In yesterday’s widely viewed interview on Judging Freedom, Andrew Napolitano asked me whether US and British intelligence had missed the point of Vladimir Putin’s 1 March 2018 speech to the nation and to the world in which he rolled out Russia’s new unrivaled strategic weapons systems, including hypersonic missiles operating on the same physical principles as the Oreshnik.
Looking through my files, I find the following very relevant essay that I published in ‘Consortium News’ at that time:
In dem viel beachteten Interview, mit Andrew Napolitano gestern in der Sendung „Judging Freedom“, fragte er mich, ob die Geheimdienste der USA und Großbritanniens den Sinn von Wladimir Putins Rede an die Nation und die Welt vom 1. März 2018 nicht verstanden hätten, in der er Russlands neue, konkurrenzlose strategische Waffensysteme vorstellte, darunter Hyperschall-Raketen, die nach denselben physikalischen Prinzipien wie die Oreschnik funktionieren.
Beim Durchsehen meiner Unterlagen bin ich auf den folgenden sehr relevanten Aufsatz gestoßen, den ich damals in den „Consortium News“ veröffentlicht habe:
Gilbert Doctorow's latest book, "War Diaries. The Russia-Ukraine War, 2022-2023" is a unique contribution to literature on the war thanks to the author's reports on the Russian home front written during his periodic visits to St Petersburg at a time when Russia no longer issued visas and nearly all Western journalists had left the country. Doctorow's two-volume "Memoirs of a Russianist" published in 2020 also constitutes a category of its own, consisting largely of diary entries rather than reminiscences written decades later.. Volume 2 focuses on the community of 50,000 expatriate managers working and living in Moscow during the 1990s, about which none of his peers has yet to write.
Gilbert Doctorow is a professional Russia watcher and actor in Russian affairs going back to 1965. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College (1967), a past Fulbright scholar, and holder of a Ph.D. with honors in history from Columbia University (1975).
After completing his studies, Mr. Doctorow pursued a business career focused on the USSR and Eastern Europe. For twenty-five years he worked for US and European multinationals in marketing and general management with regional responsibility.
From 1998-2002, Doctorow served as the Chairman of the Russian Booker Literary Prize in Moscow. During the 2010-2011 academic year, he was a Visiting scholar of the Harriman Institute, Columbia University.
Mr. Doctorow is a long-time resident of Brussels.
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5 thoughts on “Missile-gate, 2018 revisited”
After finishing reading this great and (again) informative article, just one question pops up in my mind: “Where has this man been hiding all this time!?” (sorry for that).
PS Posting all your contributions on my FB (to make up for lost time…)
remarkable analysis and foresight by the author already 6 years ago and proven right on everything as of today, a true expert on the all important continuity of history in international affairs..very interesting to say the least..keep up the smart work I hope anyway..good to read something from sane people in this ocean of insanity we seem to be sailing through nowadays unfortunately..thanks for digging this out, a gem of info.
Fascinating article. Dr. Doctorow, do you have an article in the archives that describes about how Russia recaptured the Crimea by the means of the soldiers leaving their barracks?
Isn’t one result of all the outsourcing in the Pentagon and the CIA that a smaller coterie of people, the ones who control the money, have a greater control over the organization? Isn’t having the work don’t by expendables mean you keep rivals from developing within the organization?
The Bush Administration did tell us “we make our own reality.”
“It’s hard to imagine a more blatant piece of pro-Putin propaganda than this! So blatant, in fact, that it betrays Mr Doctorow’s sense of panic. Mr Doctorow trying to sell it as “shock and awe” is just plain silly.” Consortium comment
Let’s all laugh out loud, really loud.
I was surprised to see such comments on Consortium. I had thought it had a more sophisticated audience than displayed in some of the comments.
“These developments will only spur the Washington MIC to even greater effort. They don’t even have to concoct a specious “missile gap” this time. American media? Understandable that, as their first knee jerk response, they would try to couch Putin’s words as a bluff directed at the Russian voters. After all, he’s nothing but a lying phony on every issue, according to them.” Consortium comment
This is an accurate statement in that no matter what the words or actions of Russia, they will be perversely twisted into nationalistic mud wrestling jingoism.
Like many others, I so appreciate the unique and astute view expressed by Mr. Doctorow, and wish him strength with a sense of humor when venturing out into the wildly contentious media.
Winston Churchill said that the Usonians eventually do the right thing, after trying everything else. That’s a very diplomatic way of saying that Usonians are not very smart or are consumed with hubris. Given that he repeated somewhat that Alexis de Tocqueville had already observed centuries before, the remark obviously still applies.
Gilbert Doctorow 
After finishing reading this great and (again) informative article, just one question pops up in my mind: “Where has this man been hiding all this time!?” (sorry for that).
PS Posting all your contributions on my FB (to make up for lost time…)
LikeLike
remarkable analysis and foresight by the author already 6 years ago and proven right on everything as of today, a true expert on the all important continuity of history in international affairs..very interesting to say the least..keep up the smart work I hope anyway..good to read something from sane people in this ocean of insanity we seem to be sailing through nowadays unfortunately..thanks for digging this out, a gem of info.
LikeLike
Fascinating article. Dr. Doctorow, do you have an article in the archives that describes about how Russia recaptured the Crimea by the means of the soldiers leaving their barracks?
Isn’t one result of all the outsourcing in the Pentagon and the CIA that a smaller coterie of people, the ones who control the money, have a greater control over the organization? Isn’t having the work don’t by expendables mean you keep rivals from developing within the organization?
The Bush Administration did tell us “we make our own reality.”
LikeLike
“It’s hard to imagine a more blatant piece of pro-Putin propaganda than this! So blatant, in fact, that it betrays Mr Doctorow’s sense of panic. Mr Doctorow trying to sell it as “shock and awe” is just plain silly.” Consortium comment
Let’s all laugh out loud, really loud.
I was surprised to see such comments on Consortium. I had thought it had a more sophisticated audience than displayed in some of the comments.
“These developments will only spur the Washington MIC to even greater effort. They don’t even have to concoct a specious “missile gap” this time. American media? Understandable that, as their first knee jerk response, they would try to couch Putin’s words as a bluff directed at the Russian voters. After all, he’s nothing but a lying phony on every issue, according to them.” Consortium comment
This is an accurate statement in that no matter what the words or actions of Russia, they will be perversely twisted into nationalistic mud wrestling jingoism.
Like many others, I so appreciate the unique and astute view expressed by Mr. Doctorow, and wish him strength with a sense of humor when venturing out into the wildly contentious media.
LikeLike
Winston Churchill said that the Usonians eventually do the right thing, after trying everything else. That’s a very diplomatic way of saying that Usonians are not very smart or are consumed with hubris. Given that he repeated somewhat that Alexis de Tocqueville had already observed centuries before, the remark obviously still applies.
LikeLike