Andrew P. Napolitano says that in his interviews with them, two of Putin’s closest confidants showed appreciation for Trump’s intended “reset” of U.S.-Russian relations.
Moscow River at night, 2015. (Joe Lauria)
When an invitation from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the renowned Professor Alexander Dugin to visit them in Moscow arrived in my inbox, it was actually the culmination of a series of emails and telephone calls from Russian-American friends giving me a heads up. Still, it startled me.
So, last week, I flew to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and from there to Moscow. The sanctions President Joe Biden imposed on Russian persons and businesses — and kept in place by President Donald Trump — bar, among much else, direct flights to Russia from the West.
These absurd executive-ordered regulations, meant to punish Russia for its Special Military Operation in Ukraine, have neither caused a change in Russian military strategy nor harmed the Russian economy.
But they have deprived U.S. businesses of more than $330 billion in revenue in three years.
If you accept the Biden version of the conflagration in Ukraine — mouthed uniformly by mainstream media — then you think Russia wants to devour its neighbors.
If you move beyond Western propaganda, you know this war started in 2014 with a coup against a popularly elected president who sought neutrality for Ukraine.
The coup — orchestrated by the U.S. State Department in conjunction with the C.I.A. and British MI6 — brought about a series of governments determined to attack their own Russian-speaking population in the east and to put NATO armaments on the Russian border aimed at Moscow.
If this doesn’t frighten you, just imagine Chinese long-range missiles in Havana aimed at Washington.
Moscow today is the city of lights. Its atmosphere is one of midtown-Manhattan hustle and bustle — but cleaner, happier and friendlier. Its older buildings around Red Square and its Doha-style gleaming skyscrapers in the financial district are nearly all lushly illuminated at night and packed with workers during the day.
Moscow skyscrapers, 2017. (Astemir Almov /Wikimedia Commons /CC0)
The perception of Russia embraced by the consensus of Americans is stuck in the Cold War era of central economic planning, hungry workers, crumbling infrastructure and no relief in sight.
Today’s Russia is thoroughly modern, generally happy, devoutly Christian Orthodox and yearning to interact commercially, culturally and even politically with the West.
Trump’s intention to be the peacemaker in Ukraine is far more ambitious than just ending the war.
Though 180 degrees from Biden’s failed efforts to use Ukraine as a battering ram with which to dislodge Russian President Vladimir Putin from office, Trump understands that the SMO [special military operation] — though deeply violent and profoundly destructive — has united the Russian people, stimulated their economic development and independence, and reminded the U.S. foreign policy mavens of the virtues and values of realism.
Realism & Reset
Trump greeting Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Feb. 28. (White House / Flickr)
Realism is the theory of relations between nations in which each nation recognizes the territorial sovereignty and legitimate security needs of all others.
Realism — best articulated in the writings of University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer and Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs — is the polar opposite of the U.S. foreign policy in the post-World War II era.
That policy is called exceptionalism. It presumes American cultural, historical, governmental and moral superiority, and it has driven all the post-1945 U.S. wars and the construction and maintenance of some 750 U.S. military bases and ports around the globe. It has been the chief engine of the federal government’s $36 trillion in debt.
Dugin in 2023. (Duma.gov.ru / Wikimedia Commons /CC BY 4.0)
Donald Trump rejects American hegemony and has stated that he plans to seek a Great Reset. This geopolitical theory of foreign policy — best articulated by the brilliant former British diplomat Alastair Crooke — seeks to unite the U.S. socially and commercially to Russia for the mutual long-term benefit of both.
Realism and Reset recognize that Communism in Russia — the old Soviet Union, the crushing of the grape of individual choices for the wine of party dictatorship — is gone. Out of the ashes of the U.S.S.R. has emerged a society guided by free market capitalism, devoted to the Russian Orthodox Church and welcoming of the West.
You’d never know any of this if your knowledge of Russia has been generated in American government schools and animated by neocon elites whose mentality of hatred for all things Russian has choked Realism and rejected Reset based on ancient and unrealistic fears.
In my interviews with Foreign Minister Lavrov and Professor Dugin, I saw a real appreciation for Trump’s approach. These two intellects, both of whom were raised under communism, see its faults, celebrate its demise, and yearn for Realism and Reset.
And they are Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest confidants.
Trump needs to know that the Reset he seeks will be Earth-shattering. The European elites still labor under a 1980s mentality. When President Ronald Reagan called the U.S.S.R. “an evil empire” in 1983, he was right. It was the height of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall and Soviet expansionism.
Lavrov with Putin in 2017. (The Kremlin)
Expansionism and exceptionalism are twin evils of the same breed. One occurred when the U.S.S.R. sought dominance in Eastern Europe and Afghanistan to keep the West at bay. The other has been occurring all over the globe — from the Philippines to the Middle East to Africa and Latin America — as the U.S. used force and deception to tell other countries how to live.
If Trump could see the Russia that I saw, he’d bring about Realism and Reset tomorrow. The Russia I saw had barely a police officer on any street corner, banished woke and all its absurd fashions, embraced cleanliness and happiness, and enjoys an infrastructure that is smooth and highly functional.
And the Orthodox liturgy — packed to the gills on Sunday — is as faithful and beautiful as the traditional Latin Mass that the Pope has suppressed.
The Russia that Americans have hated no longer exists. In its place is our trading partner and friend. Trump knows this and doesn’t care what Europe thinks.
Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, was the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel and hosts the podcast Judging Freedom. Judge Napolitano has written seven books on the U.S. Constitution. The most recent is Suicide Pact: The Radical Expansion of Presidential Powers and the Lethal Threat to American Liberty. To learn more about Judge Andrew Napolitano, visit here.
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COPYRIGHT 2024 ANDREW P. NAPOLITANO
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The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
The U.S.used the Ukraine to push Russia and Putin into a war Putin neither needed or wanted. But you have to review the factual history to understand this. History only counts, if it is factual and not mythical. Best remember that folks.
To make matters worse for Putin the U.S. refused to talk to him expressing their faux outrageous indignation at his brutal actions. They refused to mention the actions of the Ukrainians in eastern Ukraine as they pressed their “party line” pro Ukrainian propaganda to the world and brain dead Americans.
Now comes the time for Putin to get even. It is laughable for the king of the dumpster fires to expect any quick response from Putin when it comes to settling (cleaning up the mess) the relations there.
All this said I will remind his Honor and anyone else interested that our former leadership Biden, his neocons and his lowlyness, the king of the dumpster fires have worked very hard, it seems, to divide “we the people “. One must ask themselves why.
If I were Putin I would most likely let his lowlyness twist in the winds of change for a long while and his followers be damned. This is where the “expressed appreciation” thing comes in. Oh course they will give his Honor some appreciative soothing words. This is their job.
I have the very distinct feeling Putin could give one shit about how Americans feel about these things right now. And to be honest I cannot blame him.
Now the bad news. Putin is no fool. He readily realizes America is very divided because of the blatant disrespect shown for his countrymen by none other than the king of the dumpster fires. I doubt that for time being he will forget about this. The situation is too useful for him.
Does anyone here actually think Putin doesn’t revel in the fact we Americans are pissed and upset about the actions of Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dumb? He damned sure sees the destruction caused by Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dumb for exactly what it is, the destruction of the administrative foundation of the Federal Government in the good Ole’ U. S. of A.
Far too many Americans lost touch with the human condition of the ‘other’ people, who in reality aren’t that different from us. Being so exceptional has it’s price.
Thanks CN
Re Soviet Expansionism
Even The Judge does not realise that he has grown up in a political/media bubble.
Ever since the 1917 Russian revolution the old globalists (only by other names) have tried to destroy Russia.
This idea of running a country differently and owning the means of production as a nation was the most feared idea by the folks who had all the power in the rest of the world. And especially so in the United States where the working people were quite inspired by the idea.
So Russia was denigrated, and attacked in WWII which oddly enough resulted in the expansion of the ‘russian idea’.
Do folks in the current West have any idea what the Soviet Union went through in WWII?
What it means to have the most vicious army in your own country?
So the expansion of the Soviet Union into the Eastern Block was a direct result of this treatment by the West.
It also presented an all round buffer zone for Russia’s protection because all they ever wanted was to be left alone.
Just like today.
My view about the Trump administration regarding Russia (and a few other things) is that I am/was “cautiously optimistic”.
Your statement “…the U.S. used force and deception to tell other countries how to live” is so true. The U.S. couches its wars as bringing democracy to that country all in an effort to undo their democracies. We’ve seen it over and over again during my 80 years on earth – and we will continue to see it until critical thinking and rationality became the heads of state in our government.
Trump has made it plain he intends to split Russia away from China. In his dreams. What happens when Trump doesn’t get his way? His personality is that of a demanding two year old. I wish I were as optimistic as the judge. Realistically, I can’t be. Pun intended.
Putin, Lavrov, and Dugin are giving Trump the benefit of the doubt, but they will come to realize he is not t0 be trusted.
Yes. If we listen to what Vladimir Putin actually says: he wants to negotiate but the “ceasefire” is unacceptable. The DT 2 regime has threatened Russia with MORE sanctions and hostility. Russia will not be bullied. Putin has made it clear, very diplomatically that the proposed ceasefire is a non-starter. The ceasefire is a BS stunt for public consumption, the Russians said no.
Meanwhile, on the home front. The DT2 regime has arrested a legal resident for protesting Israel and the Genocide. The Guardian reports that an Israeli group has a list (proscription list, or blacklist) of names of people to arrest and deport. How patriotic! Allowing a foreign country and foreign groups to dictate US policy. No matter which senile whack job is in the WH, nothing changes.
The flagrant abuse of power, authoritarian smash-down of free speech, hypocrisy, and double standards should be obvious, yet so many are deluded into believing in fairy tales. Judge Nap would do well to salvage his credibility by acknowledging the facts.
Dugin is not a confidant of Putin. That is a myth that was dispelled a while back.
“Today’s Russia is thoroughly modern, generally happy, devoutly Christian Orthodox and yearning to interact commercially, culturally and even politically with the West.”
I agree with Judge Napolitano that the popular Western image of Russia is an exceedingly reductive and often inaccurate one even among those inclined to foster improved relations (and respect his efforts to gain firsthand experience and build ties with another society in any way that he can in the face of all of the obstacles to doing so). As just one anecdotal example among countless others, I can recall many predominantly liberal commenters chiming in about the alleged sociopolitical ills in Russia on a MeidasTouch post about Tucker Carlson’s visit to a grocery store in Moscow, with one having purportedly visited the Soviet Union in the 1980s and met a Muscovite who bragged about his watch – though it ostensibly looked like something from “The Flintstones” to his eyes, it was considered one of the most high-end personal timepieces available on the market there. Said commenter was evidently unaware that the GUM Department Store is no longer solely state-owned, but that you can now find many of the same retailers there that exist in any Western mall (or any mall in Johannesburg and Durban, South Africa; Panama City; and Lima, Peru, based on some of my own personal experiences), including the likes of Cartier and Swatch.
That being said, one also does not get a sense of the full range of disparity in socioeconomic and political circumstances that exist throughout Russia by traveling to Moscow or Saint Petersburg alone (or even the most Europeanized parts of Russia more generally). One cannot generalize the United States by projecting what the relatively high standard of living is like for those inside the Beltway, Manhattan, and Silicon Valley (even for the poorest inhabitants of those places) onto places like Flint, Michigan; Jackson, Mississippi; East Palestine, Ohio; West Virginia coal country; or the Navajo Nation. Similarly, it is important to grasp that life for middle- to low-income Muscovites and Saint Petersburgers is often better than it is for those living in assorted parts of Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Bashkortostan, or the remote reaches of Siberia.
Under stated communism can be bad.
Under stated capitalism can be bad.
These aren’t arguments.
Communism is about liberty in my view.
@shu Coming from a former communist country I can guarantee that communism is not about liberty: never was and never will be. The most simple explanation (if I may) is that communism is an utopian ideology that can never be applied realistically.
When realism kicks in, it means that the struggle for power happens inevitably.
Giving this or that back to the people will bring a renewed hierarchical society.
Even if you eliminate the state, the new hierarchical society (whatever its name may be) will become the new ruler over the people.
Humans act in hierarchy because we all strive for power and position in one form or another.
Power and position is the inevitable result of unfairness and injustice because when one sees or experiences unfairness or injustice one will inevitably launch towards their opposite: the need for power and position to eliminate the named unfairness or injustice.
As such, the replacement of the state is utopic. Whatever may take its place will be formed by another hierarchy susceptible to corruption.
I wish I could share Judge Napolitano’s optimism about a reset in U.S. – Russian relations. If the U.S. truly wanted peace in Europe and a mutually beneficial relationship with Russia, the U.S. would immediately halt all military cooperation with Ukraine, withdraw all U.S. personnel, and stop threatening Russia with more sanctions, as Col. Douglas Macgregor suggests. Moreover, when Pete Hegseth tells Europeans that they must prepare for countering the Russian threat (increase military spending), he too is saying that the U.S. is not interested in peace with Russia.
We need to stop falling for cheap U.S. propaganda and political manipulations about war and peace. The U.S. is not to be trusted — and the Russians know that.
“Expansionism and exceptionalism are twin evils of the same breed.”
Hmm, I suggest that Trumps MAGA slogan and his stated intent to take Panama, Greenland, and even Canada, are examples of the above, par excellence ….
Thanks Judge for a first hand account of Russia as a nation and society today. One of the foundational recipes for peace is cultural exchange between societies; understanding the other. This used to be common sense realism by those who understood the inherent value of peace.
The focus of war mongers and neocon mindlessness is instead intended to establish an absolute “with us/against us” ideology that reduces adversaries to “less than human” status with no right to live. This is a sure prelude to the catastrophe of war. Exceptionalism mythology, besides being a recipe for mediocrity at home, of course, depends on maintaining this deception.
Thanks for sharing your experiences of Russian culture today in the name of dispelling deliberately cultivated deceptions and fostering mutually beneficial and realistic relations between nations.
“…Realism — best articulated in the writings of University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer and Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs — is the polar opposite of the U.S. foreign policy in the post-World War II era…”
While I agree that the RF is not the USSR. Not sure what the good judge is on about here: The so-called Realist school of International Relations has been prominent among foreign policy elites since WWII. George Kennan, Hans Morgtenthau, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski…
Looks like more wishful thinking and hopeful speculation here. The DT2 regime is also busy with economic warfare, supporting the Genocide of Palestine etc. And then the elephant in the room to confront our biggest so-called enemy: CHINA.
When the US ceases all trade wars, “sanctions” and other economic warfare, I will begin to believe the “reset” speculation and hopes. Until then, the PR stunts continue…
Ukraine is saddled with debts that it will not possibly be able to repay, and the US financial parasites will assets-strip everything, minerals, nat. gas, etc. The US knows it can not “win”, so now the blood-sucking will begin in earnest. Do we really think that is peace?