November 6, 2024: Even before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Russian leaders believed they were at war with western nations, especially NATO and the United States. NATO nations were not really aware of this Russian attitude, even after Russia invaded Ukraine.

The official Russian interpretation of the situation is that Ukraine is under the control of the Americans. For that reason, Russian propaganda directed at Russians considers Ukraine a puppet state controlled by the United States.

Russian leaders are dismayed that when Russia threatens the United States for one reason or another, the Americans ignore them. Russian leaders get the impression that the Americans don’t take them seriously. There are reasons for that and the most obvious one is the rampant corruption in Russia.

The government is particularly concerned about the extent of corruption in the military. This alone should have prevented the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The invasion was ordered to proceed by Vladimir Putin despite the poor state of the Russian military. Russian troops stumbled forward into Ukraine and suffered such heavy losses that the invasion force was withdrawn and the survivors sent to eastern Ukraine to reinforce troops in Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.

Ukraine appealed to NATO for military aid and the response was impressive. Over 100 billion dollars’ worth of weapons soon arrived followed by billions of dollars’ worth of economic aid. The Americans provided Ukraine with satellite photos of what the Russians were up to. It was later discovered that the Russians had no similar satellite services. The Ukrainians had a better picture of what was happening on the ground than the Russians did.

It got worse when the Ukrainians got Starlink communications kits. This gave them far better and more reliable communications than the Russians had. Some Russian troops got hold of black market Starlink gear and got past the security system to discover what they were missing. For Russian troops who knew about this, it explained why the Ukrainians always seemed to know more about what was going on in the combat zone and were able to act more quickly to deal with opportunities.

Putin saw all this as an American ploy to embarrass him and show the Russian military that their boss was unable to supply them with anything similar to what the Americans were providing to the Ukrainians. This was true but Putin warns Russians to know that they were dealing with an American colossus that was determined to destroy Russia.

The reality was that United States leaders, military and political, didn’t consider Russia or the Russian military very formidable. This was all revealed in Ukraine. Putin yearned for the pre-war times when he could portray the Russian military as a mighty force that was not crippled by corruption and incompetent and corrupt leadership.

The United States does not pay much attention to Russia. Instead the Americans are fixated on China and its new aircraft carriers and a fleet that is larger, in number of ships than the U.S. Navy. Putin does not pay much attention to the Chinese. He should because the Chinese are talking about taking back most of the Russian Far East province and renaming cities like Vladivostok with their original Chinese names like Yongmingcheng. This was a Chinese city that had been in this location for over a thousand years until the Russians forced China to surrender the territory to them in 1859 and renamed Yongmingcheng Vladivostok.

China wants its stolen territories back and Putin fears that while Russia is busy in Ukraine the Chinese might make a move. Putin notes that Western nations are not objecting to China regaining the territories taken by Russia 165 years ago. The Chinese have long memories and the Russians don’t, until it is too late. In this case Putin may not be paranoid. He may be right.

At the same time Putin is forced by his generals to pay attention to what NATO nations bordering Russia are up to. Poland and the Baltic States are welcoming American troops who visit and the U.S. proposal that the Americans build a base in Poland. The Poles consider that a great idea. Putin sees it as an old Russian nightmare come to life.