As I write this blog post, 1 US Dollar equals 57.90 Russian Ruble. In late 2014, the Ruble was plunging beyond 1 Dollar to 80+ Rubles.
In December of 2014, the Western media was overflowing with Schadenfreude over the declining Ruble, and predictions of total economic collapse and misery for Russia. Bloomberg (or Gloomberg) provides one example of Western media gloating over the prospects of Russian misery:
Putin’s Mantra of Russia Stability Unravels as Ruble in Meltdown:
“How many bankruptcies await us in January?” opposition lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov said on Twitter. “People will be out of work, out of money. The nightmare is only just beginning.”
“People thought: ‘he’s a strong leader who brought order and helped improve our living standards,” said Dmitry Oreshkin, an independent political analyst in Moscow. “And now it’s the same Putin, he’s still got all the power, but everything is collapsing.”
“After 2009, there was a quick recovery,” Rogov said. “Now we’re facing an uncontrollable shock. This undermines trust in Putin’s whole economic model.”
Color Revolutions & Financial Warfare against Russia:
The Ruble Crisis of December 2014 and Gloating Hyenas: As the ruble slides, many pundits point to Western sanctions as the cause. This is pure fantasy! The main reason is the falling price of oil. And where should we look for the cause of this? Let’s go back to last year and look at Putin’s support of Assad in the face of Western plans for invasion of Syria on the ridiculous pretext that Assad gassed his own people in a chemical weapon attack. Many Western leaders, especially in London and in the US State Department, were annoyed with Putin and his support of Assad, but only one person actually visited Moscow to threaten Putin in person if he wouldn’t back down: Saudi intelligence chief Prince Bandar! At the time, he issued thinly veiled threats of terrorist attacks at the upcoming Sochi Olympics, but are we now seeing Prince Bandar’s threats manifesting themselves in the form of plunging oil prices?
The Russian economy has seen a notable rebound with businesses recovering despite a year of contraction caused by Western sanctions. Fluctuations in the domestic currency have narrowed, which brought investors back into the market.
Investors in Russian government securities denominated in rubles have earned the equivalent of 7 cents on the dollar so far this year, as measured by the Bloomberg Russia Local Sovereign Bond Index. In contrast, anyone holding similar government debt in emerging markets across-the-board has lost 1.1 percent in 2015.
The picture is even rosier for Russia’s corporate bondholders; they’ve had a 7.3 percent total return in 2015, leading the gains in the index for emerging market corporate bonds compiled by Bloomberg. And while shareholders in the global emerging market stocks measured by the MSCI Emerging Market Index gained 1.7 percent this year, the 50 Russian stocks in the Micex index are up 11.9 percent — better than the Standard & Poor’s 500 or any other North American market.
The ruble’s relative value helps explain why there are some signs of confidence in Russia. Although the ruble remains the most volatile of the 31 most-traded currencies this year, its swings are narrowing. This is visible in implied volatility, a measure of traders’ bets on how much the currency’s value will change day-to-day. After surging in late 2014 amid the widening Ukraine crisis, the ruble now is fluctuating the way it did in 2009.
Business also appears to be on the rebound. Some 78 percent of the Russian companies in the Micex index showed greater annual sales growth than their global peers, even though the shares of these Russian companies lagged behind their international competitors, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s consistent with a two-year improvement in the relative value of Russian companies.
One possible reason for the growth? Sanctions. With foreign goods unavailable, Russians had to choose homegrown products and services.
So the Russian misery Schadenfreude party has to be postponed. It’s just too bad these media outlets never apologize for their appallingly poor analytical skills and lack of any journalistic integrity – which unfortunately leads them to rely on some of the most spurious sources available on the Internet, like the Brown Moses Blog:
The West’s Go-to MH17 Expert Is a Social Media Hack Who Pushed Syria Chemical Attack Lies:
Desperate for details to confirm US/Kiev accusations about MH17, Western media outlets turn to a dubious social media aggregator whose claims about the East Ghouta chemical attack in Syria were debunked by an actual arms control expert from MIT.
Der Spiegel publishes a “scoop” by Berlin-based Corrrectiv magazine and British blogger Eliot Higgins alleging that MH17 was shot down by a BUK surface to air missile launcher from Russia
Human Rights Watch – Attacks on Ghouta – Methodology:
In its investigation, Human Rights Watch was assisted by arms experts including Nic Jenzen-Jones, author of “The Rogue Adventurer”, as well as the independent investigation conducted by Eliot Higgins of the “Brown Moses” blog, who collected and analyzed photos and videos from the attacks.
The mainstream western media has been woeful in its coverage of the recent crises in Ukraine and Syria, demonstrating deficiencies in their research and reporting that go far beyond the typical biases against all things Russian and Arab, in many cases displaying sheer ignorance of the basic issues at stake in the two regions on a grand scale.
BBC Now Admits: Armed Nazis Led “Revolution” in Kiev, Ukraine:
Western mainstream media cannot be singled out for criticism without mentioning a few of the rotten alternative sources which have appeared and have been quoted from frequently of late. Many of them trace back to the ultra-dubious Sorcha Faal of whatdoesitmean.com.
The way it seems to work is, something gets posted to Sorcha Faal’s website whatdoesitmean.com, and immediately gets picked up by a host of similarly delusional sites – perhaps even related, sister sites. These include The European Union Times and YourNewsWire.com.
Who is Sorcha Faal? The short answer is, he/she is a disinfo agent.
For the long answer, the entry on Rational Wiki will suffice:
Any time you see extremely sensationalist headlines of this nature, run the titles through a search engine and see if the exact same headlines are copied at whatdoesitmean.com or The European Union Times. Make a note of any other websites that are playing along in this game of disinfo and discrediting legitimate criticism of NATO/Anglo-American foreign policy.
Here’s a recent one from yournewswire.com:
Russia may lift food embargo for Greece if they leave the EU:
Russia has indicated that they will lift the food embargo on Greece, Cyprus and Hungary, but have not made it contingent upon Greece leaving the EU. Stories like this are made up out of thin air. The ultimate motives of these websites can only be imagined until they are linked conclusively to whatever foundations and NGOs support or create them.
Hungary, Cyprus and Greece first to return to Russian market after sanctions lifted:
Food products from Hungary, Greece and Cyprus may be the first to return to Russian supermarket shelves once the food embargo ends, said Sergei Dankvert, head of Rosselkhoznadzor, the Russian agricultural watchdog.
Round Table on ‘Defining a New Security Architecture for Europe that Brings Russia in from the Cold’ with John Mearsheimer, Stephen F. Cohen, Katrina Vandenheuvel. Q&A. Gilbert Doctorow, moderator:
Senator John McCain has been one of the leading advocates of arming the fascist junta of Kiev and the ISIS terrorists in Iraq and Syria. Now he says he is ashamed of America!
John McCain: I’m ashamed of my country:
“This is a shameful chapter. I’m ashamed of my country. I’m ashamed of my president. And I’m ashamed of myself,” McCain said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
McCain, a former presidential candidate, strongly believes the US should be providing weapons to Ukraine’s government, which is battling Russian-backed separatists.
John McCain has lost his mind. He has become a reckless warmonger and a raving, hysterical Russophobe with absolutely no regard for American interests or the lives of American troops, who are being put at risk of a bloody, devastating war with Russia for the benefit of his fascist friends in Kiev.
John McCain with Ukrainian fascist Oleh Tyahnibok.
John McCain Went To Ukraine And Stood On Stage With A Man Accused Of Being An Anti-Semitic Neo-Nazi:
McCain to Protesters: Get out of here, you lowlife scum!
Senator McCain is willing to risk a war with Russia (a great strategic ally of the US) over Ukraine (a country of no strategic value to the US) in order to bring “democacy” to Ukraine (which they already had.) But notice how he reacts when American citizens dare to speak up:
John McCain tells protesters at hearing – Get out of here, you lowlife scum:
So John McCain supports Neo-Nazis in Kiev and ISIS terrorists in Syria… and now he says he’s ashamed of America?
As many people have pointed out, if George W. Bush had done any of the things Obama has been doing, like drone-striking women and children throughout the Middle East and helping to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi, leaving Libya in utter chaos and turmoil, the left libs would be screaming bloody murder!
But now imagine if Obama had said the things John McCain has said. What if Obama announced that he was ashamed of America? How would the right-wingers on Fox News react to that? Probably the same way they reacted to these less harmful incidents:
Fox Analyst – Obama’s Prayer Breakfast Speech Sounded Like Rev. Wright:
Johnson ultimately declared that Obama’s message was one of “guilt,” “shame,” and “remorse,” and said the entire Obama Administration is “confused” and “needs therapy.” He added that the U.S. has nothing to be ashamed of and should not be showing sympathy. “The president’s comments, in my view, are not helpful and are confused and confusing,” Johnson concluded. “And he needs quickly to make it clear what he really means about American exceptionalism, superiority, and keeping America safe.”
I never thought I would find myself defending President Obama, but here we are! Obama is far from perfect, but he has tried (in his own pathetic way) to slow down the “bomb everything that moves” agenda, at least since the disaster of Libya, and now he finds himself under constant attack by neocon nutjobs like John McCain. Obama should at least be supported when he wavers on the warmongering agenda, because wavering is better than what the Republicans have in mind, which is – war with Russia to oust Putin and support Kiev’s genocide in eastern Ukraine, war in Syria to remove Assad, and more war in Iraq.
Enough is Enough!
Senator John McCain is a lowlife scum, and I am ashamed of him! #ArrestMcCain4ISIS
Forget all our other troubles – the Russians are coming!:
The gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow. Train and bus fares continue to rise. Twice as many people are living in poverty than 30 years ago. And our National Health Service is being privatized before our very eyes. But hey – we Brits must forget about all those things – because there’s something far more important to worry about. The Russians are coming!
Beware the neocon warmonger clique: NATO Commander Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, US Army European Commander Gen. Ben Hodges, ISIS Czar John Allen, Secretary of State John Forbes Kerry, US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, Gen. Jack Keane, Gen. David Petraeus, US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Jen Psaki, and Senator John McCain.
In Bertrand Russell’s A History of Western Philosophy, the philosopher delivered his summarization of the writings of Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas thusly, “Before he begins to philosophize, he already knows the truth; it is declared in the Catholic faith. If he can find apparently rational arguments for some parts of the faith, so much the better; if he cannot, he need only fall back on revelation. The finding of arguments for a conclusion given in advance is not philosophy, but special pleading.”
American foreign policy is determined in much the same fashion…
One lie is that Putin has a feverishly expansionist foreign policy. No evidence exists for this claim, repeated ad nauseum in the West…
Another lie is that we know Russia was behind the downing of MH17…
A third lie is that the toppling of Viktor Yanukovych was a democratic uprising…
A fourth lie is that Western sanctions against Russia are merited, since they are based on Russian aggression…
This isn’t nuanced propaganda. It isn’t hedging or garden variety bias. It’s flat-out mendacity…
How soon before the term “Hun” starts circulating?
No matter how many times the American people say no to regime change in Syria through “limited military action with no boots on the ground” (in other words – WAR) the warmongers in both parties never give up.
The same applies to war against Russia (in other words – World War III). The American people do not under any circumstances want to declare war on Russia for the benefit of an ethno-Nazi Lvov-Kiev statelet run by a CIA-installed junta.
But is that what Congress is actually doing as we speak?
Behind the White House’s political smokescreen in Ferguson and New York, US lawmakers were busy sliding through a pre-declaration of war against Russia.
Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich warns about the House’s reckless adoption of the HR 758: “NATO encirclement, the US-backed coup in Ukraine, an attempt to use an agreement with the European Union to bring NATO into Ukraine at the Russian border, a US nuclear first-strike policy, are all policies which attempt to substitute force for diplomacy.”
US Declares War on Russia, from 21st Century Wire:
H.Res.758 – Strongly condemning the actions of the Russian Federation, under President Vladimir Putin, which has carried out a policy of aggression against neighboring countries aimed at political and economic domination:
Pepe Escobar: THE US CONGRESS HAS DECLARED WAR ON RUSSIA. I can’t emphasize enough how terrifying – and stupid – this is. And now it’s official. House Resolution 758 was approved yesterday by an overwhelming, bipartisan 411-10 score at the US Congress.
This resolution, rushed to a vote only two weeks after it was introduced, depicts Russia as an “Aggressor Nation” which has invaded Ukraine and was behind the downing of MH-17. The resolution virtually calls for war on Russia.
Take a very good look at the language:
The President of the United States, in consultation with the US Congress, must “conduct a review of the force posture, readiness, and responsibilities of the United States Armed Forces and the forces of other members of NATO to determine if the contributions and actions of each is sufficient to meet the obligations of collective self defense under article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty and to specify the measures needed to remedy any deficiencies.”
Translation: the US Congress wants the Empire of Chaos to use NATO’s collective security doctrine under article 5 (an attack on one member is an attack on all members) to advance a war on Russia, even though Ukraine is not a member (but will soon become a major non-NATO ally).
The resolution now goes to the Senate. If it becomes law, the resolution allows the President of the United States to declare war on Russia bypassing the formal permission of Capitol Hill.
Call or email Congress. Let them know that we the people do not agree to fight a war against Russia (a country which has shown no hostility towards the United States) nor do we agree to support the Kiev fascist clique!
Freedom Fries are never free! Tell Congress that instead of declaring war on Russia, we could try the old trick of renaming food again. Here are some suggestions:
Borscht could be renamed freedom soup, vodka could become spirits of liberty, caviar could be Pussy Riot eggs, and Beef Stroganoff could be Beef Bandera!
Also let them know that we do not buy into the propaganda myths used by the government and the media to bring us back into a Cold War based solely on Russophobia.
These anti-Russia myths include:
Myth #1 – It is in America’s national security interests to weaken Russia. Russia is our enemy and always has been.
Stephen Cohen: “So for saying this, I’m called a Putin apologist. These people have no understanding. They don’t care about real national security. So I’m the patriot. I’m the one who cares about American national security. And all they’re doing is the old kind of McCarthy-ite red baiting.”
No, Russia has not always been America’s enemy. More often than not, we have been friends. Let’s take one example from history that very few people know about.
Tarpley’s 2013 CSPAN Lecture on Russian Fleets of 1863:
Myth #2 – Putin is an evil dictator who wants to invade Europe and establish a new USSR.
We’ve all heard politicians and media talking heads tossing around the quote from Putin that he wants to restore the USSR, but here is the actual quote:
“Anyone who doesn’t regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains.” – Vladimir Putin.
Abysmal War Propaganda. Falsehoods in the New York Times – Mr. Putin Tests the West in Ukraine:
Here’s a balanced and informed analysis of Vladimir Putin which claims that he is “neither the defiant counterweight” to Anglo-American dominance, nor the “Putler” of Euromaidan fantasy. I don’t completely agree with this analysis / critique, but it’s definitely worth a read:
Sorry America, Ukraine isn’t all about you:
You can see it in the aftermath of the Odessa fire massacre that killed over 40 pro-Russian separatists: It shut up even Navalny. The liberal-yuppie elites’ momentum is over. Putin’s popularity among the rest of the country has never been higher. So if Putin is neither the defiant counterweight hero or the neo-Stalinist imperialist, but rather playing a Russian version of vicious Nixon politics, what should the West do? That’s easy: Stay the Hell out of Russia’s way for a while…
Putin ‘like Hitler’? How did Prince Charles get it so wrong?:
A more pro-active Russian ruler would have sent troops to Kiev a long time ago. Thus did Czar Alexis when the Poles, Cossacks and Tatars argued for it in 17th century. So also did Czar Peter the Great, when the Swedes occupied it in the 18th century. So did Lenin, when the Germans set up the Protectorate of Ukraine (he called its establishment “the obscene peace”). So did Stalin, when the Germans occupied the Ukraine in 1941.
Hitler grabbed territory and made war and committed genocide in order to grab territory. Putin has grabbed territory in order to keep what he has. Putin has fought to hold on to South Ossetia, Dagestan and the Russian naval port of Sevastopol because neither he nor anyone else in Russia can see where the continuous slicing away of Russian influence will end. Russia thinks this way in no small part because they were on the receiving end of Hitler’s Drang nach Osten.
Putin may treat gay people as badly as they’re treated in Alabama, and he may be an autocratic White Tsar. He’s no Yeltsin, but he surely isn’t Hitler.
Myth #3 – There are no Nazis in Ukraine. The Maidan coup was a popular, grassroots movement.
Brzezinski Mapped Out the Battle for Ukraine in 1997:
Understanding Brzezinski’s long-term view of Ukraine makes it easier to comprehend why the US has given $5 billion to Ukraine since 1991, and why today it is hyper-concerned about having Ukraine remain in its sphere of influence. It may also help explain why in the past year the US and many of its media outlets have feverishly demonized Vladimir Putin.
Brzezinski: “Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country helps to transform Russia. Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.”
Brzezinski wrote that US policy should be “unapologetic” in perpetuating “America’s own dominant position for at least a generation and preferably longer still.”
USAID Exposed in Cuba – What it Tells Us About US Subversion Worldwide:
Not only has Ukraine suffered because of this admitted US-backed political destabilization over the years, but as revealed by the Guardian and other sources, all of Eastern Europe has fallen prey to this brand of foreign-backed subversion, manipulation, and regime change.
Watch this video and hear the voices of Ukrainian people, both from the east and the west:
Ukraine Crisis – Death and destruction continues in Eastern Ukraine / Хунта убивает людей. [ENG SUB]:
Former Ukrainian PM Elena Bondarenko’s Open Letter to the Citizens of the World:
Alexander Turchinov the Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament, deprived me of the right to speak from the podium as a member of the opposition Party of Regions, only for this: I declared “Any power that commissions its army to bomb its peaceful cities, is criminal.” After which, he magnanimously gave the radical parliamentarians the option to call for shooting the opposition.
The everyday life of an opposition deputy is this: constant threats, unofficial ban from the airwaves, targeted persecution. Everyone who calls for peace is immediately branded as an enemy of the people, just as in 1930’s Germany, or in McCarthyite US.
Myth #5 – Joining the EU and accepting IMF loans is Ukraine’s best chance to develop into a free, democratic and prosperous nation.
If you really believe this, well… think Greece!
What is the “European way of life”? For the working class, not just in Greece but across the continent, it means social misery—drastic cuts in jobs, wages, public services and living conditions—to satisfy the demands of the same banks, financial institutions and corporate giants that were responsible for the economic meltdown that erupted in 2008.
Crimean leaders blame Kiev for selling Ukraine off for IMF loans:
…the country’s entire gas pipeline system will be handed over for free in the American company Chevron’s ownership the moment the basic agreement is signed, while the owners of the Mariupol, Zaporizhzhya and Dnipropetrovsk steel mills will be obliged to surrender their 50% stakes to Germany’s Ruhr. The Donbass coal industry will be handed over to Ruhr’s subsidiary in Finland…
Gas prices for municipal companies will have to be increased by 50% and for private will double. Electricity tariffs will be raised by 40%, housing utility tariffs will be raised, too, gasoline excises will go up 60% and transportation tariffs 50%, while state support for childbirth will be cancelled, the free distribution of textbooks will be annulled at schools and the VAT relief will be scrapped in rural regions…
“VAT will be introduced on medications, which will push up prices and bring citizens’ living standards down,” Kovitidi said.
“The planned annulment of the moratorium on the sale of farmland looks appalling. The selloff of Ukraine’s black soil zone, including to foreign countries, may have disastrous economic and social consequences,” she said.
Medicine and Meat Out of Reach Amid Ukrainian Price Shock:
The plight of Zhytomyr’s 270,000 residents shows how bailout-mandated austerity and the strains of an eight-month insurgency are playing out in everyday life.
“Glory to Ukraine?” said Valya, 76, referring to a slogan of the street uprising. “Glory for what? Higher prices? The war? We’re just tolerating the authorities.”
Chances are, if you’re reading this and it’s the year 2014, the economy of your own country is in serious trouble. Contact your elected representatives and tell them to butt out of Russia’s business and get to work on an economic recovery plan for your country.
Americans should not go abroad to slay dragons they do not understand in the name of spreading democracy.
“Whenever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will be America’s heart, her benedictions and her prayers. But she does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the wellwisher to freedom and independence for all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She well knows that by once enlisting other banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extridition, in all wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom….She might become the dictress of the world but would no longer be ruler of her own spirit… Americans should not go abroad to slay dragons they do not understand in the name of spreading democracy.”
– John Quincy Adams
A Russian Grandma’s Advice to Obama:
CIA’s Chechen Terrorists AKA “ISIS” Attack in Grozny as Putin Gives Key Address in Kremlin:
On May 2, 2014, pro-Russia protesters in Odessa were burned alive, as Ukrainian “Prime Minister” Arseniy Yatsenyuk promised:
“We will find all of them — if it takes one year, two years — and bring them to justice and try them in Ukrainian and international courts. The ground will burn under their feet,” said Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
Over 30 people died in fire in the Trade Unions House in Odessa, #Ukraine’s third largest city. The building was set ablaze by pro-Kiev radicals after they destroyed the tent camp of anti-government activists that stood in front of it. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the tragedy in Odessa had been caused by “criminal irresponsibility of the Kiev authorities indulging insolent nationalist radicals, including the Right Sector, who are staging a campaign of physical terror against supporters of federalization and real constitutional changes in the Ukrainian society”
The pro-Kiev Euro-Maidan Nazis (with a little help from their soccer hooligan friends) are now doing what Nazis do best: burning down a trade union building, barricading the exits so that people burn to death or leap from the windows to their deaths, and brutally beating the survivors.
Odessa – graphic video: People burnt alive, suffocated in Ukraine’s Right Sector assault:
If this had happened in Kiev during the Euro-Maidan riots, you’d really hear about it! Instead, the Western media and politicians are now trying to blame Russia for this disgusting act of violence against ordinary citizens.
For those who suffer under the inexplicable delusion that this was anything other than a Nazi massacre of pro-Russia protesters, here’s a lengthy video collection from Washington’s blog:
As Victory Day in Russia approaches, people in America and Europe have a choice to make:
a) We can abandon our pointless and aggressive policies regarding Russia, and honor the cooperation between the USA and Russia during World War II in the fight against fascism by supporting and encouraging Russia (as an ally and equal partner) to act as a mediator and peacekeeper in Ukraine before it escalates into a bloody civil war.
b) The very least the US and NATO can do is butt out of Russia’s business and refuse to start a world war or even a nuclear confrontation with Russia over Ukraine.
Kiev was the victim of a fascist coup and the proof can now be seen in Odessa, as the pathetic, unelected government in Kiev cannot gather any mass support, so they now must resort to Nazi Right Sector support in their war on eastern Ukrainians – who do not want bad relations with Russia, do not want IMF conditionalities and brutal austerity, and absolutely refuse to accept the Kiev fascist clique as a legitimate government.
Crimean leaders blame Kiev for selling Ukraine off for IMF loans, from The Voice of Russia:
…the country’s entire gas pipeline system will be handed over for free in the American company Chevron’s ownership the moment the basic agreement is signed, while the owners of the Mariupol, Zaporizhzhya and Dnipropetrovsk steel mills will be obliged to surrender their 50% stakes to Germany’s Ruhr.
The Donbass coal industry will be handed over to Ruhr’s subsidiary in Finland…
Kyiv has pledged to make territory available near Kharkiv to host US missile defense systems and a wing of American fighter jets to provide cover for the missile defense installations…
Ukraine’s interim prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has assured the West that Kiev will fulfill all of the IMF’s terms in order to secure a loan, Kovitidi said.
Gas prices for municipal companies will have to be increased by 50% and for private will double.
Electricity tariffs will be raised by 40%, housing utility tariffs will be raised, too, gasoline excises will go up 60% and transportation tariffs 50%, while state support for childbirth will be cancelled, the free distribution of textbooks will be annulled at schools and the VAT relief will be scrapped in rural regions…
VAT will be introduced on medications, which will push up prices and bring citizens’ living standards down,” Kovitidi said.
“The planned annulment of the moratorium on the sale of farmland looks appalling. The selloff of Ukraine’s black soil zone, including to foreign countries, may have disastrous economic and social consequences,” she said.
It’s time to demand our leaders, especially President Obama, denounce the Kiev fascist clique and butt out of Russia’s business! Do the American people really want to stand beside open, admitted Nazis as they burn peaceful protesters alive?
Do atrocities only matter when they happen to America or our friends? Maybe you should take the time to read Vladimir Putin’s excellent New York Times op-ed if you already haven’t:
But there is more to this mass Western hysteria than mere Russophobia. New psychological disorders have arisen that require an entirely new set of terminology:
Schizoputinia: when you see, hear and feel Putin where he doesn’t exist. (As far as I know, this term was coined by Gulia Ismailova-Adams.) Many have recently been afflicted with this disorder, including Anders Fogh Rasmussen of NATO. Schizoputinia is often accompanied by Putinophobia.
Putinophobia (also known as Amanpouria): wetting one’s pants every time Putin sneezes, accompanied by excessive whining and hysterical babbling. Typified by Christiane Amanpour, and most EU politicians, especially those of the NATO Protectorate of Poland.
Russopropagandophobia: an excessive fear of Russian propaganda accompanied by complete memory loss regarding your own country’s obnoxious and shallow propaganda. One of the main causes of Russopropagandophobia for many seems to be news outlets such as the Russian news channel RT, which often presents rather biased news reports of world events. Considering the relative lack of pro-Russia perspectives in the West, their bias would normally be regarded by the sane observer as fighting fire with fire, rather than pure propaganda.
Greg Satell (Forbes) warns us of Russian propaganda, chiding those who would make too big a deal out of extreme right-wing nationalists in Europe and Ukraine, explaining that it’s OK in Europe because they don’t have American standards of political correctness, and anyway, there are some Jews in the Ukrainian government.
Russia Is Winning Its Non-Stop Propaganda War On America, from Forbes:
This obvious point (fighting fire with fire) is lost on Russopropagandophobes who see every defense of the Russian position (whether it comes from American sources, well-respected journalists such as Pepe Escobar or John Pilger, or Russian sources like RT and Voice of Russia) as pure Kremlin-funded propaganda. Let’s imagine for a moment that the pro-Russia position is indefensible and those who peddle it are either victims or paid agents of the Kremlin and its massive propaganda machine. Would the Kremlin be any match for the much better-funded armies of anti-Russia, pro-NATO media outlets like CNN, MSNBC, Fox, nearly every major news channel and newspaper in Europe and the US, and the leader of the pack these days, The New York Times?
The mysterious masked men
Let’s take a look at The New York Times to see what real propaganda looks like:
The U.S. and the New York Times pretended that Syria’s government was responsible for the chemical weapons attack … but that claim was debunked, and even the New York Times was forced to retract it several months later. (The alternative media, including Pulitzer prize winning reporter Seymour Hersh, has also pointed out that it was the Syrians rebels – with the help of the Turkish government – did it).
Then the U.S. and the New York Times pretended that they had proof that Russian soldiers were the mysterious “masked men” seizing government buildings in Russia. But a couple of days later, they were forced [by] reporting from the alternative media – especially Robert Parry, winner of the George Polk Award for National Reporting – into retracting that claim, and admitting that their “proof” was almost as flimsy as proof of Saddam’s “weapons of mass destruction”.
Throughout the Ukraine crisis, there has been a suggestion that Russian forces were on the ground stirring up some of the unrest, first in Crimea and now in some eastern cities. On April 20, the New York Times had a front-page scoop that offered firm evidence of this. Or maybe it didn’t.
The Times’ supposed proof of Russian intervention in eastern Ukraine is a red herring. Its immediate political purpose is indicated in the article itself. The Times writes: “The question of Russia’s role in eastern Ukraine has a critical bearing on the agreement reached Thursday in Geneva among Russian, Ukrainian, American and European diplomats to ease the crisis. American officials have said that Russia would be held responsible for ensuring that the Ukrainian government buildings were vacated, and that it could face new sanctions if the terms were not met.”
Washington has no interest in defusing the crisis. It entered into the Geneva agreement in bad faith, intending to use Russia’s supposed violation of the agreement to justify further sanctions and stepped up military provocations. By supposedly publishing “proof” that the protests in the east are manipulated by Russia, the Times is supplying the US government with propaganda to claim that the failure of the protesters to disband is Moscow’s doing, which is to become the pretext for further escalating the crisis.
“He could be a Russian special forces soldier or a character from Duck Dynasty.”
Now, the New York Times has led its Monday editions with an article supposedly proving that Russian military special forces are secretly directing the popular uprisings in eastern Ukraine…
The Times based its story on grainy photographs provided by the Kiev regime supposedly showing the same armed “green men” involved in actions with the Russian military earlier and now with the pro-Russian protesters who have seized government buildings in towns in eastern Ukraine.
The Times apparently accepts the photos as legitimate in terms of where and when they were taken, but that requires first trusting the source, the post-coup regime in Kiev which has a strong motive for making this argument as a prelude to violently crushing the eastern Ukrainian protests.
Secondly, one has to believe that the fuzzy photographs of the circled faces are the same individuals. They may be, but it is difficult to be sure from what is displayed. The principal figure shown is a man with a long beard and a cap sometimes pulled down over his forehead. He could be a Russian special forces soldier or a character from “Duck Dynasty.”
“The State Department says that the Ukrainian evidence is convincing.”
The pattern, of course, is unmistakable. It begins with sanctimonious finger-wagging, economic sanctions and incendiary rhetoric, and quickly escalates into stealth bombings, drone attacks, massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, millions of fleeing refugees, decimated towns and cities, death squads, wholesale human carnage, vast environmental devastation, and the steady slide into failed state anarchy; all of which is accompanied by the stale repetition of state propaganda spewed from every corporate bullhorn in the western media.
Robert Parry: “In my four-plus decades in journalism, I have never seen a more thoroughly biased and misleading performance by the major U.S. news media. Even during the days of Ronald Reagan… there was more independence in major news outlets. There were media stampedes off the reality cliff during George H.W. Bush’s Persian Gulf War and George W. Bush’s Iraq War, both of which were marked by demonstrably false claims that were readily swallowed by the big U.S. news outlets.
But there is something utterly Orwellian in the current coverage of the Ukraine crisis, including accusing others of “propaganda” when their accounts… are much more honest and more accurate than what the U.S. press corps has been producing… The casualness of this propaganda… is not just wretched journalism but it is reckless malfeasance jeopardizing the lives of many Ukrainians and the future of the planet.”
‘Propaganda bullhorn’: John Kerry attacks RT during his Ukraine address:
“The propaganda bullhorn that is the state-sponsored RT program has been deployed to promote – actually, RT network – has been deployed to promote President Putin’s fantasy about what is playing out on the ground,” Kerry said.
Pepe Escobar fires back at John Kerry and his “scripted” ravings:
Ukraine has launched military raids to regain the buildings, which Mr Lavrov described as a “bloody crime”.
“The West… wants to seize Ukraine so to speak, being solely motivated by its own geopolitical ambitions and not the interests of the Ukrainian people,” Mr Lavrov said, according to AFP.
“The might of US propaganda” was aimed “at smearing Russia, smearing those who protest against the illegal actions of the [Kiev] authorities,” he went on.
Ukraine crisis: West wants to ‘seize control’ – Russia, from BBC:
Edward Lucas of the Daily Mail exemplifies the drooling, hysterical paranoia of the Anglo-American establishment in the article below, referring to Russia as “a rogue state on Europe’s doorstep,” doublespeak for “a country that does not follow the dictates of NATO.” In the article, Lucas takes us through the standard neo-con list of grievances du jour: Putin is the aggressor, NATO wants to help Ukraine, Western leaders are too weak, Putin wants to reestablish the USSR, Britain failed to support intervention in Syria, etc.
I hope I’m wrong but historians may look back and say this was the start of World War III, from Mail Online:
We are soon to face a bleak choice. We can chose to surrender any responsibility we have to protect Ukraine and the Baltic states — almost certainly Putin’s next target — from further Russian incursion. Or we can mount a last-ditch attempt to deter Russia from furthering its imperial ambitions.
It is entirely unclear where our “responsibility to protect” Ukraine (fascist-controlled or otherwise) comes from, but it is clear that Edward Lucas is reading from the song sheet of US United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power, with her updated version of “The White Man’s Burden.”
Power, like many others in the ‘responsibility to protect’industry, has done a great deal to publicize the plight of child soldiers in Africa, in order to justify the continued presence of US troops. However, in Syria there are thousands of child soldiers she and her allies promoting US regime change and militarism seem to be completely unconcerned about.
Protect Syria: Will Samantha Power’s words fool us again? From RT:
Note that when Samantha Power speaks of America’s “responsibility to protect,” hardly anyone raises an eyebrow. When Putin speaks of Russia’s “responsibility to protect” ethnic Russians in Ukraine, he is suddenly the reincarnation of Hitler. “The International Community’s” shallow parody of concern for humanity accomplishes nothing apart from dividing humanity into those who hate Russia, and those who hate America.
Russophobia – the obsession of the UK elite, from RT:
The writers at The Moscow Times have developed a fear of Putin bordering on mania, shown here as they call on “the international community” to stop Putin/Hitler!
A Subtle Similarity Between Hitler and Putin, from The Moscow Times:
Regrettably, the international community is unwilling or unable to stop the violation of human rights in Russia today, just as it was against Germany in the 1930s.
There are also a couple of subtle similarities between The Moscow Times and journalism. It doesn’t mean they should be confused for the same thing.
The US-Russia Ukrainian deal, by Pepe Escobar:
By the time you read this Russia will have invaded Ukraine. Well, that’s what the Supreme Allied Commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, US Air Force General Philip Breedlove, is spinning. Breedlove Supreme says the Russians are “ready to go” and could easily take over eastern Ukraine. Western corporate media have already dusted off their Kevlar vests.
The heart of the matter – obscured by a rainbow bridge of hysteria – is that neither Washington nor Moscow want Ukraine to become a festering wound. Moscow told Washington, officially, it has no intention of “invading” Ukraine.
Foreign Policy Magazine is always quick to remind us of the great Russian threat to The International Community, including a recent article on the threat of Russian hackers!
The Heritage Foundation (as is customary these days) blames their Putinophobic bed-wetting problems on Obama’s inability to be tough with Putin, whatever that means:
A severe case of schizoputinia in Sweden: Were it not so tragic, it would be outrageously hilarious to learn that even the Swedes are scrambling to prepare for an imminent Putin invasion, or as the Putinophobes call him, Putler.
Swedish Government Plans Higher Defense Spending Due to Russian Threat, from The Moscow Times:
“What we are seeing now is that Russia’s actions confirm and exceed the fears we had then,” it added in a clear reference to Ukraine, where Moscow’s annexation of Crimea has triggered the worst crisis in relations with the West since the fall of communism.
Defense contractors somewhere are pinching themselves!
Maybe the Polish politicians who helped train Right Sector thugs for the Maidan coup ought to be worried:
The Polish left-wing weekly Nie (No) published a startling witness account of the training given to the most violent of the EuroMaidan activists. According to this source, in September 2013,Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski invited 86 members of the Right Sector (Sector Pravy), allegedly in the context of a university exchange program. In reality, the guests were not students, and many were over 40. Contrary to their official schedule, they did not go to the Warsaw University of Technology, but headed instead for the police training center in Legionowo, an hour’s drive from the capital. There, they received four weeks of intensive training in crowd management, person recognition, combat tactics, command skills, behavior in crisis situations, protection against gases used by police, erecting barricades, and especially shooting, including the handling of sniper rifles. Such training took place in September 2013, while the Maidan Square protests were allegedly triggered by a decree suspending preparations for the signing of the Ukraine-European Union Association Agreement, which was issued by Prime Minister Mykola Azarov on November 21, i.e. two months later. The Polish weekly refers to photographs attesting to the training, which show the Ukrainians in Nazi uniforms alongside their Polish instructors in civilian clothing.
Russopropagandophobia also involves a double standard – an irrational fear of Russian propaganda coupled with a near or total lack of awareness (or simply denial) of American and European (The International Community) propaganda directed towards countries not generally regarded to be members of The International Community, eg. Russia and Syria.
This double standard is reflected in Western media coverage and attitudes towards popular uprisings in Ukraine. Euro-Maidan protesters violently attacked police with various weapons including Molotov cocktails, occupied and burned government buildings as well as a trade union building in Kiev, and were supported on the front lines by Right Sector and Svoboda fascists and neo-Nazis. They were and continue to be hailed as champions of democracy deserving of full US and European financial and military support. Eastern Ukrainian pro-Russia protesters have also occupied government buildings but have done so without the violence and without the fascism. They are regarded in the Western media as Russian agents, provocateurs, militants, and even terrorists, despite the fact that most of them are ethnic Russian Ukrainian citizens.
Kiev and the West believe Moscow is stirring up the unrest and a senior U.S. official made clear that Russian leaders had to de-escalate the crisis.
“The idea here is that they would stop aiding and abetting and supporting these separatists and that they would pull their troops back from the borders,” the official told reporters as Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Geneva.
Neil Clark: I’m confused. A few weeks ago we were told in the West that people occupying government buildings in Ukraine was a very good thing. These people, we were told by our political leaders and elite media commentators, were ‘pro-democracy protestors’.
The US government warned the Ukrainian authorities against using force against these ‘pro-democracy protestors’ even if, according to the pictures we saw, some of them were neo-Nazis who were throwing Molotov cocktails and other things at the police and smashing up statues and setting fire to buildings.
Now, just a few weeks later, we’re told that people occupying government buildings in Ukraine are not‘pro-democracy protestors’ but ‘terrorists’ or ‘militants’.
Why was the occupation of government buildings in Ukraine a very good thing in January, but it is a very bad thing in April? Why was the use of force by the authorities against protestors completely unacceptable in January, but acceptable now? I repeat: I’m confused. Can anyone help me?
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry has expressed strong concern that attacks by armed militants in eastern Ukraine have been orchestrated and synchronized, and are similar to previous attacks in eastern Ukraine and Crimea.” Associated Press, Apr 12
As far as Secretary of State Kerry is concerned:
– It’s all right for anti Russian protesters to stage violent demonstrations and occupy buildings to protest the former Ukrainian government, but not all right for pro Russian Ukrainians to stage non violent demonstrations and occupy buildings to seek independence from the the current government.
– It’s all right for the United States to invade Iraq without any cause, but not all right for Russia to accept the Crimea’s non violent protests and super majority vote to return to Russia.
– It’s all right for the United States to spend $5 billion to destabilize the government of the Ukraine in order to create an anti-Russian government, but not all right for Russia to resist.
Triumph of the Ill – Ukraine Coup Leaders Turn on People, from Scoop:
The soldiers had been told that the city was swarming with Russian special forces — and, finding none, they disarmed and either deserted their unit or stayed around and joined the local people protesting for autonomy for their region. The “anti-terrorist operation” ordered by the interim government in Kiev, with American backing, stands discredited.
The involvement of fascists, extreme right-wing nationalists, and outright Nazis in the Euro-Maidan coup, and now in the unelected government of Ukraine, is not a myth made up by the Kremlin. The proof is there for anyone to analyze without the need to swallow any kind of Russian government propaganda. Political parties like Svoboda and the Right Sector are openly fascist and clearly label themselves – how this could be called Russian propaganda is beyond comprehension. The fascists of Kiev must be getting frustrated wondering what they have to do to convince the world of their sincerity. Maybe if they all grew little square mustaches you’d finally believe them!
See my blog entry for a partial list of fascists that entered the government after the Maidan coup:
The BBC ran a report on “ultra-nationalist” Svoboda in December 2012:
Svoboda seems to have attracted voters who would otherwise have stayed away from the polls altogether. Its strong anti-corruption stance – promising to “clean up” Ukraine – has resonated deeply.
– Founded in 1991 as Social-National party
– Won 30-40% of vote in three western regions in 2012 – and about 1% in three eastern regions
The open letter (2005)
– Title – Stop the Criminal Activities of Organised Jewry
– Signed by Tyahnybok and 17 others
– Lists Jewish businessmen, who got rich in the 1990s, and claims they control Ukrainian media
– Describes Zionism as “Jewish Nazism” and warns of “genocide” through the impoverishment of Ukrainians
– Demands investigation into the activities of Jewish organisations headed by people “suspected of serious crimes”
“We want Ukrainians to run the country,” says Bohdan, a participant in a recent Svoboda rally, as he waves a Ukrainian flag and organises cheering and chanting.
“Seventy percent of the parliament are Jews.”
Svoboda: The rise of Ukraine’s ultra-nationalists, from BBC:
The thing that baffles a lot of Russians about this whole Euro-Maidan fiasco is not that western Ukrainians hate Russians (Russians already knew that), it is that they hate Russians so much that they would be willing to sacrifice themselves on the altar of EU and IMF austerity, becoming a NATO puppet state / buffer zone in the process, simply to feel that they are now “part of Europe.” Evidence of this shallow, short-term thinking is easy to find among the people, though it is never reported on properly in the news media.
As Lviv gradually rediscovers its fashionable high society roots and the city gentrifies itself, it is inevitable that people will start to point to the longer European link the region enjoys instead of focusing exclusively on the more recent Soviet experience. Seeing yourself as a European in today’s Ukraine has become something of a status symbol in itself, and Lviv’s European culture gives it enormous kudos. It is also often a factor in allowing European businessmen to set up operations in the region, commenting that the European architecture of the city helps them to feel at home. In the days of the Habsburg Empire Lviv was known as Lemberg, the graceful capital city of Galicia, the north-eastern province of the realm.
Rather than obsessing over these childish fantasies of “fashionable high society roots” and “European cultural kudos,” western Ukrainians should look at what the IMF promises to bring them:
John Pilger: Obama’s coup in Ukraine has ignited a civil war and lured Putin into a trap:
In February, the US mounted one of its proxy “colour” coups against the elected government of Ukraine; the shock troops were fascists. For the first time since 1945, a pro-Nazi, openly antisemitic party controls key areas of state power in a European capital. No western European leader has condemned this revival of fascism on the border of Russia. Some 30 million Russians died in the invasion of their country by Hitler’s Nazis, who were supported by the infamous Ukrainian Insurgent Army (the UPA) which was responsible for numerous Jewish and Polish massacres. The Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, of which the UPA was the military wing, inspires today’s Svoboda party.
The West has tried to counter the bad press the Kiev fascist clique has been getting by attempting to label the other side fascist and xenophobic. Of course Putin has been compared to Hitler by countless journalists and politicians such as Hillary Clinton (known herself by many as Hitlary), but it now goes much further.
The New York Times never sleeps in their quest to paint Moscow as the villain. Here they claim that xenophobia is the latest fad among Muscovites.
Xenophobic Chill Descends on Moscow, from The New York Times:
The antisemitic flyer
An antisemitic flyer was passed around in Donetsk, telling Jews that they had to register or get out. It was signed by Denis Pushilin, pro-Russia “people’s governor.” US Secretary of State John Kerry and others immediately pounced on this opportunity to (at last!) accuse the pro-Russia side of antisemitism.
Pepe Escobar: they were distributed by “three unidentified men wearing balaclavas and carrying the flag of the Russian Federation,” and carrying the logo of “the People’s Republic of Donetsk”
The flyers were signed by Denis Pushilin, in theory the ‘people’s governor’. Pushilin then told Ukrainian media the flyers with the logo were really distributed in Donetsk – but fiercely rejected their content, denying his group had printed them, and even denying he had used the title ‘people’s governor’. Pushilin had no idea who was behind the operation, which he labeled “a provocation’”
Also not surprisingly, Israeli media – and their American echo chambers – were all over the place with the non-story, always failing to stress that anti-Semitic attacks since the Maidan coup had in fact been perpetrated by rabid anti-Russian, Western Ukrainian neo-Nazis/neo-fascists.
And then Kerry, alongside EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton at the press conference, had to condemn the “grotesque flyers that have no place in our 21st century,” as in forcing Jews in eastern Ukraine to ‘register’. Translation: the State Department accepted what bears all the hallmarks of a CIA-style psy-op as a true story. A not-so-subtle push to imprint in misinformed layers of public opinion the toxic tie-up between Russophobia and anti-Semitism.
On Nazis, Jews & Ukraine ‘de-escalation’ by Pepe Escobar:
Anyone with half a brain could see this coming from miles away, but just in case you don’t already know, it’s a fake.
“It’s a fake flyer,” says Lesley Weiss, deputy director of the National Conference Supporting Jews (NCSJ), which focuses its efforts on Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic States.
A flyer ordering Jews in eastern Ukraine to register with pro-Russian forces or face deportation has been branded a fake by religious leaders, including the area’s rabbi.
Pamphlets circulating in Donetsk demanded ‘citizens of Jewish nationality’ over the age of 16 pay $50 to register and be issued special passports ‘marking the confession of faith’.
But the flyer, described as ‘grotesque’ by US Secretary of State John Kerry, has now been classed by the leader of the city’s Jewish community as a hoax, aimed at stirring up trouble.
“It’s an obvious provocation designed to get this exact response, going all the way up to Kerry,” says Fyodr Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs.
This may be just another tactic to smear the so-called anti-Maidan in the east of Ukraine: you think we’re fascists? Well, take a look at these guys.
What is lost in all this anxiety, despair, paranoia, hand-wringing, and bed-wetting, is that a powerful Russia is good for the world – the whole world, including Europe and the United States. The post-Soviet world has seen the US as the lone superpower, and what has come of it? Unchecked by any other global power, the US has been led by its oligarchical ruling class of “blitzkrieg” neo-cons and “color revolution” neo-libs (alternating every eight years) on one democracy-spreading mission after another, leaving very little behind in the way of freedom, and very much in the way of deep resentment. The US has overthrown regimes around the world it deemed tyrannical, but in the process has become the tyrant it feared, and with nothing to show for it but an economy often without direction, and more often than not in free-fall. Compared with the days of the Soviet Union, America is a much weaker country economically, and rather than being adored worldwide as the beacon of liberty, it is (rightly or wrongly) widely hated. The USSR often lived up to its “evil empire” reputation, and had it won the Cold War, we could have hardly expected it to behave much better than the Anglo-American elites are behaving now. Nevertheless, a balance of powers was and is a good thing for all involved.
Why a militarily powerful Russia is good for the world:
Webster Tarpley for PressTV: • Will western financial war against Russia trigger the collapse of globalization and an era of multipolarity? (We can only hope) • Kiev coup on a killing spree, inviting WW3 as Russia regains control of Ukraine • London willing to sacrifice Germany and Italy to protect its financial interests
For those of us in the West who live in constant fear of pro-Kremlin propaganda, we have quite a lot of reading to catch up on. I suggest, as an introduction, looking into two names which everyone should be well acquainted with – Noam Chomsky and Edward Bernays:
Manufacturing Consent – Noam Chomsky and the Media:
“But now, with a most inhuman cruelty, they who have put out the people’s eyes, reproach them of their blindness.” John Milton
In defense of a phrase: “conspiracy theory” by James Richard Bailey, fom Daily Kos:
Edward Bernays: “If we understand the mechanism and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it?”
It is an excellent rule to be observed in all disputes, that men should give soft words and hard arguments; that they should not so much strive to vex as to convince each other.
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