Empty Theater: A List of Russia’s Broken Promises
Incomplete, but helpful in staying rooted in reality
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After getting sucked into the psychological undertow of Russian propaganda, designed to cause despair even when you see through the lies, I snapped out of it by inviting Monique Camarra to host our Happy Hour yesterday, and she brought us good new from around the world from countries not only increasing their financial supporting for Ukraine but taking action in defense of Russian cyberwar and against their domestic traitors.
This morning I woke up refreshed, determined to tackle some big projects, and spent an hour scrolling Ukrainian, Swedish, Finnish, Georgian, Estonian, and Romanian twitter, searching for a comprehensive list of Russia’s broken promises.
As with any time spent on Twitter, you have to put on protective armor and also know that a percentage of accounts will be larping — but that’s to be expected.
But my soul got a boost reading incisive commentary by those who know these Russians.
Among the NAFO accounts I follow was this:
“Everything having to do with ‘negotiations’ is a Russian active measure designed in Moscow and implemented by its stooges in Washington. Here is the Kremlin’s real position: ‘Of course we’d love negotiations. After we have annihilated Ukraine.’”
In other words, what we are witnessing is empty theater — these aren’t diplomats carving out peace, Russia can’t afford peace.
As I wrote in Byline over the weekend:
In reality, Russia is broke. More than half of Russia’s regions ran budget deficits in the first nine months of the year, Vedomosti reported Tuesday. And while military spending artificially boosted its economy, it’s widely known that it’s now dependent on a war that it can neither afford to win, nor to lose. Russia is struggling to pay its soldiers, which is a real morale killer.
Enter the stooges with fangs. The Wall Street Journal reports they have dollar signs in their eyes. Maybe. But as I reported over the weekend, their affiliation with the Russian mob goes back decades, so maybe they’re more worried about faulty banisters or catching a bad case of ‘Russian window cancer’ (TM Jim Stewartson).
An Incomplete List
After some fabulous Twitter spelunking through threads by citizens from the Baltic states, Czech Republic, UK, and ‘Langley,’ I found spreadsheets and videos, short lists, and long lists — each documenting Russia’s disregard for international treaties, conventions, and law, many with dates and receipts.
Some even added soundtracks, like this clever cat:
Here’s Christopher Steele with the short list of Russia’s broken bilateral treaties with Ukraine:
It’s important this week to remember that Putin has violated every bilateral treaty Russia signed with Ukraine since independence in 1992. The Budapest Memo (1994), Friendship (1997) and Border (2003) Treaties all guaranteed Ukrainian territorial integrity but counted for nothing.
And here’s Darth Putin weighing in:
Russia violates:
UN Charter 45
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 70
Helsinki Accords 75
Belovezha Accords 91–92
Budapest Memo 94
Black Sea Fleet Treaty 97
Friendship Treaty 98
Treaty on Azov Sea & Kerch Strait ‘03
Karkiv pact ‘10
NAFO Fella Rail Splitter managed to carve together this incomplete list of treaties, conventions, and agreements violated by Russia over the last two decades, in a post he titled “Peace for our time: negotiate with Russia now”:
He wrote:
It’s really not a big deal: there are some things you have to do to liberate the world of the terrible scourges of freedom, human rights and sovereignty.
And here is his list:
◦ United Nations Charter
◦ All Geneva Conventions and in particular, the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention
◦ Additional Protocols to the Geneva Convention that define war crimes against civilians
◦Rome Statute (Russia not a party but bound by the force of customary law).
◦ 1899 Hague Convention on Belligerent Occupation
◦Helsinki Accords
◦Universal Declaration of Human Rights
◦International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
◦European Convention on Human Rights
◦Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
◦ UN Genocide Convention
◦ New Start Treaty
◦ Conventional Forces in Europe
(CFE) Treaty
◦ Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty
◦ Treaty on Incidents On and Over the High Seas
◦ Open Skies Treaty
◦ NATO - Russia Founding Act
◦ 2008 Ceasefire Agreement with Georgia
◦Minsk I and Minsk II Agreements
◦ 1994 Budapest Memorandum
◦ 1999 Istanbul Summit Agreement committing Russia to withdraw its army from Moldova and Georgia by 2002
◦ Moscow Mechanism of OSCE
◦ 2003 Ukraine-Russia Treaty on the Sea of Azov
◦ 1997 Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation that recognised the mutual inviolability of borders
I dash this off to you today, in between working on longform reports, so you, too, can feel as good as I do about reality.
These emperors have no clothes.
They may wear handmade Italian suits, but if you read the words of those with lived experience of Russian aggression, you can see right through their threads.
And please do share with your networks the current fate of former Philippine president Duterte. As I noted yesterday, he’s in The Hague, awaiting trial for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. Duterte is responsible by his own admission for dozens of murders in his so-called war on drugs. If we don’t lose sight of reality, it’s clear the same fate awaits the murderous bastards in America.
Peace sounds nice. Dove emojis look pretty on a timeline.
But we are in a mind war, and the word peace is being weaponized like everything else.
Just ask Ukrainians.
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