Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Putin Echos Molotov

On November 30, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland in what became known as The Winter War.  The Red Army finally overpowered Finland after a disastrous campaign that saw tens of thousands of Soviet soldiers slaughtered and massive amounts of Soviet equipment destroyed.  At the end of the war, March 29, 1940 Foreign Minister Molotov had this to say:

“All this barbarism and countless atrocities are the fruits of policies of the Finnish White Guard, which sought to inflate the hatred to our country in its own people. It is not difficult to see that the war in Finland was not just a clash with the Finnish troops. No, here the situation was more complicated. There was a clash of our troops here not just with the Finnish troops, but with the combined forces of the imperialists of a number of countries, including Britain, France and others who helped the Finnish bourgeoisie with all kinds of weapons, and especially with artillery and aircraft, as well as with their own people under the guise of “volunteers,” with their gold and all sorts of supplies, with their rabid propaganda all over the world to fan the war against the Soviet Union.”

On January 26, 2015, Putin had this to say about Russia’s war against Ukraine:

 “We often say: the Ukrainian army, the Ukrainian army. But in actuality, who is fighting there? There indeed partially are some official units of the armed forces, but largely there are so-called ‘nationalist volunteer battalions.’ Essentially, this is not an army, it’s a foreign legion, in this case, NATO foreign legion, which of course does not pursue Ukraine’s national interests. There are completely different goals there, and they are connected to the achievement of the geopolitical objective of Russia’s containment, which absolutely does not coincide with the national interests of the Ukrainian people.”


I may have posted this film before but perhaps it is worth it again to remind people what we are up against in Ukraine.


4 comments:

  1. Putin and the Russians remind me a bit of the cockroach army in the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comix popular in my misspent youth. Every time the cockroach general was told about troop losses his response was, in essence, that losing a few thousand troops was not a big deal when he had a million more to replace them. I don't think Putin can count on that million the way Molotov could in the 1940s, but until Putin recognizes that, the Ukraine is screwed.

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    1. The Red Army took 5 to 1 deaths against Finland and Putin will do the same if need be. Individuals are subordinate to the state in Putin's world. In the West the state is subordinate to the individual. We worry about deaths of civilians and soldiers. Russia doesn't. So Putin will kill as many civilians as it takes to force us to the negotiating table ie to give him what he wants. Remember this is the guy who blew up his own country's apartment buildings, killing several hundred to get himself elected.

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  2. Wait; is there an echo in here? Plus ça change...

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