Well, there are a great many reasons why I, a western citizen of independent thought, place my faith in the leadership and peoples of the Russian Federation, their basic, strong self-belief; in their abundance of humanitarian and righteous (i.e. morally correct) principles; and in the strength of their armed forces – second to none in the world. I will not share all of those reasons here (there isn’t time or space) – but I must say something, for my own wellbeing and from a heart full of gratitude for all that Russia does.
In the case of the conflict in Ukraine, this is not an equation, where both sides must balance to make it such. It is the opposite of an equation – an inequality. An inequality in right, an inequality in might, and an inequality in sight. And Russia is greater than (no ‘greater or equal’ in any of these cases) those who oppose it, in all cases.
Let’s make it clear. This is a war, not between Russia and Ukraine, but between Russia and the combined west, the US/NATO alliance, their geo-political and also their military arms. It is a war of existence. Not a ‘winner takes all’ war (at least not from Russia’s point of view), but a war to establish the right of free and independent peoples to live the way they choose to live, without fear or favour. The view of the west is something much murkier and entirely undesirable for everyone but themselves and, in the final analysis, for everyone but the US – a nation that entertains no true ‘friendship’ with anyone (as many oppressed or pressured ‘allies’ may attest). The ‘greater than’ principle of inequality of ‘right’ therefore rests squarely with Russia.
I think I do not need to say much about the case of inequality in might. It is clear to all – except those news-poor folk informed misinformed by no other information sources on global issues than the untrustworthy and corrupt western media – that, despite its obscene spending on all things military, the west is undeniably impotent to even face up to Russia on the battlefield. Instead, cowering behind the ‘not wanting to inflame the situation to prevent it escalating’ excuse, but feeding it from the rear with massive amounts of out-of-date armaments to the detriment of the youth of Ukraine who are forced to fight for their mostly worthless (made so by their own western imposed government) country against what many of them consider to be their brother slavs – though remembering that Russia is not an exclusively slavic nation, encompassing in its extensive landmass a great many diverse ethnic groups. This behind the scenes activity by the west is of course the maximum amount of effort they can generate in the current environment of economic and cultural collapse western nations are undergoing. They will spend their last dollar or euro on belligerent and mentally unhinged activities rather than see to the welfare of their own people. And no matter how much they spend on attempts to catch up with Russia in the modern technology of warfare, they will never, ever, achieve parity in combat power again. Basically, they do not possess either the resources or the brainpower to do so in the short time they have left to act as functioning modern nations. Russia wins the ‘greater than’ principle of inequality of ‘might’, hands down. And that result is all due to foresight – which brings me to the final field of inequality (well, ‘final’ for the purposes of this essay anyway).
‘Look where you are going’ is essential advice for any human, individual or collective, that wishes to move from any point ‘A’ to a point ‘B’. But ‘looking’ is only part of the required capabilities of such navigations. You also have to be able to ‘see’ – which implies a level of understanding of what you are looking at. It is not sufficient to have an ‘end-point’ to aim for and some vague plan on how to get there. Especially when the plan calls for obstacles that invariably occur on such journeys to be dealt with by trampling underfoot, stomping on, and beating with a ‘big stick’ (the darker sides of inequality of perceived ‘right’ and ‘might’). What is needed is ‘right thinking’ along the lines of the preservation of human equality and the right to live peacefully and independently for all life. The ‘selfishness’ of wanting to transform the world to your own viewpoint, whatever that view may be, and to your own benefit exclusively, needs to be replaced by the ‘selflessness’ to plan for a world of cooperative and peaceful equality for all peoples and all life. The first is how the west thinks. The latter is the Russian way. And that is what has enabled Russia to achieve all that it has over the past 30 years or so, building on earlier achievements – which the west failed to appreciate when they had the opportunity, by despising everything Russian, their eyes firmly fixed on plundering Russia’s wealth – and have enabled Russia to become a leading global nation in a multi-polar world, alongside China, both carrying the banners of all that is right and just and good in human affairs. And also why the west can never, and will never, be allowed to impose its grubby dreams of a prison planet on us or our descendants, or the other life-forms which inhabit, with us, this beautiful planet.
And THAT, in a few stumbling words, is basically why I support Russia.
Not Something Else 
” This is a war, not between Russia and Ukraine, but between Russia and the combined west, the US/NATO alliance, their geo-political and also their military arms.”
i agree. But when these things happen, people need someone to blame. It has to be Putin because he is the ‘other’ …he is not ‘us’. Just like the unvaccinated were blamed for spreading covid. They became the out-group, someone to vent anger on.
I haven’t bothered to read anything about the ‘war’ except the real history behind it, because I know it is all propaganda, but secretly I hope Putin prevails..
Thanks Bev. Some of that historical context is shown in my latest post – Historical Guide to Military Intervention in Ukraine – written by a French intelligence officer.
Thanks, I’ll check it out. Can you tell me what news sources you use and regard as reliable and truthful? I’ve recently returned to reading Paul Craig Roberts again. What do you think of him?
Oh, I could spend a lot of time on this, which I don’t really have, but I will make a list.
Primarily, I don’t reference any American or other western news sources now (I still read Kunstler for the entertainment value but don’t, as a rule, make reference to his work) and I don’t even look at or read our ABC News – it having turned into a mouthpiece for US news. So, PCR is not on my current list – though if his name crops up I will go see what he says. My view is that he, like everything else from the US, is now ‘out of the loop’ and of little value because they are divorced from reality or caught up in their own little circle of fate centred on America and soon to dissolve.
The one site which I do not include in those comments is the Titanic Lifeboat Academy. I am in frequent correspondence with the lady who runs that site, Caren Black, with her partner Christopher Paddon, who both think more or less the way I do on most matters. I trust them but, having said that, I still skip over most of the articles they feature, unless something particularly interesting jumps out at me. I guess I am already at saturation point with most of the common issues – though they are providing a useful service.
Russia and China, even Iran, are where it is at now and I place a great deal of trust in most Russian sources, only slightly less those of China, and while I am not 100% convinced that Iran does not harbour a ‘wish list’ of turning the world to Islam, they do report events accurately. All three nations have English language sites (which is convenient for us, and sufficient for Chinese and Iranian news) but the most nitty-gritty of Russian current news requires translation. I have taught myself to read Russian to the point, as yet, only to sound out the words, without actually knowing the meaning, but picking up recognition of a growing number of Russian words. I of course now exclusively use the Russian Yandex browser, which includes an excellent inbuilt translator.
So, here are the sites I at least scan on a daily basis…
TASS – https://tass.com/ excellent, usually short news reports, on the day they occur
New Eastern Outlook – https://journal-neo.org/ longer articles by credible authors on recent events but not usually up to date (Aussie ex-barrister – James O’Neill often has articles there)
Global Times – https://www.globaltimes.cn/ excellent and credible articles on events of often fairly up-to-date issues and matters of interest with gritty but valid editorial content.
The Saker – https://thesaker.is/ and Martyanov blogs – http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/ both of which are worth scanning though less frequently now producing anything of real value. The Saker has mostly ‘guest’ posts, being too caught up in his own personal memes these days, and Martyanov often provides useful recent information but wrapped in his rough mannerisms and personal fetishes.
NSIDC – https://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/charctic-interactive-sea-ice-graph/ Still checking the Arctic Sea Ice situation – kind of like watching grass grow.
RIA Novosti – https://ria.ru/ another good mostly trustworthy news site for insight on the Russian view of the world
TAE – https://www.theautomaticearth.com/ I still do a quick scan of this site daily. Mostly it points to just one article of any interest from the list presented. Sometimes none.
Less frequently scanned but excellent Chinese news sites are…
Xinhuanet – https://english.news.cn/home.htm China’s window to the world
China Daily – http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/ – a more self-focused China news site
There is only one Iranian site I use…
FARS News Agency – https://www.farsnews.ir/en/ well written, accurate news stories, usually with some, though not usually intrusive, islamic… (I’m not sure what word to use here – twist, focus, bias, reference… perhaps all), but some worth reading as a finger on the Iranian pulse
Whenever it crops up I still read the Syrian SANA – https://www.sana.sy/en/ but there is a new West Asian site called The Cradle – https://thecradle.co/ which while it does not publish new stories frequently, usually has something useful to say, and often carries new Pepe Escobar articles
More recently, with the focus on conflict in Europe (being my current muse) I do not rely on any of these sites because they are not up-to-the-minute coverage. And I need that sort of information which, while not always reliable, gives a hint of where things are going. By using information from the following sites I am often able to publish stories at least a day (even with the time difference and the need to be writing up to 2am many nights) before anyone in the standard blog world has the story.
VZGLYAD – https://vz.ru/ operating in Moscow since 2015. Great, on-time news in Russian which can be translated
News Front – https://en.news-front.info/ another excellent, trustworthy news site
DAN – Donetsk News Agency – https://dan-news.info/en/ News from Donetsk and pretty much exclusive to that region
I trust the following sites implicitly, though, with the foggy nature of the stories, they sometimes are not 100% correct.
Readovka News – https://readovka.news/ significant up-to-the-minute news
General Staff Portfolio – https://vk.com/public206639135 – a VK site which is entirely in Russian but can be translated
There are other sites I use less frequently, such as…
Strategic Culture Foundation – https://www.strategic-culture.org/
…but that is about it really, unless some lead takes me to a new source.
Many thanks, Bernie, for taking the time to do the list. I’ve pasted it into a doc and will take a look at all of them. I’m back on TAE, which I left when Nicole left and back on the Saker.
So from everything I have read so far that you have posted, I get the impression that you receive your income from the Russians, am I correct in that assumption? I am not judging. I am just curious. Every word that I have read so far smacks to me of propaganda against the West. Even having said that, I have added you to my blog roll in the hopes of learning something.
Ah, John, after my reply to your earlier comment (different post) I now see that you are a fellow blogger, An American, with some rational thoughts on different aspects around your government and the general world situation. Fortunately I don’t have to take back anything I said in my earlier reply, other than to declare that there may be some hope for you to see a different point of view.
Firstly, I am not paid by Russia, or anyone else for that matter, other than aged pension commitments by both the Australian and British governments and a small military pension from my time spent in the UK military during the ’70s. I am now 77 years old and work for no man. Nor do I bear allegiance to any. So, I am free to make up my own views. Over the years this has led me to the conclusions that the west is self-interested (don’t care about anyone else) and even self-obsessed to the point where they (I don’t consider myself as part of that, though I am a born and bred westerner) consider it their right to rule the world and try to make it look and operate just like how they imagine themselves to be. It is all false and it is all about to crash in a heap, to be replaced by a genuine new world order, brought into fruition by the joint efforts of Russia and China – plus other like minded nations. A new way of peaceful cooperation, in which the west plays a subordinate part (or no part at all unless and until they accept that their way was wrong and they request to join the new paradigm – as equals).
So, if you want to keep abreast of how all that is going – bearing in mind that it (or any other way) may be going nowhere as a result of external factors such as climate change, the burgeoning population and the possibility that we may all die (though i think it is the west that will do most of the dying) if along the way to that new world situation we indulge in nuclear theatrics – by all means continue to read my blog. Not that I claim to be any expert in these matters – just an observer.
If you wish to see where I get most of my information from, please see an earlier comment on this post – where, by request from an old friend, they are listed.
i appreciate the detail and I will indeed keep onm reading your blog.