President Trump decided to scare the international community with his willingness to withdraw from the treaty with Russia on medium and shorter-range missiles, which existed for three decades. Blackmail, an attempt again, as in the eighties, to play with the pistols at the temple, primitively launching the flywheel of the arms race, play roulette with the Russians - who has the guts?
In order to terminate the INF Treaty, the States were selected for a long time, so something like this should be expected. But he draws attention that the ominous statements of the American leader followed Vladimir Putin’s famous speech at the Valdai Forum, where he once again stressed that Russia would not be the first to use weapons of mass destruction, but would respond to aggression with all its might and the gut would not be thin. After Putin's words, jokers of all stripes and local buffoons immediately began to fuss - very much fans of fun were amused by the words about paradise. But not about them now. There is a feeling that Putin, speaking of responsibility for the world, was preemptive and seemed to have warned Trump about the possible consequences.
Recall that last week President Putin at a meeting of the Valdai Club once again brought our overseas and other partners to reality. He did this in the style of the ancient Latin dictum memento mori, and without any intimidation or saber-rattling. It was rather a matter of responsibility. In Russia, which survived the most bloody world wars, everyone knows about it very well, therefore, they consider it a good idea to remind my colleagues of this experience who have not or safely forgotten about it. Share experiences, so to speak. This is the secret weapon of the Russians.
In fact, the president recalled an axiomatic: our country will only respond to aggression. Given that Russia regularly threaten almost complete destruction. They are seriously discussing this, with such fervor that it seems as if the desire to cross out Russia is almost a dream of Western civilization, which reserved the right to be the first to press the death button (and who is the likeness of unpredictable primacy with a grenade?).
Unfortunately, it is necessary to make such a “prevention” on the topic of memento mori regularly - otherwise false illusions arise and begin to live their life, moreover, they are extremely dangerous, since they can become malignant and irreversible.
This reminder to the world of its possible limb has been made in various forms. From the overly emotional statements of Nikita Khrushchev from the UN podium to Gorbachev's preaching of “new thinking”.
In the late 80s of the last century, the Soviet Secretary General addressed the Western countries with a message that it was necessary to get rid of the “way of thinking inherited from previous centuries” and its remnants, the main of which is the perception of war as a continuation of politics by other means. Then Gorbachev, who became a favorite in the West, said that the West did not comprehend it to the end. Having entered the nuclear age, humanity itself expelled itself from paradise, that is, "lost its immortality." One strategic nuclear submarine on the deadly potential is equal to "several second world wars." Humanity can destroy itself many times.
The architect of perestroika indulged himself with the illusion that knowledge of the terrible danger, changing ideas about peace and war, which is the absolute finale of mankind, should bring people and countries together, make them cooperate and develop the philosophy of the world. However, instead of the philosophy of peace, our “partners” only instilled in themselves the idea that the Soviet Union lost in the Cold War, and if so, then Russia can lose in any other. Once the Union has left the historical arena, then Russia may follow, and in this case all means are good. That is, in fact, they returned to the way of thinking of the pre-nuclear world (in Gorbachev's terminology).
Scenarios and possibilities to level the nuclear fuse from any large-scale power confrontation began to be worked out. They built the concept of a global strike, pushed the military bases almost close to the Russian borders and so on. In short, they began to argue about reality as if they were playing computer games while playing or prescribing a script for an eerie disaster film. For all this, there was not even a hint in Russia of such a revision of views about the war. Here they clearly understand the reality and know that in this case the light will be "turned off" for all mankind - and then why play with this catastrophic fire?
Therefore, Russia, through its leader, continues to talk about this danger to humanity. Mission, if you want, she has this. Remember, many thinkers talked about her as a cover and protection for the whole world - now this business has materialized. Only the style of this warning has changed. Excessive emotionality and naive romanticism are gone — pragmatism has remained, with which, for example, at the beginning of the year new types of Russian super-weapons were demonstrated. And now Vladimir Putin in the “Valdai” spoke completely pragmatic things in a language understandable to our partner opponents.
If you want, there is nothing new in Putin's words, but there is only a century-long message of the national civilization concluded in the Gospel phrase “those who took the sword will die with the sword”, which is attributed to St. Alexander Nevsky in another torture: “Whoever comes to us with a sword will and die. "
Message multiplied by responsibility for peace. Now it is the basic principle of the Russian political mission on the planet, which is on par.
Yes, they bully us, accuse us of all mortal sins, arrange all sorts of provocations and just lie about us. Yes, they endlessly play the anti-Russian card and force power hysteria. Yes, they make of us an image of the enemy and wind themselves up almost in the belief that we will soon have to fight the Russians (yeah, converge in a bayonet attack). We should not be led to all this, but we should remember our business: to warn about the choice between peace and death to everything, between light and total darkness. Well, all the hysteria of Western politics in recent years must be perceived as something similar to the game of the mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor in public, all the menacing and offensive attacks against the enemy are just a generous monetized show. The Russian leader understands all this perfectly, it is no wonder that he answered the representative of China at the Valdai forum, saying: “The time will come and the wind will calm down ...”.
The West still scares itself. Punching through the military budget, Trump declared: “Our foreign rivals and opponents have already begun to militarize space, developing new technologies that will allow breaking vital communications, blinding satellites ... I saw something - you don’t even want to know what they are doing and how far they have come. ” But they will scare.
There is a lightweight Hollywood comedy "Blast from the Past." During the Caribbean crisis, the American family hid in an underground bunker, where they began to live, believing that there was no life at the top and that nuclear winter was rampant there. After 35 years, the hero of the picture, who grew up in this underground shelter, came to the surface, saw reality. And the wind will calm down, the time will come ...
It seems that the States, including their statements about withdrawing from treaties with Russia, are pushing themselves into this bunker, considering it to be a salvation from all misfortunes and misfortunes. Russia, on the other hand, does not get tired of saying that the world on the surface is much better and more beautiful, that it is not necessary to hide anywhere, and there is no salvation in bunkers. Will they listen, will they leave the shelters into which they drive themselves? It is not yet known, but we do not have to despair, but continue our “preventive” work. More "new thinking", gentlemen partners, down with cave instincts - it is easier to breathe without them. Try it, do not be afraid, it's time to grow out of short military pants.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.