World War on Russia’s Mind When U.S. Duels Over Ukraine

[Purveyor]

From his perch as Vladimir Putin’s adviser for building ties with fellow former Soviet republics, Sergei Glazyev perceives the world shifting to a war footing.

There’s a war waged against Russia with economic sanctions and military conflicts roiling Ukraine to Iraq, according to Glazyev, 53, an academician and a native of Ukraine who for the past two years has advised Putin on integration with Belarus and Kazakhstan. Putin struck back this week with a ban on U.S. and European food imports that may benefit the former Soviet allies.

Setting the world ablaze is the U.S., where “hawks” are provoking a global conflict “with the aim of establishing control not only in Europe, but also in Russia, Ukraine,” Glazyev said in an interview in Moscow on Staraya Ploshchad, where the presidential staff has its headquarters. On his office’s walls are a picture of Putin and an updated map of Russia that marks the annexed Crimea peninsula as its territory.

Months of a slow boil of European and U.S. sanctions against Russia over Ukraine have done little more than harden a siege mentality in the Kremlin, thrusting controversial advisers like Glazyev to the forefront in Putin’s showdown against erstwhile Cold War foes. With the country’s richest businessmen shaken by the deepening rift, Glazyev’s flair for provocation is needed to “intimidate the elites,” according to Mikhail Vinogradov, head of the St. Petersburg Politics Foundation.

Twice Sanctioned

Glazyev, a Soviet-educated economist, has been sanctioned by both the European Union and the U.S. for allegedly meddling in Ukraine’s sovereign affairs. A former State Duma deputy and co-founder of the nationalist Rodina party, he ran against Putin for president in 2004.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-08/world-war-on-russia-s-mind-when-u-s-duels-over-ukraine.html

[Igel]

1. Yes, and it's a hard call.

Because we're not shifting to a war footing.

Russia is. It's ramped up military purchases and refurbishment of its military, it's staging additional military drills right and left and not just in places where it can be seen flexing its muscles like near the Baltics or Ukraine.

The US and Europe aren't. They're at status quo for purchases and refurbishment, and not staging additional drills. Just moving or slightly beefing up pre-scheduled ones in specific areas.

*Russia* sees the US and Europe as beefing things up and moving to a war footing. Part of this is because of nationalist paranoia and seeing a reach for greatness blocked. So Putin said that sanctions were an "offensive weapon" and that by imposing that weak, first round of sanction the West had "attacked" Russia. A lot of the new agricultural blockades had already been imposed on an adhoc, not-quite-formal basis, with the claim being that the West (or Ukraine) had been dumped tainted, poisoned food on Russia, the subtext being that we're trying to poison them. Only "patriotic" (or "domestic&quot sources should be trusted.

Truly great wars start with one side or both feeling that they are truly awesome and have been wrongly humiliated. No sacrifice is too great for their Cause. Causes lead to truly horrendous atrocities, because to be truly evil you must believe that you are truly good and fighting for some kind of "real justice"--perhaps God and your faith, perhaps for your ideology because you're just the agent of History and Humanity. Hitler/Mussolini, Mao, Pol Pot, Lenin/Stalin. Even minor horrors like Milosevic and Saddam were like this. "I do God (or History) a favor by killing these decadent, rebellious, evil subhumans."