two days ago, a supra-subcultural cognocenti (GBR Ricardo) abruptly flung over the following reaction/analysis on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, laden with ambiguity & moral morphings regarding the western response & framing … i am printing it in full.

GBR Ricardo: Dunno if you can do anything with this, something I wrote, pissed off about left wing press’ handling of Ukraine:

Yet again I am disturbed by the Guardian and its apologist rhetoric regarding some fairly unsavoury right wing practises (lockdown anyone?) under the patronising guise of a shrugging shouldered pragmatist, the armchair equivalent of a backseat tank driver. In reference to Putin´s obtuse motives for invasion, they level the charge of hypocrisy at the de-nazifying of Ukraine, Ukraine´s leader being Jewish. They describe Putin as being in bed with nationalists himself and yes, with poor taste and grim displays of social brotherhood with organisations like the Night Wolves, fascism takes many forms; far more so than we are presented by our horrified press who see it in outdated terms.

The Guardian states a low percentage voted for far-right parties in Ukraine, so  the ultra-right militias integration into mainstream defence is not an issue on level with Western Europe’s own far-right problem. This prognosis would be fine if these ideological stances were occurring in a vacuum but they are not, and they never are, it is occurring where there will be a dilating power void that will allow fascists a foothold in a situation where their own aggressive rhetoric will be empowered by facilitated, political violence. The hypocrisy of the left wing press is in the dismissing of the gravity of a battleground being populated by ultra nationalists on the basis that Ukrainians are generally not that way inclined…and I’m sure they are not. But then could not the same be said of the Russians, whose people have spoken out on all platforms from the street, to social media or sporting events; a voice of policy dissent from a rapidly progressing society that has made some forward motion, ironically under Putin, we are talking about a country that has been through more significant social and political turmoil than the recent histories of western Europe and America could ever imagine  but its the same ignorant vilification of so called cultural substandards that Iran got in the 00’s and 10’s where a people rose up against the fundamentalism and corruption of their leaders, yet our coverage was not of the thousands of voices in the street, but the Boogeyman threat to the civil liberties of the west. This was at a time when America was chomping at the bit to have a go, so it really wasn´t in the west’s interest to portray them as anything other than having medieval inclinations towards religious statehood. All through the Cold War, Russia has always been presented as only municipal or provincial in spite of a huge culturally rich base from some of the finest painters and authors towards the turn of the last century.

I do not want to see the same attitude of ‘my-enemies-enemy-is-my-friend, cloak-and-dagger politics that plagued Afghanistan for decades, with the west utilising different factions for our own gain, with our media turning a blind eye once the main event is over.
There truly is no winners in war, and once again those who are genetically pre-disposed to lead are the real culprits.

Putin has lost alot of favour, a deeply troubling individual who walked the margin of being respected and feared; vilified and ridiculed, was perhaps strongest in his public image of a no nonsense ‘ass-kicker’ under which Russia had a cultural opportunity to flex, if not political, now his move will have lost him some of those begrudging acknowledgements as he looks like the dick-swinging politicians of old with the threatening vernacular of a man bent on imposition, unforgivable in his treatment of those who spoke out against him he will not have the same luxury against an entire world that condemns his crooked plan, but I do not want to see appraisal of anyone who uses a fascistic rhetoric, and when all is said and done, whether the Ukraine retain its current sovereignty
or Russia displaces it, we cannot just accept that there will be more than likely an increase of a ultra-right presence in the ideological landscape in the east of Europe, where it will be accepted as a part of a defence against an old enemy, because then we are ourselves are asking for de-nazifying, as a progressive society who hid behind pragmatism as stoic intellectualism when we just don´t want to know. – GBR Ricardo

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis