When we consider the causes of the war started by Russia, we want to understand what was the cause. Let us consider the reasons and conclusions that should be drawn from it.

There will be many answers on the operational, political and military levels. But, in my opinion, there is still a much deeper ground. The one that is visible in the behavior of the majority of Russian society supporting Putin. In recent hours, journalists have been asking about the war in Ukraine on the streets of Russian cities, kind of survey . Most of the respondents answer that they either support their President or that the terrible information coming from Ukraine is false, fake and western propaganda. The most radical statements are “I am for peace.” What happened in the minds of the Russians? Is it their fault that they believe the ideological nonsense that the Kremlin propaganda gives them?

In my opinion, a lot of the blame lies with us, fault on our side, too . Why? Because we have failed to do our job well over the past 20 years, we have downplayed the evil to come. We agreed that the crimes of communism should be downplayed. There was no Nurnberg Trial for Bolshevism; and then Stalin became the model/figure/character of an efficient manager governing a huge power/empire. It is not Putin who has gone mad and gone mad. It was Western societies that fed him, becoming his involuntary allies.

Anyone in the West – particularly in Germany, Austria, UK Britain, France can say today – we are sorry but we did not know what Russia was preparing for us? I think, These societies have no right to say that they knew nothing. I have strong evidence.

Please come back to reading investigative journalist Jurgen Roth’s books – I discovered them in 2011 in a bookstore in my beloved Dresden, where I often go for weekends with my children. I was surprised: Mafialand Deutschland; • Gangsterwirtschaft; • GAZPROM – das unheimliche Imperium –  were published in tens of thousands of copies; all of them concern corruption in the West and economic patterns as well as political ties between the European elites and Russian oligarchs, for whom Putin is like a capo di tutti capi. Will anyone in German speaking countries – Austria, Germany, Switzerland say that he did not know? But Jurgen Roth’s books have been translated into French, English, Spanish and Italian! In Poland, Jurgen Roth is popular, particularly after the publication of his last work about the plane crash of President Lech Kaczyński near Smolensk. Jurgen Roth recalled in his text what that Kaczyński addressed in August 2008 at a rally in Tbilisi: We have come here together with presidents of other Central European countries (Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Estonia, because Russia is a dangerous challenge for the entire continent: today Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after tomorrow the Baltic states and then it’s time for my country to Poland.  Jurgen Roth died in 2017, He was 72 years old. As far as I know the average life expectancy in Germany is well over 80 years. If any of the politicians in Western Europe are still convinced that if Russia had not been irritated (expansion of NATO, EU etc.) there would not have been this tragedy, I would like to remind that – in 1939 Finland did not irritate Stalin. It was simply Stalin who concluded that the borders of the Russian empire should be changed. I hope Putin breaks his teeth in Ukraine, as did Stalin in Finland.   And finally appeal for our Georgian friends, I have one proposal. I understand that You’re in a difficult situation and you cannot speak out against Russia and support the sanctions.  But please make at least one symbolic gesture – close the Stalin’s museum in Gori.