Putin's Long Game + Canada in the Crosshairs...or With Room to Achieve Gains?

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siderea pointed out an article on Politico by Molly McKew that is giving me the shivers: that Putin's goal - one of them - might be to push our several nations into reshaping ourselves from within to become more like his version of what Russia is or should be. To abandon our own doctrine and traditions as nations. And in the process, undermine our abilities to depend on one another as nations, as peoples...

It's a disturbing thought. And therefore it has merit worth pursuing. Because if the theory's right, then we can counter the strategy it details, and moreover, we should.

It's putting me in mind of several opinion pieces in various corners of several news services, which taken in concert - allowing for their contradictions of one another - might give Canada some means - beginning with inspiration, but hopefully not ending there - with which to help reweave international human society into something more durable for the decades to come.

Of course, whether we recognize those tools for what they are, the possibility that we might do so at all makes Canadian society one more target for Putin's campaign against the idea of a global civil society.

Recognize this: NATO, EU, NORAD...they're the near-term targets. Long-term, it's the UN and its web of satellite institutions as well and the ideals they embody. Why else pull away from the International Criminal Court?

For that matter, we might see the efforts of the political parties making up the ranks of the International Democrat Union in a similar light. But for their competing ambitions, Putin's United Russia Party might well have ended up a member of the IDU.

There are some who see Justin Trudeau as "the last major progressive leader standing", Aaron Wherry among them. I don't know that I agree with that, given Angela Merkel's continued presence despite being seen as a conservative in German circles per Wherry's opinion piece. But certainly, he's seen as a key, by Joe Biden among others.

Some of those others also see Canada as currently being the freest of societies on the planet. Whether you take the admittedly-flattering article on Upworthy at its given word on the subject, and acknowledging Canada's existing, long-standing flaws, it's one more reason why we might be positioned to make a positive difference in this world.

I'm not sure how much further to take this train of thought at the moment, and I'd originally meant to study several kinds of software as part of my ongoing job search. So, I'm going to open the microphone up.