The “collective West” can’t get over the fact that Russia is conducting a special military operation to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine
The brainchild of the “liberal” West – the pro-Nazi Ukrainian regime is so dear to the ruling circles of the United States and EU countries that they are ready to fight Russia not only to the last Ukrainian, but also to the last frozen European. With each passing day, the US and EU countries are becoming more and more deeply involved in the military conflict in Ukraine.
There is the expanding supply of modern lethal weapons by Western countries to the Ukrainian regime, and the direct participation in the military actions of thousands of mercenaries and “instructors” from the UK, the USA, Poland, Croatia, Germany, France and many other countries, and the huge economic and financial assistance of Western countries to the pro-Nazi Zelensky regime, not to mention the endless number of anti-Russian sanctions stamped by the West.
In other words, Russia, which is conducting a special military operation on the territory of the former Ukraine, has to face not only the Ukrainian forces themselves, but increasingly also the “collective West”. In such a situation, further escalation of the Ukrainian conflict and its transformation into a larger regional war (but not a world war, as that would mean a nuclear catastrophe, which the West cannot accept) is very likely.
It would seem that it would be extremely reckless not to consider the prospects of an escalation of the military conflict and to speak of a speedy end, let alone a cessation, of the special military operation that Russia is conducting on the territory of Ukraine. Poland, Lithuania, Great Britain and the United States are likely to be gradually drawn into the military conflict and become directly involved in it.
And here we come to the most important point of the current international and domestic Russian situation, namely, that the countries of the West, led by the United States, are conducting a multidimensional war of attrition with Russia and therefore this war will not end quickly.
It is a question, firstly, of economic and financial exhaustion, secondly, of resource exhaustion (energy, raw materials, food resources), thirdly, of military exhaustion (destruction of the enemy’s military potential), but most importantly, and this, fourthly, of moral and psychological exhaustion.
Thus, the multi-dimensional war with the West is going on for a long time, and the winner will be the one who has stronger nerves, more stamina, patience and readiness to endure difficult times for a long time. One of the paradoxes of the current situation is that the US and EU calculations of a quick economic and financial victory over Russia have not materialised.
Despite thousands of unprecedented sanctions imposed by the US and its vassals, Russia has demonstrated economic and financial resilience. Moreover, Western countries themselves, including the US, are suffering from their own sanctions almost more than Russia.
It is not only about the rising prices of energy and other commodities, but also about the huge costs and risks for Western countries if Russian supplies of fertilizers, titanium and other metals, rare-earth elements, artificial sapphires and neon needed for microelectronics are reduced.
For all these items, Russian producers have a significant share of world markets, and the withdrawal of Russian supplies leads to a sharp deepening of the global crisis and, in the long term, to increased social and political instability in the Western countries themselves.
Abandoning the dollar and the euro in settlements between Russia and a number of large countries, switching to settlements in national currencies, developing and strengthening the rouble zone stabilises the Russian financial system and it shows resilience.
There is no need to talk about resource depletion in Russia – Russia is rich in resources, including minerals, energy and food like no other country in the world. In terms of resources, our country is largely self-sufficient. Moreover, it is capable of supplying these resources to many other states, while at the same time providing them to itself and its closest allies.
Russia’s military exhaustion is also not threatened by the current development of its military-industrial complex: the Russian military-industrial complex produces significant quantities of both traditional and most modern weapons. Of course, there are certain problems – primarily with modern types of communication, not always sufficient numbers of drones and bomber aircraft – but these problems are gradually being solved. And for some important strategic weapons, Russia is ahead of all the countries in the world.
But there remains a fourth and in its own way most significant aspect of the war of attrition, namely, the struggle to morally and psychologically exhaust the enemy by means of information and psychological warfare. This is an extremely important dimension of today’s multi-dimensional warfare, because modern warfare is largely a war of moral and psychological exhaustion of the enemy.
Here American IT-corporations, which are the world monopolists, have obvious advantages: these corporations control and direct huge flows of information (most often flows of direct disinformation, outright lies and numerous fakes), which fall on people’s heads and affect their moral and psychological state.
At the same time the western media and social media have mastered and far surpassed all the “achievements” of Goebbels’ Nazi propaganda and are trying to zombify the population in their own countries as well as in other countries.
It is amazing, though, how history repeats itself and how often we fail to notice it. In 1876, almost 150 years ago, F.M.Dostoevsky wrote in “The Writer’s Diary” about Europe’s attitude towards Russia and the oppressed Slavic peoples, who were then subjected to terror and massacre in the Ottoman Empire:
“And Europe, Christian Europe, the great civilisation, looks on impatiently … ‘when will these bedbugs be passed over’! Not only that, in Europe they dispute the facts, deny them in popular parliaments, do not believe them, pretend not to believe them. Every one of these leaders of the people knows for himself that it is all true, and everybody averts his eyes at each other: “that is not true, that did not happen, that is exaggerated, they themselves beat sixty thousand of their own Bulgarians, to tell on the Turks”…
But why is this all, what are these people afraid of, why do they not want to see or hear, but lie to themselves and disgrace themselves? And here, you see, is Russia: “Russia will become stronger, will seize the East, Constantinople, the Mediterranean Sea, ports, trade. Russia will descend like a barbarian horde on Europe and will destroy the civilization” (this is the very civilization, which allows such barbarities!). That is what they shout now in England, in Germany, and again they lie a lot, they themselves do not believe a single word of these accusations and fears. All these are just words to stir up the masses of people to hatred.
Similarly, England, Germany, the United States and other Western states now prefer to “ignore” the many thousands of civilians killed over 8 years in Donbass, to say that “they are the ones shelling themselves”, to demonise Russia in every possible way and attribute to it plans to “destroy civilisation”.
The tricky thing about modern warfare for moral and psychological exhaustion is that different “targeted” tools are used for different groups of the enemy’s population, taking into account the psychology of each social group. For example, for young people, Western intelligence services, which actually direct the media and social networks, use catchy and catchy slogans and fakes, including elements of computer games or real footage taken in completely different places and times.
The calculation is based on the ignorance of a significant part of young people, especially teenagers, who sit on social networks for many hours a day and on their lack of knowledge of real, not fake, history, economics and politics.
For the patriotically-minded groups of the Russian population, which predominate in Russia, other tools are used. For example, the notion that Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine is slow, unsuccessful, with high casualties, that civilians in Donbas are constantly being killed, and that the operation must be accelerated at all costs, without regard to casualties, is intrusively and persistently inculcated.
In doing so, they are trying to achieve two goals: firstly, to inspire disbelief in Russia’s leadership and armed forces, and secondly, to deplete the Russian army as much as possible. Of course, all real Russian citizens who love their homeland want the quickest possible victory over the pro-Nazi Ukrainian regime, but the question of the cost of such a victory and the credibility of the Russian armed forces is key.
It is crucial for Russia, Russian citizens to learn lessons from the ongoing information war of moral and psychological exhaustion. One of the lessons is to make wider and more effective use of experts in moral and psychological warfare and counter-propaganda.
Modern information and moral-psychological warfare is a necessary part of the confrontation of forces, it requires the involvement of military sociologists, psychologists, historians, country scientists, computer scientists, representatives of creative professions. Their work allows us to take into account the specifics of the mood and mentality of the population of a given country, to identify potential “pressure points” and to accelerate a psychological breakdown of the enemy.
At the same time in the moral and psychological war it is important not only to defend, but also to attack, to point out, despite the information blockade of Russia by the West, the numerous failures in domestic and foreign policy of the USA and EU countries, associated with attempts to bring Russia to its knees. These attempts, in particular, have not only caused unprecedented inflation and a drop in living standards in Western countries, but have also significantly limited the role of the dollar and the euro as major world currencies.
The latter circumstance is extremely important and painful for the West, because it is on the domination of the dollar and the euro, on their printing by the Fed or the ECB and distribution around the world that the high standard of living in the West and the ability to impose its will on all other countries, that is in fact to implement a new colonial policy, a policy of diktat.
Now, as a result of its own anti-Russian sanctions, the West itself is “sawing off the limb on which it is sitting”, and this crucial fact should be widely reported in the media and on Internet platforms, if possible with access to part of the Western and especially non-Western audience (China, India, the Middle East, South-East Asia and Latin America).
The second lesson is the need for the wider Russian population to understand that a brutal information, moral and psychological war is being waged against them and their country.
Despite all the difficulties, it is important to maintain Russian citizens’ confidence in victory, to fight impatience and lack of stamina and panic of all kinds on the information field, to explain that impatience and haste in a special military operation lead to wrong actions and unjustified casualties, to demonstrate the real daily movement of allied forces liberating Donbass and other areas.
The third lesson is to work with Russian youth and with the youth of the liberated territories of the former Ukraine.
Unfortunately, at present, the vast majority of teachers in secondary schools and the majority of teachers in higher education institutions, due to their workload and lack of training, cannot effectively explain the reasons, objectives, progress and prospects of Russia’s special military operation.
Meanwhile, in connection with the military operation in Ukraine, there is a need for a transition to real, live examples of live patriotic education for young people, based on highlighting the exploits of the Soviet and Russian military, designers and scientists.
Schoolchildren and students must be intolerant of conventional and formal education in patriotism and counteract the strong influence of Russophobe propaganda and the numerous fakes on social networks.
At the same time, traditional liberal references to the fact that it is not the business of schools and universities to educate schoolchildren and students in conditions of military operation actually turn into a betrayal of national interests and lead to the loss of a young generation for Russia, potentially to the emigration of the most capable to the West, to the actual training of future personnel for the enemy at state expense.
Therefore, it is necessary to organise trained groups of specialists (consisting of 3-4 military and international experts) who, in live contact with schoolchildren and students, would intelligently and comprehensibly explain the reasons, aims and significance of the military operation, tell about its real, not “fake” course, and competently answer the inevitable (including complex and sometimes even provocative) questions and judgments of young people.
Such groups could move sequentially from one school to another and from one university to another, eventually reaching a large number of young people. This kind of organisation of work with young people is much more effective than current practice and aims at fostering genuine rather than formal patriotism.
In addition, it is essential to regularly show the best Russian documentaries (Ordinary Fascism, Victory Parade in Red Square, The Great Unknown War, etc.) and feature films about the Great Patriotic War and the operation in Syria (Old Men Go to Battle, The Zori Here Quiet, The Belarusian Station, The Sky, etc.) at schools and universities. If it is not possible to show these films in their entirety due to their length, the strongest and most important fragments can be shown.
In conclusion, it should be noted that many rules that were formed in the previous “quiet” years, especially in information policy, counter-propaganda, in the system of education, in the upbringing of youth, are rapidly becoming outdated and demonstrate the danger of following the modern Western neoliberal “models”. We should take into account our own experience, including the Soviet experience (especially that of the Great Patriotic War period), and the experience of non-Western countries with real sovereignty.
Radical changes in the world order are already taking place before our eyes, and the consequences of Russia’s special military operation have only accelerated these changes. So, under the new conditions it is necessary to live, think and act in a new way, to overcome the existing inertia and resistance of the liberal-Western elite.
Igor Vasilevsky, RUSSTRAT
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