Social media and alt-media are filled with individuals, some well-meaning and some otherwise who call themselves pro-Russian. It does not matter that they’ve never watched a speech from the State Duma in their lives, it does not matter that they want Russia to be as insane, unilateral and belligerent as the US State Department and US Department of Defense, it does not matter that they misunderstand the meaning of and lessons of the 9th of May. For such people it is sufficient for them to have a vague interest or even sincere devotion to what they think Russia represents. Worse yet, some sit on the Russian side of the fence because they think it is cool, but there is nothing cool about slandering Russia though misrepresentations.
READ MORE: Here’s why Russia doesn’t want to fight the United States in Syria
Russian diplomacy is about pragmatism and patriotism. Russia realises that any major conflict with a superpower like the United States could literally bring the world to an end. As Russians fought and died in greater numbers than anyone else in the Great Patriotic War, the idea of an even bigger destructive force being unleashed on mankind is totally anathema to the Russian psyche and collective national soul.
Russia is of course correct when issuing stern warnings to the United States to cease its aggression in Syria. This includes entirely justified and welcomed statements from Russia stating that all US and US allied aircraft flying west of the Euphrates in Syria will be treated as enemy targets. It was also entirely correct for Sergey Lavrov to say that any aggression against Syria based on false flag chemical attacks that America said were ‘in the works’ would be met with a “proportional” Russian response.
It is equally right for Russia to engage in dialogue with the United States at the highest levels in order to attempt to avoid an escalation of tensions and to avoid further acts of illegal US aggression in Syria and elsewhere.
The reality is that there are many on social media who have been insulting President Putin for listening to Donald Trump. They essentially want Putin to have as much condescension towards and engage in as much second guessing of international players as Barack Obama and his political allies did.
Who other than a psychopath would not want a meeting between the Presidents of Russia and the United States to go well? The alternative, a bad meeting would have meant things would be worse not better and what normal person would want to live in a world with more rather than less danger of war crimes, violence and the threat of conflict between nuclear superpowers?
Russians do not want this and nor to Russians want to be timid. But the Russian idea of strength is about protecting one’s interests while trying to avoid conflict. The American idea is to fight in areas that are beyond the tangible long term interests of the American people (though often in the SHORT TERM interests of multi-national corporations) and to do so with flagrant disregard for an ordered global balance of power. This is why American foreign policy is so dangerous while Chinese and Russian foreign policy is not.
The solution though is not to fight fire with fire, the solution is to fight fire with calm and diplomacy backed up by resolute strength and determination. This is what Russia does.
Russia does not need the approval of a bunch of goons on social media, but it is equally disheartening to find that so many so-called Russian supporters totally distort the truth about Russia. They do so as dangerously as do the self-professed enemies of Russian in the fake news western mainstream media.
Every movement has its useful idiots, but these people are worse than that, they are dangerous idiots and they are also dangerously idiotic.
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