Narratives

This article was originally published in Danish on October 24, 2025.

A narrative is essentially just a derivation of the English word for a story, a piece of fiction written for educational, entertainment, or aesthetic purposes (from the Latin narratio). In “modern Danish,” however, it is increasingly a story that is presented and intended to be interpreted in a certain way, often for ideological reasons. To put it more bluntly: it is propaganda—or to use a more apt word: fiction—or perhaps even better, a lie. In our everyday lives, we are surrounded by narratives: stories about climate disasters, COVID-19, vaccines, and today, not least, about the war between Russia and Ukraine. There are two narratives about this. The first is that Russia is just waiting to invade the whole of Europe, occupy us and… and, well, what exactly? What would Russia want with us? There are no Russians in Western Europe who are oppressed, we have no raw materials, Russia has enough territory (it is the world’s largest country), Western Europe simply has a collection of insurmountable problems: immigration from uncivilized regions that threatens the existence of countries, insurmountable economic problems, unpayable national debt, dilapidated infrastructure, wokeism, “cancel culture,” 177 genders, godlessness, and all kinds of other evils and immorality that one would not want in Russia. Can anyone give a single reasonable reason why Russia would want to occupy Western Europe? From the Soviet era, we know how much endless trouble one has with Europeans. One does not want to repeat that. And Russia does not have the strength to occupy the whole of Europe. It can bomb Europe back to the Stone Age or turn it into a radioactive desert – but it cannot simply occupy it – for the same reason that Ukraine cannot defeat Russia. It is a question of mathematics. But Mette Frederiksen probably cannot add 2 and 2 together!

Mette Frederiksen wants to arm us to defend ourselves against an enemy that does not exist. Putin has never said that he wants to recreate the Soviet Union – precisely for the reason mentioned above: it caused a lot of trouble. The Soviet Union was based on an ideology and wanted to spread the communist revolution throughout the world. We were not particularly interested in that, but in any case, after 1960, the threat was no longer real. The Soviet Union had neither the strength nor the appetite. Today, Soviet communism is dead, and Russia is a so-called democratic state – with a strong presidential system (as in the US or France). One should not spread any gospel, but one does not want to be further encircled by NATO, which in this case is the aggressor.

Our form of democracy is not a strength, but a weakness. Mette Frederiksen is a good example of this. In a state with a sensible government, she would clean public toilets. We have a parliament that could be replaced by macaques. In Russia, you have to have something to offer in order to run for election – and that is not really an unreasonable requirement! In the US, you have to sell yourself to the highest bidder in order to finance an election campaign. Hardly a good way to choose leaders either. The US Constitution was written for a completely different country with completely different conditions – it is completely unsuitable for the US that exists today. In France, it seems that the only requirement is that you are not nationalist minded. France is now on the brink of bankruptcy – along with Germany, England and all other European countries except Slovakia and Hungary. These failed regimes all need a war to divert attention from their incompetence. When Ukraine collapses, the West will be faced with a very big problem of explanation. Why has so much money been thrown away on a hopeless project that could never succeed – and which is completely irrelevant to us? And what has the money been used for – apart from lining the pockets of the men and women of the corrupt regime (and our own politicians have probably got their share too). Even a Neanderthal could see that Ukraine will not be able to win this war. It is a simple matter of mathematics and the art of war. Our politicians and media are fed exclusively and uncritically with Ukrainian propaganda – not with the facts on the ground. When this is over, all officers, intelligence personnel, and journalists must necessarily be fired for incompetence.

And then there is the other narrative: that Russia is incapable of doing anything. It cannot even defeat Ukraine. Russia’s economy is in a dire state, the people are tired of the war and will revolt against Putin, etc. We are constantly being fed stories about Ukrainian progress on the battlefield that simply does not exist. Every day, the Ukrainians are losing ground – and a great many people. We hear about colossal Russian losses as a result of “human waves” allegedly being sent against the brave Ukrainians. That is also a lie. Today, it is very easy to follow the fighting at the front. No war has ever been as thoroughly photographed and reported as this one. We have yet to see images of such human waves – simply because they are not being used. That was Stalin’s tactic of attack – mostly because he lacked ammunition. Today’s Russian warfare is highly sophisticated – and the casualty figures are astonishingly low, precisely because there is no rush. They let the Ukrainians attack – it costs them the most casualties. This is a deliberate strategy – a war of attrition, fought not only against Ukraine, but against the entire NATO, which is sending both equipment and troops to Ukraine. There are reports of 10,000 Polish casualties. In any case, the NATO countries’ weapons depots are being emptied, and their industrial production is too low to be able to replenish them. Finally, Ukraine is also running out of soldiers. The Russian units consist of professional troops who are very well paid, and the families of those killed in action receive very substantial compensation. That alone is a good reason to keep the casualty figures down. When there are no more Ukrainian soldiers, the territory will surrender without further fighting.

The fact is that the West has no real knowledge of Russia – and is trying with all its might to prevent people from acquiring this knowledge. The study of the Russian language has long been put on hold, and Russian media is blocked in the West as “propaganda,” so that we get a very one-sided picture of Russia and the course of the war – namely, only the Western propaganda image, which is extremely distorted and incomplete. It has also been made difficult to travel to Russia – they would rather not have Westerners see what Russia is really like, as then they would not be able to spread imaginative stories about the state of the Russian people and the Russian economy. The Russian economy is doing extremely well – unlike the European economy. Interest rates are high to prevent the economy from overheating, but they are not as high as they were here in the early 1980s. There is full employment, and production is running at full speed. The shops are full of goods – including Western goods – and there is plenty of petrol. The Western chains that withdrew from Russia have long since returned, to the extent that they have been allowed to do so. The only closed shop in GUM today is Dior’s. For the fourth year running, they have a makeshift display and a note in the window saying that they are closed for “technical” reasons. But in the meantime, they are paying Russia’s highest rent for a very large space in a prime location in GUM, right next to Red Square! So they are planning to reopen…

I have just driven about 15,000 kilometers through Russia. Everything works normally – even in remote Siberian towns. August is vacation time – so the rest areas are full, and there may be a couple of cars in front of you in line at the gas station – just like here. The only thing missing is Western tourists – instead, there are swarms of Chinese tourists, especially in eastern Siberia and Moscow, of course. Traffic in Moscow is as grueling as ever. A new section of the new toll motorway to the east has just been opened. Traffic is heavy everywhere. Expensive German cars are disappearing. Instead, similar Chinese models are arriving. The economy is orienting itself towards China. A 30-year agreement has just been signed for the delivery of oil and gas to China through new pipelines. This is the oil and gas that Western Europe used to receive and will now be unable to obtain again. Industrial production in Europe will become unprofitable, and we will sink into poverty while China flourishes. The tracks of the Trans-Siberian Railway are almost red-hot, so dense is the traffic on it – the main road through Siberia is full of trucks in both directions. The same applies to the new highway through southern Kazakhstan, which connects China and Russia. And finally, the quality of life in Russia is much higher than here, and individuals have much greater freedom. And one thing I can guarantee: there is no deprivation, no shortage, and no sacrifice that would cause the Russian civilian population to turn against the war, because it is rightly perceived as existential. The only pressure against Putin is pressure to intensify the war.

But what narrative is that? Because one excludes the other. If Russia cannot cope with Ukraine, then we need not fear a Russian occupation here – right?

We have had many incompetent prime ministers in this country – in fact, I cannot remember when we had anything else, but Mette Frederiksen and her whole gang probably break the record – or maybe it is just ill will. Frederiksen also has a lot of baggage that she would rather forget.

But I would like to ask her a couple of relevant questions:

What on earth does she hope to achieve with long-range missiles that can reach Russia? Does she want war with Russia? How does she imagine that one can defeat a nuclear power? What does she know about warfare? I would refer her to Annie Jacobsen’s Nuclear War – a Scenario, Transworld Publishers 2024. The book has been translated into Danish, but of course it is not available in a Pixi edition that would fit into Mette Frederiksen’s library. The book describes what happens from the launch of the first nuclear bomb to the automatic annihilation of all life on earth – second by second, minute by minute. All war-mongering idiots should read this book before they open their mouths again!

However, I would also like to ask her what interest we actually have in the Russian-Ukrainian war? For foreign policy to make any sense, it must be interest-based. What interests do we have at stake here? Well, we have no interest whatsoever in Ukraine – our interest should have been to maintain good relations with Russia so that we could continue to benefit from cheap Russian energy – and from access to a market of approximately 150 million people, of whom around 10% are extremely affluent. Mette Frederiksen would probably respond that it is not a matter of interests, but of our European values (not to mention America’s “rules-based order”). It is a question of morality – we are the morally good, the Russians are the morally evil. Therefore, we must defeat Russia. This is the primitive way of subhumans to divide humanity. In other words, it is we who today assume the role of the Soviet Union as propagators of a particular ideology to “improve” the world. But let us first look at what values we actually share with Zelensky’s regime in Ukraine. Ukraine is an artificial state that has never existed before. It is a state defined by a specific territory with random borders – without regard for the population living there. Such state formations have always caused problems. Eastern and southern Ukraine are predominantly Russian-populated, while the north-west is predominantly Ukrainian. Over half of the population speaks Russian.

In the original constitution, the Russian part of the population was guaranteed equal rights, linguistically, culturally, and religiously. But after the first American attempt at a coup (the so-called Orange Revolution) in 2004, a Ukrainization campaign was launched, during which history was rewritten and the Russian language was to be phased out. This was only partially successful, but in 2014, the US went all out and succeeded in overthrowing the legally democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovych. After that, the Russian and Russian-speaking population were rapidly deprived of their basic civil rights – what we otherwise understand as European values. Yes, this is actually part of international law, just as the protection of minorities – possibly by force of arms – is a duty! A full-scale war was waged against the Russian population in Donbas – in eight years, 14,000 Ukrainian civilians were murdered until Russia said stop and intervened – in full accordance with international law. After that, the development of the values that Mette Frederiksen and her gang apparently consider to be the – new – European values progressed rapidly: a ban on the Russian language, a ban on the Russian Orthodox Church, a ban on all opposition parties and all media that would not sign a pledge of allegiance to the government. Imprisonment of opposition politicians. Cancellation of elections, turning Ukraine into a full-fledged dictatorship. So, all of these are the new European values that we share with Ukraine? That is surely Mette Frederiksen’s dream—a permanent dictatorship based on lies, pretense, and abuse of power. And then, of course, there is corruption – that we truly have in common. Both Mette Frederiksen’s brother and her husband have been able to bask in Frederiksen’s generous support for the Ukrainian regime – at the taxpayers’ expense. How much Danish politicians have received in kickbacks is, of course, unknown. Nor is it being investigated, because we have decided that we have no corruption in Denmark, so why investigate it? In the US, it is quite common for politicians to receive a “percentage” of the money they allocate – this is called election support or something similar.

Are these the values we are fighting for with our hard-earned money? Why is Denmark the country that has given the most to Ukraine in relation to its population? There must be a reason why it is so important to Denmark that it takes precedence over healthcare, pensioners, the sick, the education sector, the renovation of our infrastructure, etc. – right?

But surely it is important to assert the security of a sovereign country and its right to determine its own alliances and membership of international organizations – in accordance with the rules-based order? Certainly, but how has this been the case historically? Is Cuba a sovereign country? There is no doubt about that. But under the threat of nuclear war, the US prohibited Cuba from deploying Russian nuclear missiles in the country. So much for sovereignty! And what about Serbia? Did Serbia not have the right to defend its border? Apparently not. For 72 days, NATO countries led by the US bombed Serbia’s civilians to enforce the so-called independence of Kosovo – for the Russians, clear proof that NATO is not a defensive alliance but an instrument of aggression. Or what about Cyprus? Since 1974, NATO member Turkey has occupied one-third of the island, ethnically cleansing the Greek-speaking population and replacing it with Turks from Anatolia. And then there is Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan… What right did the US – and Denmark – have to interfere in the internal affairs of these countries and leave them in ruins? And by what “right” can Donald Trump say that Iran must not acquire nuclear weapons? What business is it of the US? And why is Israel allowed to have nuclear weapons – without having signed the non-proliferation agreement and without submitting to any form of inspection? This rule-based order apparently applies to all countries other than the US and its allies – and it is not an internationally agreed rule-based system. International law is based on the UN and the UN Security Council, but Russia sits at the table and has veto power. The US has created its own American-controlled order, which it wants to impose on the whole world without going through international bodies – and without being bound by it itself. The US is truly the great Satan. The US has become accustomed to being able to dictate its will to other countries like a bully in the schoolyard. But that is over now. Today, the US is only one of three superpowers – the number of nuclear powers has also grown significantly. If the US does not learn the new rules of the game, World War III will break out, but perhaps we need a war to flush the filth at the top down the sewer it came from. It will just be very easy for a nuclear war to wipe us all out. But perhaps that is also deserved. What is actually worth preserving of the prevailing order?

In any case, I would like to ask Mette Frederiksen what she intends to achieve with her violent war rhetoric, which has been noted in Moscow and communicated to the entire Russian population through the media. Is Mette Frederiksen fully aware that under no circumstances can a nuclear power be defeated? This war will inevitably end in Ukraine’s defeat – possibly with Ukraine disappearing completely from the map or becoming a dysfunctional rump state in some kind of union with Belarus and Russia. What should happen then, Mette? Should we restore the Iron Curtain and cut ourselves off from Russia, Russian culture, and the Russian market? How does she think relations with Russia can be repaired? On this point, too, she will have caused irreparable damage to Denmark!

The West is succumbing to ignorance and stupidity. It has cut itself off from the real world and suffers from a hubris that can only lead to its downfall. It lulls itself into the dreams of the past that we are the best and the strongest in relation to the rest of the world, which we simply regard as underdeveloped and incompetent subhumans. But I have news for the West: We are far behind both Russia and China: economically, technologically, and militarily. A war against Russia (and possibly China) will lead to our annihilation—even if it does not turn into a nuclear war. The Western officers who are directing the Ukrainian war effort and the Western weapons have proven their incompetence in Ukraine.

If the West does not start to see reason now, the war could very well move on to Georgia, Armenia, and Moldova after it ends in Ukraine, where the US has also launched “regime change” operations with a view to bringing them under NATO, and where the populations are deeply divided. In both Armenia and Georgia, the political temperature is at boiling point. And if Estonia and Latvia do not change their signals and give the Russian populations in these two failed countries (25% and 35% of the total population, respectively) their civil rights back, they will also end up as Russian states.

Small countries neighboring Russia can only exist in friendship with Russia—never as enemies! Study Denmark’s course in relation to Germany in the 1930s!

Our only salvation would be for the people of Western and Central Europe to rise up against their incompetent and corrupt governments and carry out a revolution across the continent. But Europe’s tyrants have taken their precautions, as tyrants always do: they have disarmed their populations so that they must resign themselves to everything. The US is an exception here, and it is precisely here that the political and ideological contradictions are so sharp that a new civil war is a real possibility. See Stephen Marche: The Next Civil War. Dispatches from the American Future, Avid Reader Press, New York 2022. A must-read!

If I were not as old as I am, I would immediately move to Russia. This is recommended for anyone who is tired of Mette Frederiksen and the Danish tax system. You don’t have to move to the Far East. The Kaliningrad region is close by, and for obvious reasons, it is very similar to what we know from home. It is easy to find newly built houses at very reasonable prices. For historical reasons, this region is particularly popular among immigrants from Germany, of whom there are many, and this can facilitate assimilation for Danes.

Reposted with permission from Danmarks Frihedsraad: IDENTITET, KULTUR, VIDEN OG VILJE

Translated with the help of AI

Danish writer Riis-Knudsen talked about himself in an interview with a Russian TV channel