Russia does have two red lines and that is the de-jure inclusion of Ukraine into NATO and expansion of the Missile Defense Shield to the country. Mr.Korybko distinguishes between de-jure official NATO incorporation and de-facto Shadow NATO absorption. He sees the former as being impossible so long as Ukraine does not recognize Crimea’s reunion with Russia, while the latter is proceeding at breakneck speed under the orders of Washington. Simultaneously with this, Kiev’s forces have been shelling Russian territory and border checkpoints as a provocation to goad Russia into a stalemated military intervention in Ukraine. Brzezinski did something similar in Afghanistan by advising President Carter to support the Mujahadeen there nearly 6 months before the Soviet intervention. Details on how Brzezinski, head of Foreign Affairs advisory committee during his 2008 presidential campaign, taught Obama during his time in Columbia. There are even allegations that he staffed the White House and other influential places with his ideological supporters after Obama’s victory. Thus it is not farfetched to consider that Brzezinski’s teachings are deeply rooted in current American foreign policy.
The entire paradigm of the Ukrainian crisis is a containment of Russia with the eventual goal of dismantling it from within. For this purpose, Color Revolutions may be attempted not just to seize power over the center, but to destabilize the internal periphery of the country. It will unlikely to succeed under the current circumstances owing to the strength of the Russian state and the patriotism of its people, but in a future scenario where Russia’s Eastern European, Caucasian, and Central Asian near peripheries are being destabilized in unison, this could change. The US is also fostering fifth columns of political and social support in the country, and learning from their experiment with extreme nationalist forces in Ukraine, it is probable that they may try to co-opt similar movements in Russia to pursue their internal divide-and-conquer goals.
For now, Russian and US rivalry will be limited to proxy conflicts in the former Soviet space, but things could take a dangerous turn towards a conventional war or a US nuclear first strike if the Missile Defense Shield is completed. The prerogative for exacerbating or lessening tensions is thus on the US, which has continually been expanding its military, economic, and political presence in a noose around Russia since the end of the Cold War. This resulted in Russia having to defensively react to the US’ developments, but due to intensive information warfare, its counter-moves are instead painted as the opening aggressive salvos of a new Cold War. Under such a state of affairs, the rivalry cannot be stopped and Russia must continue, regardless of manipulated Western opinion, to defend its interests, sovereignty, and by extension, its very existence.
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