Showing posts with label zelensky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label zelensky. Show all posts

Friday, June 10, 2022

Liberty's Donbas Strategy

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Tuesday, June 07, 2022

Jaishankar: The Indian Zelensky

हम युक्रेन को पुर्ण समर्थन कर रहे हैं और हम विदेश मंत्री जयशंकर के बात से पुर्ण सहमत हैं। ये कोइ विरोधाभाष नहीं है। ज़ेलेन्स्की जिस चीज के लिए युक्रेन के भितर लड़ रहे हैं जयशंकर उसी चीज के लिए बिश्व मंच पर लड़ रहे दिखाइ देते हैं। 

रेसिस्म (Racism) हुवा फासिज्म (Fascism) ----- विश्व राजनीति में रेसिस्म हावी है। जयशंकर उसका विरोध कर रहे हैं। जयशंकर विश्व मंच पर लोकतंत्र के लिए लड़ रहे हैं। 

इस युद्ध के दो हीरो, ज़ेलेन्स्की और जयशंकर। फासिज्म (Fascism) वायरस का ही एक वैरिएंट है रेसिस्म (Racism) । 

































Jaishankar does it again: EAM’s masterclass exposing Western misperceptions on Indian diplomacy External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s language and logic during a talk at Globesec 2022 were polite yet assertive, simple but effective, and at the same time politically correct and intellectually sound ........ India’s mainstream media and social media are full of reports, commentaries and articles in praise of External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar’s replies to critical questions on the country’s positions on the war in Ukraine and several other foreign policy issues during his participation at Globsec 2022 Bratislava Forum, Slovakia. ........ There is no dispute that Jaishankar’s responses to questions were masterly. Any Indian listener would feel proud about what he said and the manner in which he said it. His replies and retorts reflected India’s current position in the world as an influential actor, constructive leader of the Global South and an independent major power. .......... It is quite understandable that the United States and its European allies have been lobbying hard through bilateral dialogues and even in international forums to make Indian policies aligned with the Western approaches to the Russia-Ukraine war. India is a strategic partner of the United States and a trade and investment partner of the European Union and is also a democratic polity, plural society and a market economy. ........... the popular perceptions among certain sections of the attentive public in the United States and Europe appeared as if India is a country that is siding with Russia, ignoring the deaths and destruction in Ukraine, bypassing the Western sanctions and funding Russia’s war in Ukraine by buying oil and indirectly helping Russian war efforts by refusing export of wheat despite the food crisis generated by the war-making it difficult for Ukrainian wheat to be put in the international market. ............

His language and logic were polite yet assertive, simple but effective and at the same time politically correct and intellectually sound.

....... India has made efforts to convince Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian president Vladimir Putin to resolve differences through dialogue. ......... He also said that India, like the European countries, has bought Russian oil to address its energy requirements amidst shortages in the market, India has restricted wheat exports to keep the speculators at bay and that like the American and European people, common people in India have also been suffering because of the war in Europe. .......... While the focus of the interview was on the Russia-Ukraine war, there was an attempt to corner him to take a definite stand in a scenario where a bipolar global power structure would emerge and whether India would be in the camp led by the US and Europe or in a bloc led by China and Russia. Jaishankar refused to view the world power structure in that mode and asserted that India would have its own way. A country where one-fifth of mankind lives and a country that ranks fifth or sixth among the economies in the world will have its own options and stay away from a fixed bloc. ............ not many countries are in a position to take sides! A large number of American allies, including in Europe, look up to China for economic collaborations and up to the United States for security partnership! The world now and even in the future will be more complex and cannot be viewed in binary terms.

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Monday, May 23, 2022

The Endgame In Ukraine Is Regime Change In Moscow

There is no need for the Ukrainian military to march to Moscow to liberate Russia. Stop watching old war movies. Be smart about how Putin's inner circles work. They are not a nuclear-protected fortress. They are brittle like China, as in clay, easily breakable if you know what the weak points are. 

To surrender Donbas to Putin would be to surrender the ethnic Russians living there to servitude. Putin is busy destroying Donbas. Can you not see? 

Ukraine has been an imperfect democracy where ethnic minorities like the ethnic Russians have not had their fair share of power in Kyiv. Fair enough. Think of the Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka, and the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, feeling like second-class citizens. But also think Chechnya. If the ethnic minorities in Ukraine have faced discrimination the ethnic minorities in Russia are under Putin's dictatorial thumb. This guy is not trying to liberate anybody. This guy is up for a land grab. A dictatorship has to expand, or it will fall. The regime's very survival depends on this bad behavior. 

Kyiv has been a major setback for Putin. Donbas is not looking pretty either. And Ukraine is not all that small. You have to go by population. It is one-third the size of Russia. And it has a superior military force today. But contesting the territory is enough. If the Ukrainian military decides pushing Russia out completely is too much of a cost, it can legitimately just stay put, keep contesting the conquest and time is on their side. It can make slow gains, and still win. Because the war is happening in Moscow. Putin is getting weaker by the day. 

Zelensky need not talk until he wants to. But it is okay to keep the pressure cooker valves active. Anyone and everyone who might be able to communicate with Putin should, from the French president to the Indian prime minister, to the Turkish Putin, to the Chinese president. Putin is the one acting like Zelensky does not even exist. Putin is the one not negotiating. 

There is a political solution. There always is. And talks have to be unceasing. Numerous channels have to be constantly explored. Let the steam out from time to time. 

But there has to be a firm strategy in place: Looking at Tokyo, Going to London. You keep contesting the territory in Donbas to weaken Putin in Moscow. Putin falls and the war is over, even in Crimea. 

A dictator is not strong as he thinks. A dictator is never strong. A dictator lives in fear. It is the same fear that he spreads in the population. It comes back to him compounded. That is Putin's political karma. 

I want NATO irrelevant. And a democratic, federal, vibrant Russia will achieve that. Navalny for Interim President of Russia, Zelensky, and Kallas for the Nobel Peace Prize. 



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Sunday, May 22, 2022

Putin Is Scheduled To Vacate Ukraine Tail Between Legs



We Should Say It. Russia Is Fascist.

It is fair to say it is for the president of Ukraine to decide when and how he will engage in peace talks with his madman adversary. Supplying aid and weapons is one thing. But actually fighting is quite another. And, remember, America offered to fly Zelensky out of the country. Do you want to go? No, I want to stay and fight. Send me some ammo.

Where things stand right now, if we stay on that trajectory, Putin vacates Ukraine tail between legs. And that will be a good outcome. It is in the very nature of dictatorships that when Putin sees military defeat in Ukraine, he will lose support in his inner circles in Moscow. Putin's inner circles function like a prison yard. You watch your back, I will watch mine.

Zelensky is a hero for democracy.

A middle point can be that the Russian army vacates all of Ukraine and there is an internationally supervised referendum in Crimea to decide its final status. If that will get Putin out of the backyard, and we can stop playing will he, will he not about his possible use of nuclear weapons, that middle ground is worth the price for peace. And, of course, he pays for the rebuidling of Ukraine. He has plenty of money in western banks.

There is always a political solution. Just wars are also about arriving at peaceful, political solutions. The contours of a political solution must be explored.

It is moral clarity that sees you through.

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Monday, April 18, 2022

Putin, A War Criminal, In Chechnya, In Georgia, In Crimea, In Syria, And Now Ukraine

Go Putin Go



Go Putin Go



Go Putin Go



Go Putin Go



Go Putin Go



Go Putin Go



Go Putin Go



Go Putin Go



Go Putin Go

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Tuesday, March 22, 2022

This Time The Russian Transition Should Be Done Right

It was Boris Yeltsin who toppled the Soviet Union, the man with a lot of bravado but no plan. It was also Boris Yeltsin who gave Russia Putin. Russia never had a chance. The collapse was too much. The ordinary Russians never got to make good on the promise. The Soviet Communist Party went away but the KGB took over. There was the collapse, but no buildup.

Russia is and will be a major world power no matter which way you look at it. And to think Russia and China had similar size economies only 30 years ago.

When Putin loses his war in Ukraine, and the Russian people take to the streets to topple the Putin regime, Russia should embrace democracy anew. Russia should be a bigger version of Ukraine.

The democracy in Russia will not be a photocopy of anything anywhere else. No two democracies are alike. Culture and history come into play. Events shape the political process.

I would hope Russia would install robust federalism. It is a large country with many nationalities.

I hope there is a major redistribution of wealth. The Soviet Union collapsed, and what was owned by the state was handed over to key individuals.

It is very important a new Russia works with the US to get rid of more than 90% of the world's nuclear weapons before 2030. That is unfinished business from the Cold War era.

I do think it is healthy for a country to stand up to the US and the West. Imagine a US where there is a Republican Party but no Democratic Party. That would be an unbalance.

A fully democratic, federal Russia will have a sphere of influence. Its very size makes that a given. But that Russia will enhance its influence by respecting the sovereignty of its neighbors.

I hope a democratic Russia puts the country on a path to double digit growth rates. Russia has strong defense, cyber, education, and space industries. It has a lot of natural resources. It can hope to diversify.

And I think it will be a good thing if that Russia is a critique of US policy and actions in the global arena. That would be a welcome counterbalance to have.

But this war in Ukraine is insane.

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