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Guest Post: How To Undermine Russia From Within
Submitted by Zachary Zeck of The Diplomat,
Since Russia moved into Crimea, there has been a strong desire in the United States to “do something” to stop Vladimir Putin. The general problem, we’re told, is that there just aren’t any good options.
This strikes me as both unimaginative, on the one hand, and a great example of what Robert Gates deemed the “militarization” of American foreign policy, on the other. The reality is that there are just not any good military options for countering Russia in Ukraine, and there aren’t going to be given prevailing geography, history, and nuclear capabilities.
But just because Vladimir Putin has pursued a military strategy for achieving his political goals in Ukraine, doesn’t mean that the U.S. response has to be in the military realm. Nor does it mean that Washington is limited to boring old economic sanctions, which increasingly seem to be the only tool in America’s foreign policy toolbox in situations when military force is inappropriate.
In fact, the broad components of what could be an effective response to Putin’s annexation in Crimea are already being pursued by the U.S., albeit not in the right configuration. So far the U.S. response has mainly focused on two fronts.
The first is a public relations campaign to rally international opinion against Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.
This PR campaign began nearly immediately when Obama administration officials like John Kerry painted Russia as living in a 19th century world. It has continued ever since through high profile gestures such as the UN General Assembly Resolution denouncing the Crimea referendum, and President Obama’s excellent speech in Europe last week. The goal, as the administration has made clear, is to isolate Russia diplomatically, even as it seeks to target it economically.
However, there are two problems with this PR campaign. The first is that it is not working and unlikely to work in the future. As Ian Bremmer and the UN General Assembly vote made clear, Russia is simply too large of a player to be completely isolated, especially given that many important countries are not nearly as offended by the annexation as the United States.
The second, more serious problem with the global PR campaign is that it is aimed at the international community. This is the wrong audience since it is not the one that keeps Putin in power, which is his primary concern. Indeed, not only was the Crimea annexation popular in Russia, but trying to isolate Russia is likely to further entrench support for a nationalistic leader like Putin. The more besieged Russians feel, the more appeal Putin has at home.
Besides the global PR campaign, the U.S. has tried to pressure Russia through economic sanctions. These sanctions have been targeted at Putin’s inner circle as well as the wealthy businessmen and institutions that help prop up his rule. The logic behind this approach is that if Russia’s oligarchs fear their financial interests are being threatened, they will pressure Putin to halt and possible rollback his aggression in the Ukraine.
The problem with this approach is that they are unlikely to do this. To begin with, these men have derived their influence and wealth from their association with Putin. They have little incentive or ability to challenge Putin without undercutting themselves. Moreover, as noted above, the annexation of Crimea is extremely popular with the Russian people. This puts Russia’s oligarchs on even shakier ground in trying to confront Putin.
A better approach would be to combine the two aspects of the West’s current response. Specifically, the United States should undertake a PR campaign aimed at turning the Russian people against Putin’s inner circle and the oligarchs in Russia more generally. Done right, this can gradually undermine the legitimacy of the Russian Federation under Putin as a whole.
As is well known, Vladimir Putin’s Russia is rife with corruption at every level. Like all autocracies, this corruption can persist because information is tightly controlled to limit people’s knowledge of it. The United States and Europe have extensive means to collect information on the all the corrupt elements of the Russian Federation. By exposing this information, they would be able to gradually undercut the Russian people’s support for the system Putin has built. Of course, at any time the U.S. and Europe could agree to withhold further information if their demands on Ukraine are met.
The biggest question would be in what manner should they would distribute the information? One possibility is simply publishing government reports about corruption in Russia. I would advocate against this approach as Russians and people generally are likely to view these reports as inherently biased. A better approach would be to strategically leak the information Washington and Brussels uncover to reporters with international reach. Another possibility is that the U.S. and EU could anonymously publish the information on social media websites, much as Russia posted Victoria Nuland’s private phone conversation trashing the EU.
Whatever medium the West used to publish the information, this policy would appropriately target what Putin holds most dear—his grip on power—in a way that can effectively undermine it. It would also be fairly cheap. The larger principle should be kept in mind for future crises—namely, the U.S. and the West don’t have to respond to challenges on the terms set by the countries challenging them.
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I know it's a sophomoric term but in this case it fits.
The author is a dick head.
Here's how you do it:
FUCKOFF! Zachary
You unfortunately have Zachary syndrome: Your head looks Zachary like your ass!
Fuck off and stay out of other people's business. Unless you live in Russia, it's none of your fucking business. We don't need the fucking CIA blessing anyone else with "Freedom". That will likely result in WWIII. So go back to your hovel in Wolf Trap and fuck yourself.
What level of formal education has this author attained ?
He ate a danish in front of a Chatham House event once... Does that count?
Education is a hindrance when writing for rightwing rags.
However, he does form complete sentences. That's probably a Phd by today's education standards.
The Putin-Is-Satan-Incarnate bandwagon is on its 170th lap already. The reason their PR campaign is doomed to fail is that people aren't listening to the mouthpieces on the level they used to.
Never underestimate the stupidity of average Americans, many are buying the Red Dawn redux story. Americans need a bogeyman in order to sleep at night, now that bin Laden is off the scene (ha!) Putin fits the bill.
I was in the comments on another website I used to frequent (Fark.com) and the ignorance is depressing. The majority are ready to stick it to those commies. As long as it doesn't inconvenience them in any way, of course.
The US public is just as ignorant and gullible as ever, they'll buy whatever story US gov wants to sell them.
I mostly deal with the other half. The half that needs Putin to be evil as shit because they ran their mouth about Bush and they sat there with their thumbs up their asses when this asshat did the same things.
Comparing Bush to Putin is an insult to Putin. Have them console themselves by torching the Bush library, I hear that coloring books burn in rainbows.
"Fool me once, can't get fooled again." (paraphrased)
I respect ZH presenting both sides of the debate but this is funny stuff.
What would the U.S. PR campaign look like?
"We spy on our own citizens just like the STASI, and our oligarchs and bankers are just as bad or worse than yours (especially when it comes to being aggrandizing megalomaniacal pricks), and our lies, hyperbole, and two-faced bullshitting about rights and liberty much more florid and hollow - but we have a prettier flag."
What argument is there that the U.S. is better?
I'm ready to switch sides.
Edward Snowden = Hero.
It might be something along the lines of 100 years ago Europe tore itself apart in a senseless war that accomplished nothing except seperate Russia from the rest of Europe for the next 70 years. Less than 25 years after that war Europe again found itself waging another war that cost Europe its great Empires and turned the United States and Russia into imperial powers locked in a Cold War that bankrupted both nations. Now Putin, unhappy that Russia has lost its imperial status, wants to use Russias oil and gas wealth, not to bring Russian living standards up to Western levels but to dominate its neighbors. The question Russians need to ask themselves is what is Russia's real security threat? Is it really neo Nazi's in Kiev or Muslim terrorists in Russia's southern border regions. Would not Russia have more influence in the world if it used its power to rally Europe and the United States to unite and oppose radical Islamists everywhere. Putin, at one time seemed to be just the man to do that.
Something the west COULD try would be to not run false flag operations to create pretexts for overthrowing the governments of other countries and installing fascist puppets, then support those puppets while allowing their corporate buddies to move in and pillage through the rubble. THAT might do wonders as far as regaining the moral high ground. Might even work BETTER than fancy PR campaigns.
REALLY !!! LMAO
This guy's theory of what the US should do is exactly what Putin could do to the US with the Snowden files if he so choses.
Nevermind the snowden files. He doesn't have them, and if he got them the optics would be terrible. So why bother.
He's got 9/11. If Russia started a new international investigation into that... game over. It's blown. One bit of international scrutiny at this point, and the whole veil falls. All the other fucked up stuff the covert agencies have been involved with is very abstract, but 9/11 was marketed and hyped up in the States as an attack on grandmothers in Kansas.
If they blow that, the whole kaboodle goes sky high. You don't think the KGB wasn't doing SIGINT during that whole op do you?
If not 9/11, there's any number of KGB banker boxes of dirty laundry they could pull into the sunlight and bring the whole thing down. The question is rather: what are they waiting for?
9/11 is case closed in most (mindless) American minds, any new revelations by Russia would be seen as propaganda.
Well Jim Rickards is stirring the pot. He is bringing up the 9/11 insider trading (massive put options) that is in his new book. So maybe Russia will just be globbing on.
There will be no globbing, that ship has sailed. The book will sell two copies since everyone who thinks the official story is BS has already done their own research.
However, a hundred years from whatever human lifeforms living in the wasteland that was once called Beverly Hills might want a copy if only to find out what got the ball rolling. It will make for a good bonfire read, nuclear winters are cold.
His last book was a bestseller. The winds of change are in the air. We'll see. My crystal ball fell off the back porch last week, so I have no idea.
I heard a Rickards interview within the last month and he buys the official story. He did mention the put options, and said the perps (ie, official terrorists) probably purchased them. He downplayed "conspiracy thheories", seemingly oblivious to the truth that the official explanation is a conspiracy theory.
Did this article just suggest that amateur propaganda is the answer?
The word "asinine" instantly popped into my head while reading through this article. Sorry, but I found it to be complete garbage. What's wrong with just this one paragraph, for instance
"officials like John Kerry painted Russia as living in a 19th century world. It has continued ever since through high profile gestures such as the UN General Assembly Resolution denouncing the Crimea referendum, and President Obama’s excellent speech in Europe last week. The goal, as the administration has made clear, is to isolate Russia diplomatically, even as it seeks to target it economically."
"John Kerry painted Russia" - John Kerry is a fucking idiot.
"high profile gestures such as the UN General Assembly Resolution denouncing the Crimea referendum" - A fucking joke. It is non-binding political bullshit, and the entire World, except for The Diplomat apparently, knows this.
"President Obama’s excellent speech" - no comment..
"the administration has made clear" - Your fucking joking here right? Do you mean the laughable sanctions? Or do you mean rendering the G-8 G-7 irrelevant since Russia can not be removed from the G-20? What the fuck was your point here?
"it seeks to target it economically" - Good fucking luck. Russia has Europe by the balls, and the entire World, except for The Diplomat apparently, knows this.
Anyone like this ass clown who writes articles like this either lost money in the misadventure called CANVAS in Ukraine, or is a DoS/Langley wonk who actually believes that the "blowback" they created for themselves can somehow be salvaged and that what the World witnessed in the historic vote in Crimea last month somehow won't last for next 100 years!
Zackery Zeck and the Dip(shit)lomat he writes for are fucking loser(s)!
Zeck is the MDB of contributors. It's brilliant really....
The guy who wrote this must have a lot of time on his hands, along with the rest of the scheming USSA bureaucrats.
Just exercise our right per Article 16 of that Cold War sop to Soviet paranoia, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, and unilaterally withdraw.
Then declare our intention to go back to the Moon and using "national sovereign power", recognize the property rights (treaty prohibits) of those who discover anything, develop processes, etc.
That'll twist Putin's panties so tight, he'll have conniptions for a fortnight.
Is this article for real? HA HA HA HA HA
No it's not. Any article that starts with: Since Russia moved into Crimea, there has been a strong desire in the United States to “do something” to stop Vladimir Putin. is not for real.
The "diplomat" needs to go back to diplomacy school.
1) The U.S. made the first move, the action, by supporting and provoking and financing the fucking coup.
2) Russia reacted, period. Russia's actions are reactions.
The goal of US hegemony is supposed to be peace. Whether you agree or not with the strategy, the goal is peace.
1) Gain military (NATO), political, and economic advantage in Ukraine and Central Asia that enables oil and natural gas to become to become available to the world market and also enhance said independent governments
2) Block Russia and China from imperialism through #1 above,
3) Expand European democracy through Eurasia by COOPERATING with Russia and fostering a friendly environment to incorporate them into the global economy and inviting them into NATO. i.e. make them feel important and included, NOT isolated.
4) Block China from Far East Imperialism by coordination with Japan and fostering of Chinese democracy. i.e. make them feel important through responsible actions in the far east and central asia, while making them realize that human rights can only prevail in relations with Taiwan and Korea.
The idea is to be inclusive of Russia and China, to prevent them from becoming imperialistic as in their past. To give them say in what happens in central asia and east europe (within limits). To foster an interconnected eastern europe and central asia and far east in travel, economics, and politics. That is the idea. Once that is accomplished then US hegemony can stop and have a legacy of world peace and cooperation.
What is happening is the opposite of this. The dear leaders in US are becoming impatient with the strategy. This is why they supported the coup in Ukraine, they desperately want them cooperating and apparently the government was not doing so, so the US did what they did to get a puppet in there that would. Russia reacted, because it knows the game....Ukrain is extremely pivotal. If Russia loses ties with Ukraine, then they are just asian. If USEU loses ties then Russia is Eurasain and has the freedom in the future of implementing imperialism. Though it is obvious this is not their strategy. They don't have the financial or military mean to defend an empire and the US needs to realize this fact.
The Grand Ghessboard...ZB
The US is fucking up. They are isolating instead of incorporating. They are not going to get to world peace with the isolation strategy. They are going to get fucked.
I used to the Zbignew was a psychopath, till i read the book, now i think it is the leaders that don't follow his policy that are psychopathic.
So the aim is world peace? Is that what Zbignew said....
By 'world peace' do you mean, "There is no dissension, thus there is peace." ???
What exactly do you mean by 'world peace' The Joker?
That is what ZB said, stability more so. The idea is to incorporate China and Russia's economies so much into the global economy, transport, trade, that they have no choice but to play ball, instead of longing for the old days of imperialism.
Besides the fact that most of the former USSR states are so paranoid of imperialism that they would put up a hell of a fight. I think we see that with Ukraine.
Also, he specifically states that the US strategy should not be of indefinate hegemony, only hegemony until these states can truly stand on their own (or with NATO) against imperialism of Russia or China. When that, along with Russian and China inclusion and cooperation comes to fruition, then the US should pull out of the world stage.
It's worth reading for sure.
So complete integration into the global economic system will engender world peace, is the supposition. The fly in the ointment here is the imbalance within the over-arching system of trade. A system of global trade controlled by a highly centralized issuer of money that produces money at interest will never prove equitable, and thinking it will is defying mathematical reality. As long as there is a core group of financiers who skim and skew the orientation of money and economic direction there will never be 'peace by trade'. Your version of ZB's tale is very accepting of his logic, but the flaws are obvious from the outset, his agenda is aligned with a financier class who seeks power above others.
Kinda like a New World Order....oh wait.
Yes. Many fronts are calling for the NWO, whether it is climate change or the grand chessboard. Nationalism, so 20th century you know.
You are correct. that book was written in 1997. Needless to say things have changed dramatically since then, what with 9/11 and the Central banking coup of the world finances, but that was the intention. My point is, you can still see the world playing on that chessboard regardless of these transgressions...and they are doing an aweful job of it. Example, ZB points out what a pivotal country the Ukraine is for NATO, and for Russia, and that is apparant today. Russia, without Ukraine, is nothing. The West, without Ukraine, means Russia has Ukraine, and is Eurasian. Many pipelines flow through Ukraine, and Ukraine is European. I know, seems to simplistic, who knew. Don't shoot me, read the book (obviously the last two administrations haven't).
Well, lets see, the Ukraine (minus Crimea) has been, and is an independent country - Russia will not invade unless far right radicals start slaughtering the ethnic Russians (a possibility) - so little has changed geographically speaking, except for the Crimea. So is Russia 'nothing'? Or perhaps ZB's definition of Russia included the naval base in the Crimea, so the original definition of the Ukraine would prove no longer valid.....
In any case Russia will not let itself be 'nothing', I assure you.
The new strategy is not geography, it is economy, politics, and oil. Geography is cold war era thinking.
"They make a desert and call it peace."
from Tacitus, quoting a British leader exhorting his troops against the Roman Imperialists.
Junked by WilliamBanzai7
This article is easy to dismiss as B.S on so many levels, but wait-- I suspect without his knowing it, the author is tapping into a move that is already under way against the US government, and which is working fairly well. The popularity of RTdotcom is the example. When I was a youngster, I was taught that Russians lied about everything, and that Pravda was a government mouthpiece (all true). I was taught the US government was honest and brave and always did the right thing (not so true). Since I first read RT some years ago, I recognized the Russians had changed strategy in the infowars, which shows up a great deal in RT. Instead of lying all the time about themselves, which only made them a laughingstock, the Russians now feel they need only to tell the truth about the US government. And it works for them, because many Americans already know or at least suspect our government is a pack of lying M.F.ers. I look to RT for more complete reporting about the US government simply because it is in RT's best interest to report fairly accurately the stories the US MSM won't touch, just as I still watch CNBC in order to know which lies are at the top of the daily financial agenda. I found I don't have to sift through all the B.S. just to discover accurate cause and effect, because there is no better minute by minute guage of official financial horsefuck than CNBC, i.e. CNBC (and all US MSM) is now the laughingstock Pravda proved to be 50 years ago. I don't care what Vlad P. does or does not do in Crimea. It's not US business, and US hands are just as dirty. I do care about picking a fight with Vlad, mostly because our elected leader is a fucking, lying, stupid coward who is our own worst enemy and who plans to surrender the US to its enemies in a heartbeat. But back to the subject of info tactics, wouldn't it be magic if all you have to do to get the facts is to listen to your enemies tell the truth about you.
Well said. RT has proved pretty more reliable than most US news services. We indeed live in the hunger games. Russia seems to be district 13.
Now you know why I've been calling this fucker Zippity Zionist Zachary Zeck. The author has clearly confused "diplomacy" with "batshit crazy genocidal warmongering", and continues to grace us with his incessant farts of foul and pestilent articles that can only have come from an orifice the size of Manhattan's sewer system.
No doubt he is working furiously to drop another fuggish bomb under one of his pseudonyms, like 'DingDing Chen' or 'PoPo Panda' to tell us from a "Chinese" point of view how they would love to oblige Obama's dreams of nuking New York with their top secret invasion plans of the Lower East Side.
Seriously, this bloke is demented. You've got to be on some serious pharmaceuticals to write this crap without a sarc tag on the end. I had enough of his creepy stuff about 15 articles ago, but I suppose it's useful to see what the mentally ill and the psychopaths are selling to the public these days.
Click bait. Tyler's know his putrescence garners clicks.
Eeeeehhh heh heh. he said putrescence.
Obama. Congress, the Fed, and the Big Banks are all undermining the US from within -- they don't have time to undermine Russia too....
Perhaps Diplomat should take a cue from Osama bin Laden, who believed all he needed was a small spark to get the US to self-immolate. Even Mullah Omar of Taliban fame predicted a US economic collapse was on the way, and he said that in 2005, before the subprime explosion. Given Omar's disability, he stands as living proof of the one-eyed man being King in the land of the blind.
Like any state run by the few for the sole benefit of the "fewer", Putin and his Neo-Tsarist empire will fall in due time, without the need for anyone to dirty his hands by getting involved. Odd that ZHers have taken so to a man who is pure thug, and whose ill-gotten gains exceed the sum total of our own sorry-ass elected leadership. And what he ordered done to Anna Politkovskaya wasn't exactly "manly". Is it because he dumped the babushka and knocked up that little ribbon twirling nymphet?
Personally, I'm waiting for Putin---who seems to favor democracy for the masses, at least in Crimea--to allow the same in Chechnya, where ethnic Russians are only 2% and Moslem Chechens 96%. Perhaps he's waiting for the Diebold machines to arrive?
Whatever happened to a pox on both your houses? If it's good enough for Red/Blue, why isn't it good enough for the Original Red/Red, White & Blue? Anyone seen akak?
Haven't seen Akak since "the meltdown". All empires immolate themselves. America will, Russia too. Better to focus on yourself than expansion and ultimately an untimely end.
My akak note was a rhetorical question. I was just doing a little water carrying for him regarding the 'pox and both houses' thing. Though he disliked me enormously, I most often found him to believe in ways similar to my own (of course we could both be wrong), and I appreciated his respect for the language that allows us to communicate effectively. Then there's humor, which is about the best medicine and/or tool we all have at our disposal, of which he was well blessed.
We are all not supposed to agree on everything and lo we may become colorful in terminology, it's all about discourse. I miss the ornery fella.
double; bad connection
NSA-induced latency.
Yep, my spyphone is real clunky since joining ZH. Love the Avatar. Where's my red bulb?
I believe that Akak stepped around the corner with Mike Hunt.
Petrodollars!!!! Collapsing USD!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i don't think people who wrote this article get it.
the world of geo-politics , i.e. the game of history of nations, isn't going to 'wait' for the west.
once the west stops pushing , it will correctly be interpreted as a sign of imperial weakness and the very same tactics used by the west against the east, will be used against it.
do you think china russia and new upstart wealthy players on the world stage are not capable of annointing their own puppet leaders, stirring up public opinion in target countries, and running interference for their partners.
history don't wait for no one. and of course. ====perhaps the biggest thing of all is that there are plenty of wanna be globalists who are willing to sacrafifce their own in the west. the older oligarchs will be ruthless and rapidly killed by the younger ones in a contracting game. experience and 'patient' personalities will die off just on an internal basis.
if the west stops pushing as its means of 'digging' its way out. there's one last contituency that might start trying to change things for the west by challenging the oligarchs.
the western peasantry and 'upper middle' class.
so you see---this is all obvious,. and for this reason, the oligarchs will unquestionably do their best to start ww3. even if it means fabricating the war entirely while it doesn't even happen. of course the chinese and russiands will be happy to watch the western police states kill off their own peasants just as we watched stalin and mao kill many millions of their own.
so really , it's a win win for oligarchs in a world of 6.9 billion peasants. but like biggie said , get rich of die trying. oligarchs, after all, are also human.
Hey Asshole, I don't want to do any of the things you suggest. What rock did you crawl out from under? Go back.
Better yet, kill yourself.
Nobody ever loved you or will. You stink.
Very tongue-in-cheek. Ass cheek that is.
Nonsense article.
I am too busy establishing hegemony over the spiders and bugs in my backyard to waste time with this nonsense. [Talfan insectiside FTW]
Why is this crap published here?
As a courtesy, it should be printed when running short on toilet paper.
"...and President Obama’s excellent speech in Europe last week. "
is this the one with the gaff about Kosovo?
this article is pure unadulterated BS
send Nuland with cookies to Moscow
Heh, first the west needs to put the checkers board away and learn how to play chess with the master.
9/11 already got mentioned as a trump card, I wonder what the ruskies know about Bhengazi?
For the love of god, why does ZH keep running neocon bullshit from "The Diplomat," whatever the fuck that is?
To keep us ENTERTAINED
bouahahahahahahahaha.
Thanx Tylers, you make my day every time there is a fool trying to pass as a propagandist .
Btw has that "Diplomat" finished Primary school or not yet .......just a thought.
So, let me get this straight:
A macho and patriotic Russian public will let its opinion of conquering hero President Putin be swayed through a PR campaign from an aggressive and duplicitous wannabe empire who allowed its deepest, darkest military and security secrets to be stolen by a tranny and a computer geek?
HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!
Zachary Zeck is a fool.
And - with a name like that - you can rest assured he ain't dual-citizen Irish!
Zecke in German means tick... not too far off the mark ?
HAHAHA.
Another author revealing his own cluelessness. Do you think Russia does not have incriminating information about western leaders?
Are you really this naive???
The US cannot launch such a campaign without also compromising themselves.
If all you've got is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
I believe it just need a slight re-wording
After all accuracy should be paramount
The second, more serious problem with the global PR campaign is that it is aimed at the international community. This is the wrong audience since it is not the one that keeps Obummer in power, which is his primary concern. Indeed, not only was the Crimea annexation popular amongst most intelligent Americans, but trying to isolate Russia is likely to further entrench support for a strong leader like Putin who doesnt seem to resort to fat white rent boys blowing him in the back of a limo whilst snorting coke. The more besieged Russians feel, especially coming from a closet homosexual deviant like Obummer, the more appeal Putin has at home.
Besides the global PR campaign, Russia should try to pressure the Obummer clique through economic sanctions. These sanctions have been targeted at Obummers inner circle as well as the corrupt wealthy businessmen and institutions that help prop up his kleptocracy. The logic behind this approach is that if Americas corrupt crony capitalists and oligarchs fear their financial interests are being threatened, they will pressure Obummer to halt his lies and spin and rollback his aggression in the Ukraine and Kiev and stop killing and butchering Russians and Ukranians there under false flag operations.
The problem with this approach is that they are unlikely to do this. To begin with, these men have derived their influence and wealth from their association with Obummer. They have little incentive or ability to challenge Obummer without undercutting themselves as Obummer prints 99 cents of every dollar they have and steals it from his supporters, (US morons). Moreover, as noted above, the annexation of Crimea is extremely popular with the Russian people. This puts American oligarchs on even shakier ground in trying to confront Obummer as they are chin deep in corruption over there too.
A better approach would be to combine the two aspects of the Russias current response. Specifically, Russia should undertake a PR campaign aimed at turning the American morons against Obummes inner circle and the oligarchs in America more generally. Done right, this can gradually undermine the legitimacy of the US Kleptocracy under Obummer as a whole.
As is well known, Obummers America is rife with corruption at every level. Like all autocracies, this corruption can persist because information is tightly controlled to limit people’s knowledge of it. Russia and China have extensive means to collect information on the all the corrupt elements of the US including having Edward Snowden. By exposing this information, such as Obummers illegal credentials, his lack of any visble IQ, his penchant for fat rent boys and coke, his crony corruption and theft of trillions from ordinary American citizens, they would be able to gradually undercut the American Moron's support for the corrupt system Obummer has built. Of course, at any time Russia and China could agree to withhold further information if their demands on Ukraine are met and they stop supporting Nazi gangsters and illegal putches against elected Governments in the Region.
The biggest question would be in what manner should they would distribute the information? One possibility is simply publishing government reports about corruption in America. I would advocate against this approach as Americam Morons generally are likely to view these reports as inherently biased. A better approach would be to strategically leak the information fron Russia , China and Edward Snowden to uncover to reporters with international reach. Another possibility is that Russia and China could anonymously publish the information on social media websites, much as Russia posted Victoria Nuland’s private phone conversation trashing the EU and the ineffable fucking cow tymoshenko that wants to fucking nuke Ukranians.
Whatever medium Russia used to publish the information, this policy would appropriately target what Obummer holds most dear—his sliding grip on power—in a way that can effectively undermine it. It would also be fairly cheap. The larger principle should be kept in mind for future crises—namely, Russia China India and the rest don’t have to respond to challenges on the terms set by the upstart morons like Obummer Camoron, or their poodles like Kerry and that silly cow ashton challenging them.
A tour-de-force of insight & wit!
'American Morons' - hahaha!!!
You are foolish to think Russians are not aware of their country's shortcomings. Most Americans on the other hand live in a trance, despite endemic corruption and totalitarianism. So your "idea" would indeed be effective, but only if Russians use it against Americans. I hope they will. And please call "PR" for what it is: propaganda.
If you don't have substance in your argument use smoke and mirrors!
Yet another Magnum Opus ... the forward looking outlook of another rose tinted junior teamster wannabe future director of the NWO Corps ...There is a future for this boy on the BBC / Fox News or CNN as a think tank psyop specialist.
I suggest this political economist has a read of Samuel Huntingdon's Clash of Civilizations or Francis Fukushima's End of History thesis, both 20 years old where he can help himself to deprogrammed. Nothing is a surprise, the bear and panda have simply woken up from their slumber.
Better still for the author, drop into Zerohedge to learn what Soviet / Russian Nero-Realist power really is ... Dropping the dollar will be the future young man ... T90's up close and personal to back that up for those that do understand the counter argument.
Watch out for Kazakhstan, Trans Dneister, Uzbekistan, Belorussia regime destabilisation tactics next. Divide and conquer is all they understand.
If you are reading this, you are the resistance.
burn this article. Its ridiculous. Is the author a neocon sponsored writer. LOW LIFE!
WTF give the US/EU the right to mess with Ukraine (ex-russia) in the first place (maybe because there is a great big natgas/oil field discovered and the US Fed (thx blackwater) stole the Ukraine gold). Second, People like you need to be put in the ring and have some sense knocked into you as obviously you are living in cookcoo land and need a bitch slapping!
I read this as far as " Obama's excellent speech in Europe" before I realised that it is BULLSHIT.
AFTER THAT" SPEECH " THERE WAS COMPLETE SILENCE, NOBODY APPLAUDED, Obama has been seen for what he is, A TALKING HEAD FOR THE PUPPET MASTERS.
I watched the speech on UK TV it really was pathetic, rambling, almost incoherant in parts, most definitely NOT statesmanlike in any shape or form.
He looked embarassed to be there and the audience looked to be embarassed also.
I don't recall Russia bombing the shit out of anyone to get their way in Crimea.
In fact, from where I'm sitting it seemed like a rather bloodless, proactive, even deft maneuver.
This Diplomat rag is to diplomacy what Popular Science is to science... trying descperately to explain why two of the strongest, most robust skyscrapers ever built collapsed from a little minor damage.
How about the US sort their own shit out and leave everyone else alone. This is the worse article I have ever seen on zerohedge and thats the truth. American centric shite.
Why bother? lets turn public opinion FULLY against CONgress and the White house-i mean, wot's the fukkin point?
Putin/Russia need no undermining from within, they are not "the bad guys". What about the curroption and lawlessness that rules the USSA? Can't believe this piece made it on ZH.
Edit/addtion. After reading some of the comments, I realize my view is not unique. Maybe the Tylers have simply forgot to put the /sarc in the disclaimer or at the end?
@nd Edit. Just found the following link to where it was published
http://thediplomat.com/2014/04/undermine-russia-from-within/
...on April 1. Hahaha, Tylers have just been a bit slow to reprint it here.
lol here in russia we all already know that our officials and government are 99% corrupt, this is how it has been for centuries uhahah. laughing my ass of as you're trying to discover america to us
How about just not interfering and letting crimea and the Ukraine be? People like to forget the Ukraine already had a revolution back in 2008, and that Yanukovych was elected democratically. They also tend to forget the leaked conversation between the US ambassador to Ukraine and the state department in which it is clear that the US was instigating the movements against Yanukovych, or ignore the fact that Nazi movements -including the new US poster child for democracy Svoboda. If the US had not interfered in the first place, Russia's annexation of Crimea wouldn't have happened, and it may have been the case the Yanukovych would have lost the next elections and a friendlier president to the West would have been elected.
You're not advocating democracy - that people have a right to vote for what type of government they want or who they choose to be aligned with?
99% of the US population disagreed with the Wall Street/TBTF Bank bailouts, but our democratically elected Congress chose to do it anyway.
Now we are told that we need to interfere in Crimea and Ukraine. How many people actually know where these countries are and how their boundaries have changed over the last 200 years?
One day late with this April Fool's Day joke of an article....or is the fool that wrote it living in Backwards World with the Neocons?
Haaa haa haaa The "West" exposing corruption in any government - haa haa haa. Great Joke Tylers, you had us going for a minute.
After intercepted Ukrainian calls, Snowden, NSA, IRS, O-bummer-care, Bengahzi, Syrian rebels, Fast and Furious, and numerous others, I think the LAST thing this joke of an administration would want to do is bring up the topic of corruption.
The more we read about Russia the more it sounds like the American ruling class and political elite.
This piece is dumbass in the extreme.
Grad school Drivel. Nonsense both the premise lacks an iota of context. if only it were as easy as firing up the inkjet. bring in nuland or bring back mccfoul twitter wire there fixed
Say whaaaat?? I think the trafic goes both ways Zachy boy (IF not worse in our hmm....Western less corrupt system), and as info. about all the corrupt people over there, don't you know about the Russian SVR? I came here to read a rational article, not a cheerleader wanna be diplomat or something...
P.s. I knew it was something with too many Zs in that name...
the cry of corruption seems so hypocritical anymore.... not saying corruption does not exist, but it exists with in all of us... the world definitely has a bad case of logs in their eye syndrome... digressing to finish, but this really does get answered best in the teachings and parables in the gospels that are attributed to jesus. it is putin's/russias job to worry and deal with its corruption and its americas to deal with america.... i just want one morning when i wake up to feel that the end is not neigh... just one morning....
"because Vladimir Putin has pursued a military strategy for achieving his political goals in Ukraine"
Is that the special military strategy that involves referenda and not firing any shots? Just another Russia bashing article that says next to nothing about anything. Maybe the Russian people actually know a lot more about Putin's corruption than the author or anyone in the west do? It's a big idea, I mean, maybe some Russians think that the alternatives offered by Uncle Sam, e.g. the likes of "voucher privatization" in the Yeltsin years just aren't that exciting. But given this overwhelming evidence of Putin's corruption I'm sure they'll wake up before long (although the author might have elaborated on this - most everybody knows just how corrupt Putin is so maybe it's not worth a mention?). So yes the Russian people could get angry and deal with corruption and that would be very unlike the people of the West who continally read horseshit like this article and think they can influence another country; when in actuality they can barely control the rotten scoundrels looting and destroying their own!
amazing how Obama & Co are trying to get a rise out of Putin:
NASA halts contact with Russia, except for International Space Station
"Apparently, this is happening in all federal agencies," said John Logsdon, professor emeritus of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. "So it's consistent with the across-government thing. It's civilian, it doesn't have anything to do with the RD-180 (a Russian engine used aboard Atlas 5 rockets) and ISS is unperturbed."
He said the restrictions mirror those already in place governing NASA's relationship, or lack thereof, with China.
"Personally, I think it invites retaliation," Logsdon said of the new Russian guidelines. "But the company line is it's not an escalation, and no retaliation is expected."
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/nasa-halts-contact-with-russia-except-for-in...
What's amazing is the degree to which the American McSheeple have been brainwashed into hating their own government and cheering for Putin and his KGB/GRU/FSB cronies... who at one time had to build a wall to keep their state property from pursuing happiness elsewhere.
The state-established worship of the state, and subjugation of the individual/slave, is nothing new.
Got Ba'al?
LOL! Zachary Zech is about as thick as they come. As with all politicians, if the US dropped some little bombshell on the Russian public trying to undermine Putin, do you really think that Russia doesn't have a number of bombshells it can drop relating to Obama and his cronies??? They are all in bed together and I'm sure that there are other tasty conversations that the Russians have taped from American and/or European politicians that could further undermine the already low opinion the US and European politicians have of their politicians.
Here's how to destroy Russia: send those neocons, neolibs, and anarchists back to southeastern Europe and let them work their Kabbalah over there again, just like the old Soviet days.
I'm rooting for Russia. Would love to see the western banking system take one in the chops
is there a way to negative star this article?
Putin and Co. are playing a masterful game of chess whilst their stooge in the White Hut is playing checkers with Oreo cookies and eating the pieces.
Observe the successful implementation (got homosexual "marriage"?) of the Soviet strategic goal of demoralizing the American population - contrasted against the feigned conservatism of Putin/Russia.
Observe the failure of Obamacare contrasted against the benefits now allegedly enjoyed by the new Russian citizens of Crimea:
And the Snowden affair.
All designed to entice the disenchanted American McSheeple into the jaws of the wolf.
It's very clever.
http://m.washingtonpost.com/politics/us-secretly-created-cuban-twitter-t...
C'mon Tyler. This is pure bullshit. The entire premise is evil. Why do you re-post this crap? Just for fun? To see our reaction? Not a good enough reason. A pure waste of time. Only helps dumb down the masses -- which, Lord knows, there's already enough of going on. We're looking for fact based insightful writing that sheds real light. Not more neocon flatulence.
I know how to undermine Russia from within. Just figure out a way to seduce them into imitating the United States. Mission accomplished.
Why would anyone want to participate in this game of undermining Russia???
I'm working as hard as I can to undermine the f**king U.S.!
"The United States and Europe have extensive means to collect information on the all the corrupt elements of the Russian Federation. By exposing this information, they would be able to gradually undercut the Russian people’s support for the system Putin has built. "
I think that's an excellent idea Zachary, but not for the reasons you propose.
Putin is a KGB agent, and would have a superb grasp on what corruption, crimes, indiscretions various "leaders" in the west could be credibly shown to have involvement with. More importantly, he would have the infrastructure in place to disseminate that info with maximum tactical effectiveness.
So yes, let the US throw mud at Putin and his inner circle. It's really their gangsters against our gangsters. As long as they can keep our troops and nukes out of it, let them have at it!