Putin’s top hawk claims US wants Eastern Europe, in case the Yellowstone volcano erupts
Tom Rogan
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In a more ridiculous addendum to his latest anti-American screed, Russian national security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev identified why the United States wants to expand its links with the Baltic states of Eastern Europe.
It’s not because those democracies are reliable allies that meet their NATO defense spending obligations and support U.S. efforts to constrain Chinese aggression. No — it’s because they’ll offer the U.S. a safe haven if the Yellowstone supervolcano erupts.
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Patrushev’s extraordinary claim follows populist speculation that if Yellowstone erupts again, that eruption will make much of the U.S. uninhabitable. The scientific reality is that the volcano is neither due for a major eruption nor is it likely to produce catastrophic effects even if an eruption does occur.
But facts can’t stop Patrushev from dreaming.
The Kremlin’s ultimate hard-liner ideologue, Patrushev detests the U.S. and revels in lengthy screeds about how Washington employs “Anglo-Saxon” imperialism in order to destroy states like Russia and turn all others into colonies. Patrushev feeds Putin’s desire for a restored Russian imperium and has used the war in Ukraine to shackle the Kremlin’s inner circle to his ideology. His influence is most evident with former President Dmitry Medvedev. Once a centrist, Medvedev now emulates an even more hyperbolic version of Patrushev.
Patrushev is also the likely ringleader behind a number of so-called “Havana Syndrome” cases involving neurological ailments suffered by U.S. government and military personnel. The U.S. intelligence community has compelling evidence to suggest Russia’s operation of nanosecond-pulsed radio frequency devices is responsible for some “Havana Syndrome” ailments. In a willful failure of analysis, however, the intelligence community has decided a whitewash is preferable to harder truths. The harder truth is that identifying Russian culpability for some cases would lead to a major political crisis with Moscow.
But back to Yellowstone. Speaking to the pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper on Wednesday, Patrushev declared that in the event of a Yellowstone eruption, “it is believed that the death of all life in North America is inevitable … most of the world’s population will suffer.”
He continued: “An English proverb says: ‘People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.’ Washington, which decides the fate of other states and peoples, should remember that in Pompeii the ancient Romans also lived well and were not averse to debauchery.”
Then came Patrushev’s conclusion: “Some in America argue that with a possible eruption, Eastern Europe and Siberia will become the safest place. Apparently, here lies the answer to the question why the Anglo-Saxon elites are so eager to take possession of the same heartland.”
This is silly stuff, of course. But it does provide a useful illustration of Russia’s penchant for theatrical conspiracy theories that fit an underlying moral narrative. In this case, it is the narrative that America is destined to fight Russia for reasons both obvious and secretive. Patrushev and his kin remain dwellers of the KGB’s conspiratorial wilderness of mirrors.