Regnum — US State Department attacks the St. George ribbon in Kazakhstahn and other former Soviet republics

This may look like a tempest in a tea pot, but it is not isolated. Rather, it is occurring throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the countries that were part of the former USSR, that is, the countries surrounding Russia. Moreover, there is evidence being brought forward that the US State Department and NGOs are involved.

So what. Isn't is a good idea to promote "freedom"?

The issue here is perceptions, whether true or not. The perception is that the US is attempting historical revisionism, equating Soviet Communism with German Nazism and denying the enormous role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazism, as well as minimizing the sacrifices its people made, in containing the Nazi advance and reversing it, driving to the Elbe.

This may seem like a slight at most to many Americans, for whom WWII is generations removed and all but forgotten. However, it is still present to many people in these countries, who have far from forgotten and are alarmed at what they see as a resurgence of the enemy.

These people see current events as a resurgence of Nazism, on one hand. On the other, they view the alliance of the US with ultra-nationalists for control over the region as especially alarming. In other words, this looks to them like deja vu.

Americans may dismiss this imaginative paranoia, but anyone familiar with geopolitics, geostrategy, foreign policy, and hybrid warfare, not to mention the history of US operations in places like Latin America, can understand their concerns.

For example, the US leadership denies it but it's pretty transparent that the US would like to see Putin replace with a different regime. The problem with this is that the liberals that the US would like to see in power in Russia are a minuscule faction and the dominant faction is one that sees the world in terms set forth above. Putin is doing his best to keep the lid on them, but if the Putin regime would become destabilized, these are the people that most likely would assume power.

The perception is that American "exceptionalism" is a simply a modified version of Nazi superiority, especially given the degree of US militarism. The attempt to revise history is tantamount to denying the Holocaust. Many, many more people were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators than Jews.

Failure to understand this is extremely dangerous for the West. It's not possible that the American and British leadership doesn't understand it, and certainly the European leadership does. It is also evident to a lot of people in Europe.  But most Americans don't get it — they are not only not told but told the opposite —and they are therefore unaware that the world is becoming a much more dangerous place day by day.

Fort Russ
US State Department attacks the St. George ribbon in Kazakhstahn and other former Soviet republics

Regnum
Translated by Kristina Rus

See also

Reveals the total disconnect between the US and Russian views, and portrays the Russian view as imaginative and exaggerated, ignoring the implications.

Definitely worth a read.

Vox
"America has a simple ideology": how one of Russia's top US experts tries to explain America

Max Fisher

More disconnect.

Mr. Putin’s remarks reflect a deep-seated paranoia. It would be easy to dismiss this kind of rhetoric as intended for domestic consumption, an attempt to whip up support for his war adventure in Ukraine. In part, it is that. But Mr. Putin’s assertion that the West has been acting out of a desire to sunder Russia’s power and influence is a willful untruth.

The Washington Post
After the fall of the Soviet Union, the U.S. tried to help Russians
Editorial Board

Western leaders are staying away from this year’s Victory Day, which mourns the loss of 20 million Russians who died to defeat Nazi Germany

The Independent (UK)

Once again, the West fails to understand Russia

Mary Dejevsky

Putin forthright.

Sputnik
Putin: ‘Cynical Attempts to Whitewash Nazism, Militarism Unacceptable’