Putin Removes all Imperial Doubts
Vladimir Putin finally told us what his goals are. It is a thing of beauty if you believe in manifest destiny. Albeit this is the Russian version of that concept.
If we are to believe Tsar Vladimir Putin I, this war is about recovering lands lost to the West. These are rightful lands that belong to the Rodina, the motherland. Putin is a man of destiny. He is not just recreating the Soviet Union but also the lands of Peter the Great, including the great Nordic war with Sweden. Oh, and Alaska is also in play.
Now that is a war that occurred a few centuries ago. It is also the reason for St. Petersburg since the Tsar needed a new capital, Swedish prisoners were forced to build it, and chiefly the port that serves as both a naval and commercial port. This is one that Putin had a hell of a time surrendering to the mafia in the 1990s in the food for oil scheme.
In 1992, Putin was investigated for a deal he oversaw while an official in the mayor’s office. The deal involved the export of $100m worth of raw materials in exchange for food for the citizens of St Petersburg. The materials were exported, but the food never arrived.
Marine Salye was put in charge of a city council investigation into the deal, and fastidiously kept the documents from that time.
Papers granting export permits to…