The picture that proves Putin wants to recreate the Russian Empire
It is striking that Sergei Lavrov, who has been Russia's foreign minister since 2004, should have arrived this morning in Alaska in a CCCP sweater (the Cryllic for USSR). Striking, that is, for two reasons.
First, because Lavrov shares the same sole notable feature as Gromyko: longevity. In all other respects he is a truly despicable man – dishonesty is his modus vivendi, in the service of a regime built on theft, corruption, lies and force.
And second, because in wearing a USSR sweater Lavrov is simply rubbing our noses in what should already be clear to anyone who is not on Russia's payroll. He is making clear, in other words, that Russia is determined to recreate the Soviet Union. For Putin, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Moldova, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, and Estonia are not independent nations. They are – or should be – part of Greater Russia.
There is nothing secret or surprising about this. Putin and his cronies have repeatedly said that they believe Ukraine does not exist as a separate, independent nation. For Putin, Ukraine's status should be as it was between 1922 and 1991, when the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was a constituent part of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
There are those in the West who parrot the sophistry employed by Lavrov and other Russian officials that their interest in Ukraine is solely about returning areas with a Russian majority to their historic status as part of Russia, and 'protecting' the Russian minority elsewhere. Russia's stooges in the West still push this line, despite Putin et al repeatedly making clear that he wants to recreate the Soviet Union and, at the very least, destabilise those countries such as Poland and Slovakia which were part of the Warsaw Pact.
That category has included, at times, President Trump, who veers from seeming to understand reality to a bizarre idea that Ukraine is somehow to blame for being invaded. As the world waits for news to emerge from Alaska, it is anyone's guess which is the version of President Trump who will be there.
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