The Psycho Circus of Mad Men

Zarina Zabrisky reminds us to not project American democracy onto Russia, plus, other bits of advice on recent events from experienced colleagues

I called Zarina Zabrisky — who has been reporting from Ukraine since the full-scale invasion — for comment on the events that unfolded in Russia over the weekend.

I’d spent hours trying to find a quote from one of her RadPod interviews where she said trying to understand what’s going on in the minds of Russian leaders was like trying to make sense of madness.

I contacted her on the road and the first thing she said was:

Do not try to use logic. Do not project American democracy onto Russia. I keep hearing people say, ‘How is Putin going to explain it to the Russian people?’ He’s a dictator. That’s why they are called dictators — they don’t have to explain anything. They can kill half of the country, and they won’t have to explain anything, as Stalin did.

In that very American way of ours, we are trying to use a democratic lens to make sense of a kleptocracy.

A mafia state’s having problems, and events are still unfolding.

I am watching corporate media report at face value what Putin and Yevgeny Prigozhin say — two psychopaths — and even more concerning are the deep thoughts by the American patriarchy, who simply can’t resist being the authorities on everything. Can they just STFU for a minute, and maybe consider asking someone with lived experience from Eastern Europe…

I called Zabrisky for that reason. She was born in St. Petersburg, spent summers in Odesa, and is an American citizen — having lived in San Francisco for nearly half her life. At Leningrad State University, she was required to study combat propaganda, and she knows how these psychological operations we’ve been targeted with work. Her reports from Ukraine in the last year and a half have been vital to our understanding of the facts on the ground, and if you haven’t seen her in the film The Eastern Front, please do so here.

She will be doing a live breaking news special with RadPod in the morning, and I will alert the Bette community in advance.

Zabrisky said Americans have this large mental gap when it comes to understanding the motives in Russia:

People are not equipped mentally and emotionally to overcome that gap. It’s like William Blake’s ‘Songs of Experience and Innocence’’, if you’re innocent there’s no way to gain or attain the experience unless you’ve lost your own innocence.

I am looking forward to hearing what Zabrisky has to say on RadPod and also, please look out for a report from her in Byline Supplement in the morning. Today’s report from Dr. Charles Kriel on RFKJr is a very important read btw.

As the circus of psychopathy continues in Moscow, I wanted to offer additional smart insights from the scholars and reporters who are members of the Bette Dangerous community and whose words I lean on as I do this work.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat on Twitter:

All autocrats care about is staying in power to have the ability to oppress and steal. The Russian govt. is a kleptocracy, it is a criminal operation and Putin will do whatever it takes to keep that going.

Michael MacKay on Twitter:

From the Bolshevik coup of 1917 to the Wagner coup of 2023, Western policy about Russia has been guided by charlatans, imbeciles and bullshit artists. It’s time for them to shut up. It’s time to accept the wisdom and leadership of Ukrainians and other Eastern Europeans.

MacKay points out the gullibility of mainstream news media:

Since 2014 they reported “ceasefire agreements” made by the Russian fascist invaders of Ukraine as if they were real. Now they’re reporting a “peace agreement” between two Russian fascist leaders as if it is real.

Putin and Prigozhin are mass murderers and liars. They say the coup is over. Ukrainians know better. They mock the enemy warlords but know Russia’s descent into hell is a sideshow.

MacKay, a Canadian academic who lectured in Ukraine and worked as an election observer, did pause from all his fierce reporting to note:

Ukrainians have a deliciously dark sense of humour:

"Prigozhin isn't worried about going to prison. He'll be released right away by enlisting in his own private military company."

As my readers know, Prigozhin is a criminal who stocks his mercenary army with violent criminals, often recruiting from prison, where he once resided.

Americans seem to have forgotten or maybe they didn’t even know, Prigozhin — aka Putin’s Chef — ran the online operations that resulted in the ongoing destruction of Western democracies.

As my friend Stephen Douglas, who is the creator of the ‘Disinfolklore’ substack, wrote:

Since 2012, the Chef Saucerer Apprentice's St Petersburg Disinfolklore factories have delivered Brexit, Trump, and concealed genocide by Russia in Ukraine.

Meta-Disinfolklore (8)

Finally, it’s worth noting that this community shared a very important afternoon with David Pepper, who joined us for our Sunday ‘Speakeasy’ on Father’s Day to inform us on how to save democracy. He reminded us that there will be many distractions to throw us off our game between now and 2024.

The psycho circus of the mad men in Russia is an example of that. We will also now watch the freak show of GOP vatniks and as they make sh*t up about Biden or Hillary or Hunter being behind Prigozhin’s ‘coup’.

Smh.

We have to be better than that.

I’ll let my own words take us out:

This morning I tweeted:

Your daily reminder GOP leaders are engaged in a massive criminal coverup.

Let’s stay on offense.

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(Image of Russian tank stuck between circus signs, courtesy of Zarina Zabrisky’s daily report for Euromaidan Press)