“Blinded by ‘Russiaphobia’”

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June 28, 2022 – https://accuracy.org/

JOHN “PAT” WILLERTON, jpw@email.arizona.edu
Willerton is a professor of political science in the School of Government and Public Policy at the University of Arizona focusing on Russia. See his TEDx Talk, “The Russian Soul” from 2013.

He said today: “We have — from the start — misjudged Russia, its political, economic, and military realities, and we now confront a Russia that is winning the conventional war in Ukraine while we face the reality that Russia is politically united and its economy withstanding the sanction pressures we have applied. This is the consequence of living in a world of our own hyped constructions about Russia that vary far from Russia’s reality.

“Our misperceptions are grounded in a profound Russophobia that has yielded bad policy choices. We suffer from the problem of ‘paradigm blindness,’ our Russophobic paradigm blinding us to Russian domestic realities and intentions.

“The Russian economy is stronger than westerners thought and it shows minimal stresses from sanctions. As time passes, it is cutting many economic deals, and it is doing so on its terms (e.g., energy deals in rubles). Meanwhile, outside of the West, most of the world refuses to apply sanctions and many countries do business with Russia.

“Russian society is proving to be prepared to confront the privations that could come with a ‘Western crusade.’ Public support for Russian efforts in Ukraine and in confronting the West are overwhelming now. Russian society appears more unified while fissures are already evident in Europe.
“Perhaps it’s time to step back and try to analyze Russia as it really is, rather than rely on cartoon character arguments that cannot yield effective policies.”
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The Russian Soul: Dr. Pat Willerton at TEDxUniversityofArizona
– Jun 17, 2013

Dr. John P. (Pat) Willerton is a professor of political science in the School of Government and Public Policy. He earned a B.A. in Russian and an M.A. in Political Science at Michigan State University, and an M.A. in Russian and Eastern Studies and a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He worked at Michigan State University, August 1985-July 1988, before coming to the University of Arizona in August 1988.
https://jpw.faculty.arizona.edu/

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“If Zelensky were a patriot, he would have kept the Ukrainian people out of harm’s way…”

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Zelensky is No Patriot 

                                               – by Prof. Alfred de Zayas –

If Zelensky were a patriot, he would have kept the Ukrainian people out of harm’s way and would have declared Ukraine to be neutral, and on the basis of neutrality it would have had the best relations with East and West.

Alfred de Zayas who wrote the following is a law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a UN Independent Expert on International Order 2012-18. He is the author of ten books including Building a Just World Order, 2021.

Unfortunately, NATO has a different agenda and its expansion eastwards finds no end.

Alfred de Zayas: “It is obvious that the best solution would have been the implementation of the Minsk agreements, which neither the OSCE [Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] nor the Normandy Format succeeded in doing. Russia’s two proposed treaties of December 2021 were moderate and should have been accepted in the name of a peaceful modus vivendi. If Zelensky were a patriot, he would have kept the Ukrainian people out of harm’s way and would have declared Ukraine to be neutral, and on the basis of neutrality it would have had the best relations with East and West. Unfortunately, NATO has a different agenda and its expansion eastwards finds no end. NATO is not at all a defensive alliance — certainly not since the dismantlement of the Warsaw Pact in 1991. But in order to justify its existence, NATO unilaterally declared Russia to be the ‘enemy,’ although Russia was bending over backwards to be integrated into the European and world security architecture. NATO had no place for Russia — except in the role of an ‘enemy’ that would justify the enormous military expenditures demanded from its members.

… there were ‘precedents of permissibility’ established by NATO countries through their aggressive wars against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria…

“Undoubtedly, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine violated article 2(4) of the UN Charter, but there were ‘precedents of permissibility’ established by NATO countries through their aggressive wars against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria — all with total impunity. Bearing in mind that NATO established these ‘precedents of permissibility,’ it is not surprising that other countries follow suit.”

“Among other massive violations of article 2(4) of the UN Charter are Israel’s countless aggressions against its Arab neighbours, the annexation of the Golan Heights, the annexation of East Jerusalem and other Palestine territories, Turkey’s invasion and occupation of Cyprus in 1974 (and fake creation of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus), Saudi Arabia’s on-going merciless war against the people of Yemen, and the September-November 2020 aggression by Azerbaijan against the hapless Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh, who undoubtedly have the right of self-determination. All of these aggressions by NATO members and friends — were conducted with total impunity.

“The United Nations and OSCE have a responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. This requires compromise, not self-righteousness and intransigence. This requires an end to hostilities, arms shipments, threats, and a lifting of sanctions. Only thus can we build a sustainable security architecture for all. More than anything else, we need nuclear disarmament, and a conversion of military-first economies into human-security economies, as I proposed to the UN Human Rights Council in my 2014 report. We must work toward disarmament for development.”

ALFRED DE ZAYAS, alfreddezayas@gmail.com, @AlfreddeZayas

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