Dmitri Alperovitch Profile picture
Aug 30, 2022 9 tweets 4 min read Read on X
One of the objectives that @DrRadchenko and I wanted to achieve in our @ForeignAffairs piece (link below) is to debunk some of the prevailing myths about Russia. Here are the most important ones: 🧵

foreignaffairs.com/russian-federa…
Myth #1: Once Putin leaves power/dies, Russia will abandon its anti-Western belligerent policies and return to the bosom of the liberal Western order

Reality: Putin is most likely to be replaced by another hardliner who will continue or even accelerate his aggressive policies
Myth #2: It's only a matter of time before Russia turns into a Jeffersonian democracy with the rule of law, free press, etc

Reality: Democracy has become a dirty word in Russia over the last 3 decades. Even long after Putin is gone, the Russian public is unlikely to desire it
Myth #3: Russia and US will one day join forces to form an anti-China alliance (Reverse Kissinger model)

Reality: Russia, with historical visions of its own grandeur, has no interest in joining any alliance—much less a Western one. Nor is it in its interests to antagonize China
Myth #4: The only options for Russia are to become a junior partner to China or US

Reality: Russia's desired state is a multipolar world, where it is one of the poles. With its power diminishing, it is unlikely to get that. But it can still project power by pursing non-alignment
Myth #5: It is possible to destroy or dismantle Russia (or that it would be in our interests to do so)

Reality: As George Kennan famously once said "The Soviet Union will not last, but Russia will"
It is a country of 140m people that is not going to disappear or disintegrate
Myth #6: Putin will get replaced in a popular uprising

Reality: Putin's hold on power is the strongest it's been in 23 years, since becoming President. If he gets replaced, it will be due to a palace coup orchestrated by people who think he is not aggressive enough
Myth #7: We can enact a regime change in Moscow

Reality: It's a folly to think that we are even capable of such action. Not to mention that US track record of regime change over the last half century in countries considerably weaker than Russia is not stellar, to say the least
We need a long-term strategy for Russia that takes into account these realities and focuses on pursuit of achievable goals, not hopeless dreams. A non-aligned Russia, equidistant from America and China, is a possible outcome that would benefit US *and* Russia

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More from @DAlperovitch

Jun 26
There is no question that Iran’s nuclear program sustained enormous damage as a result of this 12 day war.

It’s very likely been set back by at least a year, likely more.

But how quickly Iran can race to a (deliverable) bomb depends on one key question 🧵
A good way to think about Iranian nuclear program is that it has 5 key parts:
1. Weaponization research - work on assembly of the weapon from its components and making it small enough to fit on a missile.

US IC believes this had been put on ice in 2003 but some facilities, research work and, of course, the scientists with the knowledge have remained. Image
Read 26 tweets
Jun 18
The focus on the timeline of how far away Iran is/was from a deliverable nuclear weapon muddles the issue in a very unhelpful way.

It is
A)Fundamentally unknowable due to dependance on factors that are unpredictable and

B) Irrelevant to Israeli decision-making

Here is why🧵
How long it would take Iran to build a nuke and put it on a delivery vehicle (which is also a far different timeline from when it could just do a demonstration test of a bomb) obviously depends on whether or not they accelerate the pace and decide to run to the finish line
Assessments of timelines are based on current (and partly covert) effort pace, which may not hold in the future.
They are also not including possibilities that Iran requests & receives assistance from other nations, like North Korea and Pakistan, known past nuclear proliferators
Read 25 tweets
May 31
Fascinating interview with a private drone designer for the RU military. His knowledge of UKR & Western drones is limited and should be taken with some skepticism but he still presents a quite candid picture into the current state of unmanned warfare:🧵
Russian military was very slow to adapt to drone warfare even though Ukrainian forces have been experimenting with drones on a limited basis in the Donbas well before 2022. Russians dismissed it at the time as mere expensive toys Image
FPV tactics:
Humvees can be destroyed with a single FPV hit. Russians have learned to hit M1 Abrams tanks in the rear turret compartment that stores ammunition to have it go up in flames consistently. Hitting it in the turbine also disables it completely Image
Read 63 tweets
Apr 13
About this Chinese rare earth ban..

Refining of rare earth minerals is NOT a complex issue to solve. In fact, we have partially solved it already!

Story time. Last year I visited the Mountain Pass mine in CA owned by @MPMaterials, the only operating RE mine in North America 🧵 Image
The unique thing about this mine is not just that it is producing ~15% of the world’s RE oxide BUT @MPMaterials is also refining them onsite in an extremely clean way with NO harmful byproducts or pollution.

I wish I could share photos but you could eat off the floor there!
So why is @MPMaterials not refining everything that’s coming out of the mine but ships a lot of it to China today? Chinese dumping!
Read 7 tweets
Apr 2
He Weidong, Vice Chair of the Central Military Commission, one of Xi’s loyalists and old time colleagues, rumored to have been purged recently has not attended a voluntarily tree planting ceremony in Beijing, the first time in over a decade that someone in that role skipped it 🧵
If He is indeed purged by Xi, as is starting to look increasingly likely, it would have significant implications for better understanding Xi’s nature.

It would put his “anti-corruption”purging drive in a very different light
He was part of the Fujian clique, benefiting greatly from close association with Xi during the latter’s rise through party leadership in Fujian. He was also the commander of the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command responsible for any Taiwan operations
Read 4 tweets
Aug 15, 2024
NordStream pipeline destruction story:

Zelensky initially approved the plan, according to one officer who participated and three people familiar with it. But later, when the CIA learned of it and asked the Ukrainian president to pull the plug, he ordered a halt.
Zaluzhniy, who was leading the effort, nonetheless forged ahead.

wsj.com/world/europe/n…
“An attack of this scale is a sufficient reason to trigger the collective defense clause of NATO, but our critical infrastructure was blown up by a country that we support with massive weapons shipments and billions in cash,” said a senior German official familiar with the probe.
In May of 2022, a handful of senior Ukrainian military officers and businessmen had gathered to toast their country’s remarkable success in halting the Russian invasion. Buoyed by alcohol and patriotic fervor, somebody suggested a radical next step: destroying Nord Stream.
Read 17 tweets

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