Putin's world? ---- At the end of June, Putin visited North Korea and
Vietnam. In these not the most powerful, but not the most seedy states,the Russian Tsar was greeted with numerous honors, huge wall banners
with his face. ---- And on the Ukrainian front, the situation is such
that the defeat of the Russian Armed Forces on the battlefield is now
less credible than ever before in two and a half years of war. ---- So
Putin is winning? If you really want a strong army, anyone can invade
and take a piece from a neighboring country? Or the Taliban: just now
the whole world considered them terrorists and cannibals, but as soon as
they stayed in Afghanistan, they are beginning to be recognized as a
legitimate government? Putin's model of world order is too crazy.
Given that European countries seriously fear the possibility of Putin's
invasion in the future, it still seems that the Kremlin's military
victory in Ukraine will ultimately not be allowed. But how long will the
war last and how many hundreds of thousands of lives will all this cost?
It's disgusting that this is largely a matter of political squabbles
within Western countries, such as the months-long delay in military aid
to Ukraine from the United States due to intrigues between Republicans
and Democrats.
Change Russia
Since the invasion of Ukraine, the standard of living in Russia has
declined, but not dramatically, which provides support for the regime.
Moreover, we learned amazing things about the Russian economy: there was
so much talk about the fact that the state does not have the ability to
pay normal salaries to doctors and teachers! Putin's so-called "May
decrees" of 2012, designed to solve this problem, have not yet been
implemented. But the state found money to pay salaries of 200 thousand a
month to people who do not create anything useful, but simply kill
Ukrainians.
Prisoners, residents of the outback, where you can barely earn 20-30
thousand, went to the front for the sake of this money and honor from
the state. As a result, as even the authorities admit, every fifth
person returning from war needs the help of a psychiatrist. And this is
a problem that is only beginning to be recognized in Russia. And even in
the State Duma they are saying that prisoners released to take part in
the war are dangerous for Russians, and it would be good to control them
upon their return from the front.
Every day, perhaps tens of billions of rubles are burned on the
battlefield. How long can Russia sustain these expenses? So far, in
general, the Russian budget is holding up, but an interesting story
comes from the Irkutsk region, where the renovation of schools had to be
postponed due to the costs of the families of war participants. It seems
that soon there will only be more such stories.
No matter how harsh repressions reign in Russia now, apparently the only
way out is to change the country from within. Naturally, with the help
of those who were safer in relocation. A small step to start with is to
spread libertarian propaganda. We have mockups. But avoid printing
stickers and leaflets in places where the owner of the risograph or
printing press might snitch on the cops. And stick it in places where
you won't be tracked by video cameras.
In the Middle East
Fighting continues in the Gaza Strip and on the border between Israel
and Lebanon. This is a regional war, but one that has the prospect of
developing into a much larger one, so we will devote part of today's
issue to it.
In Lebanon, the state is in ruins, so it is more correct to talk about
the confrontation between the Hezbollah group and Israel. Hezbollah is
not that worried about the Gaza Strip, but it is working off Iranian
investments, and has been shelling Israeli territory for eight months,
which is why about a hundred thousand Israelis from border towns and
kibbutzim are refugees in their own small country.
In Lebanon, which is still half the size of Israel, there are also a lot
of internal refugees and many casualties, because the Israeli military
responds to Hezbollah. And Israeli defense against rocket attacks is
much better than Lebanese: rocket attacks on Israel do not happen
without casualties, but people are much more likely to hear the sirens
they end up in hospitals, their legs twisting while they run to the bomb
shelter.
For several weeks now, the intensity of artillery duels, bombings and
drone wars on the Lebanese-Israeli border has been increasing. There is
a real risk of a so-called "full-scale war." Hezbollah is much more
powerful than Hamas, it has enough missiles to destroy all of Israel.
And Israel has enough missiles to destroy Lebanon...
Recently, people in the region thought that now it would definitely
begin: due to shelling from Lebanese territory, a town abandoned by
residents of Kiryat Shmona, adjacent to the border, where 20 thousand
people once lived, caught fire. Fortunately, the Israeli army was smart
enough not to start after Kiryat Shmona, but perhaps a missile
apocalypse is possible any day now.
In Western countries, demonstrations "for Israel" and "for Palestine"
continue, with mutual understanding of the situation not differing. You
can sort out several myths on both sides.
Yes, even before the Hamas attack on October 7, masses of people lived
in poverty in the Gaza Strip. It is alleged that Israel has blockaded
Gaza. Yes, but the Gaza Strip also has a long border with Egypt. The
Egyptian authorities are afraid of the spread of the ideas of Hamas (as
part of the Muslim Brotherhood movement) and also strictly blocked Gaza.
Ok, so, after all, Israel is at least not the only problem? In fact,
many Gazans were treated in Israeli hospitals, and they still receive
water and electricity from Israeli territory.
During Hamas' rule in Gaza, billions of dollars in humanitarian aid from
Qatar, the UN, the European Union and others came to the Strip every
year. Not counting Iran's support for Hamas, the group's various
criminal proceeds and the taxes they collected in the Gaza Strip. It's
probably not entirely Israel's fault that Gazans lived in poverty, but
Hamas has a gigantic amount of weapons and a network of tunnels
comparable to the Moscow metro?
A resident of, for example, Sterlitamak is unlikely to show correctly on
the map where, for example, Lugansk is located. So why he should go to
fight in Ukraine is unclear. In Israel, almost every person has friends
who died or were taken hostage as a result of the October 7 attack. This
is the reason for the hatred and frenzy with which the war is being waged.
Yes, the Israeli army is using clearly excessive force. But how to
explain the actions of Hamas, which fires rockets at Israeli positions
from Rafah, a town in the Strip where 90 thousand people lived in
peacetime, and recently there were more than a million internal
refugees? Isn't this a provocation to cause even more Palestinians to die?
Or the recent story with the release of four Israeli hostages: during
the Israeli operation, hundreds of Palestinians were killed, at least
according to Hamas. Ok, what other result could there be if the hostages
were held in the middle of a crowded city block, and when Israeli
special forces came for them, they began to fight with them using heavy
small arms?
The recent interesting statement by representatives of the Palestinian
Authority that the Palestinians for Iran are a bargaining chip in its
international expansion went unnoticed.
Inside Israel, unfortunately, quite crazy ideas are widespread, for
example, that the occupation of the West Bank must be maintained,
"because it is written in the Tanakh (the sacred texts of Judaism) that
this is Jewish land." It is believed that the life of a Palestinian (the
attitude towards Arabs with Israeli citizenship is qualitatively
different) is worth nothing. In general, Israel's main problem is its
continued belief that air bombs and bullets are the best way to
communicate with the Palestinians.
In Israel's war with Hamas, justice is on no one's side. And if in
Europe or America you demonstrate under the Israeli or Palestinian flag,
it is likely that you are covering up the crimes of one of the parties
and ignoring the civilian victims of the other.
Well that's all for today! We remind you that in Trends in Order and
Chaos, members of Autonomous Action and other authors give anarchist
assessments of current events. Listen to us on YouTube, SoundCloud and
other platforms, visit our website avtonom.org, subscribe to our social
networks and e-mail newsletter.
Issue prepared by Listyev
https://avtonom.org/news/ya-kupil-zhurnal-koreya-tam-tozhe-horosho-trendy-poryadka-i-haosa-epizod-163
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