Putin’s Choice: World Revolution, not World War

By Irina Severin

Putin’s threat of chaos on the Eurasian continent should be taken seriously

According to Putin's press secretary Dmitri Peskov,  “at the ASEM Summit in Milan, Vladimir Putin expressed his regret at the increasing potential for conflict in Eurasia, the growth of negative trends like revolutions and so on. Putin also stressed that this will lead to the collapse of entire regions, to disastrous consequences for several countries."

For those who understand Putin’s language, it is clear that this was not a passive expression of concern and some observations. This was a direct threat to create chaos on the continent, sent to the leaders of Eurasia.  

How realistic is threatening the neighbors with chaos, being restrained by the sanctions and economy, dependent on the plummeting oil prices? Well, it seems to be realistic in the Russians' view. 

Another remarkable statement made by the Permanent Representative of Russia to NATO, Alexander Grushko, and quoted by the "Russia 24, coincided in time and echoed Putin’s threat: "Today the world is experiencing a serious period of transformation. Eventually, when it is completed, we will see an entirely different balance of power, in which Russia will occupy the central place. "

What is this Russia’s enigmatic global strategy which will let it suddenly occupy the central place in the world? What ideology is behind this strategy? What religion feeds this aplomb? What are the means to achieve it?  

To understand this, first, it is necessary to realize what happens in Ukraine, where Russia already managed to increase "the conflict potential,” organize a “revolution,” and “collapse the entire region.”

"World Revolution, Not War"

In Russia’s asymmetrical war, the military force is used for demonstrative assaults with the purpose of terror - a way to make the enemy more controllable and inclined to make concessions necessary to Putin.  However, Russia’s global strategy is not a world war, as Putin pretends to scare the West with Russian weapons. Russia is too weak for this, and the real war is too expensive. Russia does not have allies to win a world war.  Russia’s strategy is a world revolution, creating global chaos, which is seen by Putin as an opportunity for reshaping the world in Russia’s favor.  However, Russia likes to blame the U.S. for such a strategy as a way to confuse the enemy and shift responsibility to the opposite side. 

The author of the concept is a Russian religious and political thinker of 20-s century Ivan Ilyin who laid it down in the article “World revolution, not war.” Ilyin is known as an apologist of Russian fascism and Putin’s favorite philosopher, whom he often quotes in his speeches and, as practice shows, whose suggestions he uses.

"The Soviets are not capable of a big war now. The army is not ready. The military industry is also not ready. The food issue is difficult in the country. Foreign aid, so significant in the Second World War, will not be. To localize the war, limiting it to one front, as it was possible to do in 1941-1945, is unthinkable.  Air attacks will begin from everywhere. The fronts will be several and moreover quite distant from each other (the West, Turkey, Persia, the Far East). 

The people are tired and exsanguinated. Moods in a disappointed country are unfavorable. The ranks of the NKVD were thinned out during the war, and the demand for "experienced" and faithful agents increased dramatically: they are needed everywhere - from Finland to Albania, and in China, and in Korea and throughout Western Europe, where the Germans badly shredded the agency staff, but the upbringing of an experienced agent after Beria takes ten years. 

In view of all this, the pressure of the revolution will continue everywhere, but only to the brink of a great war. The plan of the Soviets: a world revolution, and not a world war. However, of course, with the eternal simulation of the ready attack and with defiant provocations brought to extremes."

Putin’s world revolution

The West should take seriously Putin’s threat of “increasing potential for conflict in Eurasia, the growth of negative trends, revolutions and so on” and “collapse of the entire regions and disastrous consequences,” voiced in Milan. Putin works hard to achieve these goals for years. Russian political technologists notice: “Everything is notched already. It is enough to slightly push, and everything will collapse at once into chaos”.  

 Why does Putin do this?  One of the reasons is the fact that the West allows this by not reacting to Putin’s mischiefs because it is unable even to recognize them.  This offers Putin a feeling of control on which he is dependent. Also, this is Putin's revenge for Russia’s chronic economic backwardness, even if this is his aware choice. But the root of neglecting the development of Russia is the Kremlin's deeply ingrained belief that Moscow should rule the world.

Putin triumphs as US is about to default

By Irina Severin

The poster launches Putin's international recruiting campaign "Putin will cover you up" ( "Путин прикроет")

The overwhelming 2013 United States debt-ceiling crisis is in full swing. The crisis is caused not by the economic fundamentals but by a full-fledged undeclared Russian information war against America. As the situation shows, this could be much more dangerous in the information era than a traditional physical war.

Putin’s last-minute "control shot"

Monday, when the agreement in Congress on the debt ceiling was finally reached, but the final bill passing was still unsure, Vladimir Putin suddenly publicly depicted the US as “a parasite on the global economy,” alluding to the US debt. The international media immediately spread the incendiary wording reinforcing the political divide in the U.S. The question is, why did Putin add oil to fire at the most sensitive moment when the US is on the verge of default?

There is a bipartisan agreement between the two American parties - the Republicans and the Democrats. However, de facto, there is a third party - the Tea Party, which is still not inclined to give up.

The refusal to raise the debt ceiling could break not only the world financial system based on the American dollar but also the existing international political order, where the US is the unique superpower. 

America's leading status is what irritates Putin the most. In his view, the U.S. unfairly detains its supreme status due to the dollar’s dominance as the world reserve currency. The default would deprive the US not only of the financial but of the political superpower status. Was his message intentionally encouraging the Tea Party's intransigence?

Putin’s American “Third-party”

The Russians like to accuse the West of being unable 'to abandon the Cold War mentality.' At the same time, they never hide their resentment for “Western triumphalism,” which leaves Russia with the “status of the “eternal loser.”  Moscow hoped that the chaos of the financial crisis as a perfect storm would become a game changer in Russia's favor. 

Putin even made an ideological contribution to the creation of the Tea Party by resoundingly accusing the U.S. government of a socialist approach: “excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence.” Putin, echoing Ron Paul, his favorite in American politics and the Godfather of the Tea Party, in the Davos speech in January 2009, Putin provoked a strong emotional reaction among the conservatives and libertarians, pretending the role of a leader of free-market thinking.

Putin's plan did not work as expected. The American government did not let the economy collapse. However, Russia does not give up and now invests hopes in another artificially created “chaos” – the debt ceiling crisis, fueled by the Tea Party's intransigence.

Russia’s gains from America’s default

Russia has painstakingly prepared itself for the American default. As Russian influential financial publication RBC emphasizes, “last months the foreign holders of the American debt increased their holdings in the US Treasury Bonds with the overall amount of $ 67.5 billion: China (+ $ 7.3 billion), Japan (+ $ 5.5 billion), UK (+ $ 13.5 billion). At the same time, Russia, “contrary to the fundamental trends in the market, dropped its holdings in the US Treasury Bonds with $10 billion”.

Russia's calculation is that the US default would raise the oil prices, and the Russian ruble would get a huge boost transforming it into a new reserve currency. Russians foresee massive outflow from the US government securities to the Russian Stabilization Fund.

The U.S. breakdown would strengthen Russia’s political influence in the world. Moscow would immediately restore its ‘sphere of influence over the “near abroad,” including former members of the "socialist camp", now the EU, and NATO members. However, it was impossible because of the attractiveness of the US and American support to these countries. Another Russia's hope is that America’s inability to finance NATO would destroy the organization, still seen by the Russians as a ‘Cold War” adversary.

Russians support ideologically and financially the disintegration trend in the EU.  The U.S. default and collapse of its international clout would weaken the EU, transforming Russia into a dominant force in the region.

Moreover, Russians would get revenge for the defeat in the Cold War and the collapse of the USSR, which they attribute to the U.S. efforts and declare 'the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century.'  As a former KGB agent, Putin never managed to accept the loss, especially after the oil prices grew again. As he was quoted in 2007 when launching new information warfare by creating a network of Russian NGOs in the West: 'It would be irresponsible not to reestablish our influence abroad now when the oil prices are high”.

Putin’s undeclared information war against America

Igor Panarin, a former Russian KGB specialist on disinformation and current Dean of the Russian Diplomatic Academy, became famous for his predictions of the US disintegration. He has strong ties to the American Tea Party.  In his blog, he styles the Tea Partiers as the "American Stalinists," whom Russia should help organize a "Second American Revolution."  Panarin usually comes to the US in advance of important political events, be this the November 2010 middle-term elections marked by the triumph of the Tea Party or the debt ceiling crisis caused by the Tea Partiers.

In 2007, Igor Panarin launched the concept of the information war against the West. In parallel, he advanced the idea that America should collapse into six parts after the imminent American Civil War. His glooming rhetoric coincided with Putin’s publicly voiced intention to invest in the ‘democratization of the West’ as much money as the West annually invests in the democratization of Russia and the post-soviet countries, claiming this an asymmetrical reply to the West's efforts. 

Igor Panarin wrote on his blog after his last visit to the U.S., “Russia’s losses from the US default will be minimal” and specified, “Russia has its allies in the American elite and has to help them to overcome the post-default chaos.” The current political situation in the U.S. Panarin styles ‘the Second American Revolution.'

In fact, the Tea Party project is Russia’s attempt to export its political model of “managed democracy” to the U.S. Putin started this as a symmetrical response to the U.S. export of the American model of liberal democracy to Russia, perceived by Putin as a merely “anti-establishment activity.”

This perception gives a clue about Russia’s efforts in the US. In January 2009, Putin assigned Andranik Migranyan – a crafty “political technologist’ with strong conservative ties in the U.S., as the Head of the "Institute for Democracy and Cooperation."  Another organization with the same ironic name, "The Institute for Democracy and Cooperation." Putin opened in Paris with another Russian conservative politician at the helm.  Both Institutes offered grants to American and European politicians and organizations, supporting the "Sovereignty Revolution" meant to collapse the US, The EU, and NATO.

Russia's political choice 

Fringe Libertarian politician Ron Paul's ideological views serve well Russians' interests.  Being the product of Soviet propaganda, Russian politicians still operate within the competition categories between “two countries – two systems: the U.S. and the USSR’. Ron Paul’s Social Darwinism and other Libertarian dogmas, if implemented, would make Russia look a more attractive and competitive country than the U.S.

The Libertarians’ isolationist ideas would exclude the U.S. from the world political stage, which is Putin’s and Russia’s long-term dream. From the start, the Tea Party was created to promote Ron Paul and his ideas. Russia’s problem with Ron Paul is that the person, sincerely advancing such overt narrow-mindedness, merely cannot be charismatic – no matter how many Internet ‘Money Bombs’ Russians invest in his campaign, how many manipulated straw polls he wins and favorable commentaries in media (paid by Putin) he receives.

However, the Tea Party supporters do not support isolationism which they consider anti-American. This makes the Tea Party propagandists merely downplay the foreign policy issue. The isolation or non-interventionism makes part of the bigger package, which the Tea Party representatives swear to support when elected anyway.

Inexperienced newcomers display an iron discipline in repeating the talking points delivered to them. The Tea Partiers get their ideas from such lobbyist organizations as ‘FreedomWorks.' Their task is to direct the Tea Parties’ thinking and actions in the right direction for Putin.  ‘FreedomWorks’ operatives pretend that they just help the movement and “the people” who define the Tea Party politics independently. But in reality, the ordinary supporters of the Tea Party are merely convenient tools for spreading the concepts developed in Moscow to weaken the US and promote Russian interests. 

Putin’s strategic allies in America  

Putin is sure that the world should be ruled by the Billionaires' Club, where the Russian billionaires should have a ruling role. This idea ironically resonates with the Russian and American conservatives’ conspiracy theories about the world government.  In Putin’s view, the problem is that Russia is not included in the Club so far, but he craves inclusion badly. In his opinion, the U.S. post-default chaos could create preconditions not only for the inclusion of Russia into the Billionaires' Club but also assure Russia’s leading position in it.

Russia’s strategic allies are the Koch brothers, whose fortune was made by their father in the USSR during Stalin’s regime. Stalin trusted and allowed making money in the USSR only to those who proved their loyalty to the Communists. Others who came with Fred Koch and did not pledge allegiance to Stalin never did return from Russia.

Proof of loyalty acceptable to Stalin required a “kompromat” (a piece of incriminating evidence) - either a written commitment to work for the KGB, a confession of the betrayal of compatriots, or both. The dark secret inherited from their father makes the Koch brothers trusted allies to the Russian intelligence.

So far, the Koch brothers, who built a business empire compatible with Russia’s interests, serve as the front for “the revolutionary infrastructure” as well as play the role of scapegoats, blamed for the Tea Party advancement, helping in such a way to Moscow to hide their advancement at the West. 

Now ‘the Cold War is not announced and is carried not under the Communist banner but the Far-Right one. In fact, the Koch brothers have built a closed “state within the state,” including many non-government organizations, which should replace the Federal government, dubbed by the Tea Partiers the “main enemy of the American people."

This explains why in the 60s, Koch created the Libertarian Party based on the ideological fantasies of a Russian propagandist Ayn Rand, an author and promoter of an extreme form of capitalism known as objectivism and based on "moral selfishness" as  opposed to immoral collectivism. 

Libertarianism only pretends to be based on traditional Liberal ideas but, in fact, mirrors radical communism with its totalitarian approach. Radical Libertarian ideology suited Soviet interests from the start and continues to serve Putin’s interests today. It was designed to sabotage internal development and deprive American influence abroad.

Soviet social engineering in the US in action

The problem with America arose in the Stalin times. The USSR could not impose the idea of the “class struggle” on the U.S. As the American communists explained to Stalin, they could not breed a mass following because of the American spirit of solidarity and economic prosperity. To create class antagonism, it was necessary to distort the American values system from the inside - by cultivating selfishness as the main virtue and destroying strong Christian values.

In her books, Ayn Rand has created an “Anti-values system” that continues to impact America today. Her 'Atlas Shrugged' is touted to Tea Parties as a "New Bible". It is still published, with the record circulation being designed as a psychological poison to descent America into chaos.

Soviets believed that the societies where the spirit of selfishness prevailed over solidarity disappeared from the Earth. Rand’s philosophy should produce the same effect in the US, making America either disappear or get transformed by the revolution of "losers" into a communist country, subordinated to the USSR. 

To boost the Communist following in the US, the Communists should first distort the American spirit - the basis of American prosperity and reverse the progress already achieved. For this reason, Ain Rand despised religion and fervently fought against it, which made it difficult to promote her ideas among religious conservative Americans.

Putin’s undeclared war

The Tea Party idea was designed by Moscow’s political technologists. It contains two components - the myth and its management. The myth implies the highlight of American history - the Boston Tea Party as a disruptive, anti-establishment revolution against British rule, which still echoes in the Americans' hearts. The task was associating British rule with the current Federal establishment to fuel the rebellion. 

The Historical myth of the Boston Tea Party made the American people fight for their independence and rights. A distorted myth makes Americans fight against their own interests in favor of Russia's interests. The main trick is to distort the original American myth into an opposite one but still use its energy. This is how the Tea Party, based on the idea of the famous Boston Tea Party, was brought to life.

Directing the passion inherent to the fight for Independence into the anti-Federal idea, they, in fact, destroy the U.S. The end game of the Russia-led Tea Party is a shutdown of the federal government followed by the partition of the U.S. into smaller, easily managed six states from the Kremlin.

Russians usually blame the US for designing the information warfare concept and claim they follow suit. Although there is a difference between the two concepts. Americans use information campaigns to diminish the collateral damage during the war operations. The Russians use the information warfare strategy instead of war: they replace the military actions with “active measures” and propaganda to achieve the same result: subduing the U.S. to the Russian interests. The Libertarian Party and the Tea Party are just instruments.

Who is the anonymous leader of the Tea Party? 

The described covert approach allows the use of the simple Tea Partiers blindly and for free. They not only invest their time but also their money and soul into Putin’s project. In fact, the Tea Partiers in Congress are not politicians; they are a totalitarian group ready to execute whatever they are told to do by the operatives from Russia-financed lobbyist groups like FreedomWorks.

In Congress, they do not have a right to negotiate or take an independent stance – they are just a passive vehicle executing the will of those who designed and created the Tea Party as a political instrument of the influence on distance.

By obtaining a “golden share” in the U.S. Congress, Moscow has already achieved the goal of making the U.S. dysfunctional. Covert Information warfare explains the anomaly when the Tea Party representatives openly plead for chaos as the only way out from the artificially created U.S. debt ceiling crisis. 

Lately, the U.S. Congress looks as dysfunctional and chaotic as the Parliaments of Ukraine or Moldova – Russia's neighbors, where the Kremlin’s influence has been extremely strong for years. The difference is that in the former Soviet states, the politicians can identify Russia’s covert influence and protect themselves from political manipulation.

In America, even the idea of Russia’s influence sounds absurd and is denounced as a “conspiracy theory” from the start. Such a state of mind creates very beneficial conditions of impunity for promoting Russia’s hidden agenda, which Moscow accompanies with massive financial investments.

Chaos in the U.S. would allow Putin to emerge as a rescuer of the American people and to start exercising his ‘soft force’ (psychological manipulation) in the U.S. openly. Putin as an anonymous leader of the Tea Party, has obtained an enormous influence over the American political process. However, he could not make this influence public despite craving for recognition.

Unfortunately, the Americans do not realize the scale and perils of Russian meddling and risk paying the price by being deeply humiliated by the default and its aftermath.

Related articles: 

Obama-Boehner talks collapse; each side blames the other 

Boehner says U.S. on path to default if Obama won't negotiate 

House Speaker and President continue to play chicken 

Putin's Favorite and “American Apocalypse" Project

By Irina Severin

Russia's stake in the U.S. 2012 election

RON PAUL and his 'V for VLADIMIR' campaign

Last days before the Russian presidential election, Vladimir Putin, the only real Russian candidate for the presidency, had increasingly often blamed the U.S. of meddling in Russian internal affairs and warned against the dangers of foreign influence.  

Putin accuses the Russian protest leaders of being 'paid agents of the United States working to weaken Russia'. 

What is the explanation for Putin's obsession with foreign influence? Is this a  paranoia inherited from the Stalin times, or is it just a projection of Putin's constant meddling in the elections in other countries? 

Russian neighbors have a vast experience of Russian interference, which usually leads to political chaos and confusion. Russia is too weak to get the neighbors under control and too unattractive, which makes neighboring countries continue to lean to the West despite the enormous Moscow pressure.

Russians blame the U.S. for the collapse of the USSR, which Putin named 'the biggest catastrophe of the 20th century. America's 'triumphalism' of the Cold War winner' irritates Putin as he still sees Russia as an equal player to the U.S. in the bipolar world of the Soviet era.  

However, despite his imperial daydreamings, Russia remains the country with an underperforming economy, dependent on oil prices, a corrupt political regime, and suffering from losing control over its former East-European communist countries, which are either integrated or tend to integrate with the West.  

Despite the crisis, Russia's neighbors see the U.S. as a role model and protection from Russia's growing covert expansionism. Instead of rebuilding the economy and modernizing the political system to become more attractive, Russia prefers to obsess with taking revenge on America. 

For Russia, the only hope to win someday competition with the U.S. and to regain its influence in the world is to make the U.S. weaker and less attractive.

Putin's internal "managed democracy" does not take much time to manage. High oil prices assure economic growth. Thus, warfare with the West, particularly with the U.S., is the main occupation for Putin.

New Reincarnation of the Russian Empire 

For Putin, the Soviet Union is one of the incarnations of the Russian Empire. The communist ideology was a helpful tool for consolidating not only the masses inside of the USSR but mobilizing the "useful idiots" worldwide, including the West. Now Russia is looking for a new ideology that can conquer the world.

 In 2009 Putin's party "Edinaya Rossiya" ("United Russia") declared that its official ideology is conservatism, which means rebuilding the former Russian Empire as the epitome of conservative values and recruiting supporters abroad among the conservatives; additionally, o the old leftist ties. 

In a time when Russia mobilizes all its resources to combat America for the U.S., Russia is far from being a priority. America would like to engage Russia in cooperation. 

But Putin's vindictiveness, combined with Russia's growing assertiveness abroad, makes the American attempts to reset relations with Russia doomed from the start.

Ron Paul's tailor-made ideology

Driven by revenge Putin does not want to accept the place the West is offering to Russia - to integrate with the West on Western terms, as a normal state with the precondition of democracy and a free market economy. Putin prefers to incorporate the West on his own conditions, changing the Western mindset and the world political landscape in Russia's favor.

Russia started to consolidate its influence in the West as it was in the 60-s when American Peace organizations were, in fact, Soviet fronts financed by the USSR. However, this time Russian allies are not the American left but the libertarian Ron Paul, whose views coincide with Putin's plan for America. 

Putin and his allies work hard to co-opt the Republican Party, some Democrats, and Independents to win the Presidential election for Ron Paul as he would be an ideal all-in-one solution for Putin's troubles. Ron Paul's Libertarian ideology ideally suits Russia. 

Libertarianism is an ideology created in the 60-s based on the philosophy of Russian emigree and dystopian writer Ayn Rand. In her view, selfishness is the primary virtue, and the capitalists are the heroes and a minority unfairly harassed with the taxations and regulations by the main enemy - the government. 

In her view, the dollar plays the sacral role as an organizing factor. The government and the social welfare should be abolished and the anarcho-capitalist rule established. Social Darwinism at home preached by Ayn Rand combined with the leftist isolationism abroad would ideally serve Russian interests as this would: Social Darwinism would destroy America from the inside, and Isolationism would wipe America off the political map.

Putin's "Democratisation of America" Project

In the summer of 2007, Putin declared that he intends to invest in the 'democratization' of the West the same amount of money as the West invests in the democratization of  Russia and post-Soviet countries. This amounts to about 60 million dollars per year. 

The program was announced just before the first Ron Paul's 5th November 2007 "Money Bomb" (Putin's contribution disguised as a people's multi-stream donation). Officially Putin's Democratisation of America project was launched in January 2008. The moment could be marked as the start of Putin's massive investment into the American election and the creation of the Tea Party as an influence tool.

However, in comparison with the U.S. programs, there is no public information on who gets Russian grants and for what, as well as how money gets to the beneficiaries. Everything is done in a conspiratorial way using different schemes, the same way Russia used to finance its meddling in the politics of the neighboring countries. 

So far, the process is in a stage of crystallization of the American Revolution vanguard ideology, intended to "attack the system" and consolidate Ron Paul's electorate base.

Ron Paul as Russia's Firm Ally

During all real and virtual Putin's confrontations with the U.S., be this Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004 or a brief war with Georgia in 2008, Putin always had a firm ally - Ron Paul.   His position always coincided with Putin's. 

He eagerly blamed Ukraine and Georgia for following the Russian suit and, at times, seemed to be even more hostile toward the American East-European allies than Putin himself.

In light of the latest mass protests in Russia, support for Ron Paul is not only a matter of gratitude for Putin but a way of his political survival. 

 Putin does not hide that he is afraid of the democratic revolution in Russia. And Ron Paul is the only candidate in the presidential race who can not only guarantee Putin's political future but considerably strengthen Putin's position both in Russia and in the world.

'Russia Today" and other Russian propaganda tools

Russian state-sponsored T.V. channel Russia Today (R.T.), launched in 2005 after his failure in Orange Revolution, actively promotes one candidate in the presidential race. Ron Paul gets the lion's share of the airtime and is presented in a cult style inherent to the Russian media. 

Hardly the openly mocking features on Santorum and Romney or Obama can be considered unbiased election coverage. But Russia Today even does not pretend to be objective. R.T.'s goal is to make fringe ideas and fringe candidates  American political mainstream, and R.T. does succeed in this so far.

Another big theme for R.T. is the anonymous and 'leaderless' movements – the Tea Party, the Occupy W.S. movement, WikiLeaks) and the Internet hackers' movement Anonymous, all of which act in amazing sync with Ron Paul. All work on destroying Ron Paul's opponents and creating the right grade of chaos to make Ron Paul look like an acceptable candidate. 

Despite the opposite views of the ultra-right Tea Party and ultra-left Occupy movement, both work as the primary Ron Paul resources. As Ron Paul's had said in a bizarre statement, he can 'bridge' them. 

The explanation is simple – behind both movements is Putin. Both movements are fringe and anti-establishment to radicalize the existing political division.

Ron Paul's Presidency as America's Self-demise

Russian experts see Ron Paul as a candidate not only able to reverse the U.S. progress but to critically diminish America's clout in the world. In fact, Ron Paul's Libertarian ideology perfectly matches Russia's goal, first voiced by Stalin and later picked up by Hruschov in 60-s: "to catch up with America and overcome it."  

As Russia cannot overcome America in an open competition, it can obstruct its development by supporting a zealous Libertarian, Ron Paul. Besides the obsession with the Libertarian utopia Ron Paul also does not believe in evolution. Being a creationist means that any progress for him is a deterioration from the ideal, primal prototype. 

Paul's covert religious fanaticism disguised as Libertarianism makes him even more precious for Putin as it precludes him from usual politicians flip-flopping after the election. According to Russian propaganda, everybody is fake, and only Ron Paul is real.

At the same time, Paul's simplistic 'eat, drink, smoke whatever you want Libertarianism, appealing to naive youth, combined with unbridled anarcho-capitalism, is a right-wing "mirroring" of communist totalitarianism.  

Any radical utopia can be implemented only by authoritarian means. Paul's cult followers' aggression and hate speech in reply to even minor criticism only confirm the dictatorial potential of the libertarian utopia. 

Pro-Paul movement strongly resembles the aggressiveness of Putin's youth followers - lavishly funded anti-western and ultra-patriotic organization 'Nashi,' created by the Kremlin "political technologists" to build Vladimir Putin's personality cult. In both cases, bullying, intimidating, and harassing the opponents are the main means.

Ron Paul's disdain for 'pure democracy' as 'a mob rule' suits Putin much better than other American politicians' calls for democracy. 

For Putin, democracy is a hostile ideology that weakens his power. Russian "sovereign democracy" declaring independence from the U.S. legitimization bizarrely echoes America's new movement of Sovereign citizens, an extremist group proclaiming the internal sovereignty of the American state. The group (as well as many other fringe groups) perfectly fit Putin's intention to disrupt American society. All of them support Ron Paul as their favorite candidate.

Russian 'Gas Elephant' in American Political room

Russian state-run energy giant Gazprom, known as a 'Kremlin's purse,' in 2009 has opened its office in Texas. Like other Russian 'patriotic businesses, Gazprom actively promotes the Russian political agenda abroad. Putin loves the idea of deregulating U.S. business and politics as it opens the country to Russian influence. 

Did Gazprom's coming just luckily coincide with the Citizens United decision, or did Russians stimulate it as they used to influence court decisions in the neighboring countries? Ron Paul openly supported the Citizens United decision, which distorts the democratic process by allowing intransparent proceedings.

In Russia, Gazprom is known for acquiring media outlets to assure control over the independent media and impose the government agenda. Abroad Gazprom works as a political tool by creating gas monopolies and manipulating prices. It is interesting what Gazprom is doing in the U.S. There has been no public information about Gazprom's activities in the U.S. since its coming in 2009. 

Before coming, Gazprom intended to supply LNG to the U.S. from the huge Sakhalin and the Shtokman fields, which should diminish gas prices on the market. However, instead, it is busy with acquiring American energy assets. 

The sphere of Gazprom's interests includes not only American gas fields and facilities but also oil, electric power, and carbon utilities – the areas sensible enough to ensure political control if a critical mass is acquired. As media notes, rising gas prices already cloud Obama's reelection hope.

"Privatization of the U.S. government" 

Ron Paul's 'small government' mantra excites Russians the most as it lets the U.S. government outsource its functions to unaccountable shadow power brokers –  commercial consulting firms making them more influential than elected politicians. 

Ron Paul's radical approach would mean a takeover of the U.S. government by the corporations and not necessarily only by American ones. Many of them are sponsored by Russia directly or via its fronts. Russians name the process a "privatization of the U.S. government." 

In fact, Ron Paul, scaring Americans with corporatocracy as 'slipping into fascism,'  promotes the ideology which could lead to the "corporatocracy" by foreign corporations.

Outsourcing combined with the abolishing of the Federal agencies would eventually lead the U.S. to a breakdown similar to the collapse of the USSR. Russians do not hide that they would love this. 

The author of this scenario, former KGB strategist and the head of the Diplomatic Academy Igor Panarin, names the Tea Party and its Godfather Ron Paul "our friends-Stalinists, whom we have to help organize their revolution'. Ron Paul enforces Panarin's scenario, reiterating that 'secessionism is very much American.'

Putin benefits from Ron Paul's "fight for Liberty," especially his efforts to abolish the CIA and FBI, the structures which for several years secretly run surveillance of the Russian spy ring made public in 2010. Ron Paul's "Unrestricted Liberty" would let Russian spies continue their subversive actions freely until today.  

Ron Paul's fight against 'the underserved excessive power and privilege of the dollar',  his 'End the Fed' mantra, and calls to return to the gold standard entirely coincide with Putin's hatred toward the American dollar and fits his intention to replace American dollar with a new world currency to diminish the U.S. clout in the world. 

Ron Paul's Social Darwinism combining abolishing social programs and state schools, legalization of drugs, and prostitution, in Putin's view, should lead to population degradation and increase inter-racial conflicts. 

Deregulations of the economy would stimulate an even bigger concentration of the wealth in the hands of the 1%, which would mean the ineffective use of resources and the further massive exodus of money and jobs abroad. 

Economic and social degradation coupled with permanent civil confrontation artificially fueled by ultra-right the Tea Party and ultra-left Occupy Movement (both movements created by Putin's operatives) should lead to a permanent class war, police state, and dysfunctional political system. 

For Russia, this will be a huge win both in the propagandistic competition with the U.S. and on the ground as the attractiveness of the U.S. to the Russian neighbors will fade.

"American Apocalypse" as Putin's End Game

Russian' political technologists' name the Libertarian scenario 'American Apocalypse' and brag that it will let them 'to orderly downfall America.' Russian already promotes in the negotiations with other countries the idea that the U.S. is not a great power anymore and its full collapse is just a matter of time. Echoing  Moscow, Ron Paul passionately reiterates during all his public appearances: "We are broke!' 

The message America will collapse is spread in America not only by Putin's propaganda tool R.T. (Russia Today) but by the hired army of lobbyists, P.R. professionals, and the army of English-speaking bloggers. Their task is to cause a sense of inferiority among Americans in the U.S. and abroad and in such a way as to launch the self-fulfilling prophecy mechanism. 

Ron Paul's Libertarianism makes much more sense watching it from Moscow than from the U.S. In other words, if Putin would intend to describe his dream American candidate, you would get Ron Paul. With a president so devoted to Putin and ready to destroy America, Russia does not need physical weapons. 

Putin already envisions America's collapse and prepares to play the role of "the savior". During a press conference, after a long silence, he didn't reply to the question prepared for him in advance by his staff 'would he help America if it collapses? but he couldn't hide the satisfaction with already obtained success on the ground. 

Russia's Shift from Physical to Psychological Warfare

Putin understands very well that Russia lags at least 30 years in the military domain from the West and rejected the idea of 'physical warfare' as irrelevant in the information era in favor of psychological war (not to mention cyber warfare). However, he continues bluffing on Russian military potential mostly to divert the attention from his covert victories in the psychological war against the West.

Putin probably has not enough resources yet to get Ron Paul elected. Paul and his ideas are too appalling to the public. But he does not give up, gradually transforming Ron Paul's fringe ideas into mainstream thinking. 

So far, Putin does not face any obstacle in his way as the psychological warfare is covert, and the U.S. does not fight back. Moreover, the U.S. tries to create a win-win approach in relation to Russia, while any sign of American benevolence is percept as a weakness and only encourages Russia's hidden psychological offense. 

Putin's 'American Apocalypse' Army

So far, Putin's boots on the American ground are unaware of Tea Partiers, with their mantra "we surround them" (Glenn Beck's 912 Project was designed by Russian social engineers as the political  912 ) and Occupiers, with its vanguard burning the American flags.

 Both ultra-right Tea Partiers and ultra-left Occupiers support Ron Pa. In fact, the Tea Party has radicalized the GOP and prepared fertile soil for the Occupy Wall Street movement. 

Now both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movement work against bipartisanship which Russia sees as the main strength of the American political system. As the debt ceiling crisis showed last summer, bipartisanship is in a deep crisis. 

The deepening division is a real threat to the American future as it can lead to the dysfunctional Congress and its blockage – what Putin's operatives metaphorically call a 'political 912'. This is the same 'divide and rule strategy Russia uses in the neighboring countries. 

Political will as Putin's main resource  

In the psychological war, the primary resource is the political will. Putin understands this very well,  proclaiming in his meeting with supporters: "We will never allow anyone to interfere in our internal affairs. We will not allow someone to impose their will on us because we have our own will! It has helped us to win! We are "victorious people"! It is in our genes, in our genetic code!" 

Putin can count his covert victories against the U.S. and the E.U. if these creeping attacks are not made public. When propaganda is identified and exposed, it loses its power. 

But for this, there is a need for full awareness, smart approaches, and political will. The world does need a strong and democratic America. 

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