REFERENCE: The Checkmate (Part II)

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The following references are associated with Part II - The War » Preclude To War » The Geopolitical Chess Player » The Checkmate

NARRATIVE

Ukraine & Belarus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Sophia_Cathedral,_Kyiv

Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, Ukraine, is an architectural monument of Kyivan Rus. The former cathedral is one of the city's best known landmarks and the first heritage site in Ukraine to be inscribed on the World Heritage List along with the Kyiv Cave Monastery complex.

 

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/what-is-wrong-with-the-ukrainian-economy/

Ukraine is now the poorest country in Europe. According to the International Monetary Fund, Ukraine overtook Moldova as the poorest country in Europe as measured in GDP per capita in 2018 at $2,963, 8 percent less than in Moldova.

 

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-poorest-countries-in-europe.html

These issues have resulted in Belarus being one of the poorest countries in Europe.

 

Russia

https://www.worldometers.info/geography/largest-countries-in-the-world/

The largest country in the world is Russia with a total area of 17,098,242 Km² (6,601,665 mi²) and a land area of 16,376,870 Km² (6,323,142 mi²), equivalent to 11% of the total world's landmass of 148,940,000 Km² (57,510,000 square miles).

 

https://www.worldatlas.com/maps/russia

Russia, the world's largest country by area, stretches from Northern Asia to Eastern Europe. The Arctic Ocean borders Russia to the north and the Pacific to the east. The country also has a short coastline on the Baltic Sea in the northwest. The exclave of Russia, Kaliningrad also borders the Baltic Sea as well as Lithuania and Poland. The southern borders of Russia are with Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, North Korea, and Mongolia. The western and southwestern borders of Russia are with Finland, Norway, Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine, and Latvia.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borders_of_Russia

Russia, the largest country in the world, has international land borders with 14 sovereign states as well as 2 narrow maritime boundaries with the United States and Japan.

 

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/jul/27/lindsey-graham/graham-russia-has-economy-size-italy/

Russia’s 2013 nominal GDP was $2.1 trillion, and Italy’s was $2.07 trillion, according to the World Bank. http://www.newgeography.com/content/007386-demographics-russia-belarus-and-ukraine So let’s take a quick look at the demographics of Russia, Ukraine and also Belarus since it too is viewed by Putin as part of the greater Russian people.

 

The -Stan Countries

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Asia#Economy

The landlocked Central Asian republics are conscious of the need to co-operate in order to maintain and develop their transport networks and energy, communication and irrigation systems. Only Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan border the Caspian Sea and none of the republics has direct access to an ocean, complicating the transportation of hydrocarbons, in particular, to world markets.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Asia#Geostrategy

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, five countries gained independence. In nearly all the new states, former Communist Party officials retained power as local strongmen. None of the new republics could be considered functional democracies in the early days of independence, although in recent years Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia have made further progress towards more open societies, unlike Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, which have maintained many Soviet-style repressive tactics.

 

https://saisreview.sais.jhu.edu/the-superpower-and-the-stans-why-central-asia-is-not-central-to-the-united-states/

The United States should care a lot about Central Asia. The five Central Asian republics, henceforth referred to as the “Stans” (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan), are situated in a strategic region of the world.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Asia_plus_Japan

The Central Asia plus Japan dialogue is a political initiative between Japan and the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, with the goal to create “a new framework for cooperation, thereby elevating relations between Japan and Central Asia to a new level”. The dialogue, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, is also meant to serve as a forum to promote inter-regional cooperation. Turkmenistan, maintaining its policy of neutrality, participates only as an observer.

 

Siberia

https://www.grunge.com/267790/what-its-really-like-living-in-siberia/

We'll say it right up front: Siberia is an incredible place. We hear a lot about it — usually in the same breath as words like "cold," "snow," and "dark," but there's so much more to it than that.

 

https://www.solaralliance.com/how-do-clouds-affect-solar-panels/

Do solar panels work better in the cold? You may be surprised to learn the answer is yes. Contrary to popular belief, solar panels absorb energy from the sun’s light, not its heat.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Russia

Russia is estimated to have a total potential of 80,000 TWh/yr for wind energy, 6,218 TWh/yr of which is economically feasible. Most of this potential is found in the southern steppes and the seacoasts of the country, although in many of these areas the population density is very low, at less than 1 person per km2. This low population density means that there is little existing electricity infrastructure currently in place, which hinders development of these resources.

 

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wind-turbines-antarctica/

This photograph was taken at the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica base, a zero-emission polar research center that is powered by solar and wind energy.

 

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=22392

Much of Russian crude oil production comes from the West Siberia and Urals-Volga regions in central and western Russia, but production in East Siberia and Russia's Far East regions has increased, and oil fields in eastern Russia and in the Russian Arctic stand to play a larger role in the country's future production. However, new projects may be delayed or otherwise affected by economic sanctions currently in place.

 

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/11/01/in-icy-russia-interest-in-solar-power-is-growing-a75426

Russia’s typically low temperatures and few sunny days don’t mean it can’t produce solar energy on a significant scale, said Anton Usachev, deputy director of Russia’s largest solar panels company HEVEL. “It is a very outdated myth that Russia doesn’t have enough sunlight,” Usachev said. “People ask us, ‘Why are you building a solar station in the Ural mountains? There is no sun there!’ Well, our data tells us differently.”

 

Far East

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolia%E2%80%93Russia_relations

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, Mongolia's trade with Russia declined by 80% and China's relations and influence over Mongolia increased. However, Russia has sought to rebuild strong relations with Mongolia in recent years to enhance its standing as a regional power. In 2000, then Russian President Vladimir Putin made a landmark visit to Mongolia —the first by a Russian head of state since Leonid Brezhnev in 1974 and one of the first of Putin's presidency— and renewed a major bilateral treaty. The visit and improvement in bilateral relations was popularly welcomed in Mongolia as countering China's influence. ... Most prominent economic collaboration between Russia and Mongolia is the Power of Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline, construction of which is expected to begin in 2024. The planned 2,600 km pipeline connecting Russia and China via Mongolia will have a capacity of 50 billion cubic meters of gas per year and could be operational by 2030, generating transit fees and gas supplies for Mongolia.

 

Japan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan%E2%80%93Russia_relations

The two countries ended their formal state of war with the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, but as of 2022 have not resolved this territorial dispute over ownership of the Kurils.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuril_Islands

The islands stretch approximately 1,300 km (810 mi) northeast from Hokkaido in Japan to Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the north Pacific Ocean. There are 56 islands and many minor islets.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuril_Islands_dispute

The Kuril Islands dispute, known as the Northern Territories dispute in Japan, is a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over the ownership of the four southernmost Kuril Islands. The Kuril Islands are a chain of islands that stretch between the Japanese island of Hokkaido at their southern end and the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula at their northern end.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikotan

The island's primary economic activities are fisheries and fishing, with the principal marine products being cod, crab, and kelp. ... The total land area of Shikotan is 225 square kilometers (87 sq mi). The island is hilly, averaging 300 metres in elevation.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habomai_Islands

Area: 100 km2 (39 sq mi) ... Formerly home to a Japanese fishing community, the islands are now uninhabited except for the Russian border guard outpost.

 

https://www.rferl.org/a/the-disputed-islands-where-world-war-2-never-ended/28402307.html

For Russia, they are the justly earned spoils of war. For Japan, the Kurile Islands are stolen territory, lost to Soviet aggression and Western interference. More than 70 years after the last shot was fired in World War II, the two countries remain locked in a stalemate over four wave-battered islands.

 

NATO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Characters_in_Search_of_an_Author

Six Characters in Search of an Author (Italian: Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore [ˈsɛi persoˈnaddʒi in ˈtʃerka dauˈtoːre]) is an Italian play by Luigi Pirandello, written and first performed in 1921. An absurdist metatheatric play about the relationship among authors, their characters, and theatre practitioners.

 

https://interestingliterature.com/2021/02/pirandello-six-characters-in-search-of-an-author-summary-analysis/

The play begins with a group of actors rehearsing another Pirandello play, Rules of the Game. While they are in rehearsals, six characters, wearing masks, arrive in the theatre. Each of these masks represents a different emotion which remains fixed throughout the play. These six figures or characters are: the Father, the Mother, the Son, the Boy, the Sister, and the Stepdaughter.

 

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germany-must-reassess-policy-towards-russia-china-ruling-party-chief-2022-02-03/

For many years, German foreign policy has been based on the precept of "Wandel durch Handel" - change through trade - or "Wandel durch Verflechtung" - change through interconnection - reflecting the belief that deepening economic and other ties can foster political change. ... Critics say Germany has been naive and focused on its short-term gain rather than long-term geostrategic interests.

 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644008.2018.1448385

Since the Russia–Ukraine crisis in 2014, Germany's foreign policy has been subject to international pressures to engage more actively in restoring the peace and security order in Europe. Particularly in its eastern policy, Berlin has had to redefine its traditional foreign policy, towards what could be termed a ‘hybrid Ostpolitik’.

 

https://en.birmiss.com/russias-gas-pipelines-a-map-and-a-diagram-gas-pipelines-from-russia-to-europe/

Russia can deliver gas to Europe in three ways: through the Ukrainian gas transmission system, as well as through the Nord Stream and Yamal-Europe gas pipelines.

 

https://bestlifeonline.com/funny-dictionary-words/

Namby-pamby describes something or someone as "weak" or "indecisive." ... Fuddy-duddy may sound fun, but its origins are negative. Describing someone as "old-fashioned, unimaginative, or conservative," Merriam-Webster says it was first used in 1904.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_headquarters

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is headquartered in a complex in Haren, part of the City of Brussels municipality of Belgium.

 

https://money.cnn.com/2017/05/25/news/nato-funding-explained-trump/index.html

To make the idea work, it is important for all members to make sure their armed forces are in good shape. So NATO sets an official target on how much they should spend. That currently stands at 2% of GDP. ... The 2% target is described as a "guideline." There is no penalty for not meeting it. It is up to each country to decide how much to spend and how to use the money.

 

https://www.econotimes.com/Donald-Trump-would-pull-US-out-of-NATO-if-he-won-a-second-term-says-John-Bolton-1628626

Republicans, especially those who are staunch supporters of former President Donald Trump, have argued that there would be no crisis in Ukraine had Trump won a second term. However, according to Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, the former president would have withdrawn from the NATO alliance if he had won a second term. ... “In a second Trump term, I think he may well have withdrawn from NATO,” said Bolton. “And I think Putin was waiting for that.”

 

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/trump-wanted-withdraw-u-nato-161944527.html

Former President Donald Trump, who has a long history of denigrating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and who, as president, discussed removing the U.S. from the alliance, has now claimed credit for its existence. He’s also patting himself on the back for supplying Ukraine with weapons, despite once threatening to withhold security assistance from the country unless it helped smear Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NATO_operations

Although the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was present throughout the Cold War as the opposite to the Warsaw Pact, and conducted joint military exercises, no military operations took place. All military NATO operations have occurred after the Cold War...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Deliberate_Force

The operation was carried out between 30 August and 20 September 1995, involving 400 aircraft and 5,000 personnel from 15 nations.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50335257

President Emmanuel Macron of France has described Nato as "brain dead", stressing what he sees as waning commitment to the transatlantic alliance by its main guarantor, the US. ... The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was created in 1949 to counter the threat from the Soviet Union as the Communist country sought to expand its power in Europe. The Soviet Union, an ally in World War Two against Nazi Germany, became an adversary of the West during the Cold War. It set up its own Warsaw Pact military alliance, including the then Communist countries of eastern Europe, in 1955. That alliance was dissolved shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and former Warsaw Pact countries, though not Russia, became Nato members in the years following.

 

Capitalism

https://www.socialcapitalresearch.com/promise-of-social-capital-theory/

Social capital theory has been heralded as a very important conceptual innovation. It emphasises social dimensions that have typically been marginalised by the dominant paradigm of individualism and economic rationalism. It helps to reverse the undersocialised view that assumes that humans are rational and self-interested, and largely beyond the influence of social factors.

 

https://asiatimes.com/2020/08/socialist-or-capitalist-what-is-chinas-model-exactly/

Near the end of his life, Lenin gave a speech that referred to the USSR as a transitional society. He explained that socialists had taken state power and could thereby take the post-revolutionary economy – which he labeled “state capitalism” – further. The socialists’ state could achieve transition to a genuinely post-capitalist economy. He never spelled out exactly what that meant ...

 

Russia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Russia

The economy of Russia is an emerging and developing, high-income, industrialized, mixed market-oriented economy.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin#Political_career

His political rise began in the Saint Petersburg administration (1990–1996) ...

 

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14563633

Putin, 69, has long held a love for judo, in which he is a well-known holder of a black belt. ... The prestigious Kodokan Judo Institute in Tokyo, the worldwide headquarters of the sport, awarded Putin the sixth dan of “Kodokan judo” when he visited Japan in 2000 ... The Russian president also visited Kodokan accompanied by then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori in 2016 ... But since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, Kodokan has received phone calls demanding it strip Putin of his sixth-dan rank, which is higher than a black belt.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is often represented as a pyramid, with the more basic needs at the bottom.

 

https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2019/how-has-my-country-voted-at-unga/index.html

In the UN General Assembly, the rule is: One country, one vote for the delegations that come from every member state.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_leaders_of_Russia

That is the list of rulers of Ancient Rus', the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, the Russian Republic, the Soviet Union, and the modern Russian Federation.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27

The modern nations of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine all claim Kievan Rus' as their cultural ancestor, with Belarus and Russia deriving their names from it.

 

PICTORIAL