Vladimir Putin

It is difficult to talk to people who confuse Austria and Australia. But there is nothing we can do about this; this is the level of political culture among part of the American establishment. As for the American people, America is truly a great nation if the Americans can put up with so many politically uncivilised people.


Vladimir Putin

Wow. Even though I have just written a commentary on the level of frustration and, frankly, contempt, the Russians are feeling towards their American counterparts, these words by Vladimir Putin are truly a slap in the face that will resonate around the world for a long time to come even if the imperial corporate media makes another herculean effort at not noticing them. I can only repeated what I said in my previous article, I have never ever heard anything even remotely resembling the kind of language coming out of Russia today.

By the way, Putin confirmed what I wrote yesterday when he said: "The Americans had the right to reduce the number of our diplomatic offices. It is another matter altogether that they have done this in way that was absolutely uncivil". Had the Americans just expelled any number of diplomats or closed some Russian diplomatic facilities the Russians would have accepted that as "played by the rules". But Trump and the intellectual midgets surrounding him decided to publicly humiliate Russia and instead ended up ridiculing themselves. Yesterday, another well-know Russian politician, Sergei Markov, referred to the American leadership as "amoral pygmies"!

To say that the Russians are unimpressed by Trump's thuggery is an understatement.

Putin also set a trap for the Trump Administration when he said: "I will ask our Foreign Ministry to file a lawsuit. We will see how effectively the much-lauded American judicial system works." This is a very devious move as it places the USA in a lose-lose situation: if the courts decide for the Russians, then Trump looks like an uncivilized thug, if the courts decide for the USA, it is the world-wide reputation of a putatively independent judicial system which turns into roadkill.

Finally, Putin set yet another trap for Trump: he said that he would present a UNSC Resolution authorizing the deployment of a UN contingent to protect the OSCE peacekeepers along the demarcation line in the Donbass but only after "disengaging the parties and removing the heavy equipment. This cannot be resolved without direct contact with representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic". If the Americans say no, they now look like hypocrites, but if they say yes, then they are condoning a process which can turn the current demarcation line into something similar to the de-factor border between the Turkish-occupied zone and the rest of Cyprus, something totally unacceptable to the Neocons and their Ukronazi allies in Kiev.

But the real story is the change in Russian rhetoric. It will be mostly lost on westerners who have long given up on taking what politicians say seriously and who are used to all sorts of antics from their leaders. But in a culture in which words count (and that includes all of Asia for starters) this change of tone will be immediately understood for what it is: the equivalent of a medieval slap in the face, a deliberate sign of disrespect and even a sign of total contempt and disgust.

Trump might well go down in history of the President who screwed-up a historical opportunity to really change our entire planet for the better and who, instead, by his abject lack of courage and honor, his total lack of political and diplomatic education and by his groveling subservience to the "swamp" he had promised to drain ended up being as pathetically clueless as Obama was.