Leonid Reshetnikov
The author is Director of an influential think tank, the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS), and a retired lieutenant general of Russia's foreign intelligence service
Andrey Afanasyev: Some experts say that the incident in Syria was not just an effort to provoke Russia, but to involve it in a global conflict. Are today's American or their elites in favor of this?
Leonid Reshetnikov: We need to take into account that Americans like using well-tested methods. This was the scheme they used in Syria, where they just signed a truce; Russia is busy with elections, no one expects an attack, so they think they'll probably get away with it: "We'll see how Russia responds". They did the same thing in Georgia on August 8, 2008, thinking it would go unnoticed because of the Olympics, and Russia would not dare respond...
There's nothing surprising here; it's a typical US Special Services/military job.
I think they mainly want to save their country in its role of Master of the Universe, which they are losing. They feel their weakness better than we do, aware that most countries no longer want to continue as obedient stooges, either morally, or spiritually, or politically.
Now they have the only one option - hit the enemy to show their force - maybe he will back off. This would start with removing our president....
Andrey Afanasyev: Some are even talking about assassination...
Leonid Reshetnikov: The Central Intelligence Agency specializes in assassination. They've been practicing it for decades, assassinating leaders around the world. That's why it would be naïve to think that they're not planning to do the same with Vladimir Putin: if they can't remove him from power they will assassinate him. The second goal is to blockade Russia, involve it in various conflicts. Unlike when Turkey shot down a Russian plane, they think we would take the bait. The policy in Syria is the same: You have to respond.
We should have no illusions. Today's United States of America is interested only in one thing - destroying Russia as a civilizational, geopolitical, military and political rival — as well as an economic rival, with its treasure trove of resources.
America holds itself up as the world super power with values such as democracy, social inclusion, freedom, respect for sovereignty and justice and innovation. Even their movies extol the virtue of the American 'super heroes' who save the world, repeatedly from enemies who are always foreign, and routinely English or Russian.
Nations which have been observing American world geo-politics over the previous few decades might think, therefore, that if America has acted on the world stage in a particular manner then it must be legal, appropriate and correct to follow their example. If America has done such and such it must be allowed, right?
Wrong!
Each day we all try do something new or different. Each day our new experiences and new ways of being frame our opinions. We learn from these experiences. Maybe next time we are confronted with a similar problem we try a different approach or finesse the method we used before which seemed to have worked.
Ask yourselves this: are you the same person you were ten years ago? No, of course not. You have changed and not only physically; ten years of experiences have reframed your view of the world.
America is changing. People change. America is a landmass like any other, full of people trying to get by in life by trying different approaches to problems but they don't own the patent on exploring different ways of being and others should not be compelled to follow their example.