I sympathize with the former president of Harvard University, Claudine Gay, who was swiftly elevated to the pinnacle of academic Olympus by the will of the times and, after a short period of power and glory, was just as sensationally dethroned from her high pedestal.

Volodymyr Zelensky is used to getting his way when it comes to money. Look at the untold billions US taxpayers have given his country to defeat Russian aggression.

When I predicted a year ago in these columns that the coming much vaunted US and NATO-backed Ukrainian military offensive would be a catastrophe on the scale of the 1916 Battle of the Somme, absolutely no one even in the supposed anti-war US movement paid any attention at all.

Experts fear new arms race after New Start treaty expires in 2026

There is no better declarative indicator of American arrogance and hubris than the self-appointed title of “indispensable nation.” Liberal pundits and critics believe that the notion of the indispensable nation had its origins in the post-Cold War era following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In actual fact, the ideological origins of the indispensable nation were “present at the creation,” if I can borrow the title of Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s trenchant memoir.

It is now abundantly clear that Russia has defeated the Western sanctions regime that was intended to cripple its economy and force its withdrawal from Ukraine. Instead of collapsing, the Russian economy is growing rapidly. Russia’s GDP grew by an impressive 5.5 percent in the third quarter of 2023. Final figures for the year are not yet in, but Russian GDP growth for all of 2023 should exceed 3 percent. Ironically, the Russians are doing rather better than those who imposed sanctions on them. In 2023, the U.S. economy grew by 2.4 percent while the German economy shrank, and the EU as a whole grew by less than 1 percent. Instead of withdrawing from Ukraine, Russia has increased the size of its invasion force from 190,000 troops in February 2022 to more than 600,000 today.

The boomerang effect of the Russian sanctions on the EU member states is having a mixed impact. Germany, France and Italy are worst affected as the pain from the changes in energy and input supplies impact their economies, dragging them down into recession, while the less dependent on Russia like Spain and Portugal are already showing signs of recovery, according to ING analysis.

Why did the post-Cold War promises of friendship and strategic partnership end not just in failure but more intractable rivalry?

Today’s charming message from Zelenskiy – the Neocon sociopath who came to power on false pretenses and set about destroying his country just because he didn’t think Ukraine should be neutral (or because he was working for western intelligence to this end) – is directed to people of conscription age who have already left Ukraine and harangues them to the effect that they need to be in Ukraine, where they will (be made to) work or fight; and if they are already subject to mobilization they are either already fighting or they are dead.

Recently, The Wall Street Journal joined the flood of American mainstream media outlets, including The New York Times, Politico and several others, in preparing the American public for a Russian victory.