Putin is Ready for the “Red” Button – Can Biden & NATO Still Stop Him?

March 23, 2022

“ With our neighbors, we can negotiate… But we can’t negotiate with terrorists who just want us out.”

Golda Meir, 1975,  PM of Israel, born and raised in Kyiv

History, as we know, teaches nothing, and has to repeat itself.

Since the start of the Russian Federation’s full-scale war against Ukraine with the undisguised use of “prohibited” weapons of mass destruction (thermobaric and cluster munitions), the seizure of nuclear power plants, open threats to NATO countries, Western politicians and, unacceptably, the press shyly continue the mantra of “Russia invades Ukraine” or “War in Ukraine.” When WW III has started.

Polish Airspace Violated.

At the time of writing, a Russian Airspace Force fighter has already demonstratively violated Polish airspace, continuing to provoke a direct military confrontation with NATO and its allies.

The reason for writing this article was the fact that my communication with friends and acquaintances from the political establishment of the United States and Britain, who were not born in the former Soviet Union and do not speak Russian, demonstrated the fact that these highly intelligent people were being misguided by own media and non-Russian-speaking fellow politicians, are erroneously trying to apply democratic principles and negotiate in the Western diplomatic style with people and the state system of Russia, which historically have a completely different political culture (if this term can be applied to Russia), principles, approaches and, most importantly, ideological backgrounds. So, to bridge the gap, I’ve decided to open up in detail, including my attending the distinguished KGB school No.57 in Kyiv as a kid.

Cure the Gap. 

This gives rise to the mistaken belief that Putin has lost his mind; that, even if he decides to initiate a “preemptive” nuclear strike, “honest Russian officers” will not allow it. The saddest thing the Western establishment has said was that the sanctions-ridden “Russian oligarchs” will stage a coup and remove Putin from power. They even already named a successor – another head of the FSB (https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/20008026.alexander-bortnikov-fsb-spymaster-line-replace-putin-ukraine/) – in professional KGB jargon, it is called “rumor check.”

All of the above does not solve the problem. To understand what entitles me to say so, a brief digression into my personal history is important, even as I’m a very private person; but the stakes are at their highest, and you need to alter course and calibrate the changes you decide to make.

I. Personal Ancestral History.

Historically, most of my ancestors lived in Ukraine for at least a few centuries. All my great-grandparents were rich people whom Soviet lumpens called “kulaks” and “bourgeois nationalists.” Three of my great-grandparents and their families were repressed by the Soviet authorities during collectivization, the Holodomor, and after World War II. Only one of great-grandfathers, realizing why the Reds had captured Ukraine, managed to sell the land, but did not have time to emigrate overseas and was forced to “volunteer, in the order of labor discipline” to hand over facilities to the collective farm. So he was able to avoid repression and thanks to his education, he worked as an accountant for the rest of his life.

His son, my grandfather, during the Second World War, at a very young age, was drafted into the Soviet army and, as is happening in the Russian army even now (https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/Лютізкий_плацдарм, memories of the world famous Ukrainian director Alexander Dovzhenko), was thrown to protect the Dnieper. My grandfather was one of the few soldiers who survived that massacre. Only once did he tell me about that hell. About the torn bodies and torn entrails of his fellows. My grandfather survived the terrible Second World War, receiving severe injuries to his neck and legs, as evidenced by small red bars among numerous orders and medals.

After that war, my grandfather, having graduated with honors from the Kyiv Academy of Agriculture, instead of postgraduate school as an excellent student, was sent to develop Tsilina. After working for several years, already a top manager, awarded with state awards, my grandfather submitted a report to Moscow about his desire to move to Ukraine. He explained to me why: “It was unbearable for an intelligent man to be in the Russified environment of lumpens: constant drunkenness, laziness and brutal swearing.”

A. Elected, but Never A Communist. 

After returning to Ukraine, my grandfather built educational institutions, led the educational process, and was elected to council of deputies of various levels several times. And, most importantly, he was able to avoid joining the Communist Party of the USSR, which he considered inhuman and despised all his life. Yes, there have never been communists in our family. Why was it so important to talk about my grandfather? My grandfather, a World War II veteran, won a reputation: ability to develop in that Soviet system for our family and for me personally.

B. Father, Descendant of Industrialist. 

The ability for me to evolve was provided by my father, one of the descendants of a famous industrialist of the 17th century, that in the free Cossack times was one of the first in Ukraine to establish a plant for the production of glass and glass products, including pharmacies. Paying tribute to his memory, I bear his ancient-Rus surname.

C. Father: Lenin a “Bloodthirsty mentally unstable person.”

During the Soviet era, my father was also a high-ranked manager and also awarded with a state award. Of course, he was also recommended to join the Communist Party of the USSR. Using his connections, my father purchased a complete academic edition of Ulyanov-Lenin’s works. And read it in full, from the first to the last volume. When I entered the university, my father, at my request to give an abstract about Lenin’s “achievements”, answered briefly and dryly: “Bloodthirsty mentally unstable person. There could be no talk of joining such a party.”

D. I was in KGB Special Secondary School No.57, Kyiv.

Our family traditions include the highest possible level of education. I was supposed to enter the school in 1985, so the preparation for admission began in 1983. Perestroika has not even been heard of. Multiple family opportunities and abilities indicated only one possible direction. It was the most prestigious at that time Kyiv special secondary school №57, named after Lenin, with a comprehensive study of English and located on the street that “proudly” bore the name of the founder of the KGB of the USSR:  F. Dzerzhinsky.

To complete the picture, the director of the School was the elegant, refined and intelligent Rada Shcherbytska, the wife of First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Volodymyr Shcherbytsky (de facto leader of the republic).

The connections and reputation of the applicant’s family were a prerequisite for being recognized as “trustworthy” and invited to the enroll exams, but in order to pass the exams, only personal skills and training could be sufficient. Including the ability to pronounce “th”. After the first grade, 30% of students were transferred by their parents to other, less difficult schools. Less than a half of the initial staff reached the 11th grade, not taking into account the constant replenishment.

As you have probably realized, this was a school where the future diplomatic elite were taught and raised from childhood. The school was really different from others in terms of education, extremely high workload and strict requirements.

E. Taught to be “soldiers of the world revolution” and “red terror,” ready to self-sacrifice, literally.

But against this background, there was additional training. Only as an adult, already working in science, looking back, I realized that literally from the first lesson, using the methods of neurolinguistic programming, we have been constantly transformed into “soldiers of the world revolution” and “red terror,” ready to self-sacrifice, literally.

By inertia, as it is now fashionable to say, “zombification” continued even after the proclamation of Ukraine’s independence, because the curriculum remained unchanged. Only in 1993 did some “Ukrainization” begin.

I am horrified to realize that if history had not changed, given my zeal, I would have been turned into a complete scoundrel from the USSR KGB system. I would destroy the “capitalist bourgeois imperialists” and “enemies of the world revolution” with fire and sword, and I would expand and impose communist, read, Soviet, or more precisely, Moscow, power.

F. Taught Elite Fanatics: struggle for “world peace,” and in fact, the spread of the Soviet totalitarian regime around the world.

And, I emphasize again, the “red” thread through our training was programming, first from perception, and then to natural sewing in the subconscious of readiness to sacrifice one’s life for the ideals of the struggle for “world peace,” and in fact, the spread of the Soviet totalitarian regime around the world. Simply put, it was the cultivation of elite fanatics, who were essentially no different from martyrs who go to their deaths after ideological training using similar methods of psychological processing of the subconscious of compliant adherents.

G. God and Catholic Mass in Warclaw, Poland. 

G-d prepared another fate for me, and in 1991, under a school exchange program, I travelled to Poland, which had already been released from Moscow captivity. It was the city of Wroclaw in western Poland. Poland is known as one of the countries with the strongest Roman Catholic tradition, which the Soviet authorities did not have time to destroy. Attending a Mass each three days within 3 weeks, I suddenly found peace of soul in the spiritual beginning.

G-d saved me from the path of the beast. But the ability to feel and understand the beast remains with me forever, as does the suppressed sense of self-preservation and readiness to go to the end.

H. Graduated No57 in 1995: KGB/SBU Offer; Aerospace instead. 

After graduating from my famous School №57 in 1995, there was a natural offer to follow the KGB/SBU line, but fate led me on the path of aerospace science, mathematics, and apparently through ancestral genetic memory, economics and finance.

I. Friend in SBU in 1995: Our Main Enemy is the U.S. – 1 year after 1994 Budapest Memorandum. 

But my friend of the same age, not from Kyiv, in the year 1995 entered the SBU Academy in Kyiv. And as soon as he started talking about the beginning of his studies, it was déjà vu. Repetition of narratives I have known for a long time: “Our main enemy is the United States, the bourgeoisie and the capitalist imperialists.” I repeat, this was the 4th year after the collapse of the USSR, the Budapest Memorandum had already been signed. It was gratifying that this was at least a light version of the “heavy drug intoxication” to which we were subjected for 7 school years; at least there was no longer a call to die in the struggle for the “world revolution.” However, his worldview has not changed, he still hates the “bourgeoisie”. He is almost 45. And he lived and lives in Ukraine, where, since 1992-93, militant propaganda at the state level has completely disappeared and real democratic reforms have taken place in the country. And though not immediate, but a steady departure of Ukraine from Russia.

II. And what about the Russian Federation? After Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton, “Evil Empire” Still Lives. 

After winning the Cold War over the Soviet Union, financially and economically (but I emphasize, not militarily), Western societies and politicians remembered the merry Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton on stage, and decided, wrongly, that the “Evil Empire” was destroyed forever.

In Russia, the “liberalization” of the economy began, however, it was a process run by a combination of KGB officers and criminal authorities who took control of most sectors of the economy and key profitable enterprises. Yeltsin even banned the Communist Party of Russia, the successor to the CPSU.

But has the worldview and ideology of the Russians themselves changed? The answer is no. The population remained the same. And the children grew up with contempt for the whole world, especially Americans, in big cities swallowing Big Macs with hatred; hating Germans, while driving their favorite German cars with inscriptions: “we can repeat,” Jews, and, of course, Ukrainians. See, below, back-windshield with Nazi symbols etc.

A. Phony Loyalty to Western Capital Markets. 

And despite the fact that the “democratized” political elite of the Yeltsin and early Putin era was forced to imitate loyalty to Western countries for access to the world hydrocarbon market and finance, Russia has not lost its public and political figures who openly expressed militancy against the entire world, especially against the United States, the Baltic States and Ukraine.

B. Vladimir Zhirinovsky – “The second person in Russia after Putin.”

The personification of such a politician is Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who appeared on the political scene during the Soviet era as a product of the Soviet political system, later made a strong statement in Russia from the first day after the collapse of the USSR and still remains an iconic figure. “The second person in Russia after Putin.” See, picture of President Putin & Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

C. “The Last Way of Vladimir Wolfovich” of the Russian edition “Moscow Komsomolets” – Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Quotes are Breathtaking!

In order to bring the Western reader closer to understanding Zhirinovsky’s “contribution,” I cite an article that remains more than relevant, “The Last Way of Vladimir Wolfovich” of the Russian edition “Moscow Komsomolets”, author Alexander Panikin, October 5, 2001 (https: //sites.ualberta .ca / ~ khineiko / MK_2000_2003 / 1124192.htm). I strongly recommend reading (in translation) the article in full, and here are just two quotes:

1. “Alexander Panikin:

Zhirinovsky is the painful reality of Russia. Painful because it hurts to realize that it very accurately reflects the thoughts of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people living in Russia. Who may be embarrassed to think so, but can’t do otherwise. Zhirinovsky is a child of the post-Soviet space, where the great idea of ​​communism died and another has not yet emerged. Zhirinovsky believes that there will be no return to communism, and Western democracy does not suit us, and that he, Vladimir Wolfovich, is the third way that Russia will demand. ”

2. “Vladimir Zhirinovsky – Russia Solution (Quotes):

I had to maneuver, but I did not change my main positions. 1990s – I support the left because the Democrats are making mistakes. In 1991, I supported the State Committee on the State of Emergency (SCSE) because I wanted to save the USSR. But when Yeltsin destroyed the country, it was impossible to go back. That’s it – the suit is torn, now let’s sew a new one. Then I was more with the Democrats, but not because I liked them. Something new is starting to appear – okay, let’s try. And now Putin is doing what I have always called for…

And what will Ukraine do without our gas? We will bring Ukraine to its knees and get all the food for a penny. Ukraine will come to us and give everything, and 10 million will die of hunger there. But we will get food and then cut the switches. We will feed our country. We will take all of them to the last pan. Ukraine will be poor, but echelons will go to Russia with food, clothes – with everything we need. And Iraq will give us oil. We will sell it for a penny. Can you imagine how cheap gasoline will be then? Pennies! We will lower electricity prices, and all prices will fall completely. We will finally give our people a chance to breathe. Cheap energy and cheap food. And what else do people need? And Italy will bring us its costumes, it will not go anywhere. And Turkey will call for its resorts. They are already tied to us. We are on them, but they are on us…

What you call Yeltsin’s merits, I call his mistakes. It is impossible, it was all a waste of time. He had to crush the SCSE, then crush himself under structures of the KGB, security forces and remove the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). It was not necessary to disintegrate the USSR. It was necessary to tell the leadership of the republics: That’s it, guys, we end with sovereignty. Now there are 15 of us – it’s not good. We are creating a single Russian republic. If you not agree by 6 pm, I will arrest you all, and you will be shot today.”

Zhirinovsky was Vice Speaker of State Duma for 12 years

This could be considered empty talk of a populist politician. But the truth is that these scenarios voiced in 2001 belonged to the Vice Speaker of the State Duma (Parliament) of the Russian Federation! Zhirinovsky held this position from 2000 to 2011.

D. Putin Embraces Zhirinovsky’s Russia Solution.

Analysis of the historical evolution of Putin’s statements with their gradual approach to Zhirinovsky’s rhetoric far exceeds the volume of this article and deserves a separate analysis for the inquisitive reader. But I hope that comparing Putin’s actions to Zhirinovsky’s public statements 20 to 30 years ago, in retrospect, there is no doubt that Zhirinovsky became the voice that set out the original Russian-Muscovite ideology, which is historically rooted in Andrei Bogolyubsky – who in 1169 initiated the destruction of Kyiv and its shrines.

Zhirinovsky’s phenomenon as a public ideologue of the Russian Federation is that he voiced what was secretly planned and happening behind closed doors of government offices and the FSB of the Russian Federation (flesh and blood of the KGB of the USSR).

If under Yeltsin’s Russia, Zhirinovsky represented a marginalized part of society and politics, then under Putin he became the founder and ideological mentor of a growing constellation of radical politicians and political scientists, who monopolized the media presence and whose ideas public leaders adopted.

E. Zhirinovsky gets Covid prior to Mr. Putin’s War on Ukraine. 

A few weeks before the attack on Ukraine, it became known that Zhirinovsky was seriously ill with COVID and was currently absent from the media, but his immediate presence was no longer needed. You have already seen above that Zhirinovsky in 1990 supported the State Committee for Emergency Situations (organized by the KGB and the Politbureau of the CPSU attempt to overthrow the President of the USSR Gorbachev). In retrospect, it would be fair to say that the victory of the SCSE and the KGB/FSB took place, only postponed for 10 years, with the “resignation” of President Yeltsin on December 31, 1999 and the “appointment” of Mr. Putin, the former head of the FSB. For reference, let me remind you that Putin officially took office as President of the Russian Federation on May 7, 2000.

F. Mr. Putin Works to Restore Russian Empire, in its Largest Borders. Alaska?

And since then began the gradual path of restoration of, at first, USSR. Then the Russian Empire in its largest borders. And now there is a demand for the abolition of NATO in general, but cut in half. But this would not have been possible if the ideological soil and support of Russian society had not been carefully fertilized.

Scary, but it can be argued that Putin is not yet the most dangerous. In his shadow, and even in opposition to him, there are people even more aggressive and more dangerous. It should always be remembered that the manifestations of external aggression of state leaders have not only external, but also internal context.

G. Cuban Missile crisis of Nikita Khrushchev v. Putin’s Wars

The thinking reader will agree that it would be fair to assume that by creating the preconditions for the Cuban Missile crisis, Nikita Khrushchev was thus seeking protection from internal enemies. The nuance is that Khrushchev was not a KGB personnel officer. But even Putin, being a KGB personnel officer, still has enough internal enemies who, in forcing Putin to defend his power, have only accelerated the path to the fiercest confrontation and war.

III. Can Biden & NATO Stop Putin from pressing the “Red” Button? 

Now back to the question of how to prevent the “red” button from being pressed. And there is not even a question of whether it will be pressed. It is cynical, but fair to say that Putin and his speakers (Lavrov, Peskov, etc.) have always been truthful, announcing their future military and political actions in the years to come.

A. WMDs: Nuclear, Chemical & Biological; decided already. 

Plans for the use of nuclear, chemical and bacteriological weapons have already been announced years before. The average mentally healthy Western politician will think that either Putin has gone mad or he is bluffing. In my story, above, about myself, I emphasized the peculiarities of the psychological training of future “soldiers of the world revolution.“

B. Trustworthy Putin & Power: Putin’s Grandfather was the Trusted Cook for Lenin, and then, Stalin. 

Putin is also a product of the same training, but only completed: he became a KGB personnel officer. Moreover, he modestly reported that his grandfather was a cook for Lenin himself and then for Stalin (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-putin-family-idUSKCN1GN0OR). He also stressed that their family was considered “trustworthy”. Do you recognize?

Could Zhirinovsky or others like him press the “red” button? No. They are ordinary people.

Will Putin be able to press the “red” button? YES. He is trained to go to the end. The end, literally.

C. Oligarchs.  

Is he influenced by the so-called Russian oligarchs? No. They are only nominal trustees for the management of financial assets owned by the State.

D. How to prevent Putin Pressing “Red” Button? When he confronts a force he respects – only then, MAD works. 

Putin will go on until he meets at least a comparable force he respects. All the terrible actions of the Russian Federation since the collapse of the Soviet Union have taken place only because the Russian government has not been punished by a force it respects.

E. Removing Putin is not the Answer. 

And removing Putin alone does not in any way solve the problem of global Russian terrorism. Putin in Russia is not the only product of the system of training “soldiers of the world revolution.”