The Break-Up Russia Gang met in Japan yesterday and today. Called the “7th Free Nations of PostRussia Forum,” it features Ilya Ponomarev, Janusz Bugajski, Kamil Galeev, Sergej Sumlenny and Brian G.Williams. For the occasion, on July 31, the head of the “action faction,” Ilya Ponomarev was given major space in Emmet Tyrell’s American Spectator to tell Americans that they must put all fears and concerns about nuclear war aside, that there is no choice but to bring down Putin’s government now.
Ponomarev opens by citing Edward Luttwak as pushing the too-cautious approach, one who wants the West to dominate but who warns about a head-on confrontation with Russia. Such advice must not be listened to; rather, a nuclear chicken game with Putin will work out just fine. Of some note, Luttwak, no peacenik, made it on to Kiev’s “Center for Countering Disinformation” blacklist for expressing reservations over a nuclear showdown over Ukraine.
A glimpse into Ponomarev’s world is illustrative. He explains that the “Russian army is not the second best in the world. It is second in Ukraine, and, even in Russia itself, it looks second to the ‘Freedom of Russia Legion,’ which, with just four battalions, has managed to deliver a shock to Putinists in the Belgorod region.” That is, he is claiming that Russia’s army “looks second” to the ragtag group that runs across the border into Russia for part of a day and shoots up civilians in their cars going to work.
