Lifting the Veil on Russia’s SMO in Ukraine: Is Putin’s Response to NATO’s Provocations a Potemkin Village?
By David Skripac
“War is a massacre of people who don’t know each other for the profit of people who know each other but don’t massacre each other.” Paul Valéry
Legend has it that when Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, visited Crimea in 1787, her lover, Prince Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin, came up with the idea of constructing entire villages of elaborate-looking wooden structures to impress her.
These beautifully decorated buildings were supposed to deceive the empress into believing the recently developed region had become prosperous under her rule. According to the legend, Crimea was, in reality, a vacant, desolate land, devoid of human activity, much less of thriving villages and a vibrant economy.
Is this folklore based on fact? Hardly. Catherine the Great, being an astute observer, would have never been fooled by such an obviously devious scheme. In fact, the story of these “Potemkin villages”—a term later coined in honor of supposed scammer Prince Potemkin—was a myth perpetrated by a Saxonian diplomat who wasn’t even in Crimea at the time.
True, Grigori Potemkin was responsible for the development of the former lands of the Crimean Khanate. But that’s the only accurate part of this otherwise-fake story.
Indeed, Russians and foreigners who visited Crimea in those days painted a very different picture. They described a region where all the villages and towns were real—though, granted, they were erected in haste. Russian carpenters and farmers were forced to be fast builders—an essential skill if one were to survive the harsh winter conditions.
The wooden structures were hardly built to perfection, and some of their elaborate exterior accoutrements—“flowers, painted backdrops, and triumphal gates”—may have been just for show, but that was not rare in 18th-century Russia, and no attempt was made to fool anyone, least of all the visiting empress.
Still, the mythical part of the story has endured to this day. Articles continue to be written debunking its origins. One piece that handily disposes of the legend, “The Potemkin villages myth EXPOSED,” was published in March 2020 on the website Russia Beyond. Staff writer Georgy Manaev is the author of the partial quote in the previous paragraph.
These days the term “Potemkin village” is employed to describe a situation in which an undesirable condition is hidden behind an impressive-looking-but-fake exterior. By masking the undesirable condition, the designers of the plot hope to deceive observers into thinking that the reality is better than it actually is.
I especially like this dictionary definition of Potemkin village: “a pretentiously showy or imposing façade intended to divert attention from an embarrassing or shabby fact or condition.”
Many political analysts from both East and West depict Russian Federation President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in Potemkin village-like language. They practically idolize him as some sort of grandmaster anti-globalist strategist who, in their worshipful eyes, liberated the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine from the evil clutches of the “neo-Nazi” regime in Kiev.
This article will attempt to prove that these pundits are propagandists whose work is the modern-day equivalent of fake Potemkin village façades. Either because they are duped or by design, they are obscuring an undesirable reality about Russia’s special military operation (SMO). They want readers in the West to think Putin is doing a spectacular job of outmaneuvering Ukraine—I mean the Pentagon and the CIA—at every turn. Since the start of the SMO in 2022, though, the Pentagon and its offshoot, NATO, have been steadily funneling arms to Ukraine, thereby keeping its military on the counteroffensive and even expanding the conflict into Russia proper.
Those who characterize Russia as triumphantly winning the war on the battlefields of Ukraine fail to focus on two factors: the nature of the dominant economic system prevailing in the Russian Federation and President Putin’s close relationships with the world’s foremost globalists.
As to the first factor: Russia’s economic transformation from a centrally controlled economy to a Wall Street-like neoliberal economic model was initiated in 1990 by Soviet Union President and Club of Rome member Mikhail Gorbachev. That model carried over into the Boris Yeltsin era (Yeltsin served as Russia’s president from 1991 to 1999) and accelerated when Putin took the helm (Putin has been either prime minister or president of Russia since 1999).
As to the second factor: Not only are these analysts obfuscating the truth about how rashly Putin and his incompetent defence ministry are conducting the SMO but they are hiding the fact that, to the detriment of 146 million Russians, Putin is 100 percent on board the globalist agenda being promoted by the United Nations (UN), the World Economic Forum (WEF), and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Furthermore, Russia, like Ukraine, is being led by a gang of treacherous oligarchs who act as if they are one unified cabal working arm-in-arm—ruthless tycoons who care not one whit about the well-being of their Russian and Ukrainian countrymen.
Most of my readers already understand how deplorable Ukraine’s leadership is. The Ukrainian government is the epitome of a kakistocracy hellbent on heeding the wishes of its handlers in the West, to the detriment of its 36 million-plus people.
To wit #1: Over the past decade Ukraine’s valuable, incredibly fertile agricultural land—its breadbasket—has been sold to US multinationals Cargill, Dupont, and Monsanto. The main shareholders of these companies are the world’s two largest investment firms, BlackRock and Vanguard.
To wit #2: Ukrainian actor-and-comedian-turned-President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was bankrolled and promoted into office by Ukrainian-born Israeli oligarch Ihor Kholomoisky. This oligarch-to-beat-all-oligarchs is now behind bars on money laundering and fraud charges in Ukraine.
Yes, this is the very same Kholomoisky who helped create and fund the Ukrainian “neo-Nazi” Azov battalion in 2014. He undoubtedly sees President Zelenskyy—and almost every Western leader—as simply a useful pawn for him and his New World Order (NWO) buddies—until such time as they choose to replace the current handpicked “ruler” with another puppet perceived as more profitable to their pockets.
It is my hope that by the time you finish reading this article you will have a better understanding of the true nature of the Potemkin-like Putin and the Potemkin-like Russia/Ukraine conflict.
The Current Situation in Ukraine
Contrary to what most independent pundits are saying, the war is not going well for Moscow. At the start of the SMO in February 2022, Russian forces approached Kiev from the north, hoping that this maneuver would incentivize pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians living in Kiev to persuade their fellow countrymen to sue for peace. But after Russia's unsuccessful attempt to take Kiev upon the SMO’s inception, the overall situation has been slowly deteriorating for the Kremlin.
[Further detail: When they launched the SMO in February 2022, Russian forces approached Ukraine’s capitol, Kiev, from the north with the intent of pressuring the Kiev regime into immediate ceasefire negotiations. Apparently, Russia’s intelligence service, the FSB, gave the Kremlin the impression that pro-Russian assets living in Kiev would be able to persuade their fellow countrymen to sue for peace with Moscow. That hope never materialised, and the Russian forces were compelled to make an embarrassing retreat two months later.]
What do I mean by “slowly deteriorating for the Kremlin”?
For one thing, the initial gains the Russian forces achieved in the regions of Kharkov, Liman, and Kherson have all been lost.
For another, apart from capturing the city of Bakhmut in May 2023 and the town of Avdiivka in February 2024—both of which are still under Russian control—Moscow has still not achieved any major strategic goals in Ukraine. Other than giving the Russian soldiers a badly needed morale boost, the capture of Avdiivka did not change the overall strategic situation.
In short, Russia is not winning any major conflict in Ukraine. In fact, if anything, the inverse is true.
Ukrainian military units are now actively engaged in fighting Russian forces on Russian territory. They are flying drones into Russia and shelling Russian villages along the border and even conducting long-range drone strikes against radar facilities deep in the Russian interior—actions they never took before the SMO commenced.
One specific example: Belgorod, Russia, is now being routinely bombed and shelled with impunity by Kiev.
Other examples, such as attacks on nuclear power plants and key bridges, can found here and here.
Treachery on Both Sides
As I pen these words, Russia’s Gazprom is transporting 42.1 million cubic meters of natural gas daily through Ukraine to Europe through the Sudzha gas measuring station (GIS), according to TASS.
Can TASS be right? If it is, how can either the Russian government or the Ukrainian government justify this cozy private-and-public partnership between adversaries?
Isn’t Russia fighting for its very survival against the dangerous tentacles of NATO?
And, likewise, wouldn’t the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) be trying to prevent their so-called Russian enemy from transporting its energy resources through Ukraine? Surely the top priority for any rational Ukrainian military strategist would be to blow up all the alleged enemy’s petroleum supply sources, right? But that is not happening.
So, then, could there be something else afoot behind the scenes? Is something happening under our noses?
Indeed, there is. Just as TASS reported, Russia continues to regularly pay Ukraine for the transit of gas to Europe. That means funds obtained from Russia are effectively being used by its “enemy,” Ukraine, to purchase weapons, medicines, and other necessities required for combat operations against Russian forces.
In fact, notes TASS, this business arrangement was agreed upon in September 2022—a mere seven months after the SMO started.
Not only is it doing big business with Ukraine, but Russia is not trying to prevent Western arms from entering Ukraine. Granted, the Kremlin is bombing some oil refineries (for instance, Ukraine’s largest private company, the Kremenchuk oil refinery) and certain sectors of Ukraine’s power grid to create electricity outages for the possible reason of demoralizing the Ukrainian people and hampering the movement of Ukrainian forces at night.
Many bridges and tunnels, though, are still totally intact, allowing Western weapons and equipment to freely flow into Ukraine.
Two such weapons are the German-made Leopard 2A6 tank and the German-made Flakpanzer Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft gun. They and many other weapons systems have been allowed to enter Ukraine, only to be offloaded from their railway cars and then transported unmolested to the front lines.
And why is the Russian military, as reported by Reuters, permitting Turkey to build drone weapons factories in neighbouring Ukraine? (Note: Reuters says the Turkish company Baykar, which builds lethal aerial drones, “is planning to complete the construction of its manufacturing plant in Ukraine in two years.”)
How can any of the above statements be true if, as the pro-SMO Russian and Western commentators claim, Russia is “winning the war”?
Surely any skilled military leader understands that oil and gas and weapons-making facilities, as well as transportation infrastructure, would have to be destroyed at the earliest opportunity.
Yet the very opposite is occurring. As Slavskiy/Skywalker has proven, prominent Russian businessmen are providing some of the capital for the war factories opening in Ukraine—factories whose products will only be used to murder Russian soldiers. The Ukrainian branch of Russia’s Alpha Bank, for example, is helping raise funds for Kiev’s war against Russia—and even brags about it on social media.
The duplicity I have just described is not unique to Russian oligarchs in Ukraine. According to analysis conducted by IA REGNUN, Ukrainian oligarchs are running the exact same gambit in Russia. More than eight Ukrainian oligarchs who are sponsoring Kiev’s war effort have highly lucrative business enterprises inside Russia. The billions of rubles earned from these ventures are then sent back to Ukraine from Russia to support the UAF.
How do any of the above facts make sense in light of the conflict we are told is raging between the two countries? To me, they make sense only if we understand that the war is a fake, managed conflict. Why not say the word: It is a Potemkin conflict.
I would go so far as to assert that this “war” was never meant to be won. It appears that, from its inception, the “war” was designed to be a continuous battle—like an endless rally between two tennis archrivals. Naturally, a Potemkin conflict would enable unscrupulous oligarchs seated not only in Kiev and Moscow but in any number of spots around the world—Tel Aviv, Washington, London, New York, Berlin, Geneva, to name a few—to benefit financially from the carnage. As a bonus, they get to fulfill what may be their eugenical dream: depopulate the planet by murdering young men of Slavic descent by the hundreds of thousands.
Truth be told, what is occurring is the manufactured mass slaughter of innocent people, both military and civilians. The parasite class, in other words, has pitted Slav against Slav as a form of self-immolation—to once and for all destroy the homogeneity of the Slavic people.
Putin is right in the thick of it. He is a traitor to the Russian people—perhaps no surprise, given that one of his mentors was the perfidious Henry Kissinger. He is simultaneously causing all the destruction taking place and clamping down on anyone who opposes the conflict. He has had Russian nationalists like army veteran Igor Ivanovich “Strelkov” Girkin arrested and imprisoned and Girkin’s supporters punished for pointing out how recklessly the war has been waged by the Kremlin.
Meanwhile, as Putin suppresses nationalism in Russia, he has opened up his nation’s border for the entry of thousands of unskilled migrants with dubious credentials from Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan (read: the Islamification of Russia).
If the Kremlin’s SMO had really been about liberating the Donbas—which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk territories—as Putin had initially claimed, then why on earth did he refuse to accept the Donbas when former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko offered it to him in 2015?
In fact, judging by The New York Times’ recently published draft agreement between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, discussed in April 2022 in Istanbul, not only did the Kremlin not want to incorporate the Donbas into Russia but the draft agreement makes no mention of the Zapotozhye and Kherson regions.
Nor does the agreement allude to the “denazification, demilitarisation,” or liberating of Russian-speaking territories in eastern Ukraine from “Nazi” occupation. The absence of that language is totally contrary to the propaganda Moscow put forth in its stated objectives at the outset of the SMO. Conclusion: It would appear, then, that even the Kremlin’s originally stated goals for the SMO were reminiscent of a Potemkin village.
There is No Multipolar World Order
If you still have doubts about my Potemkin village thesis, just look at what officials in the Kremlin have done to the Russian population over the past four years. They’ve endorsed the Covid consensus program to a "T"—deploying lockdowns, injecting their people with harmful clot shots (Sputnik V), and taking a host of other physically and psychologically harmful measures.
Besides sanctioning the Covid agenda, Putin and his billionaire bosses and government minions are in lockstep with biometric surveillance, facial recognition payments, Big Tech censorship, digital identification, sustainable development, the climate crisis hoax, and central bank digital currency. These are all methods of extracting more wealth and freedom and agency from the people and depositing same into the corrupt banks and crooked hands of the oligarchs. In other words, Russia is no different than its Western counterparts.
What we’re witnessing is the “money masters” up to their same old schemes, playing two sides of the same coin against each other—pretending the sides are somehow different. The coin of their realm is minted by satanic conspirators whose purposes are to destroy any remnants of freedom, to decrease the human population by means both stealthy and in-your-face and in ways both violent and coercive, and to enslave the rest of us by controlling and regulating every single aspect of what is left of society as we know it—or once knew it.
To the average person, it may appear as if there are two factions struggling for supremacy: “Team A” fighting against “Team B.” Unfortunately, what the average person seems not to understand is that the two team captains of this geopolitical struggle have been handpicked by the same “scouts,” and the same scouts own, oversee, manage, and control both teams.
If you disbelieve these assertions, ask yourself: How is it that Moscow is implementing the policies proscribed for her by the UN/WEF/WHO globalists while purportedly being at war with this very same parasitic class?
Take, for example, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF 2024), held June 5th through 8th of this year. The event was touted as a shining example of a multipolar world order, where anti-globalist minds come together annually from the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), and the Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) member states to share ideas.
Would-be attendees had to provide a negative PCR test result. Only then would their SPIEF digital ID be activated, giving them access to enter.
And what were some of the key topics discussed at SPIEF 2024?
I suspect you have already guessed the answer: The exact same talking points one would expect to find at World Economic Forum (WEF) meetings: sustainable development, (phoney) climate crisis, biometric surveillance, and the like.
In fact, President Putin had previously met with former WEF Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab shortly after SPIEF’19 to discuss further “cooperation between business people and government agencies.”
Thus, there is no way to justify calling the BRICS or the SCO or the EAEU models non-globalisation alternatives to the West’s globalisation push when, in reality, they are just another form of globalisation.
And, like their counterparts in the West, who over the past four years have been using technologies developed by the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in an attempt to deceive, manipulate, and injure billions of people with “biological countermeasures” (mRNA gene therapeutics), the Russian ruling class is striving to do the same and is producing identical harmful results in its population.
For instance, the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology within the Russian Federation’s Ministry of Health announced as far back as September 2022 that it wanted to create its own mRNA coronavirus “vaccine” concoction.
But why stop there? On June 6, 2024, Gamaleya’s director, Alexander Gintsburg, revealed in a press conference that the institute has been working on a mRNA “vaccine” to treat all types of cancers. This news comes from Riley Waggaman, aka Edward Slavsquat, on his highly informative Substack platform.
To summarize, there is no multipolar world order. There is only one web of a global empire, which the sinister, psychopathic, spidery “powers that shouldn’t be” have been incessantly spinning in their vain attempt to control all humanity.
Concluding Remarks
Contrary to what Western pundits are spouting, Moscow is neither blowing up bunkers filled with NATO officers nor decimating supply lines and secret Western weapons.
Instead, Putin, unlike his counterpart in Ukraine, has been proposing “Peace Plans” to save his political career and extricate Russia from an unwinnable war. But that extraction may come at a heavy price, judging by what US presidential nominee Donald Trump has recently proposed. In fact, according to this article in European Pravda, the so-called Trump Peace Plan looks more like a boon for Western weapons manufacturers than anything else.
Moreover, to make matters worse, the Ukrainian forces have just launched a major offensive in Russia’s Kursk region. As of August 11, of this year, the UAF has advanced 20km in just three days with almost no resistance.
It is critical the Russian people understand that their government is undermining their prosperity and peace by endorsing the WEF’s and UN’s and WHO’s technocracy-driven agenda, just as, in its own way, the Ukrainian government is working against the prosperity and peace of its population.
To the power-nabbing, land-grabbing, resource-hogging globalists who purport to run this planet and who try to subjugate more and more parts of it and people on it with every passing year, Putin is dispensable and disposable. No matter how much he plays along with their agenda or perceives himself to be one of them, he cannot curry their favor forever.
Indeed, if Putin is not careful, these gluttonous globalists will dismember and disembowel Russia piece by piece. Its valuable resources will be snatched and sold off—just like Ukraine’s resources are currently in the process of being acquired by powerful Wall Street interests.
Yes, just as Ukraine and other countries in the West and East (a subject for another article on another day) are being captured and cut to shreds by megalomaniacs, Russia will be turned into a land of warring fiefdoms—similar to what took place after the Pentagon targeted Yugoslavia for destruction in 1990 and Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.
It is time to openly discuss what is really going on, without bias and without emotion. Then we will comprehend that Putin’s SMO, though claiming to dominate Ukraine, is as illusory as a Potemkin village. We will comprehend, too, that the people of Russia and Ukraine are being trampled by a herd of marauding oligarchs.
Only by shining the penetrating light of truth on the nefarious motives behind this bloody but fraudulent Ukrainian/Russian “war” can we expose who is really benefiting from the conflict. That exposure is the first step in ending both the fighting and the needless suffering of millions of innocents on each side.
David Skripac has a Bachelor of Technology degree in Aerospace Engineering. He served as a Captain in the Canadian Forces for nine years. During his two tours of duty in the Air Force, he flew extensively in the former Yugoslavia as well as in Somalia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. He is the author of the e-book Our Species Is Being Genetically Modified and of "Moving Toward a Global Empire: Humanity Sentenced to a Unipolar Prison and a Digital Gulag" and is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Right on the money David. I have also been listening to Slavsquat, he is very on the low informative. It seems that almost everything we see is a lie used to manipulate we the people and keep these demons in power. The same thing is going on here in America, nothing is as it seems. Both sides are being played while they slip the rug out from under us. Even those we think are the heroes of the conservative movement are in bed with evil. Thank you for standing up for truth and writing this article. We must be wise as serpents...
Great! Bravo! 👏👏👏