Why The West Is Trying To Goad Russia Into All Out War

Alex Christophorou of The Duran had what I consider to be a very smart video presentation today. In it he addressed an issue that I’ve raised several times, but without being able to explain to my satisfaction. I’m providing a summary of the first part of the video, not a transcript, although the summary follows Christophorou’s presentation closely—with a few additions:

Collective west wants Russian mobilisation. Finnish PM, sanctions for ordinary Russians. Update 1

As you can see, the issue is the strategy behind the escalating campaign of Western provocation against Russia on a military level. We know that the aim cannot be to provoke an actual war between NATO and Russia, because NATO would surely lose. Logistically, such a war would be infeasible. To the contrary, Christophorou argues, the aim is to force Russia into an all out war against Ukraine—meaning, a declaration of war with a general mobilization and a national draft. Christophorou explains why this is becoming the only road to victory for the West. The difficulty, of course, is that the Ukrainian “counteroffensives” have been largely debunked within just a few days—exposed as failures or hoaxes, moves against territories that Russia had vacated, and moves that have cost Ukraine dearly in men and material. Therefore, the only way to goad Russia into taking an unnecessary and unwise step is to sow panic among the Russian people.

What follows is the summary:

Christophorou is talking about the push to goad Russia into some sort of declaration of war in Ukraine. The point of that is that only with a declaration of war could there be a mobilization of reserves and a national draft. The people pushing for this are the collective West. Not the Kremlin. The collective West is using all of its media soft power to goad Russia into this.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that this is not under discussion, although there are prominent voices that have called for such measures:

Lawmaker Mikhail Sheremet, a member of the State Duma’s Security Committee and the ruling United Russia party, spoke out in favor of general mobilization on Monday, according to the URA.ru news agency.

“Without full mobilization, [without] switching to the war mode, including the economy, we will not achieve the desired results,” the agency quoted Sheremet as saying.

“I am talking about the fact that today society should be consolidated as much as possible and aim for victory,” said the deputy.

Part of the goading has involved leaks to the US and UK media revealing the close cooperation of the US/UK in planning and facilitating recent Ukrainian attacks--as well, of course, as providing war materials.

The Kremlin has been very quiet for the past 24 hours. There are rumors that the Kremlin may be inching toward reformulating the Special Military Operation (SMO) as an anti-terror operation. In the meantime, Putin was present for the inauguration of the world's largest ferris wheel.

Mobilization and a declaration of war and a national draft is a terrible idea, which is why the collective West is trying to bait Russia into doing this. Ukraine is also trying to hype the Kharkov "counteroffensive" as some sort of "turning point"--retaking the Donbass and even Crimea is "possible." Ukraine is winning! Multiple articles in prominent Western platforms claim advanced weaponry will be provided, in line with the conference at Ramstein. They're trying to stir up panic and drama among Russians to try to force the Kremlin to take this foolish step in response to public pressure.

Why is the collective West so focused on this narrative, that mobilization is the only thing that can stave off defeat for Russia?

First, the collective West understands that the bigger part of this conflict is the economic conflict. They understand that the Russian economy is actually doing quite well. The economies that are doing poorly, by contrast, are the collective West economies--especially the EU economies. They know that entering winter either the EU economies will collapse or Russia will--and it's not going to be the Russian economy that collapses. The EU economies are already in the process of collapse, with Germany de-industrializing--things are falling apart.

The Western dilemma is: How can the collective West force the Russian economy to implode? The only way to do that is to goad Russia into declaring war, with mobilization and a national draft. A move to a war economy would reverse all the progress Russia has made over the past nearly 10 years.

Another big reason for this push by the collective West is because a Russian mobilization could spook many of Russia's current non-Western partners, who may not wish to be associated with all out war. India comes to mind. This, too, would reverse all the hard diplomatic work Russia has done over the last 10 years. Further, such a move by Russia might present the appearance that Russia actually is in trouble, may not be as strong as previously thought.

A third reason is that Russian mobilization would allow the EU countries to go to their citizens and tell them that, with Russian mobilization, all of Europe must have a war mindset. Your new poverty is because there is a war at our doorstep, and Russia is the cause of it. This justifies all the suffering and all the policies that have been put in place.

The final reason—which is actually the priority reason—is to sow doubt in the minds of the Russian people.

My view is that Putin is far too smart to be stampeded in this way. To the contrary, he and his advisers will read all of this as revealing Western panic.