Russia’s New “General Armageddon” and the West’s Fear of Total War
Alexander Dugin frames the Istanbul talks as theatrics without a future and declares that the era of total war has begun.
Alexander Dugin frames the Istanbul talks as theatrics without a future and declares that the era of total war has begun.
The US RAND Corporation continues to publish regular reports on the Russia’s Special Military Operation, which may be interesting in terms of how they assess the armed conflict, the prospects for its completion, as well as further intentions with respect to Russia.
Mehmet Perinçek stated that peace talks have been sabotaged by outside powers. He said that the allegations of child abduction are efforts to undermine the peace initiatives. Similarly, despite the agreement on the exchange of sick and wounded prisoners, Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinskiy later stated that Ukraine did not comply with it.
The latest round of negotiations in Istanbul, in my view, was extremely important from a symbolic perspective. A serious struggle is currently underway over Trump's position on the war in Ukraine and, by extension, over the position of the United States. Trump himself, subjectively, would like to end this war, but, objectively, he cannot do so. Any conditions under which he believes the conflict could be halted are, first and foremost, unacceptable to us—although they are also unacceptable to the Ukrainians. Therefore, any proposal for a truce will sooner or later prove untenable.
[NOTE — I published this piece in November 2023. In light of the possible meeting between the Russians and the Ukrainians on Thursday in Istanbul, I think it is worth publishing it again for many of you who may have missed it the first time. I decided to do this after listening to Nima’s podcast with Ray McGovern and John Helmer. They had a major, yet polite, disagreement on what happened during Istanbul 2022. Helmer insisted that the Russian’s cancelled the deal. Simply not true. Sergei Lavrov, during my meeting with him in early March of this year, recounted the same sequence of events that I wrote about in November 2023. Also worth noting that Russia is sending the same negotiating team that was in place for the 2022 talks.]
The endgame is clear: the US losing the entire Eurasian land mass. Ukraine, under these immense geopolitical imperatives, is only a sovereign-deprived pawn in the (Great) Game.
Political warfare in Washington is endemic. But the body count at the Pentagon has started to rise precipitously. Three of Secretary of Defence Hegseth’s top advisors were placed on leave, and then fired. The war continues, with the Secretary now in the firing line.
The decade of 2000 marked the start of Ukraine becoming a de facto member of NATO. It not only participated in all of the main exercises, but it hosted many. In fact, between 2000 and 2010, Ukraine is ranked in the top six of countries that hosted a NATO or USEUCOM exercise. Ukraine and Georgia, who was ranked number seven, were not NATO members. What the hell? Two non-NATO countries hosted more NATO exercises than 22 of the member nations. This is prima facie evidence that the West, despite warnings from Russia, was intent on making Ukraine and Georgia official members of NATO.
This is the first of a three-part series on the history of NATO and US European Command military exercises with Ukraine. This shows how the West, acting like a camel, slipped its big nose under the Ukrainian tent as part of a long-term strategy to defeat Russia.