One year ago I woke up to war in Europe. When I woke up today I was relieved that it was not to the news that a nuclear weapon had been used in Ukraine. The day, however, is still young. Swedish media reported a rumor from within the Kremlin that Putain has “rejected using the bomb”, news that can be interpreted in two different ways: that 1) Putain is a sensible leader or 2) from the perspective that it is Russian doctrine to lie. Both of these ways can be used to read the 12 step proposal for peace presented by China that was released pretty much at the same time as the rumor from the Kremlin.
Putains basis to “reject the bomb” would apparently be that using even a “small nuclear weapon on Ukrainian soil” would make more harm than use for Russia”, a statement that is not factually wrong - but Putain don’t really care about Russia – other than as an extension of himself. That is something that is worth to remember as he gets pushed closer and closer to an exit: Putain has the means to a more radical extended suicide that Hitler could only dream about back in 1945. But let’s get back to the “peace proposal”; the reason to present Putain as being “reasonable” is directly connected to the proposal as a means to paint the picture of a reasonable head of state which whom it is possible to negotiate, and at the same time the “more harm than use” should be read as a thinly veiled threat about what might happen should negotiations not begin. However the Voldemort of the East has played that card a few to many times over the last few months for anyone to really care.
Anyone that has an interest in international politic and relations really should take a look how the Chinese proposal is formulated, read it as you would any political declaration of intent: the points are structured in order of relevance. It is telling that the cessation of hostilities is point number 3 of 12. Point 1 and 2 are the ones that are the really important ones by the draftees of the proposal i.e. China and Russia. In regards to [1] Both have heavy interests in maintaining “national sovereignty”, in this case meaning the by them declared borders or “zones of interest”; in the case of China this means the whole of the southern Chinese sea and especially Taiwan, and for Russia the borders of the former Soviet Union. And as for [2] the shift from oil to technology as the basis for the international power struggle and the establishment of a new cold war of sorts between near peer nations (now basically only China since Putain effectively has managed to run Russia into the ground) manifesting primarily as a trade war and a technological arms race (production and infrastructure).
The remaining tem points in the proposal are about as useful as a fluffer on the set of a porn movie after the invention of viagra.
Naturally this proposal will be rejected. Naturally the war will go on. Naturally children, women and men will continue to be tortured and raped and murdered. And all of it is the fault of Putain – and by extension that of Russia.
Personally I think that Sweden should send not only the military material that we can “spare”, but all the military material we have to Ukraine. It is the very least we can do.