It’s terribly unfair that Britons who don’t know Russian can’t enjoy Kremlin TV channels, especially the talk shows on Russia-1.
One such, An Evening with Vladimir Solovyov, is especially entertaining. It’s also relevant (dread word) because Britain figures prominently among his favourite topics.
Solovyov’s recent guest was Leonid Kalashnikov (no relation to the rifle), communist deputy of the State Duma. Comrade Kalashnikov commendably thinks that, though Russia is undoubtedly the greatest country in history, she can still learn from her inferiors.
Iran, for example, teaches a valuable lesson in the use of proxies, he said. Rather than attacking capitalist devils herself, in the past she delegated that responsibility to Hamas and the Houthis. The Russians too can use this trick to bomb England and her bomb factories.
“I always say let’s borrow the best ideas from Iran and act through proxies,” added Comrade Kalashnikov. “We currently have these kinds of proxies, like Iran itself. We don’t have to bang these factories ourselves; it would be too provocative. It’s war, after all. So let’s pretend, like you say, with tankers. Let our proxies carry out the strikes.”
Comrade Kalashnikov is clearly unfamiliar with the state of the British armament industry if he thinks we still have such factories to “bang”. Nor has he followed the general line of thought popularised by the official Russian media. It’s London, rather than non-existent bomb factories, that’s designated as the target to bang.
Solovyov himself seems to be unaware of Britain’s industrial deficiencies. In any case, details like potential targets don’t matter. It’s the thought that counts and Solovyov, once and future communist himself, was aghast. He raised his voice several decibels and rejected Kalashnikov’s idea out of hand.
The general desirability of “banging” Britain is beyond dispute. But under no circumstances could Solovyov countenance the specifics proposed by his guest. As he always does when brushing aside an unacceptable idea, Solovyov started at a bass-baritone rumble, but then introduced a steady rise in pitch and volume.
At the top of that crescendo, he exploded into a hysterical rant: “Listen, are you a Communist or not? Stop fearing war! Are you a Communist or not? The first step is to strike these scumbags and not hide behind anyone’s back!”
True communists don’t fear war and, by the looks of it, neither do post-communists. Therefore, in Comrade Solovyov’s eyes, Comrade Kalashnikov was letting the side down. He also seemed to have forgotten the seminal moral lesson all communists ought to know by heart.
As far as Solovyov was concerned, a reminder was in order: “When I was joining the ranks of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, I was taught to speak openly and honestly. If this is our enemy, we destroy him.”
No subterfuge. No equivocation. Britain is an enemy to be destroyed, and real communists, past, present or future, must be brave and honest enough to state this publicly.
Perestroika chickens have come home to roost, and we are all enjoying the ‘end of history’ with its ‘peace dividend’. Back in the early 90s I was writing one article after another, invoking the Law of Conservation of Energy.
The evil Soviet energy, I argued, hadn’t disappeared. It was merely transforming into its equivalent, seemingly benign but in reality just as evil – and more dangerous for hiding behind a kindly mask.
All those glasnosts and perestroikas were in effect a transfer of power from the Communist Party to the KGB, an organisation much more adept at duping the West. But both I and the small conservative journals for which I wrote were easily outshouted by perestroika fanatics. Even some conservatives expressed touching concern for my mental health.
Russia had seen the liberal democratic light, sang the mighty neocon chorus. History had ended, went the solo part. There was nothing to disagree on or to argue about. We were one happy family now, and we could all get fat on the peace dividend together.
The West’s disarmament was one of the most important objectives of the perestroika op, and it has succeeded famously. Britain, in particular, has denuded her defences to such an extent that we can’t even protect a few acres of our sovereign territory in Cyprus.
The Royal Navy has one solitary sea-worthy destroyer and one carrier (out of two) that’s not in the repair dock. So much for our counterattacking capability, but Britain’s defences are in even worse shape.
As Iran’s strike at Diego Garcia showed, the mullahs possess missiles with enough range to hit London. And we have no means of our own to stop even a single Iranian rocket pitching feebly at the end of its flight. Our sole hope lies in the kindness of strangers, such as our American and European allies who may conceivably stop an antediluvian Iranian missile before it falls on Westminster.
However, should the Russians decide to act on Solovyov’s threats, even NATO wouldn’t be able to save us. Only God could do that but, judging by His acquiescence in Britain’s 30-odd years of disarmament self-harm, He isn’t on our side.
Considering the bellicose hysteria fanned into incendiary rants by Russian media and government figures, HMG’s continuing sabotage of Britain’s defences has left the realm of folly to enter one of treason.
Any comparison with Chamberlain’s appeasement of Hitler in the late 1930s is spurious.
Britain’s failure to confront Nazi Germany earlier was unfortunate. But at least, as Chamberlain waved that piece of paper in the air and declared peace in our time, Britain began to mass-produce Spitfires, the fighters that won the Battle of Britain and hence, one could argue, the war.
Today’s Chamberlains don’t mass-produce anything but ‘commitments’. Thus, they are ‘committed’ to cranking up our defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP. When? Soon. When we have enough spare change. Which will be when? At some point in the future. We’ll let you know.
Meanwhile, it wouldn’t hurt to remember that a vast volume of war propaganda preceded both World Wars. Mobilisation of the people’s martial spirit and morale always starts before queues form outside recruitment offices. And Russia is more gung-ho now than she has ever been in my lifetime.
P.S. Speaking of our NATO allies, the German government has taken steps to limit the access of the pro-Putin AfD party to security briefings. Good luck with that, considering that AfD has 152 seats in the Bundestag, which makes it the main opposition party.
That’s another thing the KGB is good at: recruiting allies in enemy countries, sowing discord and undermining institutions. Putin has many friends, aka traitors, in all NATO countries, not just Germany. Those chaps don’t come cheap, but they are always good for a leak or two.