Another Putin Disaster
POSTED BY: THGRRI
UPDATED: Wednesday, August 26, 2026 22:07
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'Very strange': Putin's version of Ukraine's history baffles and concerns experts
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/very-strange-putin-s-version-of-u
kraine-s-history-baffles-and-concerns-experts/ar-AAUaGi6?ocid=msedgntp
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Kenyan U.N. ambassador compares Ukraine's plight to colonial legacy in Africa
Russia's move to recognize breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as "republics" drew a sharp rebuke from Kenyan U.N. Ambassador Martin Kimani, who used a speech at the U.N. Security Council to recount the perils of clinging to vestiges of empire.
Kimani said Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected diplomacy in favor of military force, which has put the international norm of multilateralism "on its deathbed."
He warned Russia to respect its border with Ukraine, using Africa's colonial past to highlight the dangers of stoking the "embers of dead empires."
"Rather than form nations that looked ever backward into history with a dangerous nostalgia, we chose to look forward to a greatness none of our many nations and peoples had ever known," Kimani said.
Here's a transcript of part of Kimani's speech where he stressed the importance of moving on:
"This situation echoes our history. Kenya and almost every African country was birthed by the ending of empire. Our borders were not of our own drawing. They were drawn in the distant colonial metropoles of London, Paris and Lisbon, with no regard for the ancient nations that they cleaved apart.
Today, across the border of every single African country, live our countrymen with whom we share deep historical, cultural and linguistic bonds.
At independence, had we chosen to pursue states on the basis of ethnic, racial or religious homogeneity, we would still be waging bloody wars these many decades later.
Instead, we agreed that we would settle for the borders that we inherited, but we would still pursue continental political, economic and legal integration. Rather than form nations that looked ever backward into history with a dangerous nostalgia, we chose to look forward to a greatness none of our many nations and peoples had ever known.
We chose to follow the rules of the Organisation of African Unity and the United Nations charter, not because our borders satisfied us, but because we wanted something greater, forged in peace.
We believe that all states formed from empires that have collapsed or retreated have many peoples in them yearning for integration with peoples in neighboring states. This is normal and understandable. After all, who does not want to be joined to their brethren and to make common purpose with them?
However, Kenya rejects such a yearning from being pursued by force. We must complete our recovery from the embers of dead empires in a way that does not plunge us back into new forms of domination and oppression.
We rejected irredentism and expansionism on any basis, including racial, ethnic, religious or cultural factors. We reject it again today.
Kenya registers its strong concern and opposition to the recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states. We further strongly condemn the trend in the last few decades of powerful states, including members of this Security Council, breaching international law with little regard.
Multilateralism lies on its deathbed tonight. It has been assaulted today as it as it has been by other powerful states in the recent past.
We call on all members to rally behind the Secretary-General in asking him to rally us all to the standard that defends multilateralism. We also call on him to bring his good offices to bear to help the concerned parties resolve this situation by peaceful means.
Let me conclude, Mr. President, by reaffirming Kenya's respect for the territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders."
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/22/1082334172/kenya-security-council-russi
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Kimani didn’t use the West’s past imperialism as an excuse to condone violating Ukraine’s sovereignty. Instead, he was rightly willing to place the blame for any war in Ukraine squarely where it belongs, on Moscow’s neocolonialism and Putin’s need to go down in the hist
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There is video of this at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/21/putin-angry-spectacle-am
ounts-to-declaration-war-ukraine
Sergei Naryshkin, the hawkish head of Russia’s spy service, known for making aggressively anti-western statements, stuttered uncomfortably as Putin grilled him on whether he supported the decision.
“Speak directly!” Putin snapped, twice.
Eventually, when he was able to get the words out, Naryshkin said he supported “the LNR and DNR becoming part of Russia.” Putin told him that wasn’t the subject of the discussion; it was only recognition being weighed up.
Some suggested this might have been a carefully scripted encounter to show the West what other options might be available, but Naryshkin’s genuinely flustered expression suggested otherwise.
It is hard to tell whether or not Putin had decided his plan for Ukraine months ago, or whether he has been making plans on the hop, but it was certainly clear that the decision on recognition had been taken well before this strange, stage-managed event.
There was very little exchange of opinion, and the idea that it was all spontaneous was further undermined by the fact that closeups of the watches of certain participants appeared to suggest that the “live” broadcast had in fact been filmed several hours earlier.
This did not stop Putin specifically emphasising that the event really was a frank exchange of views.
“Every one of you knows, and I specially want to underline it … I did not discuss any of this with you before. I did not ask your opinion before. And this is happening spontaneously, because I wanted to hear your opinions without any preliminary preparation,” he said.
The appearance of Putin just a few hours later with his long, pre-prepared and wide-ranging speech made the claim this was all a real-time decision-making process even more implausible.
Many of Putin’s team give the impression of genuinely believing the propaganda narrative Russia has built to justify its continuing aggression against Ukraine. Valentina Matviyenko, the only woman on the security council, gave an elongated harangue cobbled together from the more outlandish talking points of Russian news bulletins: innocent Russia facing down the nefarious west, which was backing the “genocidal” Kyiv regime.
Not everyone was so enthusiastic: the prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, spoke briefly and drily, looking visibly uncomfortable. Not willing to let him off the hook without swearing fealty to the decision that was already inevitably on the way, Putin asked him directly whether he supported it; Mishustin mumbled that he did. Everyone was now publicly on record as supporting this move; nobody will be able to weasel out of it later and claim they put up a fight.
The recognition decision answers some questions but others remain. There is a chance Putin may simply recognise the two republics “as they are”. This, after months of apocalyptic scenarios, would probably be privately accepted as a good outcome by Ukraine and the west.
But it seems likely that Putin has much more in mind than simply taking a nibble out of Ukraine’s east and taking formal responsibility for territories he already de facto controlled.
Putin’s final words, that if Kyiv did not stop the violence they would bear responsibility for the “ensuing bloodshed”, were ominous in the extreme. It sounded, quite simply, like a declaration of war.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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None of this is our problem.
And besides, why would anybody trust us to help anybody protect their borders when we don't do fuckall to protect our own from invaders?
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Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."
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Just to comment: It is you, SECOND, who is engaging in "whataboutism".
I brought up the dozens (hundreds throughout USA history) of treaties, pacts, agreements, international laws etc that we broke, and you brought up "whataboutCrimea"?
Whatabout JCPOA? Whatabout Open Skies? Short range missiles? Nuclear warheads? Libya,Iran, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan? Whatabout Ukraine? Yugoslavia? How many instances do you want? I can bring up a lot more!
We can whatabout until Christmas, so let's move the discussion in a more productive direction: under what circumstances is it legal, or ethical, to break treaties, contracts etc.?
I know that under international law, a nation has an obligation to repay the IMF even if the debt was incurred and embezzled by a totally different government. OTOH, banks don't seem to have the same obligations to their clients: The BoE, for example, effectively stole Venezuela's gold (which it had placed with the BoE for safekeeping) when the BoE recognized Juan "Random Guy" Guaido as the legitimate head of Venezuela (really???) and made him the official gold owner.
What about the IMF wanting to renegotiate its loan to Ukraine at the beginning of a civil war?
So, again ... under what circumstances is it legal, or ethical, to break a contract, treaty, agreement, pact, or even international law?
I don't know the answer, and I'm not looking for a specific one. Just looking for your opinions, and how you came to your conclusions.
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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Quote:Yep. We seem to be in everybody's business except our own. Maybe we should do some home repair b4 we start remodeling everyone else's.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
None of this is our problem.
And besides, why would anybody trust us to help anybody protect their borders when we don't do fuckall to protect our own from invaders?
--------------------------------------------------
Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."
-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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Quote:Why not mention the 1,000 broken treaties with Indians as 1,000 justifications to break a treaty with Ukraine? Such a small promise broken: Ukraine gives up its nuclear weapons and the US promises Ukraine it won't regret doing that when Russia (I mean Putin) decides Ukraine really never was a country. It is just the one thousandth and one broken promise by the US government. It is not like Putin might next decide that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were never countries and were always Russian. Putin would never, never wipe three countries off the map -- bang, bang, bang. While Putin is in the mood, why not wipe that non-NATO Finland off the map?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Just to comment: It is you, SECIND, who is engaging in "whataboutism".
I brought up the dozens (hundreds throughout USA history) of treaties, pacts, agreements, international laws etc that we broke, and you brought up "whataboutCrimea"?
Whatabout JCPOA? Whatabout Open Skies? Short range missiles? Nuclear warheads? Libya,Iran, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan? Whatabout Whatabout Ukraine? Yugoslavia? How many instances do you want? I can bring up a lot more!
We can whatabout until Christmas, so let's move the discussion in a different direction: under what circumstances is it legal, or ethical, to break treaties, contracts etc.?
I know that under international law, a nation hs an obligation to repay the IMF even if the debt was incurred and even embezzled by a totally different government. OTOH, banks don't seem to hve the same obligations to their clients: The BoE, for example, just recently effectively stole Venezuela's gold (which it hd placed with the BoE for safekeeping) when the BoE recognized Juan "Random Guy" Guaido as the legitimate head of Venezuela and mde him the official gold owner.
So, again ... under what circumstances is it legal, or ethical, to break a contract, treaty, agreement, pact, or even international law?
Anyone aware of the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia? If I were Putin, I would want to reattach it to the rest of Russia. Is someone in the way? Run them over with the Russian Army. What else is an Army for?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_Oblast
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Sure! Why not?
After all, if we can do it 1000X over, so can Russia!
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:Yep. We seem to be in everybody's business except our own. Maybe we should do some home repair b4 we start remodeling everyone else's.
Originally posted by 6IXSTRINGJACK:
None of this is our problem.
And besides, why would anybody trust us to help anybody protect their borders when we don't do fuckall to protect our own from invaders?
--------------------------------------------------
Vaccinated People: "You need to get muh vaccination shots that don't work because I got muh vaccination shots that don't work and I'm afraid of people that didn't get muh vaccination shots that don't work because muh vaccination shots that don't work don't work."
The blame America first crowd never miss an opportunity to blame America first.
I have to ask, why has nobody sounded the alarm over Putin's invading Belorussia? Now that he's there he's staying, refusing to leave.
T
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Quote:It is impossible to travel overland between the Kaliningrad Oblast and the main contiguous portion of Russia without passing through at least two other countries. There is nothing stopping Putin from passing his Army, other than treaties he could forget exist. The Russians of Kaliningrad would welcome Putin's Army, know what I mean?
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Sure! Why not?
After all, if we can do it 1000X over, so can Russia!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaliningrad_Oblast
Google map of that road trip from Moscow to Kaliningrad: https://goo.gl/maps/J7Keop8XqHqENdME9
It is 16 hr 42 min (1,264 km) via M-9
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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