaterally, which is to say, without reciprocity, I consider Russia an ally. I do not want to criticize the Russian State, or Vladimir Putin. 

And yet, I do not think my interests are best served to make an enemy of the Wagner group either. I have enough trouble dealing with the US Government, its criminal element, and the Ukrainian SBU. If Wagner can wage war in Ukraine, then take a trip to the outskirts of Moscow, threaten Vladimir Putin, and then go take a rest in Belarus without losing a man, then we are dealing with the sort of entity that necessarily operates by a different set of rules than you or I are equipped to deal with. 

Let us also dispense with the obvious: The perpetrator of the coup, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is Jewish. The relevance of this is hardly lost on me, of course. There is an ethnic stereotype, considered offensive by some, which could predictably result in the utterance of phrases unbecoming of the SurrealPolitiks business model. One might be inclined, for example, to deem it foolish for Vladimir Putin to permit such a man to command his own private military, especially while waging a military conflict against a neighboring country with a Jewish president.

Of course, there is cause to question the wisdom of any government allowing any private citizen to command his own military, and so, it is not as if we cannot explore this a bit here.

In the first episode of SurrealPolitiks, I identified Putin as a "master of the art" of Realpolitik. I have not reconsidered this position. Whatever you think about Putin, he is not foolish. The man worked for the KGB, and has governed the world's largest country for more than two decades, while the most powerful forces on the Earth have worked tirelessly to destroy him and his people. He has done this, perhaps most remarkably, with very popular support.

Whatever you or I may think we know, we can be certain that Vladimir Putin knows more, and is in a better position to make judgements based on this knowledge.