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==Unipolar (1991 - 2017)==

==Unipolar (1991 - 2017)==

The [[American]] [[diplomat]] [[George Kennan]] based his 1946 proposal for a grand [[strategy]] of "[[containment]]" of the [[Soviet Union]] on his judgment that, if isolated, it would eventually collapse of its own defects. It took more than four decades to prove him right. For a few delirious years immediately after the 1991 implosion of the [[USSR]] and the independence of its constituent [[Baltic]], [[eastern European]], and [[central Asia]]n [[republic]]s, it seemed that, as [[Francis Fukuyama]] declared, history had ended in the triumph of "[[liberal democracy]]". But this was not to be. Unlike economic aid given to defeated [[Nazi Germany]] with the [[Marshall Plan]] after [[World War II]], [[Western alliance|Western]] [[carpetbagger]]s administered a drastic restructuring or "shock therapy" to the [[Soviet]] [[economy]] that immiserated the [[population]] but enriched a new class of [[oligarch]]s. [[Russia]]'s efforts to integrate itself with [[the West]] met with an ambivalent, unwelcoming, and off-putting response.

The [[American]] [[diplomat]] [[George Kennan]] based his 1946 proposal for a grand [[strategy]] of "[[containment]]" of the [[Soviet Union]] on his judgment that, if isolated, it would eventually collapse of its own defects. It took more than four decades to prove him right. For a few delirious years immediately after the 1991 implosion of the [[USSR]] and the independence of its constituent [[Baltic]], [[eastern European]], and [[central Asia]]n [[republic]]s, it seemed that, as [[Francis Fukuyama]] declared, history had ended in the triumph of "[[liberal democracy]]". But this was not to be. Unlike economic aid given to defeated [[Nazi Germany]] with the [[Marshall Plan]] after [[World War II]], [[Western alliance|Western]] [[carpetbagger]]s administered a drastic restructuring or "shock therapy" to the [[Soviet]] [[economy]] that immiserated the [[population]] but enriched a new class of [[oligarch]]s.<ref>In a review of ''[[New York Times]]'' reporter Anne Williamson's book, ''Contagion: The Betrayal of Liberty -- Russia and the United States in the 1990s'', Paul Likoudis writes: "According to the [[socialist]] theoreticians at [[Harvard]], Russia needed to be brought into the [[New World Order]] in a hurry; and what better way to do it than [[Jeffrey Sachs|[Jeffrey] Sachs']] "shock therapy" -- a plan that empowered the degenerate, third-generation descendants of the original [[Bolshevik]]s by assigning them the deeds of Russia's mightiest state-owned industries -- including the giant [[gas]], [[oil]], electrical, and [[telecommunications]] industries, the world's largest paper, [[iron]], and [[steel]] factories, the world's richest [[gold]], [[silver]], [[diamond]], and [[platinum]] mines, [[automobile]] and [[airplane]] factories, etc. -- who, in turn, sold some of their shares of the properties to [[Western alliance|Westerners]] for a song, and pocketed the [[cash]], while retaining control of the companies.

 

These third-generation Bolsheviks -- led by former [[Pravda]] hack [[Yegor Gaidar]], grandson of a Bolshevik who achieved prominence as the [[Young mass murders|teenage mass murderer]] of [[White Army]] officers, now heads the [[Moscow]]-based Institute for Economies in Transition -- became instant millionaires (or billionaires) and left the Russian workers virtual [[slave]]s of them and their new foreign investors."<br>[https://www.blacklistednews.com/HOW_CLINTON_AND_COMPANY_AND_THE_BANKERS_PLUNDERED_RUSSIA_IN_THE_%2790S/48111/0/38/38/Y/M.html HOW CLINTON AND COMPANY AND THE BANKERS PLUNDERED RUSSIA IN THE '90s], Paul Likoudis, January 2, 2016</ref><ref>[[Martin Armstrong]]: [https://youtu.be/Srzti_XA140?t=812  The Road to World War III — Who's Really Pulling the Strings?], Christian E. White, Jul 19, 2025 . [[YouTube]]</ref>  [[Russia]]'s efforts to integrate itself with [[the West]] met with an ambivalent, unwelcoming, and off-putting response.

As early as 1994, Russia began warning the [[United States]] that, if [[NATO enlargement]] extended to the Russian borders, [[Moscow]] would view this as evidence of hostility and mount a [[military]] response. But by 2004, every member state of the former Soviet-dominated [[Warsaw Pact]] had been inducted into NATO. In the Cold War, NATO had been a purely defensive alliance designed to counter Moscow in [[Europe]]. But in 1995, NATO began to take the offensive. It intervened in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]. In 1999, it launched a 78-day bombing campaign that wrested [[Kosovo]] from [[Serbia]], a state traditionally associated with Russia. In 2001, NATO joined the United States in its twenty-year war to pacify faraway [[Afghanistan]] outside Europe. And in 2011, it supported a regime change operation that threw [[Libya]] into [[anarchy]], again outside Europe. As NATO expanded toward Russia, Moscow came to see it as an increasingly active [[military]] threat.

As early as 1994, Russia began warning the [[United States]] that, if [[NATO enlargement]] extended to the Russian borders, [[Moscow]] would view this as evidence of hostility and mount a [[military]] response. But by 2004, every member state of the former Soviet-dominated [[Warsaw Pact]] had been inducted into NATO. In the Cold War, NATO had been a purely defensive alliance designed to counter Moscow in [[Europe]]. But in 1995, NATO began to take the offensive. It intervened in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]]. In 1999, it launched a 78-day bombing campaign that wrested [[Kosovo]] from [[Serbia]], a state traditionally associated with Russia. In 2001, NATO joined the United States in its twenty-year war to pacify faraway [[Afghanistan]] outside Europe. And in 2011, it supported a regime change operation that threw [[Libya]] into [[anarchy]], again outside Europe. As NATO expanded toward Russia, Moscow came to see it as an increasingly active [[military]] threat.