Ob unter Iwan IV., Peter I. oder Katharina II., unter Stalin, Chruschtschow oder Breschnew: trotz mancher Rückschläge ist der russische Drang zur Expansion nie wirklich erloschen. Ihm liegt ein moskauzentrischer Messianismus zugrunde, welcher der russischen Staatsidee inhärent geblieben ist.
[ Whether under Ivan IV [ Ива́н Гро́зный, the Terrible ], Peter I [ Пётр Вели́кий, the Great ] or Catherine II, under Stalin, Khrushchev or Brezhnev: despite some setbacks, the Russian urge to expand never really died out. It is based on a Moscow-centric messianism that has remained inherent in the Russian idea of the state. ]
– Helmut Schmidt, Chancellor of West Germany 1974-1982, Menschen und Mächte, 1987
And Putin sees himself right there in the continuity of this infamous history:
Вот Пётр Первый Северную войну 21 год вёл. Казалось бы, воевал со Швецией, что-то отторгал… Ничего он не отторгал, он возвращал! Так и есть. Всё Приладожье, там, где Петербург основан. Когда он заложил новую столицу, ни одна из стран Европы не признавала эту территорию за Россией, все признавали её за Швецией. А там испокон веков наряду с финно-угорскими народами жили славяне, причём эта территория находилась под контролем Российского государства. То же самое и в западном направлении, это касается Нарвы, его первых походов. Чего полез туда? Возвращал и укреплял – вот что делал.
Судя по всему, на нашу долю тоже выпало возвращать и укреплять. И если мы будем исходить из того, что вот эти базовые ценности составляют основу нашего существования, мы, безусловно, преуспеем в решении задач, которые перед нами стоят.
[ Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years. On the face of it, he was at war with Sweden taking something away from it… He was not taking away anything, he was returning. This is how it was. The areas around Lake Ladoga, where St Petersburg was founded. When he founded the new capital, none of the European countries recognised this territory as part of Russia; everyone recognised it as part of Sweden. However, from time immemorial, the Slavs lived there along with the Finno-Ugric peoples, and this territory was under Russia’s control. The same is true of the western direction, Narva and his first campaigns. Why would he go there? He was returning and reinforcing, that is what he was doing.
Clearly, it fell to our lot to return and reinforce as well. And if we operate on the premise that these basic values constitute the basis of our existence, we will certainly succeed in achieving our goals. ]
– Владимир Путин, “Встреча с молодыми предпринимателями, инженерами и учёными” [ “Meeting with young entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists” ], June 9, 2022
(And never mind his past declarations to the contrary.)
As if Peter “the Great” were not bad enough, some of his pundits choose to go even further back, to worse.
“Georgy Danilovich was one of the founders of the Great Empire, who began the Great conquest of the world. He went down in history, in particular, under the name of Genghis Khan.”
The Multimedia Museum of the New Chronology, Yaroslavl, Russia
The Great Empire? Ah yes: “One estimate is that about 11% of the world’s population was killed either during or immediately after the Mongol invasions.”
Now who would lie about Genghis Khan, probably the worst mass-rapist in history, in order to be associated with such a horrendous legacy of rape, murder and looting?
Shakhnazarov described Russia as an empire, the rightful descendant of the Golden Horde Mongol dynasty: “I believe that Russia is a natural heir to Tatar-Mongols, who have created the first empire on the territory of Eurasia.”
– “Kremlin Cronies Say Putin Is Ready to Go Full Kim Jong Un” (video)
Threats to Poland
Embracing “might makes right” nihilism fully, they proclaim that:
About the speech of Duda, which infuriated me to the bottom of my soul, perhaps Poland should remember its borders of 1939. He says, ‘if we fear Russia’s nuclear weapons, we might as well surrender. Should we get scared and obey Putin’s directives, and fulfill his political goals in Europe just because we fear nuclear weapons?’ Here’s what I would say to Mr Duda. You know, it’s very cynical, but if you live with wolves, learn how to howl. I would respond that yes, you should. Yes, you should. That’s how this world works, that’s life. If you aren’t capable of creating such weapons to defend yourself with, if you don’t have engineers, scientists, industry, then you have to take into account that other countries will be determining how you live. It’s just the way it is.
Which is an interesting comment, given that Russia got its nuclear technology… by stealing it from the United States (they stole the uranium, too). Remember that “90% of all Soviet technology was of Western origin”. And now: “‘No hope for science in Russia’: the academics trying to flee to the west”, “‘A Nail In The Coffin’: Tech Workers Are Fleeing Russia And The Impact Will Last For Years”, etc.
Threats to Switzerland
Solovyov suggested: “Since we’re going to be enlarging, if we need—for example—auto parts, let’s enlarge towards the places where those factories are located. I’m also still peeved about Lake Como. Let’s enlarge in that direction.”
Solovyov. Poor, hard-working Solovyov was very upset about having several of his humble dwellings seized.
Why does a communist have several villas instead of sharing a коммунальная квартира? On what grounds can Solovyov object to their confiscation?
Also, Lake Como being only a few kilometers from the Swiss border, what happened to our Swiss right to a buffer zone?
Incidentally:
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Swiss embassy took down Swiss flag, out of fear Russians would deliberately target it (if they deliberately target hospitals, does anyone seriously expect them to respect neutrality? And how was Ukraine not neutral, except by actually allowing Russian troops on its soil (bad idea)?
Could we start taking the threat seriously now, finally help arming Ukraine, stop with this “neutrality” nonsense already, and consider joining NATO?
We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant.
– Elie Wiesel