An Honest Deal. How Peter I Bought the Baltic Territories from Sweden. With a bonus about an earlier purchase of Kiev.

Seeing how the Baltic states (and Ukraine) jumped on the anti-Russian bandwagon, it is worth taking a historical detour into the not so distant past and take a look at a certain fact that those states are trying to erase…

First is a translation of an article from a St.Petersburg edition of “Argumenty i Fakty”, followed by fragment of a related historical article, and concluding with an even deeper dive to the time of the purchase of Kiev from Poland. What is common for these two cases is the fact, that Russia chose to buy the territories at a fair price, despite it having a position of a war winner, enabling it to “just take” those lands. Another aspect of that history is, well, a historical parallel that no one among the Western leadership wants to learn from, maybe because they have not studied history at school.

A fair deal. How Peter I bought the Baltic States from Sweden

Weekly magazine “Arguments and Facts” No. 35. Arguments and facts – Petersburg 31/08/2022


Peter the Great announces the Peace of Nystad (Nishtadt) on Trinity Square in St. Petersburg

The destruction of the monuments to the Soviet soldiers in the Baltic states drew the attention of the Russian society, and at the same time reminded of how these territories came to be a part of the Russian state.

The Northern Russian-Swedish War was concluded on September 10, 1721 with the signing of the Peace of Nystad (Nishtadt), as a result of which Peter the Great actually bought Livonia and Estlandia (modern Latvia and Estonia) from the Swedish Kingdom. Why did the tsar still decide to pay for the territories that were by that time already under the control of the Russian army?

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“Fainting Piglet”, aka. “Unconscious Piggy” Satirical Cartoons Explain the Core of Ukraine and Why SMO Was Unavoidable (with future updates)

In the August of 2022 the CGI animator Evgenia from Krasnodar Krai started creating something that grew into an in-depth satirical reviews of all what was failing Ukraine, and explaining the Special Military Operation’s goals.

The character personifying Ukraine became a little wayward, Nazi-tainted piglet. The Russian title of the series is “Свинка в обмороке” (Svinka v obmoroke), which is a play on the shortened name of the Special Military Operation (SMO) – SVO in Russian. In English the series have got several varying names, trying to convey the essence: “Unconscious Piggy”, “Fainting Piglet”, “Piglet in a Swoon”, “Swooning Pig”.

All episodes are released at the official Telegram channel of the Fainting Piglet. Evgenia writes in the description: “The Piglet is not the whole of Ukraine, but only her demented part!” I have additionally uploaded them to Yandex Disk for easy download.

While the later episodes were released bilingually, earlier episodes require translation (and most of them also require some context for the Western audience, who have been subjected to the heavy Mains Stream Media censorship). This honourable task was undertaken by the admin of The Putinger’s Cat Telegram channel.

As more and more episodes get release and translated, they are becoming increasingly more difficult to trace. And, additionally, not everyone has Telegram. That is why I decided to upload them to Odysee and create this collated post that will get updates as new episodes see the light of day.

But first, a very short clip that cuts to the chase, and shows the very essence of the conflict and the role Ukraine plays in it!


The very first Unconscious Pig episode – “What is Russia Punishing Ukraine For?” or “Why do Russians support the SMO?” – is finally translated! (Translation at Putinger’s Cat)

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Finnish blogger: That’s why half the world owes Russia to the grave

I am reposting an article under the same name from the English edition of NewsFront. This is probably the best – in its brevity – description of Russia’s role in state-building in the recent history! This is the kind of material that cannot be re-posted or re-told too few times.

In the list the author mentions the Napoleonic time, and in this regard I want to especially draw attention to Holland that exists as a state today solely thanks to the Russian effort in 1813: “Russians Are Coming!”: Restoration of the Dutch Kingdom. Year 1813.

The list also mentions Kazahstan, and the statement there is best understood in light of purveying of a certain map of the USSR from exactly 100 years ago – from 1922, something that I did a short time ago in A short look at the short history of Kazakhstan through the lens of a 1922 map.


Finnish blogger: That’s why half the world owes Russia to the grave

A blogger from the Finnish city of Oulu Veikko Korhonen, as most modern Finns periodically fell under the corrupting influence of pro-Western history textbooks.

Everything related to Russia there was usually poured with total mud, the joint Russian-Finnish history was presented as a nightmare, and the pernicious influence of the present was constantly supported by stories about the aggressiveness and hostility of the nearest neighbour.

Fortunately, Veikko Korhonen had a very wise and well-educated grandmother, and so he knew very well about the true course of our joint history.

And once, tired of constant disputes with anti-Russian compatriots, he wrote a small article on his Facebook page, and whenever he met another Russophobe, just gave him direct link.

Are you asking about the results of Russia’s “aggression”? They are as follows: half of Europe and part of Asia got their statehood from the hands of this particular state.

Let’s remember who:

Finland in 1802 and 1918. (Until 1802, never had its own state).

Latvia in 1918 (before 1918 it never had its own state).

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Lithuanian Blockade of Kaliningrad – the suicidal move by a limitrophe to please its master

Lithuania has newly stopped the transit of the Russian trains and trucks to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, thus playing a dangerous game on the behest of its master, the USA. The thing is, the ratification of Lithuania’s eastern border and it ascension into EU is directly couple with a written guarantee of unimpeded transit of the goods to the Russian territory from the mainland Russia. This is just one of several jabs that the US-NATO are trying to make to distract Russia from the denazification of Ukraine and trying to stoke the flames of a regional conflict that bears the characteristics of a civil war into a pan-European or even global war. the other prods come from Finland with it militaristic rhetoric and the militarisation of the Finnish-Russian border; the blockade of good transport to the Russian settlement on Svalbard/Spitsbergen by Norway; the threat of Poland annexing Western Ukraine; and the threat of Romania annexing Moldavia and re-igniting the Pridnestrovie/Transnistria conflict. In any case, Russia will not be distracted, as reacting to those jabs would mean accepting the agenda of the enemy and losing the initiative. As the old military and strategic game adage goes: never do what you opponent wants and expects you to do.

But back to the little Lithuania, one of the three self-proclaimed “Baltic tigers”. Below I want to present translations of two articles that look at the issue from slightly different angles – a historical and a geopolitical one.

The first article appeared on Yandex Zen on May the 12th and is called “The last drop of patience and… de-pugification of Lithuania”. It refers to the famous fable by Krylov of “Mos’ka” (a pug or a mongrel) and an elefant, where the tiny dog barks loudly as the elephant is walking along the streets, and people around are saying, look, that tiny dog must be incredibly powerful that it dares to bark at an elephant. The Russian transliteration of “Demos’kofikazia” is also a play on words alluding to the ongoing denazification of Ukraine, yet denying Lithuania event that pleasure. The article has a historical and an opinion parts.


The last drop of patience and… de-pugification of Lithuania


(The Scrat-like creature over Lithuania holds a banner “We’ll stop Russian aggression!”, while the perplexed Russian Bear is reading a book with the title “Curing acute mental illnesses”)

The stunning news of the holidays is that the Lithuanian Seimas unanimously recognized Russia as a terrorist state. From the rhetoric of Russophobia, which no one is paying attention to… the Lithuanians have moved on to the first official document, according to all the canons of diplomacy, which is an act of direct aggression against Russia. You can justify yourself as much as you like, they say… this is just a parliament, the case will not get a legal move in the European Union and the Lithuanian government.

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The conclusion to Navalny’s farce (for now). A stopped Western-sponsored coup d’etat in Russia

The continuation of the farce that Navalny’s handlers started with his fake poisoning and the subsequent staged return Russia with the fake “palace” video in his arsenal (outlined in my previous post The Navalny’s Palace – Fake Documentary from Fake Opposition (with a list of past crimes)) has come to the logical conclusion with the much-welcome imprisonment of the fraudster.

Navalny got his remaining 2.8 years of suspended sentence for defrauding of two companies converted into a real term. This was the outcome which Russians hoped for. Should the court have caved in to the Western pressure and release Navalny, that would have given a clear signal that he is above the Law and that Law does not apply to fraudsters in the employ of the foreign secret services. The reactions that I read on the Russian internet could be summed up as: “Why so little?!” Well, this is just one past conviction for one of his crimes. (By the way, Navalny has already got away with too much – he’s the only Russian citizen who managed to have two suspended convictions for fraud!)

There is still the case of defamation of WWII veteran, and the case of defrauding donors to his organisation (with the donated money spent on luxury and vacations). These cases were open and, coupled with the suspended sentence, were grounds for not letting Navalny out of the country in the first place. It was actually President Putin’s request that allowed Navalny to be transported to Germany, where he spent almost 2 months after his recovery on skipping his parole and on creation of the film targeting to defame Putin.

And there are strong calls to open a new case – this time for high treason due to Navalnys NGO direct appeal to Biden to impose sanctions on Russia. Seeing as sanctions qualify as an act of war, these people were calling on a foreign power to start a war on the country thatthey are citizens of.

The pressure on the Court of Justice was immense, including from the foreign diplomats, who amassed there to intimidate the judges and influence the course of a civil court by their presence. The hall of shame includes the diplomats from the following countries:

USA, UK, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, Finland, Japan, Austria, Czechia and Bulgaria.

EDIT: 05.02.2021 – Good to see Russia acting in accordance with the international norms and also showing backbone – Russia expels diplomats from Germany, Poland and Sweden for alleged participation in pro-Navalny protests. If only Yanukovich did the same with Biden and Nuland back in 2014, Ukraine would most probably not be a Nazi-infested impoverished and depopulated basket-case right now…

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Why does NATO scare Moscow with “paper tigers”?

This is a speed translation of an analytical article by Rostislav Ishchenko from the 7th of July 2016, published at his channel on Kont.


The NATO summit will begin in Warsaw on Friday. For two days (8 and 9 July), senior officials and generals will discuss a lot of technical and political issues. We are, however, interested in only one item on the agenda of the event. In Poland, the Alliance is going to once again discuss relief measures to the “Russian threat”.

As is the custom in the recent years, the “threat” is felt particularly acutely by the Balts and Poles, who demand the deployment on their territories of additional contingents of Western European and American allies.

Washington and London pretend to be impressed by the fears of the limitrophes, and agitate for meeting requests for strengthening NATO forces on the Russian border. We are talking about dislocation of four battalions.

In terms of the real military strengthening of the block’s abilities on the north-western borders of Russia, this gain is negligible. The American military analysts argue that even a dislocation in the region of four additional full brigades will not allow NATO to hold out much longer in the case of a real military conflict.

In fact, we are only talking about whether it will take the Russian troops one or two weeks to reach the Oder line. Or more precisely, how many US troops will need to be hastily evacuated from Poland and the Baltic states, if suddenly something goes wrong and, contrary to common sense, a military conflict in this area happens.


A US soldier during the 2016 Saber Strike exercises in Estonia.

Protection Poles and the Baltic states as a diversionary tactics

So, the United States believes that the Russian group on the Baltic borders now has absolute superiority, which it is impossible to stop by unfolding of either four or sixteen battalions. At the same time, as a result of NATO’s war hysteria of NATO, Russia decided to deploy in the western direction three new high-grade divisions, and another army corps in Kaliningrad.

One must say that Moscow has the potential to deploy new divisions faster than NATO would be able to collect and deliver their battalions to the area of the limitrophe’s. That is, theoretically, by provoking a military confrontation, the US and NATO impair their strategic position in the region.


Poland today: “If the Russians start pushing too hard, call us.”

A question: Why do they scare Moscow with “paper tigers”, if they know that as a result they will be worse off?

And, yes, they know it. Not least because Washington, which was initially swearing to deliver all four of the desired battalions by themselves, insisted on the separation of the burden in half – two battalions from the US and two from Western European allies. The Germans and the French (and who else would allocate the battalions, if not them) are not enthusiastic. And quite a lot of time will pass between the principal decision and the actual appearance of the troops.

Not only in Moscow, but also in European capitals they are well aware that in case of war, a battalion or two would not make a difference. European politicians, though sometimes pretending to be naive, are well aware that millions of Germans and French, who would be happily trying on helmets and flak jackets and rushing off to the eastern front to protect “European values” in the face of Latvians and Poles, is the story of fantasy. And yet the US successfully force through the NATO program of “protection” of small but very proud Eastern European allies, who regularly pull the tiger’s whiskers, feeling drunken from their own boldness.


Joint parachuting of American, British and Polish troops during Anakonda-2016 on Polish territory.

The answer to the question – why is it necessary – could be obtained based on the area of ​​concentration of the main Russian group. Except for the Kaliningrad exclave, which is under threat simply by virtue of its isolation, more than half of the newly formed units are concentrated in the south-west of Russia, near the Ukrainian border, on which Kiev has already thrown some tantrums.

On the eve of the NATO summit, a confirmation that Moscow considers the south-western direction as the most explosive is, was given in a statement of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov.

He warned our western friends and partners that, according to the available information, in the near future Kiev can organise a large-scale provocation that could lead to the resumption of full-scale hostilities in the area of ​​the civil conflict in the Donbass.

Who needs new territories

Let us put two and two together, and add to this the undisguised (for the past two and a half years) desire of the USA to tie the hands of Russia by drawing it into a full-scale conflict in Ukraine. Let us not forget that it was the Balts and the Poles, who repeatedly promised to provide military support to Kiev in case of a “Russian aggression”.


Polish soldiers during international exercises Rapid Trident-2016 in Lvov region, Ukraine.

Recall also that a number of border states – the Eastern European members of NATO – are having problems with the Ukrainian territories inhabited by their respective minorities and formerly being part of the these countries. In addition to traditional Poland, Hungary and Romania, even the Bulgarian government has expressed concerns about the protection of the rights of compatriots and supported the idea of ​​creation in Ukraine of a Bulgarian autonomy.

What do we get? The high risk of a sharp intensification of the Ukrainian conflict together with its simultaneous internationalization, with the participation of the Eastern European members of NATO. Of these, it is Poland and the Baltic States (exactly the countries that were promised the new battalions) are the most militantly set.

And now let us turn to history. In 1939, the courage of Warsaw, which rejected all German demands and literally longing for war, was backed by the British and French guarantees. Polish army was numerically comparable with the German. They did not yet know in Poland about the real overwhelming technical superiority of the Reich, and the absolute intellectual superiority of its general staff.

The military leaders of the country believed that they would be easily able to hold out for a few weeks or even a couple of months. Then the French would start an offensive: French army at the time was considered to be strongest in the world (wrongly, but no one knew about it), and with them would come the British. And after that the Poles were going to share the spoils of war, and to acquire new territories. By the way, the very same East Prussia, a third of which now comprises the Kaliningrad region.

Is a blockade of the Kaliningrad region possible

In general, to encourage Eastern European cannon fodder for the war, it was necessary to create an illusion of security and proximity to an easy victory.

In the first half of the twentieth century, this illusion was provided by the Anglo-French guarantee. Now simple NATO guarantees are not enough. Even limitrophe’s became smarter and doubt that Americans (and Europeans) will risk of full-scale war with a nuclear power because of the ambitions of Riga and Warsaw. Now contingents of US and Western Europe in their respective territories should become such a guarantee.

Limitrophes believe that in the event of hostilities, these forces will inevitably fall under attack. That is, in actuality the bigger partners would enter a war automatically – through the fact of death of their soldiers.

And the passage of the internal procedures, required for each individual NATO country would become involved in the conflict as part of the block, would be fast tracked in the event of an attack by the “insidious Russia” on the “peaceful American soldiers”.

This, in turn, means that the limitrophes, who had already long since gone over the brink in their Russophobia, will now completely lose their head from courageousness.

Very simple. In the event of a start of full-scale hostilities in Ukraine, it won’t be a problem to once again accuse Russia of aggression. And then, in accordance to giving assistance to the “young democracy” they would not even need to cross the border. It is sufficient to organize a blockade of the Kaliningrad region.

Not only a blockade is a hostile act, which is equated by the international law with military aggression. Moscow will in any case have to break through it. The region, Navy and the Army can not exist without communications with Big Land. And they can fully try to sink the ships and shoot down planes, which try to break the blockade, all the while crying that it was Russia attacking.


Soldiers of the Polish and American armies during the Anakonda-2016 exercises on the territory of Poland.

And then the limitrophes (just like the Poles in 1939) believe that in the face of the inevitable (in their opinion) American intervention, Russia would retreat.

By moving the Baltic pawn in the form of the four battalions (half of which is not theirs), the US is trying to solve a problem that they still didn’t man resolved – creating an outbreak of the Russian-European military confrontation. While they themselves are going to remain outside the conflict.

Firstly, no one knows when more battalions will arrive. Secondly, it is a lot easier to promptly evacuate a couple of battalions, than it was for the British to evacuate nearly 340 thousand of their own, French and Belgian soldiers from Dunkirk in 1940.

So that the risk of conflict comes not from the battalions incapable of anything, but from the minds of inadequate politicians that learn nothing from history.

Ungrateful Europe.
What would have happened should we push Hitler back just to our borders

This is a translation from Russian of two historical articles, published in Argumenty i Fakty on the 3rd of April 2015.
The main article was written by Georgij Zotov. A subsequent expert opinion is presented by historian Rudolph Pihoj.


On the eve of the 70th anniversary of Victory “AiF” tried to imagine: what would the map of Europe look like, had USSR not given thousands of kilometres of territories as present to those countries that now call us occupiers. And if they would give up these lands now.

Wroclaw – one of the most touristic cities of Poland. Crowds with cameras are everywhere, there’s not a spare spot in the expensive restaurants, taxi drivers ask for ungodly prices. At the entrance to the marketplace there waves a banner saying “Wroclaw – a real Polish charm!”. All seems fine, but as early as in May 1945 Wroclaw was called Breslau and had not belonged to Poland for 600 consecutive(!) years before that. The Victory Day, now referred by Warsaw as “the beginning of the communist tyranny,” added to Poland the German Silesia, Pomerania, as well as 80% of East Prussia. No one mentions this now: in other words that was a tyranny, but we’d still grab that land. “AiF” observer decided to understand, what would the map of Europe look like now, if our former brothers in the East were left without the help of the “occupiers”?

Whole cities as gifts

– In 1945 Poland received the cities of Breslau, Gdansk, Zielona Gora, Legnica, Szczecin, – says Maciej Wisniewski, a Polish freelance journalist. – USSR also gave the territory of Bialystok; with the mediation of Stalin, we acquired a disputed with Czechoslovakia city Kłodzko. Nevertheless, they believe here: the partitioning of Poland by the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact, when the Soviet Union took the Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, was unfair, but the transfer by Stalin to Poland of Silesia and Pomerania is absolutely fair, you can not dispute this. It is fashionable to say now that Russians did not liberate, but conquered. However, it turns into an interesting kind of occupation, when Poland got for free a quarter of Germany: and on top of it, hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers shed their blood for this land. Even the GDR resisted, not wanting to give Szczecin to the Poles – the dispute over the city was finally solved only in 1956, under pressure from the USSR.

Apart from the Poles, the Baltic States express a strong indignation by the “occupation”. Well, it’s worth remembering: the current capital – Vilnius – was also presented to Lithuania by the USSR; by the way, the Lithuanian population of Vilnius was then… barely 1%, with Polish being the majority. USSR returned to the Republic the city of Klaipeda – Prussian Memel, owned by Lithuanians in the 1923-1939, and annexed by the Third Reich. Already back in 1991 the Lithuanian leadership condemned the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, but no one returned neither Vilnius to Poland, nor Klaipeda to Germany.

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