Prof. Ivan Angelov: With the war in Ukraine, Russia is fighting for its survival

The war between the West and the East has been going on for 1000 years. It dates back to the tenth century and has gone through a number of vicissitudes – from very sharp national to close family friendships between the ruling elites. And in many forms – military, political, economic, social, religious, etc. However, hostile relations between the two worlds prevail.

In more recent times, the Napoleonic War of 1812 is well known. In 1918-1920, in addition to Russia’s involvement in the First World War, the exhausted country was attacked by thousands of armies of Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Spain and other countries, along with pressure from large military groups of domestic opponents of the revolution. But miraculously it endured.

In more recent times, after the treacherous attack of Hitler’s Germany on June 22, 1941, with the direct or indirect participation of almost all of Europe, the Soviet Union survived, at the cost of 27 million victims, making the main contribution to the total defeat of Germany in May 1945. Thanks to the unprecedented courage and heroism of its martyred people and despite not always the most skillful leadership of its rulers, Russia has survived as a great power and, in recent decades, as a guarantor of world peace, despite the destructive policies of the West.

The West created NATO on March 17, 1948, as an instrument against the then Soviet Union, and seven years later, on May 14, 1955, the East created the Warsaw Pact to defend itself. In June 1991, the Warsaw Pact fell apart, but NATO remained, even forcing its expansion eastward, ostensibly to “defend” itself.

We are now enjoying 77 years of global peace , thanks to the relative parity in the mighty nuclear arsenal of America and Russia – a total of 90-95% of the world’s nuclear arsenal. Unfortunately, this peace was ended with the open war between Russia and Ukraine 15 days ago. If we are to be precise, in the centuries-old history of West-East relations, it seems so only on the surface. First, in fact, this war has hardly stopped for many years. And second, this is not really a war between Russia and Ukraine, but between America and Russia. This war has been prepared for decades by the leaders of the United States and some Western European governments. Finally, they found the right country – the executor of the wet job, in the face of Ukraine and the right time – February 2014.

During the previous phases of the centuries-long wars between the West and Russia, there were periods when Russia (the Soviet Union) was in a very difficult situation, but it has endured so far. In recent decades, America and other NATO countries have begun to put new pressure on the Soviet Union. Along with the erroneous domestic policies of the Soviet governments under Stalin and his successors, and especially under Gorbachev and Yeltsin, the Soviet Union collapsed in late 1991 and split to the Russian Federation and several independent republics.

However, the main force is the Russian Federation, which was brought to a deplorable state under Gorbachev and especially Yeltsin. At the time, it was de facto run by the US government and its economy by the IMF and the World Bank. Russia’s governing system, especially in the economy, has been impregnated with Western “advisers,” mostly Americans. In Russia, what the American advisers ordered was conducted. And the novices Gorbachev and Yeltsin were the favorite reformist democrats of the Western rulers. In miniature form we know all this – the painful results, which the restoration of the wild Balkan capitalism brought in Bulgaria.

From the memories of high-ranking Russian officials, I know of the following conversation in Washington: During his first visit to Washington, Russia’s new foreign minister, Andrei Kozyrev, was asked at his meeting with then-US Secretary of State: What foreign policy will the new leadership of Russia conduct? Kozyrev’s answer was: “As you say”. With his servility, this surprised even the host, the US Secretary of State.

In 1990, America and the Soviet Union negotiated the reunification of Germany. In talks between US Secretary of State James Baker and other Western leaders, Mikhail Gorbachev agreed on the unification and the withdraw of 350 000 to 400 000 Soviet troops from the GDR, in return for a promise by the United States that NATO would not move east “even an inch” (in Baker’s words), but without a formal written agreement. This is an incredible mistake, not to mention – unforgivable Soviet stupidity – to trust a verbal promise on such a super important world issue. Some well-informed people point to other reasons for this “negligence”. I guess you get what reason.

The West is keeping its promise. It does not move east by “one inch”, but by 1000-1500 km – close to the very border of Russia. During these years, the Russians have repeatedly protested verbally against this creeping aggression, but because they became weak as a country, they could not do anything else. All that remained was to give America the symbolic keys to Moscow and greet them with bows in the Red Square. And despite this passivity and forced inaction, they have recently been condemned again as aggressors. And the Americans and other NATO countries – as “victims of Russian aggression.”

My brain cannot accept such distorted notions of “aggressor” and “victim of aggression”. It is difficult for me to imagine greater political arrogance from the Western politicians. I’m sure they know that’s not true! Do they believe that they will convince the hundreds of millions of normally thinking people in the world of their, to put it mildly, illogical position, even with the help of the servile media that they control!

This has whetted the appetites of America and the united West, that they are now given the chance to finally liquidate Russia and take away its vast territories and its innumerable natural and other resources. And to eliminate it as a military-political opponent on the world stage. US Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice even said publicly years ago that “it is unfair for such vast territories and the innumerable resources they have to be owned by a regional state”. Especially, Russia, the one that they truly despise.

They began to prepare different variants for the gradual detachment of former Soviet republics from Russian influence, in the form of so-called “color revolutions” and to limit the scope of the “friendly countries” in its proximity. Ukraine, with its considerable territory, strategic geographical location, fertile lands, 44 million relatively highly qualified population and relatively high technical and economic development, proved to be the most attractive option. 45-50 years ago, Brzezinski (a prominent world-renowned American political analyst and presidential security adviser) called for action to separate Ukraine from the Soviet Union. I think in the distant past his son was even an ambassador (or embassy employee) of the United States in Ukraine.

The West has done a great deal of preparatory work, including with the special training of several thousand people in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, for future subversive actions in Ukraine. The Russian political leadership and their special services could not have been unaware of this extensive preparation involving several thousand people, as we have learned about it from thousands of miles away. They probably knew, but they did nothing. And they made a very serious mistake with severe strategic consequences.

Russians, along with Ukraine’s leadership, led in these years by President Yanukovych, did nothing to stop the armed coup in late February 2014 just hours after an agreement was signed between rebels from the Kiev Maidan and President Yanukovych at his residence. And this was done in the presence as guarantors of the then ambassadors of Germany, France and Poland in Kiev, i.e. with their knowledge of the impending coup under the general direction of US intelligence. These former Western ambassadors, some of whom are still alive, are now keeping a grave silence on these events, which they have witnessed directly.

The current president of Ukraine, Zelenskyy, and his team may not have been involved in the coup (at least I don’t know), but they are undisputed political and ideological heirs, and perhaps personal friends of the coup plotters. Especially in their hatred of Russia and their loyalty to America and NATO.

The success of this coup, whose undisputed ideologue and organizer is the US Secret Service, can be considered the beginning of the current latest phase of the Third World War between America with NATO, against Russia. Russia could and should have taken action back then against the coup in Kiev, which would lead to far fewer casualties, but it did not. America and other NATO nations have used this time to prepare for their future actions to destroy Russia. I repeat, not for the simple complication of relations and for some kind of local war between Russia and Ukraine, as it may seem on the surface now, but for the final liquidation of Russia, although Russia has given up its communist ideology.

America is doing this now not because Russia is a communist state, but because it cannot tolerate the very existence of an increasingly powerful Russia as its opponent on the world military-political stage. All current statements about the ardent desire of the American authorities to end the war and to make friends with Russia and the Russian people are intended for the naive around the world and in Russia itself. And they are not few. There are them on every corner in our country as well.

Military-political measures for the near future were also being prepared. Perhaps the most important of these was Ukraine’s membership in NATO as a first decisive step in a devastating future attack on Russia. This was to be done through the extension of NATO territory, saturated with its military potential, to Moscow – only 500-600 km from the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine. According to Russian military experts, this is 4-5 minutes for modern missiles fired from the Kharkiv region to the Russian capital, which deprives it of time for any protection. Large Russian cities such as St. Petersburg and Rostov-on-Don are even more vulnerable. To the north of the border of Estonia with Russia on the Narva River is about 100 km from St. Petersburg, and to the south – Rostov-on-Don is about 80 km from Donbass, and Stalingrad – 150-200 km. Again, according to Russian military experts, even ordinary modern NATO missiles will reach Russian territory to the Urals and even Novosibirsk and the Ob River basin. That would mean the end of Russia as a state that can be defended. Because in this part of Russia is the majority of the population and the vast majority of its economic and military infrastructure.

Exhausted by Yeltsin’s 10-year ruling and Putin’s first years, Russia could not withstand the recent invasion of NATO in the eastern direction. It failed even in the first war against small Chechnya in the Caucasus. As I mentioned above, Russia was then ruled by Washington. I listened to a recording of a speech by then-Russian President Yeltsin before a joint session of the two chambers of the US Congress on his first visit to Washington. I have never heard a harsher anti-Russian and anti-Soviet speech than this from Russia’s most sworn enemies. Listening, I couldn’t believe my ears! Such a speech against his own country was hardly delivered in this congressional hall by another visiting American president! I did not believe my ears that a Russian president could be so servile to America and so bitterly insulting his country in front of the world! Unbelievable!

President Putin publicly put an end to this insulting obedience in his famous speech in front of the security conference in Munich in 2007. With this speech, Putin showed that from now on the Russian government will work only for its own national interests and no other. His speech shocked the West and encouraged Russia’s friends. That’s why Western politicians hate President Putin so much, and Russia’s friends and the vast majority of Russians respect and love him. Although his opponents in the West drive him crazy, he will remain forever with his contribution to the Russian history.

The Russian leadership, led by President Putin, has done a great deal of work since the early 2000s to stabilize Russia politically, militarily, economically, socially, and morally under devilishly complex conditions. From a weak, loose state of regional significance (as President Barack Obama and his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, then called it), Russia has become an indispensable global political and military power. This is to be done in the economy as well in the next 20-30 years.

On the surface now, unfortunately, is the war between two fraternal peoples – Russia and Ukraine. Unfortunately, America and NATO, with the help of maniacal local servants and due to a series of oversights by the Russian side, managed to confront two fraternal peoples in a fratricidal war. And it can be said even more precisely – two parts of one nation. These peoples, and especially the Ukrainian people, will themselves regret in the not too distant future the damage they are doing and the service they are doing to their greatest enemies in the West.

US and NATO leaders and their top military officials know that especially after the heavy military losses so far (according to a public statement by one of President Zelenskyy’s advisers on March 5 this year, 75% of Ukraine’s military potential has been destroyed), Ukraine has no chance of military victory or even of prolonged resistance on the military arena.

Current US and other promises by NATO nations to supply aircraft and other heavy weapons to Ukraine cannot change the balance of power between the two countries. They can only contribute to additional senseless Ukrainian and Russian victims. But not victims from America and other NATO countries, because they are afraid to intervene directly in the war against Russia. Ukraine’s new arms supplies cannot change the course of the war. This is what Ukrainian President Zelenskyy needs to understand if he really cares about his people and is not guided by theatrical emotions and suggestions from his overseas masters. It is not he who is making important decisions now, but his American “friends”. And they are guided by their own American interests, not the interests of the suffering Ukrainian people.

The American side is well thought out: to wage war against Russia to the last Ukrainian, knowing that with such a war nothing useful can be achieved. But why didn’t the Ukrainian civilian and military leaders realize that this was a senseless, hopeless, completely unnecessary fratricidal war that could solve nothing but to dig a deep chasm between the two peoples! Because there must be a lot of honest people in the Ukrainian leadership. One proof of this is the announcement by Zelenskyy’s team a few days ago that the Ukrainian secret services shot dead one of the members of the small group of people who have recently been negotiating with the Russian group in Belarus. The name and profession of a financier were announced, the one who was shot without trial or conviction.

Reports of participation in Ukrainian battalions of fanatics of volunteers from different countries, paid for with money from Western sources, are also becoming more frequent. Pictures of such groups in combat clothing and modern Western weapons are increasingly being published on the Internet. Only naive Ukrainians can believe that these people are helping Ukraine. On the contrary, they can only prolong its tragedy by one or two weeks and increase the casualties.

In the interests of accuracy, I would like to emphasize very strongly: in Ukraine there is now war between the United West, led by America, for the liquidation of Russia. No more, no less! The leaders of the United States, Britain and NATO cannot accept the existence of Russia with its vast territory and wealth. Even less if Russia and China are allies. Because then they will be invincible. If they do not unite then United States with NATO will defeat them separately. I hope that the leaders of Russia and China will understand this obvious truth, despite the complicated history of relations between the two countries.

We are told that “crazy Putin” has waged an unwanted war on Ukraine and the West. This is a giant lie! This war is truly unwanted by millions of Ukrainians and citizens of Western and Eastern Europe. I don’t want it either! But it is much desired by far-right and fanatical Russian haters, and even more so by Western arms companies. Moreover, Putin is not crazy and cannot arbitrarily and arbitrarily declare world war, because such decisions in Russia (as well as in America) are made with the participation of a large group of military and non-military experts, after deep consideration and analysis of all possible consequences.

And could the declaration of war be avoided? It could, but it turned out to be impossible. And it would be wrong, because: First, today – March 9 I learned about the revealed secret documents of the Ukrainian so-called National Guard (in fact the most fanatical military battalions stationed from the west against Kuznetsk and Lugansk, which battalions did not always obey the official military command of the Ukrainian army). These documents showed that a powerful offensive of these elite troops against the pro-Russian part of Donbass was planned for the end of February 2022. It turns out that the Russian troops, who began their offensive on February 24 (knowingly or unknowingly), were several days ahead of the Ukrainian and saved the lives of several thousand civilians and soldiers in Donbass. During this time, a mass evacuation of 100 000 to 150 000 civilians from Keznetsk and Luhansk to the Rostov region on Russian territory was taking place, and many more civilians would be killed otherwise. Second, the United West had long since decided to liquidate Russia, despite its ideological changes. Because in terms of distribution relations, Russia is now more capitalist than the most capitalist countries. America was just looking for the right moment and the contractor for the wet job. They found it eight years ago and prepared a coup with Kiev Maidan in February 2014. Third, if the Russian authorities had intervened decisively then to quell the uprising (in February 2014), with very few casualties, could have prevented the restoration process in Ukraine during these 8 years, the strengthening of ultranationalist Stepan Bandera and the rapid anti-Russian reorientation in Ukraine. And in the western regions of present-day Ukraine, even before World War II, there were strong anti-Russian sentiments in Soviet times for a variety of reasons. This is not the place to deal with their analysis. Unfortunately, the Russian leadership did not do that then. Fourth, if Russia had not intervened now, the anti-Russian restoration process in Ukraine would have deepened. Ukraine would be packed with state-of-the-art Western weapons. And encouraged to use them against Russia. It would be accepted into NATO, maybe in 5-10 years. And who knows, maybe earlier. Its armament would be boosted by massive American and Western European support. The arms race between NATO and Russia would intensify, in the name of accelerated internal destabilization of Russia through unprecedented, arms race between rich America and the entire United West, and economically far poorer Russia. If America and NATO countries produce about 30-32% of world GDP, Russia alone has far less, and with China and other friendly countries, about as much as the United West. Although GDP is not the best indicator of such international comparisons, Russia’s economic situation would be much worse. Despite their proverbial heroism, the Russian people would find it increasingly difficult to endure enormous hardships! Attempts to drive a distortion into Russia-China relations would unfold. If internal destabilization efforts failed, they would choose the right moment for an external attack on Russia, possibly without a nuclear-biological option, and cause Russia to disintegrate. This disintegration would form several smaller, politically and militarily helpless states with large territories but small populations, supplying the other most powerful states with water, raw materials and energy. Especially, with water and energy.

All this could be prevented by the Russian or Russian-Chinese side, if organized smartly, with relatively few casualties of 50-100 thousand people. And in the case of a nuclear-biological variant, it could end with a catastrophe for the entire world civilization.

Therefore, although delayed, the current war may be preventing an even more dramatic development in the United West’s attempts to stifle Russia. This war is an inevitable evil! Putin himself said: they pressed us against the wall and we had no choice. And he was right. Let those who lightly condemn Russia for everything think about what I am saying here. I claim it most sincerely and with great pain!

Ukrainian authorities have allowed the operation of special pro-fascist battalions of extreme fanatics, who in recent years have not obeyed even the country’s official military authorities. Even these days, there were complaints that they did not report to the army’s central command, did not allow the implementation of “humanitarian corridors” for civilians, and blamed the Russians. And the media helped them with everything but anti-hate Russia and “crazy” Putin. Ukrainian officials complained that gunmen from the Azov Battalion did not allow thousands of Mariupol civilians to use the two corridors provided by Russian troops to leave the battlefield because they wanted to use them as human shields against Russian troops.

The media constantly tells us that the use of humanitarian corridors by civilians during hostilities is hampered by the Russians. And this is a lie. First , the humanitarian corridors are announced, delineated and organized by the occupying Russian troops. If they were against them, they would not allow such corridors to be talked about at all. Second, who is interested in observing the corridors? Undoubtedly, the Russian authorities, in order to act freely with their military equipment and kill the soldiers who resist them, without suffering great casualties in street battles and without killing civilians, which is condemned by society. Third, who cares that there are no humanitarian corridors, that civilians are not evacuated, many of them are on the streets where shootings are taking place or in their homes they risk being killed by shells and bombs. These are the fanatical soldiers who are interested in having more civilians around them to use as a human shield against the Russian soldiers attacking them. This will make it difficult for Russian troops in their attacks, because they will seek to avoid civilian casualties as much as possible, because they know that the responsibility for such casualties will fall on them as attackers.

I’ve heard during a war there are a lot of lies. I assume that the Russian troops in this case can keep silence for some of the truth. However, I am convinced that the Ukrainian side is lying many times more, because it is interested that the Russian military advances more slowly and thus causing more civilian casualties to be blamed on.

From 2015 to 2020, the Russian leadership has repeatedly proposed to start negotiations within the Minsk format. The Ukrainian leadership refused and even said publicly that it no longer recognized this format, continuing to shell Donbass towns and villages. Germany, France and Poland, and supposedly independent observers in Donbass, mostly from the West, saw all this, but did not react.

In 2021 and early 2022, the Russian government repeatedly insisted on negotiations between the authorities of Ukraine and the republics of Donbass, outlined in the Minsk agreements. Although they signed these agreements in 2015, the Ukrainian authorities did not participate in the negotiations, and recently stated that they do not recognize them, intensifying the shelling of the two republics in Donbass in late 2021 and early 2022. With the latest revelations, it even turned out that for the beginning of March 2022 they were preparing a powerful offensive against the defenders of Kuznetsk and Luhansk. The casualties were rising and local authorities were forced to evacuate about 150,000 civilians in the Rostov region on Russian territory.

President Putin proposed to the US and NATO authorities a draft peace agreement, which was published and translated into various languages. Its contents are known to everyone in the world who wants to read it. Russia said in November-December 2021 that if it is rejected, as it has been so far, Russia will be forced to resort to military-technical and other measures to protect its vital interests. America and NATO have been arrogant and even mocking about Russia’s peace project. They aimed to involve Russia again in endless years of joint national security talks, not to immediately provide real security for both countries: Russia and America.

America practically had this national security beyond the Atlantic, but Russia did not. The Ukrainian authorities, at the suggestion of their Western friends, also refused to hold normal talks and began urging the United States and NATO to declare a “closed sky” over Ukraine, which would mean a war between America and Russia. Recently, Eastern European NATO countries, including Bulgaria, which still owns Soviet aircrafts from the past, have been urged to use them to protect Ukraine by taking off and landing at airports in neighboring NATO countries. Russian authorities have rightly warned that this would mean involving these countries in the war against Russia. In the place of Russia, any other country would do the same. Poland and other countries in the region have flatly refused such participation. Obviously, no one dares to fight against Russia. Even America.

Ukraine has increasingly insisted on immediate NATO membership. The main goal of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy was obviously to confront America and Russia, without caring about the tragic consequences for human civilization of such a war between the two great powers. Because it could be nothing but a nuclear war with dramatic consequences for the world civilization. The fate of the world civilization does not seem to interest the President of Ukraine.

I can go on and on, but what has been said so far proves that the war declared by Russia was not provoked by Russia. Moreover, Russia did not want it and now has no interest in such a war. It was imposed on Russia by America and several European countries. They dreamed of bringing two fraternal peoples into war, of digging a deep moral chasm between them, of bleeding their future relations in the name of their deeply selfish anti-Russian interests. And to some extent they succeeded.

Russia has shown great patience to be humiliated and threatened . As far as there has been any non-military contact between America and NATO, on one hand, and Russia, on the other, over the years, they have been reduced to threats of sanctions. And this has nothing to do with equal negotiations.

Sanctions have affected more than just high-ranking politicians. Indiscriminate mass violations of the rights of people whose professional status and daily activities have nothing to do with politics and the war in Ukraine have been committed. They deprive footballers of participation in competitions en masse. Para-olympic athletes from Tokyo were also expelled. They do the same with athletes, gymnasts, volleyball players, basketball players, tennis players, hockey players, skiers, skaters and all other sports. They attacked the world-famous Russian conductor and conductor of the famous orchestra in St. Petersburg – Georgiev, opera and folk singers, dancers, composers and all other arts. This already crosses all boundaries of common sense and approaches insanity!

To be precise, sanctions grossly violate all international treaties and traditions of equal economic and other relations between states and their citizens. The sanctions are an expression of the West’s arrogance, mocking, arrogant attitude toward Russia. This cannot and should not be tolerated indefinitely!

President Putin has stated frankly: with their aggression, America and NATO have put us against the wall. We retreated to the doorstep of our home. We have nowhere else to go . They are forcing us, despite our will, to make military decisions that we have warned about in advance. We have never wanted a military solution, because we know better than any other country the consequences of such a decision. We hate war!

We still remember the loss of 27 million of our brothers and sisters who were destroyed by Nazi Germany in the Patriotic War. There is almost no family in the Soviet Union that has not lost a loved one. All the other participants in this war, taken together, have hardly lost so many of their own people! Although the West is now trying to falsify the history of World War II. Even the heirs of those in some Western countries who massacred Soviet children, mothers and fathers, grandparents, now have the audacity to teach Russians morals and threaten them again with economic and other violence! It seems that they have not yet forgotten their historical guilt before the Soviet peoples and before the world!

Now the whole Western world is united in a holy war against Russia. There is no evil in which the Russian leadership is not accused of. A cursory glance at the events of World War II shows that the world record for conceiving, declaring or organizing wars and coups in foreign countries is America’s ruling circles. I can list at least 30-35 such events in the last hundred years. And they are many more, because this is not my profession and I do not know about all the criminal acts of the US Secret Service. I am sure of only one thing – America is the undisputed world record holder for declared and undeclared wars and casualties and destruction to other countries, by organized coups in foreign countries and by the number of their military bases around the world, especially those surrounding Russia. I will remind only of some of them:

1. In September 1973, the CIA staged a military coup against Chilean President Salvador Allende, bombed the palace and killed him. Years ago, I read a confession by Henry Kissinger about the role of the United States in this coup.
2. After the failure of the French colonizers, America fought in Vietnam from 1950 to 1973 with the rotation of several million soldiers and officers, millions of casualties from the local population and its own military, massive destruction, destruction of millions of acres of forest and other damage.
3. Numerous wars and armed coups have been organized over the last 80-90 years against legitimately elected governments and presidents in Central and South America. In some of these countries, this has been done two or three times. This part of the world has been turned into a backyard for the United States. Remember the crimes around the Panama Canal. Who doesn’t know about the torture in the Guantanamo prisons – the territory stolen from the Americans from Cuba!
4. Gaddafi’s young children were bombed and killed at his residence in Tripoli in the 1980s, and he was brutally killed on October 20, 2011 in his hometown of Sirte. He said there had been 40 attempts at aggression against Libya дуе то its independent policies. Now there is complete chaos and inter-tribal wars in this country.
5. Various Serbian cities, including the capital Belgrade, were bombed in March 1999 with many casualties and destruction. American planes flew over me in the western part of Bulgaria, where I was then, after the bombing of Nis. They bombed Serbia and part of Bulgaria with enriched uranium bombs, and this was felt in our fruit trees a few years later. The Kosovo region was forcibly separated from Serbia with numerous casualties.
6. A large-scale military intervention was carried out in Iraq in March 2003, involving hundreds of thousands of troops from the United States, Britain and other countries under the false pretext that the country possessed weapons of mass destruction. The whole world was deceived. More than a million locals and thousands of American, British, Polish and other soldiers were sacrificed. Our soldiers also died there, ostensibly in defense of Bulgarian national interests. I still do not know what national interests we had in Iraq. Captive local soldiers were brutally tortured by American investigators. Some of them were secretly filmed and shown on some televisions that I have seen.
7. The United States has bombed Syria to no avail for years under the false pretext of persecuting Islamic fundamentalism. They have illegally maintained their stay north of the Euphrates River in northeastern Syria, where they have been stealing Syrian oil for many years, pumping it illegally, selling it in various forms on the oil market and embezzling proceeds. This continues today.
8. The United States and several other Western nations, as well as Bulgaria, have been waging a 20-year fruitless war against the Afghan Taliban and withdrew a few months ago after a disgraceful failure.
9. In February 2014, the US Secret Service, with the participation of such services from several European countries, staged an armed coup in Ukraine, overthrew President Yanukovych, who had been legally elected two years earlier, and installed far-right, revanchist circles who had previously collaborated with fascist authorities during the German occupation of Ukraine during the WWII. According to the flowery language of Victoria Newland, the US Deputy Secretary of State, the preparation and execution of the coup cost about 5 billion US dollars. The current war in Ukraine is a consequence of this coup. Yesterday and today I read on the Internet her confessions about secret American activities in Ukraine with biological weapons. This lady is now talking about the urgent concealment of discrediting American material from secret American research in Ukraine on the production of banned biological weapons.
10. On March 6, 7 and 9 this year, I read on the Internet messages from the spokesman of the Russian military command and Ukrainian military biologists, specialists in this field, that a current US-funded military-biological program has been unveiled in Ukraine. The program had 30 biolaboratories in Ukraine: in Kharkov, Poltava, Lviv and other Ukrainian cities. By urgent order from a high place, on February 24 this year the documentation and research materials were quickly collected and sent to unknown places or especially dangerous pathogens were destroyed: plague, anthrax, tularemia, cholera, brucellosis, encephalitis, salmonellosis and other deadly diseases. This was done so urgently, perhaps because such research and the production and storage of warfare chemicals are strictly prohibited by global law. Serum samples were reportedly collected and shipped to America, mainly from the Slavic ethnic group. The US authorities will probably deny these revelations. It would be abnormal to recognize them, because this will probably have serious consequences.

A few months ago, during the events in Kazakhstan, it was reported that such a biological weapons laboratory had been opened in the largest city in Alma-Ata in the south of the country and authorities had not been allowed in by foreign armed guards.

I am not an expert in this extremely delicate field to comment on them. About a month ago I heard from two popular Bulgarian media about such secret American research in Bulgaria with the participation of our biological institutions. A young lady familiar with the subject was also interviewed. I heard about similar American studies in Georgia last year. If these preliminary signals are confirmed, it could be a war crime of the American authorities against humanity.

The list of such criminal facts can be continued, but this is enough to characterize the indiscriminate military domination of the current world hegemon. This same hegemon is now teaching us morals about the war in Ukraine. The Western world has chosen a good teacher! And the current Ukrainian authorities too.

It is shocking that the world, European and our pro-Western media in the past have not raised their voices in protest against the long-standing arrogant behavior of US authorities around the world. They decided that the silence of the world media was an effective means to hide the crimes.

And now, after all attempts to negotiate with Russia have been exhausted, a furious Western anti-Russian campaign has been launched since the first day of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The West has always lied to Russia about the past. However, the media have not spread so many and so absurd lies about Russia for a long time! American crimes are incommensurably more and greater than Russian ones, if there are any, but there was silence about the American ones, and a furious media howl was raised against the Russians. An unprecedented double standard of media behavior. Unfortunately, the submissive conciliatory behavior of the Bulgarian media in this false campaign against Russia is also worth mentioning.

We are constantly told about the noble and optimistic theses of the Ukrainian authorities and their Western masters and almost nothing about the Russian theses and news. They also banned several Russian channels, especially RT and Sputnik in the Western countries. Bulgaria was first in this as well. It is well known that the media is banned by those who are afraid, who feel the weakness of their own theses, who are at odds with the truth. Some Eastern European countries (such as the Czech Republic) are now prosecuting opinions other than those of the rulers. I will not be surprised if it is not introduced in our country soon. The Bulgarian media are especially diligent in their servile obedience. Our media regulatory authority has already banned two Russian channels. An example of the pathetic servile behavior!

And one more thing. The U.S. military has committed thousands of war crimes in recent decades, and US and British leaders lied to the world in 2003 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. US General Colin Powell, then US Secretary of State, even showed a test tube of some liquid, presented as a sample of such a weapon of mass destruction, to a UN Security Council meeting. Then it turned out to be clear water. If it were true, he would have been killed by that then. However, he lived much longer and died recently – in October 2021.

The Hague International Court has been monitoring these crimes with its eyes wide closed. No war criminal of that time has been investigated and convicted. US President Bush, British Prime Minister Blair and their teams have also not been investigated or convicted. With his typical cynicism, Blair tried to get a personal excuse that he had been deceived. And their conscience is responsible for the deaths of nearly 2 million innocent people and enormous destruction. The same way they treated the criminals responsible for the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and many other countries.

Now, since the first day of the war in Ukraine, the Hague tribunal has stepped up and insisted on sending investigators to investigate war crimes not yet committed by the Russians. And why didn’t they show the same diligence in Iraq 20 years ago? Or in Vietnam between 1950 and 1973. Therefore, the atrocities allowed to the Americans are not forgiven to the Russians. Even if they are objective international judges, potential war criminals from America and other Western countries have no reason to worry. But all of humanity worries.

We are told that NATO was a defense alliance. Nothing of the kind! First, they rudely trampled on their own name and the task of creating it. NATO means “Organization of the North Atlantic Treaty”. HOwever, in recent decades, they have become a world policeman. Second , if NATO was a defense organization, it would have to stay within its borders since 1990 (on the Oder River between Germany and Poland) and defend them. Instead, they moved 1500-2000 km east to the very borders of Russia and now they want to continue further east into the very body of Russia.

And they call Russia an aggressor and themselves a victim of Russian aggression. In other words, just the opposite of the truth. It turns out that the “victim of aggression” are the Americans, who sent their army 5-6 thousand kilometers away from their country, and the “aggressor” is Russia, standing on the doorstep of his home and protecting it from bandits. How would American governments react if Russian troops were stationed on the shores of the Rio Grande – on the border with Mexico to the south, or on the border with Canada – to the north. They would probably be furious. And rightly so! And now they want the Russians to calm down. Remember how President Kennedy reacted during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October-November 1962. Third , we are told that NATO’s relocation to the east was at the will of the peoples of the region. And this is not true! Does anyone ask us, for example through a referendum, if we want to join NATO? The other peoples of Eastern Europe have not been asked either. These were the decisions of the corrupted management of these countries. And such important national decisions must be taken after direct consultation with the people.

We are told that Putin forced Europe to go to war with Ukraine instead of negotiating. And this is not true! Russia has exhausted all possibilities for negotiations with the United States, NATO and Ukraine over the past 8 years, and especially with its numerous attempts at negotiations in late 2021 and early 2022. Proposed and published a draft agreement with the United States with three main points became known throughout the world. Most important among them was the text that America and NATO would guarantee in writing that Ukraine would remain a neutral state and would never be accepted in NATO, which would automatically threaten Russia’s security.

Russia insisted because it was once brutally deceived in 1990 by the promise of US Secretary of State James Baker and other Western leaders that NATO would not move east “in an inch”. The West refused to even talk about it and replied in a mocking and edifying tone that only Ukraine could make such a decision and the West could not impose it on it. Only Ukraine could decide this in the name of its national security. As an abstract common slogan, this may sound convincing. But in this particular situation it is insulting! Are the Americans and the Secretary General of NATO talking to 3-4 year old children!

Western leaders pretend to have forgotten about the second half of this sentence about the indivisibility of national security. It is present in an international agreement signed by the governments of the United States and NATO countries, namely: “Each country is free to make its own national security decisions, provided that it does not endanger the national security of other countries.”, i.e. that national security is indivisible. It is said so clearly and simply! In this case, it would be at the expense of Russia’s national security, because the missiles fired one day from the Kharkiv region (i.e. from Ukrainian territory as a NATO member) would reach Moscow in 4-5 minutes and she (Moscow) would not have time to prepare for a defense. In Russia’s place, any other NATO country would react in the same way now. And rightly so!

And something else. As far as there was any semblance of negotiations between the United States and Russia, they were limited to years of threats against Russia that if it did not agree with the American or NATO position, it would be severely sanctioned. In recent decades, all kinds of negotiations between the West and Russia on fundamental issues of world politics have been reduced to threats of sanctions. This threat has become the essence of the negotiations. This was new in the West’s behavior toward Russia. As far as I know, the world history of diplomacy does not know such a miracle! Threats of sanctions have become commonplace in the West’s arrogant relations with Russia. And once there are threats, there can be no normal negotiations and lasting agreements.

If I have to put it in the most delicate way, one day, when international relations normalize, the West will be ashamed of introducing this “novelty” in international relations. I have a long enough life – I am 88 years old. I have solid life, diplomatic and political experience. I have been an economic adviser to three Bulgarian prime ministers. I was a member of the Coordinating Council of the International Union of Economists. I have extensive international relations around the world at the highest political level. I was a UN official for 12.5 years in important leadership positions. I am a professor of economics and a doctor of economics. I am a member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. I speak English, Russian, French and German. So, I know what I’m talking about and how to talk about it.

As I have already pointed out above, Russia’s current war with Ukraine is not a mere confrontation between two countries. First, by its very nature, it is not between two small states unknown to anyone, such as Central America, but a war between America and Russia. America has pushed the Russian government into this war, unwanted by Russia, with its orthodox slavic brothers. And now it is imitating non-participation in the war and is happy to watch from behind the Atlantic, the brutal fratricidal conflict it organized. It even continues to stimulate it by supplying and advising its allies to also supply heavy and light weapons to Ukraine for the senseless continuation of fratricidal actions. Second, for Russia, this is a war of survival. If she loses, it will be her last war as a world power because it will disappear from the world military-political scene in a few decades, as a great nation and a great state. It will be looted and divided into several small and poor states around and beyond the Arctic Circle, supplying the rest of the world with water, energy and raw materials. Especially important is water, which will become the most scarce resource of the future. This is the dream of the West for 1000 years. The US authorities believe that the time has come to achieve it. And with that to enter the world history.

In the name of world civilization, humanity and democracy, Russia has no right to make mistakes! It must win both the war and the peaceful life of the people after the war. In establishing eternal peace, both in Europe and in the world.

What should Russia do now for its survival and further development? Although I have a broad general and political culture, I am above all an economist. One of my last books is “Strategy for catching up with Bulgaria’s economic development until 2040”.

I bring to the attention of Russian leaders the following ideas on the economic and social development of their country:

1. Immediately formulate Russia’s own national strategy for economic, financial and social policy, abandoning the implementation of the current imitation policy imposed on it 30-35 years ago by the IMF and the World Bank and the West as a whole. It is best if this is done together with China, and perhaps gradually with other countries that wish.
2. Russia must have its own Constitution and socio-economic legislation and apply them equally and strictly to its citizens on its territory and abroad. Like what America has been doing for many years.
3. Adopt a strategy for forced catching-up socio-economic development by at least 7-8% on average per year, to increase Russia’s share in the world economy. Increasing the role of competition as an engine of economic development.
4. Within the framework of its own new economic, social and financial policy, to immediately end the current regime of free movement of capital, including foreign currencies outside the country. At first, this may be allowed only in limited cases, and then be reduced to its own capital and foreign exchange market or to a joint market with other friendly countries.
5. In such a complex situation, it is a gross mistake to maintain a floating exchange rate of the ruble against other world currencies. I recommend the immediate introduction of a fixed exchange rate of the ruble to the US dollar and several other major world currencies. Depending on the changes in the situation, to assess whether and when changes are necessary in this fixed exchange rate.
6. Adopt a strategy to increase the role of the state in the management of the economy, without taking into account the extremes of the Soviet era. To apply the regime of regulated market economy. Initially, the role of the state as a business operator and owner of enterprises should prevail, combined with regulation, and the application of market principles should be gradually expanded.
7. To create your own modern financial system. Own capital market.
8. Adopt a long-term policy of a high rate of internal accumulation in the range of 30-35% of GDP.
9. To limit to a minimum, if possible and completely, the dependence on imports of the most important high-tech, medicinal and other goods from Western countries. First of all, the principle of self-sufficiency should be imposed, which should be gradually softened.
10. Russia should not recognize international economic and other law and the judgments of international courts, as well as the law and courts of other Western countries, and apply, exceptionally, the law of friendly countries under special agreements with them.
11. Russia to implement a comprehensive tax reform: a moderate increase in direct taxes, the introduction of moderately progressive direct taxes, an increase in property taxes, a significant increase in VAT on imported luxury and extravagant goods. To not apply foreign tax legislation of hostile countries.
12. Implement radical income reform. A very significant change in the distribution relations: an increase in the share of income received in the form of wages and a decrease in the share of income received as a profit of entrepreneurs. Significantly limit the share of net income that is appropriated by the oligarchs and other categories of the richest people at the expense of increasing the share devoted to personal income of wage labor. This will achieve a strong reduction in the existing acute income and wealth stratification in Russian society, without allowing for a level playing field similar to that of the Soviet years. To not allow privileges in the distribution of net income.
13. To take comprehensive economic, social, financial, legal, cultural, household and other measures to more effectively attract millions of people in Siberia and the Far East. The sparse population of these Russian regions poses a number of dangers to their future and to Russia’s national security.
14. To implement a comprehensive and strong policy to attract millions of Russians and supporters of Slavism and the Orthodox religion from other countries to the current territories of Russia.
15. Review of the wealth of the oligarchs and nationalization of the largest assets and other forms of wealth of dubious origin. In addition to the restrictions imposed on them abroad, this will limit their domestic influence in Russian politics.
16. Middle, high and top government officials should invest their money only in Russian banks. The permanent residence of their families must be in Russia. Their children to study in Russian schools and universities. To provide well-thought study opportunities abroad in the most prominent foreign universities.
17. Comprehensive reform in healthcare, education and science, taking into account the best foreign achievements.
18. Comprehensive price reform: free market pricing for consumer goods; limited maximum of the profit margin for a selected group of medium-important goods; fixed prices for a limited number of strategic goods.
19. To create powerful public-private investment funds, mainly with own capital, for the development of a complex modern structure of the economy, with a strong processing industry and a moderate share of the extractive industries. Accelerated development of the digital economy.
20. Conducting modern agricultural policy. Significant increase in the share of meat and meat products, milk and dairy products, fruits and vegetables. Preserve the production of cereals and improve their quality. Striving for complete self-sufficiency with food products. Expansion of irrigated agriculture.
21. To create powerful public-private purchasing organizations for the purchase of agricultural goods with an extensive system throughout the country to small towns and villages. Producers of goods must appropriate at least 50% of the final retail selling price.
22. Comprehensive measures to dramatically increase the productivity and competitiveness of the Russian economy.
23. Sharp increase in domestic consumption of the population with quality products and services.
24. Taking powerful comprehensive measures to overcome the demographic crisis – perhaps the greatest danger to Russia. The aim is to have an average of 2.2 children in each Russian family.
25. Take comprehensive measures to improve and protect the environment and improve the climate in Russia.
26. Balanced state policy towards employers and wage labor.
27. Strong intensification of export policy. Improving the structure of exports by types of goods and territorial areas.
28. In the coming decades, energy will continue to play an important role in Russian exports. America and Western European countries will put pressure on Russia through energy purchases. Russia’s leadership to accelerate the reorientation of energy exports, especially oil and gas, from the West to the East. If it has not yet started, start immediately the design and construction of several gas pipelines to China with a total capacity of about 45-50 billion cubic meters, to be completed as soon as possible.
29. Implementing an active investment and innovation policy.
30. Implementing an active energy policy. Rapid increase in the share of renewable energy sources.
31. Supporting the development of small and medium enterprises with all possible instruments of state policy.
32. Conducting modern budget and debt policy.
33. Implementing a lasting policy of regional economic decentralization and regional self-government.
34. Radical improvement of the pension law. Within ten years, the average monthly pension must reach at least 50% of the average salary. In turn, the net salary must be significantly increased.

Now it is dangerous to say a good word about Russia. And it is forgotten that in the last 150 years, if it were not for the patronage policy of Russia, Bulgaria would not exist now on the map of Europe! Maybe we would be a province of Turkey in Western Rumelia. This is evident from the famous book of Prof. Davutoglu. Isn’t it a shame for the Bulgarian authorities on our national holiday – March 3 this year to be attended by the ambassadors of Turkey, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and several other countries, and to ban the presence of the ambassadors of Russia and Belarus!! Representatives of the countries that were our enslavers or opponents of our liberation were present, and those who liberated us were not invited to attend. As a Bulgarian citizen, I am deeply outraged by this!

Finally, we can ask ourselves the question: is this war justified? If we assume that the main results of the war are two: First, improving Russia’s chances of survival in the long run, and Second, the revelations about American criminal research on biological weapons on Ukrainian territory, it is completely justified.

March 10, 2022

Author: Prof. Ivan Angelov Corresponding Member of BAS

Source (translated in English by TrakiaWorld): original article in Bulgarian