When I was in Russia in 2008 for 5.5 months, I recorded a lot of tv footage. The piece linked here is based on a series of commercials on Telekanal Zvezda (i.e. The military’s own star channel, complete with red star). At the time, all I remember them showing besides these commercials were old Soviet era war movies.
I paired this with some other footage from Youtube, which I considered equally obscene and provocative, though in a different way. https://vimeo.com/84056896 I asked my students at the Smolny Institute (now defunct, then a collaborative project between Bard College and the University of St. Petersburg) what was going on in these commercials. They could only say, “Russian incompetence.” The Russian titles are a recuperation of the famous inversion of the genitive, so dear to the situationists. They read: The Force of Beauty, the Beauty of Force. One could translate the word Silo (Сило) by Strength, but it also figures in the Russian phrase for the Armed Forces, so I kept it as Force and that translation seems more apposite now than ever. Russia in 2008 practiced and now practices conscription; military service is required. It is also brutal, with many incidents of hazing, and of officers extorting the grunts for their pay. This is information I heard in Russia from Russians, not in the USSA. This piece, which pairs the commercials with other footage was part of a project called “Equivalences” which was a large scale installation, installed only once in Antwerp. It was largely based on Youtube footage. The current invasion in Ukraine is somehow rooted in a very long term plan. This footage plays some strange role in it. Not for the faint hearted. Keith > On Mar 8, 2022, at 7:20 AM, patrice riemens <[email protected]> wrote: > > ... has already arrived . > > Aloha, > > Even though the last two posts on the list are mine, I have no intention to > become (again) nettime's #1 poster! So this will be my last one for now. > > This said I still wanted to share my thoughts - was it only to be relieved > of them - about 'the situation' with fellow nettimers. > > ExecSum: I think that war in Western Europe is now inevitable, and it will > descend on us sooner than we all would wish for. > > > > In my mind, there are three options about when NATO will actually go to, or > be dragged into a war against Putin's Russia. > > Option Zero: There will be no war. Putin will enslave Ukraine after having > laid it to waste, annex part of it, and transform the rest in a vassal state, > or whatever 'solution' he has in mind after achieving 'victory'. And 'we' in > the West, will accommodate with the new situation and try to make the best of > it, even if it won't be fun at all on many front. And yet I would feel > insanely optimistic if I gave it half a chance of happening - or even less > than that. > > Having put his war machinery in movement, there is no turning back for > Vladimir Putin, save a number of scenarios for his demise that have been > discussed here and there and which are all entirely speculative. So by > keeping it strictly to the current state of the situation, I see only three > possible outcomes, all based on the assumption that the political and > military deciders in the Western alliance (but also outside of it) have by > now concluded that a war can no longer be averted, the only question being > when it will start 'for real'. > > So there are in my mind three 'moments' when NATO will become involved in an > armed conflict with Putin's Russia: > > Moment 1: The situation in Ukraine becomes so dire, the 'Grosnyfication' of > Ukrainian cities so blatant, the masses of refugees into Ukraine's > neighbours, fleeing the violence under the bombs so colossal, that 'in the > West', populations, politicians, media, and even the military brass get so > agitated as to decide that enough is enough - and that 'we will be next' any > way. So there will be more and more support pouring into Ukraine that will > less and less distinguishable from direct military intervention, a stage that > in the eyes of Putin has been passed long ago in any case. > > Moment 2 happens if Putin indeed achieve his goals in Ukraine, at whatever > cost to the Russian and to the Ukrainian people without NATO actually > intervening, it having be paralysed by the fear of consequences Putin has > repeatedly, and unequivocally threatened with. In which case there is no > reason whatsoever to assume he will stop at that and now will go to menace, > and, if unsuccessful, attack both ex-Soviet, but not NATO members Moldova > and Georgia. Russia annexing Moldova will make Romania very angry and very > anxious, doing the same with Georgia will rattle Turkey to an even larger > extent, and greater consequences. And both Romania and Turkey are NATO > members. At which stage the same 'we'll anyway be next' conclusion might > prevail after all ... > > ... or not. Moldova and far-from-Europe (if not from Turkey) Georgia will be > left to their fate of post-Soviet & pre-Imperial vassal states, whether they > have resisted invasion (& be destroyed in the process) or not. Moment 2 in > any case represents a 'between-in' scenario that could be triggered by the > outcome of Moment 1, ... or not, or might just as well merge with ... > > Moment 3 which will happen when Putin's Russia will directly threaten NATO > countries, arguing yet again that NATO, not Russia, is the 'structural' > aggressor. Unfortunately, the trigger to make it is there, in plain sight, on > the map: it is called the 'Suvalky gap' and it consist in the 90km long > borderline between Poland and Lithuania that separates the Russian > (semi-)exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast from Russia's vassal Belarus - by now, > and surely by then, a nation in name only. No doubt Putin will demand a > 'corridor' to put an end to this insufferable situation, itself the result > from the evenmore insufferable existence of the formerly Soviet Baltic states > as independent countries. And all NATO members, just as Poland. > > There will be no Czechoslovakia 1939. Having gone that far, the analogy with > the precedent of Nazi Germany will have become too stark. NATO will go at > war. What happens next is for any one and everyone to imagine. > > I am aware that there are a lot of holes that can (and will) be shot in my > presentation. The most obvious one being whether Putin can hold Russia > together as it is dragging it into a fratricidal annihilation war with > Ukraine - with the economic disaster that it entails. And whether he can hold > his power (and even his life) in the face of possible (probable?) mounting > discontent, both of the Russian people and of his own clique. Beware of the > Ides of March (in 6 days time!) and the 'Tu quoque' bit they say ... but this > wishful thinking is surely part of my sentiment, but not of my reasoning. > > Conclusion: We - and this time without speech marks - are toast. Sorry. > > Cheers all the same, > p+7D! > > > > > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
