There I was, happily embarked on a more light-hearted note this week, when I decided to read Monday’s news reports. And there he was — my beloved Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman — shooting off his mouth once more on behalf of his vozhd, Vladimir Putin. And when Dmitry speaks, I’ve found that it’s useful to pay attention. So let’s check out the latest from my hero . . . my source of all wisdom . . . my No. 1 favorite bullshit artist: give it up for Dmitry Sergeevich Peskov. (Round of applause, please.)

*. *. *

So . . . WOW!

According to Reuters (June 17, 2024), “The Kremlin said on Monday [that] a remark by NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg that the military alliance was holding talks on deploying more nuclear weapons was an ‘escalation of tension.’

“Stoltenberg told Britain’s Telegraph newspaper that NATO members were consulting about deploying more nuclear weapons, taking them out of storage and placing them on standby in the face of a growing threat from Russia and China.”

So this is an “escalation of tension,” eh? Well, it might have been . . . if it weren’t in reality a natural response to all those not-so-subtle hints at the use of nuclear weapons previously tossed around by Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev (Russia’s latest and loudest cold-war warrior), and by Vladimir Putin himself. Those weren’t “escalations of tension”?

And when Medvedev again proclaims that Russia “was not bluffing when it spoke of the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine and warned [that] Moscow’s conflict with the West could escalate into all-out war . . . [that] Moscow’s conflict with the West was developing according to the worst case scenario and that ‘nobody today can rule out the conflict’s transition to its final stage’” [Reuters, May 31, 2024] — that’s not an escalation of tensions?

If it isn’t, I’d like to know what the hell is!

For example:

When Russia massed its troops on the Ukrainian border and staged an all-out invasion of that sovereign nation on February 24, 2022 — that wasn’t an escalation of tensions?

But when Ukraine mobilized to defend itself, and sought help from its Western allies — that was aggression?

And when Ukraine refuses to simply give away pieces of itself because the bully on the playground demands it — that’s an escalation of tensions?

When NATO members, including those countries directly abutting Ukraine, dig down deep to help their democratic ally by providing non-nuclear weapons to prevent the spread of Russia’s territorial ambitions — that’s an escalation of tensions?

In the sick, twisted, Byzantine mindset of Vladimir Putin and his minions, that’s what we — the nations of the free world — are expected to believe. But we don’t . . . and we never will. Because we know better.

Take that message back to your boss, Dmitry Sergeevich.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
6/18/24