My heart leapt this morning when I read my usual, mostly trusted, news sources. But it has done that daily of course for the past 15 years since it was coerced into believing a regular beat is ‘not for us’. Nonetheless, I can still recognise an extra special ‘leap’ when I feel one.
Russia has always been behind in the info wars. Partly a language issue (English having a much wider readership advantage) but mainly because Russian culture operates far above the sleazy canals where western discourse generally flows. They just won’t, officially, go there. And my recent reading of (translated) Russian media tends to support that view.
But, among all of the important changes that are currently swirling around in the world’s over-burdened zeitgeist, there are many which have only newly emerged. Some in only the last few days and some even today (as I see it). Ok, I had better briefly list a couple, if only to show I am not making this stuff up.
Is the US, or Trump at least, going to support Russia against Zelensky? It will have to be from different directions of course. They can’t be seen as acting together, can they? Russia will continue to destroy Zee’s armies while the Trumpster (haven’t used that in a while) begins a new Maidan, or something of the sort, to force his hand. Trump was not behind the original Maidan of course. That was an Obama wet dream, which became a reality – aided and continued by pet dog Biden. An upright Russia would of course have no part in such turgid affairs. [I was in two minds as to whether to use the word ‘turgid’ or ‘turbid’ here. Neither conveys the exact meaning I had in mind but both sound equally ‘cool’ to use.] That might solve an impending, if temporary, impasse mightn’t it? A compliant Ukraine would certainly be better for Ukrainians, and everyone else of course, than no Ukraine at all – whether absorbed elsewhere, depopulated as a Buffer Zone, rendered totally unliveable, or a mixture of all those things.
Not many people, there are always some, would have considered any of that as being possible, more than a week or so ago. Such are the potential emergent changes now being discussed today.
So, moving on to the main course, what’s this about a new Russian weapon?
Well, you see, he says a little sheepishly, its ‘Documentaries’. Filmed Documentaries. Russian filmed Documentaries. Documentaries now being seen for the first time. Don’t scoff. This is a big story. A major event of global proportions, as Moscow hosts the III International Film Festival “Cinema in the Service of the Fatherland”.
I think that deserves a bold statement, like…
‘The truth about SVO will now be impossible to hide‘ – as reported by the Moscow based online newspaper VZGLYAD – Feb 19, 2025
Read for yourself, and see why that is so huge. I dearly wanted to share it in full here, because I cannot explain it nearly so well as is reported there, but I believe this is something you need to understand, whoever you are, and that would be best achieved by reading it in situ.
It is clear that this success is all possible only to the efforts of one Russian woman (and the Russian President of course). That woman deserves a special mention here. Her name is Olesya Shigina, a 49 year old mother of five, documentary maker, and much more. Some of that ‘more’ is given in this the only paragraph I will share from the above article…
At the end of November 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with the mothers of the participants of the SVO. Among the guests was Olesya Shigina – by that time her eldest son had voluntarily gone to the front. During that meeting, she told the head of state about the urgent need to make a documentary film festival about the SVO. The President responded quickly and clearly in a statesmanlike manner.
The Festival has now been said to have achieved international status. Well done Olesya. The world owes you a great debt. Russia owes you a great debt. Thank you for all that you have done to inform that world. The Moscow stage of the festival for 2025 closed yesterday. Its opening on Feb 16 was reported (in English) here…
I suspect that it will not be until after the end of the SVO that the full realisation of the truth of Russia’s struggle over the past three years will become truly known to international audiences (assuming that is planned – it may be that it remains a travelling show across mainly Russian regions), but the groundwork has been done to take this vital work and the truth it encapsulates, a step further. I hope something like that is envisaged. Russia has many friends, in many countries.
Not Something Else 