Russian Fears

The western media are beating the war drums, claiming that Russia is about to invade Ukraine, but they ignore the bigger issue of NATO expansion. They have no idea how fearful Russians are that their nation will be invaded from the West. Russians hate seeing NATO forces and missiles moving closer to their border. The nations of Western Europe believe that they are trustworthy, but they dont have a great record.

The biggest western nations have all invaded Russia at some time in recent history. The French armies under Napoleon burned Moscow in 1812. Britain and Sweden had a go at different times. Germany has invaded Russia (twice) in both the first and second world wars.

Professor Stephen F. Cohen has written about the terrible human cost of the Nazi invasion of Eastern Europe. He says that much of what we learn about World War 2 in textbooks and especially schools and popular media is false:

Most Americans today believe that “we defeated Nazi Germany,” as President Obama wrote on the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, a misconception promoted by Hollywood films that portray the US landing at Normandy in June 1944 as the beginning and eventual end of the war against Hitler’s Germany. In truth, America won the war in the Pacific, against Japan, but the Soviet Union fought and destroyed Hitler’s war machine on the “Eastern Front” almost alone from 1941 to 1944, from Moscow, Kursk, and Stalingrad, and eventually to Berlin in 1945. Some 75 to 80 percent of all German casualties were suffered on the Eastern Front. By the time US and British forces landed at Normandy, Hitler had relatively few divisions available to withstand the successful invasion, many more still embattled against the Soviet Union.

Soviet losses were almost unimaginable. More than 27 million Soviet citizens died, 60 to 70 percent of them ethnic Russians. Some 1,700 Soviet cities and towns were all but destroyed. Most families lost a close or extended member. Perhaps most tellingly, only three of every hundred boys who graduated from high school in 1941–42 returned from the war. This meant that millions of Soviet children never knew their fathers and that millions of Soviet women never married. (They were known as “Ivan’s widows,” many doomed to lonely lives in the often-harsh post-war Soviet Union.)

The trauma of these events has not been forgotten.

Russian Threat

I don't not understand why so many Americans are so afraid of Russia. It is like they do not realise that the Soviet Union no longer exists.

The Soviet Union was a real threat. In 1965, its GDP was almost half of that of the United States. It had 4 to 5 million troops, which was more than the Untied States.

Russia is a totally different story. Its GDP is less than a tenth of the United States. It’s economy is smaller than each of the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy. The economy of the EU is ten times greater than the Russian economy.

Russia has only 700,000 combat troops, whereas the Unites States has more than 1.5 million, and vastly superior equipment, and that is not counting NATO partners.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia is no longer a serious threat to the United States, or to Europe. It is weaker than the United Kingdom. It can exert influence in its own backyard, such as in Syria and the Ukraine, but that is close to its limit.

I guess the Military Industrial Complex likes to talk up Russia , because the greater the perceived threat, the more taxpayers funds go their way.

Ukraine

Some things about recent events in the Ukraine that are not widely understood.

• Russia has suffered three terrible invasions from the West. The French armies burned Moscow in the 19th century. Germans armies invaded twice in the twentieth century. In 1941, the German armies reached Moscow and the Russians took a million casualties defending their capital. The United States got paranoid when a building in New York was destroyed in 9/11. Have foreign armies invade the heartland your nation three times and besiege it, would really affect your psyche.

• In Hollywood, the United States won the Second World War. On the ground, the USSR was the major winner. More than 20 million Russians died driving Hitler’s Nazi forces out of Eastern Europe (US deaths were less than half a million). Naturally, they are not happy when Western leaders encourage the far right leaders back into the Ukraine again.

• Lenin and Stalin believe that the Communist Revolution would triumph throughout the world. So in a sense they wanted to create a world empire. Therefore, when they won significant territory in Eastern Europe, they stayed. Putin is far more realistic. He understands how weak Russia has become and that a Russian empire, even in Eastern Europe is not sustainable. His focus is on defending and building up the Russia homeland.

• Millions of Ukrainian civilians were killed during the battle between the Nazi and Soviet forces between 1933 and 1945. Many were killed by other Ukrainians. This has had a terrible spiritual effect, and many spirits of hatred and violence have made there home there. Many memories of violence and injustice are still strong. The associated guilt and hatred makes Ukraine a happy hunting ground for the Red Horse.
  

• Russia needs a warm water port to avoid having supplies cut off during the winter. This why Catherine the Great seized Crimea in 1783. The harbour at Sevastopol in the Black Sea gives Russian trade access to the Mediterranean Sea. Just as the US would never allow Canada to seize control of the St Lawrence Seaway, Russia will never give up control of Crimea. That is why Putin acted so quickly to secure it.

• Two of the richest Ukrainian oligarchs, Rinat Akhmentov and Dmitry Firtash, controlled 90 seats in the Ukrainian Rada (parliament) between them. They were cronies of President Yankukovych and he had looked after them. They saw the writing on the wall and switched their support to the opposition. This gave the Rada the majority it needed to depose the President. This was not a people’s revolution the media dream about, but oligarchs changing sides to protect their power and wealth.

• Putin is unlikely to invade Ukraine. He knows that is an economic basket case and would not be silly enough to take responsibility for it. The Ukraine needs access to Russian markets for its production. The Ukrainian economy needs discounted natural gas from Russian to survive. The new Ukranian leaders will have to beg for help from Putin, so he does not need to invade it.

• Many Ukrainians would like to part of the European Union. This is not because they are hankering for democracy. They have had democracy for twenty years, and all it has given them is poverty and corruption. The GDP of Ukraine is now 20 percent less than it was when the Soviet Union collapsed. They look at the relative prosperity of Poland next door and want some of it. They do not understand that their economy could not compete with German industry.

• The United States has offered a $1 billion dollar loan. That is not much help for a nation with debts of $30 billion that have to be repaid. The IMF is going to help too, but all it has to offer is austerity policies. The western powers will not be able to save the Ukrainian economy.

• Far right groups are emerging all over Europe. One of the groups leading the protests in Ukraine is Svobada, which has 36 deputies in the Rada. It began life as the Social National Party of Ukraine and has strong links with other far right parties in Europe.

• There are reports that some of the protesters were shot by radical members of far right militants, but this is already forgotten by history. It will record that the protestors were slaughtered by the Ukrainian security services, because that is what the western media wants to believe.

• Russia has suffered far more casualties to Islamic terrorist groups than the United States. So they are puzzled when John McCain pledges support for extreme Islamic groups in Syria and embraces far right groups in Ukraine.

• The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) spends $100 million dollars a year supporting democracy all over the world, but when push comes to shove, the United States ignores democracy. President Yanukovitch is a dodgy character who has lined his own pockets (like many politicians), but he was elected in a fair election in 2012. A greater percentage of the population voted for him than voted for Obama or George W. His part won a majority in the parliamentary elections in 2012. Yet the American government now supports his overthrow. So much for democracy?

• The British tried to invade Crimea in 1853 and failed. Now the UK foreign minister William Hague struts around Europe proclaiming what should happen in Crimea in his whining pompous voice. No one cares what the British thinks. Someone should tell him that he lost his empire in 1940.

Ukraine cannot be restored to peace and prosperity by political or military power. Only the gospel of Jesus can break down the barriers and only a vision of the Kingdom of God can restore what has been lost.