#thewest — Public Fediverse posts

As Ukraine garners headlines for its drone warfare innovation, it is also producing a playbook for countering Russian propaganda.

“This Ukrainian experience offers important lessons for the wider Western world,” writes Ryan Prior...

#RUssia #propaganda #Ukraine #theWest #Europe #EU
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/the-west-can-learn-from-ukraines-success-against-russian-propaganda/?utm_campaign=read&utm_content=20260704&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_source=linkedin&utm_term=Atlantic%20Council

As Ukraine garners headlines for its drone warfare innovation, it is also producing a playbook for countering Russian propaganda.

“This Ukrainian experience offers important lessons for the wider Western world,” writes Ryan Prior...

#RUssia #propaganda #Ukraine #theWest #Europe #EU
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/the-west-can-learn-from-ukraines-success-against-russian-propaganda/?utm_campaign=read&utm_content=20260704&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_source=linkedin&utm_term=Atlantic%20Council

"Don't ask Ukraine to stop defending itself. Ask russia to stop invading."
- Olena Halushka‬

#Russia #Ukraine #Europe #theWest #USA #UK #RussianInvasion #RussiaUkraineWar #selfdefence

"Don't ask Ukraine to stop defending itself. Ask russia to stop invading."
- Olena Halushka‬

#Russia #Ukraine #Europe #theWest #USA #UK #RussianInvasion #RussiaUkraineWar #selfdefence

stead of piggy backing off other folks' posts (and pissing everybody off) i guess i should just try to articulate cold

on hanson and all the attention she's getting, folks reevaluating, pegging her for potential prime minister etc

think it fair to ask how much of trumpism's about trump? folks look at the mess and the pattern they see is the party and the base, the democrats in disarray, and figure it's about trump, his personal appeal (as distinct from his 'agenda') and figure on his having a kind of messianic charisma

nothing new in this (re flyover country ect) but as with hanson i reckon it fair to lay it square at the feet of the failings of our norms and institutions in so far as what we've been promised (how we've been given to understand the substance of those norms and institutions) and what they've delivered in the round

#meltingpot #westernCulture #theWest #ausPol #hanson

stead of piggy backing off other folks' posts (and pissing everybody off) i guess i should just try to articulate cold

on hanson and all the attention she's getting, folks reevaluating, pegging her for potential prime minister etc

think it fair to ask how much of trumpism's about trump? folks look at the mess and the pattern they see is the party and the base, the democrats in disarray, and figure it's about trump, his personal appeal (as distinct from his 'agenda') and figure on his having a kind of messianic charisma

nothing new in this (re flyover country ect) but as with hanson i reckon it fair to lay it square at the feet of the failings of our norms and institutions in so far as what we've been promised (how we've been given to understand the substance of those norms and institutions) and what they've delivered in the round

#meltingpot #westernCulture #theWest #ausPol #hanson

"... Step by step, Belarus is removing the political, legal, industrial, and military barriers that once limited its involvement in Russia’s war. The command structures are now in place. Legislation has been rewritten and the defense industry is expanding. Preparation is not the same as intent, of course, but it makes participation easier should Putin decide that the time has come. ..."

#Belarus #Russia #Ukraine #theWest #Europe #EuropeanSecurity
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/belarus-is-quietly-preparing-to-play-a-larger-role-in-russias-ukraine-war/

"... Step by step, Belarus is removing the political, legal, industrial, and military barriers that once limited its involvement in Russia’s war. The command structures are now in place. Legislation has been rewritten and the defense industry is expanding. Preparation is not the same as intent, of course, but it makes participation easier should Putin decide that the time has come. ..."

#Belarus #Russia #Ukraine #theWest #Europe #EuropeanSecurity
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/belarus-is-quietly-preparing-to-play-a-larger-role-in-russias-ukraine-war/

Youth, Culture, and Islam in the West

https://alborz8.wordpress.com/2026/06/25/youth-culture-and-islam-in-the-west/

"Content from ‘independent’ pro-Kremlin influencers describing Moscow as ‘unfairly targeted by the West’ omits a central fact: sanctions were a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine."
- EUvsDisinfo‬

#Russia #Russianinvasion #theWest #EUvsDisinfo

"Content from ‘independent’ pro-Kremlin influencers describing Moscow as ‘unfairly targeted by the West’ omits a central fact: sanctions were a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine."
- EUvsDisinfo‬

#Russia #Russianinvasion #theWest #EUvsDisinfo

Former BYU, NFL greats have their brains examined, results positive – Deseret News https://www.rawchili.com/5012096/ #NFL #sports #TheWest #US&World #Utah

Former BYU, NFL greats have their brains examined, results positive – Deseret News https://www.rawchili.com/nfl/906892/ #Football #NFL #Sports #TheWest #US&World #Utah

Het is niet in Westerse belangen om Israël een haar in de weg te leggen. Alana Lentin:

'Thus, the almost total impunity granted Israel as it has exacted death and destruction on the people of Palestine and sown murderous chaos around the region since its founding can also be understood in terms of the function it serves for the West. Israel’s recent June 12 attack on Iran exposes this in no uncertain terms. Germany, erroneously thought by a majority of observers to be driven in its rabid support for the Zionist colony by guilt for its genocide of the Jews of Europe, made its desires clear. Commending the strikes, German Chancellor Merz said, “This is the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us.”'

https://mondoweiss.net/2025/07/against-jewish-safety/#comments

@[email protected] @[email protected]

#Israel #antisemitism #fascism #racism #CedricRobinson #AntiRacism #TheWest #capitalism #RacialRegime

Het is niet in Westerse belangen om Israël een haar in de weg te leggen. Alana Lentin:

'Thus, the almost total impunity granted Israel as it has exacted death and destruction on the people of Palestine and sown murderous chaos around the region since its founding can also be understood in terms of the function it serves for the West. Israel’s recent June 12 attack on Iran exposes this in no uncertain terms. Germany, erroneously thought by a majority of observers to be driven in its rabid support for the Zionist colony by guilt for its genocide of the Jews of Europe, made its desires clear. Commending the strikes, German Chancellor Merz said, “This is the dirty work Israel is doing for all of us.”'

https://mondoweiss.net/2025/07/against-jewish-safety/#comments

@[email protected] @[email protected]

#Israel #antisemitism #fascism #racism #CedricRobinson #AntiRacism #TheWest #capitalism #RacialRegime

"I haven’t seen a single video of a Muscovite exclaiming “NATO/the West is finally invading us! We were right to worry”. They’re all confused and incredulous that Moscow is under attack. So much for claims that Russians are afraid of an invasion. Anyone claiming that is whitewashing Ru aggression!"
- Maria Popova‬
‪
#Russia #RussianAggression #NATO #theWest #RussiaUkraineWar

Bit of an off-the-wall connection, but the point of #Scifi IS to explore ideas through a lens of fiction...

I've been watching #StarTrek #Enterprise lately, with episodes like "Dear Doctor", "#Cogenitor", "North Star", and "Observer Effect" going into the realm of "why we don't interfere with other cultures, no matter what".

I've also been watching the #IranWar, with absurd projections of impossibly wishful scenarios of an instant transition to pro-US democracy with the low-cost application of a few hundred bombs, contrasted with the reality of an #Iran now galvanized against "#TheWest" by the completely unprovoked and sudden attack by the #US and #Israel alone against the will of all allies.

I don't think even Crazy Captain Archer would approve, and it seems to me like most of us should've learned this lesson the hard way by 2004, to the point where scifi writers were putting it on UPN.

#USpol #war #ENT

Bit of an off-the-wall connection, but the point of #Scifi IS to explore ideas through a lens of fiction...

I've been watching #StarTrek #Enterprise lately, with episodes like "Dear Doctor", "#Cogenitor", "North Star", and "Observer Effect" going into the realm of "why we don't interfere with other cultures, no matter what".

I've also been watching the #IranWar, with absurd projections of impossibly wishful scenarios of an instant transition to pro-US democracy with the low-cost application of a few hundred bombs, contrasted with the reality of an #Iran now galvanized against "#TheWest" by the completely unprovoked and sudden attack by the #US and #Israel alone against the will of all allies.

I don't think even Crazy Captain Archer would approve, and it seems to me like most of us should've learned this lesson the hard way by 2004, to the point where scifi writers were putting it on UPN.

#USpol #war #ENT

Shada Islam

'Racial logic is woven into our laws as well as our political, economic and social systems. It shapes access to jobs, housing, education and justice. It informs policing practices, border controls and foreign policy choices. Racialised biases are being stamped into our AI tools'

#euPol #racism #policy #europe #theWest

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/27/orban-europe-eu-racism-migration-border

Shada Islam

'Racial logic is woven into our laws as well as our political, economic and social systems. It shapes access to jobs, housing, education and justice. It informs policing practices, border controls and foreign policy choices. Racialised biases are being stamped into our AI tools'

#euPol #racism #policy #europe #theWest

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/27/orban-europe-eu-racism-migration-border

Multilateralism for middle powers

" Multilateralism is shorthand for the much-invoked “rules-based international order”; multipolarity is the world of competing spheres of interest, what Stubb calls “an oligopoly of power”, where the strong do what they will and the weak do what they must.

We are not simply in a transition; we are in a fight for a future world order. And the path to a healthy outcome necessarily runs through international institutions, from the UN to settings far beyond it, where we must rethink membership and power for global cooperation to survive.The world is being reshaped by the “structural” forces of demography, climate and technology,

Part of the problem, Stubb argues, is that “the US is not a modern society by European or Asian standards”. This helps to explain the growing influence of a radical form of evangelical Christianity within the Trump administration. But it also accounts for the absence of adequate healthcare, education and housing that plagues the US, in particular, and neoliberal economies like Australia’s more generally.

Without strong multilateral systems, all interstate deals become transactional. A multipolar world runs on self-interest. A multilateral world makes the common interest a self-interest. " >>
https://theconversation.com/finlands-president-alexander-stubb-has-some-ideas-to-save-the-international-order-and-ourselves-280153
#Multilateralism #MiddlePowers #Australia #TheWest #InternationalOrder #SelfInterest #oligopoly

Multilateralism for middle powers

" Multilateralism is shorthand for the much-invoked “rules-based international order”; multipolarity is the world of competing spheres of interest, what Stubb calls “an oligopoly of power”, where the strong do what they will and the weak do what they must.

We are not simply in a transition; we are in a fight for a future world order. And the path to a healthy outcome necessarily runs through international institutions, from the UN to settings far beyond it, where we must rethink membership and power for global cooperation to survive.The world is being reshaped by the “structural” forces of demography, climate and technology,

Part of the problem, Stubb argues, is that “the US is not a modern society by European or Asian standards”. This helps to explain the growing influence of a radical form of evangelical Christianity within the Trump administration. But it also accounts for the absence of adequate healthcare, education and housing that plagues the US, in particular, and neoliberal economies like Australia’s more generally.

Without strong multilateral systems, all interstate deals become transactional. A multipolar world runs on self-interest. A multilateral world makes the common interest a self-interest. " >>
https://theconversation.com/finlands-president-alexander-stubb-has-some-ideas-to-save-the-international-order-and-ourselves-280153
#Multilateralism #MiddlePowers #Australia #TheWest #InternationalOrder #SelfInterest #oligopoly

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/03/tuesday-march-31-2026/

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/03/tuesday-march-31-2026/

The New Energy Realpolitik: Lavrov’s Warning About Trump 2.0’s Quest For Global Dominance

The New Energy Realpolitik: Lavrov’s Warning About Trump 2.0’s Quest For Global Dominance

By Andrew Korybko

Russia’s threat perception of the US is growing as a result of stalled peace talks, increasing pressure to enter into even more concessions than were already agreed to during the Anchorage Summit, and the global systemic consequences of the Third Gulf War that the US initiated.

Last month, “Lavrov Soberly Acknowledged The Challenges Posed By Trump 2.0”, and now he’s warning about its plans for global dominance in a recent interview. In his words, “[The US] is prepared to defend [its] wellbeing by whatever it takes – coups, abductions, or even the killings of leaders of the countries that possess natural resources that are of interest to the United States. Our US colleagues do not hide the fact that oil is what they are after in Venezuela and Iran.”

He observed that “They operate in line with their doctrine of dominance in global energy markets”, which alludes to what was written here at the start of the Third Gulf War about how one of its goals is to disrupt China’s import of Iranian oil (13.4% of last year’s total by sea) or control it by proxy. In parallel, Russia is being squeezed out of the European energy market, first in Germany through Nord Stream’s destruction and now Hungary, Slovakia, and even Serbia, to turn the continent into a captive US market.

As such, “We are being forced out of all global energy markets. Eventually, we will be left with our own territory. The Americans will then come to us and tell us they want to be partners. However, if we are prepared to carry out mutually beneficial projects on our territory and provide Americans with whatever may interest them, while taking our own interests into account, they, too, must take our interests into consideration.” This is an allusion to the ongoing talks over a resource-centric strategic partnership.

Lavrov is sceptical that any deal with the US is possible right now, however, after revealing to his interlocutor that “Our US colleagues are telling us: let’s settle the situation in Ukraine – we were ready to do so back during the summit in Alaska, but they are not so sure about it now – suggesting that we make more concessions, and vast economic opportunities will open up to us after that.” This suggests that Trump 2.0 was emboldened since the Anchorage Summit into ramping up pressure on Russia.

A week before his meeting with Putin in Alaska, he hosted the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders at the White House, where they signed a peace deal and jointly announced the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP). This megaproject will expand Western – including NATO – influence across Russia’s entire southern periphery in the South Caucasus, Caspian Sea, and Central Asia. It’s therefore possible that Trump now wants to weaponize TRIPP to coerce more concessions from Russia.

Russia is in a stronger position vis-à-vis the US than before the Third Gulf War, however, since it’s poised to be one of the only oases of security and stability in Afro-Eurasia if the global energy crisis sparks a polycrisis of starvation, unemployment, and unrest there. If the US doesn’t get Ukraine to give Russia what it wants, then Russia might cut off energy exports to the EU before the bloc’s 2027 deadline, which the US can’t replace in full. That would deal a deathblow to one of the US’ largest trade partners.

Regardless of whatever comes from the Russian-US talks and no matter the outcome of the Ukrainian Conflict, Lavrov is assessed that Trump 2.0 is “taking us back to a world where nothing existed – no international law, no Versailles system, no Yalta system – nothing. A world where might makes right.” In such a world, “the weak get beaten. That sums it all up. We must be strong. And Russia is a very strong country.” It’s therefore expected to fare a lot better than most in Trump 2.0’s envisaged world order.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.

Beyond Pragmatism: Dmitry Trenin’s Sceptical Turn On Trump 2.0

Beyond Pragmatism: Dmitry Trenin’s Sceptical Turn On Trump 2.0

By Andrew Korybko

What can be described as Russia’s pro-BRI policymaking faction has long lobbied for a harder line against the US, but their ‘friendly rivals’ in the balancing one of which Putin is a part disagreed, though Trenin’s ‘defection’ from the balancing faction to the pro-BRI one suggests that the tide might be turning.

Dmitry Trenin is one of Russia’s top experts and used to be considered a Westernizer among many prior to having a change of heart as a result of everything that happened since the special operation began. He’s an interesting figure to follow and that’s likely why RT published the translated version of an article that he recently wrote sharing a very sceptical assessment of Trump 2.0. The present piece will draw attention to the highlights before analysing the importance of what he wrote.

Trenin thinks that “the American political establishment – Congress, the media, and much of the foreign policy bureaucracy – was deeply uncomfortable with a peace formula that could hardly be presented domestically as a victory over Russia”, ergo why the “spirit of Anchorage” fizzled out. Trump “appears to have aligned himself more closely with powerful political and financial groups in Washington, including neoconservative circles and the Israeli lobby”, thus “sidelining” his “original MAGA allies”.

The end result is that “Instead of presiding over the slow decline of the liberal-globalist order, Trump is attempting to build a new version of American hegemony, one based far more openly on force.” Correspondingly, Trenin believes that “Washington’s objective today is not necessarily to construct a stable new world order. Rather, it may be to generate global instability and then dominate within that chaos.” This “inevitably” makes the US Russia’s “geopolitical, and potentially military, adversary.”

With this assessment in mind, Trenin advises that “Russia shouldn’t forget the duplicity Trump has already shown toward Iran in 2025 and again in 2026. Notably, the same American envoys involved in negotiations with Russia over Ukraine were also conducting talks with Iran…Dialogue with him is possible, but trust is not advisable. Russia must also remember that US military doctrine places great emphasis on neutralizing the leadership of an adversary at the beginning of any conflict.”

Just as importantly, “Economic cooperation with the United States is theoretically possible. In practice, it is highly unlikely. Most American sanctions against Russia are embedded in US legislation and cannot be lifted by presidential decision alone. For most Russians alive today, those sanctions will remain a long-term reality. Russia must therefore orient its economic strategy toward domestic development and cooperation with non-Western partners.”

Trenin then concludes that “Russia’s task is clear: deepen cooperation with partners facing pressure from the United States. Their resistance could slow, and perhaps eventually halt, the current American counteroffensive. Because one thing is certain: the United States will not stop unless it is stopped.” While he earlier reaffirmed that it’s Putin’s decision how to proceed, the importance of Trenin’s article is that it shows how radically even previously Western-friendly thought leaders have soured on the West.

What can be described as Russia’s pro-BRI policymaking faction has long lobbied for a harder line against the US, but their ‘friendly rivals’ in the balancing one of which Putin is a part disagreed, though Trenin’s ‘defection’ from the balancing faction to the pro-BRI one suggests that the tide might be turning. It’s therefore possible that Putin might finally be persuaded to abandon his pragmatic approach towards Trump 2.0 if the US soon doesn’t give him what he wants in Ukraine and continues encircling Russia.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.

Illumination in dark times
A genealogy of modern Western selfhood and a post-Western world

"Smith ... outlines a genealogy of modern Western selfhood: a radically individual, hypermasculine character that was formed during the rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the white man’s world. “Bold, conquering, and altogether assertive,” it was “dedicated to action,” hostile to reflection, indifferent to community and the environment, and guilty of possessing, Smith writes, an “undeveloped heart,” a term borrowed from E. M. Forster’s assessment of the British elite." "

" “We must alter our very relations with the world around us.” This means giving up the exalted and exaggerated idea of the West that boosts a masculinist self-image but severely constricts thought and feeling. “We should welcome our era’s uncertainties,...the not-knowing of how the post-Western story will come out.” Smith’s final warning—that “we will not survive the Western notion of the individual much longer”—should resonate today, as nineteenth-century individualism reasserts itself in the degraded Nietzscheanism of Peter Thiel and Stephen Miller." >>

* Mishra, P. (2026, April). "The Authority of Thought". Harper's Magazine.
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/04/the-authority-of-thought-pankaj-mishra/

* Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World by Patrick Smith. 2010 >>
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/169395/somebody-elses-century-by-patrick-smith/
#TheWest #WhiteSupremacy #masculinity #ImpulseControl #EthnoNationalism #WesternCivilization #AngloAmerican #parochialism #individualism #subjectivity #SettlerSociety #Culture #RacialInequality #war #EastWest #PostWesternWorld #DarkTimes #illumination #narrative #environment

Image: Double Bay War Memorial, Steyne Park, Sydney

Illumination in dark times
A genealogy of modern Western selfhood and a post-Western world

"Smith ... outlines a genealogy of modern Western selfhood: a radically individual, hypermasculine character that was formed during the rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the white man’s world. “Bold, conquering, and altogether assertive,” it was “dedicated to action,” hostile to reflection, indifferent to community and the environment, and guilty of possessing, Smith writes, an “undeveloped heart,” a term borrowed from E. M. Forster’s assessment of the British elite." "

" “We must alter our very relations with the world around us.” This means giving up the exalted and exaggerated idea of the West that boosts a masculinist self-image but severely constricts thought and feeling. “We should welcome our era’s uncertainties,...the not-knowing of how the post-Western story will come out.” Smith’s final warning—that “we will not survive the Western notion of the individual much longer”—should resonate today, as nineteenth-century individualism reasserts itself in the degraded Nietzscheanism of Peter Thiel and Stephen Miller." >>

* Mishra, P. (2026, April). "The Authority of Thought". Harper's Magazine.
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/04/the-authority-of-thought-pankaj-mishra/

* Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World by Patrick Smith. 2010 >>
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/169395/somebody-elses-century-by-patrick-smith/
#TheWest #WhiteSupremacy #masculinity #ImpulseControl #EthnoNationalism #WesternCivilization #AngloAmerican #parochialism #individualism #subjectivity #SettlerSociety #Culture #RacialInequality #war #EastWest #PostWesternWorld #DarkTimes #illumination #narrative #environment

Image: Double Bay War Memorial, Steyne Park, Sydney

Illumination in dark times
A genealogy of modern Western selfhood and a post-Western world

"Smith ... outlines a genealogy of modern Western selfhood: a radically individual, hypermasculine character that was formed during the rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the white man’s world. “Bold, conquering, and altogether assertive,” it was “dedicated to action,” hostile to reflection, indifferent to community and the environment, and guilty of possessing, Smith writes, an “undeveloped heart,” a term borrowed from E. M. Forster’s assessment of the British elite." "

" “We must alter our very relations with the world around us.” This means giving up the exalted and exaggerated idea of the West that boosts a masculinist self-image but severely constricts thought and feeling. “We should welcome our era’s uncertainties,...the not-knowing of how the post-Western story will come out.” Smith’s final warning—that “we will not survive the Western notion of the individual much longer”—should resonate today, as nineteenth-century individualism reasserts itself in the degraded Nietzscheanism of Peter Thiel and Stephen Miller." >>

* Mishra, P. (2026, April). "The Authority of Thought". Harper's Magazine.
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/04/the-authority-of-thought-pankaj-mishra/

* Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World by Patrick Smith. 2010 >>
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/169395/somebody-elses-century-by-patrick-smith/
#TheWest #WhiteSupremacy #masculinity #ImpulseControl #EthnoNationalism #WesternCivilization #AngloAmerican #parochialism #individualism #subjectivity #SettlerSociety #Culture #RacialInequality #war #EastWest #PostWesternWorld #DarkTimes #illumination #narrative #environment

Image: Double Bay War Memorial, Steyne Park, Sydney

Illumination in dark times
A genealogy of modern Western selfhood and a post-Western world

"Smith ... outlines a genealogy of modern Western selfhood: a radically individual, hypermasculine character that was formed during the rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the white man’s world. “Bold, conquering, and altogether assertive,” it was “dedicated to action,” hostile to reflection, indifferent to community and the environment, and guilty of possessing, Smith writes, an “undeveloped heart,” a term borrowed from E. M. Forster’s assessment of the British elite." "

" “We must alter our very relations with the world around us.” This means giving up the exalted and exaggerated idea of the West that boosts a masculinist self-image but severely constricts thought and feeling. “We should welcome our era’s uncertainties,...the not-knowing of how the post-Western story will come out.” Smith’s final warning—that “we will not survive the Western notion of the individual much longer”—should resonate today, as nineteenth-century individualism reasserts itself in the degraded Nietzscheanism of Peter Thiel and Stephen Miller." >>

* Mishra, P. (2026, April). "The Authority of Thought". Harper's Magazine.
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/04/the-authority-of-thought-pankaj-mishra/

* Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World by Patrick Smith. 2010 >>
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/169395/somebody-elses-century-by-patrick-smith/
#TheWest #WhiteSupremacy #masculinity #ImpulseControl #EthnoNationalism #WesternCivilization #AngloAmerican #parochialism #individualism #subjectivity #SettlerSociety #Culture #RacialInequality #war #EastWest #PostWesternWorld #DarkTimes #illumination #narrative #environment

Image: Double Bay War Memorial, Steyne Park, Sydney

Illumination in dark times
A genealogy of modern Western selfhood and a post-Western world

"Smith ... outlines a genealogy of modern Western selfhood: a radically individual, hypermasculine character that was formed during the rapid nineteenth-century expansion of the white man’s world. “Bold, conquering, and altogether assertive,” it was “dedicated to action,” hostile to reflection, indifferent to community and the environment, and guilty of possessing, Smith writes, an “undeveloped heart,” a term borrowed from E. M. Forster’s assessment of the British elite." "

" “We must alter our very relations with the world around us.” This means giving up the exalted and exaggerated idea of the West that boosts a masculinist self-image but severely constricts thought and feeling. “We should welcome our era’s uncertainties,...the not-knowing of how the post-Western story will come out.” Smith’s final warning—that “we will not survive the Western notion of the individual much longer”—should resonate today, as nineteenth-century individualism reasserts itself in the degraded Nietzscheanism of Peter Thiel and Stephen Miller." >>

* Mishra, P. (2026, April). "The Authority of Thought". Harper's Magazine.
https://harpers.org/archive/2026/04/the-authority-of-thought-pankaj-mishra/

* Somebody Else's Century: East and West in a Post-Western World by Patrick Smith. 2010 >>
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/169395/somebody-elses-century-by-patrick-smith/
#TheWest #WhiteSupremacy #masculinity #ImpulseControl #EthnoNationalism #WesternCivilization #AngloAmerican #parochialism #individualism #subjectivity #SettlerSociety #Culture #RacialInequality #war #EastWest #PostWesternWorld #DarkTimes #illumination #narrative #environment

Image: Double Bay War Memorial, Steyne Park, Sydney

The West’s Accusation Of Russian Meddling In Hungary Is Actually A Confession

The West’s Accusation Of Russian Meddling In Hungary Is Actually A Confession

By Andrew Korybko

The EU and Ukraine are the ones meddling there ahead of early April’s next parliamentary elections.

The Financial Times reported that Russia is meddling in Hungary ahead of early April’s next parliamentary elections through an online disinformation campaign aimed at lionizing incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orban and denigrating his opponent Peter Magyar among voters. To that end, it’s allegedly relying on Hungarian influencers to disseminate these narratives, but this claim insultingly implies that those who believe the aforesaid on their own lack agency and are Russia’s “useful idiots”.

While Russia would prefer for Orban to be re-elected since he pragmatically opposes the West’s proxy war on it through Ukraine and refused to cut off energy imports from it for equally pragmatic reasons, these policies are also genuinely popular in Hungary, ergo why voters promote him on their own online. To be sure, there’s also always been a genuine opposition movement in Hungary too, but it’s backed by the EU and Ukraine through their meddling in the country. This in turn delegitimizes them and Magyar.

Their employed means consist of the EU withholding funds from Hungary on “rule of law” pretexts in the hopes of turning voters against Orban, Ukraine delaying the resumption of oil through the Druzhba pipeline across its territory on technical pretexts for the same reason, and both criticizing Orban. With these facts in mind, and there’s no denying them since they objectively exist, it can be concluded that the West’s accusation of Russian meddling is actually a confession. Here are three background briefings:

* 19 September 2025: “Hungary Warned About Brussels’ Three Regime Change Plots In Central Europe”

* 13 February 2026: “Orban Is Right: Ukraine Has Truly Become Hungary’s Enemy”

* 18 February 2026: “Slovakia & Hungary Shouldn’t Be Fooled By The US’ Feigned Friendship”

To briefly review for those readers with limited time, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto raised awareness last August about the EU’s efforts to meddle in early April’s next parliamentary elections. Nearly half a year later, relations with Ukraine deteriorated due to its weaponization of energy that was touched upon above, but then Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Budapest and endorsed Orban. The US didn’t condemn Ukraine’s aforesaid hybrid attack on Hungary, however, nor pressure it to stop.

This in turn proves that its friendship is feigned to a large degree, although it’s also true that the US would prefer for Orban to be re-elected since his conservative-nationalist outlook aligns with Trump’s. Nevertheless, his EU- and Ukrainian-backed “democratic ouster” would accelerate the US’ envisaged replacement of Russian energy with its own on the Hungarian market, not to mention likely seeing Hungary arm and finance Ukraine for perpetuating the US’ profitable proxy war on Russia.

US interests are therefore expected to be advanced no matter whether the EU and Ukraine succeed in manipulating voters into deposing Orban. If he’s re-elected, Hungary will continue to serve as a conservative bastion in Europe in alignment with the regional ideological aspect of the US’ National Security Strategy and the new world order that it envisages, while his ouster could be immediately profitable. Ultimately, it’s Hungarians’ choice, and they’re the ones who’ll live with the consequences.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.

Putin’s Top Aide Patrushev Addressed The West’s Evolving Naval Threats To Russia

Putin’s Top Aide Patrushev Addressed The West’s Evolving Naval Threats To Russia

By Andrew Korybko

All in all, he has a solid understanding of their nature and how to most effectively respond to them, so observers shouldn’t worry about the West turning Russia into a purely land power one day.

Nikolai Patrushev, who’s been one of Putin’s top aides for decades already and is now also the Chairman of the Maritime Board, gave an interview to Arguments & Facts in mid-February. He began by condemning the seizure of Russian-flagged vessels as “piracy” and said that Russia is preparing responses to this. In his words, “If we don’t respond firmly, the British, French, and even the Baltic states will soon become so brazen that they will attempt to completely block our country’s access to the seas”.

One form that could take is “permanently stationing significant forces in key maritime routes, including in regions remote from Russia, ready to cool the ardor of Western corsairs.” Patrushev soberly acknowledged that “our Navy is currently performing missions to protect maritime trade under considerable strain”, however, and also said that “We need far more long-range ocean-going ships capable of operating autonomously for extended periods at significant distances from their bases.”

According to him, “in the near future, the world’s leading navies will be replenished en masse with unmanned ships of at least the corvette class. Dozens more cutting-edge technologies will be introduced that will completely change the face of naval warfare”, in which Russia plans to play a leading role. From his perspective, “the Navy is the most powerful and flexible geopolitical instrument, suitable for active use both in peacetime and during armed conflict.”

He elaborated that “The presence of a fleet, the ability to protect our maritime economic activity, and to transport our oil, grain, and fertilizers, are essential for the normal functioning of the state.” For that reason, Patrushev warned that any Western blockade “will be broken and eliminated by the Navy if a peaceful resolution fails.” He also warned that NATO’s plans include “sabotaging underwater communications, for which we will later be cynically blamed.”

In his assessment, “The old practice of ‘gunboat diplomacy’ is making a comeback, as evidenced by events in Venezuela and around Iran.” That’s why “We are leveraging the potential of BRICS, to which it’s time to give a full-fledged strategic maritime dimension. In January, the first BRICS naval exercise, ‘Will for Peace 2026,’ was successfully held in the South Atlantic, involving Russia, China, Iran, the UAE, and South Africa.” While he might see those drills that way, India politely rebuked this depiction last month.

On that note, any official Russian portrayal of forthcoming naval drills in which only BRICS countries are invited to participate as “BRICS naval drills” following the South African precedent will probably prompt another polite rebuke from India, which strongly disagrees with turning the group into a security bloc. Sergey Rybakov, who’s Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister and BRICS Sherpa, also recently said that “[BRICS had] never been planned as [a military union], and there are no plans to transform it for the purpose.”

In any case, Patrushev’s vision of Russia thwarting Western “piracy” on the high seas together with its BRICS partners is well intentioned and not meant to offend India or the other members that enjoy close ties with the West, with the only point being that some of them strongly oppose this “piracy” too. All in all, he has a solid understanding of evolving naval threats to Russia and how to most effectively respond to them, so observers shouldn’t worry about the West turning Russia into a purely land power one day.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.

Russia’s Setbacks Abroad Aren’t Due To The Special Operation

Russia’s Setbacks Abroad Aren’t Due To The Special Operation: A Critique of the “Decline” Narrative

By Andrew Korybko

This popular narrative, which Foreign Affairs was one of the latest to push, is very misleading.

Foreign Affairs, the official magazine of the powerful Council on Foreign Relations that’s widely read among Western policy influencers and policymakers, recently published a piece about “The Limits of Russian Power”. The subtitle shows that it’s about “Why Putin Isn’t Thriving in Trump’s Anarchic World”. The narrative agenda is to portray the special operation as the catalyst of Russia’s supposedly irreversible decline by exaggerating its setbacks in Syria, Iran, Armenia–Azerbaijan, and Venezuela to that end.

The aforesaid setbacks, which many in Alt-Media dishonestly deny to this day, are then contrasted with the geostrategic status quo ante bellum for dramatic effect in order to maximally impress this narrative upon the reader. This preconditioning sets up the climax of fearmongering that Russia might risk World War III out of desperation to achieve some sort of victory in Ukraine “by striking Ukraine’s supply routes in eastern Europe or by attacking the U.S.-owned satellites that provide targeting information to Kyiv.”

This narrative might be convincing to some since it’s built upon the fact of Russia experiencing some setbacks over the past four years of its special operation, which Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov alluded to in a recent interview, but their causes are misattributed and the consequence fearmongered about. They’re not due to the conflict but to the preexisting limits that had hitherto been underdiscussed such as Russia’s reasonable unwillingness to risk war with Turkiye, Israel, and the US over third countries.

Instead of typically cautious Putin inexplicably risking World War III by authorizing direct kinetic action against NATO despite already restraining himself after so many provocations worthy of such a response, however, he’ll likely continue what Lavrov’s friend Pepe Escobar coined the “snail offensive”. In parallel, far-reaching reforms might be planned for after the special operation ends to repair broken feedback loops within the military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies that perpetuated “wishful thinking”.

Even though Russia wasn’t ever going to risk war with Turkiye, Israel, and the US over Syria, Iran, and Armenia-Azerbaijan and Venezuela respectively, it might have been able to avert some of these setbacks had members of those institutions recognized strategic threats before they materialized. Instead, it looks like the same “wishful thinking” in which Putin cautioned his CIA analogue against indulging in summer 2022 remained a problem, thus explaining with cogency why Russia was caught flat-footed each time.

These systemic challenges to which attention was drawn during the special operation, which isn’t responsible for them since they far predate it, are reparable if there’s political will and proper oversight. Russia could then more effectively and flexibly adapt to them upon excising “wishful thinking” from the minds of its “deep state” members. Some future setbacks might also be averted while the policymaking basis would then be solidly established for sustainably restoring Russia’s lost influence in those regions.

Continued “wishful thinking” within Russia’s military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies, worsened by its “global media ecosystem’s” creation of alt-realities (“Potemkinism”) further tainting their already broken feedback loops, is responsible for its setbacks, not the special operation. Likewise, the consequence won’t be Putin attacking NATO out of desperation for some sort of victory in Ukraine, but him continuing the “snail offensive” and maybe planning far-reaching reforms after the conflict ends.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.

Prince Andrew And Lord Mandelson Arrested: The Epstein Files And Britain’s Crisis of Power

Prince Andrew And Lord Mandelson Arrested: The Epstein Files And Britain’s Crisis of Power

By Uriel Araujo

The arrest of former Prince Andrew and Lord Peter Mandelson have plunged Britain into its gravest institutional crisis in decades. Linked to abuse and alleged misconduct and espionage tied to the Epstein network, the case raises disturbing questions about blackmail, intelligence networks, and elite impunity. What is unfolding in Britain may foreshadow a broader Western reckoning.

The United Kingdom is facing a political earthquake, possibly foreshadowing a systemic crisis across the West: former Prince Andrew, the Duke of York (who is the brother of King Charles), was formally arrested last week as part of a widening legal fallout linked to the newly released Jeffrey Epstein files. Only three days later, Lord Peter Mandelson, also known as Baron Mandelson, was arrested too. Mandelson is a top political figure and a lobbyist, as well as a former UK Ambassador to the US and former European Commissioner for Trade.

Both aristocrats were not briefly arrested on suspicion of abusing the minors Epstein trafficked: treason would be a closer description, or “misconduct” in public office linked to the Epstein ring. In Andrew’s case, the British authorities are investigating whether, while serving as the UK’s trade envoy, he passed confidential information to Epstein or his network – perhaps under threat of blackmail due to the compromising pictures the billionaire had on him. This reinforces long-standing suspicions pertaining to an espionage angle in Epstein’s operation, the obvious question being to which State or organization Epstein was forwarding the info. Both the Duke and the Baron have been released and are still under investigation. It is worth noting that Mandelson, coincidentally, has long been rumoured (at the time, without proof) of having connections with paedophile links, a problem that has plagued the British political elite for decades.

The ongoing case is being described by Reuters as the “worst crisis in 90 years”. In fact, this is an unprecedented event in modern British history. The last time any member of the Royal Family was arrested was in 1647, when King Charles I was arrested by Parliamentary forces during the English Civil War. For the first time in living memory, a senior royal has been handcuffed by the state, thereby exposing the monarchy to a degree of institutional humiliation unseen since the abdication crisis of 1936 (when King Edward VIII abdicated over a number of scandals, including his Nazi links).

The arrest is not merely a legal episode: it is the culmination of a long-suppressed moral and political reckoning. The Epstein scandal, sinister as it is, has acquired a far darker dimension with the declassification of files suggesting systematic child abuse, blackmail networks, and even murder cover-ups. There has been a public admission from American authorities that part of the unreleased files contain pictures or footage of “child pornography”, graphic violence and even death.

For instance, file EFTA00078198 contains a redacted picture (seized during government investigations on Epstein and Maxwell), which although not shown, is described in a footnote as depicting a “prepubescent” girl being sadistically violated, with gruesome details, by “several Caucasian men”.

Andrew has long been accused of socializing with Epstein and with the young women the mogul trafficked (some allegedly underage). In one of the pictures the Duke is shown, fully clothed, on all fours over a woman who appears to be unconscious on the floor. It could get worse: in a FBI investigative record one can read, among other things, the shocking allegation (file EFTA00020457) that Andrew was present and watching when a little girl, no older than eight, was tortured on a table with electric shocks by Ghislaine Maxwell.

Some commentators have also noticed that, years ago, the body of Alisa Dmitrijeva, a 17-year-old girl, who was missing, was found on the property where the Royal Family used to spend their holidays, and she was last seen near that place, which is quite odd. Those are macabre suspicions and there is no proof Andrew is guilty in any of those two particular cases, but the suspicions in themselves harm his public image – and the British Monarchy itself.

One may recall that Europe has lived through a comparable trauma before, namely the Dutroux affair in Belgium during the 1990s, a case so horrifying that it shattered public trust in the judiciary, police, and political class, involving child abuse rings, sadism and murders.

In Britain, the implications are existential enough. Back in 2022, upon the death of well-respected Queen Elizabeth II, I argued that the unpopular King Charles III’s greatest challenge would be to keep the United Kingdom united, in face of the spectre of a renewed Northern Ireland conflict in Post-Brexit Britain.

It is now documented that King Charles was reportedly warned as early as 2019 about his brother’s involvement with Epstein and about secret financial arrangements designed to “shield” Andrew from scrutiny.

Bizarrely enough, Charles himself maintained a close personal relationship for decades with Jimmy Savile, later exposed as one of Britain’s most prolific sexual predators. Savile abused hundreds of children and vulnerable adults while enjoying privileged access to royal residences and public institutions. More disturbingly, Savile’s profile in a way mirrors Epstein’s. Like Epstein, the former DJ, with no education, cultivated relationships with law enforcement, intelligence-linked figures, and political intermediaries, acting as an informal “fixer” (as the Telegraph described him) within elite and royal circles since the Thatcher era.

Something is rotten in the British state: reports now suggest that Queen Elizabeth was aware of Andrew’s Epstein ties, thereby posthumously damaging even her carefully cultivated image of moral rectitude.

From senior parliamentarians to unelected lords, this systemic crisis spares no one. While much attention has been paid to alleged connections with Russian oligarchs or to trafficking routes involving Eastern European women, the Epstein scandal functions as an atomic bomb detonating within the West. It exposes blackmail structures, intelligence overlaps, and moral decay at the very core of Atlantic power networks. One should also expect it to impact West–Israel relations, given persistent questions surrounding Epstein’s foreign connections.

Uriel Araujo, Anthropology PhD, is a social scientist specializing in ethnic and religious conflicts, with extensive research on geopolitical dynamics and cultural interactions.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.

Rubio’s Munich Manifesto: Civilizationalism And The Architecture Of Trump 2.0’s World Order

Rubio’s Munich Manifesto: Civilizationalism And The Architecture Of Trump 2.0’s World Order

By Andrew Korybko

What Trump 2.0 wants to do is lead Western Civilization’s comprehensive reforms with a view towards building a nascent civilization-state that would then unrestrainedly wield its restored collective strength to coerce rising rivals into subordinating themselves to it for restoring unipolarity.

Marco Rubio, who’s one of the most powerful figures in the US due to his roles as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, gave an historic speech at last weekend’s Munich Security Conference detailing Trump 2.0’s envisaged new world order. His words were shaped by the National Security Strategy, the National Defence Strategy, and the “Trump Doctrine”, which readers can learn more about from the preceding hyperlinked analyses. The present one will review, contextualize, and analyse his speech.

He lambasted the notion that “the end of history” arrived after the Old Cold War wherein liberal democracies would supposedly proliferate across the world and the “rules-based global order” would replace national interests. Rubio particularly criticized the outsourcing of industry to adversaries and rivals, the outsourcing of sovereignty to international institutions, self-impoverishment “to appease a climate cult”, and mass migration, all of which he admitted were mistakes and says the US wants to fix.

Rubio declared that Trump 2.0 will renew and restore Western Civilization on its own if need be but prefers to do so together with Europe from which the US emerged. He then loftily praised their shared civilization in multiple ways before claiming that its reinvigoration will inspire their armed forces. This preceded him touching upon Trump 2.0’s plans to reindustrialize, end mass migration, and reform global governance to that end, which he said will deliver tangible dividends to the Western masses.

Far from the isolationist policies that some fearmonger that the US will pursue, it actually wants to optimize its global network of alliances, but this can only happen through fairer burden-sharing. Restoring pride in Western Civilization is another of Trump 2.0’s top foreign policy goals. Reflecting on this envisaged world order, it clearly takes its cues from Samuel Huntington’s and Alexander Dugin’s works on civilizationalism, which focus on this aspect of shared identity as a rising factor in global affairs.

As could be expected, the concept of American Exceptionalism pervades Rubio’s speech, which is evident with respect to him declaring that the US will go it alone in restoring Western Civilization if need be and also describing the West’s perceived “terminal decline” after World War II as a “choice”. The latter hints that the US doesn’t believe that multipolarity, understood in this context as the rise of other civilization-states for balancing the nascent Western one that Trump 2.0 wants to create, is inevitable.

Extrapolating from that, this in turn suggests that the rise of other poles (however they’re described [countries, civilization-states, blocs, etc.]) is the result of the West’s counterproductive policies, not due to any policies of their own. That’s questionable, since while it’s true that Nixon’s Sino-US Détente from the Old Cold War provided the capital responsible for China’s rise for instance, the Communist Party of China directed this process to protect national sovereignty and turn China into an economic superpower.

What Trump 2.0 wants to do is lead Western Civilization’s comprehensive reforms with a view towards building a nascent civilization-state that would then unrestrainedly wield its restored collective strength to coerce rising rivals into subordinating themselves to it for restoring unipolarity. The US has achieved some foreign policy successes over the past year, but this doesn’t mean that it’ll succeed in reforming Western Civilization, creating a civilization-state out of it, and then controlling the world.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.

Armenia’s Western Turn And the Domestic Upheaval It Could Trigger

Armenia’s Western Turn And the Domestic Upheaval It Could Trigger

By Andrew Korybko

Armenia might have to accept the return of the ~200,000 Azeris who fled during the chaotic Soviet collapse (and the descendants), grant them equal language rights, teach in schools that they consider Armenia to be “Western Azerbaijan”, and possibly agree to a Schengen-like deal with Azerbaijan.

Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Armenia ended with three highly strategic agreements on a $9 billion nuclear energy partnership, a chip deal that led to a contentious AI datacentre project scaling its investment there by a factor of eight to $4 billion, and an $11 million surveillance drone sale. They also discussed implementing the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity” (TRIPP), the strategic significance of which was elaborated on here, and parallel pipeline construction from the Caspian Sea.

That last detail wasn’t expanded upon apart from Vance declaring that “a lot of private capital is going to flow” into it, but this is assumedly part of a larger future plan to either risk Russia and Iran’s ire by building an underwater pipeline from Central Asia to Azerbaijan or a tanker fleet for the same purpose. In any case, the importance is that Armenia is poised to play a crucial role in facilitating transregional logistics between the US/EU/Turkiye and Central Asia, which challenges Russia’s regional influence.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is now on the verge of completing Armenia’s pro-American pivot, which he initiated after rising to power in a Colour Revolution in early 2018 and then unprecedentedly accelerated after Armenia’s loss in its latest war with Azerbaijan in late 2020. It’s with this in mind that the US rewarded Armenia by sending it these technologies, the symbolic importance of which Vance drew attention to prior to endorsing Pashinyan ahead of June’s next parliamentary election.

About that, “Armenia’s Next Parliamentary Elections Are Shaping Up To Be Another Flashpoint” since “Pashinyan’s potential democratic ouster could complicate and possibly even suspend TRIPP, thus plugging the geostrategic gap through which Turkiye is expected to inject Western influence along Russia’s entire southern periphery. Likewise, him retaining power would keep this gap open.” This explains why the US wants Pashinyan to win re-election and complete Armenia’s pro-American pivot.

That scenario would likely be followed by the replacement of most Russian companies’ shares in the Armenian market by their American rivals. Some might swiftly be forced out per the Venezuelan precedent that Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently complained about and others like those in the energy sector might only be squeezed out after some time since a rapid replacement isn’t realistic. The triple purpose would be to harm Russian companies, reduce Russian influence, and expand US influence.

While the US is promising Armenia material prosperity, this might come with radical socio-cultural costs. Its subordination as a “Neo-Ottoman sanjak” might be inevitable if Pashinyan is re-elected, after which Azerbaijan and Turkiye could coerce him to “Turkify” society. This could begin by accepting the return of the ~200,000 Azeris who fled during the chaotic Soviet collapse (and their descendants), granting them equal language rights, and teaching in schools that Armenia is known to them as “Western Azerbaijan”.

If a Schengen-like deal is also agreed to between Armenia and Azerbaijan, perhaps even with Turkiye too if ties with Armenia are normalized under US mediation, then Armenia’s post-Soviet monoethnic society could become a thing of the past. As identity becomes a more important factor in contemporary politics at the domestic and international levels, many Armenians might feel uncomfortable with such a change if more become aware of its likelihood, which could lead to them tanking Pashinyan’s re-election bid.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.

Why Russia Warned About The West’s Colour Revolution Plans In Belarus Four Years In Advance?

Why Russia Warned About The West’s Colour Revolution Plans In Belarus Four Years In Advance?

By Andrew Korybko

The timing of SVR’s warning about the West’s, and especially Poland’s and the US’, “NGO”-led Colour Revolution plans in Belarus during its 2030 presidential elections might signal Russia’s concern that President Alexander Lukashenko is moving too fast in his détente with them due to naiveté.

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) warned in earlier this week that a collection of Western countries, Poland and the US importantly among them, is plotting to once again orchestrate an “NGO”-led Colour Revolution along the lines of 2020’s one during Belarus’ next presidential elections in 2030. Poland’s and the US’ inclusion is significant since the US has entered into a fast-moving rapprochement with Belarus under Trump 2.0 and is thought to also be mediating secret Polish-Belarusian talks too.

In late January, the Belarusian Foreign Minister shared a radically changed perception of Poland that was blatantly at odds with Russia’s, which was analysed here at the time. The preceding hyperlinked analysis also cites three background briefings about the emerging Belarusian-US détente. It was assessed that the US might be cleverly trying to divide-and-rule Belarus and Russia in order to break up their Union State. The US also wants Belarus to replace supposed Russian vassalage with actual Polish vassalage.

Between that analysis and SVR’s warning, former Belarusian opposition figure Roman Protasevich (who was arrested after a forced Ryanair landing in May 2021 as his plane was flying over Belarus and who President Alexander Lukashenko since claimed was always a KGB agent), shared some intel on this plot. The gist is that the West’s rapprochement with Belarus is a ruse for facilitating its geopolitical pivot away from Russia during the 2030 presidential election in which Lukashenko earlier said that he won’t run.

This will be advanced through five interconnected means:

1. The return of EU Ambassadors will enable them to directly pressure policymaking groups;

2. The creation of a pro-EU lobby is among the goals that the aforesaid means will advance;

3. The same goes for getting the government to allow fugitive “opposition” members to safely return;

4. The preceding two groups will then cultivate the 2030 generation under cover of “NGO” work;

5. And they’ll all try to engineer an identity conflict between Belarusians and Russians before the vote.

If their preferred candidate doesn’t win, then this network will initiate another Colour Revolution.

It’s one thing for Protasevich to warn about this scenario and another entirely for SVR to do so, which has a wider array of intel at its hands and whose motives are to inform the friendly Belarusian society about this plot in advance so that it can prepare itself to resist these forthcoming influences upon them. Moreover, the five interconnected means for pivoting Belarus away from Russia to the West in 2030 depend largely on what Lukashenko decides to do, which itself depends on the West’s incentives.

Whatever they offered him, it already got him to go from warning in January 2025 that “Poland pursues the most aggressive and bad policy against Belarus” to his Foreign Minister describing it a year later as “a genuine regional leader” that “pursues a pragmatic policy”. Even if he refuses a speculative quid pro quo of sanctions relief and political normalization for requesting the removal of Russia’s Oreshniks and nukes, he might still naively facilitate the geopolitical pivot sequence that Protasevich warned about in detail.

The timing of SVR’s warning about the West’s, and especially Poland’s and the US’, “NGO”-led Colour Revolution plans in Belarus during its 2030 presidential elections might therefore also signal Russia’s concern that Lukashenko is moving too fast in his détente with them due to naiveté. They backstabbed him once in summer 2020 when he was on the brink of pivoting away from Russia to the West so they might try to “finish the job” in 2030 if he isn’t careful and thus ruin his legacy as a multipolar pioneer.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/02/wednesday-february-11-2026/

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/02/wednesday-february-11-2026/

Vance’s South Caucasus Trip Tightens The West’s Strategic Encirclement Of Russia

Vance’s South Caucasus Trip Tightens The West’s Strategic Encirclement Of Russia

By Andrew Korybko

The timing amidst continued US-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine suggests that the US expects this ramped-up pressure to raise the chances of coercing concessions from Russia.

Vice President JD Vance’s trips to Armenia and Azerbaijan were aimed at advancing several interconnected strategic goals. The most immediate was making progress on implementing the “Trump Route for International Peace & Prosperity” (TRIPP), which is the planned trade corridor across southern Armenia unveiled after last August’s White House summit that ended the decades-long Armenian-Azerbaijani Conflict. TRIPP isn’t just economically significant, however, since it’s also highly strategic.

To begin with, it replaces Russia’s plan to pioneer a corridor along the same route that would be guarded by its forces, therefore challenging the Kremlin’s political influence in the post-war South Caucasus. Second, TRIPP serves as the means for optimizing Western logistical access to the resource-rich but landlocked Central Asian Republics on the other side of the Caspian, which is of interest for the US due to its critical minerals. The US signed MoUs with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan about this last November.

On that topic, Vance proposed the creation of a critical minerals trading bloc during the inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial that was attended by representatives of more than 50 countries, thus further contextualizing his trip to the South Caucasus a week later. His progress on implementing TRIPP will help to logistically open Central Asia’s critical mineral supply chain for the US. Having explained the political and economic aspects of TRIPP’s strategic significance, it’s now time to segue into the military one.

By replacing Russia’s planned corridor across southern Armenia with one in which the US will have a controlling stake for the next 49-99 years and preventing the Kremlin from monitoring traffic across it, Turkiye can now clandestinely optimize its military-logistics to Central Asia. Four of its five states have some formal relationship with the Turkish-led “Organization of Turkic States” (OTS), while two of its members are also Russia’s CSTO mutual defence allies, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

The OTS is increasingly taking on more security responsibilities, which can be interpreted as means of challenging Russia’s security influence along its vulnerable southern periphery. To make matters even more concerning from the Kremlin’s perspective, Kazakhstan announced its plans late last year to produce NATO-standard shells, likely emboldened by TRIPP facilitating the US’, Turkiye’s, and ultimately NATO’s military logistics to it in the event of a crisis with Russia. This was elaborated on here.

Making progress on TRIPP’s implementation, which is assessed to be the purpose of Vance’s trips to Armenia and Azerbaijan, therefore tightens the West’s strategic encirclement of Russia along its entire southern periphery through the political, economic, and military means that this corridor unlocks. Vance undertook his voyage there amidst continued US-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine, which suggests that this was timed to ramp up pressure on Russia for coercing concessions from it.

Be that as it may, while Trump 2.0 has indeed intensified pressure upon Russia along its southern periphery as explained, along its western one via support for the EU’s militarization, and along the financial front by pressuring India to reduce its import of Russian oil, Russia still insists on achieving its goals in full. If it ever compromises, however, then that would be due to the US’ carrot and stick policy of a proposed resource-centric strategic partnership and the aforesaid tightening encirclement campaign.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.

How Epstein Used Ukraine: Modelling Agencies, Trafficking Networks, And Power Brokers

How Epstein Used Ukraine: Modelling Agencies, Trafficking Networks, And Power Brokers

By Uriel Araujo

Passports and political correspondence place Ukraine at the heart of the Epstein network. From Kiev-based agencies linked to abuser Jean-Luc Brunel to references involving Zelensky and Western financial elites, the files reveal a pattern that clashes with prevailing media narratives. The silence surrounding these connections is quite telling in today’s narrative war.

The Epstein files are still rocking Western and European elite. While much is being made by Western press about Russian women victims, one should also take a look at Ukraine: the files include documents belonging to women from many countries, but Ukraine is mentioned a lot. This imbalance in coverage is itself telling.

In a previous piece, I examined how the Epstein files point to experimental research of an ethically extreme nature, tied to Jeffrey Epstein’s long-documented obsessions with eugenics, genetics, and human engineering. One may recall the allegations about the “baby ranch” in New Mexico. Some of the (underreported) released emails include references to “mouse testing” in a Ukraine lab and even to plans for a “designer baby” or a human clone within five years (files EFTA01003966 and EFTA02625486). The implications are disturbing enough.

Ukraine’s connections to Epstein’s world, however, do not end with potentially clandestine laboratories and futuristic plans about human cloning. The human trafficking dimension is equally strong. The Epstein files contain copies of passports, visas, and personal documents belonging to women from Italy, Morocco, South Africa, Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania, and Czechia – all seized from Epstein’s estate. Ukraine stands out repeatedly. The correspondence highlights at least two Kiev-based modelling agencies, Linea 12 Models and L-Models, singled out by Epstein himself as “the best.”

The Linea 12 Models agency, repeatedly cited in the Epstein files, also appears in correspondence linked to Jean-Luc Brunel (file EFTA00753670), the French model agent and convicted sexual abuser long associated with Epstein. In 2022 Brunel was found dead in his cell (in Paris) just like Epstein was in 2019.

Bridal agencies and even the Hyatt Regency Kiev are also mentioned in this context. In the exchanges, Epstein is provided with the contact of Yulia Kyselova, described as someone who “has about 400 girls for modelling and bridal agencies in Kiev.”

In 2012 the billionaire’s long-time assistant Lesley Groff coordinated room bookings via Thomas Pritzker, owner of Hyatt, allegedly for individuals connected to the modelling industry. Another curious conversation concerns the purchase of an old house at 24 Borys Romanetsky Street in Lvov, Ukraine, supposedly to be repurposed as a “Pilates studio.”

Ukraine has consistently ranked among Europe’s most corrupt countries, a context that matters. It is also a major source and transit hub for human trafficking: an IOM-commissioned report estimates over 120,000 Ukrainians have been trafficked since 1991, making Ukraine one of the largest sources of trafficked labour in Europe – with earlier figures pointing to hundreds of thousands of women trafficked abroad for sexual exploitation. US State Department reports repeatedly cite allegations of official complicity, including orphanage staff accused of involvement or negligence (2015–2016) and police and judicial officials covering up brothels for bribes (2020–2021). More recent assessments note investigations but few convictions, indicating persistent impunity.

Add to this Ukraine’s role as a CIA hub, documented even by the New York Times. One may recall that US intelligence agencies, in their clandestine endeavours, have historically intersected with organized crime in various theatres, including human trafficking. We now know that Jeffrey Epstein himself was CIA-connected. In such an ecosystem, it is no wonder Ukraine would attract Epstein’s interests, whether in illicit modelling pipelines, trafficking networks, or even illegal human cloning.

The political connections should not be missing from this picture. The files reveal Davos “networking” and “private dealings” with Ukrainian elite figures. In an email dated June 10, 2019, a redacted sender casually states, “I will be with Zelensky this Thursday.” In the same period, Epstein discussed Ukraine with former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, remarking that “Zelensky [is] seeking help” (file FTA00517525). Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is also mentioned in the wider correspondence. These are not trivial name-drops; they situate Epstein within elite political circles at a decisive moment in Ukraine’s post-Maidan trajectory.

This should surprise no one. Back in March 2014, amid the chaos of the Maidan upheaval, Epstein wrote to Swiss banking executive Ariane de Rothschild that the US-supported coup in Ukraine would provide “many opportunities”, a point I discussed elsewhere. Opportunities for whom, exactly? Later correspondence sheds light.

In May 2019, Epstein advised a redacted interlocutor, presumably a Ukrainian woman, to start following Ukrainian politics, including Zelensky, parliament, and corruption, implying this would contribute to her future “success”. She answers: “Now it will be so interesting to watch the politics in Ukraine: all politics as a comedy”, to which Epstein says: “Yes, it is funny, but sophisticated corruption. Huge amounts of money will be made. Huge. I’d like to see you as a female oligarch.”

To sum it up, Ukraine was an important hub in the Epstein network, financially, politically, and as a source of human “assets” (women and girls potentially recruitable and exploitable). And there is no reason to assume it has ceased to be, considering that Epstein did not operate alone and his ring was not the only one. There is an ongoing narrative war; but the question is whether Western journalists are willing to follow the evidence wherever it leads, or whether geopolitical loyalties will continue to dictate what is seen, and what remains conveniently unseen in the New Cold War.

Uriel Araujo, Anthropology PhD, is a social scientist specializing in ethnic and religious conflicts, with extensive research on geopolitical dynamics and cultural interactions.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.

Why Finnish President Stubb Won’t Convince the Global South to Abandon Multipolarity

Why Finnish President Stubb Won’t Convince the Global South to Abandon Multipolarity

By Andrew Korybko

This collection of countries, which is unofficially led by India (the most populous and fastest-developing state among them by far), knows that its interests are best served by accelerating the implementation of the Global East’s Neo-Realist multipolar vision.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb published a piece at Foreign Affairs, the influential Council on Foreign Relations’ bi-monthly magazine, in December about “The West’s Last Chance: How to Build a New Global Order Before It’s Too Late”. He perceives the world as being divided into three blocs; the US-led Global West, the Chinese-led Global East, and the Global South. The interplay between them will shape the world order, he believes, which will result in either a liberal restoration, persistent disorder, or outright chaos.

This model resembles the one described here in March 2023. The Global South is the kingmaker, but it won’t help restore the declining liberal world order unless the Global West implements systemic reforms by expanding number of permanent UNSC seats, removing their veto power, and updating global trade and financial institutions to make them more representative. In parallel, the Global West should also practice what Stubb calls “values-based realism”, which is his neologism for geopolitical pragmatism.

He describes it as “committing to a set of universal values based on freedom, fundamental rights, and international rules while still respecting the realities of the world’s diversity of cultures and histories.” Stubb elaborated that “The aim of values-based realism is to find a balance between values and interests in a way that prioritizes principles but recognizes the limits of a state’s power when the interests of peace, stability, and security are at stake.”

His “values-based realism” requires implementing the earlier enumerated reforms, improving the Global South’s standard of living, and eschewing aggressive democracy promotion within their societies. All of this is sensible. According to him, “The global West cannot simply attract the global South by extolling the virtues of freedom and democracy; it also needs to fund development projects, make investments in economic growth, and, most important, give the South a seat at the table and share power.”

Likewise, “The global East would be equally mistaken to think that its spending on big infrastructure projects and direct investment buys it full influence in the global South. Love cannot be easily bought.” Another difference that he makes between the two is his claim that the Global West represents multilateralism and the Global East multipolarity, correspondingly described as a “system of global cooperation that rests on international institutions and common rules” and an “oligopoly of power.”

Stubb is just fearmongering about the return of Neo-Realism to International Relations. It’s poised to take the form of civilization-states – those that left lasting socio-political legacies on their neighbours over the centuries – re-establishing their sphere of influence for security-related reasons. The quid pro quo is that they’ll provide for relatively smaller states’ economic interests. This is arguably a fairer and more sustainable system than ruling over them through exploitative institutions per the Neo-Liberal model.

His promotion of “values-based realism”, basically geopolitical pragmatism of the sort that others have already proposed, therefore likely won’t convince the Global South to perpetuate its servitude within the Global West’s Neo-Liberal multilateral system. This collection of countries, which is unofficially led by India (the most populous and fastest-developing state among them by far), knows that its interests are best served by accelerating the implementation of the Global East’s Neo-Realist multipolar vision.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Voice of East.

* The White Nationalist Agenda, the "missing white voter" and hate mongering
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-01/stephen-miller-donald-trumps-immigration-policy-architect/106272938

* "Jean Guerrero, Hate Monger, a book that investigated the making of Miller. Miller has been seen as a link between the white nationalist agenda and the Trump White House."
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/905403716/hatemonger-paints-trump-advisor-stephen-miller-as-a-case-study-in-radicalization

* The Apparatus of Whiteness, Linda Martín Alcoff »Cultural Racism« (2/3) Adorno Lecture >>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhUu9nCzxvs
#hate #immigration #WhiteRage #Whiteness #settlersociety #EthnoNationalism #TheWest #modernity #whitesupremacists #CulturalRacism #EthnoEssentialism #SocialCohesion #SocialFabric

* The White Nationalist Agenda, the "missing white voter" and hate mongering
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-01/stephen-miller-donald-trumps-immigration-policy-architect/106272938

* "Jean Guerrero, Hate Monger, a book that investigated the making of Miller. Miller has been seen as a link between the white nationalist agenda and the Trump White House."
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/905403716/hatemonger-paints-trump-advisor-stephen-miller-as-a-case-study-in-radicalization

* The Apparatus of Whiteness, Linda Martín Alcoff »Cultural Racism« (2/3) Adorno Lecture >>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhUu9nCzxvs
#hate #immigration #WhiteRage #Whiteness #settlersociety #EthnoNationalism #TheWest #modernity #whitesupremacists #CulturalRacism #EthnoEssentialism #SocialCohesion #SocialFabric

* The White Nationalist Agenda, the "missing white voter" and hate mongering
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-01/stephen-miller-donald-trumps-immigration-policy-architect/106272938

* "Jean Guerrero, Hate Monger, a book that investigated the making of Miller. Miller has been seen as a link between the white nationalist agenda and the Trump White House."
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/905403716/hatemonger-paints-trump-advisor-stephen-miller-as-a-case-study-in-radicalization

* The Apparatus of Whiteness, Linda Martín Alcoff »Cultural Racism« (2/3) Adorno Lecture >>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhUu9nCzxvs
#hate #immigration #WhiteRage #Whiteness #settlersociety #EthnoNationalism #TheWest #modernity #whitesupremacists #CulturalRacism #EthnoEssentialism #SocialCohesion #SocialFabric

* The White Nationalist Agenda, the "missing white voter" and hate mongering
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-01/stephen-miller-donald-trumps-immigration-policy-architect/106272938

* "Jean Guerrero, Hate Monger, a book that investigated the making of Miller. Miller has been seen as a link between the white nationalist agenda and the Trump White House."
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/905403716/hatemonger-paints-trump-advisor-stephen-miller-as-a-case-study-in-radicalization

* The Apparatus of Whiteness, Linda Martín Alcoff »Cultural Racism« (2/3) Adorno Lecture >>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhUu9nCzxvs
#hate #immigration #WhiteRage #Whiteness #settlersociety #EthnoNationalism #TheWest #modernity #whitesupremacists #CulturalRacism #EthnoEssentialism #SocialCohesion #SocialFabric

* The White Nationalist Agenda, the "missing white voter" and hate mongering
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-01/stephen-miller-donald-trumps-immigration-policy-architect/106272938

* "Jean Guerrero, Hate Monger, a book that investigated the making of Miller. Miller has been seen as a link between the white nationalist agenda and the Trump White House."
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/24/905403716/hatemonger-paints-trump-advisor-stephen-miller-as-a-case-study-in-radicalization

* The Apparatus of Whiteness, Linda Martín Alcoff »Cultural Racism« (2/3) Adorno Lecture >>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhUu9nCzxvs
#hate #immigration #WhiteRage #Whiteness #settlersociety #EthnoNationalism #TheWest #modernity #whitesupremacists #CulturalRacism #EthnoEssentialism #SocialCohesion #SocialFabric