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Cutting Zelensky Down To Size

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Trump pointing at Zelensky in the Oval Office
A bad day for Zelensky. 

Cutting Zelensky Down To Size

President Trump and Vice President Vance's combative meeting with President Zelensky today was an important first step in preparing the American people for peace.

After three years of being lionized by European Union members (with exceptions such as Prime Minister Orbán of Hungary), Trump and Vance put Zelensky in a different light. Zelensky came off as arrogant, disrespectful (not wearing a suit in the White House and referring to the Vice President as "JD") and ungrateful, and Vance mentioned two facts most of the American media have ignored: 

  • Zelensky interfered in our election by effectively campaigning for Harris in the swing state of Pennsylvania. 
  • The Ukrainian government has been forced to grab men off the street for conscription because its manpower problems are so bad.

Putting Zelensky in a more objective light was a necessary first step. The next step is to bring some objectivity to the subjects of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the origins of the Russia-Ukraine War. 

This Is Not A Marvel Movie 

The Ukrainians aren't the plucky good guys. The Russians aren't cartoonishly evil. Vladimir Putin isn't a movie villain. As long as people believe this propaganda, they will resist attempts to end the war. The next step is for the Trump administration, ideally the Vice President, to give Americans a more accurate explanation of how we got here. Glenn Greenwald did that recently in the X thread below. 

The Extent Of American Media Bias Against Russia

Judging from conversations on X, a lot of Americans who consume mainstream media seem unaware of its bias against Russia. This is true even on conservative cable stations, where, for example, they'll refer to the Russia-Ukraine war as "Putin's War Against Ukraine". This is misleading for the reason suggested by Greenwald's last post above: any Russian leader would have reacted similarly in this situation. But it's also a propaganda tactic. We personify bad countries: Hitler invades Poland; Saddam invades Kuwait; Putin invades the Ukraine. By calling it "Putin's war", the media is suggesting that Hitler, Putin, and Saddam belong in the same category. 

Do they? They were all autocrats to one extent or the other, but the similarities mostly end there. 

Why Putin Isn't A Movie Villain 

We covered this in a post after Wagner Group's abortive march on Moscow a couple years ago ("Dodging A Bullet In Russia"): 

An Objective Assessment Of Putin

As our friend Benjamin Braddock noted on Twitter, despite Sachs putting Putin in the same category as Lenin and Saddam Hussein, Putin is actually a moderate in the Russian political context. 

Braddock made another excellent point as well, that we're lucky America's attempt at a color revolution in Belarus failed. 

What Braddock wrote about Putin being a moderate is true, but Putin has also been the best leader for Russians in at least a century. A few statistics illustrate how much better off Russians are since Putin came to power in 1999. 

Life Expectancy 

Russian life expectancy is up 11.4% since 1999. 

cutting zelensky down to size

Homicide Rate

As of 2021, the homicide rate in Russia was down 85% since Putin came to power 

cutting zelensky down to size

Per Capita GDP

Finally, as of 2021, per capita income in Russia was up 816% since Putin became president. 

cutting zelensky down to size

Critics often make two objections when you bring up these statistics: 

  1. Putin came to power at a nadir in Russia similar to America's Great Depression. This is true, but there was nothing inevitable about Russia's recovery from the catastrophe--some countries never recover from disaster, and plod along in poverty for decades. 
  2. Putin benefited from a natural resources boom. This is also true, but it doesn't explain how Russia's per capita GDP growth has outpaced that of other commodity exporters.

Putin As A Force For Tolerance

Since racism (and antisemitism) are the worst sins in the West, Western critics sometimes dishonestly claim Putin is a racist, but in fact he has presided over a multiethnic, multiconfessional empire in a way that's largely been inclusive rather than divisive. In some ways, Russia has handled its diversity better than the U.S. has.

Putin's Restraint

It may seem odd to write about Putin's restraint when we're 16 months into an invasion of the Ukraine that he launched, but it's worth noting how he has so far eschewed retaliating against Western provocations such as the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines. Consider how many potential targets for retaliation the United Kingdom alone has in the North Sea. 

If Putin were the maniac some in the West claim he was, the Ukraine War would have spiraled into World War III months ago. Hopefully, our leaders won't press our luck and will instead return to diplomacy and negotiate an end to the war. 

cutting zelensky down to size

Consistent with the data above, more than 1.2 million refugees from the Ukraine have fled to Russia since 2022. 

Russia Isn't Cartoonishly Evil 

Russia, like all countries, is flawed, as is its leader, like all national leaders--saints don't go into politics. But a good test of American media bias is whether they would say the same things about Israel that they say about Russia. 

For example, consider this post by CNN anchor Jake Tapper, where he quotes a "pro-Ukraine expert" who says Russia is winning in part because "Russia doesn't value human life". 

Would Tapper have platformed an "expert" who said that about Israel?

Of course not. 

And yet more than three times as many civilians have been killed in Gaza since Israel's invasion than have been killed in the Ukraine since Russia's invasion (according to UN estimates, 12,600 civilians have been killed in the Ukraine and 46,600 in Gaza). Granted, Gaza is much more densely populated than the Ukraine and has militants mixed in with the population.

The point stands that our media's coverage of Russia is hostile, biased, and unhelpful to those such as President Trump who seek a diplomatic solution to a conflict that has already cost the lives of far too many Ukrainians and Russians. 

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cutting zelensky down to size

 

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Authored by Portfolio Armor via ZeroHedge February 28th 2025

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