I’m trying to cut through the warmongering propaganda with realistic analysis and insight, grounded in my 24 year experience as a British diplomat, including in Russia.
Mathews’ position can be easily gauged via the title of his book Overreach - the inside story of Putin’s war against Ukraine.
Note the big state emphasis on Putin. Personalisation and demonisation - the simplification of geo-political algebra to a putative figurehead. Where have we seen this hand played before? Libya, 2011, Afghanistan 2001, Iraq, 2003. They create a cartoon bad guy, line up the mainstream marionettes, pump out the info-gas 24/7 and once the cattle are scared enough, they go on the hunt for the big bad wolf. Remember Hilary Clinton in every interview mouthing ‘Putin, Putin, Putin’? Remind you of anything? Roll back to months prior to the Iraq War and it was ‘weapons of mass destruction’ and ‘Saddam Hussein’ on repeat.
Thanks a lot Kieran. And I think you are right. Everything has become far too personalized and focused on Putin. In diplomacy, you have to deal with the person who's in front of you, whether you like them or not. We have spent too much time wanting to be rid of Putin, with no thought to who, or what, might replace him. Dangerous.
Interesting to note that they ignore the mediatory processes inherent in Russia’s Security Council - the playbook being that Putin is this Ozymandias on steroids. Also, you would think Russia doesn’t hold elections, either - I think Putin won over 80% of the vote last time round. And, of course, the Eurocrats criticise Putin’s autocratic rule, arguing that he has effectively marginalised or oppressed alternatives - not untrue, of course - whilst simultaneously failing to look in the cracked mirror of their own self-obsession because if they did they’d see their lobby-centric, managed democracies reflected back. No: they are the ‘garden’; the south and east, the ‘jungle’.
Daily we have to endure hubris writ large in Brussels, that strutting, pampered narcissus so in love with its own image it is prepared to drown its citizens in debt and military-industrial vassalage.
Indeed. And we hail Zelensky as the twenty-first century’s greatest democrat, when his mandate ran out in May 2024. and has sought to centralise power ever since. sanctioning opponents along the way.
Like many in Russia, I was brought up with a deep respect, even faith, in a free Western, and particularly British, press. We just didn't pray for freedom of speech in the West. We thought that competition prevented untruths from being told and required the presentation of different views and ideas.
The coverage of this terrible war, the silences, the backwards and forwards interpretations, the complete refusal to try to see things from a different angle, the lack of even simple curiosity - I was struck to the heart.
Great riposte, Ian.
Mathews’ position can be easily gauged via the title of his book Overreach - the inside story of Putin’s war against Ukraine.
Note the big state emphasis on Putin. Personalisation and demonisation - the simplification of geo-political algebra to a putative figurehead. Where have we seen this hand played before? Libya, 2011, Afghanistan 2001, Iraq, 2003. They create a cartoon bad guy, line up the mainstream marionettes, pump out the info-gas 24/7 and once the cattle are scared enough, they go on the hunt for the big bad wolf. Remember Hilary Clinton in every interview mouthing ‘Putin, Putin, Putin’? Remind you of anything? Roll back to months prior to the Iraq War and it was ‘weapons of mass destruction’ and ‘Saddam Hussein’ on repeat.
That’s the playbook. Hence Mathew’s book title.
And all that follows…
Thanks a lot Kieran. And I think you are right. Everything has become far too personalized and focused on Putin. In diplomacy, you have to deal with the person who's in front of you, whether you like them or not. We have spent too much time wanting to be rid of Putin, with no thought to who, or what, might replace him. Dangerous.
Interesting to note that they ignore the mediatory processes inherent in Russia’s Security Council - the playbook being that Putin is this Ozymandias on steroids. Also, you would think Russia doesn’t hold elections, either - I think Putin won over 80% of the vote last time round. And, of course, the Eurocrats criticise Putin’s autocratic rule, arguing that he has effectively marginalised or oppressed alternatives - not untrue, of course - whilst simultaneously failing to look in the cracked mirror of their own self-obsession because if they did they’d see their lobby-centric, managed democracies reflected back. No: they are the ‘garden’; the south and east, the ‘jungle’.
Daily we have to endure hubris writ large in Brussels, that strutting, pampered narcissus so in love with its own image it is prepared to drown its citizens in debt and military-industrial vassalage.
Indeed. And we hail Zelensky as the twenty-first century’s greatest democrat, when his mandate ran out in May 2024. and has sought to centralise power ever since. sanctioning opponents along the way.
Like many in Russia, I was brought up with a deep respect, even faith, in a free Western, and particularly British, press. We just didn't pray for freedom of speech in the West. We thought that competition prevented untruths from being told and required the presentation of different views and ideas.
The coverage of this terrible war, the silences, the backwards and forwards interpretations, the complete refusal to try to see things from a different angle, the lack of even simple curiosity - I was struck to the heart.
This “brink” must be very broad and wide and long and comfortable.