• The Foundations of Geopolitics: The Geopolitical Future of Russia
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[URL]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics[/URL] Some highlights: [I]The United Kingdom should be cut off from Europe Finland should be absorbed into Russia. Southern Finland will be combined with the Republic of Karelia and northern Finland will be "donated to Murmansk Oblast" [/I][I]Ukraine should be annexed by Russia because "Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning, no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness, its certain territorial ambitions represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics". Ukraine should not be allowed to remain independent, unless it is cordon sanitaire, which would be inadmissible. [/I][B][I]Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics."[/I][/B] Discuss. At least say something to keep the thread going, this is important.
Wow, it’s like I am at /pol/ again
Dugin is an absolute nutjob and I'm not sure if I should be surprised his fantasies are so popular in Russia.
wew lad
This has been known for a long time. The Russian government makes no effort to hide the shady shit it does because they know that nobody is going to do anything about it. [url]https://warontherocks.com/2016/11/trolling-for-trump-how-russia-is-trying-to-destroy-our-democracy/[/url] [QUOTE]But most observers are missing the point. Russia is helping Trump’s campaign, yes, but it is not doing so solely or even necessarily with the goal of placing him in the Oval Office. Rather, these efforts seek to produce a divided electorate and a president with no clear mandate to govern. The ultimate objective is to diminish and tarnish American democracy. Unfortunately, that effort is going very well indeed. Russia’s desire to sow distrust in the American system of government is not new. It’s a goal Moscow has pursued since the beginning of the Cold War. Its strategy is not new, either. Soviet-era “active measures” called for using the “force of politics” rather than the “politics of force” to erode American democracy from within. What is new is the methods Russia uses to achieve these objectives. We have been tracking Russian online information operations since 2014 when our interest was piqued by strange activity we observed studying online dimensions of jihadism and the Syrian civil war. When experts published content criticizing the Russian-supported Bashar al Assad regime, organized hordes of trolls would appear to attack the authors on Twitter and Facebook. Examining the troll social networks revealed dozens of accounts presenting themselves as attractive young women eager to talk politics with Americans, including some working in the national security sector. These “honeypot” social media accounts were linked to other accounts used by the Syrian Electronic Army hacker operation. All three elements were working together: the trolls to sow doubt, the honeypots to win trust, and the hackers (we believe) to exploit clicks on dubious links sent out by the first two. The Syrian network did not stand alone. Beyond it lurked closely interconnected networks tied to Syria’s allies, Iran and Russia. Many of these networks were aimed at U.S. political dissenters and domestic extremist movements, including militia groups, white nationalists, and anarchists.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]The United States and its European allies have always placed state-to-state relations at the forefront of their international strategies. The Soviet system’s effort to undermine those relations during the Cold War, updated now by modern Russia, were known as “active measures.” A June 1992 U.S. Information Agency report on the strategy explained: It was often very difficult for Westerners to comprehend this fundamentally different Soviet approach to international relations and, as a result, the centrality to the Soviets (now Russians) of active measures operations was gravely underappreciated. Active measures employ a three-pronged approach that attempts to shape foreign policy by directing influence in the following ways: state-to-people, people-to-people, and state-to-state. More often than not, active measures sidestep traditional diplomacy and normal state-to-state relationships. The Russian government today employs the state-to-people and people-to-people approaches on social media and the internet, directly engaging U.S. and European audiences ripe for an anti-American message, including the alt-right and more traditional right-wing and fascist parties. It also targets left-wing audiences, but currently at a lower tempo.[/QUOTE] They don't really care about pushing any particular political 'side', instead, they just want to create and widen any pocket of political instability in order to make the country harder to govern and to cause the US and Europe to back off out of ex-Russian territories. The only reason they seem to be supporting mostly conservative/alt-right extremist groups right now is that they've found it to be more effective at accomplishing their goals. [QUOTE]Until recently, Western governments focused on state-to-state negotiations with Putin’s regime largely missed Russian state-to-people social media approaches. Russia’s social media campaigns seek five complementary objectives to strengthen Russia’s position over Western democracies: Undermine citizen confidence in democratic governance; Foment and exacerbate divisive political fractures; Erode trust between citizens and elected officials and democratic institutions; Popularize Russian policy agendas within foreign populations; Create general distrust or confusion over information sources by blurring the lines between fact and fiction [/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Political messages are designed to tarnish democratic leaders or undermine institutions. Examples include allegations of voter fraud, election rigging, and political corruption. Leaders can be specifically targeted, for instance by promoting unsubstantiated claims about Hillary Clinton’s health, or more obviously by leaking hacked emails. Financial propaganda weakens citizen and investor confidence in foreign markets and posits the failure of capitalist economies. Stoking fears over the national debt, attacking institutions such as the Federal Reserve, and attempts to discredit Western financial experts and business leaders are all part of this arsenal.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Social issues currently provide a useful window for Russian messaging. Police brutality, racial tensions, protests, anti-government standoffs, online privacy concerns, and alleged government misconduct are all emphasized to magnify their scale and leveraged to undermine the fabric of society. Finally, wide-ranging conspiracy theories promote fear of global calamity while questioning the expertise of anyone who might calm those fears. Russian propaganda operations since 2014 have stoked fears of martial law in the United States, for instance, by promoting chemtrails and Jade Helm conspiracy theories. More recently, Moscow turned to stoking fears of nuclear war between the United States and Russia.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]A small army of social media operatives — a mix of Russian-controlled accounts, useful idiots, and innocent bystanders — are deployed to promote all of this material to unknowing audiences. Some of these are real people, others are bots, and some present themselves as innocent news aggregators, providing “breaking news alerts” to happenings worldwide or in specific cities. The latter group is a key tool for moving misinformation and disinformation from primarily Russian-influenced circles into the general social media population. We saw this phenomenon at play in recent reports of a second military coup in Turkey and unsubstantiated reports of an active shooter that led to the shutdown of JFK Airport. Some news aggregators may be directly controlled by Russia, while other aggregators that use algorithmic collection may be the victims of manipulation.[/QUOTE] The great thing about the internet is that it's very easy to create the illusion of a majority consensus by just using a few accounts, relying on the peer pressure and bandwagoning effect of social media to dupe more and more easily manipulated, unaware people into the supporting the propaganda. [QUOTE]Regardless of the extent of Trump’s direct knowledge about Russia’s intelligence activities, active measures have achieved enormous success on the back of his presidential campaign. Russia sees Trump as a tool to undermine its American adversaries. In that regard, they’ve already achieved their goal and possess the potential to exceed their expectations. As noted previously, the goal of these efforts may not be to elect Trump as president, but rather to ensure the election result is as divided and negative as possible, as reflected in historically low approval ratings for both candidates.[/QUOTE] The Russian Government is effectively run like a giant mafia. Putin is at the top, with a range of oligarchs who are personal friends with Putin effectively running all of the national businesses and branches of government through nepotism. The police and all government authorities are especially corrupt and exist primarily to back up Putin and his cronies. [url]https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1573164[/url] [QUOTE]William Browder knows Vladimir Putin's Russia all too well. Browder made a fortune in Russia, in the process uncovering, he says, incredible amounts of fraud and corruption. When he tried to report it to authorities, the government kicked him out of the country and, he alleges, tortured and killed the lawyer he was working with. In what one senator called one of the Senate Judiciary Committee's "most important" hearings, Browder, a wealthy businessman-turned-activist-turned Putin-adversary shed a chilling new light on a Russian system of government that operates ruthlessly in the shadows — as Browder described it for lawmakers: a "kleptocracy" sustained by corruption, blackmail, torture and murder with Putin at its center. "Effectively the moment that you enter into their world," Browder told senators investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, "you become theirs." "No good guys" Browder's story — how he ended up living in London, after almost a decade of vast success as a businessman in Moscow, is arguably a case study in how Putin's government works: a system of intermediary influential businessmen who aren't directly employed by the Russian government, but who benefit financially from Putin's regime. Browder founded and ran one of the largest investment firms in Russia, Hermitage Capital Management, from 1996-2005. When he and his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky discovered a massive corruption scheme, they went to the authorities. "And we waited for the good guys to get the bad guys," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It turned out that in Putin's Russia, there are no good guys."[/QUOTE] If you want to see the extent of what the Russian government does to people who cross them, how ballsy they are and how much they can get away with due to the sheer fact that no other world government is willing to challenge them- watch this documentary about the assassination of an ex-Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko in London: [video=youtube;z8tJzsFEq8M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8tJzsFEq8M[/video] As I said, they make no effort to hide the shady stuff that they do. All of the American, British and European intelligence services know that Russia has been influencing Western Politics. It's pretty obvious with how [url=http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/heres-a-list-of-all-the-putin-critics-who-wound-up-murdered/news-story/4e2952b107b0c7159887e303062c9694]all of Putin's most prolific critics keep ending up dead in suspicious circumstances[/url] and how all of these conspiracy theories about Clinton Emails, Pizzagate, Chemtrails, etc. always end up being linked back to Russian Government IP addresses somehow. However, since all of the propaganda is based around the idea that the FBI, CIA, NSA, etc. are plotting against their own citizens and are not to be trusted, it puts them in a difficult situation where they keep saying Russia is doing all this stuff but the people who buy into it won't believe them. The Trump "Fake News" stuff just further exuberates this because it further cements this idea that the US Government cannot be trusted, except this time it's coming from the president himself which gives it more credibility.
[video=youtube;y3qkf3bajd4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3qkf3bajd4[/video] There's also this interview of this ex-KGB officer, little has changed since 1991.
there's something really pathetic to me about all this. if the Russian government channeled a fraction as much effort into bettering their country as they do to their kleptocracy and juvenile Bond villain fantasies, then they wouldn't even need the kleptocracy to turn a profit. this posturing and manipulation is like a developmental disability. it's just plain sad.
No one in their right mind would buy all of that history of "ukrainian problem". That's all bullshit made by russian officials as some kind of poor justification of their operations in Ukraine. There are reasons to why annexing Ukraine woulf benefit heavily: - having control of the Black Sea coast from Kuban region to Odessa would enable and improve the situation of russian Black Sea fleet making possible invasions of Turkey more efficient and successful. And invasion of Turkey means that Gulfs of Turkey would be in great danger. And Russia with Istanbul and Izmir under their control would make Black Sea their inner sea with an entrance that closes and opens on russian demand. Basically their ports in Kuban or Crimea are untouchable at this point. It also helps that Russia is currently slowly annexing Georia, piece by piece. And Georgia borders Turkey... - enables them to influence Moldova and Transinistria. - further border which would help their war efforts. - Ukraine is known for being a "basket of Europe", lots of Chernozem for agriculture and also natural resources in regions near Donbas. As for Finland it's quite simple: Gulf of Finland. Ignoring the fact that the port in Petersburg is frozen during winter, it's also unfavourable for North Baltic Fleet. You set a line of sea mines from Tallin to Helsinki and their fleet is grounded. But what about Kaliningrad Oblast? Well, it's an enclave surrounded by two NATO members. If there was a war to be ignited, Kaliningrad would fall unless Russia annexes Belarus for obvious reasons. Having Finland under their control would make them able to move their fleet to i. e. Åland island. It would be easier if they annexed Estonia, but you know... NATO member and all of that. The other two are obvious, to destabilize West as much as they can. They are weakening us by dividing us and creating political problems in our countries. Their biggest success is putting Trump in the White House. And he tried to end NAFTA and question NATO. Not suspicious at all. Russia prepares for conflict that they do not wish to start. So they are expanding millitarily and economically to be prepared as best as they can.
In all honesty, based on the cover of that book, I am more afraid of Russia's failure to fight the foul worshipers of Chaos within their lands, as the damned souls do not even hide their accursed symbol publicly.
It’s a threatening prediction. Moreover Europe starts to simplify (??) visa procedure and getting residence permit for Russian investors, like in Greece: invest 250 K euro and it’s yours [URL="https://tranio.com/greece/residence/"]https://tranio.com/greece/residence/[/URL]. It is interesting for Greece these days and there are many (really many) possibilities for Russian investors, but in this case they are going to occupy Europe sooner or later! Might be that Investment = invasion?
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