Former Chess Grandmaster Gary Kasparov has posted an important message on Twitter, calling out the state actors and private individuals who are attempting to force an unwanted and dishonorable cessation of hostilities upon Ukraine to appease Vladimir Putin – so that they can get back to the business of buying oil and gas from The gangster and his kleptocratic cabal of oligarchs to the detriment of Ukraine, and ultimately Europe and the entire world.
Kasparov knows the venality of and the danger that the Putin regime poses, having fled Russia in fear for his life in 2013 after attempting to challenge the dictator electorally.
For those who use Twitter, here is Kasparov’s first post in this thread:
Three months into Putin's genocidal total war on Ukraine, Putin's Global Rescue Team is assembling again. Heads of state, media, pundits, all the usual suspects eager to preserve a horrific status quo & sacrifice thousands of Ukrainian lives, and call it peace. 1/13
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) May 26, 2022
And for those who choose not to use the site I have used the Thread Reader App to consolidate Mr. Kasparov’s words into a more accessible format. There is no issue of fair use here, if Gary had not wanted his message to be read and shared far and wide he would have published it behind a pay wall.
“Three months into Putin’s genocidal total war on Ukraine, Putin’s Global Rescue Team is assembling again. Heads of state, media, pundits, all the usual suspects eager to preserve a horrific status quo & sacrifice thousands of Ukrainian lives, and call it peace. 1/13
Ukraine is bleeding, without the weapons it asked for. Putin is rushing to annex more Ukrainian territory, issuing passports and currency, killing and deporting thousands and bringing in Russians, as he’s been doing for 8 years in occupied Crimea and Donbas. 2/13
The profiteers and appeasers, working with or for Putin, like Kissinger, join the false “peacemakers” in France and Italy to send more Ukrainians to the hell of Russian occupation, dozens of Buchas to come. Who are they to tell Ukrainians how to live and die? 3/13
Putin knows the weapons will get there, in less than a month, so he is desperate to push the story of a stalemate, to get a ceasefire he won’t honor. Under that cover he will consolidate territory, continue annexation, and liquidate any resistance. He’s done it before. 4/13
Some allies are slow-rolling weapons deliveries, afraid of Ukrainian victory. If Ukraine makes more progress pushing Russia back, Western leaders might lose their coveted “peace for our time” moment and not be able to rush back to Russian gas & oil. 5/13
Ukraine needs air cover, while allies point fingers and play hot potato with who needs what permissions to provide jets and other weapons. Do they want the carnage to end, or just cover it up, postpone more, guaranteeing it will be worse next time? 6/13
Macron hoped Zelensky would be a Marshal Pétain for Ukraine, but he’s turned out to be more a De Gaulle. Ukrainians don’t want to live in a Vichy Republic under Putin’s fascist regime. So they fight like hell for their nation–and for Europe and the free world. 7/13
But Europe is not fighting like hell for Ukraine. The “union” is not united, not standing for the values of its founding. A war for life & liberty has no room for friendly deals with aggressor dictators. What do France, Italy, Hungary say they stand for in doing so? 8/13
The Putin Rescue Team is unashamed even after the horrors of Mariupol and Bucha. Editorials still call for off-ramps and deals with a war criminal. If only these appeasers, safe and sound and well-fed, had a tenth of the courage Ukrainians have under fire. 9/13
Putin pushing for a deal is a sign to keep the pressure on, to destroy his invading army and to bankrupt him and his mafia. US leadership is required to keep turning the financial screws, to show them things will not improve until Ukraine is whole and free. 10/13
Stop thinking about concessions Ukraine can make. They are paying a terrible price in blood, with decades of rebuilding to come. They are paying for years of weakness and corruption of the European nations that eagerly did business & diplomacy with their invader. 11/13
Ukraine needs every weapon they ask for without hesitation. The free world is lucky to have a brave and skilled Ukrainian military on the front line of a war they never wanted, a war the West tried to pretend did not exist. They aren’t a proxy, they are a partner. 12/13
Bankrupt Putin & his regime. Give Ukraine what it needs to win. Shame anyone who would rescue Putin from suffering the consequences of his murderous war. Ukraine must choose, and as long as they choose to fight we must fight with them. Glory to Ukraine. 13/13”
Kissinger.
Of course. Is there no end to the evil and fuckery that that POS will engage in?
France, Germany, Hungary, Italy and any other nation seeking to betray Ukraine’s desperate fight to save themselves and perhaps all of Europe from Putin’s lust for power should look long and hard at the fate of nations that appease dictators.
Ukraine’s fight is our own.
Too bad Kissinger’s family escaped Germany in 1938. Maybe some time spent in a Nazi death camp would’ve made him a bit more aware of the evils of fascism and appeasing dictators.
I forgot to note that he did suffer numerous beatings at the hands of Hitler Youth gangs and other forms of anti-Jewish persecution but obviously none of that was enough to make him appreciate why dictators should NOT be appeased.
Sometime bullies create bullies.
Kissinger – feh. Like all the old geezers still in congress, he needs to shut up, step aside and let our far more enlightened youth take the helm.
He’s been like this for at least 50 years. *He hasn’t learned*.
Kissinger has fallen into the trap of ignoring history.
Go back to the late 1930s when Germ,any, under Hitler re-occipied the Rheinland, then annexed Austria (and held a plebiscite AFTER they took over – does anyone think that Austrians were willing to vote ‘Nein’ while under the watchful eye of the SS and Gestapo?
He then went off to annex the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia (and ended up taking over the entire country.
What did the US, France and GB do about it? Diddly squat is what. Chamberlain trotted off to Munich met with ‘Herr Hilelr’ and returned with a piece of paper saying Germany had no further territorial claims and it would be ‘peace in our time’
In under 12 months, the Reichswehr invaded Poland and 6 years of bloody conflict followed – all because nobody had the guts to stand up against Hitler.
Anyone who can’t see Putain is playing an identical game really needs a pair of reading glasses and a history book.
Minor correction to your timeline:
Hitler did NOT “annex the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia” until AFTER the Chamberlain bit; it should also be noted that French PM Edouard Daladier was as complicit. Chamberlain and Daladier would meet separately with Hitler and believed him when he said the Sudetenland (not the entirety of Bohemia and Moravia) would be his last territorial demand and would sign an agreement (put forward by Mussolini but likely developed by Hermann Goering) to turn over the territory; the Czechoslovak government agreed to cede the territory. Some five months after the territorial concession, THEN Hitler invaded and occupied Bohemia and Moravia–largely prompted by the Slovakian decision to secede and form its own pro-Hitler nation (somewhat ironically, Poland would annex a small bit of territory that it had long sought). The invasion of Poland would take place within 12 months of the initial dismemberment of Czechoslovakia but it would only be 6 months after Germany overran Bohemia and Moravia.
True – I did sort of over-simplify things but the ‘excuse’ for the complete annexation of was that the area was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and, as Austria was now the ‘Ostmark’ of the Reich, Hitler thought they were entitled to it. Hungary and Croatia both allied themselves with Germany during the war, as did Italy, which sort of meant that Hitler couldn’t claim those territories (which were also Austro-Hungarian prior to 1918)