Putin Playing Chess

I don't have predictions but I can provide insight. I was born in Latvia and immigrated with my parents as a child to Canada. Most of my mothers family still lives there. Here are some basic things about the Baltic's that need to be kept in mind. During the soviet occupation, the native languages of that region were suppressed in favour of Russian, and there even was an effort to resettle ethnic Russians in the Baltic's in order to Russify the area culturally and linguistically. After the soviet union collapsed and the independent republics took shape, there was a concerted effort to reestablish indigenous culture and language again. This took the form of discriminating against and marginalizing the Russian community in the Baltic's. Things like language laws and discriminatory citizenship practices came about. Citizenship was given to people who's families had lived in the region prior to world war two, so in my own personal case, half of my family became citizen's of nowhere and held Alien passports despite having lived in Latvia for decades. in 2004 the Baltic's joined the EU, they also joined Nato. Both of these decisions were made because the republics wanted to prevent Russia from ever aggressing against them again, however Russia saw it as a provocation. Something like 30% of the population of the Baltic's is of ethnic Russian descent. They live in their own communities and do not mix very much with the indigenous population. Riga as a city is similar to Montreal in it's linguistic split. So you have a community of people numbering about 30% of the total population who feel marginalized by the wider society, and get most of their information and media from Russian television and internet, and distrust the west for cultural reasons as much as propaganda reasons. This is dangerous. My own family staunchly supports Putin and will hear no bad of him, they staunchly dislike the national government of Latvia and would always vote for a Russian candidate over a Latvian one. See a pattern here. It's entrenched tribalism made worse by the discriminatory policies of the governments of the Baltic's. You could argue that the native citizen's (Latvian's, Lithuanian's and Estonian's) lived for many decades under discrimination, and therefore that they are justified in turning the tables. However two wrongs don't make a right, and now we're how dangerous this policy of alienation really is. 

When it comes to the future I am scared, but I feel that I largely get mental blanks when I try and meditate on it. Maybe it's too personal to me and therefore I cannot see. I would recommend you read the work's of Masha Gessen who has studied Putin and does not think he is as intelligent as he is made out to be. And also the work's of Gary Kasaparov, who was a chess champion and is now a political activist opposed to Putin. I do not agree with everything these two say, but it is a good place to start for those who want a broader perspective.

Natalie

Another  psychic Eric liegh pink who I follow says  Putins going to do a land grab soon, I believe he's weighing up his options up and while Trumps busy with north Korea he have a go go.

Hi Natalie;

Very interesting - Thank you for the information. 

Is it possible that the Latvian President is 'in with Putin', in some way?  I did notice in the Wiki article that his mother is Russian.  On the other hand, I also noticed that he was a member of the Green Party, so I am not sure if that means he would be someone that would 'work with' Putin. 

Lisa-So he thinks it will be maybe this spring soon? or ?   The first 'image' that I saw was the 'invasion of Ukraine'... but I got the feeling it would be, at the earliest, this fall, or maybe winter 2018.

I don't know anything about the current Latvian President. A quick 10 scan of him and I think he is a bit earnest, he would work with Putin but only if he saw benefit for Latvia, at the moment I don't think he is working with Putin. He is scared, that comes up strong, I don't think he could handle a crisis. I see him being liable to become a victim of Putin's schemes but not as an orchestrating agent. This is based on a completely fallible very quick scan. Maybe you see better than me. 

I just read his Wikipedia page. He is an eccentric character. Religion - Latvian Neopaganism. Brings back memories of the summer solstice festival of Ligo, which is still a national holiday there. I too feel his illness is pretty serious and he is not being publicly honest about him, he's very emotional privately, but tries to keep a lid on it publicly.

Natalie, I agree with you on problems of Latvia. The way it was handled after independence was very wrong. People should have been given citizenship, especially the ones that were born there. That alienated lots of people. Also its truth about Russian speaking population supporting Putin. The problems are deep but they could be sorted if people would unite, they have more in common than they think. I know lots of people that have mixed families. I myself come from bilingual family where I spoke Latvian to my mother and Russian to my father. So I very well understand both sides. I also appreciate beauty of both cultures. Latvia is very close to my heart as my whole family is there. Im desperately scared of war braking out there. I dont know much about the current president there, but president in Latvia doesnt hold much power, he is more ceremonial figure. But I dont think he is connected to Putin in any way, although you never know. 

Yeah I didn't feel the president was connected to Putin, just that he was a bit naive and might become connected to him in the Future. I know that there are more blended families now, I've met some. In my family the only blended person is me (Cuban), otherwise since the 1880's no one has married a non Russian. I worry a lot about Riga and Latvia too, but I feel helpless, like there's nothing that can be done. I think forgiveness is something that needed to happen, and still can happen, if the two communities can let go of the past and move forward together. The younger generation may do this, my grandmother's generation simply won't. I have so many memories of Latvia, I've visited a lot. Soon I want to bring my new husband there to meet my family. 

Hi Dina and Natalie;

My 'psychic abilities' in this matter are not-verified.  I have had various events in my own life that are about me, but that exercise of looking at a map, and at pictures in a Wiki was a completely new experience.  I was a tad distressed by what I 'saw' so I did not try to repeat the exercise.  At the time of the class, I also got the image of my Aunt in the hospital, then I and my cousins were standing around in a room looking all sombre - I assume a funeral.  So that really upset and threw me off everything else.

Thus - I will take any of your scannings over anything that I 'saw/felt'.  Maybe I felt 'he is hiding something' and assumed that it was about Putin - and it is really about something else.

On another note - I saw a documentary that was about 'women in power'.  One of the women that they featured was the Lithuanian President.  She said in the documentary that the West must be careful of Putin, and she also said that she thinks that Putin is afraid/(feels intimidated) by women.

Pamela, he could be connected in the future, we never know. Natalie, yes I agree forgiveness is the way forward. My friends are very mixed there and everyone is embracing each other, but they all are more intellectual, artsy type of people, those kind of people are more open anyway. Generally people need to get out of their shell and embrace each other, love and support each other. Putin is very dangerous to the region, I hope and pray for the peace.  

You are wrong , Blue Sky. I lived half of my life in Baltics, Latvia and Estonia and have family in Lithuania too. So I see whatever knowledge you have is again fueled by right wing nationalist propaganda. I personally dislike nationalists- Latvian and Russian alike,I have met both and both have scary ideas, although I deeply love Latvia and its culture(my culture) Im strongly opposed to any right wing views  and the way forward is people have to learn to get on and love each other.  There are wrongs on both sides. But by alienating people you dont make them integrate, quite the opposite. In reality people have more in common than what they think, and if media would stop brainwashing people, we would see difference very soon. 

So someone like my grandmother who was born in the baltics should just pack up and leave? How cruel is that? What about my great grandmother who is still alive, the same thing applies to her. People have built entire lives in certain places, it is cruel and horrible to tell them to leave. Believe me I know that they would not have turned so strongly in Russias direction had Latvia given them better rights. Its extremely misguided to just write these people off like that. I criticize them myself at times, but I know them personally and I know that they were treated horribly the last 20 years. Younger people in the Baltics, latvians and russians are coming together more than their elders did. 

You are right Natalie. I hope and pray for people there. My generation definitely is coming together. For instance in my university we had a nice mix of people. People were dating and loving each other regardless of language. I have lovely latvian and russian friends and they are kind and loving to each other. Go back to your country mentality makes me so mad, I cant take it. Its racist and unacceptable anywhere in the world! My own family is so mixed. People I know are not voting on basis of nationality but on basis on policies and economy. They should come together. Its definitely much better than it was in 90ties but lately been lots of propaganda surfacing. I think globally we are having this ,fake news, problem. People are being brainwashed. 

I dont say that my views are good at all. And I also dont agree with Russian propaganda, but I also dont agree with right wing propaganda, they both feed off each other. And yes Soviet aggression was as bad as Nazi, believe me I know, my grandfather was killed fighting nazis, some of my family was deported by soviets, but thats past, we need to move on from that.  But you can not tell people who have lived there for generations, and have their whole life there to go back if they dont like something. Where they supposed to go? Thats ridiculous, imagine if you dont like how your government is treating you and they told you go back wherever your ancestors came from. Government needs to listen to all segments of society, only then positive change will happen. Love, not hate and prejudice will win in the end. Eye for an eye will make whole world blind -as Gandhi said. 

Hello people!

As I as the originator of the post, I am hoping that we can steer the conversation back to 'Putin playing chess'.

Anyone with further thooughts on what Putin hopes to achieve? How he would go about it?

My 'image' of the Baltic 'in flames' - I assumed was an attack by Russia - but reading some of the comments - I release he might just need to 'fan the flames' - and the Baltics might 'explode' all on their own.

If you read through Jeannes predictions going out further into the century what keeps coming up is the death of reactionary conservativism. No one is arguing that communism was a good thing, but when you reject social democracy you become a fundamentally cruel person. I live in the United states and I am extremely privileged because I can afford to live well and have excellent health insurance. Trumps cuts are not going to affect me very much, but does that mean that I should be indifferent to the plight of others. Currently around 40 000 people die every year in America because they can't afford health insurance. This is what conservatives do, they are cruel, selfish people. One of my husband's relatives is a self made millionaire, bible believing Christian and Ayn Rand enthusiast, the hypocrisy in this is endless. This same person argues passionately against any help to the poor and for lower taxes, it doesn't bother his Christian conscience that Jesus said to help the poor. Do you see where I am going with this? I can sit here all day and list example after example of people I know from many different countries that have a similar world view. What all these moralising ideologues have in common is that they are all men, and they want to protect that privilege against any incursions. You can look to the Islamic world and see even worse examples of this garbage. But yet conservative and liberal western governments prop the Islamic world up. Saudi Arabia exports wahabbi mosques and madrassas overseas and the United states continues to be its great ally and sell it weapons that it uses to bomb civilians in Yemen. What we are seeing globally is a coming home to roost of this selfishness. When western governments make wars overseas, prop up horrific regimes for monetary reasons and then refuse to let the refugees created from their terror to escape to a better life, you are setting up a house of cards that is going to fall. And those among us in the western world who preach the morality of selfishness will go the way of the dodo in ten years, once people have suffered enough from their cruelty. Its not going to matter in the future what a persons political leanings are. Climate change and the carnage wrecked by neo fascist right wing governments will force all of us to come together just to survive. This is what Jeanne sees, and I didn't understand it for a long time, until I begun to see the connection between the current Syrian civil war and climate change. What's coming is an extreme shake up of how we live in this world. I don't want this to happen, I like my life now, but I can't stop this. The message that keeps coming to me through meditation and also through the news is that cooperation is the only way forward. 

Err---

Hello people!

I understand the depth of emotion that is being generated - my own family's history includes  'conquered nations', 'forced immigration', as well as slavery (my father is from Barbados).  And my husband's family also has stories of 'ethinc inequality', 'forced migration', etc.

However.....

As I was the originator of the post, I am hoping that we can steer the conversation back to 'Putin playing chess'.

Anyone with further thooughts on what Putin hopes to achieve? How he would go about it?

My 'image' of the Baltic 'in flames' - I assumed was an attack by Russia - but reading some of the comments - I release he might just need to 'fan the flames' - and the Baltics might 'explode' all on their own.

How about my image of him 'attacking' Norway?  Although - I thought it wa more of a ploy - 'ok - proove I torpedoed a ship - what are you going to do?'

As a former member of the military - I know of the strategic importance of Norway - year round ice-free ports.

Does Putin believe in the 'Slavic Nation'?  Or is this more 'Russian dominance'?

Putin wants russia to reclaim her status, and he doesn't trust NATO and wants the end of EU. If we go by this logic, then this year is his best chance to do so. A russian-sympath at berlin(angela markel loosing seems impossible at the moment) will make it very easy for him. Germany is the central part of europe. Who have germany, also have europe.

On the other hand, a chaos in mainland europe(assissting rightwingers) will contribute to their ongoing unsolved economic problems. This will make situation harder for ukraine to sustain themselve(if USA do not help them under trump). So, win-win situation for putin.

Lastly, invading baltic or norway out of blue doesn't seem like what putin will do. He would have done that in ukraine then. Reparcussions would have been the same. Even if he tries something like that it will after 2020, when jeanne sees them strong and not without longterm plans. Lastly, balkans should be more of a priority in that regard.

Just my thoughts.

Blue Sky

Out of curiosity, are you currently living in the Baltics?  Have family that still reside there?  Or Poland? Ukraine?

Just curious where you derive your knowledge of the places I have mentioned.

Russia has forces on the border of Norway and have been doing incursion into the territory, just like they have re-started the bomber flights into North American territory.  The Soviets did that while I was in the military, up until the 'fall of the Berlin wall'.  The difference - back then such events were classified and never published.  The fact that they are publishing them speaks volumns in my mind.

I read a comment on a news feeds on facebook a couple of days ago, Macron had connections to the Rothschild.  Do anyone get any feeling about this? From time to time I do see the Rothschild pop up on conversations online. Even when you try to trace some other facts it leads to them. I'm just wondering if they are playing chess too. There is so many conspiracy theories on them.