Mearsheimer is a prophet in the same vein as Nostradamus. Both are completely useless for reliably predicting the future, but have devoted followers who selectively reinterpret past statements to fit events only after they’ve happened, while ignoring the many, many predictions that fail. Mearsheimer couldn't even predict what would happen when he tried to buy a coffee in Moscow with his US credit card. His defenders point out that he warned back in 1993 that Russia would try to recapture Ukraine, as if that was somehow against the established view at the time. Many people, especially here in the Baltics, have spent decades warning that Russia is an unreformed imperial power. The difference is that the Baltics have consistently taken that threat seriously, while Mearsheimer has spent years justifying Russian aggression, taking the pro-Russian position that keeps proving to be wrong - including saying Russia wouldn’t launch its full scale invasion and saying every month for the past four years that Ukraine is about to surrender - and now insisting there is no evidence of imperial ambitions. The people who love Mearsheimer are the pro-Russian commentators who tried to ridicule people for being concerned about Russia’s full scale invasion and are now pretending to be experts on the war that they insisted would never happen.

Europe’s pro-Russia commentators are absolutely furious with this headline because it correctly describes what they are advocating. Hats off to the @Telegraph here. This is a great example of that old adage in journalism: “If someone says it's raining and another person says it's dry, it's not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the fucking window.” In this interview, Mendel advocates for Ukraine to surrender territory to Russia, and surrender its sovereign right to choose its own security alliances, both of which would only escalate Russian aggression in future. She also praises the German far right for their pro-Russia position and says Ukraine is 40% responsible for being invaded. So this is a perfectly correct headline summarising her position, but it’s no wonder the pro-Russia commentators are furious. They still think they can be subtle when laundering pro-Russia and pro-war positions within the language of just wanting what’s best for ordinary Ukrainians. They think if they partly acknowledge that Russia is responsible for Russia’s invasion then that gives them free rein to spout pro-Russian views without challenge. They feel smug about their ability to play this game with us all and get away with it. They are so self-entitled that they don’t expect anyone to call them out on it. Those days should be over. Call out pro-Russia and pro-war commentators for exactly what they are advocating. It’s time we all look out the fucking window.