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Russia Continues To Baffle

Tass is running two articles today, based on excerpts of an interview Putin gave to Rossiya-24 TV channel. The interview isn't posted on the Kremlin Web site, and perhaps never will be.

In one article, Putin points out that NATO is building a global military condominium that resembles what the Axis powers sought to do in the 1930s and 40s:

"What is the United States doing? They are creating more and more alliances. And this gives grounds for Western analysts, Western political analysts to say just that the West is building new ‘axes’. <...> It is Western analysts, not us, who say that the West begins to build a new axis similar to the one that was created in the 1930s by fascist regimes in Germany, Italy and militaristic Japan."

That sounds quite alarming. If true, Russia needs to get its act together and prepare. NATO and its global proxies are extremely wealthy, highly industrialized states. If they do decide on war, they will have far greater resources at their disposal than Japan, Germany and their various largely useless allies had at that time.

So, is Russia getting ready? Is China? It doesn't sound like it, to be honest. In the second excerpt, Putin assures his interviewer that the Russia-China alliance poses no threat to anyone. Hell, it's not even a "military alliance." Note that NATO is a military alliance. Note that the partnerships NATO is setting up around the world are nothing if not military.

Russia and China however are just doing their own thing. Here is Putin:

"We are not creating any military alliance with China. Yes, we also cooperate on the track of military-technical cooperation, we do not hide it, but it is transparent, there is nothing secret there....By the way, not only with China, but with other countries as well. We even continue it now, despite the developments in Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson. We still continue; it's all transparent, but it's not a military alliance."

So, Russia, Putin will have us believe is involved in an existential struggle, a fight for its very survival as a state. It is up against an alliance far more formidable than the one it barely survived in the 1940s, and it's going into this fight with no allies. (Let's not forget, in World War II, the USSR had two formidable allies in its corner. Let's also not forget that Japan betrayed its Axis ally, Nazi Germany, and refused to wage war against the USSR.) How on earth does Russia plan to prevail against a formidable, menacing global force, with no help coming from others save for some soothing banalities emanating from Beijing?

The anodyne reference to "developments in Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson" doesn't suggest that Russia sees itself as engaged in an existential struggle. Isn't the argument that Russia isn't fighting Ukraine but NATO? Isn't Russia supposed to be seeking the removal of the Nazis from Kiev? Isn't Russia supposed to be seeking a Ukraine that will not be a permanent, hostile forward-base for NATO? If that's not what Russia is seeking, then why launch the Special Military Operation to begin with?

What these two Tass pieces demonstrate that, even after the passage of more than a year, Russia has still to figure out what its military and political and objectives are.

https://tass.com/politics/1594537

https://tass.com/politics/1594529

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