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Introduction
Patrice Greanville
Dear comrades,
Obviously something’s gotta give. The world can’t continue like this indefinitely—or can it?
But what? And under what conditions?
JUDGE NAP: Guest Gilbert Doctorow sees enormous changes in Russia’s leadership as a result of Western unceasing pressure
The upshot may be the departure of Putin from the top post and his replacement by a new generation more capable (and willing) to impose deterrence on the West
Worth noting: Paul Craig Roberts has long criticised Putin for his “naïveté” regarding the West, and possibly ignorance regarding the depths of American treachery. Other observers, like Mark Sleboda, outright dismiss Doctorow’s argument as nonsensical and outlandish. I see merit in both views.
Your wise comments will be deeply appreciated.
Abrazos, Patrice
Amarynth Flower
There are complexities here so this is a short summary of thought all of which is supported in the detail.
- Gilbert Doctorow and Paul Craig Roberts – Meh!
- Russia just in the last hours started decoupling from talks with the US.
- Our near term future increasingly looks like more war
- Doctorow and cronies are kicking back to the Seymore Hersh piece that Trump is in cognitive decline.
Doctorow: 5th Column nonsense. I listened to the Doctorow video with the judge and this was my commentary in our Hearty Salon.
Doctorow is a ****. He is another Paul Craig Roberts. (Paul Craig Roberts wants Putin to fight on behalf of Paul Craig Roberts and gets very worried if Putin does not do what Paul Craig Roberts wants Putin to do. He wants Putin to make him feel better about his administrations. This has now been for years and about 7 years ago, my boss at the time and I made a joint decision to not even post his work, or pay attention to him in relation to Russia).
Now for Doctorow, treating Putin as if Putin is stupid and always but always pretending knowledge from a ‘higher class’ that nobody knows about. Of course people talk about when Putin will go — and they talk about who will take over. That is normal.
If nobody heard it yet, Putin serves the Russian people and with China, the world. He will go when they want him to go or when he cannot continue or when he feels he is slowing down. And he will leave Russia in excellent hands.
Mr Lavrov looks tired these days, but there are a number of people who can take over from him. Not with the same flair, except for one or two that have flair but a little differently. Ryabkov? A very clever person, of course, but he is a little dumpling.
I think the comments from Doctorow is 5th column work, and thumbs up and thumbs down on a video, according to Doctorow, is not a reliable metric except for quantity. One certainly cannot derive quality or meaning from it. And if he gives an anti-Putin speech, just imagine how many ‘Putin Must Go’ westerners will turn up.
The following is what this is all about and what the kickback is all about. The types of Doctorow are all over the media trying to cancel this message. It is behind a pay wall and we can only see a little. We will probably find it with a bit of searching. Of course Seymour Hersh reports “what his contacts say”.
IS TRUMP IN COGNITIVE DECLINE?
==============================
The view from inside is that the president has been slipping
Seymour Hersh
Oct 7
Perseveration is a medical term used in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and speech-language pathology to describe a particular response such as a phrase that is repeated or a gesture that is inappropriate. It’s a symptom most commonly seen in patients who have PTSD, autism, traumatic brain injury, or dementia. I thought of the term, which I heard many times over several years when a close relative was experiencing the degeneration of dementia, while viewing President Donald Trump’s seventy-one minute speech to an estimated eight hundred US military leaders who were assembled, for reasons still not clear, at the order of Pete Hegseth, the Army National Guard reserve major who is now the secretary of war, at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, on September 30.
After a rah-rah opening speech by Hegseth, the president delivered his usual mixture of personalized history and complaints—most notably, he has repeatedly claimed credit for solving international crises that he did not solve—that some of his close aides in the White House understand to be yet another sign of his increasing mental disorganization and inability to focus at high-level meetings.
Most significantly, I was told, Trump, always masterful in dealing with crowds, large or small, is no longer able to “read the room”—quickly size up the audience and let his instincts as a showman take over and get the audience engaged. It would have been refreshing, and perhaps unprecedented, for Trump to outline his views on foreign policy and give the assembled generals and admirals a chance to ask questions of their president. Instead, they got a reprise of Trump’s greatest triumphs. The president returned to one of his most misguided views—that of himself as a settler of wars. “I have settled so many wars since we’re here,” he said. “I’ve settled seven and yesterday we might have settled the biggest of them all,” referring to ongoing talks between Israel and Hamas. “Although,” Trump added, “I don’t know. Pakistan, India, was very big, both nuclear powers. I settled that.” There have been many newspaper reports from around the world disputing Trump’s accounts of the issues at hand, as well as his definition of what it means to “settle” a conflict…
—
And then, commentary from one of our commentators …
Yeah, I distrust Gilbert…, even if they’re sincere, their class pretensions or affiliations seem false. The old IWW used to say that the employing class and the working class have nothing in common. I’m skeptical about unequivocal statements like that, but they do have a point. Academies exist, in measure, to capture and bring to heel otherwise dangerous intellectuals… and so I tend to distrust westzone academics…There are “rogue” intellectuals, however…and they never get tenure, and seldom even get hired….they find work in other areas…
And then, on the quo vadis question. Dear heavens, we are in trouble. I compiled a list of the wartalk from the last few days plus my commentary. It does not look good. https://sovereignista.com/2025/10/08/the-topic-is-war-cutting-to-the-chase-a-discussion/
Please also understand that Russia, in the name of Mr Ryabkov, just the past hours made announcements that means that the Russian/US talks are over. Russia is decoupling from talks with the US.
There is no talk of extending the New START Treaty – Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov
He noted that Russia will manage without a response from the US if they are not interested in the New START initiative.
The momentum for Ukrainian settlement that emerged after the Putin-Trump meeting in Alaska has been exhausted — Ryabkov
My comments: The US or the EU or NATO never wanted a settlement. They wanted Russia to bend and the circus was set up. They want this war as a perpetual war. We need to understand now that Trump is only the circus master in his entirety. In terms of the so-called Gaza peace plan, we need to again understand now that Trump is only the circus master – the fellow who reads out with much fanfare, the next act – a part of the crew. Let the US Americans think deeply on this, and reconsider what exactly is happening with fear-pumping groups such as ICE.
The State Duma of the Russian Federation has just denounced the intergovernmental agreement with the United States on the disposal of weapons-grade plutonium.
The Russian government submitted the bill on denunciation. In addition to the agreement, it is proposed to denounce all accompanying documents. In particular, this concerns protocols regulating financing and civil liability for damage, as well as agreements on the disposal of plutonium covered by the agreement through irradiation in nuclear reactors.
So, we have decoupling going on here.
We are in a complex world. Putin did speak about this in his Valdai speech quite in detail. Those that say he was too soft, well … I liked his quip about a crowbar .. “There’s no counter to a crowbar, except another crowbar”. It is not hard to figure out where he stands if one reads that speech and if you see the decoupling over the past number of hours. It is neither weak, nor is it desperate. In fact he was incredibly comfortable in his skin so to speak and very clear.
All the best. I’ve been living in this for the past few days.
Amarynth
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Anonymous
Comrades,
Well, I’ve been living in Russia for years and coming here for almost a decade, so I think I know a little something about how Russians see President Putin. His favorability rating has been over 80% since the Special Military Operation! Dramatic improvements have been since he was elected in 2000, and since I’ve been living here, they have accelerated.
Construction is booming everywhere, new highways and roads; new hospitals and schools; a dramatic increase in the quality of living, wages are rising; unemployment is at 2%, and inflation is under control. There are more women with baby carriages and a toddler lagging behind than I can count!
There is no such thing as crime, much less violent crime. Wherever one goes, large cities or small towns, people are safe. Young kids 7-10 yrs are walking home along and taking public transport…alone!
The economy is stable in spite of massive US sanctions. The only ones hurt by them are all of us expats! No mail, no credit cards working.
An Irish economist and analyst who has been working in Russia for 20 some years told a group I was with that if Putin ever lost the support of the Russian people he was finished! He explained that Putin’s main task was to balance two opposite poles. On the one hand there are powerful intellectuals and oligarchs who are western-leaning liberals and capitalists. On the other are equally powerful intellectuals and oligarchs who are patriotic Russians, like Putin.
Every Russian I know from ordinary people to journalists and academics believes that this war will go on for another “few” years, and they are supporting the troops and the government in many civic and volunteer ways.
There is no political chaos here. 180 or so different ethnic groups live peacefully together. Different religions live side by side with no difficulties. There is a very large Muslim community scattered across Russia. There are many Jews, and even Catholics and Protestants.
Russians have strong family values. In fact, strong families is one of the things that hold this society together.
Finally, Russians do not want war. Russia has never attacked Finland or Sweden, France, Germany, Italy or England. Ask anyone, and they will all tell you that Russia is a peaceful country that only wants to live in peace and harmony with all peoples.
Russia was provoked to enter Ukraine! The “core” issues go back to 1991 when Clinton broke the agreement made to Gorbachev that NATO would not advance one inch Eastward. Now NATO has surrounded Russia and was intending to make Ukraine a NATO country. The coup in 2014 was organized, funded, and directed by Joe Biden, Victoria Nuland, John McCain, Lindsey Graham and others, and it has been the USA that has funded the war in the Donbas Republics for these past 11 years! Russia had no choice but to intervene to prevent Ukraine from entering NATO, and to protect large numbers of ethnic Russians, and Orthodox Christians. Russia is fighting this war to defend the Motherland, and for no other reason.
I see no hope for a peaceful resolution to this conflict, nor to any other conflict the USA is waging militarily or with the use of soft power around the world. The empire will end when it collapses on its own, and the conflict in Ukraine will end when Ukraine raises the white flag and surrenders. Russia will dictate the terms and no one else.
Signed, Anonymous
Patrice Greanville
You are priceless, Amarynth. I never trusted Doctorow, nor his real intentions. However, some of Putin’s moves have not been what I would have cheered, pushing back on the Empire’s most repulsive moves, or remaining silent and at a distance from Trump and his malignity, could not be faulted…but I recognize I am a mosquito compared to what Putin’s decision-making scope and machinery is like in Russia, and, ultimately, the process will produce a new leader, hopefully at the right time for Russia, with Vladimir Putin’s approval, and not when it suits her numerous contemptible enemies.
Patrice
Amarynth Flower
Here is an article on this issue. This is based on discussions with Michael Hudson, Radhika Desai, and a number of others and features an article by Karl Sanchez at Karlof1’s Geopolitical Gymnasium, which gives a lovely visual answer to the trope of “Putin Must Go”.
https://sovereignista.com/2025/10/10/a-stark-contrast-in-styles-putin-meets-with-his-generals/
Use or not, as you wish.
All the best
amarynth
Anonymous
I wanted to add a few things I failed to think of when I wrote the above.
Anyone who thinks Putin is naïve doesn’t have a clue. This guy was brought up in the streets of St. Petersburg in a very tough neighborhood. He learned “street smarts” early on. Took up martial arts to defend himself. He claims this has had much to do with his thinking about conflict, i.e. when and how to fight.
He later graduated with a degree in law and joined the FSB as an analysist and was stationed in Germany at the time. It was there how he learned to listen to, observe, and interact with “the other side.”
Naive? How stupid to think this after he has been president since 2000 (with the exception of one term served by Dmitri Medvedev), and has brought the country from the collapse and corruption of the 90’s to regain its position in the world as a super power in every sense: economically, scientifically, medically, militarily, including in Space.
Think for a moment all of the global crises, wars, and chaos he has witnessed and has had to deal with! No other politician even comes close to his experience and wisdom. He has met just about every world leader during these past 25 years. And there is no greater statesman on the world stage that Vladimir Putin. He has been the leading spokesperson for BRICS and it most significant “architect.”
Putin gets up early, works out every day and still practices Martial Arts. He also plays hockey with a bunch of old-timers, including former professionals from the NHL. This guy is in GREAT shape physically and cognitively for his 73 yrs. He shows no signs of slowing down.
He has not done this alone. He has surrounded himself with experts in all fields, and those loyal to him over all these years. No one here that I know of is worrying – just yet – about who will follow him. In fact, some people I know think he will continue for as long as he can no longer do the job. Surely there are some who anticipate the day when he will no longer be president. But, what I believe, and I am not alone here, is that Putin has been carefully “grooming” and preparing his successor, someone whom he will anoint that is loyal, strong, and experienced. And please, don’t anyone talk to me about democratic elections because they sure as hell haven’t existed in the States, perhaps forever!
Anonymous
Amarynth Flower
From our side:
https://sovereignista.com/2025/10/11/so-what-did-china-do-yesterday/
and Seun Foo goes along well with it. He is talking about the market reaction.
amarynth
Jeff J. Brown
Excellent analysis about Doctorow’s temper tantrum against Putin and the Russians:
https://forumgeopolitica.com/article/when-an-expert-loses-his-footing
Jeff
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