Friday, March 04, 2022
Messages from Ukraine and Russia
One of my former economics students has been texting me from Ukraine. After graduating he went home and began an entrepreneurial venture. Now he's at war. He writes:
Hello sir, all is well here in Lviv. The nation is united like never before and we are kicking Russian asses. Here in Lviv the military is overwhelmed with volunteers so I couldn't even sign up with territorial defense. They are simply turning people away without the military experience. I'm going to the military training with a private military organisation.I thought we would be run over in 2 days by the Russian army but our military did an amazing job and I, and my fellow Ukrainians, are extremely proud.If you can, please spread the word about the carpet bombings of civilians among people in Washington. We really need to kick the Russians of the airspace. This will reduce civilian casualties and demolish their advancement chances. On the ground they are biting the dust.We showed that the Russian army is extremely weak, NATO has nothing to worry about. All we need is their defensive capabilities and the war and Russian regime will be over with in no time.
Another of my former economics students writes from Russia:
I think I have answered these last two questions. But restricting U.S. oil and gas production hurts the U.S. and raises the world prices for these commodities, which is important for Russian exports. I also think that the U.S. administration and a substantial proportion of the American administrative state do not really oppose Russia in any serious way. Recall that Hunter Biden received a 3.5 million USD payment from the widow of Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton approved the Uranium One deal for Russia and not long afterwards her husband went to Moscow and received 500,000 USD for a 20 minute speech to Russian energy executives. Barack Obama had Dmitry Medvedev relay a message to Putin that he, Obama, would have to talk tough but after the election would be cooperative with Putin. As VP Joe Biden shut down the Ukrainian investigation of Burisma and as President his administration has been the slowest of the Western nations to impose sanctions on Russia. And the Biden administration is using the Russians, including Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, to negotiate a new and worse JPCOA with Iran.
The Putin regime is perfidious. Biden regime is perfidious and incompetent. The world suffers.
Thanks to S and K for the messages they sent.
I was worried for a while that the apparent success of the Ukrainian defense was propaganda. Frankly, this conflict has been one of the most difficult to follow because it's really hard to differentiate between what is true and what isn't.
I have read some interesting analysis of the Russian military that does align with what the first message here describes. There is actually a minimal sense of national pride amongst their armed forces, and morale has been very low from the start.
One thing I wonder about is the involvement of Western intelligence agencies in supporting Ukraine. Perhaps it's irrelevant, but the UK seems to have taken a huge interest in the outcome.
Regardless, this is encouraging, and I am very glad to read some credible perspectives from the inside. Putin must be stopped. I'm in the middle of reading a great biography of Mao, and it terrifies me to see the kind of harm a deranged leader can inflict on the world.
Greg
: 10:02 It does appear that Russian casualties are high and the invasion going far worse for the Kremlin than they expected. As for intelligence agencies being involved, yes, I think they all flock to trouble. The Chinese, and probably Russians and Iranians and others, were at least on the periphery during BLM's George Floyd riots. I'm sure Russian and Western intelligence agencies are on the ground in Ukraine.
I've heard some Americans say that America could not possibly have any strategic interest in Ukraine - a remarkably stupid assertion, since the fate of Ukraine is intimately tied with nuclear nonproliferation, worldwide prices of natural gas and oil, the security and freedom of Europe, and the political course of the world's most heavily armed nuclear power.
Thanks for your comment.
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