Latvia would like a word with you
"Just go there, have a great cup of coffee"
Vladimir Putin and two American journalists, ©2024, William L. Brown. Claiming to be a “journalist,” Tucker Carlson, social-media personality, went to Russia to interview dictator Putin. Two American journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva are in Russian prisons for unfavorable reporting.
The Latvian Foreign Minister gave a blunt assessment of Russia this week. Living next door to Russia, they know it well. They have a warning for those of us who feel comfortably far away. Russia’s war is not limited to Ukraine, nor will it stop in Ukraine if Russia has its way.
Latvian Foreign Minister, Krišjānis Kariņš was interviewed by Sophia Yan, Telegraph Senior Foreign Correspondent, broadcast Monday 05 February, 2024 on The Telegraph’s podcast Ukraine, The Latest. The interview starts at 24:30 into the podcast. I highly recommend this daily podcast!
The interview covers related subjects including Latvian border security and NATO membership. Latvia is a member of NATO and participates in the new Baltic Common Defense Line. This is the response of former Soviet-occupied nations along the Russia and Belarus border to Russia’s hybrid-warfare, sending refugees across the Belarus border with the intent to destabilize Europe.
Russia is taking advantage of the populist backlash to mass numbers of refugees welcomed into affluent western democracies since the Syrian War. Anti-immigration groups have risen to power because of it - some with direct or tacit Russian backing.
Rather than directly quote the foreign minister’s full statement, I will mostly paraphrase. His command of English is excellent, but he was speaking extemporaneously, with asides and long sentences that are better heard than read.
Latvia, says minister Kariņš, sees Russian intentions clearly. That’s why they wholeheartedly support Ukraine, sending them their arms stocks.
“We don’t know how long it will take, but we will support them until they succeed and have a victory”
It’s also why they are urgently replacing the arms. They know Russia, and they know that even when the day of Ukrainian victory comes, Russia will still be an ongoing threat to the entire region. Minister Kariņš points to reports that the Russians are re-gearing their economy to weapons manufacturing and military supplies. “They are on a clear war footing.”
“The only language that the current [Russian] government understands is one of strength. They don’t appreciate negotiation, that’s a sign of weakness. And we can see what kind of heinous crimes they are capable of in Ukraine. We have to assume that’s not limited to Ukraine. That is simply what they are. So, we need the arms.”
There’s no direct threat to Latvia or NATO now, “but just because it if difficult to image, doesn't mean it couldn’t be attempted. And, therefore, we simply must be prepared.”
EU lifeline, ©2024, William L. Brown. The EU pledged 54 billion EURO to Ukraine, a much-needed boost as US aid stalled due to domestic political wrangling in Congress.
“NATO, living next to Russia we simply have to do things differently than if we weren’t living next to Russia. And Latvia has always been next to Russia.”
“[Russia] has never been a democratic country and it still has … a profoundly deep ideology of imperialism.”
Many other European countries, he says, are former empires, but they have changed over time. The British Empire may be the Commonwealth, with a symbolic monarch, “but practically speaking, there’s no empire.”
”The Austro-Hungarian Empire is no more. The German Empire is no more. Under a couple of Napoleons France was in the business as well, and of course, that often dealt with colonialism and all of the effects that has had around the world.”
World wide, most former empires have come to rue their imperialist, colonial pasts, and have changed. Nation states have developed, we’ve lived under the rule of law, the United Nations, where a rules-based system based upon the right of self-determination is a given, says minister Rinkēvičs.
“But, Russia has never accepted that. It had an empire called the Soviet Union. That empire collapsed, but in it’s current view, that was simply a time of Russian weakness, not of Russian profound change.
”And now they’re back in the business of trying to regain a lost empire.”
Putin states this in writing and in speeches. Often his source is Ivan Ilyin, an obscure Russian fascist who was exiled by the Bolshiviks, whose work provides Putin with punchy nationalistic, jingoistic, and anti-Ukrainian phrases.
Citizens of democracies find it strange to think that anyone still thinks this way, but they do. We’ve grown up in a system where the right of a country to exist and the non-right of your neighbor to intervene is a given. Our nations and military forces uphold that system. “But, Russia is simply trying to overturn it.”
“…. just because it’s a throwback doesn’t mean its not a very real threat. It is, and what we see - what the Russian military is capable of, is having complete disregard for human life - also their own soldiers.”
“The Ukrainians, one of their biggest problems on the front line is having enough ammunition to shoot down the wave after wave after wave of maybe-not-so-well trained [Russian troops]- and from a human point of view it’s an absolute tragedy what the [Russian] government and the military is doing”
“But, puzzlingly, society supports this and does not say ‘no, this is wrong.’ And this is how ideology in that part of the world has never stopped working. I cannot imagine under what circumstances in Latvia or in Great Briton or in France any leader could say ‘let’s all sacrifice ourselves!’”
”To do this with the goal of overrunning your neighbor! And in Europe, why do you need to overrun your neighbor? Just go there, have a great cup of coffee, enjoy the show, and come home. You don’t have to attack anyone to enjoy. but, Russia is doing that.”
”They re trying to wipe out Ukraines statehood. And they won’t stop of their own accord. They can only be stopped. They need to run up against a brick wall. And that brick wall needs to be NATO resolve and proven capabilities.”
“If Russia succeeds in Ukraine, then Russia will have learned the lesson ‘might makes right, …and to stop them later will cost more money and, potentially, NATO soldier lives. And this is the situation we never want to come to.
”It’s cheaper and much more clever to support Ukraine as we shore up our own defenses. Help Ukraine win the war, help Ukraine integrate into the EU and into NATO, because we’ve all said Ukraine’s future is in NATO. Ukraine belongs in NATO. When the war ends, that’s when that process can begin.”
Turkish bath, ©2024 William L. Brown. In January, the United Kingdom sent two minesweepers on loan to Ukraine to de-mine the Black Sea. But President Erdoğan’s government blocked the passage saying they were military ships. It is Turkish policy to block passage through the Bosphorus Strait to the Black Sea of any military ships in time of war.