While most of the world recoils in horror at Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, a handful of fellow dictators have been loyal to the Kremlin. One is the unspeakable Alexander Lukashenko, the semi-literate dictator of Belarus, and Putin’s lapdog who has even threatened to use nuclear weapons – presumably given to his country by Russia – to fend off the West. Lukashenko has said that his country would use such weapons “”and more” as conflict escalated against its ally Russia, according to AFP.
“If such stupid and mindless steps are taken by our rivals and opponents, we will deploy not only nuclear weapons, but super-nuclear and up-and-coming ones to protect our territory,” Lukashenko said last week.
Got that? Lukashenko will stand by his man, Vladimir Putin, and is prepared to deploy on his territory not just Russian “nuclear” weapons, but “super-nuclear and up-and-coming ones” to “protect our territory.”
“Protect” our territory against whom? It’s the Russians who have been doing all the invading in Lukashenko’s neighborhood. No member of NATO has threatened Belarus; no NATO member has any intention of invading Belarus.
And then there is Bashar Assad, who was saved from defeat in the Syrian civil war by the Russians, who in 2015 began to bombard the rebels who were then close to winning the war. Thus Assad owes his victory in the civil war and, very likely, his life, to his friend Vladimir Putin.
A report on Assad’s expression of fealty to Putin and support for Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine is here: “Assad says Russia’s Ukraine invasion a ‘correction of history,’” AFP, February 26, 2022
Syrian President Bashar Assad, in a telephone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday, praised the Russian invasion of Ukraine, saying it was a “correction of history.”
Assad’s description of the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a “correction of history” must have pleased Putin, for it fits his world-historical view, his insistence that the breakup of the Soviet Union was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the [20th] century.” Greater, apparently, than World War II, which resulted in 60 million dead, greater than the Holocaust, with its six million dead – even though, during the breakup of the Soviet Union, so devoutly wished for by all the non-Russian republics in the Soviet empire, no one was killed.
Damascus is a staunch ally of Moscow which intervened in the Syrian civil war in 2015 by launching airstrikes to support the Assad regime’s struggling forces.
Assad spoke to Putin a day after Russian forces invaded Ukraine on the orders of the Russian president, drawing strong international condemnation.
President Assad stressed that what is happening today is a correction of history and a restoration of balance in the global order after the fall of the Soviet Union,” said a statement from the Syrian presidency.
Assad also said that “Syria stands with the Russian Federation based on its conviction that its position is correct and because confronting NATO expansionism is a right for Russia.”
Though one hates to use Obama’s favorite phrase, about being “on the right side of history,” here it seems to fit. The entire civilized world is against Putin’s invasion. Even if, in the end Ukraine will be forced to surrender to the overwhelmingly more powerful Russian military, the Russians will not be able to hold Ukraine, with its 45 million citizens, in the long term. Ukrainians who were not able to resist the invasion will, in their humiliation and rage, be determined to resist a Russian occupation.
Russia’s intervention in Syria marked a turning point in the conflict.
It enabled pro-regime forces to wrest back lost territory in a series of victories against rebels and jihadists involving deadly bombardments and massive destruction.
More than 63,000 Russian military personnel have deployed to Syria, Moscow says.
Assad has 63,000 reasons to be grateful to Russia. No wonder he’s in Putin’s pocket.
During Friday’s phone call, Assad said “Western nations bear responsibility for the chaos and bloodshed,” accusing them of using “dirty methods to support terrorists in Syria and Nazis in Ukraine.”
In the topsy-turvical moral universe of Bashar Assad, the Western nations that have not put a single soldier in the Ukraine are the ones who “bear responsibility for the chaos and bloodshed” in that country, rather than the 200,000 Russian soldiers who invaded Ukraine, with tanks and planes, and missiles, to satisfy the crazed will of President Putin, who wants to reunite as much of the former Soviet empire as he can.
And what “dirty methods” were used by the “Western nations” in Syria? Did they use such methods when they fought the fanatics of the Islamic State, a fight which Assad must surely have approved of? Were “dirty methods” used by the American troops when they protected the Kurds from being murdered by Turkish forces sent into Syria by Erdogan? Or did Western nations use “dirty methods” to pressure Assad to stop using chemical weapons on his own people, as he did in 2013,2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018? Weren’t those chemical weapons — “dirty methods” –used by Syria, and not by the Western nations that tried to end their use?
As for accusing the West of supporting “terrorists” in Syria and “Nazis” in the Ukraine, in Syria it was Assad’s government that “terrorized” his own people with chemical weapons and bombardments of civilians it is Assad who supported, and was supported by, the terror group Hezbollah. There are no “Nazis” in the Ukrainian government, as Putin likes to claim and so, too, does his puppet Assad. Ukraine’s president is Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish and whose three great-uncles were murdered by the Nazis. If Assad wants to accuse governments of harboring Nazis, he should start with his own country, which for years gave refuge and jobs to such Nazi war criminals as the S.S. man Alois Brunner. During his long residence in Syria, Brunner was reportedly granted asylum, a generous salary, and protection by the ruling Ba’ath Party in exchange for his advice on effective torture and interrogation techniques used by the Nazis. He was also employed by the Assad family itself, to teach its loyalists the same skills he was teaching Syria’s secret police.
The war in Syria is estimated to have killed nearly half a million people and displaced millions more since it began with Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011.
Bashar Assad has now tied his own political fate even tighter to that of Vladimir Putin. Moscow has made clear to Bashar al-Assad that Russia remains his main hope of staying in power.
If Putin’s gamble in the Ukraine, where he is betting he can not only conquer the country but keep it subject to Russian occupation, does not pay off, Putin will face a real challenge at home. Too many Russians have lost overnight much of their wealth because of Western sanctions; the collapse of the Russian stock market, and the deep slide in the value of the ruble, have been dramatic. The Russians may rally around Putin just now, but for how long will they support him, given that the Western nations have promised to keep those crippling economic sanctions in place as long as the Russians stay in the Ukraine? Putin seems impregnable, but so did Colonel Qaddafi, Zine Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak, and many others who were then toppled with ease.
And If Vladimir Putin were to be deposed, what would happen to his loyal spaniel Assad in Damascus, who called to congratulate Putin for his “correction of history”?
Walter Sieruk says
This photograph of those two evil man ,Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko standing together and even joining hands is a blatant reminder of the verse from the Bible which reads :”Though hand join, the wicked shall not go unpunished.” Proverbs 11;21. [K.J.V.]
gravenimage says
Walter–with all respect–the picture above is of Putin not with Lukashenko but with Assad.
Wellington says
A “correction of history?” Very Orwellian like.
Westman says
The removal of Putin would come with unknowns, particularly whether the “successor” would be a peacemaker or a hardliner who has no limits.
I feel particularly sad for the Ukranian citizens who are caught in terrible circumstances while decisions are being made in foreign centers of power about their future. I’m beginning to wonder if there are Western interests that might be moving more slowly to ensure Ukraine’s dependency if Putin abandons the War. At such a juncture, Russia would be too weak to resist Georgia joining NATO and Belarus also might have second thoughts?
The current logic of graduated involvement in Ukraine seems confused. We are told that there must not be a Western-imposed no-fly zone because it would result in nuclear war, such a war which has been avoided in the past by the promise of Mutual Assured Destruction(MAD). MAD was never intended to stop wars, its purpose was to prevent the use of nuclear weapons. Think of how many wars have been conducted by major powers since WWII.
Keeping the conflict within Ukraine would not require the use of nuclear weapons by NATO or Russia. Putin rattles his nukes and US citizens are told by their government that direct involvement in Ukraine will cause nuclear war as if it was in Russia itself. Is this reality or are some other unspoken long-term interests in operation?
Infidel says
Talking about this war, just now I was watching a report on Newsmax that Russia has moved its entire army to the Ukraine border. In other words, if Mongolia hypothetically wanted to invade and occupy all territory around Lake Baikal – where Genghiz Khan was born, they could do that quite easily. If Japan wanted to reverse the WWII losses and reconquer the entire Sakhalin Island, they could do it. If we wanted a beach hold across the Bering Straits, we could do it
Not just that, Russia is now considering asking Belarus and Kazakhstan to join in its war effort. Which is embarrassing, when one of the world’s top 3 militaries has a problem conquering a much smaller country in its front-yard. Just like in 1991 and even today, Iraq then, and Yemen now, are exposing Saudi Arabia as a paper tiger which only looks powerful on a map, similarly, Russia is being exposed as one in that w/ all their power, they can’t even subdue Ukraine, and have to look to their neighbors like Belarus and Kazakhstan for support
Maybe establishing a no-fly zone ain’t such a bad idea after all. Actually, late last week, there was a suggestion from Lt Gen Keith Kellogg that instead of a NATO no-fly zone, a UN no-fly zone be established instead. He said that given the reverses the Russians were having, one way to help them save face would be to offer Putin a UN no-fly zone, where the UN Security Council votes on one, and where Russia is persuaded to abstain since they are one of the parties in the conflict. Normally, Russia would veto, but b’cos they are having trouble occupying territory and are only looking like war criminals, they might secretly appreciate that off-ramp to getting out of the war, and withdrawing to where they were on February 23rd
The other great outcome of this heroic Ukrainian resistance has been that Beijing has not moved on Taiwan, as many feared they might
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjanTXCW9oM
Hank says
“…if Mongolia hypothetically wanted to invade and occupy all territory around Lake Baikal – where Genghiz Khan was born, they could do that quite easily. If Japan wanted to reverse the WWII losses and reconquer the entire Sakhalin Island, they could do it. If we wanted a beach hold across the Bering Straits, we could do it”
Putin may have just given a new meaning to the term “Russian Buffet”. LOL
Very interesting point, a last chance for these nations to reclaim their old territory at the Russian Buffet. Mongolia could literally split Russia in 2 right down the middle and reclaim some of its old empire. Japan goes to the Sakhalin “dish” section of the Buffet. China is probably at the table and looking intensely (with grumbling stomach) at Putin’s Buffet menu too.
When all have eaten and taken their fill, Putin the “Historian” will appreciate that the West and Nato was actually its best friend. You never know what this silly invasion of Ukraine will bring.
Infidel says
Mongolia has a population of a bit over 3 million. It can’t conquer all the territory that it did under Genghiz Khan: those tactics simply wouldn’t work today. Yeah, had he been around, he might have figured out a way.
But given how Russia has called in its entire army to Ukraine, they could simply walk into Irkutsk and Buryat and take it.
And you are right: given how hungry China has been in claiming entire countries like Kazakhstan as theirs, they might prefer simply sending a handful of troops into Siberia – meaning everything east of the Urals – and claiming it. They do have the population to occupy it. Russia could rue the day it allied w/ China: this resembles a Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, w/ no idea about who’s who
Walter Sieruk says
Both Vadimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko do have the same aggressive hostile bloody mindset ,so they do make a very fitting match since they are think alike in their callous disregard for the value of human life..
So being together which their pro-war and death way of thinking they do ,truly, deserve each other.
The situation of those two evil man being together is even reflected in the rhetorical question put forth in the Bible .Which is ” Can two walk together , expect they be agreed ?” Amos 3:3. [K.J.V.]
Westman says
They are blind guides.
“Where there is no vision, the people perish” – Prov 29:18
joanofark06 says
Could this verse be coming soon?
Isaiah 17:1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
OLD GUY says
These two don’t care about anything but their idea of glory and wealth. Everyone else is expendable and only there for achieving the power and glory they desire.
Phil says
You’ve got it all wrong. Putin is a good man and Russia is a proud Nation with values and makes our dilapidated west look like some worn out whore. Putin has granted nat’s wish of being on Russia’s doorstep and there’s a lot more to come, notably flooding the EU with even more migrants, causing political change and the evacuation of the Globalist shit. In fact the complete derailment of the nwo satanists plan and good luck to them. What of assad! Sounds like you prefer the jihadists of IS to a western educated gentleman that assad is. Wake up.
gravenimage says
Ah….right. What’s more indicative of proving you have values than unprovoked invasion of your neighbor Ukraine and sending Jihadists to the border with Poland? I guess if you don’t act like this that makes you a “worn out whore”.
And the idea that Assad–himself a Jihadist, albeit perhaps not the worst of them–is a “gentleman”. Lots of Muslims have been educated in the West–that does not mean they share civilized Western values.