Most people in the West haven't heard of Project Russia, the series of books published by the Kremlin with Putin's authorization. It outlines how Russia will take advantage of a coming economic and political collapse to place itself at the head of a global league of nations, with Putin as the supreme and holy ruler of the entire thing... including you.
It would be dictatorships all the way down.
Ten years ago I would have said it sounded like a Bond movie, but look where we are now. Clearly Project Russia has advanced.
Facts about Project Russia:
- It's widely read by influential people in Russia, but there aren't any English translations.
- The five volumes were released for publication from 2005 through 2014.
- Authorship is nebulous, but Russian billionaire Yuri Shalyganov has claimed partial authorship while implying that the powers in the Kremlin are responsible for the whole work.
A disclaimer before I continue: This is not my own research. I'm summarizing a summary of Project Russia that was written by Lynn Corum and published in 2018 by the Johns Hopkins University Press. I forgot how to speak or read Russian a long time ago.
The author of the paper provided a great summary of Project Russia, so I'll simply quote her.
As revealed in Project Russia and detailed in this essay, the official Russian doctrine is that democracy does not work; all democracies are decadent; Soviet Russia was superior; its collapse was the fault of Western interference; and the Putin Regime is its successor. The West is the enemy, and we are at war. The West will soon collapse, upon which Putin the ‘Prince-Monk’ will establish a worldwide, totalitarian, ‘supranational’ state, with a state religion to provide him with legitimacy and social control.
Disdain for democracy
The book series describes the worldview that Putin would like Russians and others to have. It contends that democracy is only possible at local levels of government. The democracy that exists in western nations is a carefully crafted sham to deceive citizens by presenting choices that differ only slightly from each other. (In my opinion this notion has gained traction in the U.S. not just because it's being promoted, but also because it includes elements of truth.)
Putin's propaganda agencies work to promote this worldview among Americans too. They turn this disdain into a self-reinforcing movement by using social strategies to encourage distrust in election systems, institutions, parties, and politicians. Tactics include spreading disinformation through social media, creating pretend news organizations, and funding and nurturing dissident groups on both the right side and to some extent the left side of the polity. You've already seen what some of what those efforts have produced – disruptive and destructive movements ranging from the secessionist freaks in Oregon to Jill Stein's spoiler campaign.
The broad mass of the befuddled prefer to receive information from clips and slogans, specially created to impose on their consciousness posts that are not true, but false, and to provoke animalistic behavior. . . . To bring these ideas to the masses, do not write books. It is necessary to turn to a more affordable way of feeding them thoughts. The method determines the flow of material related to the information. The masses need TV series, shows, cartoons, but not books.
– Project Russia
The books contend that voters in democracies make their choices based on frivolous concerns, without an understanding of larger issues. Meanwhile, Russia's propaganda agencies actively encourage Americans to become fixated on frivolous and invented things such as trans students in sports, infringement of gun rights, etc.
National elections are reduced to outright stupidity because the people, like children, always prefer the candy wrappers, not the contents.
– Project Russia
The disdain also extends to contempt for the rule of law. It says that weighty decisions should be made by a single person, not by laws.
Montesquieu split political power into three pieces: the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Now power passes from the hands of a man into the hands of the law. The world is ruled by this new “ruler act.” The high-sounding phrase “rule of law” in practice means the power of lawyers.
– Project Russia
Western nations have fallen into social decadence
According to the books, western nations are deteriorating because of falling birth rates, immorality, drug abuse, and other vices. They express particular contempt for LGBTQ people, and they accuse U.S. and European governments of promoting homosexuality and other "attractive consumer lifestyles" in order to corrupt and subvert Russian society. Tolerance for individual rights in the West is merely "tolerance for any category of sin."
Social liberalism is equated to Nazi ideology:
The apotheosis of Western thought is realized in Hitler. It turns out that babies can be tortured because there is no God, and you are superman, for which there are no restrictions or obstacles in the implementation of the will and desires. Do you want to? Do it! Realize your will or die. Sounds cool? Cool. Especially dangerous. Some Satanic energy is behind this, attractive in its denial of any limitations, with credibility and legitimacy.
– Project Russia
The books describe Russia as the last bastion of proper morality and virtuous living, which were upheld for seven decades by the Soviet Union and will be upheld in the future by a ruler who governs with the sensibilities of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The West is the enemy
The books describe the collapse of the Soviet Union as a tragedy that resulted from sabotage by the West through propaganda.
The world view of the Soviet citizen was replaced by that of the consumer.
– Project Russia
They imply that the U.S. intends to take over and control former Soviet states as a precursor to taking over the world.
The enemy realizes that its main task is to break Russia. Then, when it has removed this last major obstacle to world domination, the West will dissolve the ‘independent and sovereign’ states.
…
Where the West was able to break the continuity of government, as in the Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan, a period of active decay set in. Rulers appeared out of nowhere and will soon return to nowhere.
– Project Russia
The books also accuse the West and particularly the U.S. of overconsumption of resources, effectively stealing sustenance and survival from the majority of people in the world.
World collapse and restructuring
Project Russia contends that the West's overconsumption of scarce resources will soon lead to global economic collapse.
We believe that a new phase is coming in the development of human society. All will collapse—both Europe and America, and the U.S. dollar. It’s a matter of time. By the way, if the dollar collapses, after that crashes the old world order.
-- Yuri Shalyganov, 2012 interview
The books describe a plan to overcome the West by degrading its social and political cohesion. Russia is at war with the West and must use every available attack strategy, including social tactics.
Now we understand that there is a real war. We want to kill, but not with the force of a hand holding a sword, not with the force of gunpowder propelling a bullet, not even with atomic energy. We want to kill using social energy. Russia wants to destroy by manipulating the grievances and claims of the finely thinking elite. Sword against sword is effective, and gun against gun. But you cannot fight the weapon of the future with the weapons of the last war. Therefore, only anti-social forces are effective against social forces. On the basis of this logic, our main task is to harness the power of protest.
Other notable tactics include military destabilization of regions in order to force waves of refugees migrate and destabilize Western nations. As an example, former Syrian dictator Assad worked in conjunction with Russia to create a crisis of immigrant refugees fleeing to Europe, which disrupted normal governance and encouraged the rise of racist and nationalist movements.
Putin as god-king
The books claim that only a strong ruler can repair the evils caused by Western decadence. It describes society's natural order as a pyramid with the "Prince-Monk" reigning permanently at the top. Putin is described as Russia's source of stability and continuity with the Soviet Union, and he is destined to rule the rest of the world too.
We have come to the conclusion that the only structure that can replace a state is a supranational social system... Everything will fall into place — at the top will be the one who has the most complete understanding of the world.
– Project Russia
Implications, in my opinion
Inside and outside of Russia, many aspects of this crazy plan are falling into place. The United States is on the verge of installing Russian assets Trump and Vance into the presidency. Meanwhile, leaders among the tech utopian movement and the nationalist insurgency movement (e.g. Elon Musk, Steve Bannon) have stated their intention to disrupt the economy and displace the Dollar as the global reserve currency.
The Putin axis will soon have the means to disrupt the global economy quickly and severely. One possible tactic would be for Republicans in Congress to force a U.S. default on its national debt, which could happen sometime between February and late April 2025 based on scenarios that have Janet Yellen making some last-gasp provisions to keep the government out of bankruptcy for awhile longer.
The axis might also have the means to dismantle much of the functionality of the U.S. government by setting Musk and his tech cult followers to feed upon it like termites, privatizing agencies, selling off national lands and resources, putting incompetent people in charge, etc.
Other crises can also happen, or can be made to happen, which would create a flood of popular support for a U.S. president-turned-dictator. Remember how the nation collectively lost its mind after 9/11 and the Bush administration steered Congress and the nation into some very bad decisions. Americans act like idiots after a shock event, and the next shock could come in the form of terrorism, economic disruption, war, or natural disaster.
In this context, preserving national security means it would be intolerable to allow Russian assets Trump, Vance and Musk to take control of the presidency. Our elected leaders and President Biden have an obligation to use every power available to them in order to prevent Trump/Vance from being inaugurated to the presidency. The continued existence of the United States under the Constitution requires that they do so.
