If Putin Was a 5th Column Traitor, What Would He Be Doing Any Differently?

Anything?

Yesterday I sat down for a beer with a long-serving former journalist from my country. He was a globe-trotting reporter who had rubbed shoulders with tribesmen in Waziristan and Maoist rebels in Nepal. He was working for the national print media, but his thing was always trying to get alternative viewpoints into our local mainstream. Eventually, he quit after he got tired of having to fight his editors over nearly every story.

In any case, as we were talking about the Russo-Ukrainian situation he expressed disbelief that Russia should be doing so poorly. He was convinced that the Russian army was in some way being intentionally held back or intentionally set up to fail in order to prolong the war and make it as bloody as possible. In other words, to kill as many of Russians and Ukrainians in the long run as possible, and maximally set back Russia.

He is now convinced that Kremlin is not an independent player, but is beholden to the same powers-that-be that also run the West and who do not have Russia’s best interest in mind.

I thought his view was very interesting because it expresses the same sentiment I have noticed many times in my comment section.

I constantly ridicule the 5D clowns who will spin every Putin’s indecision, under-resourcing, and blunder as solid judo gold, but that is really giving these jokers too much credit. It makes it appear as if they are the main game in town when that really isn’t true.

The opposite viewpoint that VVP is engaging in judo to ruin Russia, or at least to advance interests that are not Russian is at least as prevalent in the alternative if not more so, and increasingly so. Since 2020 I am not seeing Moscow picking up new fans. I am seeing international well-wishers who lined up behind Donbass and Syria with heart and soul becoming increasingly confused and disillusioned and wondering whose side is the Kremlin even on?

It is merely that while the unfazed 5D simpletons continue to churn out their hagiographical garbage with the fanaticism of an idiot. The people like my ex-journalist friend are, on the contrary, slowly dropping out of reading and writing on geopolitics and moving on to more fundamental questions.

As my friend said “This multipolar stuff used to be a lot more hopeful.”

Personally, I am not a huge conspiracy theorist. Perhaps I am naive, but almost always I find that incentive, self-delusion, and willful ignorance already sufficiently explain various mindboggling decisions of our political classes and that no formal conspiracy is required.

That said, I do like people who get slandered as conspiracy theorists because time and time again we find ourselves in the same trench. If you’re in my foxhole I’m not going to be splitting hairs over how you got here, I’m just grateful you did.

And the truth is that if you assume that Putin is a secret lizard the story of the last 2 years works a lot better, than if you assume that he is a 5D judo genius.

For many months now I have been toying with the idea of penning a tongue-in-cheek article that would be titled “If Putin Was a 5th Column Traitor, What Would He Be Doing Any Differently?”. The article would just be a long list of all the Russian self-inflicted wounds of the past two years courtesy of what seems like common-sense defying levels of stupidity emanating from the Kremlin recently.

Just the three most glaringly dumb, self-harming, incompetent, irresponsible, and dilettantish decisions would be:

  • Subjecting Russia to the unprecedented economic assault that were the benefit-free COVID lockdowns
  • Leaving $300 billion in Western banks just asking for them to be confiscated
  • Sending the Russian army into the largest European war after WW2 in a piecemeal fashion

The reason I haven’t started writing the text is that I fear that it would quickly balloon to 15,000 words and consume two weeks of my life, so much Kremlin retardation has there been lately.

As I said, the piece would be tongue-in-cheek because I do not honestly believe that Putin is a 5th column lizard (he just acts like one). But there is an undeniable pattern now where he constantly underestimates enemy resolveConstantly procrastinates on making the tough calls until it is all but too late. And where he constantly under-resources his gambles to a comical degree putting his men in extraordinarily and needlessly difficult and lethal situations, and generally making Russia seem hapless and incompetent while also exhausting her energies for the most minimal gains possible.

What could be more simple than that either you leave Ukraine completely alone, or else you pounce on it with everything at once? Doing anything in between just gets you the worst of both worlds.

Whom he increasingly reminds me of is the August 1991 putschists. The geriatric Soviet hardliners who attempted a coup against Gorbachev to save the Soviet Union. But who were so low-energy that all they succeeded in was to weaken the liberal but pro-Soviet Gorbachev, in favor of the liberal but anti-Soviet Yeltsin.

Like they, he seems like a man determined to grab the worst possible outcome, with all the downsides of all the possible approaches.

I don’t think it’s a conspiracy, but if it was one, — tell me, what would he be doing any different?

Can you think of one thing?

 

Just a Russian trying to wrap his mind around all the “5D”
26 Comments
  1. Traveller says

    You and your friend have had too many beers…😄
    But anyway, events in next 6 months will show whether the EU leaders, whose countries are falling aparat as we speak, are the only traitors in this conflagration. So far, it looks it is only them.

    1. CC says

      First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. — Mahatma Gandhi.

  2. Test says

    This “war”, like many other wars, is a ritual sacrifice. For a ritual sacrifice to hold more power, it is necessary that the victims consent (here the soldiers). The ‘Z’ symbol is in fact a reversed rune, the same solar rune as in the the sign of the SS. If you want an analogy with a war of the past , look at the flower war of the aztecs. In these wars a big power was attacking a smaller one, using a fractions of its forces, in order not to win, but to continue the sacrifice:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_war

  3. Test says

    Oh and by the way, it is true that russia left 300 billions to the “west”, but curiously Ukraine had a stockpile of nuclear material worth 300 billions at the Enerhodar, power plant (according to thierry meyssan of voltairenet.org). So this looks like a transaction to me…

  4. Mr. Dugin says

    He would not have declared the annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts on September 30th. He would not have sent Russian military into Ukraine on February 24th.

    Instead, he would have continued to sell gas to the West and import Western technology to Russia. Russian culture would have continued to become more Western and Russian economy would have become more dependent on Western economy. The West doesn’t care about Russia, as long as it provides everybody with cheap resources and buys their goods.

    Don’t ascribe to malice what can be plainly explained by incompetence.

    Putin’s mess harms the West more than it harms Russia. Russians are used to violence and poverty. The West is not. Putin destroying Russia is in nobody’s interest. The West wants a reliable Russia.

  5. Blackledge says

    If we examine all parties to the conflict, who is benefiting?

    Germany? No.
    France? No.
    Any of the EU and/or NATO countries (leaving out Hungary)? No.
    The FVEY countries? Not really, no.
    The Ukraine? No.
    Russia? No.

    All I see are connected class/ruling classes centralizing their power, and their hyper-wealthy benefactors becoming wealthier, as their middle classes are diminished, and their working classes are sent off to death or dismemberment, eventually. So whose agenda advances as a result of all of this mayhem and bloodletting? Perhaps a better question might be, why is Russia suddenly rolling out a national biometric ID program at this time, with state tax money? Strelkov asked this as well.

    The only “winners” in this war seem to be: international institutions – especially banking institutions – which will grow stronger as individual nation-states grow weaker and poorer. Authoritarian regimes will become more powerful and more centralized, facing diminishing resistance as young men are killed off, surviving women reduced to selling themselves, and children are made orphans or disappeared.

    Viewed in the latter context, is the war scripted? If not, why was a Ukrainian rocket attack on Russian government buildings in Kherson denounced by Kremlin officials as, “outside the framework of what is allowed” last week? Were these words chosen accidentally, or do they reveal something? Why did Lavrov tell reporters, “war is coming to Europe” back in 2014? Did he have advanced knowledge, or was it just a coincidental remark?

    1. YakovKedmi says

      “leaving out Hungary”
      Neither Hungary, nor Serbia, is benefitting; they are on the short end like everybody else. (when Russia fails they’ll really be on the short end)

      _________________________
      Refugees from Ukraine in Hungary
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkC2a0KK5yQ

  6. Arraya says

    Netanyahu flew to Moscow Thursday, five days before the election, and was beaming as Putin dropped a bombshell at a joint press conference. Putin revealed that it was Russian soldiers in Syria who had discovered the remains of Staff Sargent Zachary Baumel, which were returned home on an El Al flight. Baumel had been listed as missing in action since the first Israel’s first war in Lebanon, in 1982.
    The return of Baumel’s body has riveted the public. The armed forces are composed mostly of young conscripts, and the Israeli Defense Forces have made an almost sacred principle of leaving no one’s son or daughter on the battlefield.
    The failure to find and return the bodies of Baumel and two other soldiers who fell in the same battle, was a blow to that ethos. But after 37 years, most people considered it a lost cause. On Wednesday, surprised and astonished, the country rejoiced.
    Netanyahu responded with gratitude. “Two years ago, I asked you to help us find the bodies of missing Israeli soldiers and you responded in the affirmative,” he said to Putin. “I want to thank you, my friend, for what you have done.”

    1. TZVI says

      Easier to find a body on territory that is in a technical state of War with Israel by a country ( Russia) that is on super friendly terms with Syria…Syria could care less, and Israel cant just go in and search w/o fighting.

      It was an attempt at diplomacy by the RF.

      1. Arraya says

        Putin has been showering Bibi with ‘attempts at diplomacy’ over the past 4-5 years

        He wants something. I wonder if he got it?

        With the great and the special value of the soldier’s body deal, the timing in which it was conducted is of the greatest importance, for, on the one hand, it corresponds to the approaching Israeli elections and the fact that it followed Trump’s recognition of Golan as an Israeli territory on the other. The return of the body also came at a time where tension is rising between Iran and Israel, which is continuing with its aerial attacks of military posts in Syria to the day.

        The ceremony at the Russian Ministry of Defense was not limited to the delivery of the Israeli soldier’s remains, but it was a backstage for meetings between Russian and Israeli military and security officials, during which they discussed the “S-300” system deal and touched on the coordination between them concerning the upcoming attacks on military posts in Syria and the necessity that Israel provide Russia with a longer notice before initiating any attacks.

        Researcher Talal Mustafa believes that the Russian declaration that Moscow has played the principal role in the recovery of the Israeli soldier’s body is to appease the Zionist lobby and say that it is not only Trump, with his decision to offer Golan to Israel, who is keen on Israel’s security, but also Putin is, and here is the evidence to it.

      2. Arraya says

        “Russia gives green light for Israeli attacks against Iran in Syria
        Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on 24 October after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia had shown a clear interest in Israel’s security needs regarding the situation in Syria.

        Bennett pointed out that the meeting with Putin had seen new and stable agreements without going into their details, adding that he found Putin “attentive to Israel’s security needs.”

        On 2 November, Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post reported that Russia and Israel share the common goal of ousting Iran from Syria following a meeting between Bennett and Putin on 22 October.

        The newspaper mentioned that “Israel has been working on the difficult task of destroying Tehran’s dreams of regional hegemony with hundreds of airstrikes in Syria.”

        Israeli Construction and Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin, who acted as the translator of the meeting, told the newspaper that the two leaders (Bennett and Putin) agreed that Israel’s policy toward Syria, including airstrikes, would continue.”

  7. jammer the old coot says

    Not accepting Snowden?

  8. jammer the old coot says

    Not developing hypersonic weapons?

  9. jammer@bresnan.net says

    Re COVID: Perhaps at that time Putin still believed the west had some goodness?

  10. jammer the old coot says

    Re slow mobilization in Ukraine: Perhaps to disguise strength and fortitude?

  11. jammer the old coot says

    Re the 300 million left behind: Perhaps a remaining remnant of trust?

  12. Nobody says

    Of course Putin is a traitor. He takes orders from the Jewish mafia, and is working in concert with other world leaders to bring in the Jews’ Great Reset. I have seen numerous videos where Russian jews openly boast about Jews owning everyone, and everything, of note within Russia. It is old news. After all, little pynya *let the Jewish oligarchs keep almost everything they stole* during the Yeltsin years. That alone speaks volumes. He didn’t rein them in, he in fact protected them.

    Browse the politics boards on Russian websites like 2chan (Chrome has an excellent translation feature) and you will encounter thread after thread where politically astute young Russians themselves call out “the genius of the ice rink” aka “the bald midget” as the b-tch of the Jews and the WEF every bit as much as Zelinsky in Kiev (or “Queef”, or however they pronounce it these days).

    Young Russians are particularly horrified that lethal Sputnik clotshots are forced upon those being mobilised to the slaughter in Ukraine. They are amazed that so much military spending has produced so little military capability. They despise Putin and the establishment.

  13. anon says

    ‘Conspiracy theory’ becomes evident fact given enough time..it also becomes Government policy…
    Strangely enough.

  14. YakovKedmi says

    >>>> “Putin Was a 5th Column Traitor”

    Were the Russian nobility 5-column traitors when they led Russia into a disaster & humiliation in 1904-5 ?
    Were the Russian nobility 5-column traitors when they led the peoples of Mother Russia and Pan-Slavia into a slaughter & disaster in 1914 —after which mere humiliation would have been a blessing, but they received Lenin & Trotsky and their -isms ?

    May be, V.V. and the siloviki enforcers are just run-of-the-mill Muscovy noble men; no better than the nobility that made Katherine great, and Napoleon defeated.

    https://anti-empire.com/the-only-argument-against-russian-escalation-in-ukraine-is-humanitarian/

  15. Dianthus says

    This explains it:

    Von Hayek’s ideas dove-tail perfectly with those of the Club
    of Rome, which is perhaps why he is so well promoted in rightwing
    circles in this country. The mantle of Von Hayek is being passed to
    a new, younger economist, Jeoffrey Sachs, who was sent to 27
    Poland to take up where Von Hayek left off. It will he recalled that
    the Club of Rome organized the Polish economic crisis which led to
    political destabilization of the country. The exact same economic
    planning, if one dare call it that, will be forced upon Russia, but if
    widespread opposition is encountered, the old price-support
    system will quickly be restored.

    The Committee of 300 ordered the Club of Rome to use
    Polish nationalism as a tool to destroy the Catholic Church and
    pave the way for Russian troops to reoccupy the country. The
    “Solidarity” movement was a creation of the Committee of 300’s
    Zbigniew Brzezinski, who chose the name for the “trade union”
    and selected its office holders and organizers. Solidarity is no
    “labor” movement, although Gdansk shipyard workers were used
    to launch it, but rather, it was a high-profile POLITCAL
    organization, created to bring forced changes in preparation for
    the advent of the One World Government.

    Retrieval of data will be simple in the United States where
    social security and or driver licence numbers could simply be
    added to 666 to provide the surveillance recording announced by
    Brzezinski and his Committee of 300 colleagues. The Committee
    already in 1981 warned governments, including the government of
    the USSR, that there “will be chaos unless the Committee of 300
    takes complete control of preparations for the New World Order. 30
    CONTROL WILL BE EXERCISED THROUGH OUR COMMITTEE AND
    THROUGH GLOBAL PLANNIG AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT.” I
    reported this factual information a few months after I received it in
    1981. Another item I reported back then was that RUSSIA HAD
    BEEN INVITED TO JOIN THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE COMlNG
    ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT.

    This is the power that brought to life the reign of terror in
    Russia, the Bolshevik Revolution, World Wars I and II, Korea,
    Vietnam, the fall of Rhodesia, South Africa, Nicaragua, and the
    Philippines. This is the secret upper-level government that brought
    into existence the controlled disintegration of the U.S. economy
    and deindustrialized what was once the greatest indusrial power,
    for good, that the world had ever known.
    79
    America today can be compared with a soldier who falls
    asleep in the thick of battle. We Americans have fallen asleep,
    given way to apathy caused by being confronted with a multplicity
    of choices which has confused us. These are the changes that
    alter our environment, break down our resistance to change so
    that we become dazed, apathetic and eventually fall asleep in the
    thick of battle.

    British plutocrats, the Russian KGB, the CIA, and U.S.
    bankers are all in league with China. Could one man stop or even
    make a small dent in the trade? It would be absurd to imagine it.
    What is heroin and why is it favored over cocaine these days?
    According to the noted authority on the subject Professor Galen,
    heroin is a derivative of opium, a drug that stupefies the senses
    and induces long periods of sleep. This is what most addicts like, it
    is called “being in the arms of Morpheus.” Opium is the most
    habit-forming drug known to man. Many pharmaceutical drugs
    contain opium in various degrees, and it is believed that paper 104
    used in the manufacture of cigarettes is first impregnated with
    opium, which is why smokers become so addicted to their habit.

    The importance of Palme lies in the use made of him by the
    Club of Rome to deliver technology to the Soviet Union on the
    forbidden list of the U.S. Customs, and Palme’s world-wide
    communications network employed to train the spotlight on the
    phony Iran hostage crisis, while he shuttled back and forth
    between Washington and Teheran in an effort to undermine the
    sovereign integrity of the U.S. and place the phony crisis in the
    realm of a Committee of 300 institution, viz, the World Court at
    The Hague, Holland.

    That the Soviet Union has been able to develop high-peak
    radio frequency devices is known to the West through the work of
    Soviet scientists who work in the Kurchatov Atomic Energy
    Institute’s Intensive Relatavistic Electron Beam Division. Two of its
    specialists were Y. A. Vinograov and A. A. Rukhadze. Both
    scientists worked in the Lededev Physics Institute, which
    specializes in electronic and X ray lasers.

    Can not all paste it here what this intell of 30 years ago says about Russia but read this and DYOR and if we follow the money, then we can alse learn that Russia got a lot from the West and that yo udo not do if they where enemies.

    The Committee of 300
    https://www.pdfdrive.com/the-conspirators-hierarchy-the-committee-of-300-d158690778.html
    Lees eens de eerste 20-25 pagina’s en kijk dan nog eens naar buiten en dit is vna 30 jaar geleden.

    Read the first 20-25 pages and then look outside again and this is from 30 years ago.
    DYOR & send it also everywhere you can.

    1. Blackledge says

      Excellent post.

  16. Estragon says

    I think the simplest explanation is just that Putin is way past his sell-by date. Returning to the presidency in 2012 was a bad idea, amending the constitution to keep him in power till 2036 was a worse one.

    It also cements the notion that there is only one person in whole huge Russia who knows how to run the place. If this is true, Russia is screwed. But as De Gaulle pointed out, “the cemeteries are filled with indispensable men.”

  17. Kev says

    I used to admire Putins ability to speak for hours during meet the press conferences. I used to think it displayed brilliance. Now I think he just likes to talk and hear his voice.

  18. Edward Dostillio says

    Isn’t Putin allied with Schwab and the WEF? Creating CHAOS is all part of the Great Reset intended to enslave the masses. You now have food and energy shortages worldwide as a direct result of this drawn out war. I would expect according to Schwab the last phase of his psycho scheme is some sort of cyber attack on America.

  19. John says

    You guys, the author and commentators here, use your poor understanding of Putin and Russian politics as “proof” for your skewed observations and then proceed to attack them as the fifth column. Projection much?

    What is the largest size organization that you ever managed? A country? State perhaps? A city or a town maybe? How’bout a village? Not even that? What about a factory? Tenants’ association? A bus? Your car? A tandem bike at least?
    None of the above?

    Then shut up and learn from real leaders who have access to many orders of magnitude more information than you ever will.
    If you knew what Putin knows and if you had his education, IQ and his team around you, and the same goals, you’d make the same decisions.
    As it is, you are nowhere near that.

    “Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye, but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye?’

  20. five nights at freddy's says

    To stop working on hypersonic weapons?

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