2 - Fear and Dread - Russia’s strategy to dismantle North Atlantic and European

Finally, Latvia has joined the waning of absolute moral standards and NATO to receive the security pledge of larger the rise of ethical relativism, the dominant limelight of controversial minority rights and like-minded states to come to its defence. [...] Majority announced an increase in the troop number to identity politics is the agenda of the govern- 540 troops, alongside a three-year renewal of ment in Hungary and Poland and of the gov- ernment-in-waiting in several West European the mission until 2023. [...] Russian policy has at Russia responds with a combination of hard, its core the goal to hybrid, and sharp power.4 Russian policy has at its core the goal to rebuild a reputation as “the rebuild a reputation as bear to be feared.” It does so in order to provide stability for the symbiotic relationship between “the bear to be feared.” the siloviki and the oligarchs – on the basis of offensive and agg. [...] The problem with both the so-called promise to Gorbachev and the context of the NATO and CSCE meetings is that while the facts Russia alleges are not there, the Russian storyline appears plausible. [...] See the crucial role of the bourgeoisie in the analysis by Barrington Moore, 1966, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World.