May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-) Skepticism and critical thinking is not panacea, but can help to understand the world better
"... Maybe Navalny had allegedly been assisted by his apparent drug of choice, cocaine? ..."
"... On the Navalny poisoning. Interesting to see that Vladimir Ashurkov is in the inner core of the Integrity Initiative. Suggesting another media-led provocation. ..."
"... Apparently, Pevchikh was given a bogus interview on the BBC and was presented as an uninteresting, nothing special sort of person, about whom rumours and innuendo were amassing for no reason whatsoever. ..."
"... The interviewer never pressed her on how long she had lived in the UK, what her business interests there were (claims have been made that she runs a book store), why she visits Russia so frequently, what indeed isher present citizenship, how she became involved with Navalny's "fund" -- she says she answered an ad., but where? In the UK? Hardly! And on and on . ..."
"... On Thursday (24 September), Christian Gramm, the president of Germany's Military Intelligence Service (MAD), was forced to resign. To many, the shake-up doesn't come as a surprise given the recent criticism over how the agency handled investigations into right-wing extremism in the German Special Forces (KSK). Gramm's term as MAD president will come to an end next month ..."
"... Verzilov is supposedly – according to one source I read – the force behind having Navalny evacuated to Germany. It will be funny now if he cannot return to Russia. ..."
"... That guy is a self-important prick with delusions of grandeur. If he is representative of the non-systemic opposition in Russia then, assuming that Putin is even aware of this guy, it would only provide a good laugh after a hard day at the office ..."
"... Verzilov is an attention junkie. He set himself up as the 'spokesman' of Pussy Riot because they were getting a lot of attention and he wanted to be part of it. He has no visible talent of his own – except perhaps a facility for languages, his English is pretty good ..."
"... His English is good because he went to school in Toronto until his somehow landing a place at MGU Philosophy Faculty, which is one of the greatest riddles of the Cosmos, in my opinion. ..."
"... I'd like to look at the Navalny 'poisoning" from a slightly different angle, one which I think bears scrutiny. I've said several times that nobody – to the best of my knowledge – has ever survived poisoning by VX. But that's not quite accurate – the two women who thrust what was always believed to be VX in some form into the face of Kim Jong Nam (Kim Jong-Un's half-brother) at an airport in Kuala Lumpur killed him stone dead. But they themselves apparently survived with no ill effects except that one of them allegedly may have vomited. ..."
"... The major difference in the way the stories are treated, then, is the incredulity with which the apparent survival of the alleged poisoners is regarded by the western press. Consider; ..."
"... It's hard to imagine the Germans poisoned his samples, although I suppose it is possible. But if Pevchik had poisoned him with something intended to incapacitate but not kill him, you'd think the doctors in Omsk would have detected it. ..."
"... It might be interesting to see what kind of deal would result from a process in which Russia has given up trying to be liked by the west, and consequently examines each negotiation on its merits alone. ..."
, "When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to
be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false. For the
bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false." Uncle
Volodya
"Every ounce of my cynicism is supported by historical precedent."
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those
who haven't got it."
– George Bernard Shaw
I'm lazy. But vanity constrains me from admitting that, so I call it 'busy'. However I choose to label it, I haven't written
anything new in a long time. It's not writer's block, because I had a couple of topics in mind; if I had to blame it on
anything, I'd blame it on the comments section. We don't really have any rules here, or not many (there are a couple of people
who can't comment, but that's because they cannot be trusted to not instantly return to old habits as soon as they are
allowed), and things routinely drift off-topic to whatever is going on at the time. Current events; yes, that's the term I was
looking for. So when new things are happening, we tend to discuss them in the comments section, instead of my writing a new
post dedicated specifically to that issue. It's the primary cause, I'm afraid, of important comments you would like to be able
to locate because they contain hard-to-find sources or just the information you need to settle an argument, because they are
not linked by subject. Obviously I prefer the unregulated format, or I wouldn't use it, but it does have its disadvantages.
Anyway, the silver lining that comes with being late to discuss a particular current event is that you get to talk about the
filtered version, after the ferment has settled down and often new facts have presented. So it is with the teapot tempest of
Alexei Navalny, vaulted to international fame virtually overnight by becoming the latest victim poisoned by nefarious
Soviet-era deadly nerve agents that, in their known application, have a success rate of 16.67%. A funny statistic has emerged
from the absurd times we are living in – a viral infection, the 'novel coronavirus', more commonly called COVID-19, has the
world shivering with terror like frogs in a glass cage with a big snake, even though its Infection Fatality Rate (IFR)
compares with the annual influenza bouts we have lived with all our years. Yet an engineered nerve agent reputed to be ten
times as deadly as the most toxic poison the west could come up with – one which, I might add, has a known survivor list among
the exposed of zero point zero – has never killed the individual it was intended to kill, and managed to incidentally slay one
innocent bystander who was also
an
alcoholic and drug abuser
. As John Lennon remarked in "Nobody Told Me"; strange days indeed. Most peculiar, Mama.
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I looked it up so as to have an electronic link, so readers could get the full effect. But I initially saw it in the
newspaper, the Canadian Globe & Mail (British Columbia edition), in which it was headlined a little differently –
"Why
nobody has power to make Kremlin come clean on poisoning"
. So far as I can make out on initial examination, the body of
the article is unchanged. Both pieces – well, the same piece with two different headlines – are by Mark MacKinnon, who is
The
Globe & Mail
's senior international correspondent, based in London, UK. He's
quite
highly-regarded by his employers
, is a seven-time winner of the National Newspaper Awards (for creativity, perhaps,
although they don't say), and the author of "
The New Cold War:
Revolutions, Rigged Elections and Pipeline Politics
". Gee, that sounds like it might be about a particular country; let's
have a dekko at
the
writeup
.
"When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed two
years later, liberal democracy was supposed to fill the void left by Soviet Communism. Poland and Czechoslovakia made the best
of reforms, but the citizens of the "Evil Empire" itself saw little of the promised freedom, and more of the same old despots
and corruption. Recently, a second wave of reforms -- Serbia in 2000, Georgia in 2003, and Ukraine in 2004, as well as
Kyrgyzstan's regime change in 2005 -- have proven almost as monumental as those in Berlin and Moscow. The people of the Eastern
bloc, aided in no small part by Western money and advice, are again rising up and demanding an end to autocracy. And once
more, the Kremlin is battling the White House every step of the way. Mark MacKinnon spent these years working in Moscow, and
his view of the story and access to those involved remains unparalleled. With The New Cold War, he reveals the links between
these democratic revolutions -- and George Soros, the idealistic American billionaire behind them -- in a major investigation
into the forces that are quietly reshaping the post-Soviet world."
Because western-imposed liberal democracy has been such a star-speckled success in so many places – Libya. Iraq,
Venezuela anyway, the above author information is offered to sort of set the tone for the type of worldview you might expect.
And to introduce a premonition, before you even read his material, that Mark MacKinnon just might be exactly the sort of guy
who would smirk with revulsion at the mention of Putin's name, and have a big ol' man-crush on Alexei Navalny. I'm not
implying anything untoward, here; Mr. MacKinnon is a realist. An ideologue, yes, but a realist.
And as with others of his ideological type, I marvel that he apparently sees some sort of inspirational leader in Navalny. I'm
cautiously optimistic, of course, because until international busybodies have a vote in Russian elections – as they have in
other places, except it's called 'regime change' – there is about as much chance of Alexei Navalny being elected to a position
of influence by a broad Russian vote as there is of you dying from coronavirus. Which you have about a 99.6% chance of
surviving, if you should get it. Anyway, I'm optimistic, as I have suggested many times before, because for so long as western
liberal meddlers choose to put all their eggs in the Navalny basket, for that long leaders elected by Russian votes will rule
more or less unmolested. You could probably persuade Russians to dress up as Obama on Hallowe'en (well, first you would have
to persuade them to celebrate it, which
The Moscow Times
almost
reduced itself to tears trying to bring about) as you could to persuade them to vote for Navalny. And this latest escapade,
which – perversely – has put him in the western hall of political fame has probably actually cost him votes in Russia, which
is remarkable considering he already was about as popular as vomit air-freshener.
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Mr. MacKinnon starts off his excoriation of the Kremlin, and his apparent poignant appeal for someone to rid us of this
troublesome autocratic dictator, with some lighthearted snark about how predictable it is that the Kremlin would deny
poisoning Alexei Navalny. Uh huh; of course they would. Real men would immediately own up – yeah, I poisoned that
motherfucker. Teach him to talk smack about me. What are you gonna do about it? You might be repulsed by the implicit evil
there, but at least you could respect Putin for telling the truth.
Let's look at it a little differently. Suppose I said "Mark MacKinnon is a wife-beater". For the record, I don't even know if
he is married. Or straight. But that's beside the point, which is that to the best of my knowledge, it is not true. Doesn't
matter. Predictably, he would deny it. Now suppose I repeated that allegation regularly for twenty years. Might I be able to
say, wearily, "the only predictable thing about MacKinnon's latest wife-beating incident is his denial of having had anything
to do with it"? I think I could. But denying it is exactly the predictable occurrence if he had not done it.
How about we take a quick recap of some of the things Russia has been accused of just in the last few years. A state-sponsored
doping program for its Olympic athletes, in which they were fed performance-enhancing cocktails that powered them all the way
to the podium. The special investigatory body put together to look into it, headed by Canadian Richard McLaren, claimed there
was so much proof that it was embarrassing. When we got down to where the rubber meets the road, said investigatory body could
not prove fuck-all, their star witness
fell
apart in testimony
, and 28 Russian athletes
had
their Olympic bans reversed
while 7 medals were reinstated. The Nation
recapped
it thus
;
"How the Times could provide such minimal coverage of these important
April 2018 reasoned CAS decisions on matters on which the Times had extensively reported is inexplicable. By allowing the
Russian athletes, for the very first time, to confront their accusers with cross-examination, the CAS was in a position to
make startling revelations about Rodchenkov and McLaren. Rodchenkov, for example, admitted that he never personally witnessed
any accused Russian athlete committing doping violations themselves, including taking the illegal drug cocktail, giving a
clean urine sample out of competition, tampering with a urine sample, or transmitting information to co-conspirators about the
coding on the drug sample after it had been given.
Furthermore, several of Rodchenkov's explanations of events were simply
not believable. For example, Rodchenkov had stated that the swapping of urine samples occurred after 1 am, but his own diary
entries confirmed his bedtime by midnight each night, with two or three exceptions. When confronted with this contradiction,
he made the incredible claim that he had lied to his diary."
Were the Russians guilty? Apparently not. What is the appropriate response when you are accused of something but did not do
it? Denial? Damn straight. But there's another key takeaway in there – the testimonial hearing in which the athletes and their
representatives dismantled Rodchenkov's self-important blathering was
the
very first time they had been able to confront their accuser
. Uncorroborated denials are easy to brush off, which would
seem to summarize Mr, MacKinnon's style.
One more. Russia was accused by the United States – whose allies quickly picked it up as one more example of the reprehensible
Russian conduct that just makes you shake your head in helpless wonder – of paying the Taliban in Afghanistan a bounty to kill
American soldiers.
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For starters, it would not be difficult to imagine the US Army as being so loathed in Afghanistan – considering American
military operations have devastated the country for 19 years now – that jihadis in Afghanistan would be happy to kill them for
free; might even pay for the opportunity, if they had any money. Some might say well, if not for the democracy-promotion
efforts of America, the Taliban might still be in charge! Yeah, ha, ha; funny story about that. President Trump announced this
past Spring that it was
time
to turn over law and order in Afghanistan
to the Taliban.
He said US troops had been killing terrorists in Afghanistan "by the
thousands" and now it was "time for someone else to do that work and it will be the Taliban and it could be surrounding
countries".
Personally, I think it's a hell of a cheek of the Taliban to accept money from the Russians to kill Americans who just cut
them such an exceptional deal – you would think they would be so happy that they would dance into the streets with their arms
full of flowers and candy. Oh, wait – different democracy-promotion operation.
And I'd just like to point out to anyone who is forming the opinion that I am a sarcastic prick that the main piece of
'evidence' on which the Americans based the assessment that a mysterious Russian GRU (military intelligence) unit was paying
bounties to the Taliban to kill American soldiers was the discovery of 'a large amount of American cash from a raid on a
Taliban outpost'.
Jesus, God of our fathers – please tell me they had more than that. Quite apart from the patent rudeness of carrying out a
raid on the 'outposts' of your new Afghanistan caretakers, the US dollar is the most common and widely-circulated currency in
the world. Instead of leaping to the conclusion that it had to have come from the Russians – whose currency was still the
ruble the last time I looked – why was the King Arthur Flour Company not immediately a suspect? After all, sourdough baking
has
lunged
to a quivering peak
during 'COVID times' (as I heard one imbecile describe the peyote cartoon we are all living); King
Arthur offers a
very
popular sourdough starter
, and the Afghans are great bakers. Maybe they were saving up to buy a couple of truckloads, give
the people something to raise their morale! Get it? 'Raise' their morale? It's not funny if I have to explain it. But it makes
as much sense as assuming the Russians want to accelerate the killing of American forces just as they are arranging terms for
a pullout, which would surely make them stay longer.
Well, let's get back to Mr. MacKinnon's story, before we wander too far off the path. But I hope that addresses the issue of
the Kremlin denying western accusations. Deny is what you do when you really had nothing to do with whatever it was you are
being accused of, instead of 'manning up' and saying "Yeah; it was me". Gaddafi did that, in the hope of making peace with the
Americans, and look where it got him. And America is not put off by lack of evidence – obviously.
So we're back where Russia might be believed today, if the past 20 years had never happened. At that, I would suggest he's
casting too wide a net; the USA and Russia were getting along fairly well between the time the Harvard Boys were invited in to
remake Russia in 1991, and the presidential candidacy of American Idiot and Venture Capitalist Mitt Romney, during which
candidacy he identified Russia – for no apparent reason than that it sometimes caused headaches for the United States at the
UN – as the USA's Number One Geopolitical Enemy. That was in 2012, which was only 8 years ago, and in fact the great majority
of western accusations against Russia have taken place since 2014 and the US State Department's successful second run at
taking over Ukraine to Make It Safe For Democracy. It's pretty hard to restore your 'credibility' when the international press
whose language is foreign to your own continues to insist it has mountains of evidence that you are lying, but cannot reveal
any of it because of national security. On the occasions it does publish some of its substantiation, the alternate-narrative
element of the public is so scathing in its scorn – as happened when the British tried going public with their Skripals Case –
that
the
storytellers are sent back to the drawing-board
to make up something different. Otherwise they might have to explain why a
poison so virulent that Sergei Skripal's house had to have its roof removed because Novichok was daubed on the front doorknob,
but the same poison failed to kill not only the Skripals times two, Detective Nick Bailey, Charles Rowley and now Navalny. The
Skripals came into direct contact with it while the family's roof did not, unless they had a sixteen-foot diameter doorknob,
and Navalny actually
drank
it. So the story goes. I don't think
'absurd' is too strong a word.
Russia, we hear, denied that its soldiers were in Crimea before Russia 'annexed' the territory in 2014. Where? Russia was
permitted by international agreement to base sufficient forces at Sevastopol to easily take the region away from a Ukrainian
Army so useless that initial attempts to stop the unraveling were made by civilian militias. Oh, and my favourite; Russia
denied shooting down MH-17 "even after the anti-aircraft system involved in the attack was detected leaving Russia then
returning short one missile." Is that a fact? Well, no; it's not. That accusation was made by Bellingcat, the brain trust of
former underwear-company accountant Eliot Higgins, and there was
never
any 'detection'
of any such anti-air system "leaving Russia and returning short one missile". Bellingcat offered a
potential route such a system might have taken to and from a launch site, in an animation, which was itself never
substantiated by evidence – a route which took the system many vulnerable kilometers out of its way on the alleged return –
and the photograph that made the cover of Paris Match is
so
obviously a Photoshop mosaic
. And the inclusion of Ukraine, who was automatically a suspect considering the incident
occurred in Ukrainian airspace, in the investigation to establish Russian guilt, together with its unsupervised access to the
collected evidence, renders the whole issue farcical.
"And on it went. The official RIA Novosti newswire quoted chemical-weapon
experts who said that had Novichok been used, Mr. Navalny would already be dead. It's a line Russian state media have used
before, after Mr. Skripal and his daughter survived the 2018 attack, but one they dropped after 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess died
after coming into contact with an unused vial of Novichok in a Salisbury park three months later."
Is that what happened, Mr. seven-times-recipient-of-the-National-Newspapers-Award? Dawn Sturgess was given the perfume bottle
as a gift from her boyfriend, Charles Rowley, at his home in Amesbury, 8 miles from Salisbury. She allegedly 'immediately
sprayed some on her wrists and rubbed them together'
according
to Rowley
.
"Charlie Rowley claimed his partner, mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess, fell
ill within 15 minutes of spraying the bottle, which he said he had found, on to her wrists at his home in Amesbury,
Wiltshire."
Couldn't ask for much more of an eyewitness than Rowley – he's kind of at the center of the story, albeit he is a heroin
addict himself, according to a previously-cited reference. He claims that within 15 minutes she was stricken, claimed to have
a headache, and disappeared to the bathroom, where he found her fully clothed and lying in the bath, 'in a very ill state'.
That's
funny; according to Sky News, she was not so ill that she could not admit herself to hospital, which she is alleged to have
done at 11 AM on Saturday, after being poisoned with a nerve agent ten times as deadly as VX, exposure to which nobody has
survived.
"During their trip to Salisbury on Friday, the pair visited a number of
shops during the afternoon and evening with their friend Sam Hobson.
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The following day, Ms Sturgess admitted herself to hospital at 11am. Mr
Hobson, 29, and Mr Rowley went on to visit a number of places in the town centre."
Mr. Rowley, the poor man who 'lost so much', was so affected by his beloved's condition that he and his friend Sam Hobson went
on – after she admitted herself to hospital – to see the sights of downtown Amesbury. We know they were in Amesbury because
one of the locations they visited, Boots the Chemist in Amesbury, was soon thereafter closed by police as part of the
investigation.
Perhaps they were looking around for the hospital. Because
there
isn't one in Amesbury
. The closest is in Salisbury, 8 miles away, and the next-closest is in Andover, even further. So the
poor woman, having passed out in a very ill state after spraying a deadly nerve agent directly on her skin, somehow roused
herself for the 8-mile drive to Salisbury and then proceeded with the admittance process, while the cretins in Emergency let
the two who had dropped her off head back to Amesbury for some window-shopping. The alternative is that they were not even
with her, and she drove herself. Say, do you know what one of the symptoms of nerve-agent poisoning is? Blurred vision due to
excessive watering of the eyes.
The 'only predictable part of the drama', to borrow from Mr. MacKinnon's introduction, is that Ms. Sturgess did not "die after
coming into contact with an unused vial of Novichok in a Salisbury park", or anything close to it. Sloppy, or loyal? Which is
it?
Anyway, back to Navalny; for some reason I seem to be incapable of staying on his dramatic story. So, 'predictably', there are
some pretty big holes in his story. For one, he was supposedly – initially – exposed to a near-unimaginably-toxic nerve agent
which he drank in tea at the airport, prior to departure. Then the same Novichok which laid out Dawn Sturgess within 15
minutes did not affect Lyosha until 40 minutes after the plane took off. Team Navalny and its backers have attempted to
explain that away by suggesting this was a specially-engineered 'slow-acting' Novichok.
What use would a slow-acting military-grade nerve agent be? Want to give the enemy a fair chance before killing him stone
dead? And while we're on the subject: note to the GRU, or the FSB or whoever – stop engineering Novichok to be slow-acting
just to attack Navalny, and impervious to rain (like no other nerve agent ever, the immediate countermeasure is to flush the
area with water and take atropine) to attack Sergei Skripal, and WORK ON MAKING IT KILL PEOPLE!!! Jesus Christ, do I have to
think of everything myself?
So, obviously, the tea narrative was not going to work. Enter The Water Bottle Of Death. Allegedly, the GRU or FSB, or maybe
Putin himself poisoned a water bottle and left it in Navalny's hotel room in Tomsk, where there were always people in and out
and they had no clue whether it would kill Navalny or someone else. Maybe that's why they engineered it to be slow-acting and
non-fatal. Then, after Navalny checked out and headed to the airport, where he hung around for at least long enough to drink a
cup of tea before his flight was called, and then after takeoff and 40 minutes into the flight, suddenly, Lyosha is poisoned!!
He begins to roar and scream with pain, and members of his entourage immediately go to get a lawyer to accompany them, and go
to Navalny's hotel, and – wonder of wonders – not only has it not been cleaned, it is still completely undisturbed!! Fucking
hotel service in Tomsk, unbelievable, I hope they don't pay them much.
So, what do we deduce from that? Not only did Navalny show no ill effects after being poisoned with a military-grade nerve
agent for approximately an hour – rolling back the moment of his poisoning to his drinking tea in the airport before his
flight was called – he survived it for significantly longer than that, because in the end the tea was just tea. He did not
take the Water Bottle Of Death with him, instead leaving it in his hotel room, so he must have drunk from it before he left
the room. How long was that? How far was his hotel from the airport? Well, let's see – he
stayed
at the Xander
(four stars, not too shabby), which is
24
km from the Bogashevo Airport
. I feel safe in suggesting Navalny survived direct contact with a military-grade nerve agent
for at least two hours before he even showed any symptoms, and perhaps for considerably longer than that. Which sounds quite a
bit like the Skripal saga, in which they were poisoned by their front doorknob – the approximately sixteen-foot-diameter one
which reaches to the roof, it's a two-level home – but still managed to drive to the town center, feed the duckies in the park
and then go on to a restaurant and finish dinner, before throwing a poison wobbler on a nearby bench outside. Where they
happened to be discovered by the senior medical officer in the British Army. Quite by chance, she was just passing by.
So contact with the American VX agent means near-instantaneous death, but contact with a substance ten times more toxic means
nothing at all for at least an hour and perhaps twice that, then an unpleasant bout of coma, then presto! 90% recovery of
mental faculties – admittedly, not a high threshold for Navalny – and maybe 50% recovery of physical capability, with a
cautiously-optimistic prognosis of a full recovery. Lawdy Jeebus; a miracle!
Back to MacKinnon's story for a moment. "His transfer to Berlin's specialist Charité hospital was delayed for 24 crucial hours
while Russian officials floated wildly different versions of what might have happened to him." Actually, they did no such
thing; the doctors in Omsk are acknowledged to have probably saved his life, there actually was something wrong with him. They
stabilized him for transport rather than immediately saying "Here you go, Krauts, it's your show", so his transfer was delayed
for a not-at-all-excessive 24 hours, and it was the Germans who 'floated wildly different versions of what might have happened
to him', initially claiming he had been poisoned with a cholinesterase inhibitor, and only changing the story to Novichok
after the Water Bottle Of Death was delivered to Berlin by Navalny's wife. And unless Lyosha had a water bottle secretly
hidden on his person, they did not establish nerve-agent poisoning from his samples, either, unless the German doctors are
incredibly incompetent. It would be pretty hard for a skilled medical technician to confuse a cholinesterase inhibitor with a
nerve agent, and the doctors in Berlin initially had no clue what was wrong with him. They became confident after the water
bottle was delivered.
Navalny's aide is shown delivering his tea to him at the airport. No gloves, no Personal Protective Equipment whatsoever. But
Lyosha was already crawling with Novicok – he must have been poisoned in his room. Was the hotel closed? The airport? Was the
plane impounded and destroyed? Why is Navalny's aide still alive, and not just waking up from a coma?
And now I am afraid I have some questions about Chain of Custody of important evidence in a criminal investigation. Because
according to the timeline of the 'Navalny poisoning', Team Navalny back on the ground in Tomsk did not announce the discovery
of a poisoned water bottle from his hotel room until September 17th – two days after the fact. Right up until then, Navalny's
'press agent' stuck with the story that he was poisoned with tea at the airport. What kind of four-star hotel does not clean
the room of a guest who has checked out for two days afterward? Alternatively, what kind of political team allows a narrative
to persist that their leader was poisoned with tea at the airport for two whole days before they clue the world in that they
have discovered important evidence to the contrary? So far as we know, nobody had analyzed the alleged traces on the bottle
while it was still in Russia – the Germans allegedly established it was Novichok. Or else Team Navalny already knew, but
didn't bother to tell anyone, just assuming everyone who handled it would take deadly-nerve-agent precautions. Who else might
have been inside that hotel room in two days?
According
to the NewsTimes
, an Instagram post by Navalny claimed members of his 'team' tossed his hotel room looking for evidence
only an hour after he collapsed, which is pretty impressive considering they had no real reason at that point to suspect a
crime had been committed; he probably had just reached the hospital in Omsk by that point, if even that, and there had been no
announcement as to his condition, But they waited until September 17th to announce they had discovered a bottle contaminated
with Novichok? nearly a month later? Excuse me – some state-sponsored nerve agent – the bottle had not been tested yet.
According to the certifiable inbreeders in the European Parliament, Novichok and its family of poisons can only be made in
state-owned military laboratories, and there is no way civilians could have gotten hold of it.
"MEPs have called for
sanctions against Russia, saying on September 17, "The poison used, belonging to the 'Novichok group', can only be developed
in state-owned military laboratories and cannot be acquired by private individuals, which strongly implies that Russian
authorities were behind the attack."
Huh. That's odd. Because Alistair Hay – a toxicologist at the University of Leeds, a leading expert in the toxic properties of
chemical warfare agents and a member of the British government's advisory group on chemical warfare –
assessed
that it could be made by "any competent chemist"
. I'm pretty sure they're not all in the military, and obviously they do
not need to be Russian. The principal developmental engineer of Novichok, Vil Marzayanov, published a book which contained the
formula, and which sells on Amazon for less than 30 bucks. But what does Hay know, right?
"The Kremlin's latest denials should and will fall flat with Western
governments. It was already clear that Mr. Putin's inner circle had ample reasons to wish Mr. Navalny harm. (The Kremlin's
feelings about the anti-corruption campaigner have long been obvious. Mr. Putin has repeatedly refused to use Mr. Navalny's
name, even when asked direct questions about him. On Thursday, Mr. Peskov continued that practice, referring only to "the
Berlin patient.")
Ha, ha!! Oh, my God. It is clear that the Kremlin has ample reasons to wish Mr. Navalny harm, because they don't talk about
him. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it. That's some award-winning journalism right there.
I think we're done here; what is supposed to be a straightforward tale of the unrepentant state poisoning of a political
opponent is in fact so confusing and contradictory that I cannot make any sense of it. I suspect even closer examination of it
is only going to reveal further inconsistencies.
"The notion of carefully wrought bullshit involves, then, a certain inner
strain. Thoughtful attention to detail requires discipline and objectivity. It entails accepting standards and limitations
that forbid the indulgence of impulse or whim. It is this selflessness that, in connection with bullshit, strikes us as
inapposite. But in fact it is not out of the question at all. The realms of advertising and of public relations, and the
nowadays closely related realm of politics, are replete with instances of bullshit so unmitigated that they can serve among
the most indisputable and classic paradigms of the concept. And in these realms there are exquisitely sophisticated craftsmen
who – with the help of advanced and demanding techniques of market research, of public opinion polling, of psychological
testing, and so forth – dedicate themselves tirelessly to getting every word and image they produce exactly right."
Harry G. Frankfurt, from "
On Bullshit
".
How many of you would describe the western media as "
exquisitely
sophisticated craftsmen who dedicate themselves tirelessly to getting every word and image they produce exactly right"
?
Count me out. They're not even good at it. Fortunately for them, critical thinking is at an all-time low.
In the
aftermath of 9/11, I never could have imagined that the US government would ever openly side with the perpetrators, much
less that the public at large would be OK with it. And yet that is precisely what happened in Libya and Syria. When
Trump showed signs of disengaging from Syria, some of the people protesting were themselves survivors of 9/11 or
families of the victims. If they can get away with that, what can't they do? It seems like the media can claim whatever
they want, no matter how ridiculous, and the public will believe them without question. Some of the things I've seen in
the media look to me like experiments being undertaken to probe the gullibility of the public.
This is
what weakens the sincerity of people like Tulsi Gabbard and retired Colonel, Senator Richard Black despite all the
good that they have said and done.
Exactly –
WHY would the US aid and abet in Iraq, Libya and Syria the group that 'allegedly' perpetrated the worst act of
diabolical terrorism against American citizens in its history it wouldn't – unless of course the official narrative
was just not true.
You only
have to listen to very clumsy performance by Ehud Barak in the BBC studios on the very day, or Jane Standley
declaring the collapse of WT7 23 minutes before it happened (an honest mistake according to official BBC response) or
the very fact that WT7 collapsed at all to know that the 'official narrative' is Bullshit.
**"Tyranny
requires that the truth be silenced, that real history be erased and rewritten, that speech be restricted, and that
individual thought be silenced."**
*Erasing
History and Erasing Truth: Censorship and Destroying Records Is the Cornerstone of Tyrants* by Gary D. Barnett
We have
always been at war with Eastasia. It is hard to believe that Orwell almost predated television (he died in 1950), and
'1984' certainly did.
American –
and, in fact, western in general – manipulation of public perception almost invariably relies on values and the
public's impression of what is 'the right thing to do'. Consequently, the choice is always a Manichean one; this guy
is trampling on democratic values. He's killing his own people. Peaceful protests are being forcibly dispersed with
machine-gun fire. An entire people cries out for freedom. Are we gonna let him get away with it? Who's with me???
Slightly more subtle is the implication of, "If you're not with us, you're against us". There is no possibility of
detachment. Thus it is with the coronavirus crisis now – you and everyone else have a responsibility to public
safety. If you don't do as the government says is necessary for public safety, then you are an enemy of public
safety, and deserve the scorn of your fellow man. Come on; who's with me??
You simply
have to make it clear that everyone must make a choice; there is no such thing as 'sitting this one out'. Then you
frame the choice in such a way that choosing for the majority is easy – do you want to make the world a better place?
If you say 'No', then obviously you want to make it a worse place.
Like taking
candy from a baby. In Trump's case, though, he's on the wrong side of the equation, and rather than he and his
administration steering the narrative, others both for him and against him are framing the choice and he is having to
react to it. Those who are against him want to destroy and cast him out, and those for him want to use him as a
global influence.
Thank you
Mark; I'm glad to have found your blog site.
I find the
format just fine- I learn a heck of a lot from the diversion onto 'off topic' topical events.
I wandered
into one of my favourite bookstores a couple of times over the last week (I am in Australia). Really, the only reason
for doing so is to check out the classics section (which remains authentic) or to follow up on a special order – there
is nothing on the shelves these days, especially the 'latest/best sellers', that is worth burning the paper it is
printed on. I get most of my books directly from the author's site or as free pdf downloads from such places as
archive-dot-org. I have never, and never would utilise Amazon.
You will see
books glorifying Greta, Jacinda, Hillary, Michael (sic), the Walrus, the latest ['Rage'] by Woodward or the latest
obligatory 'testimony' from a 100-year-old 'survivor'.
They then have
the array of trash talk vilifying, demonising and assassinating anyone with integrity who has something worthwhile to
say and who cares about humanity:
"The Doctor
Who Fooled the World: Andrew Wakefield's War on Vaccines"
– "Award-winning investigative journalist Brian Deer reveals the shocking truth blah "
But the
centrepiece at the moment is
"The
Rodchenkov Affair: How I Brought Down Putin's/Russia's Secret Doping Empire" by Grigory Rodchenkov. [Oh dear!!]
Great lines:
"exquisitely
sophisticated craftsmen who dedicate themselves tirelessly to getting every word and image they produce exactly wrong
[sic]"
"When an
honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that
he considers his statements to be false."
This is what
so impresses me – that they can produce so much bullshit that some (?many/most) people actually find credible – but when
what is left of the world and humanity is based entirely on exquisitely crafted lies – then what?
PS. I see that
Russia and/or China meddled in the RBG's respiratory system overnight. One commenter wrote "Weekend at Bernie's" is
FINALLY over.
PPS. Russia
has also denied bombing schools and hospital in Syria. Boris Johnson would know – here he is admitting that the UK
openly funds terrorists – he forgot that people would actually realise who and what the 'White Helmets' are as he
proudly boasts of another £65 million going the way of these "fantastically brave people".
not to
mention the despicable practice of 'double tapping' by Russia and the [Assad] 'regime' – rotten bastards!
Ha, ha!
Thanks, Julius; I thought the post just went on and on as it was, and each avenue seemed to lead into another, so
that I despaired of ever finishing it. If I had brought Browder into it, I'd still be writing. But if you are a
devotee of Browder and his mendacious machinations, here's a post from my old blog on 'that individual'. Get it? I'm
showing how much he disturbs me by refusing to mention him by name.
Navalny is simulating – we go through this point by point
Navalny came to his senses and immediately started having photos
published on Instagram. Indeed, what else is there to to do in hospital? But it would have been better, of course, if he
had not do this, because the public has raised many questions.
Journalist Alexander Sosnovsky has analyzed Navalny's photos and
posts on social networks, coming to a rather simple and logical conclusion -- Alexey is simulating. This is hardly
surprising, given Navalny and his associate's love for exaggeration, lies and fraudulent schemes.
Sosnovsky
highlighted several points by which it is quite easy to realize that the blogger is lying about his "terrible" state.
There is no tracheostomy mark on Navalny's neck, which means that he did not have such a serious violation of the
respiratory system. And it means that there is no talk of any kind of poisoning with combat poison.
In the photo, he is walking down stairs -- after a few weeks in a
coma, muscles can hardly recover so quickly. The knee joints literally "freeze", and it is simply impossible to use
stairs so easily.
The same applies to sitting in the lotus position, and this is how
the blogger is sitting in the earlier photo. Again, this is absolutely impossible after such a severe poisoning, as all
Navalny's hamsters and his family talk about.
By the way, In the message, Navalny thanks the doctor, but he did not
write about his family under any of the photos. But when a person is on the verge of death, relatives are the first ones
he thinks of when he comes to his senses. And his daughter had flown from the USA, but not a word about Yulia, Dasha and
Zakhara, although usually Navalny now and then shows photos and videos of his family, posing as a loving family man.
Next, we pay attention to Navalny's trainers, and they are rather
heavy, not of cloth. Such footwear is not worn in an intensive care unit. It is used by patients undergoing normal
treatment and who can walk about on the street, but the blogger has not been outside, otherwise his photos would have
already appeared on the Web, because there are a lot of paparazzi around. By the way, the fact that he is in the
"Charité" has not been in any way confirmed.
In general, there are a lot of questions about Navalny. It remains
only to wait for answers from him, although he probably will not bother to devote time to this, because the blogger
usually does not comment on any of his type of fraud.
s
t
imulating?
Maybe Navalny had allegedly
been assisted by his apparent
drug of choice, cocaine? Or, he was actually out of a coma a few days earlier (to plan how to spin things) and had
access to a rowing machine
My
point is that we are given a
narrative
but there really
is absolutely nothing but his/team/Charite's word about any of this. It's annoying that we have to question
everything but even then we often accept much of what is said and look at the most obvious inconsistencies
rather than the much more subtle
sleights of hand
or
sideways misdirections. It is non-stop.
What
we can do is if we know the conclusion sic 'Navalny poisoned', then the narrative has to (mostly) fit in to
that box/framework. So work backwards and see if the public claims fit that narrative, short of deliberate
traps to to mop up the conspiracy crowd.
Yes,
I had to laugh when MacKinnon ridiculed the notion that Navalny might have been poisoned by samagon by invoking
the image of Navalny – as painted by his 'press agent' and his 'team' – as a "near teetolaler". What are they
going to say? That he is a lush who drowns kittens? Mark MacKinnon, Stenographer to the Stars, all gossip
repeated.
What is far
more likely is that he will consult with his handlers, and together they will come up with a reply stinging in its
scorn, revolving around the theme, "Can you believe they are saying this??", inviting all readers to have a hearty
laugh at the squalling of the conspiracy theorists. It's worked before – no reason to change the formula until it
stops working.
In that
photo, Navalny looks as if he is walking through a fire escape area. Would hospitals really allow patients to walk
unassisted and unprotected through the fire escape area? Once the door into the fire escape closes, if you're in
the fire escape, you cannot open it again. You'd have to walk all the way down to the exit and out into the open
air – fire escapes are designed to get you out of a burning building. Once out, Navalny would be exposed to all
kinds of aerosols including air pollutants, let alone the odd coronavirus spike-ball, that could sicken him in his
recently recovered state.
This
makes you wonder whether Navalny even set foot into any hospital in Berlin at all, and not just a medical clinic
or some place where discharged patients go to recuperate after a hospital stay. (I forget the term used for such
places where people receive care after being discharged from hospital.)
Which
I would say support my suposition that Berlin's Charite hospital has been rather conservative with it is press
release (patient confidentialty) that has afforded FC Nav
alny's PR team
sufficient time to create a nice visual story fit for western consumption, nyam nyam nyam copy copy copy,
snore.
Perhaps the
category and grade of Novichok used to poison Navalny are the same as for the Novichok used on Julia Skripal. Recall
that during her May 2018 interview with the Reuters reporter at USAF Fairford base in Gloucestershire or wherever,
Julis Skripal looked slim and radiant and her skin was in good condition. She was able to walk unassisted to the
interview as well. It seems clear to me that that Novichok stuff must actually be some Fountain of Youth elixir, that
it puts its victims into temporary Snow White repose and then, without warning, not only awakens them but restores
them to a better state of health and physical condition better than what they had before they were poisoned. Next
thing you know, Navalny will be training for the marathon in next year's Olympic Games.
Oh, man. New
reader here. The "peyote cartoon" line made me laugh so damn hard. Thanks you for that. Nothing beats this cult-like
world like a good long laugh at the cult's expense.
While the
western world(read fascist) was going ape over novichok-you know the Russian bio-weapon that is the most dangerous
chemical known to man except it fails to kill anyone-Putin had developed and infected the entire political and mass
media leaders of the west with a new bio-weapon that he created himself. It's called Notajoke and it makes those
infected become babbling idiots and anyone can see that it has worked. Trump got his dose from some Las Vegas hookers
who the FSB infected and they in turn pissed on him. Even worse, it eventually gives every infected person a Hitler
mustache that cannot be gotten rid of. These babbling idiots are aware something is wrong but they are not sure of whats
happening and they have developed a strategum. They are going to emulate certain successful comics from the past and
make their adversaries die laughing. Trump becomes Moe, Boris becomes Larry and Angela becomes Curly-wise guy eh? They
plan to resort to slapstick, where upon they slap you with sanctions and then stick it to you, bomb your country and
everyone is in stitches(in the hospital) "Yeah that' what we'll do eh Moe?". As part of the plan the G7 mental 7 dwarfs
are on board with Moe(Trump-coc) as their leader followed by Larry(Boris-sleezy) and Curly(Angela-frumpy) with those
idiots True-dough(dopey) Canada, Cunte(bashful) Italy, Macaroon(creepy) France and the Jap chap Ape Abe(jappy). What a
team folks- I may die of laughter before I'm finished this tirade. Their latest brilliant stroke is to put an end to
Nordstream 2 so that their citizens can pay double thereby aiding Moe and getting rid of their excess money. The Baltic
states are on board as well. They are afraid that Russia will steal their technology- ooops they don't have any, their
natural resources- ooops ditto, their dirt-ya that's it, their dirt. Poland is worried about the theft of their
telecommunications technology developed by Alexander Graham Kowalski better known as "The Telephone Pole". Ukraine got
on board and has now elevated itself to the poorest country in Europe. Moe thought Putin may be behind all this so he
offered a challenge. Putin responded with chess?, judo?, hockey?, Moe had in mind a pie throwing contest. "wise guy eh?"
Pompeo and
Abrahms not to be outdone have become Ollie and Stan as Ollie admonishes Stan-"this is another fine mess you've gotten
me into" over Venezuela and proceed to bump into one another. To add a little "stiff" competition in comes Joe "the
stiff" Biden to out stupid them all.
MacKinnon is
a
follower.
No relation to autistic hacker Gary MacKinnon.* This
MacKinnon is a member of the Ford Estate, not the Fourth Estate. It's the
appearance
of
journalism. Just because some thing is long (lots of words) doesn't make it fact. Never mistake quantity for
quality, but that is the strategic propaganda goal against Russia. Bombard the public with endless long, big, stronger,
higher, faster, deeper/whatever reports/investigations/studies etc. which when you actually look for the source is
either
anonymous/highly likely/judged to be
/whatever, but you
never get to read the actual source material. NEVER.
Vis the poison
in the hot tea. What got me was that no-one commented that using a poison in 70c+ tea would dramatically reduce its
effect (chemically break down very quickly) which is directly contrary to the claimed goal of killing Navalny). It would
also have to be specifically designed to be heat resistant which is a whole other level of chemical weapons development
more suitable for a sci-fi future of scorching global temperatures where the human race dwell below ground like
Morlocks.
Top stories in
the Russian press on Thursday, September 17
Vedomosti:
Rostec
to shell out $1.7 bln on creating new Sukhoi Superjet aircraft
By 2023, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) plans to create the
Sukhoi SuperJet New, an import-substituted version of the short-haul Sukhoi SuperJet 100, the only civilian jet built by
the Russian aviation industry. The development of the new Sukhoi Superjet New aircraft, which UAC plans to create by
2023, will cost 120 bln-130 bln rubles ($1.6-1.7 bln), Vedomosti writes, citing sources close to the corporate
leadership of Rostec and UAC.
According to the newspaper, the United Engine Corporation (UEC) is
developing a domestic PD-8 engine, which the aircraft will use. ..UAC will allocate at least 50 bln rubles ($664 mln)
for the development of SSJ New.
####
Plenty of
stuff, but as usual, put up or shut up. Russia puts up.
Vis the
u-Ropean 'Magnitsky Act' no unanimity required. Russia would do well to say in advance that it would counter-act against
certain senior EU officials/member states for complicity in genocide in Libya, Yemen etc.
The problem
with u-Rope is that is that Brussels is a balm for the crimes of its member states. On the one hand the EU is the
collective consciousness of its member states but is not responsible for their individual actions. It is yet again 'cake
and eat it.' Brussels needs to be rudely disabused that it can continue to play this game without consequence (f/y
European Parliament second hand, seat warming pols who are only waiting until their party wins elections back home
again). Take away this option. I don't see Russia taking this new act lying down though and are deliberately playing
their cards close to their chest.
Now on
reflection, this act has taken a remarkably long time to come to this point. This in itself tells us that there are
clearly significant misgivings behind closed doors. The fact that it has now reached his stage also tells us that
Brussels/Paris/Berlin think they have come up with a
cunning plan
aka
'squared the circle', but it is also a significant sign of weakness. Maybe the timing is related to the almost completed
NordStream 2 but that is irrelevant. This is about
consequence.
u-Rope
is currently at its weakest (politically and economically) for a long time but for some reason it thinks now is the time
for a EU Magnitsky It's really poor thinking.
So, I declare
2020 as the year of Hail Marys. The last throw of the dice. Desparation of maybe a final win, however fleeting to go out
in a blaze of heavenly glory before the EU turns inward to deal with its US sponsored saboage attempts, sic the PiS run
lo-land of Po-land that runs out of substantial cash on 31 December 2020 and the wheels of the bus start coming off.
The only other
tidbit I've seen is about Byelorussia. In particular only Latvia has STFU about and avoided the ire of Lucky-shenko. The
Brits would say that Riga is 'Boxing Clever.' Still, is it setting itself up as an EU interlocutor. Yet again, this is a
story of omisson. Lucky shouldn't trust any of them. And speaking of f/kers who won't let go, Borissov in Bulgaria is
still refusing to resign (who cares, they're in the EU) and Djukanovic in pro-EU Montengro remains presient despite
losing parliament. But, if you are in Da Klub, however korrupt or faked (hello Romania too!), it's just not
news.
So it must be
true! "Novichok" was used to murder the "Leader of the opposition"! Soviet developer of "Novichok" makes an apology to
Navalny:
Отравление
Навального , 20 сен, 00:23 179 058
Разработчик "Новичка" извинился перед Навальным
Он назвал разработку боевого яда "преступным бизнесом" и пояснил, что посвятил всю свою последующую жизнь борьбе против
применения отравляющих веществ
Vil Sultanovich Mirzayanov, a Tatar now living happily in the USA,
where he likes to dish the dirt on Russia as regards chemical weapons
Novichok developer has apologized to Navalny
He called the
development of combat poison "a criminal business" and explained that he had devoted his entire subsequent life to the
fight against the use of toxic substances
A chemist and one of the developers of the Novichok chemical warfare
agent Vil Mirzayanov has apologized to opposition leader Alexei Navalny on the Dozhd TV channel.
"I sincerely
apologize to Navalny for being involved in this criminal business -- the development of this substance, which he was
poisoned with", said the chemist who has lived in the United States since 1995.
He noted that
he had devoted himself all his subsequent life to the fight against the use of combat poisons.
In an
interview with Dozhd, Mirzayanov explained that in 1993 he met a man who had survived poisoning by "Novichok". He stated
that the symptoms he described were similar to those mentioned by Navalny on Instagram on September 19.
"All the
symptoms are similar. He overcame, survived. Apparently, Navalny will have to be patient. But, ultimately, he must be
healthy, "said the scientist. The restoration of full health to the Russian politician, Mirzayan said, could take up to
a year.
In his opinion, the situation as regards the impossibility of writing
words on a blackboard, which Navalny described, is associated with problems of signal transmission from the brain to
functional organs -- "Novichok" molecules prevent the breakdown of the protein responsible for the transmission of such
signals.
RBK calls
Navalny a "politician".
"Dozhd" gave
the interview.
Both are
libturd organs.
Mirzayanov was
not a developer of "Novichok". At one time he worked at the State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology
in the department for counteracting foreign technical intelligence, where he rose to the rank of head of department.
That is, he was familiar with what they do in laboratories, but he himself did not "invent" Novichok.
He started
blowing the whistle as regards the Soviet Union allegedly working around compliancy with the proposed 1990 Chemical
Weapons Accord and In 1992 published an article about the USSR and Russian development of extremely potent
fourth-generation chemical weapons from the 1970s until the early 1990s. The publication appeared just on the eve of
Russia signing the 1990 Chemical Weapons Convention.
Mirzayanov was
arrested on treason charges but the trial collapsed. He was released, but kept under house arrest and observation. In
1995 he relocated to the United States where he presently resides, taking a position at Rutgers University in New
Jersey.
Mirzayanov is
a professional Tatar: On October 26, 2008, was elected to the Presidium of the Milli Mejlis of the Tartar People in
exile. On January 17, 2009, in an article on CNN, he published the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF TATARSTAN, adopted at
a Special Meeting of the Milli Mejlis of the Tatar People on December 20, 2008] At a conference on the separation of
Tatarstan from Russia, held in Ankara in the same year, Mirzayanov was elected "Prime Minister" of the "government in
exile". In March 2010, Mirzayanov signed the "Putin Must Go" campaign.
In March 2018,
after the alleged poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal by "Novichok", Mirzayanov spoke about how Russia had maintained
tight control over its "Novichok" stockpile and that the agent is too complicated for a non-state actor to have
weaponized.
"It's torture.
It's absolutely incurable."
"I never
imagined even in my bad dreams that this chemical weapon, developed with my participation, would be used as terrorist
weapons."
Mirzayanov
said only the Russians could be behind the use of the weapon and said he was convinced Russia carried it out as a way of
intimidating opponents of President Vladimir Putin.
All part of
Washington's momentum campaign – keep it rolling, a new atrocity by Russia every day. Mirzayanov is an American now,
well established and apparently happy, and doubtless he will be well-rewarded for his storytelling. But I doubt the
'apology' to Navalny was his idea. Washington just wants to keep Navalny in the news, in the hope that the more
people learn who he is and what he is all about, the greater will be his influence in Russia.
Who is Mirzayanov and why did he apologize to Navalny?
The mass media, which in general few people trust, continue to
increase false publications about the poisoning of blogger Navalny. So, absurd information has appeared on the Web
about the fact that one of the creators of "Novichok", Vil Mirzayanov, who lives in the States, has apologized to
Alexei Navalny.
But the
fact is that Mirzayanov is not a developer of Novichok, he has nothing to do with this poisonous substance. He was
involved in some kind of indirect way with the creation of the poison, as were many others, but to call him a
developer is like calling a woodworker who made a stretcher for a canvas the artist who created the oil painting that
is on it.
So in
general, complete nonsense. One of the direct participants in the process of creating the toxin, Leonid Rink, stated
that Mirzayanov was only one of the workers on "Novichok", but did not participate in the direct creation of the
poison.
He also
commented on Navalny's symptoms, saying that they are in no way similar to those that should have been in the case of
Novchik poisoning. Rink stressed that his "colleague" also cannot know what the real symptoms are when this toxin
enters the human body. So Mirzayanov's statement is completely unfounded, and may apparently be explained as having
been made because he was ordered by someone to make it.
Finally, Rink said that if Navalny had been poisoned with this
particular poison, he would not have been saved.
Russia has
so many internal traitors (Navalny, Rodchenko and this Mirzayanov for example) that it makes too easy for Russia's
enemies to use them against Russia.
And is
it working? Is the west achieving the goals it set for itself by co-opting these traitors? Maybe in the short
term; the west was successful – using Rodchenkov – of keeping Russia largely out of a couple of Olympics series.
But the overall effect, it seems to me, is that the west is increasingly revealed as a partisan liar, and
consequently untrustworthy.
Why do
you say, "So many"? Does Russia have more 'internal traitors' than other countries? From the point of view that
they are willing to help other countries overthrow their own government, perhaps. But otherwise they are simply
people who disagree with the way their country is run, by the people who run it. The rest is support offered by
the west for them to air their views. Do you think Russia could make good use of Edward Snowden to bring down the
United States government by starting a movement in the USA of discontented people? I do; it wouldn't even be
difficult – it is a fragmented and angry country already, with several anti-government movements the government
can barely keep in check. Are there any signs Russia plans to use that approach? I mean, for real, not the
hysterical cries that Russia is behind Black Lives Matter and other obviously-American groups that are fed up with
their lives as they are.
It is
working because 95% of the people in Finland or the United States or Germany believe that Russian state
poisoned Navalny. The facts don't matter as much as what people believe in.
And
those who want more sanctions against Russia and isolate Russia also benefit, because they can point to Navalny
"poisoning" and say that Russia must be punished.
In
the US, virtually everyone has an opinion regardless of the level of familiarity with the topic. But, the
willingness to suffer for those opinions is ZERO, nada, ništa.
I
would appreciate a link to the information indicating 95% of the US population "believe[s] that Russian
state poisoned Navalny".
Like I said before, so much US propaganda is being dispensed that its value, like an overprinted currency,
is diminishing. When the US economic system collapses, as it surely will, all those opinions will be
forgotten as quickly as last year's "America's Got Talent" runner-up.
And so they apply more sanctions. Has that had any measurable negative effect on Russia? What will they do,
ban it from the Council of Europe again?
Look at it this way – the sanctions and the regime-change operations in neighbouring countries and the
serial-lying campaigns have all been part of a plan, a plan to drive Putin from power and put a western
bobblehead in his place. How many years have they been trying this, now – since 2014? Is it working? Is
Russia in worse shape now than it was then, or better? Is it more independent, or less? More assertive, or
less? Does it have a more diversified economy, or less?
If
I had put this plan together, and poured it on as hard as I could for six straight years now and had as
little to show for it as the west has, I'd be expecting to be called into the office any day now to get
fired.
Russia has so many internal traitors (Navalny, Rodchenko and
this Mirzayanov for example) that it makes too easy for Russia's enemies to use them against Russia.
The US
government/deep state leadership is traitorous to its own population. The steadily decreasing standard of living
over the past 3-4 decades combined with a rapidly growing wealth inequity tell us that,
Having
traitors fighting the national leadership is to be much preferred to a national leadership in the hands of
traitors. More simply, the US does not have many traitors because the traitors are running the show.
Got it?
When all
is said and done, the countries with the most fit population will generally prevail if left alone. The West knows
that hence the continuous pressure on Russia. Still got it?
The last photo of
Alexei Navalny before boarding the Moscow bound aeroplane plane in Tomsk / Twitter
Taken after
Navalny had allegedly drunk poisoned tea, they all at first howled in unison, but now they say he drank from a Novichok
contaminated bottle in his hotel room, which the Navalnyites later so fortuitously recovered from Navalny's long vacated
hotel room and sent to Berlin.
95% of people
in the West believe this story, namely that Navalny was poisoned by Novichok?
And not only
do 95% of Westerners believe that Navalny had ingested Novichok, but also, that it was a specially developed delayed
action Novichok that would only take effect some 40 minutes after that photo above had been taken.
Furthermore,
95% of Westerners believe that Navalny recovered from his poisoning by specially developed, delayed-action Novichok.
Now if the
story were subsequently changed and it were claimed that Navalny had been poisoned by, say, special, delayed action
strychnine,
AND
had
recovered from its effects, would 95% of Westerners believe that as well?
Well, maybe,
if it were alleged that such special, delayed action Strychnine could only have been developed by evil Russian
scientists, and one of those who partook in its development now showed remorse for his nefarious activities ands made a
public apology to Navalny for all the bother said strychnine had caused him.
Greetings from
Berlin! The happy couple enjoying
deutsche Gemütlichkeit
. It's a
miracle, I tell ya!
The above
Instagram text reads:
Julia and I had our
anniversary on August 26 -- 20 years of being wed, but I'm even glad that I missed it and I can write this today, when I
know a little more about love than I did a month ago.
You, of
course, have seen this a hundred times in films and read about it in books: one loving person lies in a coma, and the
other brings him back to life with her love and incessant care. Of course, we also acted in this way. According to the
canons of classic films about love and coma. I slept and slept and slept. Julia came, talked to me, sang songs to me,
turned on music. I won't lie – I don't remember anything.
But I'll tell
you what I remember exactly. Rather, it can hardly be called a "memory", rather, a bundle of my very first sensations
and emotions. However, it was so important to me that it has been forever imprinted in my mind. I'm lying there. I have
already been brought out of the coma, but I don't recognize anyone, I don't understand what is happening. I don't speak
and I don't know what to say. And the whole of the time that I was there was spent waiting for her arrival. Who she is
is unclear. I don't know what she looks like either. Even if I manage to see something with a defocused gaze, then I
simply cannot remember the picture. But She is different, I understand that, so I lie and wait for her all the time. She
comes and becomes the head of the ward. She adjusts my pillow very comfortably. She doesn't have a quiet, sympathetic
tone. She talks cheerfully and laughs. She tells me something. When she is around, idiotic hallucinations recede. It's
very good with her. Then she leaves, I feel sad, and I start waiting for her again.
I don't doubt for a
second that there is a scientific explanation for this. Well, like, I caught the timbre of my wife's voice, my brain
secreted dopamines, it became easier for me. Each visit literally became healing, and the expectation effect increased
the dopamine reward. But no matter how cool scientific and medical explanation sounds, now I know for sure just from my
own experience: love heals and brings you back to life. Julia, you saved me, and let it be written in the textbooks on
neuroscience😍
[Wipes tear
from eye .]
The body of
the Kommersant article text:
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny has published a blog post in which
he is outraged by the lack of a criminal investigation into his poisoning. He has also demanded the return of his
clothes, which may be important evidence. Mr. Navalny noted that two independent laboratories in France and Sweden, as
well as a German special laboratory in the Bundeswehr, had confirmed the presence of Novichok in his body. "However, in
Russian political and legal reality, none of this exists In Russia there is no criminal case, but there is a
"pre-investigation check on the fact of hospitalization ". It seems that I didn't fall into a coma on the aeroplane, but
slipped in a supermarket and broke my leg", wrote Mr. Navalny. He also demanded that the clothes he wore on August 20 be
returned to him -- the day he felt sick. According to the politician, he was "sent absolutely naked" to Germany.
"Considering that a Novichok was found on my body and a contact method of infection is very likely, my clothes are a
very important piece of evidence. 30 days allotted by law for pre-investigation
Listen,
arsehole: you threw a wobbler on the aircraft, howled and screamed and rolled around on the deck and then, allegedly,
went into a coma. On admission to hospital, you were put into a coma and remained in an induced comatose state until
your miraculous recovery in the Charité, Berlin
The reason why
no criminal case has been made in the country where you were allegedly dosed with Novichock, is that there is no
evidence of this being the case. Furthermore, there was no evidence of poisoning in the analyses of your body fluids and
tissue done in Omsk.
German doctors
say that they have such evidence, but they wont show it; likewise the Bundeswehr laboratories.
And there will
be no traces of Novichok on your clothing in the Omsk hospital either. If there had been, there would have been a lot of
dead people at that hospital last month.
September
21, 2020
The results of investigations of Navalny's clothing have become
known
Russian experts did not find traces of poison or hazardous
substances on the belongings of Alexei Navalny, in which he was on the day of hospitalization. The results of the
research have been made known to the TASS agency.
"In his
personal belongings, no dangerous, prohibited, poisonous, other substances or their traces were found", said a source
in law enforcement agencies.
Earlier,
the Ministry of Health of the Omsk region told Interfax that Navalny's clothes were seized from doctors by the
investigating authorities during an inspection.
On Monday, September 21, the blogger demanded that the things that
were removed from him in the Omsk hospital be returned to him. According to him, these clothes could become important
evidence, since there were traces of a poisonous substance on his body. "30 days of a 'pre-investigation check' were
used to hide this vital piece of evidence. I demand that my clothes be carefully packed in a plastic bag and returned
to me", the oppositionist said.
Yeah, deny,
deny, deny! That's all that Russians do. However, 95% of Finnish people think he was Novichocked and there were
traces of the most deadly nerve agent known to man on his clothes.
RUSSIA HAS NO
FUTURE: NAVALNY'S PARTY LIQUIDATED
09/21/2020
Today, September 21, the RF Supreme Court liquidated Navalny's party
"Russia of the Future".
In mid-May
2019, Alexey Navalny's assistants submitted documents to the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation for
registration of the "Russia of the Future" party. True, the ministry re-registered the "Party of Free Citizens" under a
new name, but refused to register Navalny's associates, owing to the fact that a party with this name had already been
registered.
Alexei Navalny
filed a lawsuit trying to challenge the registration refusal. Ultimately, both the Zamoskvoretsky Court and the Moscow
City Court were on the side of the Ministry of Justice.
Navalny's
aide, Ivan Zhdanov, said they currently do not plan to reapply for party registration.
"Our case has
been communicated to the ECHR and we are not planning new filings in the near future", Zhdanov said.
Since 2012, politician Navalny has been trying to register his party
under the names "People's Alliance", "Party of Progress" or "Russia of the Future". However, all attempts to do so have
been in vain.
In other
words, as I have said before: "Fuck off, arsehole!"
The
"politician" without a party and with statistically zilch public support in Russia.
No mass
protests or civil unrest anywhere in Russia since Navalny's alleged poisoning: nothing like the massive popular protests
held week in week out in support for Furgal in Khabarovsk. Sweet FA in support of the "leader of the Russian opposition"
whom Putin tried to murder with Novichok!
However, I
hear that 95% of people in the West believe there was indeed an assassination attempt made against the US agent using
the most deadly nerve agent (weapons grade, modified) known to man and undertaken on Putin's direct order.
Here's a
possible solution – call it "The Party of Crooks and Thieves". Subtle, innit? Then The Kremlin will think Navalny is
calling himself and his fellow party members crooks and thieves, when all along he is simply planning – cunningly, as
he and the US Department of State do everything – to give his signature phrase the publicity boost it deserves!
Fookin' ELEGANT!
Over a dozen members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's
Russiagate-investigating team "accidentally" wiped their phones before they could be inspected and "lost" the phone of
disgraced FBI lawyer Lisa Page with anti-Trump texts.
Musing
during an evening work break – the reason why mass rape of children by our vaunted leaders draw so little attention
from the MSM has nothing to do with "protecting" those in power either due to fear or reward. Rather, Bill and Hilary
do what comes natural to sociopaths. As such, their behavior is accepted, if not condoned, as normal for those in
power. Us deplorables just don't get it.
Journalist who has visited Charité has pointed out signs of Navalny's
absence there
14:55 22 September 2020, Berlin, Germany
Alexei Navalny is not at the Charité clinic in Berlin. This is the
conclusion reached by journalist Alexander Sosnovsky, who has visited the place.
A journalist from
Berlin has shown why Navalny cannot be at the "Charité" / Collage: FBA "Economics Today"
According to the journalist, the photo of Navalny with his wife on a
balcony makes one think about his whereabouts. Sosnovsky, who is familiar with the architecture of Berlin, drew
attention to the strange urban landscape in the corner of the picture. He pointed out that the Charité building does not
have balconies with a similar view, as it is located in the central part of Berlin with a completely different
architecture.
To confirm his
words in practical way, Sosnovsky personally went to the Charité and walked around the building with a camera. He drew
attention to the construction work near the clinic (this would probably have got into the blogger's photo), as well as
the complete absence of journalists and security. All this confirmed Sosnovsky's suspicions about Navalny's absence from
Charité.
In addition to
the cityscape, the journalist had questions about the can with cigarette butts on Navalny's balcony. Sosnovsky called
such an object impossible in an élite medical institution in Germany with patients of this level. If Navalny himself
smoked all the cigarettes in the frame, this raises even more questions about his "diagnosis" and the conclusions of
German doctors.
The journalist
notes that all the shots of Navalny taken after he had emerged from the coma are static and "inanimate." Sosnovsky, a
person with a medical education and a practicing doctor, calls this understandable, pointing to the possibility of
identifying the signs of specific diseases and influences based on movements, speech and other dynamic manifestations.
For example, after a tracheostomy (artificial windpipe), a person often has voice problems.
"Any video and
audio makes it possible with a high degree of probability to calculate where and how it was made. It is much more
difficult from a photo. And if they hide from us the opportunity to determine the location and diagnosis, this is very
significant", Sosnovsky said on the air of Soloviev Live.
Earlier, Navalny demanded that Russia return the clothes in which the
blogger was hospitalized in Omsk. However, Navalny's own associates previously wrote that all his belongings were
transferred to his wife, and some of the items that the blogger touched and used could have been taken out by Maria
Pevchikh, a suspect in his poisoning.
" This makes you wonder whether Navalny even set foot into any
hospital in Berlin at all, and not just a medical clinic or some place where discharged patients go to recuperate
after a hospital stay "
– even
before that photo of the Navalnys being lovey-dovey on a balcony appeared. Do hospital floor plans normally include
balconies attached to patient wards? I am sure hospitals are not designed like hotels or even like educational
institutions, to include balconies for individual patients or groups of patients, for possible security and liability
reasons among others. (You don't want patients sneaking out at night and possibly getting run over in traffic when
they are supposed to be under hospital supervision; and you also don't want to make entry easy for people looking for
drugs and entering hospitals through patient wards to get drugs.)
And since
when do hospitals allow patients or even their visitors to smoke on their premises? Not only are they a health hazard
(to smokers and non-smokers alike in sealed air-conditioned environments such as hospitals provide) but they are also
a fire hazard.
I can't
remember where I read it (Euractiv?), but apparently the current NordStream II plan is to complete it
and
then
apply restrictive measures such as capacity caps etc. This I can believe. A) it get's Brussels off the hook for
wildly violating its own Energy Charter (private investor protections), something which you may all recall Brussels has
been trying to use against Russia even though the latter did not ratify it but is technically supposed to be bound by
the rules or a period; b) it looks like it has taken action; c) it can reverse at any point not to mention all the
exemptions Brussels allowed for 'Field Pipes', TAP etc. and retro-actively trying to redefine its rule to be
ex-territoria – i.e. apply to out pipline that are not end-to-end EU pipelines but cross outside of the EU. And finally
to threaten and blackmail Gazprom in public to agree Privately mutually beneficial terms that do not contravene the
Energy Charter, i.e. if Gazprom
voluntarliy
goes along with the
new rules. Very Brussels 'squaring the circle'/presenting weakness/compromise as VICTORY!
We know from
the past that Brussels imposed a 50% capacity cap on Russian gas though NS I until demand picked up and the restriction
would have driven up prices for EU industry and private customers and thus magically lifted the cap, subject to 'market
conditions' of course!
In other news,
a PiS (Polish government) spokesman said that they didn't need coalition partners which turned out to mean that
'The
PiS-led coalition would lose its parliamentary majority without United Poland, which has 17 seats. The coalition crisis
came after simmering tensions spilled into open conflict when the junior members refused to support an animal rights
bill.
.' 'Hanging by a thread' anal-cyst looks more like projection to me.
Oh, what a
stupid fucking plan. They're not serious, or don't realize they are not, but ENI and Uniper and Wintershall are not
going to put up with that shit for a minute. They invested to make money, not lose it, and they are not remotely
interested in making room for American LNG. I sometimes wonder what passes for political nous in Europe these days –
it doesn't look like you have to have too many synapses firing.
Therefore it is very much a political figleaf. Something they can tell themselves and others knowing full well
that they won't do it. More importantly they think it buys them time for example if t-Rump is not re-elected even
though the Dems are onboard with the 'f/k NSII' plans.
I think
this actually shows that they looked down the barrel of the gun (i.e. spoke to their own Legal Service) and didn't
like what they saw, that Brussels would be unequivocaly on the hook for NSII not being completed. This is just
like earlier when the EU Legal Services told them that they couldn't apply the Third Energy Package retroactively
(as previously posted on this blog – or was it the old one?). The article below has a pdf upload of the actual EU
Legal Services opinion & the German.* Bundesnetzagentur.
Oh, look at
that – Mr. Less-than-5% has been 'discharged' from the hospital he probably was never in, so you journalists can stop
hanging about picking the western storyline apart; he ain't here no more.
Poisoned with the deadliest nerve agent
known to man, and in less than a week he's ready to hit the road (less than a week after coming out of a coma where
he had to have a ventilator breathe for him, I mean). Day one, he wakes up. Day two, he's recovered 90% of his brain
function and nearly all his mobility. And only a couple of days after that, he's demanding his clothes back from
Russia and making plans for his glorious return, perhaps riding an Abrams main battle tank. Wasn't Detective Bailey
in the hospital for weeks, with death hovering over his pillow the whole time? And HE had gloves on! Navalny is
Superman. Remarkable.
Fully
recovered, the Fritz miracle worker doctors say.
A golden
Guinea to the swab who first spies a balcony on yon white monster! Aaaaarrr!!!
As it
happens, I lived in Berlin for a while in 1988 -- in both the capitalist showcase of "West Berlin" and in "East
Berlin", the capital of the former German Democratic Republic or "sowjetische Besatzungszone" as "West German"
politicians liked to label the place without going into details about why exactly a large chunk of the so=called
"Thousand Year Reich" was indeed occupied by the Soviet Union, and I agree with other critics: no way was that
balcony shot of Bullshitter and his wife taken at the Charité, which is situated right slap bang in the middle of
Berlin.
Berlin's
Charité Hospital -- "Bettenhochhaus" -- was completed in 1982 and was cleaned and renovated in 2016-2017. It is
around 87m tall and is Germany's largest hospital. It dominates the skyline at the Mitte Campus, nestled right in
the middle of the city near the Parliament and Central Station.
Not because he
is in trouble with the law here. Although a trial awaits him in order to establish the truth as regards another criminal
case. Not because he can be poisoned (but who needs him), although no one poisoned him. He is either a pawn in someone's
dirty game that was used on the quiet, or the initiator of this whole bad story.
If he had
really been poisoned with a chemical warfare agent, then everyone who had contact with him would be in the hospital bed.
And the aeroplane in which they brought the bottle on which the traces of "Novichok" were allegedly found, would have
been burnt long ago. As in the case with the Skripals, the British demolished the house where they had found traces of
the poison. Somehow everything turns out awkwardly.
What is it all
for? By and large, Navalny does not play any role in Russian politics. An ordinary blogger who positions himself as an
opposition politician, fighter against corruption. True, it is worth recalling that this fighter against corruption has
himself been a defendant in a criminal case of embezzlement in Kirovles. And he received a five-year suspended sentence
for embezzlement and yet more embezzlement.
Scandals are
his bread and butter. The forgotten blogger decided to remind everyone about himself in this way, let's say for the sake
of hype. True, it all went too far. And if the truth is revealed, and someday it will definitely come out, then Navalny
will really have to worry about his health . . .
Most likely, the fugitive blogger will disappear like Skripal. It
will be better for everyone. So stay there in Germany or go to the states.
And the above
opinion, in my opinion, is what the vast majority of Russians think.
I live with
Russians -- real Russians: I don't sit in flash cafés or bars, chinwagging with the Russian bourgeois "élite", who are
ever willing to spill forth to me their tales of woe and suffering in the "regime" and their yearning for the
establishment of a "liberal" Western "democracy" here, as do the likes of Independent Moscow correspondent Carroll, and
Shaun "don't-give-me-no-dill" Walker, the BBC correspondent Rainsford, so full of negative spin on all things Russian,
and her slimy git of a BBC colleague Rosenberg.
And now the
ever truthful Frog rag "Le Monde" reports that in conversation with Macron, Putin suggested that the Bullshitter may
have poisoned himself. Signal
immediate heart-rending response from team Navalny -- read "Washington":
"I cooked 'Novichok' in the kitchen. I took a soft sip from a flask on
the plane "
Navalny has responded to Putin's suggestion that the oppositionist himself drank poison
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has responded to the
words of Russian President Vladimir Putin, published in the French newspaper "Le Monde", that he poisoned himself with a
substance from the "Novichok" group. "Good version. I believe that it deserves the closest study. Cooked "Novichok" in
the kitchen. Took a soft sip from a flask on the plane. I fell into a coma. Prior to that, I agreed with my wife,
friends and colleagues that if the Ministry of Health insists that they take me to Germany for treatment, they would not
allow it to be done. To die in the Omsk hospital and end up in the Omsk morgue, where the cause of death would be
established: "had lived enough" – this is the ultimate goal of my cunning plan. But Putin outplayed me. You just can't
fool him. As a result, I, like a fool, lay in a coma for 18 days, but did not achieve my goal. The provocation failed! "
– ironically Navalny on his page on the social network Instagram.
23
September 2020, 08:39
Macron's statement on Navalny and the resonating publication of "Le
Monde"
The French
President said that what happened to the Russian oppositionist was an "assassination attempt." Le Monde wrote about
the conversation between Macron and Putin, and the Russian ambassador to Germany has said that Berlin does not want
to cooperate with Moscow over the Navalny situation.
Updated at
10:07
French President Emmanuel Macron called on Russia to shed light on
the situation with Navalny. Speaking at a session of the UN General Assembly, the French President called the
incident an "assassination attempt": "We will not tolerate the use of chemical weapons in Europe, Russia or Syria. We
need to clarify quickly and flawlessly as we will make sure that the red lines are respected. "
His video
message to the UN coincided with a high-profile publication of the French newspaper "Le Monde" about a telephone
conversation between Macron and Putin. Sources of the publication retell their conversation about the situation with
Navalny.
According to Le Monde, it was "a conversation not intended to be
heard". According to sources, Macron said that since it would be impossible for a private organization to use
"Novichok"
[Why? Peddling another "Novichok" myth yet again! -- ME]
,
an official Russian explanation is needed
[Why? Presumption of Russian guilt? -- ME]
.
In response, Putin allegedly called Alexei Navalny "a simple internet brawler who committed illegal actions in the
past and used the Anti-Corruption Fund to blackmail deputies and officials". According to the newspaper, the Russian
president noted that Navalny had previously simulated various diseases and could have swallowed the poison himself.
Why the politician did this, Putin did not explain, writes "Le Monde".
According
to the newspaper, Vladimir Putin also noted that "Novichok" is a much less complex substance than it is believed. The
lack of an official investigation was explained by the fact that the results of the French and German tests were not
transferred to Russia. In addition, the Russian president, according to "Le Monde's" sources, suggested investigating
other versions, leading, in particular, to Latvia, where the inventor of "Novichk" lives. As the newspaper noted, in
fact, several Soviet scientists took part in the creation of "Novichk" at once, and the fact that one of them lives
abroad says nothing, especially in the absence of any plausible motive. According to the newspaper, Macron rejected
the Latvian trace and the version of an attempt to poison himself.
How should
one feel about the publication of "Le Monde" and will it have any impact in Europe? Commentary by political scientist
Georgy Bovt:
– First of
all, Le Monde has just thrown shit at the Russian president, because, first of all, we do not know in what context
this was said. It could have been said in such a sarcastic tone, for example, and in the context of other spoken
phrases, it would have sounded different from what it sounds like now, when such a position seems rather too strange
to many. This happens quite often when retelling rather frank conversations of politicians, which are then presented
without understanding the tone and context. So, of course, this post will make a difference. And secondly, the fact
that the Elysée Palace itself considered it possible to leak this information to the press makes it problematic in
the future to communicate with Macron at the level at which it happened before.
– During his speech at the session, he also called on Russia to shed
light on, as he put it, the attempt to assassinate Navalny.
– It
doesn't matter much now, since it is obvious that the conversation with Putin, which took place in confidence, was
leaked to the press. Usually this is not done after all. And if it is done, then the relationship that was before is
cancelled out. This probably means that Macron also decided to cross out his relationship with Putin, which had
developed before.
– Couldn't Putin have thus, on the contrary, been try to improve
relations by recounting all Navalny's "ideas" and attempts to blackmail people close to the authorities during his
investigations?
– The Kremlin's attitude towards Navalny can hardly be called
exalted, and to say that the Kremlin loves Navalny would be a strong exaggeration. Therefore, the attitude to this
politician there is supercritical, dismissive. Nevertheless, to seriously talk about the fact that he poisoned
himself -- well, the general public will not understand this: this requires at least some additional clarification
about the basis on which such statements are made, if they are made seriously, and not in such a manner as a cynical
joke.
[You must
be kidding, Bovt! Navalny critics -- and most Russians are! -- think he's lower than a snake's belly, that he's a
TRAITOR, a FOREIGN AGENT!!!!! If the Pindosi tell him to give one for the Gipper, he'll fucking well do it! That's
his nature. He's in it for the moolah!!!! Nothing else! -- ME]
Late at
night, Navalny himself reacted to the publication. On social media, he wrote: "Good version. I cooked "Novichok" in
the kitchen. I took a soft sip from a flask on the aeroplane. To die in an Omsk hospital and end up in an Omsk
morgue, where the cause of death would be established "had lived enough" -- that was the ultimate goal of my cunning
plan. But Putin outplayed me. You just can't fool him. As a result, I, like a fool, lay in a coma for 18 days, but
did not achieve my goal. The provocation failed! "
Russian
Ambassador to Germany Sergei Nechaev said that Berlin does not want to cooperate with Moscow on the situation with
Navalny. According to him, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office sent requests for legal assistance to France,
Sweden and twice to Germany, but did not receive a single answer.
According
to the diplomat, without these samples from foreign laboratories, law enforcement agencies cannot start a criminal
investigation into the incident. He said that a preliminary investigation of the situation had already begun on the
part of Russia: many objects were examined, the staff of the hotel, hospital and airport were interviewed.
According
to the latest data, Navalny's condition improved and he was discharged from the hospital. This was told in the Berlin
clinic Charite. Doctors consider it possible that he will recover completely.
Which all
begs the question that he was poisoned with "Novichok", which he clearly wasn't!
Why?
Because he
is not dead!
It matters
not who administered the poison or whether the bullshitting bastard took it himself: the dose wasn't lethal.
The bastard
took some salts in the aircraft toilet, then put on a show for the passengers, none of whom suffered any ill effects
from their having been in close proximity with a person covered with the most deadly poison known to man.
Russian
doctors at Omsk know that the lying traitorous bastard wasn't poisoned.
So do
German doctors in Berlin, but they have political agenda to follow.
On the Navalny
poisoning. Interesting to see that Vladimir Ashurkov is in the inner core of the Integrity Initiative. Suggesting
another media-led provocation.
More fool
you BBC for believing the story of such a cnut!
Ashurkov is
Executive Director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation. A former banker, Ashurkov was rolling the lolly in as the
Director of Group Portfolio Management and Control at Alfa Group Consortium from 2006 to 2012, when he was asked to
step down because of his political involvement with Alexei Navalny. So he has an axe trto grind.
As usual,
the rich and privileged Ashurkov is so typical of the millions of Russians who love and adore Bullshitter Navalny.
From the
Russian
Wiki
entry on Ashurkov, which is far more revealing than the sparse
English
Wiki
on the thieving twat:
In April 2014, Ashurkov left Russia. On July 30, 2014, he was put
on the federal wanted list in the case of fraud with the financing of Navalny's election campaign as mayor of Moscow.
In July
2014, he applied for political asylum in the UK in connection with persecution in the Russian Federation. In February
2015, he received asylum, at the same time his common-law wife Alexandrina Markvo was arrested in absentia by the
Basmanny Court, whose firm Bureau 17 of the RF IC was accused of stealing several million budget funds during
literary events.
In the UK,
he was engaged in investment projects in the field of venture and angel investments dedicated to e-commerce. At the
same time, he continued to work with Alexei Navalny. In December 2015, he launched the
Sanation
Law
project, which analyzes the adopted scandalous bills and the process of their further cancellation, "which
will become relevant when the political system is liberalized and the new government takes a course to dismantle the
authoritarian regime". According to his own statements, he changed his libertarian beliefs to more leftist ones.
He gave,
along with several others, testimony to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons of the British
Parliament in connection with the preparation of the latter's report "Russian corruption and the UK inquiry", which
was presented in May 2018 year.
In November 2018, hackers of the Anonymous group published
documents of the British project Integrity Initiative; amongst others, Ashurkov's surname appeared in the lists of
participants. Ashurkov suggested that the hackers stole the Institute of Statecraft (one of the founders of the
Integrity Initiative) mailing address database, which actually contains his email address. According to him, he had
not heard of the Integrity Initiative.
Western politicians are still undecided over their response to
the
poisoning
, says the BBC's Jenny Hill in Berlin.
However, Mr
Navalny's discharge from hospital will intensify pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel who has demanded – so far
in vain – a full explanation from the Kremlin, she adds.
A nerve agent from the Novichok group was also used to poison Russian
ex-spy Sergei Skripal
and his daughter in Salisbury, England in 2018. They both survived, but a local woman, Dawn
Sturgess, died after coming into contact with the poison.
Britain
accused
Russia's military intelligence of carrying out that attack
. Twenty countries expelled more than 100 Russian
diplomats and spies. Moscow denied any involvement.
And no
evidence presented whatsoever for the above highlighted accusations.
But Russia, as
ever, is presented as denying a fully proven fact -- a "slam dunk" accusation, as I believe Pindosi are sometimes wont to
say.
What with all the noise of the dogs and camels, a swan song can be
easily missed. But not Maria Pevchikh's (lead image, right) broadcast by the BBC's Russian Service.
For the first
time, the British state propaganda organ has said too much too loudly in defence of one of its Russian assets, and
confirmed the combination of celebrity, political ambition, and money which has made the poisoning of Alexei Navalny a
faulty fabrication; and Navalny's attempt to make political capital out of it, a modest success for the British secret
services; an immodest failure for the German Foreign Ministry, Defence Ministry, German Army, and the Berlin medical
clinic which goes by the name of Charity
German sources close to the thinking of the Chancellery in Berlin
and of Chancellor Angela Merkel believe that whatever she has been told by her subordinates and experts, her intention
is to let the Navalny poisoning narrative fade away for lack of evidence of a crime the Germans are willing to publish
####
More at the
link.
I concur with
the conclusion. I think at some point Merkel realized she was being bumped in to action and rather than just saying 'No'
against a mass of pressure and liability for her, she moved sideways and insisted on the full processes to be followed.
That way she could not be accused of blocking, and secondly it affects the time frame for actions which is the whole
critical point of the whole affair. Outside a certain window, proposed actions lose much of their force, are obsolete or
ultimately become pointless.
As for les
grenouilles, le coq is all about puffing up its chest and looking much bigger than ite really is. Maybe they've given up
on their 'special relationship' with Russia. It's certainly backwards from when Putin allowed Sarkozy to dig the EU/NATO
and the west out of its self-made hole of backing Saakashiti's 2008 'war of liberation.' Exactly what 'other tools' does
Clément Beaune think the EU can bring to bear on Russia that would have any more effect than the current sanction etc.?*
Unless he is talking about sorcery
But we were so bad at dealing with power that we just delegated it,
if I may put it like that, to NATO, to the U.S., to national states, armies and so on," Beaune said.
"The EU was not about this. So the EU is learning that, hello, there
are some powers on the doorstep -- Russia, Turkey, just to mention two of them, the main ones -- and they are not so nice.
So we have to unite and we have to develop tools, and we don't have them at this stage," he said
Apparently,
Pevchikh was given a bogus interview on the BBC and was presented as an uninteresting, nothing special sort of
person, about whom rumours and innuendo were amassing for no reason whatsoever.
The
interviewer never pressed her on how long she had lived in the UK, what her business interests there were (claims
have been made that she runs a book store), why she visits Russia so frequently, what indeed isher present
citizenship, how she became involved with Navalny's "fund" -- she says she answered an ad., but where? In the UK?
Hardly! And on and on .
It was a
"nothing to see here, now move along!" interview undertaken by the free of state control BBC under the auspices of
the State Intelligence Service, for whom, I am sure, Pevchikh is a most willing helper, if not in its employ.
"In response
to the actions of the European Union, Russia has decided to expand the list of representatives of EU member states and
institutions that are prohibited from entering the Russian Federation".
She stressed that the number of people in the list is equal to a
similar list compiled by the European Union, adding that the bloc has taken multiple unfriendly steps towards Russian
citizens, using sanctions as an "absurd" excuse
With his
receding hairline and rapidly thinning mop Navalny has exceeded his shelf life for attracting naïve youngsters. He looks
like the Russian equivalent of Rigsby, the seedy rackrent landlord in Rising Damp.
Rigsby
was a great snidey, lecherous, creep of a landlord
Poor old
Leonard Rossiter was a good actor as well. I was rather saddened when he died unexpectedly.
One of
my old workmates could take Rigsby off to a "T". He used to chat up girls using Rigsby-style creepy flattery and
strangely enough, he used to hit it off with them when performing his chatting-up of them in this fashion.
Oh, I doubt
it – Pevchikh is the exact opposite of a media personality, apparently doing her best to remain in a blurry
background and not get noticed. And owing to the suspicion now surrounding her, she would never have Navalny's
freedom of movement in Russia, where he is watched only by the newbies who need the training and the guys who showed
up to work hung-over and are being punished.
Did Russia
really poison opposition politician Navalny? And NATO wants a color revolution in Belarus
708 views•23 Sep 2020
Moderate
Rebels
20.9K subscribers
Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton start off with an exclusive, bombshell intercepted recording we were leaked of Russian
President Vladimir Putin's phone calls.
Then we speak
with journalist Bryan MacDonald, who lives in Russia, about the very suspicious alleged poisoning of opposition
candidate Alexei Navalny, and what his real, xenophobic politics are.
We also
discuss the NATO/EU attempt to orchestrate a so-called color revolution in Belarus and install a pro-Western neoliberal
regime.
SECTIONS
0:00 Exclusive, bombshell intercepted recording
8:33 Poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny
45:00 Belarus color revolution attempt
1:21:30 Outro
Over at
OffGuardian, a frequent contributor argues compellingly that information which supports questions as to whether face
masks have any beneficial effect against an airborne viral infection is being systematically purged from the internet.
Furthermore,
the comments carry on the discussion of the extent to which not only well-known corporate-friendly browsers and search
engines like Google censor searches and limit access to critical information through down-ranking algorithms, but even
'independent' browsers like DuckDuckGo.
Often people
who narrate tech talks seem chosen for their preoccupied monotone delivery, so that reading the phone book seems a
viable alternative to listening, and this one is no exception – nonetheless, a very interesting demo of a fairly-new
website known as 'Censored Search'.
I think most
people realize the internet is slowly but surely being taken over by corporate and one-world interests that want to
shape your thinking by controlling what you read – apparently monitoring was not enough. But I would wager few grasp
just how blatant and invasive it is. The internet is lost, and it is past time for an alternative that gets back to its
maverick early days while maintaining its present versatility. The secret to the success of advertising – which after
all, is mostly propaganda – is to prevent your ability to turn it off and not be exposed to it.
Which is
the modern version that stands today, then? The one with balconies, or without?
According
to Wiki, the Charite has four campuses, all in Berlin – the main building in Mitte (which appears to be the one in
which the honoured guest was allegedly quartered and allowed to smoke and wander about the stairwells at will). the
Benjamin Franklin in Lichterfelde , the Virchow Klinikum in Wedding and the Berlin Buch, in Buch. Of those pictured,
only the main building appears to have balconies like a hotel. The Buch is not pictured, but was apparently acquired
in 2001 by the Helios clinics Group; the Charite now uses it only for research facilities.
It's hard
to know which side you're looking at, but one side appears flat right across while the sections that are balconied
protrude slightly at each side. It would obviously be much easier to build them on than to blast them off, so it
appears the version with the balconies is current.
On Thursday
(24 September), Christian Gramm, the president of Germany's Military Intelligence Service (MAD), was forced to resign.
To many, the shake-up doesn't come as a surprise given the recent criticism over how the agency handled investigations
into right-wing extremism in the German Special Forces (KSK). Gramm's term as MAD president will come to an end next
month
####
Curious timing
no? Surely completely unrelated to the recent likely faked Navalny 'poisoning.'
I'll be
damned. That IS an astonishing coincidence, and they apparently felt it was enough of a glaring coincidence that a
red-herring excuse was supplied. If your guess is accurate, it likely suggests there will be no flinching from
Germany on supplying Navalny's samples to Russia, and no apology; the issue will just be allowed to fade away, while
a few selective firings is supposed to send its own message. We'll see. Good catch!
Well
keep an eye on the follow up or far more likely the almost total absence of it.
When it
is embarassing to oneself, suddenly it becomes like classic 'straight facts' reporting. When it can cause trouble
for your enemies, speculation runs wild, pure
Rosenford
(Rosenberg/Rainsford),
They can peddle all kinds of ropey speculative s/t and opinon as proper journalism
because
it is Russia
where we all know that everything is possible.
RUSSIA AND COVID. As far as I can see it's pretty much under control
in Russia. CNN has a (surprisingly) intelligent discussion; counting is everything (vide: with or from?) and the
Russians are stricter on their counting. They also treat early with an effective drug. Meanwhile in the USA and UK,
supposedly the best prepared I recommend Stephen Walt's essay again: The Death of American Competence. And I reiterate:
2020 will go down as the year the West lost its mojo .
####
Navalny's apartment in Moscow has been seized following a lawsuit by
Prigozhin
Bailiffs have
seized the apartment of opposition politician Alexei Navalny in Moscow, FBK press secretary Kira Yarmysh said on
Twitter.
According to
her, Federal Bailiff Service officers announced a ban on registration actions at the end of August, a week after Navalny
had been poisoned on board a Tomsk-Moscow flight.
"This means
that the apartment cannot be sold, donated or mortgaged. At the same time, Alexey's accounts have been seized", Yarmysh
explained.
She also added
that the seizure was connected with a lawsuit filed by the St. Petersburg businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who bought out
the FBK debt of 88 million rubles from "Moskovskiy Shkolnik". 30 million rubles have already been collected from the
fund's accounts.
In October, the Moscow Arbitration Court took the side of "Moskovskiy
Shkolnik" in a dispute with FBK. The company demanded compensation for damages received as a result of the fund's
investigation of poor quality food in the capital's schools.
Data from an extract of the Unified State Register of Real Estate,
which is at the disposal of RIA Novosti, confirms that the bailiffs imposed encumbrances on Navalny's apartment, in
which he owns one third of the living space.
In addition,
as follows from the database of enforcement proceedings on the Federal Bailiff Service website, Navalny must pay almost
29 million rubles under a writ of execution on "other foreclosures of a property nature" in favour of individuals and
legal entities, as well as pay off an enforcement fee of more than two million rubles.
Commenting on
the situation with Navalny's apartment, Yevgeny Prigozhin, director of "Concord Management and Consulting", said that he
would be able to give shelter the blogger for a small fee.
"As for Navalny's apartment, if he does not find shelter with his comrades-in-arms, like Lenin, then I will make him an
inexpensive in the hallway", the Concord press service quotes him.
In 2019, a
court in Moscow found 17 statements in a video clip and a publication on catering in Moscow schools and kindergartens as
untrue and defamatory to the business reputation of "Moskovskiy Shkolnik" and ordered that there be recovered from FBK,
as well as Navalny and Lyubov Sobol, in total 88 million rubles. They were also ordered to remove the subject and
articles containing inaccurate information from their websites and social media accounts, as well as publish a
refutation in the form of the operative part of the court decision.
In July this year, Navalny announced the closure of the
Anti-Corruption Fund. In August, Prigozhine bought out the debt of Navalny, Lyubov Sobol and FBK to the Moscow Schoolboy
company. After that, the right to claim passed to the businessman.
What you gonna
do now, Yogi?
You should
know: both you and Sobol are lawyers -- aren't you?
It sounds
as if 'the Kremlin' is finally going to get serious about punishing that toad. He's so used to piling up suspended
sentences hat he perhaps expected another. But I suspect the purpose of the legal actions against him this time
around is to prevent his return to Russia. Moscow is likely quite comfortable with the idea of him becoming another
'president in exile' like Khodorkovsky.
And Navalny has access to the finest legal minds in the west – surely they
will take his case pro bono, and show up where 'the Kremlin' is acting illegally. If they cannot do that, well then
what must be our conclusion?
I suspect
the days of money-for-nothing for Lyosha may be over.
It
sounds like a lien or inhibition on dealing with the property – standard practice in seeking to recover monies
owed in the western legal systems so admired by the blogger. A bog-standard remedy in private law disputes – i.e.
NOT involving the state other than through its position to adjudicate between non-state parties in duly conducted
court proceedings.
The
purchase of the assignation of rights in the school services defamation case was pure genius.
Commenting
on the situation with Navalny's apartment, Yevgeny Prigozhin, director of "Concord Management and Consulting", said
that he would be able to give shelter to the blogger for a small fee.
"As for Navalny's apartment, if he does not find shelter with his comrades-in-arms, like Lenin, then I will fashion
him an inexpensive bed in the hallway", the Concord press service quotes him.
Dasha studied English language in-depth at Moscow Gymnasium No. 45,
one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the Russian capital,
However, after
graduating from high school, the girl did not want to stay in her native Moscow. Dasha has frankly admitted in her blog:
she is going to study at Stanford University, one of the top universities in America, located in sunny California.
According to Daria, she will study at Stanford free of charge, since
her parents' income is below one hundred thousand dollars. However, this has caused more surprise among Russians – the
fact is that only US citizens on a low income have the opportunity of studying at this university without paying fees,
and In any case, her parents must pay considerable expenses for her living and studying in America
I daresay
Moscow is starting a dossier on Darya, with relevant information such as this, against the day she will want to
return to Russia as a celebrated dissident like Daddy.
*Pussy Riot
Activist May Have Been Poisoned, German Doctors Say*
Sept. 18, 2018
BERLIN --
German doctors treating a Pussy Riot activist who lost his sight, speech and mobility after spending time in a court in
Moscow said on Tuesday that it was "highly plausible" that he had been poisoned, as their tests had found no evidence
that he was suffering from a long-term illness.
The activist,
Pyotr Verzilov, 30, was treated for several days in the toxicology wards of two hospitals in Moscow after falling ill.
On Saturday, he was flown to Berlin and admitted to the Charité hospital. His doctors in the German capital told
reporters at a news conference that he was in an intensive care unit but was not in life-threatening condition.
"We are
working on the assumption of a poisoning that has lasted about a week," Dr. Kai-Uwe Eckardt, director of the hospital's
medical center, said. "Test results indicate certain active ingredients, but the exact substance has not yet been
determined."
Verzilov is
supposedly – according to one source I read – the force behind having Navalny evacuated to Germany. It will be funny
now if he cannot return to Russia.
That
guy is a self-important prick with delusions of grandeur. If he is representative of the non-systemic
opposition in Russia then, assuming that Putin is even aware of this guy, it would only provide a good laugh
after a hard day at the office
Verzilov is an attention junkie. He set himself up as the 'spokesman' of Pussy Riot because they were
getting a lot of attention and he wanted to be part of it. He has no visible talent of his own – except
perhaps a facility for languages, his English is pretty good – and so he must attach himself to those who
either are talented, or who fancy they are and who are supported in that belief by the English-speaking
media.
His English is good because he went to school in Toronto until his somehow landing a place at MGU
Philosophy Faculty, which is one of the greatest riddles of the Cosmos, in my opinion.
I think he was at least 12 when he began to live in Canada. He lived there with his "philosopher" first
wife as well. What exactly their status in Canada is, I can never clearly find out.
She dropped out of the MGU Philosophy Faculty after he had humped her when she was 18. A couple of weeks
before she had the baby, he was shagging her in public -- or simulating the act -- in a Moscow zoological
museum. He and his ex-wife had other fornicating accomplices during the "event".
Time to pay up! More than three million rubles have been blocked on
Alburov's bank account
Today, 18:17
Georgy Alburov, who
had previously called himself the head of the FBK investigation department, suddenly revealed his real boss to the
world, when the activities of Maria Pevchikh were exposed
Photo:
http://www.instagram.com/alburov
It is time to
pay the bills. The hand of justice has also reached out to the liberalist Georgy Alburov from the so-called
Anti-Corruption Fund, recognized as a foreign agent. More than three million rubles have been blocked on his bank
account. The money will go towards losses incurred by government services during last year's rallies in Moscow.
Navalnyist Alburov was one of the main agitators of the disorder there.
Unlike
adequate people, Navalnyists do not recognize the obvious illegality of their actions, as well as the right of
representatives of the authorities to impose completely justified punishment against them. They start screaming on all
their Twitter, Facebook, Telegram etc. accounts about alleged blatant injustice and, as it happens, every time, they ask
for donations. Thus, they manage, of course, by manipulating the hamsters a little, to avoid financial responsibility by
dumping it on their lop-eared biomass.
This method is
used not only by Alburov, it is a common feature of FBK foreign agent members. First, they fuck everything up and then
cry onto ther subscribers' shoulders
Sabine
Hossenfelder is one intelligent and charismatic physicist. She takes on established science for its tendency to pursue
projects simply to create job openings for scientists as well as presenting lucid explanations of various scientific
phenomenon. Here, she rants about science being used to justify political decisions.
Navalny is 'a
ray of light emerging from the darkness'. Remarkable. Like Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show in "Cover of the Rolling
Stone", Navalny will want to buy five copies for his mother.
Well, well;
look at that. Shale oil and gas production in the USA continues to fall, and according to BP's 2020 Energy Outlook
Report, oil demand 'may never return to pre-pandemic levels'. Which would suggest we saw the peak in global consumption
last year.
And which, I
am bound to suggest, is not the desirable state of affairs if you fancy yourself the World's Biggest Energy Exporter.
International
Banker agrees, adding the gloomy forecast – depending on your point of view – that according to IATA, airline companies
will require 25% fewer planes in the sky over the next 5 years. That's hardly good news for Boeing, and might mean the
end of production for the 737 MAX. But it's quite a few gallons less of avgas, as well.
"Can US shale bounce back quickly from this crisis? It seems
unlikely. According to Ramanan Krishnamoorti, professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Houston's Cullen
College of Engineering, the industry is in serious trouble. "You're going to see a lot of bankruptcies, a lot of
furloughs, more than furloughs. You're going to see layoffs. You're going to see people leave this entire industry
because there aren't going to be jobs," he told Houston's ABC13 news outlet."
The US
fracking industry has been basically a Ponzi scheme since the first well was drilled. It seems to have become the
darling of the investment class who never quite seemed to realize that they were really not making much as a return
on investment.
Combine
that with what seems to be very short life spans for wells, and I think we probably have seen a decimation or
destruction of the industry. I'm not sure but I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see that the US will not have oil "
self-sufficiency" how much longer. (We will not mention the Russian and Canadian oil that is being imported.)
After
putting up with Doug Ford for the last while, I have rather given up on expecting modern-day Conservatives to
actually have a grasp on reality that Kenny is really a worry. It really sounds like he thinks did Alberta is going
to go back to the boom days of 1970s or at least of the 1990s. He is nuts.
I was just
reading about city of Shenzhan, the new 12 million inhabitant city just over the border from Hong Kong. As of this
year there's 16,000+ city buses and God knows how many taxis that have all gone electric. This is just a hint of
what's going to be happening around the world from the look of it. Heck, my small city has 3 electric buses on order.
The oil
market is not going to disappear anytime soon but even BP is reported as saying they don't expect oil demand to come
back to what it was before the pandemic
Our
lease ran out a couple of weeks ago on the RX-350, and we traded it in for a hybrid, the
UX-250H
.
Below 40 kph it's all-electric, like if you are cruising around a neighbourhood looking for a particular house
number. Above that the gas engine kicks in, but it is supported by the electric motor and gets more than 700 km on
a tank of gas. Teslas used to be a bit of an oddity around here as recently as 5 years ago, but now they're
everywhere. The Nissan Leaf is very popular as well, and the buyer base for electrics has expanded rapidly as soon
as drivers realized electric vehicles do not have to be nerdy, and at the high end (Tesla) they can leave
conventionally-powered cars in the dust. The Tesla is very fast and the acceleration is instant, with no throttle
lag.
Losing
the economic clout of the energy industry would be a blow – potentially a fatal one – to the USA. A few years ago,
not many, oil and gas companies would have made up nearly half of the top ten US companies for both revenue and
profit. Only one makes both listings now – Exxon-Mobil – but the industry remains tremendously influential in
politics and, more importantly, is into the government for so much money in loans and investments that its
collapse would imperil the government itself.
Some
would be quite happy to see America with its shoulders pinned to the mat, after enduring decades of its arrogance
and swaggering; I wouldn't be too sorry to see it myself. But it maintains -somehow – the world's biggest and
best-outfitted military by a long shot, and when it sees itself on an irreversible downward trend, it is going to
want to take its enemies with it.
It may
seem like a small matter but China seems to have electrified its entire scooter fleet. Scooters often pump out
more pollution than a car. Multiply that by tens of millions and you have a major pollution source. The battery
powered scooters are quiet and likely maintenance-free. Compare and contrast with India and its tens of millions
of two-cycle oil smoke/unburnt gasoline pollution generators a.k.a. scooters.
I
have not heard if it is 100% but it should be close. IIRC, I have read that Shanghai is full of them and there
seems to be pretty decent recharge facilities.
Given
the combination of global warming and the often atrocious air quality in major cities, the Communist Gov't
seems to be really pushing to get away from fossil fuels.
India
might be a good market for Chinese scooters and might spur some Indian companies to get going -- well after this
latest border war calms down.
And you
won't find the u-Ropean Parliament harping much or even loudly about the authoritarian regime in Azerbaidjan because
its produces good gas and it is run by
our kind of
dictator.
That's their 'Human Rights' bulls/t in a can for you. Myanmar has also got of remarkably lightly from the west too.
Leaving
Europe behind, I have always been amazed that President Duterte of the Philippines is`not not a pariah. Declaring
open season on one's citizens and
letting
encouraging the police to
shoot anyone they want strikes me as a bit dubious for a head of state.
Putin proposed, "exchanging guarantees of non-interference in each
other's internal affairs, including electoral processes, including using information and communication technologies and
high-tech methods."..
####
That is some
excellently timed next level trolling from Pootie-McPoot-Face.
I'd like to
look at the Navalny 'poisoning" from a slightly different angle, one which I think bears scrutiny. I've said several
times that nobody – to the best of my knowledge – has ever survived poisoning by VX. But that's not quite accurate – the
two women who thrust what was always believed to be VX in some form into the face of Kim Jong Nam (Kim Jong-Un's
half-brother) at an airport in Kuala Lumpur killed him stone dead. But they themselves apparently survived with no ill
effects except that one of them allegedly may have vomited.
The major
difference in the way the stories are treated, then, is the incredulity with which the apparent survival of the alleged
poisoners is regarded by the western press. Consider;
An amount of
VX, we are told, that weighs as much as two pennies would kill 500 people. I assume that's what he meant, as he is
strikingly un-eloquent for a scientist and the 'penny' is not a weight of measure. Is that a British penny, or an
American one? Big difference in weight.
''The other chemical agents like sarin, tabun, those kinds of things,
they're way below this. They're toxic, yes, but this is the king,'' said John Trestrail, a U.S. forensic toxicologist
who has examined more than 1,000 poisoning crimes.
He said an amount of VX weighing two pennies could kill 500 people
through skin exposure. It's also hard to acquire and would likely have come from a chemical weapons laboratory, making
it more likely that the attack was executed by a government."
Yes, you read
that right – VX is the King of vicious toxicological agents. Except for Novichok, which is ten times as deadly, and the
would-be killers dusted Navalny's bottle with enough of it that the bottle was liberally covered with the dust, and his
clothes apparently were as well, or so Team Navalny suspects. Say – that's a handy little timeline right there, innit?
When did Navalny put those clothes on? Presumably he had a shower before going to bed; did he dress in fresh clothes
before leaving for the airport, or wear the same stuff from the day before? Either way, the poisoner must have accessed
Navalny's room between the time he got up and the time the plane took off – if he still had Novichok on his clothes from
the day before, he'd be dead, plus would have contaminated God knows how many surfaces.
Anyway,
remember – Novichok is ten times as deadly as the King of nerve agents, VX. But it has killed – according to western
yarns – only one of six people exposed to it; Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Detective Nick Bailey, Navalny and
Charles Rowley all survived and have apparently achieved full recovery, Navalny in only a week after emerging from an
alleged coma.
Western
incredulity? None. Nothing to see here, old chap.
Listen to the
awful consequences of poisoning with VX, and remember the assassins only pushed some quantity of VX into Kim Jong-Nam's
face; a second's contact, them they ran away, not wearing gloves or any protective gear at all.
"VX is an amber-colored, tasteless, odorless chemical weapon first
produced in the 1950s. When inhaled or absorbed through the skin, it disrupts the nervous system and causes constriction
and increased secretions in the throat, leading to difficulty breathing. Fluids pour from the body, including sweat,
spontaneous urination and defecation, often followed by convulsions, paralysis and death. Kim Jong Nam sought help at
the airport clinic and died en route to a hospital within two hours of being attacked, police said."
I don't think
anyone has reported what Navalny was roaring and screaming, but perhaps it was"Get back!!! I'm shitting myself!! Jesus,
I can't stop pissing!!! Help me!!" although you would think if his symptoms included spontaneous defecation and
urination, someone would have said – it could be important. Different agent, I know, but the symptoms of nerve-agent
poisoning are quite similar across the type. Navalny's symptoms were nothing like nerve-agent poisoning, no matter how
energetically the defector Mirzayanov and his fan club try to backstop Navalny's story. The intense sweating and the
obvious gross irritation of the mucous membranes would have been unmistakable to the doctors in Omsk, considering
Navalny had already passed the onset of whatever symptoms he did have and was unconscious.
Kim Jong-Nam
died within two hours of being attacked with a nerve agent ten times less toxic than Novichok. Navalny was definitely
poisoned with a substance ten times more toxic than VX, according to the Germans and the French and whoever else swears
to that ludicrous story, but was to all appearances normal at least an hour after having been poisoned, since he showed
no symptoms until at least 40 minutes after the plane took off with no obvious GRU agents on board, and hung around the
airport before the flight was called at least long enough to drink a cup of tea, plus however long it took for him to
get from the hotel to the airport.
"The two women -- one Vietnamese, one Indonesian -- recorded on
surveillance cameras thrusting a substance into Kim Jong Nam's face as he was about to check in for a flight home to
Macau, apparently did not suffer serious health problems. Malaysian police have said they were not wearing gloves or
protective gear and that they washed their hands afterward as they were trained to do. However, authorities said Friday
that one of them vomited afterward.
Both have been
arrested along with another man. Authorities are also seeking several others, including an employee of North Korea's
state-owned airline, Air Koryo.
''If they used their bare hands, there's just no possible way that
they would have exposed him to VX unless they took some sort of precaution,'' Goldberger said. ''The only precaution I
know of would be administration of the antidote before this went down.''
Perhaps that's
it; perhaps immediately after swigging from his water-bottle – which he left in the hotel room, obviously – Navalny rang
room service for some Novichok antidote. Just in case. Can't be too careful, when you are the main opposition leader.
"No areas were cordoned off and protective measures were not taken.
When asked about it a day after the attack, airport spokesman Shah Rahim said there was no risk to travelers and the
airport was regularly and properly cleaned. But officials announced Friday that the facility would be decontaminated.
''It's as persistent as motor oil. It's going to stay there for a
long time. A long time, which means anyone coming in contact with this could be intoxicated from it,'' Trestrail said.
''If this truly is VX, they ought to be calling in a hazmat team and looking at any place these women or the victim
traveled after the exposure.''
A hazmat team,
and looking at any place the assassin or anyone potentially exposed might have traveled. For an agent ten times less
toxic than Novichok.
Reading
this
Wikipedia account
of how Kim Jong-nam was targeted and attacked by the two women, I think there are other
possibilities to consider:
(a) that the substance or substances sprayed into his face was / were dangerous only if (in the case of two or more
substances) combined in a particular way and then inhaled;
(b) Kim was known to be allergic to particular substances and the people who plotted his assassination knew what
those substances were and used them to induce an anaphylactic shock that killed him;
(c) Kim had other health issues (he was a very tubby fellow) that should have been considered factors in his death;
(d) one of the women who attacked Kim supposedly crept up behind him, took out a cloth with chemical on it and
reached around his head to smack the cloth onto his face – sounds a bit like those movie / TV show stunts where
someone creeps up from behind his victim and puts a chloroform-soaked cloth onto the victim's face – and
chloroform
can be toxic in high doses
;
(e) Kim's treatment at the Menara clinic at the airport included atropine and adrenaline and these could have
contributed to his death if the plotters had foreknowledge of what would be used to treat him were he to be poisoned
and planned his assassination accordingly.
Kim's
assassins need not have been North Koreans or connected to the North Korean government in any way. He also might not
have been expected to die but just be given a scare, but the shock he got along with his obesity and other underlying
health issues might have done him in.
Yes,
those are all good and sound arguments. The point I was trying to make, though, is that American toxicologists and
field experts are astounded that anyone might survive exposure to VX; it is unaccountable not only that they could
be alive, but that there is not a trail of death following the assassins as well until it kills them, too. But
nobody seems surprised for Navalny to make a complete recovery and be sitting up in bed making demands and
strolling around the stairwells, after exposure to a much more toxic agent that should have killed him, while
nobody noticed anyone sneaking into his room dressed in a full hazmat suit with breathing apparatus and apparently
others could come and go from the scene of the alleged exposure with no protection.
Perhaps
the Skripals 'disappeared' because the British government was unsure how to present them after a supposedly-deadly
poisoning attempt which they plainly are said to have survived. Perhaps also it is the judgment of similar
authorities that the public will accept the dichotomy without demur; hence, the agent can still be nefarious
beyond belief because it is so insidious and deadly, but Navalny can be alive and making noise after exposure to
it.
MOSCOW,
September 28 – RIA Novosti.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel secretly
visited Alexei Navalny while he was being treated at the Charité clinic in Berlin, "Spiegel" weekly reported, citing its
own informant.
Other details
are not provided.
On August 20,
the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation* was hospitalized in Omsk after he had fallen ill on an aeroplane. Doctors
diagnosed a metabolic disorder that had caused a sharp drop in blood sugar levels. It is not yet clear what caused this,
but no poisons were found in Navalny's blood and urine.
Later he was
transported to Germany. In early September, the German government announced that the Russian had been poisoned with a
substance from the "Novichok" group of biological warfare agents. Moscow sent a request for more detailed information on
the results of analyses from the Berlin laboratory, but there was no response.
At the same
time, it is known that the German intelligence service BND has had access to "Novichok" since the 1990s. In addition, it
has been studied by about 20 Western countries, including Great Britain, the USA, Sweden, the Czech Republic. Russia, in
accordance with a presidential decree of 1992, stopped developing in the field of chemical weapons, and in 2017
destroyed the entire available stock of such substances, which has been confirmed by the OPCW.
On September
7, Navalny was discharged from the hospital, his condition is satisfactory.
*The Anti-Corruption Foundation is included by the Russian Ministry
of Justice in the register of NGOs performing the functions of a foreign agent.
Note: the
bastion of freedom and democracy has still not, as per agreement, destroyed its chemical weapons stocks -- always delays
and so on, see
On Wednesday the Director-General of the Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü of Turkey, congratulated Russia on completing the
destruction of its chemical weapons stockpile which originally totalled 39 967 agent tonnes (i.e. excluding munition
weight). This represents a major milestone towards realizing a world without chemical weapons as envisaged by the
negotiators of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)
The USA, the other major possessor of a chemical weapons stockpile
(which originally totalled approximately 30 000 agent tonnes), has completed the destruction of approximately 90 per
cent of its stockpile and is scheduled to finish its operations by 2023 .
Technologically backward Russia completes its task as agreed: the far more technologically advanced USA is still
dawdling along
It's hard
to imagine the Germans poisoned his samples, although I suppose it is possible. But if Pevchik had poisoned him with
something intended to incapacitate but not kill him, you'd think the doctors in Omsk would have detected it.
Navalny confirms meeting with Merkel at Berlin clinic
28 September 2020, 11:22
Blogger Alexei Navalny has confirmed that German Chancellor Angela
Merkel visited him at the Berlin Charité clinic, where he was being treated. Earlier, the secret visit of the politician
was reported by the journal "Der Spiegel", citing sources.
"There was a
meeting, but you shouldn't call it "secret " -- rather, a private meeting and conversation with the family. I am very
grateful to Chancellor Merkel for visiting me at the hospital", Navalny wrote on his Twitter microblog on September 28.
At the same
time, the interlocutors of "Der Spiegel" called the visit top secret, without giving details of the meeting. The
publication considered this fact a sign of Merkel's loyalty to Navalny.
Earlier, the
German Chancellor called Navalny a victim of an attack carried out with a substance from the "Novichok" group.
The Russian
Foreign Ministry considered such statements by Berlin to be yet another information campaign against Russia, noting that
the accusations were not supported by facts.
Alexei Navalny
felt unwell during the Tomsk-Moscow flight on 20 August. The plane urgently landed in Omsk, the blogger was taken to the
emergency hospital No. 1, and later transported to the Charite clinic in Berlin,
Gazeta.ru
recalls.
There, the Russian "found" signs of intoxication with a substance
from the group of cholinesterase inhibitors. However, Omsk doctors during the examination of the patient did not reveal
intoxication with this substance. On September 23, Navalny was discharged from the hospital.
So Merkel too
is part and parcel of the Navalny bullshit performance dreamt up by the US Dept. of State.
I wonder if
she "secretly" visited Yuschenko and Timoshenko and Verzilov when they were patients at the Charité
I should
hardly imagine so -- they are of no importance whatsoever when compared with the "leader of the Russian opposition",
albeit the Russians themselves consider the Bullshitter with the derision he deserves, but don't tell anyone in the
"free world" that!
Germany
seems to be collecting Eastern Europe's politicians. Timoshenko miraculously woke from her coronavirus coma, but I
cannot find information that says she was also at Charite.
EU green light
for merger suggests Franco-German pressure for 'champion' companies is paying off.
blah blah blah blah
The clearance
could become a precedent for other political mergers -- such as the Franco-Italian tie-up between cruise ship-builders
Fincantieri and Chantiers de l'Atlantique -- and the Commission will have to "limit the contagion," the first senior
official said.
And the Dane has to ensure the Polish champion keeps its promises .
####
Interesting if
you follow how the Brussels/EU is still struggling to adapt to the real world (i.e. outside the EU) rather than its own
bubble and dreams of a western led globalization, particularly it's failure to balance consumer protection with building
modern, EU based companies/organizations that can hold their own against other globocorps. It's where principles hit
reality.
But, I was
sure that there was something in the past about a possible Russian share in the Gdansk Lotos Refinery (I was wrong) but
I did come across this in looking for further information:
One of the
arguments for the thesis that Russians could enter the Polish market as a shareholder of one of the two biggest
refineries, is supposedly the fact that they are already present in Germany. However, it is worth reminding that they
slipped into Germany thanks to Venezuela's fondness towards Russian politics. Venezuela's late president Hugo Chavez
agreed for PDVSA, a state-owned oil company, to sell its shares in five German refineries to Russia's Rosneft. Since
then, Igor Sechin's concern has been trying to acquire the missing link – the retail market and gas stations. Despite
interventions, negotiations and investments, Russians have not achieved this goal yet. They have been trying to purchase
gas stations in Germany for a few years. This is the next natural step for any oil company that took over shares in a
refinery on a new market. After the success on the wholesale market, it wants to earn on the retail market by selling
its own oil products. However, nobody wants to sell Russians, in this case Rosneft, any gas stations despite the fact
they have been present on the market in Germany for years.
In January
2019, Rosneft Deutschland GmbH, Rosneft's daughter company, launched a trade and marketing business in Germany. Today it
purchases products from three German refineries in which it has shares
Why would Russians want to enter the Polish market? Poland is one of
the biggest importers of Russian oil. In 2019 PKN Orlen imported 8.3 m tons of oil from Russia, which makes it one of
the biggest importers of this fuel. By entering the Polish market, Russians could achieve synergy by acquiring 30
percent of shares in the refinery. However,
####
Plenty more at
the link.
So, it looks
like this merger is to bolster the lo-land of Po-lands energy position and protect the key refinery being picked up by
one means or another by Russia.
French
president heads to Lithuania and Latvia, where discussion will focus on Russia and Belarus.
"The so-called new architecture of security that France wants to
develop with Russia is sensitive for us, because it's a bilateral conversation discussing a multilateral issue," said a
Lithuanian government official ahead of Macron's visit
So far
Macron's team has played it coy, avoiding confirming that he will meet with Tikhanovskaya but not ruling it out either.
She has expressed her desire to meet with him
Western officials have stressed that they are not in competition
with Moscow over Belarus and Macron believes Russia has a role to play.
####
The €µ
'Failing at Home so preening abroad' PR campaign continues apace after his successful trip to Lebanon where he saved the
country from disaster. Except he didn't!
Le Coq soit
bloqué! (trans. 'cock block' ! 😉 )
What the f/k
does he think he can offer? Are the Balts and Russia going to be overawed with his garlic charm before he sleeps with
their wives (and husbands) before they all form a circle and hold hands merrily? No.
Yes, the only
thing that makes sense is a a grand strategic treaty between the EU and Russia, but when some of its own members are
actively undermining such a thing and playing with the Americans at the same time, you have to wonder what all the point
of this is? Simply 'Don't you forget about me'? Russia is not going to patiently wait for the EU to climb out of its own
hypocritical a**hole after years of sanctions and 'Do as we say, not as we do.'
The CFE Treaty
is not fit for purpose and the permanent rotation of NATO forces on Russia's borders drives a tank through it, however
clever they think this loophole is. By the time the EU is ready to talk properly and get off its high horse, the only
things it will have attached to its shoulders will be its own stubby little fingers, or should that be 'cut off its nose
to spite its face'? Just ridiculous!
Ha, ha,
haaaa!! 'Garlic charm' – I don't know if that was deliberate or accidental, but it's brilliant.
The Baltic
position on Russia is well-known, and you would not have to be much of a political wunderkind to figure out that the
Balts hope for a chance to shit all over any plans France might have that smack too much of rapprochement to suit
them. But there is no real danger Micron would proceed with any such plans even if he made them; he is a political
lightweight aching to duplicate the derring-do of Sarkozy. No political softening between Russia and Europe is
possible with the current crop of European leaders, as all are committed Atlanticists to some degree and in thrall to
Washington. They might pretend Washington is bullying them, but it hurts so good, daddy.
Lavrov has
already announced that Russia has given up on trying to get the west to like it, and acknowledges it is not possible.
Just like admitting you are an alcoholic – metaphorically speaking, I wasn't pointing at you personally -is the day
your recovery begins, resolving to dedicate no more Russian effort to wooing the western delinquents is the day the
west loses a shiny toy it loved to play with. Few moments were so satisfying as those dedicated to typing "Moscow
denies it!" after some new fabricated atrocity was thrown in Russia's face. I recommend a macro be built into all
Russian diplomatic computers' word-processor programs which reads, "Believe what you like. It is of no interest to
us. Oh, and your zipper is open. Made you look!!". The last two sentences are optional, but I think they lend a
certain
joie de vivre
.
Why the
German Chancellor visited the blogger at the hospital is not quite clear. After all, if German doctors are right
about "Novichok", then the head of the German Cabinet of Ministers, Bundeskanzlerin Merkel, seriously risked her
life.
Armen
Gasparyan* has suggested that the matter is due to the status of the patient from Russia -- after all, he is in
Germany as an official guest of the Chancellor. And what kind of guest is this, with whom the hospitable hostess does
not even meet?
So they
decided to support this fantasy about his status in Germany by following due protocol, but with a supposedly secret
visit, which secret the whole world immediately learnt about.
* Armen
Gasparyan works for a Russian media outlet Sputnik and, at the same time, is a member of Russia Today board. In
parallel, he is a member of Russian State Duma Youth Council and a holder of a prize from the Ministry of
Communications of the Russian Federation for his contribution towards developing radio communication.
In December
2018, the "Russian opposition" (that's the non-systemic opposition, mind you -- the ones that no one votes for) -- has
included Gasparyan in the list of "Putin's propagandists".
It might be
interesting to see what kind of deal would result from a process in which Russia has given up trying to be liked by
the west, and consequently examines each negotiation on its merits alone.
I think it might result in quite a few
initial offers being rebuffed with "Uh huh. Go fuck yourself." And that would be kind of refreshing. It might usher
in an international process between the two countries in which no 'deal' was possible until each side was satisfied
it had gotten the better of the other. I need hardly point out these would be few and far between, and none would be
arms-control agreements.
22 September 2020 13:18 What is known about Maria Pevchikh: Navalny's mysterious companion – connected with
his foreign customers?
The trail of Maria Pevchikh begins in London and seems to lead to the shadow curators of the
Anti-Corruption Foundation
If you believe that journalists have so far been able to unearth Navalny's mysterious
companion on his "last tour" in Siberia, Maria Pevchikh lives in a prestigious area of London
overlooking the Thames. But her old grandmother Valentina Vasilievna – in a modest
two-room apartment on the far outskirts of Moscow – in Zelenograd. Only now her
granddaughter does not visit her at all, although in recent years she has flown to Moscow 64
times.
"Komsomolskaya Pravda" went to all the addresses of Maria Pevchikh in Russia –
Zelenograd, Moscow State University, school, neighbours, relatives and colleagues at
FBK
and discovered that Pevchikh was not only Navalny's employee, but the conspiratorial
head of his investigation department, and, possibly, its curator from Western
customers.
LIKE A DETECTIVE Maria Pevchikh. A couple of weeks ago, this name was not known to anyone except to a
narrow circle of people. But now it has thundered all over the world. Now Pevchikh claims to
be an old and trusted employee of the Anti-Corruption Foundation (Navalny's main brainchild)
with almost 10 years of experience, who has had a hand in almost all of his landmark
investigations. But her name never flashed in the credits for the FBK video exposures . And
the opposition blogger's associates have never spoken about her anywhere.
So after the mysterious "poisoning" of Navalny on August 20, no one let slip the fact
that on the trip he was accompanied by a mysterious companion – 33-year-old Maria
Pevchikh. Perhaps Maria would have remained unnoticed if the transport police of the Siberian
Federal District had not found her name among those who were on that trip with the
oppositionist. And it turned out – what a coincidence – she was the only one of
the 6 members of Navalny's entourage in Siberia who was not interviewed: " Marina [sic}
Pevchikh, who permanently resides in Great Britain, on August 20, avoided giving
explanations. On August 22 the said citizen flew to Germany, and therefore it was not
possible to get an explanation from her", the police reported on September 11. That is, 3
weeks after the incident! Until that moment, there was complete silence about the existence
of Pevchikh.
But as soon as this name was sounded, something strange began to happen. More like a
detective story.
LOOKING FOR POLICE, LOOKING FOR JOURNALISTS
The name of the Pevchikh immediately became surrounded with rumours and speculation. Who is
she? Where from? FBK employees were stubbornly silent. There were only two mentions of
Pevchikh in open sources. First, how about a 9th grade student from Zelenograd gymnasium No.
1528 who took part in the international (!) "Gifted children" competition. The second (from
2010) on the website of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Moscow State University:
"Congratulations to Maria Pevchikh! The 5th year student has been selected as the head of the
Russian delegation at the G8 Youth Forum in Canada based on the results of the All-Russian
competition". And a photo of a smiling red-haired girl. And journalists also found the name
of the Pevchikh in the list of students at the prestigious London School of Economics and
Political Science.
A couple more blurry images from the Internet, where it is generally difficult to see
someone (supposedly in 2013, from a Moscow hotel, where Navalny had a secret meeting with the
ex-Prime Minister of Belgium). Well, Western journalists also recognized Maria as the woman
caught in the lenses of cameras in Berlin next to Navalny's wife Julia. True, everywhere the
"Pevchikhs" are in dark glasses and wearing a mask. From coronavirus or prying eyes? That, in
fact, is all.
We congratulate Maria Pevchikh!
Such mystery only spurred interest – who is this lady?
"Investigations" began – who Pevchikh was, overshadowing even the "poisoning" of
Navalny. And bit by bit the image of a certain secret agent was formed – a sort of
James Bond in a skirt. With reference to a source close to FBK, a Sherlock Holmes managed to
dig up from the Internet that Maria lives in a prestigious area of London overlooking Tower
Bridge. Owns a chain of bookstores in Britain. And she participates in competitions under the
US Special Forces program – "Navy Seals"!
And she is also a friend of Navalny's rivals and associates in the fight against the
"Russian regime" who have settled in London – Khodorkovsky, Chichvarkin, Ashurkov. But
bad luck – none of these figures in social networks have found a friend by the name of
Pevchikh. And in the photos that appear in their social networks, none of Maria is to be
seen.
Maria's story with social networks is generally amazing – they simply do not
exist! In the 21st century that is simply unthinkable for a young woman. Have you at least
one young woman acquaintance who has no Facebook or Instagram page, or who is in at least in
Odnoklassniki or VKontakte? Quite!
Experts believe that such secrecy is one of the sure signs that a person is related to
the special services. They – both in Russia and abroad – do not welcome the
publicity of their employees on social networks.
However, Major General of the FSB in reserve Alexander Mikhailov admits that she might
be playing a two-sided gamey:
"Apparently, this person leads a double life and, on the one hand, creates turbulence
around her activities in the same social networks, but on the other hand, she does not want
to attract personal attention to herself. I think this woman may have accounts, but under
assumed names. Because it is impossible to imagine that she works in such a field and does
not use modern technologies at all."
HER FATHER IS A SCIENTIST AND WORKS WITH VIRUSES
But a page on the social network has turned out to belong to Pevchikh's father
Konstantin. No one has any doubts that he is Maria's father – both are registered in
the same apartment in Zelenograd. And Konstantinovna is Maria's patronymic. At the same time,
there is no Maria Pevchikh even in his photo or in subscribers! But there is information that
he is the general director of the Zelenograd NIOBIS LLC, which is engaged in research in the
field of virology. At the same time, he is developing the SkinPort system of painless (say,
invisible) drug delivery through the skin. Which is also a very suspicious circumstance, when
his daughter accompanies an oppositionist, who was either injected or not with some kind of
poison. So much so that he only knew he had been poisoned when he began to feel bad.
There is not much information about NIOBIS either. In the magazine "Zelenograd
Entrepreneur" of October 2011, there is an interview with the leaders of the company Grishin
and Morozov (Pevchikh even then did not communicate with journalists for some reason). In it,
they declare that the NIOBIS biological laboratory is a joint project of the Probe Microscopy
and Nanotechnology Research and Education Centre and the Zelenograd Nanotechnology Centre.
However, in these centres, no matter how many times we called, they did not tell us anything
about NIOBIS, switching from one employee to another. At the legal address in Moscow on
Viktorenko Street, we did not find any information.
Interestingly, the British tabloids could not find Pevchikh either. In search of at
least some information, British journalists began to call Russia, former and current FBK
employees.
"British journalists contacted me and found out at least some information about Maria
Pevchikh", Vitaly Serukanov, the former deputy head of Navalny's Moscow headquarters and
lawyer of his foundation, told KP. "This suggests that not only we in Russia do not
understand what kind of person she is, but, apparently, the British themselves are not clear
about what kind of activities she is involved with. Even they have nothing concrete to go
on.
Of course, rumours immediately spread that Maria Pevchikh was a spy. Some even stated
it openly:
"She is an undercover British intelligence agent with MI6", political scientist
Vladislav Rogimov believes. "My source, a former high-ranking official of the Stasi [GDR
Ministry of State Security] , immediately stated this. And Pevchikh supplied Navalny with
information about the targets of his investigations, such that an ordinary person cannot
get."
A couple more blurry shots from the Internet, where it is generally difficult to see
anyone
MSU AND COLLEGE
Strange, but none of the graduates of those years could remember the outstanding student who
glorified the faculty during her studies by becoming the leader of a youth
delegation.
"Well, I seem to remember Maria – such a bright girl. We crossed paths with her
in the hostel. She loved rock music and knew English well", Svetlana Cherezova, a graduate of
the social faculty in 2009, told KP. [American rock music, the chief weapon of US soft
power! Rock music is the bane of modern society! -- ME 😦 ]
"And how did you realise that she knows a foreign language?"
"In the summer, foreign students were settled in the hostel. And she communicated well
with them. But after that I somehow didn't see her "
Another graduate of the social faculty recalled the Pevchikh, but also only vaguely.
"Yes, she studied with us. Smart, open like that. But that's all I remember about
her."
And in the Zelenograd gymnasium №1528 Maria Pevchikh was not remembered at all. Even
by the old-timers who have been working at the school for over 30 years.
"No, we didn't have a student with that last name."
HEAD, ABOUT WHOM NO ONE KNEW ANYTHING Even after journalists had found out that Pevchikh has been an FBK employee since 2011,
Navalny's fund employees remained silent about her. No statements! None at all.
And only on September 15, when Navalny came to his senses, and journalists and
political analysts said in unison that Pevchikh herself could have organized his "poisoning",
the FBK employees, as if on command "from above", began to urgently divert suspicions from
her, turning everything into a joke and publishing pictures of themselves with her. Georgy
Alburov, who had previously called himself the head of the FBK investigation department,
suddenly revealed his real boss to the world yes, Pevchikh:
"I have been working with Maria in the Investigation Department for 8 years and for
about 7 of them we constantly joked about some kind of martial art that she went to a couple
of times. They teach how to fight off drunken men with the help of a hundred different
techniques of hitting in the groin (we laugh at this). Our office wiretap also failed to
remember the name, and now Maria is featured in the media as 'a martial arts master trained
under the US Army SEAL program'. It's funny. And it's not funny that now all her relatives
are hunted by the Prigozhin gangster 'media' (and the British ones are also "Prigozhin
gangsters", yes, George? – author) . Not for the poisoners of Alexei, but for
Maria's 85-year-old grandmother. We shall remember this and shall not forget. And I wish my
fighting friend (and boss) fortitude and courage."
Georgy Alburov, who had previously called himself the head of the FBK investigation
department, suddenly revealed his real boss to the world. Photo: http://www.instagram.com/alburov
On the same day, FBK lawyer Lyubov Sobol also published a photo of herself with Maria:
"I know Masha as an honest and decent person. To suggest that she may have been involved in
the poisoning of Navalny complete bullshit and a smokescreen to distract attention".
And not a word about why for so long all as one "fighters against corruption" were
silent about the existence of Pevchikh and the fact that she was on a trip with Navalny in
Siberia.
BUT WHAT ABOUT GRANDMA?
And Maria Pevchikh's grandmother really lives in Zelenograd. Not far from the local forest
park. Here, apparently, the "Prigozhin gangster media" had been hunting for her.
In general, it is strange that an employee of the investigation department, who herself
"hunts" for the targets of Navalny's revelations and for these targets' relatives as well,
was outraged that journalists began to visit all possible addresses associated with Maria.
What would have happened if the "Navalnyites" themselves had not hidden her existence hardly
anyone could have "crossed her grandma's threshold", because nobody had seen her there for a
long time: she dwelt elsewhere.
"Yes, I know Valentina Vasilievna. Our children studied together, in the same school.
My son and her Kostya", a neighbour told the KP correspondent on the street at the entrance.
"She lived here just like me since the construction of the house, since 1982. But I haven't
seen her for a long time, although I had met her all the time before. She seems to be still
working".
"At 85 years of age?"
"Why 85? She is 84".
"And what does she do? "
"Earlier, I believe, she was at Mikron [manufacturer of integrated circuits –
author] . Where now, I do not know".
"Her son often turns up here? "
"No, I haven't seen him for a long time.
And her granddaughter Maria?
"Oh, I did not know that she has a granddaughter! I have never seen her."
No other neighbours remembered Masha Pevchikh, even from the photo. Although she, as
the media has already dug up, in recent years flew to Moscow at least 64 times, but here,
with her grandmother, she has not appeared. At least, neighbours have never came across
her.
"I AM SO FUCKING AWESOME" .
And only ABOUT a month after the "poisoning" of Navalny, when suspicions about Maria Pevchikh
had reached their peak, she herself gave an interview for some reason to the BBC, and not to
the Russian media. "I am the head of the investigation department at FBK. I was recruited by
an ad (in 2011), as they say. If you've seen our investigations on Navalny's channel, then I
have this or that relationship." Maria explained her incognito state in one phrase: "It was
my personal choice and desire to avoid publicity". But at the same time: "Absolutely everyone
in the office knew me. A huge number of people from the journalistic environment knew me.
Therefore, the fact that I am somehow connected with FBK is a secret only for a very wide
audience."
Investigations about herself were ridiculed by Pevchikh (a professional technique when
it is impossible to refute, but it is necessary to object): "This is absolutely ridiculous. I
read about myself and thought: Damn, how fucking awesome I am".
About the her scientist father: "Some creepy, crazy story has been made up about my
father, with whom I have not communicated for 15 years – my parents are divorced. And
he is portrayed as almost a key figure in all that has happened".
But Maria gave a lot and of details about what happened in Tomsk, about how boldly she,
together with others, rushed into Navalny's room in order to collect "evidence" –
bottles of water. She confirmed that she flew to Germany on the same aircraft as did Navalny
and took those bottles out of the hotel to the West and on which German experts found traces
of "poison". True, she did not explain why she had not y taken sheets and towels, because
poison can be both solid and gaseous. The discerning Pevchikh's' suspicions fell only on
liquid.
Maria tossed a few of her pictures to the BBC and a portion, apparently to dilute the
avaricious photos that the media was chewed on.
Talking about everything and yet . . . again about nothing. Also a professional
reception?
SECRET BRITISH FBK CURATOR
"When they began asking me about Maria Pevchikh, I also could not immediately understand who
it was", Vitaly Serukanov, an FBK employee in 2013-2017, told KP. "But then I remembered that
I first noticed her (although I had probably seen her many times, but had not paid any
attention to her) in 2016. It was surprising to me that Navalny, who always kept his distance
from his employees, behaved in a special way with her. With respectful reverence. As if they
were of the same rank, as if they were of the the same position. This is generally strange
and did not fit into the paradigm of his behaviour. That is to say, Maria is a person who
appeared sometimes, but who had to be respected. My personal opinion is that she is a liaison
agent between Navalny and foreign customers. The person who brought the invoice and, at the
right time, audited the investigation department, supervised its work. Such as , you know, a
British auditor who is always lurking in the shadows.
"Pevchikh told the BBC that she actually ran Navalny's investigation
department.
"I have been saying for a long time that the FBK investigation department "headed by
the talented Alburov" was a screen that does not represent anything. Alburov is just a drone
driver who provides a naive Russian man in the street with a picture: "You see, we are not
foreign agents. Our investigation department is here". In fact, there is no talented Alburov.
And there are people like Maria Pevchikh who flock to Russia to promote the interests of
their Russian and Western masters. That's all, no matter how tough it sounds.
"That is, all this hidden lifestyle, lack of social networks and photos are part of
this opera?
"Absolutely!"
But you had some corporate parties, meetings at FBK. How did it happen that for
almost 10 years Pevchikh never got into the frame?
"She very professionally avoided attracting attention to herself. Never hit the lens.
And I'm sure the rest of the people made sure that this did not happen. At the same time, FBK
is a special society where everyone wants to become a media and popular person. There are
even internal competitions to see who is more popular on social media. The same was always
demanded by Navalny. His main postulate in politics was: "I am absolutely open. I have no
secrets. " But it turns out there are! Suddenly, a certain Pevchikh is presented to the
world, who has never even been registered in the fund and who lives on an unbelievable
income. All the stories about her business are just a way to legalize her financial situation
– like 'I'm such an ordinary simpleton from Britain'. Who's going to believe
that?
And they would hide Pevchikh further. But she was so very much lit up in this story
with the "poisoning" that they had no other choice. I was really amused how all these clowns,
such as Alburov and Sobol, on command, simultaneously began to upload their prepared photos
of Pevchikh. It's funny. Why did they hide her before? Refused to answer questions about her?
And then they burst through at once. Received instructions to bring Pevchikh out into the
light so as to ward off the threat from her? All this suggests that Pevchikh knows more than
we can ever imagine. The story is a real detective one. Even a spy one. It's very interesting
what will happen next.
She is almost too perfect; a daddy who is both a virologist and a developer of a means of
delivering a drug through the skin without a needle or any sensation likely to be noticed,
leader of the effort to collect 'evidence' in the hotel room – an effort surprising in
its thoroughness in that they thought to take a lawyer with them and yet still made it before
the hotel had begun to clean the room, and a young woman with no social media presence when
they normally cannot powder their noses without Facebooking it. Add to that the full-court
press by the Navalnyites to ridicule any possibility she might be involved; especially Sobol,
who as a lawyer herself would be able to more accurately appraise the weight of mounting
coincidences.
But you went too far when you spat on American rock music. I will grant that at least half
of it is crap, but America is the cradle of rock, more so than the UK. Your punishment is to
listen to Joan Jett and the Blackhearts do "I Hate Myself for Loving You" on a volume at
least 8 and preferably all the way over. This is a fine example of the genre, one I used to
play for the little 'un when she actually was a little 'un, to show her that women can do
anything.
"Then there are the Chinese. OK, they really are communists, but who is it that has
bought into the nonsense about them oppressing poor, innocent, religious head choppers? Who
cares even if those lies were true? Yep, that's millennial morons."
Actually it was the USG through funding of various think tanks and NGOs that started the
whole fiasco with the MSM pushing the narrative. You know people with power in established
organizations, who tend to be much older. I wouldn't blame the people at the bottom so much for
the decisions made at the top.
Ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections, foreign states will continue to use covert and overt
influence measures in their attempts to sway U.S. voters' preferences and perspectives, shift
U.S. policies, increase discord in the United States, and undermine the American people's
confidence in our democratic process."
What America is yet again conniving to do is to discredit any domestic political dissent
against the fraud of "American Democracy" by connecting this dissent to those nations that
are the latest targets of America's Two Minutes of Hate campaign.
This is a standard American tactic that the USA always resorts to when it fears its own
citizens are starting to question the fairy tale of American "Democracy and Freedom." Thus,
during the Cold War, the USA even to discredit some elements of the Civil Rights movement as
being assets of the Soviet Union.
The great Orwellian hypocrisy of America's pants-wetting complaints that other countries
are meddling in America's (fake) democracy is that the United States itself is guilty of
regime changing, balkanizing, and colonizing scores of foreign nations dating back over a
century to the USA's regime change and eventual colonization of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Bottom Line: America needs to drink a big up of Shut the F*ck Up with its pathetic Pity
Party whining about foreigners trying to influence its bogus democracy.
The Washington Post , whose sole owner
is a CIA contractor , has published yet another anonymously sourced CIA press release
disguised as a news report which just so happens to facilitate longstanding CIA foreign
policy.
True to form ,
at no point does WaPo follow standard journalistic protocol and disclose its blatant financial
conflict of interest with the CIA when promoting an unproven CIA narrative which happens to
serve the consent-manufacturing agendas of the CIA for its new cold war with Russia.
And somehow in our crazy, propaganda-addled society, this is accepted as "news".
The CIA has had a hard-on for the collapse of the Russian Federation
for many years , and preventing the rise of another multipolar world at all cost has been
an open agenda of US imperialism since the fall of the Soviet Union. Indeed it is clear
that the escalations
we've been watching unfold against Russia were in fact
planned well in advance of 2016, and it is only by propaganda narratives like this one that
consent has been manufactured for a new cold war which imperils the life of every organism on
this planet.
There is no excuse for a prominent news outlet publishing a CIA press release disguised as
news in facilitation of these CIA agendas. It is still more inexcusable to merely publish
anonymous assertions about the contents of that CIA press release. It is especially inexcusable
to publish anonymous assertions about a CIA press release which merely says that something is
"probably" happening, meaning those making the claim don't even know.
None of this stopped The Washington Post from publishing this propaganda piece on behalf of
the CIA. None of it stopped this story from being widely shared by prominent voices on social
media and repeated by major news outlets like
CNN , The New
York Times , and
NBC . And none of it stopped all the usual liberal influencers from taking the claims and
exaggerating the certainty:
The CIA-to-pundit pipeline, wherein intelligence agencies "leak" information that is picked
up by news agencies and then wildly exaggerated by popular influencers, has always been an
important part of manufacturing establishment Russia hysteria. We saw it recently when the
now completely debunked claim that Russia paid bounties on US troops to Taliban-linked
fighters in Afghanistan first surfaced;
unverified anonymous intelligence claims were published by mass media news outlets, then by
the time it got to spinmeisters like Rachel
Maddow it was being treated not as an unconfirmed analysis but as an established fact:
If you've ever wondered how rank-and-file members of the public can be so certain of
completely unproven intelligence claims, the CIA-to-pundit pipeline is a big part of it. The
most influential voices who political partisans actually hear things from are often a few
clicks removed from the news report they're talking about, and by the time it gets to them it's
being waved around like a rock-solid truth when at the beginning it was just presented as a
tenuous speculation (the original aforementioned WaPo report appeared on the opinion page).
The CIA has a well-documented history of
infiltrating and manipulating the mass media for propaganda purposes, and to this day the
largest supplier of leaked information from the Central Intelligence Agency to the news media
is the CIA itself. They have a whole process for
leaking information to reporters they like (with an internal form that asks whether
the information is Accurate, Partially Accurate, or Inaccurate), as was
highlighted in a recent court case which found that the CIA can even leak documents to
select journalists while refusing to release them to others via Freedom of Information Act
requests.
The way mainstream media has become split along increasingly hostile ideological
lines means that all the manipulators need to do to advance a given narrative is set it up
to make one side look bad and then share it with a news outlet from the other side. The way
media is set up to masturbate people's confirmation bias instead of report objective facts will
then cause the narrative to go viral throughout that partisan faction, regardless of how true
or false it might be.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-4&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1291936114698153984&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fmsm-promotes-yet-another-cia-press-release-news&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=219d021%3A1598982042171&width=550px
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The coming US election and its aftermath is looking like it will be even more insane and
hysterical than the last one, and the enmity and outrage it creates will give manipulators
every opportunity to slide favorable narratives into the slipstream of people's hot-headed
abandonment of their own critical faculties.
And indeed they are clearly prepared to do exactly that. An
ODNI press release last month which was uncritically passed along by the most prominent US
media outlets reported that China and Iran are trying to help Biden win the November election
while Russia is trying to help Trump. So no matter which way these things go the US
intelligence cartel will be able to surf its own consent-manufacturing foreign policy agendas
upon the tide of outrage which ensues.
The propaganda machine is only getting louder and more aggressive. We're being prepped for
something.
* * *
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'It's Easier to Fool People Than to Convince Them That They Have Been Fooled'
- Mark Twain
palmereldritch , 49 seconds ago
And prior to Bezos/CIA ownership the paper was managed by heirs whose ownership stake
was originally acquired through a bankruptcy sale by a board member/trustee of The Federal
Reserve.
So maybe it was just a share transfer...
Freeman of the City , 1 minute ago
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free"
We can both be right. Russia cockblocking Israel's ability to just roll over Assad's
Syria, their relationship with Iran, etc. are big factors. It's been pretty funny to watch
American Progressives rant and rave about Russia like warmonger rednecks in the 80's who just
watched Rocky IV.
Truth be told: political operatives own and run our MSM. This is why the press is called
the 'Fourth Estate'.
They are more correctly described as a Fifth Column , one far more open and sworn to
destroy our country and its foundational citizens – and taxpayers – as any that
ever operated during World War II. You would think this would be of vital interest to people
who loudly declare themselves to be "Nazi-punchers", but who time and again show themselves to
be merely low-level street terrorists informed and inspired by Mao's Red Guard and the
irredeemable thugs of the African National Congress.
One wonders what's preventing them from
mimicking the Red Terror waged by the leftists of Spain, when the battle for "freedom" involved
the disinterment of the graves of Catholic clergy to better pose the corpses in blasphemous
positions. Imagine how depraved those Mostly Peaceful protesters had to have been for even a
leftist-supporting site such as Wikipedia to baldly state
The violence consisted of the killing of tens of thousands of people (including 6,832
Roman Catholic priests, the vast majority in the summer of 1936 in the wake of the military
coup), attacks on the Spanish nobility, industrialists, and conservative politicians, as well
as the desecration and burning of monasteries and churches.
Directly in the crosshairs this time are small and medium-sized owner-operated businesses
– the true backbone of American freedom and prosperity – who have largely been
sacrificed in exchange for the knock-kneed offerings of Danegeld from our giant conglomerates,
all of whom have prospered immensely from the suffering and privation brought on by the
Democratic lockdown of society – and the total shutdown of our economy.
Think! – have you read a single article charting how the government war on small
business directly enriched Amazon.com and
world's richest autocrat, Jeff Bezos? . who then funnels his windfall into a newspaper that
blatantly pimps for the Democratic Party, which translates into a vast payday for the DNC, not
least from its newly-approved partnership with the shadowy and many-tentacled Soros-surrogate
group, BLM?
The result is what you'd expect when a fringe group operates with the full cooperation and
partnership of major industry and both political parties (don't confuse Trump with a
standard-issue Republican, please – he may have terrible flaws, but that isn't one of
them) – 10% of the population holding the other 90% in a chokehold with only one set of
rules: no arrest and prosecution for Bolshevik violence and terror ..but the zero-tolerance
heavy hand of corrupt Leviathan coming down hard against any and all citizens who fight back
or, eventually – inevitably – who even struggle against their restraints.
Short of the sudden arrival of celestial horsemen to punish the guilty and reward the
set-upon, it has become clear that the only answer is the one that the Powers That Be claim to
be dead set against: racial separatism. (Particularly when we consider that all that will be
necessary to turn America into Hell on earth will be the adoption of Ibram Kendi's First Law,
sometimes known as equality of outcome :
To fix the original sin of racism, Americans should pass an anti-racist amendment to the
U.S. Constitution that enshrines two guiding anti-racist principals: Racial inequity is
evidence of racist policy and the different racial groups are equals.
Could any "amendment" be more terrifyingly totalitarian than this?)
White and black separation would, instead, accomplish two goals, both more important than
Kendi's quick fix: we would learn soon enough about actual equality of outcomes (which
is why no Communist, black or white, wants anything to do with the creation of one more failed
basket-case black state), and much more importantly, white families can sleep secure in their
beds at night, without worrying about Apache raids at midnight, egged on and recorded for
"posterity" by that Fourth Estate/Fifth Column referred to up top. Because the fact of the
matter is that, even should some combination of government and law-enforcement halt the burning
and looting of America – as things stand now, none of the worst malefactors will ever see
the inside of a prison cell .which means any ceasefire will only be temporary, to be violently
ripped asunder the moment they sense white Americans have at last lowered their guard once
more. And living in perpetual paranoid readiness for violent uprisings and mindless destruction
is no way to live at all.
Trump has it half right, a border wall is the answer: only it needs to run
lengthwise , between the Southern and Northern borders. If we don't use the next four
years to plan out such a separation, fretting over our children's children will be a fruitless
exercise – those who aren't murdered will be captured and 'go native' .and in case you
haven't looked at a globe lately, there's no place left to run.
As a recovering journalist, I can point out that even on a rinkydink rag in a small city,
where I got fired for being a real journalist back in the early '70's; he who owns the
presses and distribution networks calls the tune. It's a matter of working-class (no matter
how middle-class your income or social-status) versus the ownership class. The latter wins
every time.
The US is ruthlessly waging an intense Hybrid War on Russian energy interests in Europe by
targeting the Eurasian Great Power's relevant projects in Germany, Belarus, and Bulgaria,
banking on the fact that even the partial success of this strategy would greatly advance the
scenario of an externally provoked "decoupling" between Moscow and Washington's transatlantic
allies.
The Newest Front In The New Cold War
The New
Cold War is heating up in Europe after the US intensified its Hybrid
War on Russian interests there over the past two months. This proxy conflict is being
simultaneously waged in Germany, Belarus, and Bulgaria, all three of which are key transit
states for Russian energy exports to the continent, which enable it to maintain at least some
influence there even during the worst of times. The US, however, wants to greatly advance the
scenario of an externally provoked "decoupling" between Moscow and Washington's transatlantic
allies which would allow America to reassert its unipolar hegemony there even if this campaign
is only partially successful. This article aims to explore the broad contours of the US'
contemporary Hybrid War strategy on Russian energy in Europe, pointing out how recent events in
those three previously mentioned transit states are all part of this larger
plan.
Germany
From north to south, the first and largest of these targets is Germany, which is nowadays
treating Russian anti-corruption blogger Navalny. The author accurately predicted
in late August that "intense pressure might be put upon the authorities by domestic politicians
and their American patrons to politicize the final leg of Nord Stream II's construction by
potentially delaying it as 'punishment to Putin'", which is exactly what's happening after
Berlin signaled that it might rethink its commitment to this energy project. America isn't all
to blame, however, since Germany ultimately takes responsibility for its provocative statements
to this effect. Dmitri Trenin, Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, published a
thought-provoking piece titled " Russian-German Relations: Back To The Future " about
how bilateral relations will drastically change in the aftermath of this incident. It's concise
and well worth the read for those who are interested in this topic.
Belarus
The next Hybrid War target is Belarus , which the
author has been tracking for half a decade already. After failing to convince Lukashenko to
break off ties with Russia after this summer's Wagner incident, a Color Revolution was then
hatched to overthrow him so that his replacements can turn the country into another Ukraine
insofar as it relates to holding Russian energy exports to Europe hostage. The end goal is to
increase the costs of Russian resources so that the US' own become more competitive by
comparison. Ultimately, it's planned that Russian pipelines will be phased out in the
worst-case scenario, though this would happen gradually since Europe can't immediately replace
such imports with American and other ones. "Losing" Belarus, whether on its own or together
with Nord Stream II, would deal a heavy blow to Russia's geopolitical interests. Countries like
Germany wouldn't have a need to maintain cordial relations with it, thus facilitating a
possible "decoupling".
That's where Bulgaria could become the proverbial "icing on the cake". Turkish Stream is
expected to transit through this Balkan country en route to Europe, but the latest
anti-government protests there threaten to topple the government, leading to worries that
its replacement might either politicize or suspend this project. Azerbaijan's TANAP and the
Eastern Mediterranean's GRISCY pipelines
might help Southeastern Europe compensate for the loss of Russian resources, though the latter
has yet to be constructed and is only in the planning stages right now. Nevertheless,
eliminating Turkish Stream from the energy equation (or at the very least hamstringing the
project prior to replacing/scrapping it) would deal a death blow to Russia's already very
limited Balkan influence. Russia would then be practically pushed out of the region, becoming
nothing more than a distant cultural-historical memory with close to no remaining political
influence to speak of.
Economic Warfare
The overarching goal connecting these three Hybrid War fronts isn't just to weaken Russia's
energy interests, but to replace its current role with American and other industry competitors.
The US-backed and Polish-led " Three Seas Initiative
" is vying to become a serious player in the strategic Central & Eastern European space,
and it can achieve a lot of its ambitions through the construction of new LNG and oil terminals
for facilitating America's plans. In addition, artificially increasing the costs of Russian
energy imports through political means related to these Hybrid Wars could also reduce Russia's
revenue from these sources, which presently account for 40%
of its budget . Considering that Russia's in the midst of a systemic economic transition
away from its disproportionate budgetary dependence on energy, this could hit Moscow where it
hurts at a sensitive time.
The Ball's In Berlin's Court
The linchpin of Russia's defensive strategy is Germany, without whose support all of
Moscow's energy plans stand zero chance of succeeding. If Germany submits to the US on one,
some, or all three of these Hybrid War fronts in contravention of its natural economic
interests, then it'll be much easier for America to provoke a comprehensive "decoupling"
between Russia and Europe. It's only energy geopolitics that allows for both sides to maintain
some sense of cooperation despite the US-encouraged sanctions regime against Russia after its
reunification with Crimea and thus provides an opportunity for improving their relations
sometime in the future. Sabotaging Russia's energy interests there would thus doom any
realistic prospects for a rapprochement between them, but the ball's in Berlin's court since it
has the chance to say no to the US and ensure that the German-Russian Strategic Partnership
upholds Europe's strategic autonomy across the present century.
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Concluding Thoughts
For as much as cautiously optimistic as many in the Alt-Media Community might
be that the US' Hybrid War on Russian energy in Europe will fail, the facts paint a much more
sobering picture which suggests that at least one of these plots will succeed. Should that
happen, then the era of energy geopolitics laying the foundation for Russian-European relations
will soon draw to a close, thereby facilitating the US' hoped-for "decoupling" between them,
causing budgetary difficulties for Moscow at the moment when it can least afford to experience
such, and pushing the Eurasian Great Power's strategic attention even further towards Asia. The
last-mentioned consequence will put more pressure on Russia to perfect its "balancing"
act between China and India , which could potentially be a double-edged sword that makes it
more relevant in Asian geopolitical affairs but also means that one wrong move might seriously
complicate its
21st-century grand strategy .
If you look at the three countries mentioned Belarus will likely be absorbed by Russia
sooner rather than later. The push for this is underway looking at meetings taking place. For
Bulgaria the US is far away and has no power to stop the Turks. It is the Turks the
Bulgarians fear, with a lot of reasons, their surest way of keeping out of the Turks clutches
is to look to Russia for support. Unfortunately the USA has an appalling track record of
betraying countries, ask Libya.
The Germans have no choice but take the Russian gas, economically, socially and for
strategic reasons. The truly big fear for the US is a German/Russian bloc. German and Russian
technology with unrivaled resources. That is the future super power if they are pushed
together, something that is very likely if we see a major economic contraction in the next
few years.
Mustahattu , 4 hours ago
The US fear of an Eurasian alliance. The US fear Europe will create a Silicon Valley of
the future. The US fear the Euro will replace the dollar as a reserve currency. The US fear
Russia will become a superpower. The US fear China. There's a lot to fear yankee dear...cos
it's all gonna happen.
Hope Copy , 1 hour ago
RUSSIA is content with 45 and 25nm as it can be hardened.. 14 and especially 7nm is so
that the **** will wear out..
Ace006 , 2 hours ago
Instead of fretting about how this or that country or bloc will become a/an _________
superpower the US could focus on regaining its former pre-eminence.
It's a crazy thought, I know, but
moving a massive amount of industrial capacity to China and fueling the rise of a
communist country just might have been a bad idea and
thrashing about in the international arena like a rutting rhinoceros at huge expense
makes us look foolish and, in the case of Syria, petty and vindictive.
Repairing the damage from the former and stopping the hemorrhage of money and reputation
respectively would be a far better objective than playing Frankenstein in Libya, Afghanistan,
Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, Georgia, Serbia, Iran, Poland, N. Korea, and Venezuela, inter alia .
Mexico is a failed state right on our border that contributes mightily to our immigration,
cultural, and political problems. But, no, the puffed up, prancing morons who make US policy
can summon the imagination to figure out how to help our very own neighbors deal with their
hideous problems. No. Let's engage in regime change and "nation building" in Afghanistan,
Iraq, Syria, Libya, Ukraine, and Belarus.
The words of the great Marcus Aurelius are on point: "Within ten days thou wilt seem a god
to those to whom thou art now a beast and an ape, if thou wilt return to thy principles and
the worship of reason."
Herodotus , 1 hour ago
Bulgaria must return to the protection of the Ottoman Empire.
yerfej , 4 hours ago
Easy solution, end NATO. Just have all US forces told to leave the EU and let them
determine their own destiny. Then do the same with US forces in the ME, Japan, Korea, etc.
EVERYONE would be better off, including US taxpayers which get nothing out of the useless
overseas deployment of resources which could be better spent at home.
yojimbo , 3 hours ago
5% budget deficit, 5% military spending. Leave the world, drop 4.5% of the spending and
either save money, or build infrastructure. It's so simple, I am disappointed Trump doesn't
at least state it. I get he is limited by the system, and can't be a Cincinnatus, even if he
wanted to, but he has his First Amendment.. though I grant him a personal fear of being
Kennedied!
Bac Si , 2 hours ago
Howdy Yerfej. It sounds like you are all for Isolationism.
But Isolationism means different things to different people. Pre WW2, Isolationism in the
US meant selling our products to hostile countries. In the case of Japan, oil to help them
kill Chinese people. In the case of Germany and Italy, food and vehicles to help them conquer
all of Europe.
Considering the ridiculous education that the US gives its children, it's no wonder that
most Americans don't know much about history (I say that in general terms, not to you
specifically). Henry Ford senior not only received the 'Grand Cross of the German Eagle' from
Adolf Hitler in 1938, he also received a 'Congressional Medal' from the US Congress shortly
after WW2 – and for the same reason. Selling trucks to help the war effort.
Even after Pearl Harbor, there were politically powerful Isolationists that did not want
the US to get involved in WW2. Why? Because a lot of money was at stake. It still is. These
same people will continue to argue for Isolationism even after we are attacked.
Two months AFTER Pearl Harbor, FDR made a speech that included this:
"Those Americans who believed that we could live under the illusion of isolationism wanted
the American eagle to imitate the tactics of the ostrich. Now, many of those same people,
afraid that we may be sticking our necks out, want our national bird to be turned into a
turtle. But we prefer to retain the eagle as it is – flying high and striking hard. I
know that I speak for the mass of the American people when I say that we reject the turtle
policy and will continue increasingly the policy of carrying the war to the enemy in distant
lands and distant waters – as far away as possible from our own home grounds." –
FDR
This radical change in our foreign policy has never been explained or even referred to in
US history books. Powerful economic forces will always love the idea of "Open Trade
Isolationism". But if Isolationism is ever suddenly defined by not doing business with any
hostile government – those powerful forces will go ballistic. They will strongly lobby
against 'Economic Warfare'. In other words, they will always want to make lots of money by
selling their products to hostile governments, no matter how many people die.
Want a great example?
Right after Loral Corporation CEO Bernard L. Schwartz donated a million dollars to the
DNC, President Clinton authorized the release of ballistic missile technology to China so
Loral could get their satellites into space fast and at low cost. Those same missiles, and
their nuclear warheads, are now pointed at the US.
The argument has always been that if we trade with hostile governments, they will grow to
like us. Does anyone out there believe that if the UK and France gave pre WW2 Germany an
extra $20 billion in trade, Germany wouldn't have started WW2? Anyone with a brain would tell
you that Germany would have put those resources into their military (like China has been
doing) and WW2 would have started earlier.
Yerfej, if we brought back the Cold War organization called the Coordinating Committee for
Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM), I would be all for Isolationism. President Clinton got
rid of it in his first year, and Western weapons technology has been threatening us ever
since.
BaNNeD oN THe RuN , 5 hours ago
You have to love the dynamic duo of "lie, cheat and steal" Pompeo and his "mob boss"
Trump. There is absolutely no subtlety in their obvious shakedown tactics.
PrivetHedge , 4 hours ago
The mob had far more honor, and better morals.
PrivetHedge , 4 hours ago
Washington's transatlantic allies...
Hahahah, occupied vassals.
Washington has cost Germany a massive slice of GDP.
you_do , 4 hours ago
Yankee has plenty of problems at home.
Rest of the world can decide their own energy policy.
They do not suffer from the 'Russia' propaganda.
geno-econ , 5 hours ago
Let Russia, the lowest cost energy producer win energy competition in Europe as China, the
lowest cost manufacturing producer is winning in America. Only difference is retailers,
shippers, assembly part importers such as auto, electronics and appliance makers are making a
profit and consumer gets lower prices. We should let others decide for themselves and stop
meddling----only result will be a bloody nose
you_do , 4 hours ago
Yankee has plenty of problems at home.
Rest of the world can decide their own energy policy.
They do not suffer from the 'Russia' propaganda.
geno-econ , 5 hours ago
Let Russia, the lowest cost energy producer win energy competition in Europe as China, the
lowest cost manufacturing producer is winning in America. Only difference is retailers,
shippers, assembly part importers such as auto, electronics and appliance makers are making a
profit and consumer gets lower prices. We should let others decide for themselves and stop
meddling----only result will be a bloody nose
free-energy , 4 hours ago
Notice how everything the US does around the world is a WAR. War on Energy, War on Drugs,
War on Birth Control, War War War... America will fall after 2020 if nothing changes for the
better. Every year the world grows more and more tired of the US bs and moves further away
from it. Its so bad that they choose to deal with a communist country over us.
You reap what you've sowed.
Bobby Farrell Can Dance , 3 hours ago
The Anglo American parasite pirate gangsters keep barking on about Russia bad, China bad,
but I look around and I see nothing but these trouble makers waging war on anything they
cannot control. The US and UK are devil nations. They will deserve all the rot they have
coming their way.
Unknown User , 5 hours ago
Trump wants a trade balance with all major economies like Germany and China. If they don't
buy from us, he will have to raise tariffs. In case of Germany, they need nothing from us so
he wants them to buy US LNG. Merkel's position is that "there is a cheap Russian gas", while
Trump is telling her "no there isn't one".
Pumpinfe , 4 hours ago
So trump loves to deep throat Russia but give Germany a hard time to Nordstream 2? Wake up
fanboys, your hero is a ******. I got so much money invested in gazprom. LNG is junk and
gazprom (Russian owned) is gona crush LNG and trump and his idiot following can't do a damn
thing. You trump idiots will believe anything. Let me enlighten you...gazprom is the lowest
cost producer of natural gas in the world...go look at the difference between gazprom and LNG
and then you will realize that orange dump is an idiot along with his army of empty heads. Oh
and if you think China and Russia are not friendly, go look up the Power of Siberia pipeline.
That will give you a good sense of the relationship between Russia and China. America is
rotting from the inside and Russia and China are eating their popcorn watching it happen.
Dabooda , 3 hours ago
I don't see Trump deep-throating anyone but Netanyahu. Sans gratuitous insults, your
comment about Gazprom is spot on
Lokiban , 5 hours ago
I doubt Merkel will give in. She would commit political suicide if she did that. She knows
Navalny is a US effort to stop Nordstream 2.
What is the alternative? Buying gas from the US or US-controlled oilfields in Iraq and Syria?
Putin might have a say in that.
Lokiban , 5 hours ago
I doubt Merkel will give in. She would commit political suicide if she did that. She knows
Navalny is a US effort to stop Nordstream 2.
What is the alternative? Buying gas from the US or US-controlled oilfields in Iraq and Syria?
Putin might have a say in that.
thurstjo63 , 3 hours ago
The main fault in Mr Korybko's thinking is that he believes that European countries will
not just shoot themselves in the foot but in the head to appease the US. At a european and
local level, those who wanted Nord Stream 2 to be suspended or killed have failed. The costs
are way too high. For that we can thank, perversely, the agreements associated with
protecting investments from political decisions pushed by the US itself!!! Given that there
is no proof of Navalny being poisoned, Germany knows that there is no way that they could
hope to win their case for stopping Nord Stream 2 in a tribunal with persons capable of
rational thought. That is why they made the deal to buy some US liquified gas for a couple of
billion dollars. Because that is the cheapest way of extricating themselves from this
situation. Otherwise, they are looking at orders of magnitude more compensation to russian
and european firms for stopping the pipeline.
As for Belarus, barring Lukashenko doing something profoundly stupid like reacting
violently to protests, that ship has already sailed. Protests are smaller every week and
mainly on the weekend as now the "opposition" has been publishing people's profiles accusing
them of collaborating with the government without any proof, leading to innocent people and
their families to be threatened. There will be a transition from Lukashenko over the next
couple of years but you can be sure that the present "opposition" given their desire to break
away from Russia will not be part of the group that comes to power in the future since their
base of support diminishes every week.
Finally Bulgaria already shot themselves in the foot when they backed out of South Stream
and had major problems securing energy resources to meet its needs during the intervening
period. Radev as any politician wanting to stay in office knows, if he doesn't go through
with connecting Turk Stream to the rest of Europe that he might as well resign. So unless the
US has compromising information on him that can force him from office or the Radev's
administration doesn't control the US attempts to create the conditions for a colour
revolution in Bulgaria, it is definitely not going to happen.
I'm sorry but Mr. Korybko is wrong on all counts!
Savvy , 4 hours ago
When the US backed Georgia's violent incursion into S Ossetia it took Russia one day to
send them back.
Russians are slow to saddle but ride fast.
Joiningupthedots , 2 hours ago
That was with the remnants of the old Soviet Army too.
The new Russian Army is an entirely different beast in both organisation, training,
experience and equipment.
Decoupling Russia from EU, is re-enforcing the Eurasia bloc...where is the future of the
world.
Russia belongs to Europa...not the USA.
BaNNeD oN THe RuN , 4 hours ago
Geographically Europe and Asia are one continent. It was "European exceptionalism" (the
precursor to American Exceptionalism) that divided it as an ethno-cultural construct.
researchfix , 5 hours ago
Cancelling NS2 will chase the German industry into Russia. Cheap energy, moderate wages,
Eurasian market at the front steps.
The sheep and their ex working places and Mutti will stay in Germany.
Bobby Farrell Can Dance , 3 hours ago
Do Germans want to be slaves of these abject Brits and Americans? Pffffft....gas from
Russia is a NO BRAINER.
Only British and Americans rats do not like that idea. How un-selfish then, it is for
these jealous, insecure morons to dictate to Germany how she should trade. That's called
outright meddling. These imperialists are like entitled Karens, they think the world owes
them favours at the snap of a finger.
Sandmann , 4 hours ago
Nordstream 2 has an add-on leg to UK. Germany is largest gas importer on earth and cannot
run its industry without gas imports from Russia. LNG is simply too expensive unless US
taxpayers subsidise it.
If US wants to destabilise Europe it will reap the consequences. Southern Europe depends
on gas from North Africa - Portugal generates electricity from Maghreb Pipeline to Spain from
Algeria via Morocco. Erdogan hopes to put Turkey in position of supplying gas to Europe.
Germany will not abandon Nordstream 2 but might abandon USA first.
Max21c , 3 hours ago
The US is ruthlessly waging an intense Hybrid War on Russian energy interests in Europe
by targeting the Eurasian Great Power's relevant projects in Germany, Belarus, and
Bulgaria, banking on the fact that even the partial success of this strategy would greatly
advance the scenario of an externally provoked "decoupling" between Moscow and Washington's
transatlantic allies.
It's a petty game and when it fails then the Washingtonians credibility and legitimacy
just further erodes. The EU needs the energy supplies and the Russian Federation has the
supplies. It's all just short term & small gain silliness by a pack of freaks in
Washington DC and their freaks in the CIA, Thunk Tank freaks and freaks in the foreign policy
establishment. It's just more of the Carnival sideshow/freakshow put on by Washingtonians. As
usual if it's a Washingtonian (post Cold War) policy then there's little or no substance
behind it and you can be sure it hasn't be thought through thoroughly and it'll eventually
turn and boomerang back on the circus people in Washington, Ivy League circus people, and
JudeoWASP elite circus people, CIA circus clowns and circus clowns in the Thunk Tonks and
elites Fareign Poolicy ***-tablishment.
John Hansen , 3 hours ago
If all it takes is a Navaly hoax to cause this Europe isn't really worth dealing with.
propaganda_reaper , 3 hours ago
Once upon a time, a revolution occurred in a country through which passed a gas pipeline.
The bad guys were vanquished. And the very good foreign guys who helped the local good guys
defeat the tyrant said: "We got the same stuff, but liquid."
Any similarity with fictitious events or characters was purely coincidental.
Remember the Gas to Europe still flows through the Ukraine. Russia just needs to reduce
the gas Pressure and blame the Ukraine and Europe goes cold and Dark.
German People will beg for Nordstream 2 to be switched on.
lucitanian , 31 minutes ago
That's not the way Russia works. But it's the kind of blackmail that the US uses. And
that's why Russia is a more dependable partner for Europe for energy.
Hope Copy , 1 hour ago
This **** goes right back to the 'DeepState' pseudo-revolution that got the Nicky-the-weak
killed ,because he financed his railroads and wanted to be rich as hell as he perceived the
ENGLISH monarchy to be, with a parliamentary DUMA that he could over rule if need be. I have
looked 'DeepState' right in the eyes when I was young and dumb and was told that I would
never go to their masion.. Nicky had family enemies. and the Czech fighting force was never
going to save him.. Stalin was also double-crossed, but was well informed.. it was in his
sector if one reads and believes. Cunning fox Stalin was, always playing those under him to
do his bidding.. and that lesson has been well learned by a couple of the world's leaders in
this day-in-age...
Herodotus , 1 hour ago
German manufacturing costs must be driven higher to take the heat off of the UK as they
emerge from the EU and attempt to become competitive.
novictim , 1 hour ago
When "War" is actually not war but trade policy and financial incentives then you know you
are engaged in dangerous bloviations and hyperbole.
When the shooting starts, then you can talk of War.
SuperareDolo , 2 hours ago
Russia might not want to fight these attempts to isolate it from the western economy. The
collateral damage will be that much less, once Babylon the great finally falls.
LoveTruth , 2 hours ago
And US claims to be a "Fair Player," caring for freedom and democracy, while twisting arms
and supporting corrupted officials.
IronForge , 3 hours ago
PetroUSD, MIC, Colonial Control of Vassals. World Domination Play by the Hegemony.
Just like the Policies of NATO: Russians Out, Germans Down, Anglo-American-ZioMasons and
Vatican_Vassals In.
Policies were like this - Sponsored by Anglo-ZioMasons from Pre-WWI, continued through
WWII and the First Cold War, and onwards after the Collapse of the SUN and the ensuing NeoCon
Wolfowitz Doctrine and PNAC7/Bush-Cheney PetroUSD Plans.
The Hegemony Control MENA Energy Producers. The IRQ-KWT War were mishandled; and KSA
demanded for the USA to Smite IRQ. The Initial War and Occupation prompted Hussein to opt the
EUR for Petroleum, which Brought about the End of Hussein through the 9-11/PNAC7 Long
War.
LBY opted for the Au-Dinar for Petroleum; and were Fail-Stated. IRN and RUS remain the
only Major Energy Producers not Controlled by the Hegemony.
IRN were Sanctioned since removing the Shackles of Hegemonic Occupancy via Shah Par Levi;
and attempts for Energy Diversification via Nuclear means raised suspicions of Nuclear
Weapons Development - prompting for heavier Sanctions and 5thColumn Regime Change Operations
by the Hegemony. IRN circumvented Sanctions in part by selling their Petroleum via Major
Currencies and Barter. Though many Countries have reduced or maintained their purchase of IRN
Petroleum via Sanctions Protocols, CHN are involved in Purchasing IRN's Output.
RUS, another Target of Ruin, Plunder, and Occupational Exploitation by the Hegemony, were
Too Large a Country with Standing Armed Forces for Direct Military Invasion by the Hegemony.
After the Collapse of the SUN, The Harvard/Chicago led Economic Reforms ended in Plunder -
which prompted the Selection and Rise of Putin, who drove out the Plunderers. The Hegemony
continue their Geopolitical War of Influence Peddling around RUS while attempting Soft War
NATO Membership Recruitment and Regime Change Coups within RUS, Ex-SUN Nation-States, and
Trading Partners.
RUS have endured, became Militarily mightier, have become the Major Energy Producer for
North/Western Europe and CHN. In addition to the Production, RUS now have begun Trading
Petroleum+NatGas outside of the PetroUSD Exchange Mechanism, opting for Customer Currencies
or RUB.
RUS and IRN are expected to be Key Providers of the PetroCNY-Au Exchange Mechanism.
The Hegemony and MENA Vassals can't Compete in Combined Petroleum+NatGas Volume and Price;
and DEU - by Directly Importing from RUS - will most likely become more Independent from the
Hegemon.
CHN, RUS, and DEU - Major Energy, Industrial, Natural Resource, and Military Powers
Decoupling from the Influences of the Hegemony, with IND Slowly coming to their Own (IND are
simply Too Large to remain Vassals to the Hegemon; and Vassal GBR did so much to Oppress them
in the past).
Funny that the Anglo-American-ZioMasons and VAT have brought each of these 3 Powers to
Ruin and Occupation in the Past 2 Centuries.
The Ironies being Played Out are that:
1) GBR Lost their Prime Colonies - America/USA, IND, and now Trade City Colony HKG - by
their Oppressive and Exploitative Occupancy; and
2) USA, after Fighting Wars for Independence from such Occupations by GBR - Once Becoming
a Major Military Power, Followed in the Anglo-ZioMason Tradition of Geopolitical Conquest and
Control to the Scale of pursing not only in World Domination - but in Absolute Global
Rule.
Maghreb2 , 2 hours ago
Problem is demographic
shift . The previous modern system dominated by Zio-Masonry was GNP and GDP where
currencies were measured against global output and floated against gold and each other. Now
with high inflation and demographic decline knocking out the economy is easier leading to
fights between zones of influence. Petro Ruble, Euro or dollar. Dangerous commodities like
kilos of heroin, trafficked humans or weapons. Zio-Masonic system has fallen to gangsterism.
Hybrid Warfare is the kind of thing we saw in Afghanistan or 80s Columbia .
Militarized Russian mafia vs NATO backed militarized police forces.
Once the population reaches a certain age and consumption drops there isn't much to fight
over besides social control systems of the young minority. Color revolutions in Central
Europe are really only effecting the long term economy of the young . Hope would be Left wing Radicals
stood up to the system and aligned with right wing groups to eliminate masonic and Zionist
factions and take back the command and control systems before the continet is shut down
permanently.
Precision strikes and hunting down their
descendents . Easy to find because Hitler and Stalin had their ancestors massacred for
loyalty to Rothschild. They won't bite the hands that feed.The Vatican vassal systems was
built on knowing that a Zionist is Zionist and Masons is a Mason. They are cults simply
teaching them the correct way to behave can avert these political problems.
In terms of Belarus and Russia they should consider the fact the birth rate rate rose
after the Soviet collapse and exodus west means many of them shouldn't have even been born in
Rothschilds plan. In their " system
" economic planning starts at birth because color revolutions effect
long term bond issuances they control.
Stalin and Hitler both knew this and used money linked to raw marterials and goods to beat
the British gold standard system. If you knew what the Western Central banks were worth you
would kill people for using their money.
Once I'd seen this mention of The Russian Playbook (aka KGB, Kremlin or Putin's Playbook), I saw the expression all over the place.
Here's an early – perhaps the earliest – use of the term. In October 2016, the Center for Strategic and International studies ("
Ranked #1 ") informed us of the "
Kremlin Playbook " with this ominous beginning
There was a deeply held assumption that, when the countries of Central and Eastern Europe joined NATO and the European Union
in 2004, these countries would continue their positive democratic and economic transformation. Yet more than a decade later, the
region has experienced a steady decline in democratic standards and governance practices at the same time that Russia's economic
engagement with the region expanded significantly.
And asks
Are these developments coincidental, or has the Kremlin sought deliberately to erode the region's democratic institutions
through its influence to 'break the internal coherence of the enemy system'?
Well, to these people, to ask the question is to answer it: can't possibly be disappointment at the gap between 2004's expectations
and 2020's reality, can't be that they don't like the total Western values package that they have to accept, it must be those crafty
Russians deceiving them. This was the earliest reference to The Playbook that I found, but it certainly wasn't the last.
Of course, all these people are convinced Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Somehow. To some effect. Never
really specified but the latest outburst of insanity is this
video from the Lincoln Project . As Anatoly Karlin observes:
"I think it's really cool how
we Russians took over America just by shitposting online. How does it feel to be subhuman?" He has a point: the Lincoln Project,
and the others shrieking about Russian interference, take it for granted that American democracy is so flimsy and Americans so gullible
that a few Facebook ads can bring the whole facade down. A curious mental state indeed.
What can we know about The Playbook? For a start it must be written in Russian, a language that those crafty Russians insist on
speaking among themselves. Secondly such an important document would be protected the way that highly classified material is protected.
There would be a very restricted need to know; underlings participating in one of the many plays would not know how their part fitted
into The Playbook; few would ever see The Playbook itself. The Playbook would be brought to the desk of the few authorised to see
it by a courier, signed for, the courier would watch the reader and take away the copy afterwards. The very few copies in existence
would be securely locked away; each numbered and differing subtly from the others so that, should a leak occur, the authorities would
know which copy read by whom had been leaked. Printed on paper that could not be photographed or duplicated. As much protection as
human cunning could devise; right up there with
the nuclear
codes .
And so on. It's all quite ridiculous: we're supposed to believe that Moscow easily controls far-away countries but can't keep
its neighbours under control.
There is no Russian Playbook, that's just projection. But there is a "playbook" and it's written in English, it's freely available
and it's inexpensive enough that every pundit can have a personal copy: it's named "
From Dictatorship To Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation " and it's written by
Gene Sharp (1928-2018) . Whatever Sharp may have thought he
was doing, whatever good cause he thought he was assisting, his book has been used as a guide to create regime changes around the
world. Billed as "democracy" and "freedom", their results are not so benign. Witness Ukraine today. Or Libya. Or Kosovo whose long-time
leader has just been indicted for numerous crimes
. Curiously enough, these efforts always take place in countries that resist Washington's line but never in countries that don't.
Here we do see training, financing, propaganda, discord being sown, divisions exploited to effect regime change – all the things
in the imaginary "Russian Playbook". So, whatever he may have thought he was helping, Sharp's advice has been used to produce what
only the propagandists could call "
model interventions "; to the "liberated" themselves, the reality is
poverty ,
destruction ,
war and
refugees
.
Reading Sharp's book, however, makes one wonder if he was just fooling himself. Has there ever been a "dictatorship" overthrown
by "non-violent" resistance along the lines of what he is suggesting? He mentions Norwegians who resisted Hitler; but Norway was
liberated, along with the rest of Occupied Europe, by extremely violent warfare. While some Jews escaped, most didn't and it was
the conquest of Berlin that saved the rest: the nazi state was killed . The USSR went away, together with its satellite governments
in Europe but that was a top-down event. He likes Gandhi but Gandhi wouldn't have lasted a minute under Stalin.
Otpor was greatly aided by NATO's war on Serbia. And, they're only
"non-violent" because the Western media doesn't talk much about
the violence ; "non-violent" is not the first word that
comes to mind in this video of Kiev 2014 . "Colour revolutions"
are manufactured from existing grievances, to be sure, but with a great deal of outside assistance, direction and funding; upon inspection,
there's much design behind their "spontaneity". And, not infrequently, with mysterious sniping at a expedient moment – see
Katchanovski's research
on the "Heavenly Hundred" of the Maidan showing pretty convincingly that the shootings were " a false flag operation" involving
"an alliance of the far right organizations, specifically the Right Sector and Svoboda, and oligarchic parties, such as Fatherland".
There is little in Sharp's book to suggest that non-violent resistance would have had much effect on a really brutal and determined
government. He also has the naïve habit of using "democrat" and "dictator" as if these words were as precisely defined as coconuts
and codfish. But any "dictatorship" – for example Stalin's is a very complex affair with many shades of opinion in it. So, in terms
of what he was apparently trying to do, one can see it only succeeding against rather mild "dictators" presiding over extremely unpopular
polities. With a great deal of outside effort and resources.
Patrick Armstrong was an analyst in the Canadian Department of National Defence specialising in the USSR/Russia from 1984
and a Counsellor in the Canadian Embassy in Moscow in 1993-1996. He retired in 2008 and has been writing on Russia and related subjects
on the Net ever since.
One of the most vibrantly alive people I met, André Vltchek, just died . Though he barely
made it past his mid-fifties he got in a lot more living than a hundred average Americans who
live to collect their pensions. Allah yarhamhu.
In honor of this great Truth Jihadi we're replaying this 2018 interview:
The West claims to be the "free world" -- the global leader in human rights,
humanitarianism, and free expression. Globetrotting independent journalist André Vltchek , who joins us from Borneo,
isn't buying it. His latest
essay begins:
Western culture is clearly obsessed with rules, guilt, submissiveness and punishment.
By now it is clear that the West is the least free society on Earth. In North America and
Europe, almost everyone is under constant scrutiny: people are spied on, observed, their
personal information is being continually extracted, and the surveillance cameras are used
indiscriminately.
Life is synchronized and managed. There are hardly any surprises.
One can sleep with whomever he or she wishes (as long as it is done within the 'allowed
protocol'). Homosexuality and bisexuality are allowed. But that is about all; that is how far
'freedom' usually stretches.
Rebellion is not only discouraged, it is fought against, brutally. For the tiniest
misdemeanors or errors, people end up behind bars. As a result, the U.S. has more prisoners per
capita than any other country on Earth, except the Seychelles.
Andre taunted rightwing elites and illness – with a passion. I guess one of them
caught up.
Living hard seems like a death-wish, maybe it was. Staring at darkness messes people up
and he traveled again and again into the hearts of darkness across the planet because he
wanted to be a modern Wilfred Burchett. He was one of the greats. My condolences to his
family and friends.
Peace to Stephen Cohen too. You both will be missed.
André Vltchek was not an intellectual heavyweight. What is fascinating about his
life-story is how and who financed. That should be easy for insiders to fish out, and
insiders there be.
As to my humble opinion, Chomsky was neither. From all angles, his pre-fabricated
prestige, his in-group attitudes, his encrusted prestance, pettiness, pedantry, always within
convention, his factoid approach, the channels of communication, the lack of any systemic
approach, his "good guys bad guys" copper´ approach, did not warrant the few hours
listening in on his tune and omni-presence. His numb personality, contrary to the combative
Vltchek is noted as a minor.
Some "intellectuals" have half a page of original content in them over the course of a
life-time (not the same as career (n´est ce pas Pinker?)), most have none. "History
repeat itself", through the bull-horns of public intellectuals. They both practiced a sort of
journalism that is superficial (accent on the superficial) agenda driven.
Ex-CIA John Kiriakou stated that the CIA was attempting to recruit just about anyone that
they were able to starting in the sixties ranging from Hollywood actors/actresses, musicians,
writers, journalists, artists, business people, just about anyone. Operation Mockingbird is
still widely used even if it is no longer regerred to it as Operation Mockingbird.
André Vltchek (1962-2020) was the son of a Czech nuclear physicist father, and a
Russian-Chinese artist-architect mother, born in Soviet-era St Petersburg (then Leningrad).
He spent part of his childhood as well in the famous Czech beer city of Pilsen.
Western culture is clearly obsessed with rules, guilt, submissiveness and
punishment.
What culture is not? Every single population on Earth wants to survive, Westerners want
non-Aryans to survive, but the mechanism is always the same. The Stasi, the Gestapo, the CIA,
the KGB – they all breathed air, and they all tortured dissenters. Turkey was almost
overthrown in 2016. The Shah of Iran was, as were Hosni Mubarak and Gaddafi in Egypt and
Libya. Bashar is facing quite a lot of criticism for being free – that critique comes
in the form of bombs and jihadi freedom fighters. The Saudi Prince is wise for strangling and
beheading Khashoggi. The USSR disintegrated after they had shut down the GULAG.
As a result, the U.S. has more prisoners per capita than any other country on Earth,
except the Seychelles.
In 2012, the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in [the DPR of Korea] estimated 150,000 to
200,000 are incarcerated, based on testimonies of defectors from the state police bureau,
which roughly equals 600–800 people incarcerated per 100,000. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate
The World Prison Brief puts the United States' incarceration rate at 655 per 100,000.
Okay. If the West is the least free society on the planet, why the heck do all these
third-world people keep trying to move there? It is plain that Vltchek's thinking flunks the
real-world reality test.
The reality is, the rest of the world is worse off than the West, or people wouldn't keep
trying to leave the third world for the West.
@Anon ey want to have freedom of their stupid religious beliefs, not freedom from
religion. They still don't know that freedom of religion is not worth anything if it also
doesn't guarantee freedom from religion.
Thomas Jefferson tried very hard to explain this to them, but Yankee morons have never
learned what Jefferson tried to teach them. (With some notable exceptions, though, who,
however, have absolutely no political power.)
Vltchek is/was right: American/Western civilization [sic] (siphilization, rather) is
bankrupt and inhuman. It can only offer an abundance of material goods and military weapons
as if the only goals of human life were material things and warfare.
We all know that we are living in crazy, and dangerous, times, yet I can't help being awed
at what the imperial propaganda machine (aka the legacy ziomedia) is trying to make us all
swallow. The list of truly batshit crazy stuff we are being told to believe is now very long,
and today I just want to pick on a few of my "favorites" (so to speak).
First, of course, comes the " Novichok Reloaded " scandal around the alleged poisoning of
the so-called "dissident" Alexei Navalnyi. I already mentioned this absolutely ridiculous story
once
, so I won't repeat it all here. I just want to mention a few very basic facts:
in my
past article , if what the German authorities are claiming is true, then the Russians are
truly the dumbest imbeciles on the planet. Not content to use this now famous "Novichok" gas
against Skripal in the UK and after failing to kill Skripal, these stupid Russians decided to
try the very same gas, only "improved", and they failed again: Navalnyi is quite alive and
well, thank you! Then there is this: according to the imperial propaganda machine, Novichok
was so horribly dangerous, that the Brits had to use full biosuits to investigate the alleged
poisoning of Skripal. They also said that they would completely destroy the dangerous Skripal
home (though they never did that). The self same propaganda machine says that the Novichok
used on Navalnyi was a more powerful, improved version. Okay. Then try to answer this one:
why did the Russians NOT put on biosuits, why did not a single passenger suffer from any side
effects (inside a closed aircraft cabin!)? How is it that this super-dooper Novichok not only
failed to kill Navalnyi (who, allegedly, ingested it!) but also failed to even moderately
inconvenience anybody from the many people Navalnyi was surrounded by on that day?
I could continue to deconstruct all this nonsense, but that would take pages. I will mention
two thing though:
First, the Russians have requested any and all evidence available to the Germans and to the
Organization for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons – but they got
absolutely nothing in return. Yet the EU is demanding an investigation (which is already under
way in Russia anyway!) as if the Russians did not want the exact same!
After being exposed
to an improved Novichok and after weeks in coma in intensive care, here is Navalnyi trotting
down stairs feeling great
Second, Navalnyi apparently has an immunity to otherwise deadly Russian biological agents,
just take a look at him on this post-Novichok photo:
[By the way, the first time around the Brits also never gave the Russians any information,
nevermind any kind of evidence. Apparently, to hide some super-secret secrets. Yeah,
right!]
If you have ever wondered why Syrian jihadists, or so-called 'moderate opposition', got
support from the woke liberal West, a recent leak by Anonymous reveals it's because Western
governments funded this propaganda.
In the end, it is the sheer childishness of the propaganda which amazes me most, not that
our rulers lie about other countries – I have always known that. But somehow there was a
kernel of truth around which the web of lies was spun, for example about life in the old Soviet
Union.
I began to realise the scope of Western ability to literally invent the most baseless lies
only in the run-up to the Iraq War in 2003, and only because I knew more about Iraq than any
politician in Britain or America and ten times more than the average made-up telly-dolly
chuntering through their auto-cued war propaganda. The women presenters weren't any better.
This all came flooding back to me when I received an email from Anonymous earlier this week
and then read Ben Norton's excellent analysis of it all in The GrayZone.
If anyone ever wondered how the hordes of head-chopping throat-cutting heart-eating
gay-murdering women-hating 'Jihadists' of the Syrian War ever managed to get a fair press in a
'woke' liberal West that gets hot under the lace collar about JK Rowling novels, the answers
are all in
the Anonymous leak . The principle answer is that you, the taxpayer, paid for it.
That's right. The blizzard of 'White Helmets' (who made it right up to the Oscars to thank
everyone who'd helped them except those that had helped them the most), "chemical-weapons
attacks" and all the paraphernalia of a newly "moderate opposition" in Syria – was all
paid for by YOU. Millions of pounds of British taxpayers' money was revealed to have been spent
secretly on UK support for the throat-cutting coalition of chaos, which for a decade massacred
its way across Syria wearing a snow-white Western beard of respectability.
It would appear that while the US (or rather its milk-cows in the Gulf) was paying for the
lethal-weapons, perfidious Albion was doing what it does best – lying through its teeth
whilst making those being lied to, pay for the privilege. Now that – thanks to the leaks
– we know this, it should put us on guard for the next one. Yet somehow it doesn't, at
least not for the purveyors of the news.
The Lazarus-like resurrection (and photo-shoot) of Russia's opposition figure and Western
darling Alexey Navalny after yet another alleged Novichok (believed to be 5-8 times more toxic
than VX nerve agent) attack without so much as a tracheostomy to show for it is swallowed whole
in yet another anti-Russian public relations offensive.
Grown sane men call my television show to talk about 'concentration camps' in China in
which, we are told, "a million Uighur Muslims" are being held and forcibly sterilised. This is
despite the allegations being largely based on studies backed by the American government and
statements by Western media favourite, German researcher Adrian Zenz. Zenz, who is part of the
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a US-backed advocacy group,
believes that he is "led by God" on his "mission" against China. Meanwhile, according to China's
official statistics the Uighur population in Xinjiang province increased by over 25 percent
between 2010 and 2018, while the Han Chinese rose by only two percent.
The lying industry may be the only sector of the Western economies still in full production.
No need for furlough or bounce-back loans. The lie-machines never still. No smoke is usually
detected from their chimneys, but inside, their pants are well and truly on fire.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author
and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
Thank you for the links, very interesting. I've seen several of the pics of Navalny, the
heads look edited in, a bit too big, not quite aligned. This all seems very amateruish, like
the Belorussian coup attempt. I'll bet they are connected more than we know.
I don't believe a bit of it. I haven't seem any evidence of life for Navalny except some not
very convincing pictures.
The video of Ms Pevchickh is interesting too, she is very animated, works hard to get her
point across.
If you allow she was part of a plot to get him "poisoned", lots of new questions pop up:
did Navalny know, was he in on it? Was this supposed to tie in with the Belarus unrest, a
distraction, something else? Who talked Merkel into going along and how? Is Heiko Maas really
that dumb he thought this was going to work?
"... On rules based disorder and the capitulation of Merkel and her BND lapdogs to the 'hate Russia' fulminations of the UKUSA morons. I see that the German Parliament has NOT TAKEN its red pills these days and is reluctant to swallow the BS. ..."
On rules based disorder and the capitulation of Merkel and her BND lapdogs to the 'hate
Russia' fulminations of the UKUSA morons. I see that the German Parliament has NOT TAKEN its
red pills these days and is reluctant to swallow the BS. It would be satisfying to see
the collective wisdom of the Parliament to exceed that of the BND. But then that is a low
bar.
Somewhat a side note, but has some relevance. The West has used against Russia the same
memes and tropes the German Nazis used against Jews, the Soviet Union, and Slavic
peoples. The great Jewish conspiracy to destroy German is being regurgitated as Putin
wants to destroy American democracy. But the second half the Nazi attack was the Jews wanted
to destroy European civilization, and not just Germany. This is where the crap about "rules
based order" comes in. Some also used the term "liberal democracies". Same theme: Russian
wants to destroy the entirety of the Western order--not just making sure Hillary lost the
election (and now Biden).
But here is the thing. The West with American leadership looks at this struggle over a
rules based order as a life and death struggle. It is not just about economic competition and
dominance. The underlying propaganda base is rather deadly.
"... Accompanying this overwhelmingly dominant political and economic ideology was an American geopolitical vision equally grandiose in ambition and equally blind to the lessons of history. This was summed up in the memorandum on "Defence Planning Guidance 1994-1999," drawn up in April 1992 for the Bush Senior administration by Under-Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz and Lewis "Scooter" Libby ..."
"... In the early 2000s, when its influence reached its most dangerous height, military and security elites would couch it in the terms of "full spectrum dominance." ..."
"... Bhadrakumar describes how the 'west', through its own behavior, created a mighty block that now opposes its dictates. He concludes ..."
"... Quintessentially, Russia and China contest a set of neoliberal practices that have evolved in the post-World War 2 international order validating selective use of human rights as a universal value to legitimise western intervention in the domestic affairs of sovereign states. On the other hand, they also accept and continuously affirm their commitment to a number of fundamental precepts of the international order -- in particular, the primacy of state sovereignty and territorial integrity, the importance of international law, and the centrality of the United Nations and the key role of the Security Council. ..."
"... The rules are follow the dictates of our western neo-colonial institutions like the World Bank, the IMF et all. ..."
"... Its a pretty simple concept backed by the attack dog of the US military. ..."
"... 'Rules based order' was always a euphemism for exceptionalism of one kind or another. The term was invented to avoid having to say 'rule of law', which invited criticism because even the most minimal amount of law (such as Geneva conventions, ICC etc) was rejected in practice and in policy by the leading members of the actually existing world order. ..."
"... Rumor says the "Wolfowitz Doctrine" also envisioned the balkanization of Russia (the document is still classified, but it leaked to a NYT journalist at the time, who published a report on it). ..."
"... It is not over in the sense that the West hasn't given up in its attempts to take over the world. But as the "exceptionalist" western countries decline, they will go even crazier and crazier and there will be full blown hysteria. ..."
"... In this sense, the rule based order will be over as there will be only disorder and animalistic, crazed western rage and bullying. The West is like a trapped animal. It will start pouncing, raging and snarling like a wild animal. This is the real nature of the West. A hungry wild animal that needs to feed. ..."
"... But behind the liberal mask, there are hateful eyes and gnashing teeth, and hunger and greed for other people's resources. ..."
"... Expressed in words, the West's face says "I'm the best and you are nothing! Give me your stuff! And this is how it will forever be!" ..."
"... As Putin has said, the US is no longer agreement capable. ..."
"... Instead of bringing Russia into the Western liberal democracies (with the threat of major nuclear war now drastically reduced) the now Anglo-Zionist Empire just looted it. ..."
"... Actually the Trump Administration has done far more against Russia than all US administrations from the last 30 years. Do not listen what they say, look at what they do. Right now the US in a full blown Cold War with Russia with ever increasing attacks ..."
"... Rules based international order .... the U.S. functions as the the Supreme Court for the U.N. , 'we have invoked snapback sanctions and extended the arms embargo on Iran indefinitely and are enforcing it'. UN, 'but your vote failed'. ..."
"... Rules based International Order is the dog whistle for global private finance controlled economies. It is sad that we are in a civilization war with China/Russia about who runs international finance going forward and yet there is no discussion of the subject but instead all sorts of proxy conflicts. ..."
"... The US is not just facing relative decline -- the fact that others are catching up in key ways. The US is also facing absolute decline -- the fact that it is suffering a degradation of capacities and is losing competitive battles in key areas. Examples of absolute decline include the Russian and Chinese military-technological revolutions based on anti-ship and hypersonic missiles and air defense systems; Chinese 5G; China's demonstrative success in suppressing COVID and its overall manufacturing power; the declining quality of life for most Americans; and the collapse of American institutional competence. ..."
"... Related to this, we can't separate these dynamics from the political economy of the states in question. China, in particular, is showing that an interventionist state, with high levels of public ownership, is essential to qualitative power, human security, and economic and social development. ..."
"... Psssst, learning Russian is easier than Chinese and we already know a few Russian words, such as novichok. ..."
"... Russia after the Cold War was a shambles and today it remains a weak economy with a limited role on the world stage, concerned mainly with retaining some of its traditional areas of influence. China is a vastly more formidable competitor. If the US (and the UK, if as usual we tag along) approach the relationship with Beijing with anything like the combination of arrogance, ignorance, greed, criminality, bigotry, hypocrisy and incompetence with which western elites managed the period after the Cold War, then we risk losing the competition and endangering the world. [my emphasis] ..."
"... It is not over in the sense that the West hasn't given up in its attempts to take over the world. ..."
"... The contest between the Empire and the upstarts is not over by a long shot. What the West HAS lost is the "inevitability" argument. But for the upstarts to actually prevail in their "multi-lateral" vision, they have to actually entice countries to join them despite threats and intimidation from the Empire. ..."
"... The Empire's power-elite KNOW that Russia, China, and allies of Russia-China don't want to be subject to their "rules-based order". The Empire is actively working to undermine, subvert, and divide the countries that oppose it. While also securing their own territories/population via intimidation and propaganda. ..."
"... On rules based disorder and the capitulation of Merkel and her BND lapdogs to the 'hate Russia' fulminations of the UKUSA morons. I see that the German Parliament has NOT TAKEN its red pills these days and is reluctant to swallow the BS. ..."
"... My late father as an army officer prosecuted Japanese war criminals for their atrocities now the Anglo-Zionists are the pre-eminent war criminals and their leaders loudly proclaim "our values" as a pathological and propagandistic form of projection. Is it possible they are unaware of their blatant hypocrisy ? ..."
"... There is no "international law" and no "international order." There is only relative power. And when those powers clash, as seems inevitable, the world is in for a major nuclear war, and probably preceded by several more regional wars. Meanwhile, the US internally is collapsing into economic disaster, social unrest, political and social oppression, infrastructure failure, and medical disasters. We'll probably be in martial law sometime between November 3 and January 21 if not beyond that period, just for starters. ..."
"... America's "Rules-Based International Order" is a Goebbelsian euphemism for a Lies-Based Imperial Order, led by the USA and its war criminal allies (aka the self-styled Free World). ..."
"... The true nature of this America-led order is exposed by the USA's war of aggression against Iraq (which violated international law and had no United Nations sanction) and its decades-long War on Terrorism, which have murdered hundreds of thousands of people and maimed, immiserated, or refugeed millions of more people. ..."
"... The Empire is very much alive and dangerous. Ask Iran, ask Syria, as the Palestinians, ask the Russians, ask the Chinese. Ask numerous African nations. Even Pangloss was not so stupidly naive. ..."
"... quite right. 'Rules based order' was always a euphemism for exceptionalism of one kind or another. ie US and its "allies" is basically asking the rest of the world to finance their (the US et al) version of a welfare state. ..."
"... China and rest of the worlds foreign central banks stopped growing their foreign exchange reserves (on net) in 2014 leaving the US in a sort of limbo. ..."
"... "Major powers maintaining cooperation, at least not engaging in Cold War-style antagonism, is the important foundation of world peace. China is committed to maintaining cooperation among major powers, as well as being flexible in the balance of interests acceptable to all parties. The problem is the Trump administration is hysterically shaping decoupling and confrontation between Beijing and Washington, and has been mobilizing more forces to its side at home and abroad. Those US policymakers are deliberately splitting the world like during the Cold War. ..."
"... The first 'Cold War' was entirely contrived. The US knew the Soviet Union was weak and had no agenda beyond maintaining security and its own reconstruction after WW2. There was no threat of a Western European invasion, or of the USSR spreading revolution globally. All that Cold War ideology is a lie. And the same lying is taking place about China today. No difference. ..."
"... It's good to see discussion here of the nefarious role of the American far-right neocon warmongers in the State Department, intelligence services and military leadership just before the turn of the new century. What I have never seen clearly explained, however, is the connection between these very dangerous forces and the equally cynical and reactionary Israeli politicians and the Mossad, as well as Saudi Arabian officials. ..."
The 'western' countries, i.e. the United States and its 'allies', love to speak of a 'rules based international order'
which they say everyone should follow. That 'rules based order' is a way more vague concept
than the actual rule of law:
The G7 is united by its shared values and commitment to a rules based international order.
That order is being challenged by authoritarianism, serious violations of human rights,
exclusion and discrimination, humanitarian and security crises, and the defiance of
international law and standards.
As members of the G7, we are convinced that our societies and the world have reaped
remarkable benefits from a global order based on rules and underscore that this system must
have at its heart the notions of inclusion, democracy and respect for human rights,
fundamental freedoms, diversity, and the rule of law.
That the 'rules based international order' is supposed to include vague concepts of
'democracy', 'human rights', 'fundamental freedoms', 'diversity' and more makes it easy to
claim that this or that violation of the 'rules based international order' has occurred. Such
violations can then be used to impose punishment in the form of sanctions or war.
That the above definition was given by a minority of a few rich nations makes it already
clear that it can not be a global concept for a multilateral world. That would require a set of
rules that everyone has agreed to. We already had and have such a system. It is called
international law. But at the end of the cold war the 'west' began to ignore the actual
international law and to replace it with its own rules which others were then supposed to
follow. That hubris has come back to bite the 'west'.
Anatol Lieven's recent piece, How
the west lost , describes this moral defeat of the 'west' after its dubious 'victory' in
the cold war:
Accompanying this overwhelmingly dominant political and economic ideology was an American
geopolitical vision equally grandiose in ambition and equally blind to the lessons of
history. This was summed up in the memorandum on "Defence Planning Guidance 1994-1999," drawn
up in April 1992 for the Bush Senior administration by Under-Secretary of Defence Paul
Wolfowitz and Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and subsequently leaked to the media. Its central
message was:
...
While that 1992 Washington paper spoke of the "legitimate interests" of other states, it
clearly implied that it would be Washington that would define what interests were legitimate,
and how they could be pursued. And once again, though never formally adopted, this "doctrine"
became in effect the standard operating procedure of subsequent administrations. In the early
2000s, when its influence reached its most dangerous height, military and security elites
would couch it in the terms of "full spectrum dominance." As the younger President Bush
declared in his State of the Union address in January 2002, which put the US on the road to
the invasion of Iraq: "By the grace of God, America won the Cold War A world once divided
into two armed camps now recognizes one sole and pre-eminent power, the United States of
America."
But that power has since failed in the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, during the 2008
financial crisis and now again in the pandemic. It also created new competition to its role due
to its own behavior:
On the one hand, American moves to extend Nato to the Baltics and then (abortively) on to
Ukraine and Georgia, and to abolish Russian influence and destroy Russian allies in the
Middle East, inevitably produced a fierce and largely successful Russian nationalist
reaction. ...
On the other hand, the benign and neglectful way in which Washington regarded
the rise of China in the generation after the Cold War (for example, the blithe decision to
allow China to join the World Trade Organisation) was also rooted in ideological arrogance.
Western triumphalism meant that most of the US elites were convinced that as a result of
economic growth, the Chinese Communist state would either democratise or be overthrown; and
that China would eventually have to adopt the western version of economics or fail
economically. This was coupled with the belief that good relations with China could be
predicated on China accepting a so-called "rules-based" international order in which the US
set the rules while also being free to break them whenever it wished; something that nobody
with the slightest knowledge of Chinese history should have believed.
The retired Indian ambassador M.K. Bhadrakumar touches on the same points in an excellent
series about the new Chinese-Russian alliance:
Bhadrakumar describes how the 'west', through its own behavior, created a mighty block that
now opposes its dictates. He concludes:
Quintessentially, Russia and China contest a set of neoliberal practices that have evolved in
the post-World War 2 international order validating selective use of human rights as a
universal value to legitimise western intervention in the domestic affairs of sovereign
states. On the other hand, they also accept and continuously affirm their commitment to a
number of fundamental precepts of the international order -- in particular, the primacy of
state sovereignty and territorial integrity, the importance of international law, and the
centrality of the United Nations and the key role of the Security Council.
While the U.S. wants a vague 'rules based international order' China and Russia emphasize an
international order that is based on the rule of law. Two recent comments by leaders from China
and Russia underline this.
China firmly supports the United Nations' central role in global affairs and opposes any
country acting like boss of the world, President Xi Jinping said on Monday.
...
"No country has the right to dominate global affairs, control the destiny of others or keep
advantages in development all to itself," Xi said.
Noting that the UN must stand firm for justice, Xi said that mutual respect and equality
among all countries, big or small, is the foremost principle of the UN Charter.
No country should be allowed to do whatever it likes and be the hegemon or bully, Xi said.
"Unilateralism is a dead end," he said.
...
International laws should not be distorted or used as a pretext to undermine other countries'
legitimate rights and interests or world peace and stability, he added.
The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov went even further by outright rejecting the 'western rules' that the 'rules
based international order' implies:
Ideas that Russia and China will play by sets of Western rules under any circumstances are
deeply flawed , Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with New
York-based international Russian-language RTVI channel.
"I was reading our political scientists who are well known in the West. The following idea
is becoming louder and more pronounced: it is time to stop applying Western metrics to our
actions and stop trying to be liked by the West at any cost . These are very reputable people
and a rather serious statement. It is clear to me that the West is wittingly or unwittingly
pushing us towards this analysis. It is likely to be done unwittingly," Lavrov noted.
"However, it is a big mistake to think that Russia will play by Western rules in any case,
just like thinking this in terms of China."
As an alliance China and Russia have all the raw materials, energy, engineering and
industrial capabilities, agriculture and populations needed to be completely independent from
the 'west'. They have no need nor any desire to follow dubious rules dictated by other powers.
There is no way to make them do so. As M.K. Bhadrakumar concludes
:
The US cannot overwhelm that alliance unless it defeats both China and Russia together,
simultaneously. The alliance, meanwhile, also happens to be on the right side of history.
Time works in its favour, as the decline of the US in relative comprehensive national power
and global influence keeps advancing and the world gets used to the "post-American century."
---
P.S.
On a lighter note: RT , Russia's state sponsored international TV station, has recently
hired Donald Trump
(vid). He will soon host his own reality show on RT . The working title is reportedly:
"Putin's Apprentice". The apprenticeship might give him a chance to learn how a nation that has
failed can be resurrected to its former glory.
Posted by b on September 22, 2020 at 17:59 UTC | Permalink
The Liberal International Order or Pax Americana are synonyms for The
Rules Based Order. The plan that was followed for years was the outline given by Zbigniew
Brzezinski and the Trilateral Commission in The Grand Chessboard to "contain" the ambition of
Russia, China, and Iran over their interest to expand into Central Asia and the Middle East.
Brzezinski changed
in 2016, so did Kissinger, Brzezinski wrote that it was time to make peace and to integrate
with Russia, China and Iran. But the elites had changed by then, newer people had taken
over and no longer followed Brzezinski.
The rules are follow the dictates of our western neo-colonial institutions like the World
Bank, the IMF et all. We will own you and you will do what we say and those are the rules.
Any challenge to our authority will lead to war, economic ruin or both.
Its a pretty simple concept backed by the attack dog of the US military.
'Rules based order' was always a euphemism for exceptionalism of one kind or another.
The term was invented to avoid having to say 'rule of law', which invited criticism
because even the most minimal amount of law (such as Geneva conventions, ICC etc) was
rejected in practice and in policy by the leading members of the actually existing world
order.
Rumor says the "Wolfowitz Doctrine" also envisioned the balkanization of Russia (the document
is still classified, but it leaked to a NYT journalist at the time, who published a report on
it).
It is not over in the sense that the West hasn't given up in its attempts to take over the
world. But as the "exceptionalist" western countries decline, they will go even crazier and
crazier and there will be full blown hysteria.
In this sense, the rule based order will be over as there will be only disorder and
animalistic, crazed western rage and bullying. The West is like a trapped animal. It will start pouncing, raging and snarling like a wild
animal. This is the real nature of the West. A hungry wild animal that needs to feed.
All the liberalism is just self-congratulation about how exceptionalist it is. It is born
out of narcisism and self-obsession during the "good times" of the West.
But behind the liberal mask, there are hateful eyes and gnashing teeth, and hunger and
greed for other people's resources.
The real face of it is hateful and snarling. And it will be fully exposed during the next
10 years, as the West goes crazy and it becomes a hungry wild animal that desperately needs
to feed.
Expressed in words, the West's face says "I'm the best and you are nothing! Give me your
stuff! And this is how it will forever be!"
Countries need to stay out from the wild animal and carry a big stick just in case, until
it succumbs from its internal hatreds and contradictions.
As Putin has said, the US is no longer agreement capable. As b. outlines. the US elites no
longer follow the rule of law. This is even true within the US. The US inherited the role
formerly played by the British Empire after WW2.
The national security apparatus of both the
US and the Soviet Union kept the Cold War going. Notice how soon after JFK was assassinated
Khrushchev was deposed. Gorbachev rightly stopped the Soviets superpower regime. As Dmitri Orlov points out - Empire hollowed out the Soviet Union and he sees it doing the same to the
US.
Instead of bringing Russia into the Western liberal democracies (with the threat of major
nuclear war now drastically reduced) the now Anglo-Zionist Empire just looted it. The life
expectancy of Russians fell 7 years in a decade until rescued by Putin.
It can now be seen
that the Nixon-Kissinger opening up to China was not to gain access to its large market
potential but to gain access to hundreds of millions of cheap, disciplined, and educated
workers. The elites starting in the 70s became greedier. Jet travel,electronic communication,
and computers allowed the outsourcing of manufacture.
The spread of air conditioning allowed
even the too hot south to be a location. First in the US as the factories began their march
through the non union southern states onto Mexico. Management from the north could now live
in air conditioned houses, drive air conditioned cars and work in air conditioned offices.
The 70s oil inflation led to stagnation as the unionized labor were powerful enough to get
cost of living raises. With the globalization of labor union power in the US has been
destroyed. As Eric X Li points out China's one party rule actually changes policies easier
than the Western democracies.
So China's government hasn't joined in with the West in just
creating wealth for the top 1% and debt for the real economy.
As b. pointed out, the Anglo
Zionist policies created the mutual benefit partnership of Russia and China. The Chinese belt
and road initiative appears to be intent on creating a large trading zone that could benefit
those involved. The US is just using sanctions and the military to turn sovereign functioning
countries that don't go along with it into failed states and their infrastructure turned to
rubble
Now, the US is forced into puppeteering the UN in order to maintain the illusion of the
'rules based order,' even as it slides further and further away from any meaningful
international cooperation:
Fortunately for the world, the United States took responsible action to stop this from
happening. In accordance with our rights under UNSCR 2231, we initiated the snapback process
to restore virtually all previously terminated UN sanctions, including the arms embargo. The
world will be safer as a result.
The United States expects all UN Member States to fully comply with their obligations
to implement these measures. In addition to the arms embargo, this includes restrictions
such as the ban on Iran engaging in enrichment and reprocessing-related activities, the
prohibition on ballistic missile testing and development by Iran, and sanctions on the
transfer of nuclear- and missile-related technologies to Iran, among others. If UN Member
States fail to fulfill their obligations to implement these sanctions, the United States is
prepared to use our domestic authorities to impose consequences for those failures and ensure
that Iran does not reap the benefits of UN-prohibited activity.
Actually the Trump Administration has done far more against Russia than all US
administrations from the last 30 years. Do not listen what they say, look at what they
do. Right now the US in a full blown Cold War with Russia with ever increasing attacks.
Pompeo talks more or less continually about "China's bullying behaviour". To me it is
wonderful that he can say this with a straight face. (Perhaps it is a result of his lessons
in the CIA on "how to lie better".)All the countries that have engaged with China have
benefitted from it, whether as salesmen or as recipients of aid or loans at advantageous
rates. The countries that have engaged with America have mostly (All?) lost. (The fifty+
countries invaded and wrecked since WW2 or the NATO "allies" or the countries attacked with
sanctions.) Either their economies were destroyed or billions upon billions of dollars were
paid to the US MIC. The NATO member countries have got what from their membership? Formerly,
they had "Protection" from an imaginary Soviet threat, more recently "Protection" from an
equally imaginary Russian threat! Some bargain, that!
Rules based international order .... the U.S. functions as the the Supreme Court for the
U.N. , 'we have invoked snapback sanctions and extended the arms embargo on Iran
indefinitely and are enforcing it'. UN, 'but your vote failed'.
U.S, 'we have the right to seize cargo between any two countries transported in
international waters based on U.S. federal appeals court decision even though the transaction
in no way involves the U.S. We call this Freedom of Navigation and why we need to have
aircraft carriers in the South China Sea and Arabian Gulf'
Rules based International Order is the dog whistle for global private finance controlled
economies.
It is sad that we are in a civilization war with China/Russia about who runs international
finance going forward and yet there is no discussion of the subject but instead all sorts of
proxy conflicts.
Thanks for the posting b as it gets to the core myths around the global private finance
jackboot on the neck of countries in the West.
The US is not just facing relative decline -- the fact that others are catching up in key
ways. The US is also facing absolute decline -- the fact that it is suffering a degradation
of capacities and is losing competitive battles in key areas. Examples of absolute decline
include the Russian and Chinese military-technological revolutions based on anti-ship and
hypersonic missiles and air defense systems; Chinese 5G; China's demonstrative success in
suppressing COVID and its overall manufacturing power; the declining quality of life for most
Americans; and the collapse of American institutional competence.
Related to this, we can't separate these dynamics from the political economy of the states
in question. China, in particular, is showing that an interventionist state, with high levels
of public ownership, is essential to qualitative power, human security, and economic and
social development.
Capitalism might enrich a few, but it is the primary cause of America's relative and
absolute decline.
US and allied military analysts have been talking over the last year or so of the need to
enter a single focus and total "wartime" posture throughout our societies, with all financial
and industrial output directed to the "war". This has influenced the information/ propaganda
efforts, but also the uptick in military manoeuvres around Taiwan and renewed NATO pressure
directed at Russia (including the recent provocative B52 flights). Don't think Russia/China
can be tricked into over-reacting, but some kind of loss-of-life military confrontation may
be what the rules-based side is looking for as the population at large will probably not
accept a "wartime sacrifice" regimen without such.
Whilst Russia and China are creating a truly new, unique and creative alliance and a
market of everything, in Australia the "authorities" are sicking their police dogs on poor
grannies sitting on park benches. This image of five brainless armed state goons in a show of
force over two quiet little grannies really puts things into perspective. It must be that New
World Order that Soros and puppets always talked about.
Psssst, learning Russian is easier than Chinese and we already know a few Russian words,
such as novichok.
The post scriptum stopped the clock for me. Has our host slipped into our drink there a
profound prophecy, disguised as jesting?
Many agree something big will happen (break?) soon, possibly with the elections. The other
thing is the Americans' ability to change course, drop all baggage, and run off in a new,
even the opposite direction with unfettered enthusiasm (and ferocity). No people has a
greater capacity for almost instant renewal, once it chooses to.
I also notice that the spoof takes good aim at The Donald's peculiarities, though in a
fair and human way. The proverbial Russian warmth, or a humorous invitation?
Meanwhile, I enjoy my newfound optimism in these dark times. Thanks b!
Thanks b and on Anatol Lieven in the Prospect story (fairy story?)...
Russia after the Cold War was a shambles and today it remains a weak economy with a limited
role on the world stage, concerned mainly with retaining some of its traditional areas of
influence. China is a vastly more formidable competitor. If the US (and the UK, if as usual
we tag along) approach the relationship with Beijing with anything like the combination of
arrogance, ignorance, greed, criminality, bigotry, hypocrisy and incompetence with which
western elites managed the period after the Cold War, then we risk losing the
competition and endangering the world. [my emphasis]
Lieven simply does not see it. Has it ever occurred to Lieven that colonialism just might
be rejected by both Russia and China and that there might be no competition? Does Lieven
watch too much football?
What is it that endangers the world in Lieven's petite cortex? This verbose Lieven
tosh is littered with fancy sentences trawled from here and there but always presented to us
from a narrow dimensional mind with limited analysis and seemingly zero interrogation.
again:- "then we risk losing the competition and endangering the world"...
So Lieven thinks the current behaviour of the US hegemon and its collaborator the UK is
innocuous? These were the two nations that blithely squandered the "peace dividend" from the
end of cold war as he describes and have led us to this time of perpetual war. A perpetual
war that he does not mention, does not allude to, does not treat as an important driver
behind the current global mistrust and disengagement from the USUK drive for global
dominance.
Lieven is putting lipstick on his pig and screaming about losing the competition to the
imagined wolf outside his prison.
It is not over in the sense that the West hasn't given up in its attempts to take over
the world.
I agree. The contest between the Empire and the upstarts is not over by a long shot. What the West HAS lost is the "inevitability" argument. But for the upstarts to actually
prevail in their "multi-lateral" vision, they have to actually entice countries to join them
despite threats and intimidation from the Empire.
_________________________________
Passer by @Sep22 20:15 #14
Right now the US in a full blown Cold War with Russia with ever increasing attacks.
Yes. We still see the narratives like of Trump as Putin-lover despite the debunking of
Russiagate and the clear evidence of Cold War tensions. The incessant propaganda reeks of
desperation.
<> <> <> <> <> <>
Some seem to think that the Empire is cornered.
Aha! We've got you now, you scoundrels!
LOL.
The Empire's power-elite KNOW that Russia, China, and allies of Russia-China don't want to
be subject to their "rules-based order". The Empire is actively working to undermine,
subvert, and divide the countries that oppose it. While also securing their own
territories/population via intimidation and propaganda.
On rules based disorder and the capitulation of Merkel and her BND lapdogs to the 'hate
Russia' fulminations of the UKUSA morons. I see that the German Parliament has NOT TAKEN its
red pills these days and is reluctant to swallow the BS. It would be satisfying to see the
collective wisdom of the Parliament to exceed that of the BND. But then that is a low bar.
"For our part, we more than once described a balanced and mutually acceptable framework
for future agreements in this sphere during our contacts with the American negotiators. Aware
of the difficulties on the path forward in light of how widely different our approaches are,
we proposed extending the New START as it was originally signed.
"We do not want any unilateral advantages, but we will not make any unilateral concessions
either. A deal may be possible if the United States is ready to coordinate a new document on
the basis of the balance of interests, parity and without expecting Russia to make unilateral
concessions. But this will take time. We can have time to do this if the treaty is
extended."
As predicted, the Outlaw US Empire makes an offer it knows will be refused so it can then
blame Russia for being an unreliable negotiating partner--a trick we've all seen before.
I agree. The contest between the Empire and the upstarts is not over by a long shot.
What the West HAS lost is the "inevitability" argument. But for the upstarts to actually
prevail in their "multi-lateral" vision, they have to actually entice countries to join them
despite threats and intimidation from the Empire.
Yes, the big question remaining is to predict what will happen and when. This is what the
real deal is. And I'm sure they are working on that in the Intel agencies. It can certainly be predicted that the US and the EU will be significantly weaker in 2030
that today. Will this be enough is the question.
We now have some new information about US long term health as published by CBO. Very
interesting numbers.
They predict lower population growth and lower GDP growth for the US than previously
estimated, as well as higher debt rates. US federal debt is to reach 195 % of GDP by 2050 under best case scenario.
Analysts also seem to agree that the Covid 19 crisis further weakened the US vis a vis
China, as the Chinese economy significantly outperformed almost everyone else this year, more
than expected before the crisis.
I will also mention two important recent numbers. This year:
1. China, for the first time, became the biggest trading partner for the EU, beating the
US.
2. China's retail market overtook the one of the US.
Posted by: vk | Sep 22 2020 19:05 utc | 4 -- "....Eurasia is where most of human civilization
lives, it's the "World Island" - the world island not in the military sense, but in the
economic sense. Every path to human prosperity passes through Eurasia - that's why the USA
can't "let it alone" in the first place, while the reverse is not true, that is, Eurasia can
give to the luxury of letting the Americas alone."
Excellent observation, VK.
Even if the World Island (thanks for your formulation) trades with itself, within itself,
there is sufficient mass to last a century, during which the arrogantly exceptional West
might just wake up from their Century of Humiliation.
Meanwhile, inertia alone will ensure that the West forgets that their vaunted
"civilisation" was fed, watered, enriched by the Silk Route that came from the East -- from
the Middle Kingdom (China) and from the Middle East (which is "middle", as you pointed out
above, because all wealth passes through that region).
Yes there are rules which are observed more by their breach than their observance: The Geneva
Conventions. Just ask Julian Assange.
I find it incredible that the Anglo-Zionist captive nations can sign, ratify, incorporate
into domestic law and then sign the additional protocol, making themselves high contracting
parties, which requires them to report all and any breaches to Geneva, then ignore all the
above commitments. One of these commitments includes educating their citizens on the basic
provisions of the conventions. Again they haven't bothered, that could expose their hypocrisy
to the public.
Even the bandit statelet signed but I am yet to see just one example of its application in
the seventy plus years of its barbaric and bloodthirsty occupation of Palestine.
Interestingly, the conventions prohibit the occupied from signing away one iota of their
territory to the occupier. So much for what Claude Pictet's Commentary to the Fourth Geneva
Convention calls "alleged annexations." This book is available from the ICRC.
My late father as an army officer prosecuted Japanese war criminals for their atrocities
now the Anglo-Zionists are the pre-eminent war criminals and their leaders loudly proclaim
"our values" as a pathological and propagandistic form of projection. Is it possible they are
unaware of their blatant hypocrisy ?
It seems the New World Order has some familiar and unsurprising antecedents:
Anatol Lieven comes from an educated and cultured family in Britain's upper middle class
layer. His older siblings - he is the youngest of five children - include a High Court judge
(Dame Natalie Lieven), a Cambridge University professor / historian (Dominic Lieven) and a
psychologist / linguistics researcher (Elena Lieven). They haven't done badly for a family from the old Baltic German
aristocratic elite that used to serve the Russian empire as administrators for the
Livonia governorate.
The British Lievens might see themselves as gatekeepers and interpreters of what the
ruling classes desire (or appear to desire) and communicate that down to us. Hence their
positions in intellectual and academic occupations - no engineers, technicians or academics
in the physical or biological sciences among their number.
Anatol Lieven is right though about "competition", in the sense I believe he is using it:
it is "competition" for supposed global leadership and influence as only the British and
Americans understand it. Life as British and American elites understand it is the annual
football competition writ large; there can only be one winner and the worst position to be in
is second place and every other place below it. Never mind that what Russia and China have in
mind is a vision of the world with multiple and overlapping leadership roles dispersed among
nations according to various criteria: this ideal is simply too much for the Anglosphere
elites to understand, let alone digest and accept.
Still, I wonder why Anatol Lieven is teaching in a university in Qatar of all places.
Family influence and reputation must only go so far.
if you aren't at least a little prepared for a
disruption in critical supplies, and choose instead to waste time commenting on online
forums, it won't matter how up to date you are on "rules based international order" vs.
"international law". at that point the reality will be something like this: if you aren't
holding it, you don't have it, and if you can't defend it, you won't be keeping it for long.
Got that absolutely right.
There is no "international law" and no "international order." There is only relative
power. And when those powers clash, as seems inevitable, the world is in for a major nuclear
war, and probably preceded by several more regional wars. Meanwhile, the US internally is
collapsing into economic disaster, social unrest, political and social oppression,
infrastructure failure, and medical disasters. We'll probably be in martial law sometime
between November 3 and January 21 if not beyond that period, just for starters.
This month is National Preparedness Month. I recommend watching the following videos from
well-known "preppers" who have been warning about this stuff for years.
And this one from The Urban Prepper, an IT guy who is exceptionally well organized and
logical in his videos. I recommend subscribing to his channel. He avoids most of the
excessive "doom and gloom" hype that afflicts a lot of prepper channels and is oriented more
about urban survival than "backwoods bushcraft" since most people live in cities. Prepping 101: Prepping
Architecture Diagram for Gear Organization
And if you don't watch anything else, watch this one from Canadian Prepper - he's
absolutely right in this one and it specifically applies to the barflies here: What is Really Going
On? Its WORSE Than You Think
Meanwhile, inertia alone will ensure that the West forgets that their vaunted "civilisation"
was fed, watered, enriched by the Silk Route that came from the East -- from the Middle
Kingdom (China) and from the Middle East (which is "middle", as you pointed out above,
because all wealth passes through that region).
Posted by: kiwiklown | Sep 22 2020 23:41 utc | 39
Oh, and this one from Canadian Prepper in which he muses about whether and why we actually
*want* the SHTF situation to occur. This one would resonate with a lot of the commentary here
about the social malaise and the psychological reasons for it. Maybe nothing really new for
some, but definitely relevant.
Still, I wonder why Anatol Lieven is teaching in a university in Qatar of all places.
Family influence and reputation must only go so far.
Thank you that backgrounder explains a lot. Perhaps like Englanders before him he finds
Qatar, safe and rewarding PLUS mounds of finest hashish and titillating company. From my
understanding it is a grotesque abuser of human rights and everyone has a price.
America's "Rules-Based International Order" is a Goebbelsian euphemism for a Lies-Based
Imperial Order, led by the USA and its war criminal allies (aka the self-styled Free World).
The true nature of this America-led order is exposed by the USA's war of aggression
against Iraq (which violated international law and had no United Nations sanction) and its
decades-long War on Terrorism, which have murdered hundreds of thousands of people and
maimed, immiserated, or refugeed millions of more people. These crimes against humanity have
been justified by Orwellian American lies about "Weapons of Mass Destruction," "fighting
terrorism," or the curious events of Sept. 11th.
This America "Rules-Based" order is one drenched in the blood of millions of people--even
as it sanctimoniously disguises itself behind endless propaganda about defending liberal
democracy or the rule of law.
Truly, America and its allies can take their malignant Rules-Based Disorder back to Hell,
where they all belong.
"Thus your "side note" has no "relevance" whatsoever."
You sound like some podunk UN official from a podunk country trying to impress a waitress
in a NYC bar. The Empire is very much alive and dangerous. Ask Iran, ask Syria, as the
Palestinians, ask the Russians, ask the Chinese. Ask numerous African nations. Even Pangloss
was not so stupidly naive.
Thank you - YES that is the answer and always has been PLUS there will be no pipeline from
Iran through Afghanistan to Pakistan and on to China. There will be NO overland pipeline or
rail route to sound the death knell to the maritime mafia.
Please vote for trump 2020. no president destroy America from inside like what trump did. The goal is to accelerate American empire destruction and grip in this world.
What better way to put such clown along his circus in white house. he will make a mess of everything and will definitely bring
America down
i hope he win 2020 and America explode into civil war and chaos. With America destroyed internally , they wont have time to invade
Venezuela or Iran
Remember , if Biden win 2020 , American foreign policy will revert into normalcy that means
seeking alliance with EU and 5 eyes in a more meaningful way , aka giving them preferential
treatment on trade..
all that to box in china and russia , reenable TPP , initiate the delayed venezuela overt
invasion other than covert
this is dangerous for the whole world , not that it will save US in the long run but it
will increase real shooting conflict with china and russia.. So focus on trump victory in 2020 , the more controversial the win the better , lets push america into chaos
I appreciate the time and thought that goes into a post like this; all without a popup ad
trying to sell me ANOTHER item I just bought via Amazon, in spite of the fact that I am among
the least likely to want another right now. Voice of reason crying in the wilderness and all
that.
The rule The Capitalist Ogres promote as the heart of Civilization is simply the age-old
Golden Rule. Those with the gold, make the rules.
@ptb quite right.
'Rules based order' was always a euphemism for exceptionalism of one kind or another. ie US and its "allies" is basically asking the rest of the world to finance their (the US
et al)
version of a welfare state.
as US et al can no longer fund their own unaffordable welfare promises made to their own
electorates, they have to call on the rest of the world to do so (China has been effectively
funding the US budget deficit since they entered the WTO.
and the EU (mainly Germany) was doing the same before China's entry into WTO)
China and rest of the worlds foreign central banks stopped growing their foreign exchange
reserves (on net) in 2014
leaving the US in a sort of limbo.
Well, you're sorta correct; it was all those nations including China that bought Outlaw US
Empire debt. China certainly knows better now and for almost a decade now it's purchases--and
those of the rest of the world -- of said debt have declined to the point where a huge crisis
related to the debt pyramid threatens all those aside from the 1% living within the Outlaw US
Empire. The Judo involved was very instructive.
"Trump's UN
address censured" headlines Global Times article that reviews yesterday's UNGA.
Domestic BigLie Media didn't like what it heard from Trump:
"Commenting on the US' performance, many Western media tended to view US as being
'isolated,' and its unilateral efforts 'widely derided....'
"Some US media outlets cannot stand Trump's accusations. A WSJ report said many Democrats
blamed Trump for "isolating the US and diluting American influence in the WHO or other
bodies."
It went on to say Trump's threat of withdrawal is often used as leverage to "influence
partner countries, or get allies to pay more for shared defense."
"Some US media linked Trump's address to his widely blamed effort to re-impose sanctions
on Iran, saying his address came as 'UN members push back against Washington,' AP
reported.
"Wednesday's Washington Post article reported that the Trump administration walked on a
'lonely path' at the UN where the US attacked WHO, and embarked on the 'widely derided'
effort to snap back Iran sanctions.
"A week before the UN General Assembly, US media NPR predicted that the US 'appeared to be
isolated' at this year's General Assembly, saying that Trump's 'America First' agenda left
him out of sync with America's traditional allies as it has a long record of pulling out of
international agreements, including one meant to tackle the world's climate crisis."
So, Trump's attack on China's environmental record was beyond hypocritical and ought to be
termed psychopathic prevarication. The best comment from the article well describes the
Trumptroll @53:
"'Trump's smears and attacks against China were apparently aimed at campaigning for his
reelection. Only his die-hard fans - those who do not care about truth but support him -
will buy his words ,' Ding Yifan, a researcher at the Institute of World Development of
the Development Research Center of the State Council, told the Global Times." [My
Emphasis]
And isn't that really the basic issue--the truth? 75 years of lies by the Outlaw US Empire
to cover it's continuous illegalities and subversion of its own fundamental law while killing
and displacing tens of millions of people. Guardian of the Free World my ass! More like
Guardian of the Gates of Hell.
Yes, I'm biased, but anyone seeking truth and invoking the Rule of Law would find themselves
at odds with the Outlaw US Empire. Today's Global Times Editorial makes
the following key observations:
"Major powers maintaining cooperation, at least not engaging in Cold War-style antagonism,
is the important foundation of world peace. China is committed to maintaining cooperation
among major powers, as well as being flexible in the balance of interests acceptable to all
parties. The problem is the Trump administration is hysterically shaping decoupling and
confrontation between Beijing and Washington, and has been mobilizing more forces to its side
at home and abroad. Those US policymakers are deliberately splitting the world like during
the Cold War.
"The impulse to promote a cold war is the ultimate version of unilateralism, and shows
dangerous and mistaken arrogance that the US is almighty. Everyone knows that the US is
declining in its competitiveness under the rules-based international system the US itself
initiated and created. It wants to build a new system more beneficial to itself, and allow
the US to maintain its advantage without making any effort. This is simply impossible."
My research is pointing me to conclude the First Cold War was contrived so the Outlaw US
Empire could impose privately owned finance and corporations and the political-economies
connected to them upon the world lest the collective forces that were the ones to actually
defeat Fascism gain control of their national governments and shape their political-economies
into the public/collectively owned realm where the benefits would flow to all people instead
of just the already powerful. That's also the intent of imposing a Second Cold War. Some seem
to think there's no ideological divide at play, but as I've ceaselessly explained there most
certainly is, thus the intense demonization of both Russia and China--the Strategic
Competition also is occurring in the realm of Ideas. And the only tools available for the
Outlaw US Empire to use are lies, since the truths involved would encourage any neutral
nation to join the Win-Win vision of China and Russia, not the Zero-sum bankruptcy pushed by
the Parasites controlling the Empire.
@ karlof1 | Sep 23 2020 15:56 utc | 84 and forward with the links and quotes...thanks
I do like the confirmation Pepe quote, thanks
It is sad to understand that much of the US population does not have the mental clarity to
see that Trump is no different than Biden when it comes to fealty to the God of Mammon. Way
too many Americans think that replacing Trump with Biden will make things all better.
The end of the rules based international order/global private finance cannot end soon
enough, IMO
Thanks for your reply! As I discussed with the Missus last night, IMO only the people
regaining control over the federal government can rescue themselves from the multiple
dilemmas they face--the most pressing being the Debt Bomb and control of the monetary and
fiscal systems by private entities as exemplified by the Federal Reserve and Wall Street,
both of which employ the Financial Parasites preying on the nation's body-politic. Undoing
all the past wrongs requires both Congress and the Executive be captured by The People who
can then write the laws to end the wrongs while arresting and prosecuting those responsible
for the last 20+ years of massive fraud. The biggest components would be ending the Federal
Reserve, Nationalizing all the fraudster banks, writing down the vast majority of debt, and
disbanding NATO thus ending the overseas empire. Those are the most fundamental steps
required for the USA to avoid the coming calamity brought about by the Neoliberals. I also
have finally developed my thesis on where, why and how that philosophy was developed and put
into motion.
The first 'Cold War' was entirely contrived. The US knew the Soviet Union was weak and had
no agenda beyond maintaining security and its own reconstruction after WW2. There was no
threat of a Western European invasion, or of the USSR spreading revolution globally. All that
Cold War ideology is a lie. And the same lying is taking place about China today. No
difference.
The key issues for the US were:
1. it needed western european capitalist states to buy US manufactured exports. Those
states had to remain capitalist and subordinate to the US, i.e. to avoid what Acheson called
'neutralism' in world politics.
2. the US wanted gradual decolonization of the British and French empires so that US firms
could access markets and resources in those same territories. but the US feared revolutionary
nationalism in the colonies and the potential loss of market access by the former colonial
powers, which would need resources from the post-colonial world to rebuild after WW2.
The key event which cemented the 'Cold War' in Europe was the division of Germany, which
Carolyn Eisenberg shows was entirely an American decision, in her important book, Drawing the
Line.
The driving force of all this, though, was the economic imperatives of US capitalism. The
US needed to restore and save capitalism in Western Europe and Japan, and the Cold War was
the ideological framework for doing so. The Cold War ideology also allowed the US to frame
its meddling in Korea, Guatemala, Iran, etc.
The late historian Gabriel Kolko wrote the best analyses of these issues. His work is much
better than the New Left 'revisionist' US historians.
I agree with your recap and second your appraisal of Gabriel Kolko. Eisenberg's work
somehow escaped my view but will no longer thanks to your suggestion.
But I see more to it all as the First Cold War had to occur to promote the
financialization of the USA's industrial Capitalism which began within the USA in 1913 and
was abruptly interrupted by the various market crashes, the failure of the international
payments system and subsequent massive deflation and Great Depression. A similar plan to
outsource manufactures to its colonies and commonwealth and financialize its economy was
began in the UK sometime after the end of the US Civil War. At the time in England, the
school of Classical Political-Economists and their political allies (CPE) were attempting to
rid the UK and the rest of Europe of the last vestiges of Feudalism that resided in the
Rentier and Banking Classes, the former being mostly populated by Royalty and its
retainers. Land Rent was the primary source of their income while it was the stated intent of
the CPE to change the tax burden from individuals and businesses to that of Land Rent and
other forms of Unearned Income. That movement came swiftly on the heels of the abolition of
the Slave Trade which was a vast source of Royal income. Recognizing this threat to the basis
of their wellbeing, the Royals needed to turn the tables but in such a manner where their
manipulation was secret because of the vast popularity of the CPE's agenda. Thus began the
movement to discredit the CPE and remove their ideas from discourse and later completely from
the history of political-economy. And there was another problem--German Banks and their
philosophy inspired by Bismarck to be totally supportive of German industry, which provided
the impetus for its own colonial pursuits primarily in Africa.
Within that paragraph is my thesis for the rise of Neoliberalism, much of which Dr. Hudson
documents but hasn't yet gotten to/revealed the root cause of the counter revolution against
the CPE. IMO, that reactionary movement underlies far more, particularly the growing
animosity between the UK and Germany from 1875 to 1914. As Eisenberg's research proves,
there's much more past to be revealed that helps to resolve how we arrived at the times we
now face.
Indeed, as Hudson and Max Keiser ask: Why pay taxes at all since the Fed can create all
the credit required. I've written about the pros and cons of Secession here before which are
quite similar to those existing in 1861. In Washington for example, how to deal with all the
Federal property located there. Just as Ft. Sumter didn't belong to South Carolina, the many
military bases there don't belong to Washington. Trying to seize it as the South Carolinians
attempted in 1861 merely creates the casus belli sought by Trump. Now if you could get the
vast majority of the military stationed in Washington to support your cause, your odds of
resisting would greatly improve.
IMO, trying to regain public control over the Federal government would be much easier.
Thank you brother karlof1, YES, the minotaur indeed but where is Theseus and Ariadne when
we need them? Please don't tell me that Biden and Harris are the 'chosen ones' - that would mock the
legend and prove that the gods are truly crazy :))
It seems to me that a review is required, that we need to turn back the clock to an earlier
analysis whose veracity has only been boosted by subsequent events. So here from
2011: "On November 3, 2011, Alan Minsky interviewed me on KPFK's program, 'Building a
Powerful Movement in the United States' in preparation for an Occupy L.A. teach-in." Here's a
brief excerpt to remind people what this is all about:
"Once people realize that they're being screwed, that's a pre-revolutionary situation.
It's a situation where they can get a lot of sympathy and support, precisely by not doing
what The New York Times and the other papers say they should do: come up with some neat
solutions. They don't have to propose a solution because right now there isn't one –
without changing the system with many, many changes. So many that it's like a new
Constitution. Politics as well as the economy need to be restructured. What's developing now
is how to think about the economic and political problems that are bothering people. It is
not radical to realize that the economy isn't working. That is the first stage to realizing
that a real alternative is needed. We've been under a radical right-wing attack – and
need to respond in kind. The next half-year probably will be spent trying to spell out what
the best structure would be."
It's good to see discussion here of the nefarious role of the American far-right neocon
warmongers in the State Department, intelligence services and military leadership just before
the turn of the new century. What I have never seen clearly explained, however, is the
connection between these very dangerous forces and the equally cynical and reactionary
Israeli politicians and the Mossad, as well as Saudi Arabian officials.
Like many others, I
have been slowly won over to the position that the attacks of 9-11, and especially the
totally unprecedented collapses of the three WTC towers, could only have been caused by the
precisely timed explosion of previously installed demolition materials containing nanothermite. But if one accepts that position the immediately subsequent question is "Who
planned and carried out the attacks?" Many people have claimed it was the Mossad, others that
it was the Mossad in concert with the US neocons etc., -- many of whom were Israeli/US dual
citizens -- but even now, so many years after the horrific events, I can find no coherent
account of how such conspirators, or any others for that matter, might actually have carried
out WTC building demotions. Do any of you know of sources on the matter that have made good
progress on connecting the dots and explaining what precisely happened -- the easier part --
and how exactly it was carried out, by whom, and how they have managed to get away with it
for all this time?
Lieven: If the US (and the UK, if as usual we tag along) approach the relationship with
Beijing with anything like the combination of arrogance, ignorance, greed, criminality,
bigotry, hypocrisy and incompetence with which western elites managed the period after the
Cold War, then we risk losing the competition and endangering the world.[my emphasis]
Uncle Tungsten: Lieven simply does not see it. Has it ever occurred to Lieven that
colonialism just might be rejected by both Russia and China and that there might be no
competition? Does Lieven watch too much football?
What is it that endangers the world in Lieven's petite cortex?
-------
It is clear to me that Tungsten does not understand Lieven because Lieven does not cross all
t's and dot all i's. There can be two reasons for Lieven style: (1) a British style, leaving
some conclusions to the reader, it is not elegant to belabor the obvious (2) Lieven works in
a pro-Western feudal state and that particular piece appeared in a neo-liberal outfit where
it is already a clear outlier toward (what I see as) common sense. Neo-liberals view
themselves as liberals, "tolerating a wide spectrum of opinion", but with clear limits about
the frequency and content for the outliers of their tolerance.
Back to "endangering the world", how "loosing competition to China" can result in huge
mayhem? I guess that Tungsten is a little dense here. The sunset of Anglo-Saxon domination
can seem like the end of the world for the "members" of that domination. But a longer
historical perspective can offer a much darker vision of the future. First, there is a clash
of two blocks, one with superior industrial production, domination of markets of assorted
goods -- both as importer and exporter, etc, the other with still superior military
technology and combative spirit.
Recall (or check) the situation in east Asia ca. 1240 AD. One of the major power was Song
China, after a calamitous defeat roughly 300 years later, diminished Song China succeeded in
developing all kinds of practical and beautiful goods and vibrant commerce while having quite
inept military. The second major power was the Mongols. You can look up the rest.
USA stresses the military types of pressures, and seeing its position slipping too far,
they may resort to a series of gigantic "provocations" -- from confiscation of property by
fiat, like they did to Venezuela, to piracy on open seas, no cargoes can move without their
approval and tribute, from there things can escalate toward nuclear war.
More generally, western decline leads to decrease of wealth affecting the lower classes
first but gradually reaching higher, enmity toward competitors, then hatred, such processes
can have dire consequences.
Importantly, these are speculations, so stopping short of spelling them out is reasonable.
However, give some credit to Lieven for "the combination of arrogance, ignorance, greed,
criminality, bigotry, hypocrisy and incompetence with which western elites managed the period
after the Cold War".
On the rule-based world order. Scattered thoughts.
The article by Lieven was good in one aspect: it at least mentioned the crazy economic
template aka imho 'religion' that lead to a part of this mess. For the rest, hmm. The 'rules based international order' was always pretty much a phoney scaffold, used for
presentation to hide, cover up, legitimised many goings on (after WW2 I mean.)
Like a power-point extolling xyz product, with invented or 'massaged' charts and all.,
with tick boxes for what it positive or followed. (Fairness, Democracy, etc. etc. as
'Natural' 'Organic' etc. Total BS.)
In these kinds of discussions I am always reminded of the 'rights of the child' which in
CH are taught in grade 3-5, with a boiled down text, logo type pix, etc. It is very tough on
teachers, and they often only pretend to push the content. There are many immigrant children
in CH and the natives know that the 'rights' are not respected and not just in 'jungles'
(anarchist / animalistic hot spots) as they say. The kids go nuts - as they still more or
less believe that they 'have a voice' as it called -- the parents follow the kids, lotsa
troubles. OK, these are aspirations - but 'democracy' (purposely used as a calling card
following advice from a well-know ad agency..) is so as well. And presenting aspirations that
can't possibly be achieved in any way, when not a smiley joke about meeting God or flying to
Mars, and is socially important, is not well received.
Anyway, since the invasion of Iraq (totally illegal according to any standards) leading to
the biggest demos in the world ever, a loud indignant cry, which invasion the UN condoned,
ppl (in my experience, in CH, F, It) no longer have a shred of belief in 'international
rules'. Which of course makes them more 'nationalist' in the sense of acting in the
community, close at hand, as the Intl order is a shit-scene.
Following a long line of very arrogant american imperial "negotiators", mr oblivion
billingslea used standard "negotiating" techniques like
(a) accusing the other side of crimes Americans have committed first and forever, eg,
extreme lying, bad faith argumentation, military aggression, foreign government security
breaching, assassination and poisoning [as in american presidents and independent thinkers],
and of course, electoral cheating;
(b) putting the opponent in the "negotiation process" on the defensive or back foot by
stating false news allegations amplified by the media controlled by the american empire;
(c) offering nothing useful or commitable to be done by the empire, and yet
"magnanimously" demanding the moon as opponents' concessions, eg, russian, iranian and
chinese nuclear weapons limits, but not for nato's development and deployment, and; (d) after
making impossible demands, the imperials accuse the opponents of hostility and unwillingness
to "negotiate".
The russians can skillfully agree by stating that they only require the americans to
reduce their nukes to 320 pieces like china, and in less than five years.
This is why it is very important for sovereign nations to read the guidebook, called the
"idiot's guide on running the american empire", and developing deep and lasting
solutions.
As for the other american imperial military "advantages", eg, constellation of
"aggression" satellites, andrei forgot to mention that these can be shot or burned down in
minutes easily by russia, china and even iran, as these stations cannot hide or run away in
earth orbits.
Replenishment of weapons and military supplies after 3 months is rather doomed as the
cheap, mass production and manufacturing facilities do not exist. Which must be re-created
somehow but now
American lands are the targets. Much, Much Different Than WW2 !!
And of course, russia can always nuke down the USA and its vassal countries, and thus
permanently ruin their economies for a decade or more, they don't know how to run defense --
this was always the fatal weakness of all bullies - if they'll have enough time to "learn
it"... let's see... I doubt this.
Let's see americans try to start and conduct a nuclear war after too many spy, internet
and gps satellites are shot down. Russia can even do this today using conventional
explosives, and the world will be shocked how helpless the american military and economy can
be made even without using russian nukes.
There are countries still immune to the numerous american imperial diseases that are
already documented daily in zerohedge postings. The better countries still have lots of
parents telling their kids to study and work hard so they can have better lives than their
ancestors.
In oregon and california, they teach unemployable kids to burn something or somebody
sometime before dinner.
CdVision • 11 hours ago
I was about to say that what now comes out of the US & Trump's mouth in particular, is
Orwellian. But that credits it with too much gravitas. The true comparison is Alice in
Wonderland:
"Words mean whatever I want them to mean".
Reminiscence of the Future.. ( http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2020/09/russia-steals-everything.html)
Russia "Steals Everything" !! (Not just China, oops... ???!!!!)
And Jesus Christ was an American and was born in Kalamazoo, MI. It is a well-known fact. So
Donald Trump, evidently briefed by his "utterly competent and crushingly precise aids", knows
now that too! !!! LOL
> US President Donald Trump claims that Russia developed hypersonic weapons after
allegedly stealing information from the United States.
> According to him, "Russia received this information from the Obama administration,"
Moscow "stole this information." Trump said that "Russia received this information and then
created" the rocket, reports TASS.
> "We have such advanced weapons that President Xi, Putin and everyone else will envy
us. They do not know what we have, but they know that it is something that no one has ever
heard of. "
->We are the foremost and always number one. Everything is invented only by us, the
rest can only either steal, or be gifted with our developments for good behavior. This
situation is eternal, unchanging, everyone lags behind American Tikhalogii at least 50 years
(the time frame was chosen so that even a 20-year-old would lose heart, "what's the point of
trying to catch up, it won't work anyway, in my lifetime"). It was, is, and will be, this is
the natural course of events.
All this is delivered in the format of the classic Sunday sermon of the American
provincial Protestant church, coding the parishioners for further deeds and actions. And it
worked effectively, creating in some basalt confidence "we are better because we are better",
in others - "I don't mind anything for joining this radiant success, I'm ready for anything,
I'll go for any hardships and crimes, if only There".
Only now it worked. In a situation where the frequency of pronouncing such mantras is more
and more, emotions are invested in them too, but in fact everyone understands that this is
what autohypnosis does not work.
The poor have stolen from the United States, if you look at it, literally everything. And
5G and the superweapon of the gods. Moreover, a pearl with a characteristic handwriting is
not copy / paste, but move / paste, you bastards. Therefore, the United States does not even
have any traces of developments left - the guys just sit in an empty room, shrug their hands,
"here we have a farm of mechanical killer dolls, with the faces of Mickey Mouse overexposed,
and now look - traces of bast shoes and candy wrappers from "Korkunov" only, ah-ah-ah, well,
something like that, ah. "
At the same time, there are no cases of sabotage, espionage - whole projects were simply
developed, developed, brought to a working product, and then the hob - and that's it, and
disappeared. And this became noticeable only after years. And all the persons involved are
like "wow, wow."
Psychiatric crazy fool of the head, no less.
But due to the fact that all of the above theses are driven very tightly into the template
for the perception of the world, both those who voiced these theses and the listeners are
satisfied.
Because the post-American post-hegemonic world is not terrible because in some ratings
another country will be higher there, and Detroit will never be rebuilt "as it was". It is
scary because it is not clear how to live for people who had no support in the form of global
goals, faith, philosophy of life, and all this was replaced by narcissism on the basis of
"successful success is my second self".
This means that the moment when this issue has to be resolved must be delayed to the last.
Leaving the whole topic on the plane "we were offended, we are offended, we were dishonest,
which means we have the right to any action" is not a bad move.
It's a pity that it doesn't really affect the essence of what is happening.
So they say he has been discharged now, but not where he is. He said in the beginning he
wanted to go home. I'm guessing he won't do that yet. In the picture he looks spooked, as
one can easily understand. I think this whole thing with Navalny since he left the Russian
hospital is fake, theater, sort of like Boris Johnson's bout with COVID19, which I think
was also fake.
Thank you and I bet he IS spooked. It is possible that he was expatriated without his
consent and that he knew what the consequences would be if he ever tried to leave apart from
this fiasco. The scenes back at the hotel and the loose lipped egotistical rants from his
English minder, Pevchikh and also the BBC are just one enormous debacle.
Read John Helmer's multiple
posts on this entire story and it smells like a rats nest of intrigues to set him up
or (a more remote possibility) to extricate him.
One thing is certain, if he tries to return to Russia the British bulldog will kill
him. Time will tell.
... According to [Sosnovsky], the photo of Navalny with his wife on the balcony makes one
think about his whereabouts. Sosnovsky, who is well acquainted with the architecture of
Berlin, drew attention to the strange urban landscape in the corner of the picture. He
pointed out that the Charite building does not have balconies with such a view, as it is
located in the central part of Berlin with a completely different architecture.
To confirm his words in practice, Sosnovsky personally went to the Charite and walked
around the building with a camera. He drew attention to the construction work near the
clinic (it would probably have gotten into the blogger's photo), as well as the complete
absence of journalists and security. All of this confirmed Sosnovsky's suspicions about
Navalny's absence from the Charité.
In addition to the cityscape, the journalist had questions about the can with
cigarette butts on Navalny's balcony. Sosnovsky called such an object impossible in an
elite medical institution in Germany with patients of this level. If all the cigarettes in
the frame were smoked by Navalny himself, this raises even more questions about his
"diagnosis" and the conclusions of German doctors.
The journalist notes that all the shots with Navalny after he emerged from the coma are
static and "inanimate." Sosnovsky, a person with a medical education and a practicing
doctor, calls this understandable, pointing to the possibility of identifying the signs of
specific diseases and influences by movements, speech and other dynamic manifestations. For
example, after a tracheostomy (artificial windpipe), a person often has voice problems.
"Any video and audio makes it possible with a high degree of probability to calculate
where and how it was done. It is much more difficult from a photo. And if they hide from us
the opportunity to determine the location and diagnosis, this is very indicative,"
Sosnovsky said on the air of Soloviev Live.
Earlier, Navalny demanded that Russia return his clothes , in which the blogger was
hospitalized in Omsk. However, Navalny's associates had previously written that all of his
belongings were transferred to his wife, and some of the items that the blogger touched and
used could be taken out by Maria Pevchikh, a suspect in his poisoning."
I have seen the photo of Navalny walking down a staircase with no help and a second photo
of Navalny and his wife Julia out on a balcony at the hospital where he is (supposedly?)
staying with the can of cigarette butts placed near the bottom of the sliding door. I had my
doubts about Navalny being in hospital even before I saw the Sosnovsky article - would a
hospital allow a patient just out of a coma to walk around by himself, especially down the
stairs, or allow him to smoke cigarettes? Would a hospital even have balconies attached to
patients' wards?
Colm O'Toole @ 26, Uncle Tungsten @ 32, David G @ 33:
I am also sad to hear of Andre Vltchek's passing. He used to be an occasional contributor
to Off-Guardian.org.
His death is being treated as suspicious by Turkish police authorities. I myself am rather
puzzled by the decision to travel overnight by car from Samsun to Istanbul, given his state
of health (according to the report that Colm O'Toole linked to) and the length of the car
journey (about nine hours) when he could have travelled by plane.
Thos intelligence nets are becoming more and more sophisticated. They essentially represent a
hidden political force that influences the elections.
From comments: "This is so convoluted and Byzantine and no one is offering documentation,
just allegations."
Notable quotes:
"... Rarely in the news, however, is the role played by Israeli cybersecurity startups in the creation of the Russiagate narrative itself. Incubated within the Israeli military apparatus and benefiting from an uninterrupted stream of billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars, these "private Mossads" have been present behind the scenes throughout the numerous Russia-related scandals fomented by the mainstream press to sow partisan discord among the American electorate and line the pockets of network executives. ..."
"... The Senate's inquiries uncovered a consistent thread of IDF-linked cybersecurity firms and intelligence assets coordinating and facilitating meetings between the coterie of Russian characters that make up the Russiagate universe and the Trump campaign, including protagonists like Guccifer 2.0, the hacker who released Hilary Clinton's infamous emails to Wikileaks via a cell phone registered in Israel. ..."
"... "These guys came out of the military intelligence army unit, and it's like coming out with a triple Ph.D. from MIT. The amount of knowledge these guys have in terms of cybersecurity, cyber-intelligence [is] just so beyond what you could get [with] a normal education that it's just unique there are hundreds and hundreds of Israeli start-up companies that the founders are guys who came out of this unit." ..."
"... Michael Flynn, who was himself also working in an advisory capacity with the "consortium of cyber-spy companies run by former Israeli intelligence officers" known as the NSO Group, that is comprised of several of the Israeli startups summoned before the committee for voluntary, closed-door testimony. ..."
"... One of the NSO companies questioned by the Senate committee in relation to Russian interference, Psy-Group, is currently under investigation in California, where it was caught red-handed actually trying to rig a local election for a paying customer. ..."
"... Butina's former lover, Paul Erickson joked about being a CIA asset and had built a phony reputation as a man of staunch moral Christian values. Erickson worked for several Republican campaigns dating back to the late '80s, including a stint as national policy director for Pat Buchanan's '92 White House run. He first achieved international notoriety as Mobutu Sese Seko's lawyer, reportedly accepting a $30,000 lobbying contract to obtain a U.S. visa for the African despot, which was ultimately denied. ..."
"... It was Erickson's long-standing ties to the NRA and the organization's former president David Keene, which set the stage for the Maria Butina story as a Russian infiltrator looking for " access to U.S. political organizations ." Erickson had worked with Keene as a registered foreign agent since the 1990s and formed part of the NRA's efforts to forge closer ties to Israel since at least 2011. ..."
"... A con-artist by most accounts, Erickson is described by a Republican legislator as "the single biggest phony I've ever met in South Dakota politics." South Dakota was where Yale-educated Erickson came up in the political arena and where he's left a long trail of burned business associates and friends. In 2019, Erickson pled guilty to wire fraud and money laundering , admitting he had bilked 78 people of $2.3 Million over 22 years and was sentenced this past July to seven years in federal prison. ..."
A Senate investigation reveals that a consortium of Israeli hacking and surveillance firms
coordinated and facilitated meetings between Trump campaign operatives and Russia during the
2016 campaign, but they don't really want to talk about it.
Alleged Russian interference in the 2020 presidential election is headline news, once again,
as a Ukrainian lawmaker is charged by the Trump administration "in a sweeping plot to sow
distrust in the American political process," reports the Associated Press.
Microsoft also made claims that it detected "hacking attempts targeting U.S. political
campaigns, parties and consultants" by agents from Russia, China, and Iran. In a September 10
blog
post , Microsoft's Tom Burt, Corporate Vice President of Customer Security & Trust,
listed three groups from each region that Microsoft "observed" carrying out their cyber
operations.
Rarely in the news, however, is the role played by Israeli cybersecurity startups in the
creation of the Russiagate narrative itself. Incubated within the Israeli military apparatus
and benefiting from an uninterrupted stream of billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars, these
"private Mossads" have been present behind the scenes throughout the numerous Russia-related
scandals fomented by the mainstream press to sow partisan discord among the American electorate
and line the pockets of network executives.
Evidence of their activities has been exposed -- though not pursued -- in the latest volume
of a U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee investigation on Russian interference in the 2016
presidential election, which shows how then-candidate Donald Trump personally embarked on a
parallel campaign on behalf of Israel to block a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements
in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Originally
submitted by Egypt, UNSCR 2334 strips Israeli settlements
beyond the 1967 borders of any "
legal validity " in the eyes of the international community and brands them a "flagrant
violation under international law." Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, had
refused all of the advances made by Trump's operatives to use its veto power against the
measure, and Trump himself would
prevail upon Egyptian President al-Sisi -- whom Trump calls his "
favorite dictator " -- to
withdraw the declaration . Together with Israeli pressure, UNSCR 2334 seemed destined to
languish in obscurity as Egypt
acquiesced and delayed the vote to "permit them to conduct an additional meeting of the
Arab League's foreign ministers to work on the resolution's wording."
The Senate's inquiries uncovered a consistent thread of IDF-linked cybersecurity firms
and intelligence assets coordinating and facilitating meetings between the coterie of Russian
characters that make up the Russiagate universe and the Trump campaign, including protagonists
like Guccifer 2.0, the hacker who
released Hilary Clinton's infamous emails to Wikileaks via a cell phone registered in
Israel.
George Birnbaum, a former chief of staff to Benjamin Netanyahu and GOP operative, told the
committee how Trump aide Rick Gates had inquired about using "Israeli technology" to collect
dirt on opponent Hillary Clinton at a March 2016 meeting, explaining to the senators what would
be so attractive about Israeli companies, specifically:
"These guys came out of the military intelligence army unit, and it's like coming out
with a triple Ph.D. from MIT. The amount of knowledge these guys have in terms of
cybersecurity, cyber-intelligence [is] just so beyond what you could get [with] a normal
education that it's just unique there are hundreds and hundreds of Israeli start-up companies
that the founders are guys who came out of this unit."
The unit Birnbaum is referring to is the IDF's Unit 8200, where these "hundreds and
hundreds" of tech startups are born right in the bowels of the Israeli national security state
and propagate throughout the world and the United States, in particular.
Described as " private Mossads "
for hire, many of the Israeli hacking and surveillance firms that moved behind the scenes,
brokering meetings between Trump's people and Russian oligarchs like Oleg Deripaska during the
height of the so-called Russian "collusion," were working through a "key middle man" with close
ties to then-Trump National Security Adviser, Michael Flynn, who was himself also working
in an advisory capacity with the "consortium of cyber-spy companies run by former Israeli
intelligence officers" known as the NSO Group, that is comprised of several of the Israeli
startups summoned before the committee for voluntary, closed-door testimony.
While the American public was fed one Russophobic scandal after another, and Robert Mueller
held court in the press for two years straight, no one -- especially Mueller -- was paying
attention to this perverse network of Israeli surveillance companies who operated the virtual
scaffold upon which the Russiagate narrative was being constructed and whose fellow Unit 8200
graduates in other subsectors of the cybersecurity industry are deeply ensconced in highly
questionable activities surrounding the coming 2020 election.
THE NSO GROUP
The NSO
Group gained notoriety when it was identified as the developer of Pegasus, the iPhone
spyware that
was found installed on slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi's phone in the days leading
up to his gruesome death. NSO's cell phone tracking technology has been associated with other
ghastly events, such as the scandal involving Pegasus in Mexico, where a team of international
investigators looking into the disappearance of 43 students in Ayotzinapa was targeted by the
spyware, as well as Mexican
journalists and their families.
One of the NSO companies questioned by the Senate committee in relation to Russian
interference, Psy-Group, is currently under investigation in California, where it was
caught red-handed
actually trying to rig a local election for a paying customer. Another, Circles, was
founded by a former Israeli intelligence officer and is "known for covertly intercepting phone
calls, text messages, and tracking locations of unaware citizens," according to a report by
Forensic News .
In 2018, Haaretz published
an expose on the company disclosing the extent to which Circles and the Israeli espionage
industry is helping "world dictators hunt dissidents and gays," among other nefarious
opportunities available in the "global commerce" of surveillance technologies.
An NSO rep peddles software services at annual European Police Congress in Berlin, April 28,
2020. Hannibal Hanschke | Reuters
The middle man the Senate investigation identified is Walter Soriano; singled out for his
association with several Russian oligarchs like Oleg Deripaska and Dmitry Rybolovlev, who
bought
Trump's West Palm Beach mansion in 2008. The Senate report accuses Soriano and Israeli
cybersecurity companies of coordinating "between the Trump Campaign and Russia," but fails to
pursue the matter beyond that.
The UN resolution denouncing Israeli settlements would pass on December 23, 2016, after four
temporary Security Council members, Malaysia, New Zealand, Senegal, and Venezuela reportedly
took matters into their own hands and moved the vote forward. UNSCR 2334 became official as
a result of a historic breach of established pro-Israel policy by the United States, which
abstained from the vote. Widely reported as Obama's "
parting shot " to Netanyahu and the incoming administration, the passing of the resolution
went against Obama's own record of using U.S.' veto power to banish similar
proposals .
President-elect Donald Trump would take office in a matter of weeks and the Mueller
investigation kicked off the barrage of Russophobic content peddled over the digital airwaves
night after night. Stories like
Maria Butina's were plastered all over the media to buttress the Russiagate
narrative.
THE LEGEND OF MARIA BUTINA
Butina's former lover, Paul Erickson joked
about being a CIA asset and had built a phony reputation as a man of staunch moral
Christian values. Erickson worked for several Republican campaigns dating back to the late
'80s, including a stint as
national policy director for Pat Buchanan's '92 White House run. He first achieved
international notoriety as Mobutu Sese Seko's lawyer, reportedly accepting a $30,000 lobbying
contract to obtain a U.S. visa for the African despot, which was ultimately denied.
It was Erickson's long-standing ties to the NRA and the organization's former president
David Keene, which set the stage for the Maria Butina story as a Russian infiltrator looking
for "
access to U.S. political organizations ." Erickson had
worked with Keene as a registered foreign agent since the 1990s and formed part of the
NRA's efforts to forge
closer ties to Israel since at least 2011.
Prosecutors would paint Butina as a seductress, ensnaring Erickson in a "duplicitous
relationship," but it was the cunning GOP operative who first spotted Butina during a 2013
trip to Moscow with Keene. Butina and Erickson would meet again in Israel one year later
where they would begin their 'love affair' during which he would become "integral to Butina's
activities," assisting the Russian gun enthusiast "in developing relationships with individuals
and organizations involved in U.S. politics," according to the Senate Intelligence
Committee.
Maria Butina poses for a photo at a shooting range in Moscow, April 22, 2012. Pavel Ptitsin
| AP
A con-artist
by most accounts, Erickson is
described by a Republican legislator as "the single biggest phony I've ever met in South
Dakota politics." South Dakota was where Yale-educated Erickson came up in the political arena
and where he's left a long trail of burned business associates and friends. In 2019, Erickson
pled guilty to
wire fraud and money laundering , admitting he had bilked 78 people of $2.3 Million over 22
years and was sentenced this past July to
seven years in federal prison.
The NRA has been forging ties to the Israeli security state for years now. In 2013, Trump's
former National Security Adviser, John Bolton, joined a delegation of 30 in Jerusalem for a
10-day tour of Israel's police institutions. The honorary NRA member stated on that
occasion, that Israel could "serve as a model for American security." The legend of Maria
Butina, itself, was seeded in Israel that same year when an "obscure" Israeli gun-rights group
posted on
Facebook that she had announced to have signed a cooperation agreement with the NRA
and "neighboring countries" to promote gun rights at a meeting with its members.
Butina would meet with Erickson and Keene two weeks later in Moscow, along with Alexander
Torshin, former deputy governor of Russia's central bank and lifetime NRA member. Torshin, who
has been targeted by U.S. sanctions, traveled with Butina to the United States to "discuss
U.S.-Russian economic relations" in April 2015. The pair met with several senior American
officials, like Federal Reserve vice chairman and former Israel central bank chief, Stanley
Fischer; the Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, Nathan Sheets and others in a
meeting "
moderated " by AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. The details of the high-level meeting, two
months before Donald Trump made his announcement to run for president, have never been made
public.
Feature photo | Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., speaks during a Senate Judiciary Committee
business meeting to consider authorization for subpoenas relating to the Crossfire Hurricane
investigation, the code name for the counterintelligence investigation undertaken by the FBI in
2016 and 2017 into links between Trump and Russian officials, June 11, 2020. Carolyn Kaster |
AP
Raul Diego is a MintPress News Staff Writer, independent photojournalist, researcher,
writer and documentary filmmaker.
I always said it was Israeli influence not Russian. How obvious can it get. But we have
Trump constantly kissing the Israeli ass while being kicked in the teeth and Congress bending
over backwards pedaling lies about Russia for Israeli benefit.
Is there anyone on our side in DC?
Ok, so we have the israelis, synonymous with deep state, responsible for wtc '93, wtc
9/11, the arab spring, the afghan conflict, the iraq conflict, problems with Iran, training
antifa/blm, equipping and training the messican cartels, the farc, and tupac amaru. Being the
worlds controlling supplier of MDMA. As well as giving U.S. technology to the chinese, and
direct involvement with the release of covid 19. And hiring osama bin laden to build a
highway in the sudan, then embezzling $800 million from bin ladens project, and blaming it on
the U.S. It's time for the world to put their collective heads back into where the sun does
shine.
A satirical video using "deepfake" technology to show US President Donald Trump as coming to
work for RT after the November election was taken very seriously by 'Russiagate' peddlers at
the Daily Beast and the Lincoln Project.
"... Cohen had the courage to take on the entire ruling elites of this country and their messianic supremacist ideology by himself, almost completely alone. ..."
"... He opposed the warmongering nutcases during the Cold War, and he opposed them again when they replaced their rabid hatred of the Soviet Union with an even more rabid hatred of everything Russian. ..."
First, he was a man of immense kindness and humility . Second, he was a man of total
intellectual honesty . I can't say that Cohen and I had the same ideas or the same reading of
history, though in many cases we did, but here is what I found so beautiful in this man: unlike
most of his contemporaries, Cohen was not an ideologue , he did not expect everybody to agree
with him, and he himself did not vet people for ideological purity before offering them his
friendship.
Even though it is impossible to squeeze a man of such immense intellect and honesty into any
one single ideological category, I would say that Stephen Cohen was a REAL liberal , in the
original, and noble, meaning of this word.
I also have to mention Stephen Cohen's immense courage . Yes, I know, Cohen was not deported
to GITMO for his ideas, he was not tortured in a CIA secret prison, and he was not rendered to
some Third Word country to be tortured there on behalf of the USA. Stephen Cohen had a
different kind of courage: the courage to remain true to himself and his ideals even when the
world literally covered him in slanderous accusations, the courage to NOT follow his fellow
liberals when they turned PSEUDO-liberals and betrayed everything true liberalism stands for.
Professor Cohen also completely rejected any forms of tribalism or nationalism, which often
made him the target of vicious hatred and slander, especially from his fellow US Jews (he was
accused of being, what else, a Putin agent).
Cohen had the courage to take on the entire ruling elites of this country and their
messianic supremacist ideology by himself, almost completely alone.
Last, but most certainly not least, Stephen Cohen was a true peacemaker , in the sense of
the words of the Holy Gospel I quoted above. He opposed the warmongering nutcases during the
Cold War, and he opposed them again when they replaced their rabid hatred of the Soviet Union
with an even more rabid hatred of everything Russian.
I won't claim here that I always agreed with Cohen's ideas or his reading of history, and I
am quite sure that he would not agree with much of what I wrote. But one thing Cohen and I
definitely did agree on: the absolute, number one, priority of not allowing a war to happen
between the USA and Russia. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Stephen Cohen dedicated
his entire life towards this goal.
first "met" Steve through
his
1977 essay
"Bolshevism and Stalinism." His cogent, persuasive, revisionist argument that there are always alternatives in
history and politics deeply influenced me. And his seminal biography,
Bukharin
and the Bolshevik Revolution
, challenging prevailing interpretations of Soviet history, was to me, and many, a model of
how biography should be written: engaged and sympathetically critical.
At the time, I was too accepting of conventional wisdom. Steve's work -- and soon, Steve himself -- challenged me to be
critical-minded, to seek alternatives to the status quo, to stay true to my beliefs (even if they weren't popular), and to ask
unpopular questions of even the most powerful. These are values I carry with me to this day as editorial director of
The
Nation
, which Steve introduced me to (and its editor, Victor Navasky) and for which he wrote a column ("Sovieticus") from
1982 to 1987, and many articles and essays beginning in 1979. His last book,
War
with Russia?
was a collection of dispatches (almost all posted at
thenation.com
)
distilled from Steve's weekly radio broadcasts -- beginning in 2014–on
The
John Batchelor Show
.
T
he experiences we shared in Moscow beginning in 1980 are in many ways my life's most meaningful. Steve introduced me
to realms of politics, history, and life I might never have experienced: to Bukharin's widow, the extraordinary Anna
Mikhailovna Larina, matriarch of his second family, and to his eclectic and fascinating circle of friends -- survivors of the
Gulag, (whom he later wrote about in
The
Victims Return
) dissidents, and freethinkers -- both outside and inside officialdom.
From 1985 to 1991, when we lived frequently in Moscow, we shared the intellectual and political excitement, the hopes and the
great achievements of those
perestroika
years.
We later developed a close friendship with Mikhail Gorbachev, a man we both deeply admired as an individual and as a political
leader who used his power so courageously to change his country and the world. Gorbachev also changed our lives in several
ways.
Our marriage coincided with
perestroika
.
In fact, Steve spent the very first day after our wedding, our so-called honeymoon, at the United Nations with Gorbachev and
the news anchor Dan Rather (Steve was consulting for CBS News at the time). Then, on our first anniversary, in 1989, we were
with President Bush (the first) and Gorbachev on Malta when they declared the end of the Cold War. And we think of our
daughter, Nika, now 29 years old, as a
perestroika
baby
because she was conceived in Russia during the Gorbachev years, made her first visit to Moscow in July 1991 and since then has
been back some 40 times. In a moving moment, a year after Raisa Maksimovna died, Gorbachev remarked to Steve that our marriage
and partnership reminded him of his with Raisa because we too seemed inseparable.
Steve has often regretted that many of the Russian friends he made after 1985 did not know about his earlier Moscow life. He
first visited the Soviet Union in 1959. But it was those pre-
perestroika
years,
1975 to 1982, that gave Steve what he once told me was his "real education. Not only in Russian society but in Russian
politics, because I began to understand the connection between trends in society, trends in the dissident movement, and trends
in the nomenklatura." They were "utterly formative years for me."
They also informed his writings, especially his pathbreaking book
Rethinking
the Soviet Experience
, which was published at the very time Gorbachev came to power. "There was a lot of tragedy," Steve
used to say, "but also a lot of humor and warmth when people had little more that personal friendships and ideas to keep them
company." From 1980, when I first traveled to Moscow with Steve, to 1982 when neither of us could get a visa (until 1985 when
Gorbachev became leader), we lived in that Russia, spending many nights in friends' apartments and kitchens drinking into the
night, and listening to uncensored, often pessimistic, thinking about the present and future of Russia.
I later became Steve's collaborator in smuggling
samizdat
manuscripts
out of Russia to the West, and bringing
samizdat
books
back to Russia and distributing them. By the time I joined him, Steve had managed to send dozens of such books to Moscow, and
satisfying friends with a selection ranging from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Varlam Shalamov, George Orwell, and Robert Conquest
to the
Kama
Sutra
and, of course, the
samizdat
version
of Steve's own book on Bukharin. I learned from Steve that one had to keep forbidden documents and manuscripts on one's person
at all times, knowing that the KGB frequently searched apartments and hotel rooms. At a certain point, Steve's shoulder bag
became so heavy that he developed a hernia on his right side. After surgery, he started carrying his bag on his left side, but
developed a second hernia there, as well. He liked to say that the worst the KGB ever did to him was to cause him two hernias!
In fact, it was
samizdat
manuscripts
that first brought us together. In 1978, Steve heard that I had a diplomatic passport, which would have exempted me from a
customs search, and was about to travel to Moscow. (At the time my father was the United States representative to the United
Nations in Geneva.) Through a mutual friend, Steve asked if I would bring out
samizdat
documents
being held for him in Moscow. I would have been happy to do so, but Steve had been misinformed. I didn't have a diplomatic
passport.
S
teve could sometimes seem like a tough guy, but those who won his trust knew he was a person of great generosity,
loyalty, and kindness. He was known in our New York City neighborhood on the Upper West Side as an impresario/organizer and
longtime supporter of basketball tournaments for local, often poor, kids. In the United States and Russia, Steve mentored and
supported young scholars. In the last decade, he set up fellowships for young scholars of Russian history at the several
universities where he'd he studied and taught: Indiana University, Princeton, New York University, and Columbia. He lent his
support to the establishment of Moscow's State Museum of the History of the Gulag -- and to its young director and team.
Life with Steve was never boring. He was supremely independent, the true radical in our family, unfailingly going to the root
of the problem. He spoke his mind. He had a CD with a dozen variations of "My Way" -- from Billy Bragg to Frank Sinatra. And as
The
Chronicle of Higher Education
subtitled its 2017 profile of Steve, he "was the most controversial Russia expert in
America."
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Through all our years together, Steve was my backbone, fortifying me for the battles
Nation
editors
must wage (often with their own writers, sometimes including Steve!), and giving me the personal and political courage to do
the right thing. But never more so than when we entered what might be called the "Russiagate era."
While Steve liked to say it's healthy to rethink, to have more questions than answers, there was a wise consistency to his
political analysis. For example, as is clear from his many articles in
The
Nation
in these last decades, he unwaveringly opposed American Cold War thinking both during the Cold War and since the
end of the Soviet Union. He was consistent in his refusal to sermonize, lecture, or moralize about what Russia should do. He
preferred to listen rather than preach, to analyze rather than demonize.
This stance was no recipe for popularity, which Steve professed to care little about. He was courageous and fearless in
continuing to question the increasingly rigid orthodoxies about the Soviet Union and Russia. But in the last months, such
criticism did take its toll on him. Along with others who sought to avert a new and more dangerous Cold War, Steve despaired
that the public debate so desperately needed had become increasingly impossible in mainstream politics or media. Until his
death he'd been working on a short article about what he saw as the "criminalization of détente." The organization he
established, the American Committee on East-West Accord, tried mightily to argue for a more sane US policy toward Russia.
He fared better than I often did confronting the controversies surrounding him since 2014, in reaction to his views on
Ukraine, Putin, election interference, and more. Positions he took often elicited slurs and scurrilous attacks. How many times
could he be labeled "Putin's puppet"? "Putin's No.1 American apologist"? Endlessly, it seemed. But Steve chose not to respond
directly to the attacks, believing -- as he told me many times when I urged him to respond -- that they offered no truly substantive
criticism of his arguments, but were merely ad hominem attacks. What he did write about -- he was increasingly concerned about
the fate of a younger generation of scholars -- was the danger of smearing those who thought differently about US policy toward
Russia, thereby silencing skeptics and contributing to the absence of a needed debate in our politics, media, and academy.
M
ikhail Gorbachev often told Steve how deeply influenced he was by his writings, especially his biography of Bukharin.
Steve first met Gorbachev in 1987 at the Soviet Embassy in Washington. It was a reception for America's "progressive
intelligentsia" -- which Steve found funny, because he considered himself a maverick and didn't like labels. But he was there
that day, and within a few minutes a Kremlin aide told Steve that the general secretary wanted to talk to him. Minutes later,
Mikhail Sergeevich approached and asked Steve, assuming the author of Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution must be eminent
and of a "serious" age: "
Deistvitelno
[really] -- you
wrote the book, or was it your father?"
Steve finally achieved that "serious" age Gorbachev spoke of! But his heart, spirit and mind remained youthful till the very
end. Maybe it's because of his love of Jerry Lee Lewis's rock and roll, or New Orleans blues or Kentucky bluegrass, or his
passion for basketball (shared with our daughter Nika and his 16-year-old grandson, Lucas), or his quest for a good anecdote
(his annual anecdote lectures at Princeton and later NYU drew large crowds). Maybe it's because we continued our walks in
nearby Riverside Park for as long as was possible -- walks full of loving and spirited argument and talk. Perhaps it's because,
while Steve was a very serious person, he didn't take himself seriously.
O
n Saturday, Mikhail Gorbachev sent these words about Steve:
Dear Katrina,
Please accept my sincere condolences on Steve's
passing. He was one of the closest people to me in his views and
understanding of the enormous events that occurred in the late 1980s in Russia and changed the world.
Steve was a brilliant historian and a man of
democratic convictions. He loved Russia, the Russian intelligentsia, and
believed in our country's future.
I always considered Steve and you my true
friends. During perestroika and all the subsequent years, I felt your
understanding and unwavering support. I thank you both.
Dear Katrina, I feel deep sympathy for your
grief and I mourn together with you and Nika.
Blessed memory for Steve.
I embrace you,
Mikhail Gorbachev
19.09.20
F
or 40 years, Steve was my partner, companion, co-conspirator, best friend, fellow traveler, mentor, husband (for 32
years), co-author. I will be forever grateful to him for introducing me to
The
Nation
, to Russia, for a life that has been full of shared adventure, friendship and passion, and for our beloved
daughter, Nika.
MOST POPULAR
1
Katrina vanden Heuvel
TWITTER
Katrina
vanden Heuvel is editorial director and publisher of
The
Nation
, America's leading source of progressive politics and culture. She served as editor of the magazine from 1995 to
2019.
Herbert Weiner
says:
September 22, 2020 at 11:53 pm
My condolences for the passing of Stephen who fought the post Cold War policies against Russia with a balanced analysis--so
contradictory to the intellectuals who gloat in our victory and are unrealistic to the "threat" posed by Russia which desperately
needs peace and friendship with the West and, especially, us.
He has shown that you can criticism and condemn Stalinism
while also condemning our anti-Soviet policies. He walked that tightrope which I applaud. May his memory be a blessing.
Erwin Borda
says:
September 22, 2020 at 10:44 pm
Dear Katrina, at this time of America's political confusion, pain and intellectual despair, the lost of Steve is really big.
He has been a source of inspiration to many, and the true defender of Russia in the middle of political adversity. Steve being an
intellectual giant always exposed his ideas in a humble and honest way. What a lost for America and for the world!
Rest in Peace Steve! And for you Katrina and Nika my most sincere condolences!
God Bless you all!
Valera Bochkarev
says:
September 22, 2020 at 8:56 am
Boots, Applebaums, Kristols and Joffes of this world will come and go as specks of dirt clogging up our civilization while never
measuring up to courageous moral and intellectual giants like Professor Cohen. His intellect, insight and humility will always be
a shining beacon for those that have high hopes for humanity. Rest in peace, Steve Cohen. You've led a righteous and honorable
life, Sir.
Pierre Guerlain
says:
September 22, 2020 at 2:43 am
I started reading Steve's articles in connection with the conspiracy theory that Russiagate is and then I watched many videos of
him in interviews. I came to admire such a courageous man who was slandered by people who knew nothing, nothing about Russia, the
country Steve knew so well but also nothing about geopolitics, international relations and the tricks of intel services. Always
competent and with a gift for clear exposition, Steve warned about what is one of the gravest dangers: war with Russia. I too
admired Gorbachev and saw how he was hoodwinked by people who unknowingly prepared Putin's rise. A great courageous thinker is
gone and we miss him.
Ann Wright
says:
September 21, 2020 at 7:53 pm
I admired Steve's perspective from 1992 when I was in the second group that wasIn the US Embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and two
years later with the Us Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan for two years from 1994-1996. I've been back to Russia twice in the past
three years and
I agree totally with His view of the stupidity of another Cold War!!!
John Stewart
says:
September 21, 2020 at 5:12 pm
Katrina, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. I took two courses with Professor Cohen at Princeton in 1973 and 1974, and
he was without question the best lecturer I had in seven years of higher education. He became my intellectual mentor, although I
was too shy to ever really talk with him. I graduated in Politics and Russian Studies in 1977, and he was an inspiration. I am
especially saddened by his death because I have been thinking of picking up Russian studies soon when I retire and I wanted his
advice on where I should do a Masters degree, with whom, and what topics needed someone to pick up. He was a great man, and a
voice of sense about Russia. He will be greatly missed.
John Connolly
says:
September 21, 2020 at 3:10 pm
Dear Katrina: Thank You for this personal sharing of Your life with Stephen Cohen; and sincere condolences to You, Nika and
Lucas.
I really appreciate Your clarity and candor about the unique position Steve occupied in the academic, intellectual and political
firmament ... never completely clear to me until Your explication. Steve regularly engaged and sometimes enraged me with some of
his positions -- some of them seeming to me ill-considered defenses of cloddish Stalinist bureaucrats or malevolent Russian
authoritarians ... but I read everything he wrote in 'The Nation' and anywhere else I came across him. As a longtime Trotskyist/
Socialist I could find plenty to argue about with Brother Cohen, but also found great appreciation for the fact that
almost
no one else was currently thinking and writing about Russia or the Soviet experience with the rigor, insight, depth of experience
and skill that Stephen owned and shared with us all.
It goes without saying he will be missed by You his dearest and closest
ones; but he will be sorely missed too by those of us in Your extended 'Nation' Family, and the Progressive millions he so widely
taught and influenced to 'think different'.
"... The blogger Caitlin Johnstone accurately states that these most of these mainstream corporate journalists are really *narrative managers* in that their primary role is to peddle the official narrative of the US corporate/political establishment for any given topic. ..."
"... I would add that the managing editors of these "journalists"/narrative managers would be more honestly described as "handlers," to use the parlance of spooks. ..."
"... Waste of time. They control the media. The Internet may have lots of influence, but it still does not set "consensus reality" - that remains with the MSM. The MSM issues one coordinated narrative. The Internet is all over the place. Without one coordinated narrative, you can't set "reality". ..."
"... In addition, those who issue the narrative and control the MSM have the power. People want to believe those in power, due to cognitive dissonance - otherwise they'd have to accept that everyone ruling their lives is a corrupt liar. The electorate may *say* they understand that their rulers are corrupt - but they can't act* on that realization without compromising their own internal belief systems. So again, waste of time to try ..."
snake , Sep 22 2020 0:59 utc | 22 can we not invent a method that can counter this tactic of using propaganda to control
the narrative?
1) Hack them. Release their planning documents, emails, phone calls, etc. showing how the scam was set up.
2) Waste of time. They control the media. The Internet may have lots of influence, but it still does not set "consensus reality"
- that remains with the MSM. The MSM issues one coordinated narrative. The Internet is all over the place. Without one coordinated
narrative, you can't set "reality".
3) In addition, those who issue the narrative and control the MSM have the power. People want to believe those in power, due to
cognitive dissonance - otherwise they'd have to accept that everyone ruling their lives is a corrupt liar. The electorate may *say*
they understand that their rulers are corrupt - but they can't act* on that realization without compromising their own internal belief
systems. So again, waste of time to try.
Well....as always, and especially if it involves anything even remotely relating to 'Russia', or Iran, or whatever adversarial
operational target of the day might be -- one can reliably count on our very own "Izvestia on the Hudson" to faithfully execute
their officially sanctioned nation security state propaganda mission by dutifully steno-graphing as much dis/mis-information as
their NSA/CIA/Pentagon handlers request (require) from them.
It was a shock on arriving at the New York Times in 2004, as the paper's movie editor, to realize that its editorial dynamic
was essentially the reverse. By and large, talented reporters scrambled to match stories with what internally was often called
"the narrative." We were occasionally asked to map a narrative for our various beats a year in advance, square the plan with
editors, then generate stories that fit the pre-designated line.
Reality usually had a way of intervening. But I knew one senior reporter who would play solitaire on his computer in the
mornings, waiting for his editors to come through with marching orders. Once, in the Los Angeles bureau, I listened to a visiting
National staff reporter tell a contact, more or less: "My editor needs someone to say such-and-such, could you say that?"
The bigger shock came on being told, at least twice, by Times editors who were describing the paper's daily Page One meeting:
"We set the agenda for the country in that room.
The blogger Caitlin Johnstone accurately states that these most of these mainstream corporate journalists are really *narrative
managers* in that their primary role is to peddle the official narrative of the US corporate/political establishment for any given
topic.
I would add that the managing editors of these "journalists"/narrative managers would be more honestly described as "handlers,"
to use the parlance of spooks.
In fact, it would be apt to described venerable institution of journalism itself as an intelligence operation.
@snake | Sep 22 2020 0:59 utc | 22 can we not invent a method that can counter this tactic of using propaganda to control the
narrative?
1) Hack them. Release their planning documents, emails, phone calls, etc. showing how the scam was set up.
2) Waste of time. They control the media. The Internet may have lots of influence, but it still does not set "consensus
reality" - that remains with the MSM. The MSM issues one coordinated narrative. The Internet is all over the place. Without one
coordinated narrative, you can't set "reality".
3) In addition, those who issue the narrative and control the MSM have the power. People want to believe those in power,
due to cognitive dissonance - otherwise they'd have to accept that everyone ruling their lives is a corrupt liar. The electorate
may *say* they understand that their rulers are corrupt - but they can't act* on that realization without compromising their own
internal belief systems. So again, waste of time to try.
Those sneaky Russians are well aware Biden is doing a good enough job of subverting his
own campaign.
They know he, like his opponent, offers no relief from the constant militarism and forever
wars that the American public is fed up with.
They know he, like his opponent, is corrupt and represents corporate interests and that
the American public sees him as out of touch and incapable of offering anything in terms of
substantive change.
They know that so long as Biden doesn't offer any kind of viable alternative to the status
quo his candidacy is going to be weak and ineffectual and that there isn't much of anything
they could do that could possibly enhance that effect.
So, they're content to sit back and let nature take its course. In other words, they
realize the best way to interfere in the American elections... is by NOT interfering with
them.
And how could the Americans possibly counter such a strategy? The deviousness is off the charts. Damn those Russians!
The rapid onset of a mysterious illness that almost killed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny last week and ultimately led to his
emergency airlifting to Germany for treatment while in a medically induced coma immediately prompted widespread speculation
from the Western media that the authorities had tried to poison him, but it's unrealistic to imagine such a scenario since
there are several compelling reasons why the government wouldn't ever want to harm him as well as some relevant arguments for
why the West wants their targeted audience across the world to think otherwise.
The Mysterious Illness
The
Western media has been captivated by the curious case of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after the rapid onset of a mysterious
illness almost killed him while he was mid-flight from Siberia to Moscow to
face
charges of slander
after calling a World War II veteran a "traitor" earlier this summer for supporting amendments to the
constitution. Navalny was ultimately airlifted to Germany for treatment while in a medically induced coma at his
wife's
request
. Private individuals
footed
the bill
, and the authorities
didn't
object
to his departure. Prior to that, the Russian doctors shared their
preliminary
diagnosis
that his illness was caused by a "metabolic disorder" which might have been triggered by a "sharp drop in blood
sugar". They also
confirmed
that
"no poisons or traces of poison have been found in his system", which is why a law enforcement source told
TASS
that
"There are no grounds for opening a criminal case, no crime elements have been identified." An
industrial
chemical
was found on his hands and clothes during testing, but the Omsk Regional Office of the Interior Ministry is of
the belief that "it may have appeared after contact with plastic glass".
Assassination Speculations
Those are the facts as they objectively exist at the moment of this article's publication on 24 August, but the political
context of the case has fueled speculation about foul play. The
most
popular theory
is that he was poisoned after drinking a cup of tea that was
handed
to him by his aide
while waiting for his flight at the airport. Staff at the cafe in question that were interviewed by
police said that they
didn't
know anything
about the incident, and the business has since
closed
.
Despite the Russian doctors
concluding
that
there were "no toxicological substances that could have been described as a poison" in his system, the Western media has
speculated that he was poisoned as part of a Kremlin plot. This narrative builds upon the unproven stories of the past two
decades, especially the recent Skripal case from two years ago, alleging that President Putin personally orders his critics
across the world to be poisoned as punishment for bruising his ego. Despite being ridiculous to countenance for any objective
observer, it nevertheless advances the information warfare narrative that the Russian leader is a "dangerous dictator" who
must be stopped by all means possible.
Navalny's Real Role In Russian Society
This politically self-serving depiction of events relies on its targeted audience's ignorance of Russian domestic politics
since those who are aware of everyday realities there know better than to imagine such a scenario. Navalny isn't the
"opposition leader" that he's portrayed as abroad, but is more like an investigative blogger and protest organizer than
anything else. His ethno-nationalist views only appeal to the extreme right-wing fringe of society, though Westerners are
generally unaware of them since their media mostly only focuses on his occasional liberal rhetoric and regular criticism of
the authorities. While his racial beliefs are politically dangerous in terms of threatening to unravel the cosmopolitan
country's unity, they're not an electoral threat considering how unpopular they are, hence why the ruling United Russia party
isn't too concerned about him. Navalny wouldn't even be that well-known at home had he not repeatedly broken the law by
organizing unauthorized rallies, provocations which always receive disproportionate attention from his Western media allies.
Exaggerating his political importance is therefore nothing more than a Western infowar tactic.
The "Pressure Valve"
This presumably irks the government, but it in no way threatens it. If anything, the authorities have come to accept the role
that Navalny plays in society as a "pressure valve" for people's frustration with corruption and other related issues. They're
used to his antics by now, and he's regarded as the "devil that they know". His departure from the scene would actually be
counterproductive since it might open up the opportunity for an even more radical individual to replace him, one who's much
less "manageable" and might dangerously stir up ethno-nationalist tensions in society under the cover "anti-corruption"
rhetoric. Since he's so highly regarded in the West as a result of their long-running infowar, they know that they'd
immediately be suspected if anything happened to him. This in turn, as is presently on display as a result of his mysterious
medical crisis, could then be twisted into even more devious infowar narratives against their country such as the current one
speculating that the authorities tried to assassinate him. They'd never do anything of the sort, but all that matters is that
the West's targeted audience believes this false claim after being preconditioned for years to accept it.
Different Infowar Targets, Different Intended Outcomes
The
non-Russian audience is having their negative views about the country reinforced by the "
media
circus
" surrounding Navalny's mysterious illness, and their governments might potentially use the incident as a pretext
for tightening the sanctions regime against Russia, and especially against specific individuals who they might eventually
claim were linked to what's being wrongly portrayed as an "assassination attempt". As for the targeted Russian audience, the
West might hope that this incident could spark another wave of protests in Moscow along the lines of the ongoing ones in the
Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk and the Belarusian capital of Minsk. That wouldn't be for the purpose of overthrowing the
government which is completely unrealistic, but simply to cause some more trouble for it. The German doctors'
forthcoming
prognosis
will be crucial in determining the scenario trajectory since they'll either reaffirm the findings of their
Russian counterparts and predictably lead to this manufactured scandal blowing over or possibly challenge them under pressure
from Western intelligence agencies and thus exacerbate the situation.
The
ambulance that transported Alexei Navalny to Charite Mitte Hospital Complex in Berlin, Germany August 22, 2020
Scenario Forecasting
There are no credible reasons to doubt the Russian doctors' preliminary prognosis that Navalny's medical emergency was caused
by a sharp drop in his blood-sugar levels, but their German counterparts might publicly allege a different version of events.
Should that happen, then it's almost certain that Western governments will claim that he was poisoned at the behest of
President Putin, threaten to impose more sanctions against Russia (most likely targeted ones), and naturally grant Navalny
political asylum. Russia would predictably object to that series of events considering the fact that its doctors concluded
that there were no poisons found in his system, which would lead to yet another layer of tension in Russia-West relations. Not
only that, but since Navalny is currently being treated in Germany, intense pressure might be put upon the authorities by
domestic politicians and their American patrons to politicize the final leg of Nord Stream II's construction by potentially
delaying it as "punishment to Putin". That would be an unfortunate twist to the situation, but one that definitely can't be
ruled out after taking into account just how badly the US wants to sabotage that project.
Concluding Thoughts
As
it stands, it looks like Navalny really did experience a genuine medical emergency, one which was naturally occurring and not
the result of any foul play. Neither the Russian authorities nor foreign intelligence agencies attempted to assassinate him,
but the German doctors might be pressured by Western intelligence agencies to contradict their counterpart's findings in order
to provoke a fake crisis in Russia-West relations, one which could then potentially be leveraged to put interfere with the
final stage of Nord Stream II's construction. Regardless of how this incident ends, one thing's for certain, and it's that
Navalny's mysterious illness was politicized before there were any grounds to do so. The Western media has an interest in
making it seem like President Putin ordered his assassination because of his bruised ego, but this is ridiculous to
countenance since Navalny fulfills a useful role in Russian society by functioning as a "pressure valve" for people's
frustration with corruption and other related issues. The last thing that the Kremlin would ever do is harm him since all
Russian authorities already know that their government would immediately be suspected if something happened to him.
Unfortunately in his brilliant analysis of USA-Russia relations Stephen Cohen never pointed out that the USA policy toward
Russia is dictated by the interests of maintaining global neoliberal empire and the concept of "Full Spectrum Dominance" which was
adopted by the USA neoliberal elite after the collapse of the USSR.
Like British empire the USA neoliberal empire is now overextended, metropolia is in secular stagnation with deterioration
standard of living of the bottom 80% of population, so the USA under Trump became more aggressive and dangerous on the international
arena. Trump administration behaves behaves like a cornered rat on international arena.
Notable quotes:
"... On Friday, 18 September, professor Steve Cohen passed away in New York City and we, the "dissident" community of Americans standing for peace with Russia – and for peace with the world at large – lost a towering intellectual and skillful defender of our cause who enjoyed an audience of millions by his weekly broadcasts on the John Batchelor Show, WABC Radio. ..."
"... from the start of the Information Wars against Russia during the George W. Bush administration following Putin's speech at the Munich Security Conference in February 2007, no voice questioning the official propaganda line in America was tolerated. Steve Cohen, who in the 1990s had been a welcome guest on U.S. national television and a widely cited expert in print media suddenly found himself blacklisted and subjected to the worst of McCarthyite style, ad hominem attacks. ..."
"... the opposition to Steve was led by experts in the Ukrainian and other minority peoples sub-categories of the profession who were militantly opposed not just to him personally but to any purely objective, not to mention sympathetic treatment of Russian leadership in the territorial expanse of Eurasia. ..."
"... Almost no one outside our 'dissident' community is concerned about the possibility of Armageddon in say two years' time due to miscalculations and bad luck in our pursuing economic, informational and military confrontation with Russia and China. ..."
"... My point in this discussion is that in the last decade of his life Stephen Cohen became one of the nation's most fearless and persistent defenders of the right to Free Speech. ..."
"... It was forced upon him by The New York Times, The Washington Post and other major media who pilloried him or blacklisted him over his unorthodox, unsanctioned, nonconformist views on the "Putin regime." It was forced upon him by university colleagues who sought to deny his right to establish graduate school fellowships in Russian affairs bearing his name and that of his mentor at Indiana University, Professor Tucker. ..."
"... In the face of vicious personal attacks from these McCarthyite forces, in the face of hate mail and even threats to his life, Steve decided to set up The American Committee and to recruit to its governing board famous, patriotic Americans and the descendants of the most revered families in the country. In this he succeeded, and it is to his credit that a moral counter force to the stampeding bulls of repression was erected and has survived to this day. ..."
On Friday, 18 September, professor Steve Cohen passed away in New York City and we, the
"dissident" community of Americans standing for peace with Russia – and for peace with
the world at large – lost a towering intellectual and skillful defender of our cause who
enjoyed an audience of millions by his weekly broadcasts on the John Batchelor Show, WABC
Radio.
A year ago, I reviewed his latest book, War With Russia? which drew upon the
material of those programs and took this scholar turned journalist into a new and highly
accessible genre of oral readings in print. The narrative style may have been more relaxed,
with simplified syntax, but the reasoning remained razor sharp. I urge those who are today
paying tribute to Steve, to buy and read the book, which is his best legacy.
From start to finish, Stephen F. Cohen was among America's best historians of his
generation, putting aside the specific subject matter that he treated: Nikolai Bukharin, his
dissertation topic and the material of his first and best known book; or, to put it more
broadly, the history of Russia (USSR) in the 20 th century. He was one of the very
rare cases of an historian deeply attentive to historiography, to causality and to logic. I
understood this when I read a book of his from the mid-1980s in which he explained why Russian
(Soviet) history was no longer attracting young students of quality: because there were no
unanswered questions, because we smugly assumed that we knew about that country all that there
was to know. That was when our expert community told us with one voice that the USSR was
entrapped in totalitarianism without any prospect for the overthrow of its oppressive
regime.
But my recollections of Steve also have a personal dimension going back six years or so when
a casual email correspondence between us flowered into a joint project that became the launch
of the American Committee for East West Accord (ACEWA). This was a revival of a
pro-détente association of academics and business people that existed from the mid-1970s
to the early 1990s, when, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the removal of the
Communist Party from power, the future of Russia in the family of nations we call the
'international community' seemed assured and there appeared to be no further need for such an
association as ACEWA.
I hasten to add that in the original ACEWA Steve and I were two ships that passed in the
night. With his base in Princeton, he was a protégé of the dean of diplomats then
in residence there, George Kennan, who was the leading light on the academic side of the ACEWA.
I was on the business side of the association, which was led by Don Kendall, chairman of
Pepsico and also for much of the 1970s chairman of the US-USSR Trade and Economic Council of
which I was also a member. I published pro-détente articles in their newsletter and
published a lengthy piece on cooperation with the Soviet Union in agricultural and food
processing domains, my specialty at that time, in their collection of essays by leaders in the
U.S. business community entitled Common Sense in U.S.-Soviet Trade .
The academic contingent had, as one might assume, a 'progressive' coloration, while the
business contingent had a Nixon Republican coloration. Indeed, in the mid-1980s these two sides
split in their approach to the growing peace movement in the U.S. that was fed by opposition in
the 'thinking community' on university campuses to Ronald Reagan's Star Wars agenda. Kendall
shut the door at ACEWA to rabble rousing and the association did not rise to the occasion, so
that its disbanding in the early '90s went unnoticed.
In the re-incorporated American Committee, I helped out by assuming the formal obligations
of Treasurer and Secretary, and also became the group's European Coordinator from my base in
Brussels. At this point my communications with Steve were almost daily and emotionally quite
intense. This was a time when America's expert community on Russian affairs once again felt
certain that it knew everything there was to know about the country, and most particularly
about the nefarious "Putin regime." But whereas in the 1970s and 1980s, polite debate about the
USSR/Russia was entirely possible both behind closed doors and in public space, from the
start of the Information Wars against Russia during the George W. Bush administration following
Putin's speech at the Munich Security Conference in February 2007, no voice questioning the
official propaganda line in America was tolerated. Steve Cohen, who in the 1990s had been a
welcome guest on U.S. national television and a widely cited expert in print media suddenly
found himself blacklisted and subjected to the worst of McCarthyite style, ad hominem
attacks.
From my correspondence and several meetings with Steve at this time both in his New York
apartment and here in Brussels, when he and Katrina van der Heuvel came to participate in a
Round Table dedicated to relations with Russia at the Brussels Press Club that I arranged, I
knew that Steve was deeply hurt by these vitriolic attacks. He was at the time waging a
difficult campaign to establish a fellowship in support of graduate studies in Russian affairs.
It was touch and go, because of vicious opposition from some stalwarts of the profession to any
fellowship that bore Steve's name. Allow me to put the 'i' on this dispute: the opposition
to Steve was led by experts in the Ukrainian and other minority peoples sub-categories of the
profession who were militantly opposed not just to him personally but to any purely objective,
not to mention sympathetic treatment of Russian leadership in the territorial expanse of
Eurasia. In the end, Steve and Katrina prevailed. The fellowships exist and, hopefully,
will provide sustenance to future studies when American attitudes towards Russia become less
politicized.
At all times and on all occasions, Steve Cohen was a voice of reason above all. The problem
of our age is that we are now not only living in a post-factual world, but in a post-logic
world. The public reads day after day the most outrageous and illogical assertions about
alleged Russian misdeeds posted by our most respected mainstream media including The New
York Times and The Washington Post . Almost no one dares to raise a hand and
suggest that this reporting is propaganda and that the public is being brainwashed. Steve did
exactly that in War With Russia? in a brilliant and restrained text.
Regrettably today we have no peace movement to speak of. Youth and our 'progressive' elites
are totally concerned over the fate of humanity in 30 or 40 years' time as a consequence of
Global Warming and rising seas. That is the essence of the Green Movement. Almost no one
outside our 'dissident' community is concerned about the possibility of Armageddon in say two
years' time due to miscalculations and bad luck in our pursuing economic, informational and
military confrontation with Russia and China.
I fear it will take only some force majeure development such as we had in 1962 during the
Cuban Missile Crisis to awaken the broad public to the risks to our very survival that we are
incurring by ignoring the issues that Stephen F. Cohen, professor emeritus of Princeton and New
York University was bringing to the airwaves week after week on his radio program.
Postscript
In terms of action, the new ACEWA was even less effective than its predecessor, which had
avoided linking up with the peace movement of the 1980s and sought to exert influence on policy
through armchair talks with Senators and other statesmen in Washington behind closed doors of
(essentially) men's clubs.
However, the importance of the new ACEWA, and the national importance of Stephen Cohen lay
elsewhere.
This question of appraising Stephen Cohen's national importance is all the more timely given
that on the day of his death, 18 September, the nation also lost Supreme Justice Ruth Ginsburg,
about whose national importance no Americans, whether her fans or her opponents, had any
doubt.
My point in this discussion is that in the last decade of his life Stephen Cohen became
one of the nation's most fearless and persistent defenders of the right to Free Speech. It
was not a role that he sought. It was thrust upon him by the expert community of international
affairs, including the Council on Foreign Relations, from which he reluctantly resigned over
this matter.
It was forced upon him by The New York Times, The Washington Post and other major media
who pilloried him or blacklisted him over his unorthodox, unsanctioned, nonconformist views on
the "Putin regime." It was forced upon him by university colleagues who sought to deny his
right to establish graduate school fellowships in Russian affairs bearing his name and that of
his mentor at Indiana University, Professor Tucker.
In the face of vicious personal attacks from these McCarthyite forces, in the face of
hate mail and even threats to his life, Steve decided to set up The American Committee and to
recruit to its governing board famous, patriotic Americans and the descendants of the most
revered families in the country. In this he succeeded, and it is to his credit that a moral
counter force to the stampeding bulls of repression was erected and has survived to this
day.
[If you found value in this article, you should be interested to read my latest collection
of essays entitled A Belgian Perspective on International Affairs, published in
November 2019 and available in e-book, paperback and hardbound formats from amazon, barnes
& noble, bol.com, fnac, Waterstones and other online retailers. Use the "View Inside" tab
on the book's webpages to browse.]
It was all about Full Spectrum Domination. McFaul is not intellectual, he is a propagandist. Actually mediocre, obnoxious
propagandist. In like Professor Cohen, intellectually he is nothing with academic credentials.
The level and primitivism lies about Ukraine would name any serious academic flash. It was about encircling
Russia.
McFaul was behind Magnitsky which in best conspiracy tradition raises questions whether he works for MI6? We now know who
Browder was and suspicious that he was Magnitsky killer or facilitator/financer (by hiring the jail doctor who traded Magnitsky)
are very strong in view of "cui bono" question.
Notable quotes:
"... He is definitely not at the same level as Stephen F.Cohen. This is very alarming for the US, that people like him could have any power decision on Foreign Policy, and could explain the slow decline of the USA. ..."
"... McFaul is intellectually incoherent and disingenuous. Cohen wasted him ..."
"... We all know the truth... US economy heavily dependent on producing weapons and ammunition ..."
"... Mc Faul is clearly not supposed to have been in the positions of power, where he was. Something is fundamentally wrong with America. I think there is a crisis of personnel. Where are all these incredibly smart, high IQ people Harvard, Princeton, and the Ivy Leagues are supposedly pumping out? ..."
McFaul is definitely not an academic, but much more a mediocre high civil servant. He is
also very post modern in his approach. He is here to sell his book, not to argue ideas. He is
incapable of building a rhetorical argument, and of having any political vision or strong
analytical intelligence.
He is definitely not at the same level as Stephen F.Cohen. This is
very alarming for the US, that people like him could have any power decision on Foreign
Policy, and could explain the slow decline of the USA.
Confronted to people like Putin who is
obviously an Old fashion politician like de Gaulles or Churchill, the Cold War can only lead
us to catastrophe.
Great facts from Prof. Cohen. Faulty logic from McFaul ("you cannot use those
variables..."). McFaul will not get far in understanding Russia with this twisted approach,
ie pretending like nothing (NATO, missile treaty, regime changes) happens.
Very informative debate! I think McFaul has only contributed to the new cold war with the
treaties he helped write and the ill-informed advice he provided to the neoconservative Obama
administration. Mr. Stephen Cohen is brilliant and I only wish he was more influential in
shaping today's foreign policy. Though thankfully, McFaul is also no longer influential in
shaping U.S. foreign policy.
Very low from McFaul. Bringing personal attacks on him from social media as "facts" and
"arguments" ("McFaul is a pedophile") . This not a level of academic argument from McFaul. He
is no match to Cohen.
It's so easy to understand! Russia is doing same thing usa will do when china starts to
open military bases in latin America. Its not hard to imagine and in decade or to you will
not have to imagine you will have that reality. Many Latin America countries will be interconnected with china with economic and military
agreements than one day they will try to
brig Mexico in China's sphere of influence if they refuse china can let's say "help" opposition
to come in power and sign everything China wants.
I would like to see what American "experts"
will say. How many of them will think that Mexico as a sovereign natio have right to sign any
agreement it wants maybe even Russia can open military base and bring nuclear weapons to
border of USA. So what it's their democratic right, isn't it?
1:13:33 - 1:13:58 I swear by the
all-powerful Albert Einistine that you are lying AND YOU KNOW IT. Russians said A BILLION
times that U.S.A slowly but SURELY preparing for what they called "a calamitous war" by
moving its lethal weapons nearer and nearer to the Russian territories.
We all know the
truth... US economy heavily dependent on producing weapons and ammunition but the very very
very main reason [for harassing Russia and the rest of world] is because the Rothschild
family wants GLOBAL DOMINATION. SOLD FACT (ask ANY Russian intelligence officer about it and
you will see what i mean).
I have read Professor Cohen's last two works ("Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives" and
"War with Russia?") and found them very informative and persuasive, but seeing him here
expanding upon his key arguments is even more rewarding.
He shouldn't have to be brave to
hold to his position, given his reputation as a scholar, but regrettably he is made to appear
out of step with the critical mass of opinion makers who see more value promoting conflict
with Russia than working towards a sensible accommodation.
I'm not an "expert" from Stanford, but as I recall the USSR imploded and the US [CIA etc]
was totally surprised -so called pundits and experts in the US did not see it coming, then
the next thing we get is US mainstream media claimed victory in the cold war, just blanket
assertions that US won the cold war because the US is virtuous and clean and good, and we did
it by the clear superiority of US way of life or some such crap.
Charles Krauthammer, for
example. Now so called media and historians try to convince us that Reagan lead disarmament,
but as I recall he blocked it at most points, for example, it was Gorbachev not Reagan who
was out front and did all the leading at Reykjavik, and Reagan threw away Gorbachev's
historic offer to totally disarm on the grounds that Star Wars was a more important priority,
on Richard Perle's advice.
Now we are seeing something similar under Trump in which the US is
again uninterested in peace and far more interested in wars by proxies and drones and global
hegemony and control running the 7 seas and space to boot.
Michael Foley is a liar of course US was involved I was me in US Army force and my friends
used to travel to Georgia way before 2008 and of course everybody knows 2008 Russia and
Georgia went to war with each other but our soldiers US government soldiers were teaching
Georgians fighting with the NATO forces and all orange resolutions and Geo like him involved
in Overturning government was famous Victoria Nuland
Interesting debate and I hope Cohen is right, and is not the first of its kind. But still
the FIRST EVER free debate about the New Cold War in the United States is (so far) still on
Youtube. While listening to the two professors I found myself noting the difference in the
presentation of facts from a career oriented politician/academic who is influenced by a
forced narrative (McFaul) and one (Cohen) who is an academic historian who is in dissent and
can speak freely (he is retired).
Keep in mind that Prof. McFaul has a career to worry about.
It shows a LOT! Here we can see how political pressure can influence a debate. McFaul is
still quite deserving of accolades for his courage to even say what he did in this debate.
And note how much free speech is missing in American society in the fact that this sort of
thing is very difficult to achieve in a collapsed democracy. Note also that McFaul also stuck
to "the Narrative" big lies like the so-called Crimea "annexation" when he would have known
the truth of it....There are other examples. Americans are denied the fact that the public
vote taken in Crimea was over 90% IN FAVOUR of joining Russia (again). This fact is simply
too large for McFaul to be unaware of and yet most Americans are wallowing in this fake news.
Or censored omissions. FWIW, Galearis
Prof. McFaul is a partisan. He bases his opinion of detailed facts, so detailed that he
misses the bigger picture. The bigger picture is that he claims to be a sovereigns, but
only when it comes to the US sovereignty. How about Russia's sovereignty?
Or Ukraine's whose
government has been toppled by a (among others) US sponsored coup? How about Syria
sovereignty? He furthers the view that the US had a fair posture towards Russia, which is
not. This is also demonstrated by his personal deep dislike of Putin, which is something that
both a real statesman or a real scholar should not influence opinions and actions.
McFaul's
perspective is also flawed by the conflation of his (and Obama's) wishes and reality: that is
that they don't like Putin and think to deal with Russia as if Putin was not there,
but he is. You deal with the reality, not with your wishes. Putin is legitimate and strong
Russia's president, whether McFaul likes him or not. A real respect for sovereignty demands
respect for the head of the state you deal with. You don't question his legitimacy, as well
as they don't questioned Clinton's, Bush's, Obama or Trump legitimacy. His point of view is
that everything goes on in the world should have the US sanction, otherwise is not good.
This
is imperial hubris, this is arrogance. This flaws his opinion in so far everything is
measured upon american likes and dislikes. THis is not statesmanship, this is not
scholarship, this is partisanship. He is also intellectually dishonest because he confuses a
debate on right and wrong, which should be based on certain assumptions, with a debate on
party interests, which has nothing to do with right and wrong, and is based on different
assumptions. Indeed he is the less fit person in a debate on responsibility for the New Cold
War because he was involved in its development and acquisition.
Partisanship is admitted, but
shouldn't be disguised as neutrality or given any relevance just because of knowledge of
technical details he knows - much of them are, frankly, irrelevant. His points are weak and
inconsistent with geopolitical and a realist view of the international relations, they are
biased by universal-liberal ideology, they are US-centric, he forgets too many essential
points about the whole story. For instance he talks about the missed chance for Russian
democracy (here a debate about what democracy is: his assumption is that the US democracy is
.... please, don't make me laugh), but he doesn't mention that Soviet people voted in
referenda and overwhelmingly wanted the USSR to keep on existing, but he forgets this
"detail".
He forgets how the so much beloved Elcin sent the tanks against the parliament,
many people were killed, how he allowed the pillaging of Russian people and resources by
criminal oligarchs (many of them happily hosted by the UK and presented as political
dissidents), and how the Russian 1996 were HEAVILY rigged and meddled by the US in order to
reconfirm Elcin as a president. He complains about Putin being appointed by Elcin out of
nothing. Well I can't recall any American complaints at that time, maybe because they thought
he could be an alcoholic puppet like Elcin and that was clearly something the US liked and
supported. So what about Obama (fake) words about wishing a strong Russia?
Obama spoke
derogatory words about Russia. The only American interests about Russia is that is a militarily and strategically weak provider of cheap natural resources and that is not in tne
position of competing for anything. I will stop here, although I could write pages and pages
about McFlaws .... ooops! McFaul's inconsistency both as a scholar and even more as a
statesman's advisor, but the debate was among a great intellectual with a clear vision of the
world, and a small professor taken with insignificant details and too much love for Obama and
blind believe in liberal universal ideology.
Mc Faul is clearly not supposed to have been in the positions of power, where he was.
Something is fundamentally wrong with America. I think there is a crisis of personnel. Where
are all these incredibly smart, high IQ people Harvard, Princeton, and the Ivy Leagues are
supposedly pumping out?
Prof. Cohen astonishing realpolitik ingenuity when asked "what the security interests of
Ukraine and Georgia are" ( 1:16:21 ) unveils to me his
understanding of politics as kind of imperialistic chess game where the US stands against the
USSR (or RF for that matter). I have experienced the same feelings from his other debates (I
remember one memorable at Munk Debates in 2015) - as if the historic fears, desires and
dreams (of NATO or EU membership as the only effective shield against Russian military power)
of so many ex-soviet countries means absolutely nothing - as if they were mere puppets of US
"regime". As though the legitimate wishes of these sovereign countries means nothing at all.
He is so surprised by that question he suddenly can't retrieve even the definition of what
security interests of a country actually means - a rather strange quality in a historian.
Ultimately he comes up with "they should make peace with their neighbors" - say this to
countries that were along their history subjects of Soviet violent repression, military
invasions, ethnic genocides and such. "I don't think Russian is a threat to them". Absolutely
ridiculous.
This Michael McFaul individual is such severe laughing-stock completely out of touch with
reality. Stephen Cohen's version of the "new cold war" is much closer to reality and we
should not forget the nefarious entities that pull the strings in D.C. U.S. covert
involvement throughout eastern Europe and especially the Ukraine is more than evident. Putin
and Russia in general is not stupid and see right through U.S. covert meddling on Russia's
border. And those "peaceful demonstrators" in Syria that MacFaul dearly praises are mere
agents of the CIA/Mossad complex. Where are they now?
Monroe doctrine doesn't care about the democratic rights of countries in the western
hemisphere to enter into any alliance or partnership with USA's rival. Also, there's still no
evidence of Russian hacking which is basis of their religion of RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA !
Sure, since in Ukraine you guys didn't push money in mysterious organisations that would
support the "democratic" narrative. I don't like NATO in my country and I see nato presence
as an existential threat for Russia! Look back at the Cuba crisis it's exactly the SAME! You
no good morally and ethically corrupt poor excuses of mouth pieces
Either that Faul person is delusional or he is outright lying - Did Turkey not get
threatened with sanctions when they decided to trade with Russia on anti missile weapons.
You know Obama is a straight faced liar . Furthermore , we genocided innocent Christians
and Muslims in three countries and created a diaspora of migrants to Europe. So , we are
supposed to believe that all those PhDs did not foresee that , most people think that it was
your intentional outcome all along . So it goes now in Venezuela. Mcfaul is one of many who
just carry the water and carry out orders . It's almost as if , the powers that be want the
USA to fall . Because they can not be this stupid .
Call Cohen tells the truth the other guy just lying a United States started that whole
thing in Syria they backed up Isis they backed up all the terrorists and because they want to
split the country up and give Israel that major part of it cuz they want the natural
resources the oil out of there and everything else because that's what they do everywhere
they go they want a natural Resorts and they don't care how many people they kill
You know Obama is a straight faced liar . Furthermore , we genocided innocent Christians
and Muslims in three countries and created a diaspora of migrants to Europe. So , we are
supposed to believe that all those PhDs did not foresee that , most people think that it was
your intentional outcome all along . So it goes now in Venezuela. Mcfaul is one of many who
just carry the water and carry out orders . It's almost as if , the powers that be want the
USA to fall . Because they can not be this stupid .
Prof. McFaul is a partisan. He bases his opinion of detailed facts, so detailed that he
misses the bigger picture. The bigger picture is that he claims to be a sovereignist, but
only when it comes to the US sovereignty. How about Russia's sovereignity? Or Ukraine's whose
government has been toppled by a (among others) US sponsored coup? How about Syria
sovereignty? He furthers the view that the US had a fair posture towards Russia, which is
not. This is also demonstrated by his personal deep dislike of Putin, which is something that
both a real statesman or a real scholar should not influence opinions and actions. McFaul's
perspective is also flawed by the conflation of his (and Obama's) wishes and reality: that is
that they donì't like Putin and think to deal with Russia as if Putin was not there,
but he is. You deal with the reality, not with your wishes. Putin is legitimate and strong
Russia's president, whether McFaul likes him or not. A real respect for sovereignty demands
respect for the head of the state you deal with. You don't question his legitimacy, as well
as they don't questioned Clinton's, Bush's, Obama or Trump legitimacy. His point of view is
that everything goes on in the world should have the US sanction, otherwise is not good. This
is imperial hubris, this is arrogance. This flaws his opinion in so far everything is
measured upon american likes and dislikes. THis is not statesmanship, this is not
scholarship, this is partisanship. He is also intellectually dishonest because he confuses a
debate on right and wrong, which should be based on certain assumptions, with a debate on
party interests, which has nothing to do with right and wrong, and is based on different
assumptions. Indeed he is the less fit person in a debate on responsibility for the New Cold
War because he was involved in its development and acutisation. Partisanship is admitted, but
shouldn't be disguised as neutrality or given any relevance just because of knowledge of
technical details he knows - much of them are, frankly, irrelevant. His points are weak and
inconsistent with geopolitical and a realist view of the international relations, they are
biased by universal-liberal ideology, they are US-centric, he forgets too many essential
points about the whole story. For instance he talks about the missed chance for Russian
democracy (here a debate about what democracy is: his assumption is that the US democracy is
.... please, don't make me laugh), but he doesn't mention that Soviet people voted in
referenda and overwhelmingly wanted the USSR to keep on existing, but he forgets this
"detail". He forgets how the so much beloved Elcin sent the tanks against the parliament,
many people were killed, how he allowed the pillaging of Russian people and resources by
criminal oligarchs (many of them happily hosted by the UK and presented as political
dissidents), and how the Russian 1996 were HEAVILY rigged and meddled by the US in order to
reconfirm Elcin as a president. He complains about Putin being appointed by Elcin out of
nothing. Well I can't recall any American complaints at that time, maybe because they thought
he could be an alcoholic puppet like Elcin and that was clearly something the US liked and
supported. So what about Obama (fake) words about wishing a strong Russia? Obama spoke
derogatory words about Russia. The only American interests about Russia is that is a
militarly and strategically weak provider of cheap natural resources and that is not in tne
position of competing for anything. I will stop here, although I could write pages and pages
about McFlaws .... ooops! McFaul's inconsistency both as a scholar and even more as a
statesman's advisor, but the debate was among a great intellectual with a clear vision of the
world, and a small professor taken with insignificant details and too much love for Obama and
blind believe in liberal universal ideology.
Mc Faul is clearly not supposed to have been in the positions of power, where he was.
Something is fundamentally wrong with America. I think there is a crisis of personnel. Where
are all these incredibly smart, high IQ people Harvard, Princeton, and the Ivy Leagues are
supposedly pumping out?
I won't, for a second, try to justify the expansion of N.A.T.O. up to the borders of
Russia. But I simply cannot get past the belief that the N.A.T.O. expansion was fueled by a
(not implausible) fear that a non-Soviet Russia would eventually try to surround its borders
with Moscow-friendly governments, just as Stalin did before, during, and after WWII. Russia
has been invaded from the west so many times that the lingering fear of it is almost in the
Russian people's genetic code. What the rest of the world sees as Soviet & post-Soviet
Russian paranoia and expansionism could plausibly be seen by the Russians as a prudent
precaution against further western aggression. I don't AGREE with this, but I can imagine how
the Russian psyche might be so inclined. I don't agree with the N.A.T.O. expansion, but I can
also see how western paranoia about Russian expansionism would fuel the resulting western
"encroachment". Ask people in Latvia, Lithuania & Estonia (and, for that matter, Finland)
who were alive in WWII if their fear of Russian expansion is based in reality, or is merely
paranoia. Be prepared for "VERY STRONG" answers.
Why does 'our' US/Euro left leave me a pronounced impression that they have some special
axe grinding on Russia? Is my take on this wrong? And try as I may to ignore it, my gut
reaction to our younger author is highly unfavorable. I shall re-watch tomorrow hoping to
listen more obectively.
Prof. Cohen astonishing realpolitik ingenuity when asked "what the security interests of
Ukraine and Georgia are" ( 1:16:21 ) unveils to me his
understanding of politics as kind of imperialistic chess game where the US stands against the
USSR (or RF for that matter). I have experienced the same feelings from his other debates (I
remember one memorable at Munk Debates in 2015) - as if the historic fears, desires and
dreams (of NATO or EU membership as the only effective shield against Russian military power)
of so many ex-soviet countries means absolutely nothing - as if they were mere puppets of US
"regime". As though the legitimate wishes of these sovereign countries means nothing at all.
He is so surprised by that question he suddenly can't retrieve even the definition of what
security interests of a country actually means - a rather strange quality in a historian.
Ultimately he comes up with "they should make peace with their neighbors" - say this to
countries that were along their history subjects of Soviet violent repression, military
invasions, ethnic genocides and such. "I don't think Russian is a threat to them". Absolutely
ridiculous.
This Michael McFaul individual is such severe laughing-stock completely out of touch with
reality. Stephen Cohen's version of the "new cold war" is much closer to reality and we
should not forget the nefarious entities that pull the strings in D.C. U.S. covert
involvement throughout eastern Europe and especially the Ukraine is more than evident. Putin
and Russia in general is not stupid and see right through U.S. covert meddling on Russia's
border. And those "peaceful demonstrators" in Syria that MacFaul dearly praises are mere
agents of the CIA/Mossad complex. Where are they now?
I think it's fair to say that the US won the cold war, the eastern block was broke, there
soviet union was a nightmare for humanity, the west was seen as a bright light and it was. So
let's put aside propaganda, ask anyone from the eastern block and they will tell you that
what Russia created was a genocide. Just look how fast all of those counties jumped to enter
NATO. Soviet union collapsed. It's a very nice discussion and I learn a lot from this, there
are a lot of things that US and Russia could have done to prevent another cold war, I think
what we are with is with a belief in human wisdom, if there is any left.
"... There is no chance of mending relations and even less of achieving some security partnership between US and Russia. The rift will only keep on widening as US political and financial elites are growing increasingly desperate (and thus even more aggressive) while Russia abandons its attempts to please the haters and moves its focus on to its future prospective partners who have genuine interest in cooperating with Russia and achieving common goals.... including opposing the common enemy if you like! Well at least I hope so: the only reason why US wish to get closer to Russia would be to stab it in the back... one more time! ..."
Speaking as an Independent, I say that our country, the USA, has engineered past confilcts and wars in order to feed the military
industrial complex. Not so much that it results in a nuke-shooting war, but in a regular non-nuke shooting war. The solution?
Send the sons and daughters of the politicians into direct combat, every time they approve another war. That should keep things
a bit more peaceful.
Professor Cohen is this nation's most objective and therefore most valuable thinker on Russia! The charge that his views are
"not patriotic" is a compliment rather than the insult they intended. A scholar's views are only valuable to the public and, more
importantly, policy makers, if they are OBJECTIVE!!! Which is to say that he follows the FACTS wherever they lead!
Any "discussion" with no mention of the supranational central bank cartel is intentional deceptive omission. The "brass ring"
is forced use of petro-dollars. The central bank stock holders and bankers loaning all dollars into existence as national debt,
do not care who owns land. They care who pays off national debts and interest on debt. Civil war is their racket. There are no
sovereign nations. No genuine nations that create their medium of exchange publicly. No national people. Just participants in
an extortion or its victims. The "Elite" collect on money they created as loans in their central banking accounts. All others
are only human numbers assigned billing addresses.
Welcome to the New World Order ....where Multinational corporations rule & their profits are what are most important..... NOT
nation states it's the 99.9% against the .01% and they use MSM propaganda & fear to control the DUMB masses thinking
I just discovered John Batchelor Show on which Cohen has a guest spot- I just was drawn to this man's thinking, probably because
I had made up my mind about Russia during the Ukraine crises. Seeing the US has ruin every country we have gone into- I'm on Russia's
side, especially where Russia and Ukraine has a history, on that side of the world.
38:49 - Apologies for the somewhat Utopian
question here. I agree with everything Cohen has said, but regarding cause of jihadist terrorism ( ie implosion of the economies
in the region), does it make sense to discuss primarily this game of terrorist whack a mole (bombing, invading and crushing Jihadist
insurgencies)? Is there any point in talking about a pro active policy of recreating sustainable, stable economies in the region?
What would that even look like?
Not very many average Americans would be able to easily access and watch this. Average Americans still consume mainly mainstream
media. Too bad, because this lecture would have opened their eyes and have blown up their brain-contaminated minds by the CNN,
the New York Times and alike.
I agree wholeheartedly Loane. Have always been extremely impressed with and appreciative of Cohen's carefully & thoughtfully
considered contribution. We in the US have gone a bit off the deep end when it comes to this deeply embedded belief in exceptionalism
and superiority, and have been extremely rude to much of the rest of the world in the process. It amazes me how patient Russia
has been with us, waiting for us to come around to a more sober understanding of the world we live in today. I have to conclude
that what we are experiencing here in the US is a perennial phenomenon that comes with the end of all empires throughout history,
the mission creep of over-extending resources and the big one, seemingly blind hubris.
There is no chance of mending relations and even less of achieving some security partnership between US and Russia. The rift
will only keep on widening as US political and financial elites are growing increasingly desperate (and thus even more aggressive)
while Russia abandons its attempts to please the haters and moves its focus on to its future prospective partners who have genuine
interest in cooperating with Russia and achieving common goals.... including opposing the common enemy if you like! Well at least
I hope so: the only reason why US wish to get closer to Russia would be to stab it in the back... one more time!
NATO'S reason to exist ended when the Warsaw Pact was demolished. It was created to confront the socialist Warsaw Pact but
today ALL of the members of the pact are part of NATO, except Russia. So why is it still operating? Who are they confronting?
They are a bunch of bureaucrats looking for a reason to stay employed in an organization that lost its excuse to be. However,
their behavior has gone from increasing security to actually becoming a menace to trigger a nuclear war to destroy life on earth.
It will take a Republican President to turn our relationships with hostile nations around. For some irrational reasoning, the
current administration refuses negotiation with it's enemies. Somehow this is going to create understanding. and a less dangerous
world. I don't see a continuation of this Administrations policy anything but reckless . I am assuming this policy has been one
determined through Clinton, and will remain so. Clinton has said on a number of occasions, it is the Obama Administration's policies
that will be hers as well. As an ex cold warrior, who has spent a lot of time chasing Soviet boomers in the North Atlantic, I
am not willing to gamble my children and grand children's lives . It is a dangerous and ego driven pissing match. Let us start
talking , This administration and families can climb into their luxury nuclear bomb proof bunkers...... My family and most Americans
don't have that luxury.
Dr. Cohen, so Putin gave the Northern Alliance to the USA after 911 to bludgeon Afghanistan for hiding Bin Laden? Paul Craig
Robert, David Ray Griffin and a growing list of Americans believe 911 was a total bamboozle. If that is true which it looks increasingly
like it was, does that mean Putin was playing along with the our Reichstag fire? What does that make Putin? NATO should have been
totally remade after 1986, but it wasn't and we simply missed a huge opportunity not for worldwide U.S. hegemony, but for a new
umbrella of security by super powers in alliance. Obviously, the proliferation of ethno-religious groups was in Putin's mind when
he welcomed us into Afghanistan, but damn it man, tell people EXACTLY why we and the Russians want to be in the Golden Crescent
besides the extraction of minerals.
Julia Ioffe is a joke -- she is essentially a typical "national security parasite" and of the level that surprisingly, is
lower that Max Boor, although previously I thought this is impossible. Julia Ioffe is very typical of the anti-Russian thinking
in the West.
This incessant Russophobia constantly being trumpeted by the Washington militarist imperialists must stop. It's putting the
world on the brink of nuclear war.
Stephen Cohen's a godsend along with a handful of the other intellectuals out there speaking and writing the truth that penetrates
the miasma of disinformation, half-truths and exaggerations emanating from the state-corporate nexus in the American mass media.
Cohen, along with John Pilger, James Petras, Robert Parry, Michael Parenti, John Pilger, Eva Bartlett, Diana Johnstone and
Paul Craig Roberts must be read widely in order for folks to get a grasp of where the Washington imperialist ruling class is driving
the world.
at 25:40 he just destroys her totally. what
a point he made, amazing!! "thank you professor" the guy on the left wants to end Cohen's carnage of the so called experts. Cohen
made minced meat out of em. Fact after fact...stonewalled em both. Listen to her, ISIS doesn't have nuke's, she obviously doesn't
have a clue.
Cohen is always cogent and convincing. One area I wish some historian would look into is how "Russia-gate" is not echoing Cold
War themes, but echoing themes from the German Nazis in particular their belief about a great Jewish conspiracy against Europe.
Even Putin recently remarked on all these accusations: "It reminds me of anti-Semitism, A dumb man who can't do anything would
blame the Jews for everything." Look at how Putin is drawn and pictured on major outlets. The NYTimes blamed resistance to TPP
on Putin.
The Russians like the Jews are behind every social problem. Popular culture shows and speaks of Russia in the same way Nazi
propagandists wrote about Russia.
Undermining Western liberal democracies, Jews were compared to spiders catching people in the webs. Same with Putin. Pick up
Hitler's speech after the invasion of the Soviet Union justifying it., Echos? Accidental rhetoric of conspiracies ?
"to look past a long list of transgressions and abuses..." this is what I absolutely hate about America, they are all so stupid
and ignorant to their own countries misdeeds it is unbelievable, infuriating beyond belief. The US is currently fighting 7 wars
simultaneously, which it all started itself under false pretences and hid the real reason beneath a thick layer of BS propaganda
and misinformation.
The secession of Crimea is the least egregious event of the entire conflicts history. The EU and US have pumped billions of
dollars into the coup which took place weeks before the Crimean referendum, on the 20th of February 2014, 2 weeks prior to that,
an intercepted phone conversation between Victoria Nuland (Assistant Secretary of State of the United States to Europe) and Geoffrey
Pyatt (US Ambassador to the Ukraine) was leaked on February 4th, 2014. In this phone conversation, they describe key positions
within the Ukrainian government being filled by Klitshko and Yatz... fast forward a few weeks, who do we see? Klitsh and Yatz!
It was the most obvious sponsored coup in history.
Putin snatched the Crimean peninsula from NATO, who wanted to seize Russias military harbour in Sevastopol (which the Russians
have used to supply Syria, this was one and a half years before they entered the conflict directly, apart from being a very important
strategic harbour in general), by suggesting a referendum to the local government and they accepted.
Why? Because they were ethnic Russians and knew who gained power in Kiev, the neo-Nazi, Bandera-worshipping OUN, which the
US has nourished, supported and developed for the last 100 years within the Ukrainian territory. These Nazis hate Russians, they
have a deep seeded hatred of all things Russian which has been indoctrinated and drilled into them by the CIA for decades, the
first thing they did after seizing power was to demote the Russian language from the official list of languages of the Ukraine.
They have since honoured Ukrainian Nazi-collaborators from WWII by erecting statues, renaming streets, creating new holidays
etc. This is just one example of US misinformation and propaganda, nothing they say accurately describes the truth, nothing, not
one thing has it's bases in reality. Be it about Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and what have you, it's all lies and propaganda
to mask their intentions.
North Korea is another example. North Korea is a hornets nest they kick once in a while to scare the Japanese and South Koreans
into tolerating US occupation longer. Everything North Korea does is a direct response to threats and intimidations by the US.
They staged a drill off the coast of North Korea which they called "Decapitation" for F's sake.
They have ratcheted up the tension again these past few months to sneak in their THAAD weapons stations, before the new President
was chosen. And these THAAD systems have absolutely nothing to do with North Korea, it's against China and Russia, North Korea
is a pretext.
The still active war, which has merely been under a seize fire for decades, against North Korea, could have been ended before
there was colour television, but the US needs North Korea to exist in order to justify their occupation of S.Korea and Japan.
And by the way, the CrowdStrike guy testified in 2017 that there was ZERO PROOF that the Russians hacked the DNC, but Schiff
hid that for 2 years until John Ratcliff threatened to declassify it, then Schiff's sorry ass released the interviews. So, this
man was 100 percent right, there is ZERO PROOF the Russians or anyone hacked the DNC. Its a damned lie, and it was always a lie.
As usual, the journalists and leftist have nothing to offer- no facts, no forensic evidence, no truth. Only speculation hyperbole
and hysteria. I don't believe Russia are the good guys but give me a break in all this crap!
why did cohen tell everyone even potential 'terrorists' that there is too much of exactly what 'terrorists' wish to get their
hands on in the former soviet states?!!? if he is 'so afraid' of 'terrorism...' WHY did he say THAT?!!? not very bright... or
perhaps he is FOS. idk?! wth?! SMH. maybe e is trying to inform people who r not 'terrorists,' so that people know n can figure
out how to address the issues...?
Yet, for any terrorists who wanted to know how to get materials he spoke of, now they may know a region where they could potentially
go to attain the materials... maybe in 'terrorists' circles they all know this already? it just seems concerning, is all...
Beth Lemmon, 2 years ago (edited)
Love Stephen Cohen, he is spot on and right about most if not all points, he's fair, wicked smart and sober minded. However
he isn't right about POTUS Trump. If anyone has been watching this type of discourse about world geopolitics it looks like the
NWO wants wars to depopulate the earth, set up a OWG and a utopia. It's so blatantly obvious to those who are honest and not ideologically
possessed.
They recruit their stupid Antifa army and zombie possessed minions to do their dirty work in the streets. They want send our
amazing military to do the fighting wars that are just to feed the MIC, and does nothing for America's good.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God
"... In a world that is increasingly confusing and awash with propaganda, Cohen's death is a
blow to humanity's desperate quest for clarity and understanding. ..."
Stephen F Cohen, the renowned American scholar on Russia and leading authority on US-Russian
relations, has died of lung cancer at the
age of 81.
As one of the precious few western voices of sanity on the subject
of Russia while everyone else has been frantically flushing their brains down the toilet,
this is a real loss. I myself have cited Cohen's expert analysis many times in my own work, and
his perspective has played a formative role in my understanding of what's really going on with
the monolithic cross-partisan manufacturing of consent for increased western aggressions
against Moscow.
In a world that is increasingly confusing and awash with propaganda, Cohen's death is a blow
to humanity's desperate quest for clarity and understanding.
I don't know how long Cohen had cancer. I don't know how long he was aware that he might not
have much time left on this earth. What I do know is he spent much of his energy in his final
years urgently trying to warn the world about the rapidly escalating danger of nuclear war,
which in our strange new reality he saw as in many ways completely unprecedented.
The last of the many books Cohen authored was 2019's
War
with Russia? , detailing his ideas on how the complex multi-front nature of the post-2016
cold
war escalations against Moscow combines with Russiagate and other factors to make it in
some ways more dangerous even than the most dangerous point of the previous cold war.
"You know it's easy to joke about this, except that we're at maybe the most dangerous moment
in US-Russian relations in my lifetime, and maybe ever," Cohen told The Young Turks in 2017. "And the reason is that we're
in a new cold war, by whatever name. We have three cold war fronts that are fraught with the
possibility of hot war, in the Baltic region where NATO is carrying out an unprecedented
military buildup on Russia's border, in Ukraine where there is a civil and proxy war between
Russia and the west, and of course in Syria, where Russian aircraft and American warplanes are
flying in the same territory. Anything could happen."
Cohen repeatedly points to the most likely cause of a future nuclear war: not one that is
planned but one which erupts in tense, complex situations where "anything could happen" in the
chaos and confusion as a result of misfire, miscommunication or technical malfunction, as
nearly
happened many times during the last cold war.
"I think this is the most dangerous moment in American-Russian relations, at least since the
Cuban missile crisis," Cohen told Democracy
Now in 2017. "And arguably, it's more dangerous, because it's more complex. Therefore, we
-- and then, meanwhile, we have in Washington these -- and, in my judgment, factless
accusations that Trump has somehow been compromised by the Kremlin. So, at this worst moment in
American-Russian relations, we have an American president who's being politically crippled by
the worst imaginable -- it's unprecedented. Let's stop and think. No American president has
ever been accused, essentially, of treason. This is what we're talking about here, or that his
associates have committed treason."
"Imagine, for example, John Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis," Cohen added. "Imagine
if Kennedy had been accused of being a secret Soviet Kremlin agent. He would have been
crippled. And the only way he could have proved he wasn't was to have launched a war against
the Soviet Union. And at that time, the option was nuclear war."
"A recurring theme of my recently published book War with Russia? is that the new Cold War
is more dangerous, more fraught with hot war, than the one we survived," Cohen wrote
last year . "Histories of the 40-year US-Soviet Cold War tell us that both sides came to
understand their mutual responsibility for the conflict, a recognition that created political
space for the constant peace-keeping negotiations, including nuclear arms control agreements,
often known as détente. But as I also chronicle in the book, today's American Cold
Warriors blame only Russia, specifically 'Putin's Russia,' leaving no room or incentive for
rethinking any US policy toward post-Soviet Russia since 1991."
"Finally, there continues to be no effective, organized American opposition to the new Cold
War," Cohen added. "This too is a major theme of my book and another reason why this Cold War
is more dangerous than was its predecessor. In the 1970s and 1980s, advocates of détente
were well-organized, well-funded, and well-represented, from grassroots politics and
universities to think tanks, mainstream media, Congress, the State Department, and even the
White House. Today there is no such opposition anywhere."
"A major factor is, of course, 'Russiagate'," Cohen continued. "As evidenced in the sources
I cite above, much of the extreme American Cold War advocacy we witness today is a mindless
response to President Trump's pledge to find ways to 'cooperate with Russia' and to the
still-unproven allegations generated by it. Certainly, the Democratic Party is not an
opposition party in regard to the new Cold War."
"Détente with Russia has always been a fiercely opposed, crisis-ridden policy
pursuit, but one manifestly in the interests of the United States and the world," Cohen
wrote in another
essay last year. "No American president can achieve it without substantial bipartisan
support at home, which Trump manifestly lacks. What kind of catastrophe will it take -- in
Ukraine, the Baltic region, Syria, or somewhere on Russia's electric grid -- to shock US
Democrats and others out of what has been called, not unreasonably, their Trump Derangement
Syndrome, particularly in the realm of American national security? Meanwhile, the Bulletin of
Atomic Scientists has recently reset its Doomsday Clock to two minutes before
midnight."
And now Stephen Cohen is dead, and that clock is inching ever closer to midnight. The
Russiagate psyop that he predicted would pressure Trump to advance dangerous cold war
escalations with no opposition from the supposed opposition party
has indeed done exactly that with nary a peep of criticism from either partisan faction of
the political/media class. Cohen has for years been correctly
predicting this chilling scenario which now threatens the life of every organism on earth,
even while his own life was nearing its end.
And now the complex cold war escalations he kept urgently warning us about have become even
more complex with the
addition of nuclear-armed China to the multiple fronts the US-centralized empire has been
plate-spinning its brinkmanship upon, and it is clear from the ramping
up of anti-China propaganda since last year that we are being prepped for those aggressions
to continue to increase.
We should heed the dire warnings that Cohen spent his last breaths issuing. We should demand
a walk-back of these insane imperialist aggressions which benefit nobody and call for
détente with Russia and China. We should begin creating an opposition to this
world-threatening flirtation with armageddon before it is too late. Every life on this planet
may well depend on our doing so.
Stephen Cohen is dead, and we are marching toward the death of everything. God help us
all.
People are just now starting to realize that possible alternate path. But the Demoncrats
in the USA must first be put down, politically euthanized, along with their neocon
never-Trump Republican partners. And that cleaning up is on the way. Trump's second term will
be the advancement of the USA-Russia initiative that is so long overdue.
PerilouseTimes , 48 minutes ago
Putin won't let western billionaires rape Russia's enormous natural resources and on top
of that Putin is against child molesters, that is what this Russia bashing is all about.
awesomepic4u , 1 hour ago
Sad to hear this.
What a good man. It is a real shame that we dont have others to stand up to this crazy pr
that is going on right now. Making peace with the world at this point is important. We dont need or
want another war and i am sure that both Europe and Russia dont want it on their turf but it
seems we keep sticking our finger in their eye. If there is another war it will be the last
war. As Einstein said, after the 3rd World War we will be using sticks and stones to fight
it.
Clint Liquor , 44 minutes ago
Cohen truly was an island of reason in a sea of insanity. Ironic that those panicked over
climate change are unconcerned about the increasing threat of Nuclear War.
thunderchief , 41 minutes ago
One of the very few level headed people on Russia.
All thats left are anti Russia-phobic nut jobs.
Send in the clowns.
Stephen Cohen isn't around to call them what they are anymore.
Eastern Whale , 55 minutes ago
cooperate with Russia
Has the US ever cooperated with anyone?
fucking truth , 3 minutes ago
That is the crux. All or nothing.
Mustafa Kemal , 49 minutes ago
Ive read several of his books. They are essential, imo, if you want to understand modern
russian history.
Normal , 1 hour ago
The bankers created the new CCP cold war.
evoila , 19 minutes ago
Max Boot is an effing idiot. Tucker wiped him clean too. It was an insult to Stephen to
even put them on the same panel.
RIP Stephen.
Gary Sick is the equivalent to Stephen, except for Iran. He too is of an era of competence
which is and will be missed as their voices are drowned out by neocon warmongers
thebigunit , 17 minutes ago
I heard Stephen Cohen a number of time in John Bachelor's podcasts.
He seemed very lucid and made a lot of sense.
He made it very clear that he thought the Democrat's "Trump - Russia collusion schtick"
was a bunch of crap.
He didn't sound like a leftie, but I'm sure he never told me the stuff he discussed with
his wife who was editor of the left wing "The Nation" magazine.
Boogity , 9 minutes ago
Cohen was a traditional old school anti-war Liberal. They're essentially extinct now with
the exception of a few such as Tulsi Gabbard and Dennis Kucinich who have both been
ostracized from the Democrat Party and the political system.
Counter disinformation network can't revive the dead chicken of neoliberal ideology.
Neoliberal elite lost legitimacy and as such has difficulties controlling the narrative.
That's why all this frantic efforts were launched to rectify the situation.
Anti-Russian angle of Atlantic council revealed here quite clearly
The paper's biggest single recommendation was that the United States and EU establish a
Counter-Disinformation Coalition, a public/private group bringing together, on a regular basis,
government and non-government stakeholders, including social media companies, traditional
media, Internet service providers (ISPs), and civil society groups. The Counter-Disinformation
Coalition would develop best practices for confronting disinformation from nondemocratic
countries, consistent with democratic norms. It also recommended that this coalition start with
a voluntary code of conduct outlining principles and agreed procedures for dealing with
disinformation, drawing from the recommendations as summarized above.
In drawing up these recommendations, we were aware that disinformation most often comes from
domestic, not foreign, sources. 8 While Russian and other disinformation players are
known to work in coordination with domestic purveyors of disinformation, both overtly and
covertly, the recommendations are limited to foreign disinformation, which falls within the
scope of "political warfare." Nevertheless, it may be that these policy recommendations,
particularly those focused on transparency and social resilience, may be applicable to
combatting other forms of disinformation.
So, it appears the War on Populism is building
toward an exciting climax. All the proper pieces are in place for a Class-A GloboCap color
revolution , and maybe even civil war. You got your unauthorized Putin-Nazi president, your
imaginary apocalyptic pandemic, your violent identitarian civil unrest, your heavily-armed
politically-polarized populace, your ominous rumblings from military quarters you couldn't
really ask for much more.
OK, the plot is pretty obvious by now (as it is in all big-budget action spectacles, which
is essentially what color revolutions are), but that won't spoil our viewing experience. The
fun isn't in guessing what is going to happen. Everybody knows what's going to happen. The fun
is in watching Bruce, or Sigourney, or "the moderate rebels," or the GloboCap "Resistance,"
take down the monster, or the terrorists, or Hitler, and save the world, or democracy, or
whatever.
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T
he US media's three-year obsession with the mostly fictitious allegations of "Russiagate" has all but obscured, even
deleted, important, potentially historic, developments inside that nation itself, still the world's largest territorial
country. One of the most important is the Putin government's decision to invest $300-to-$400 billion of "rainy day" funds in
the nation's infrastructure, especially in its vast, underdeveloped provinces, and on "national projects" ranging from
education to health care and family services to transportation and other technology. If successfully implemented, Russia would
be substantially transformed and the lives of its people significantly improved.
Not surprisingly, however, the plan has aroused considerable controversy and public debate in Russia's policy elite, primarily
for two reasons. The funds were accumulated largely due to high world prices for Russia's energy exports and the state's
budgetary austerity during the decade after Putin came to power in 2000, and they have been hoarded as a safeguard against
Western economic sanctions and/or a global economic depression. (Russia's economic collapse in the Yeltsin 1990s, perhaps the
worst modern-day depression in peacetime, remains a vivid memory for policy-makers and ordinary citizens alike.)
There is also the nation's long, sometimes traumatic, history of "modernization from above," as it is termed. In the late 19th
century, the czarist regime's program to industrialize the country, "to catch up" with other world powers, had unintended
consequences that led, in the accounts of many historians, to the end of czarism in the 1917 revolution. And Stalin's
"revolution from above" of the 1930s, based on the forced collectivization of the peasantry, which at the time accounted for
more than 80 percent of the population, along with very rapid industrialization, resulted in millions of deaths and economic
distortions that burdened Soviet and post-Soviet Russia for decades.
Nor are Russia's alternative experiences of modernization from below inspiring or at least instructive. In the 1920s, during
the years known as the New Economic Policy, or NEP, the victorious Bolsheviks pursued evolutionary economic development
through a semi-regulated market economy. It had mixed -- and still disputed -- results, and it was brutally abolished by Stalin in
1929. Decades later, Yeltsin's "free-market reforms" were widely blamed for the ruination and widespread misery of the 1990s,
which featured many aspects of actual de-modernization.
With all this "living history" in mind, Putin's plan for such large-scale (and rapid) investment has generated the controversy
in Moscow and resulted in three positions within the policy class. One fully supports the decision on the essentially
Keynesian grounds that it will spur Russia's annual economic growth, which has lagged below the global average for several
years. Another opposes such massive expenditures, arguing that the funds must remain in state hands as a safeguard against the
US-led "sanctions war" (and perhaps worse) against Russia. And, as usual in politics, there is a compromise position that less
should be invested in civilian infrastructure and less quickly.
Running through the discussion is also Russia's long history of thwarted implementation of good intentions. To paraphrase a
prime minister during the 1990s,
Viktor
Chernomyrdin
, "We wanted things to turn out for the best, but they turned out as usual." In particular, it is often asked,
what will be the consequences of putting so much money into the hands of regional and other local officials in provinces where
corruption is endemic? How much will be stolen or otherwise misdirected?
Nonetheless, Putin seems to be resolute. He is also insistent that his ambitious plan to transform Russia requires a long
period of international peace and stability. Here again is plain evidence that those in Washington who insist Putin's primary
goal is "to sow discord, divisions, and instability" in the world, especially in the West, where he hopes to find "modernizing
partnerships," do not care about or understand what is actually unfolding inside Russia -- or Putin's vision of his own
historical role and legacy.
Stephen F. Cohen
Stephen F. Cohen is a professor emeritus of Russian studies and politics at New York University and
Princeton University. A
Nation
contributing
editor, his most recent book,
War
With Russia? From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate
, is available in paperback and in an ebook edition. His weekly
conversations with the host of
The
John Batchelor Show
, now in their seventh year,
are
available at www.thenation.com
.
Published Sept. 18, 2020
Updated Sept.
19, 2020,
9:37
a.m. ET
Stephen F. Cohen, an eminent historian whose books and commentaries on Russia examined the rise and fall of Communism,
Kremlin dictatorships and the emergence of a post-Soviet nation still struggling for identity in the 21st century, died on
Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 81.
His wife, Katrina vanden Heuvel, the publisher and part owner of The Nation, said the cause was lung cancer.
From the sprawling conflicts of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution and the tyrannies of Stalin to the collapse of the Soviet
Union and Vladimir V. Putin's intrigues to retain power, Professor Cohen chronicled a Russia of sweeping social upheavals
and the passions and poetry of peoples that endured a century of wars, political repression and economic hardships.
A professor emeritus of Russian studies at Princeton University and New York University, he was fluent in Russian, visited
Russia frequently and developed contacts among intellectual dissidents and government and Communist Party officials. He
wrote or edited 10 books and many articles for The Nation, The New York Times and other publications, was a CBS-TV
commentator and counted President George Bush and many American and Soviet officials among his sources.
In Moscow he was befriended by the last Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who invited him to the May Day celebration at
Red Square in 1989. There, at the Lenin Mausoleum, Professor Cohen stood with his wife and son one tier below Mr. Gorbachev
and the Soviet leadership to view a three-hour military parade. He later spoke briefly on Russian television to a vast
audience about alternative paths that Russian history could have taken.
Loosely identified with a revisionist historical view of the Soviet Union, Professor Cohen held views that made him a
controversial public intellectual. He believed that early Bolshevism had held great promise, that it had been democratic
and genuinely socialist, and that it had been corrupted only later by civil war, foreign hostility, Stalin's malignancy and
a fatalism in Russian history.
A traditionalist school of thought, by contrast, held that the Soviet experiment had been flawed from the outset, that
Lenin's political vision was totalitarian, and that any attempt to create a society based on his coercive utopianism had
always been likely to lead, logically, to Stalin's state terrorism and to the Soviet Union's eventual collapse.
Professor Cohen was an enthusiastic supporter of Mr. Gorbachev, who after coming to power in 1985 undertook ambitious
changes to liberate the nation's 15 republics from state controls that had originally been imposed by Stalin. Mr. Gorbachev
gave up power as the Soviet state imploded at the end of 1991 and moved toward beliefs in democracy and a market economy.
Image
Mr. Cohen first came to international attention in 1973 with his biography of Lenin's protégé Nikolai Bukharin.
"Stephen Cohen's full-scale study of Bukharin is the first major study of this remarkable associate of Lenin,"
Harrison
Salisbury's wrote in a review
in The Times. "As such it constitutes a milestone in Soviet studies, the byproduct both
of increased academic sophistication in the use of Soviet materials and also of the very substantial increase in basic
information which has become available in the 20 years since Stalin's death."
After Lenin's death, Mr. Bukharin became a victim of Stalin's Moscow show trials in 1938; he was accused of plotting
against Stalin and executed. His widow, Anna Mikhailovna Larina, spent 20 years in exile and in prison camps and campaigned
for Mr. Bukharin's rehabilitation, which was endorsed by Mr. Gorbachev in 1988.
Ms. Larina and Professor Cohen became friends. Given access to Bukharin archives, he found and returned to her the last
love letter that Mr. Bukharin wrote her from prison.
In "Rethinking the Soviet Experience" (1985), Professor Cohen offered a new interpretation of the nation's traumatic
history and modern political realities. In his view, Stalin's despotism and Mr. Bukharin's fate were not necessarily
inevitable outgrowths of the party dictatorship founded by Lenin.
Richard Lowenthal, in a review for The Times, called Professor Cohen's interpretation implausible. "While I do not believe
that all the horrors of Stalinism were 'logically inevitable' consequences of the seizure of power by Lenin and his
Bolshevik Party," Mr. Lowenthal wrote, "I do believe that Stalin's victory over Bukharin was inherent in the structure of
the party's system."
As Professor Cohen and other scholars pondered Russia's past, Mr. Gorbachev's rise to power and his efforts toward glasnost
(openness) and perestroika (restructuring) cast the future of the Soviet Union in a new light, potentially reversing 70
years of Cold War dogma.
Cohen succumbed to lung cancer at his home in Manhattan, on Friday, according to his wife
Katrina vanden Heuvel, who is also the part-owner and publisher of The Nation magazine, where
he worked as a contributing editor.
A native of Kentucky, he was a prolific and prominent scholar in his field, serving as a
professor emeritus of Russian studies at Princeton University and New York University. As a
frequent visitor to Russia, Cohen became well-connected among leading Soviet dissidents,
politicians and thinkers in the 1980s, even befriending Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev.
Cohen also advised former US President George Bush, senior, in the late 1980s, and assisted
Anna Larina, the widow of Nikolai Bukharin, to rehabilitate her husband's name during the
Soviet era. He had earlier written a biography of the journalist and politician, which argued
that had Bukharin succeeded Vladimir Lenin as Bolshevik leader, rather than Joseph Stalin, the
Soviet Union would have enjoyed greater openness, and perhaps even democracy.
Breaking with many American academics and political commentators, Cohen was highly critical
of Washington's approach to Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union. He warned of the
dangers of NATO expansion and argued that much of the economic devastation seen in Russia
during the 1990s could be traced to bad-faith policies and advice from the United States.
His principled, and patriotic stand, led to smears from members of the think tank racket and
both liberal and neoconservative interventionists, keen to stoke tensions with Moscow. Cohen
was labelled a Putin apologist. He responded by saying that he saw him as being "in the Russian
tradition of leadership, getting Russia back on its feet."
After the election of Donald Trump, Cohen found himself in the crosshairs of the mainstream
media for challenging the now-debunked Russiagate narrative, which he said was being used to
sabotage bilateral relations and trigger a "new Cold War" with Moscow.
The unsubstantiated claim that Trump's presidential campaign "colluded" with the
Kremlin would likely make a US-Russia detente "impossible" and could even help fuel an
actual war between the two nations, Cohen argued. He lamented that Special Counsel Robert
Mueller's probe into the conspiracy theory, which found no evidence of collusion, would do
little to tone down the fiery rhetoric and anonymously sourced media hysteria concerning Russia
and its alleged influence over the US political system.
The author of numerous books and countless articles, Cohen was a frequent guest on RT, where
he often used his air time to sound the alarm over the dangerous state of US-Russia relations,
lamenting that the hostility was both unnecessary and potentially calamitous.
Alice's "curiouser and curiouser" remark in Lewis Carroll's Adventures in Wonderland applies
to dubious twists in the Navalny novichok poisoning hoax.
No evidence or motive links Russia to what happened to him.
Was the August 20 Tomsk, Russia incident made-in-the-USA?
Was Germany pressured, bullied or bribed to go along -- at the expense of its own
self-interest?
Clearly Angela Merkel, other German officials, their Western counterparts, and establishment
media know the claim about Navalny's novichok poisoning is a colossal hoax.
They know that anyone exposed to the toxin, the world's deadliest, would be dead in
minutes.
The same goes for others in close proximity to the exposed individual.
Navalny is very much alive and recovering nearly a month after falling ill.
No one he came in contact with developed novichok poisoning symptoms.
Russian doctors treating him with state-of-the-art equipment and tests found no toxins of
any kind in his system.
They saved his life and stabilized his condition, enabling him to travel to Berlin for
further treatment.
If the Kremlin wanted him dead, he'd have been left untreated in Russia to die.
He's recovering because of heroic treatment by Russian doctors.
On Thursday, elements close to Navalny shifted the fake news novichok poisoning narrative
from tea he drank in the Tomsk, Russia airline terminal to the deadly nerve agent in his hotel
room water bottle.
Are other versions of what happened to him coming ahead?
Claiming novichok traces were found in a hotel water bottle he drank from doesn't pass the
smell test.
The deadly substance in an opened hotel room bottle would likely contaminate and kill anyone
near it.
If, in fact, Navalny was poisoned by novichok in his hotel room overnight, he'd have died in
minutes, clearly not what happened.
The novichok in a hotel room bottle scenario is implausible on its face.
Claiming members of his team entered his hotel room after learning of his illness, found it
uncleaned, and examined everything potentially useful for an investigation -- "recording,
describing, and packing" everything would have exposed them to novichok if it existed by
touching the alleged bottle with the toxin.
Whatever happened to Navalny wasn't from novichok poisoning in a bottle or from any other
source.
On Thursday, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Moscow's
representative to the OPCW Alexander Shulgin requested copies of files the organization
received from Germany on Navalny's condition, but got no response, adding:
"According to our data Germany and a whole number of (other Western) countries (are)
cultivating the OPCW" with regard to the Navalny incident.
Since he arrived in Berlin for treatment over three weeks ago, Merkel's government
stonewalled Russia by refusing to provide evidence it claims to have about novichok poisoning
because there is none.
On Thursday, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said "(t)here is too much absurdity about this
whole situation to take anyone's word on trust, so we are not going to take anyone's word,"
adding:
"(T)he situation is as follows: the OPCW Technical Secretariat says 'we know nothing. Talk
to the Germans,' and the Germans say 'we know nothing. Talk to the OPCW."
Russian lower house State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin suggested foreign intelligence
responsibility for what happened to Navalny.
On Thursday, majority Russophobic European Parliament (EP) MPs adopted a resolution that
calls for an "immediate launch of an impartial international investigation (sic)" on the
Navalny incident by the EU, its allies, the UN, Council of Europe, and OPCW -- to frame Russia
for what happened to Navalny.
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The resolution also calls for (unjustifiably and unlawfully) sanctioning Russia and
suspending Nord Stream 2 construction.
EP resolutions are non-binding. The EP, Council of the European Union, European Council, and
European Commission operate separately from individual member states.
Time and again earlier, they irresponsibly bashed Russia in cahoots with the US, adopting
non-binding resolutions.
According to Zakharova earlier, anti-Russia propaganda is based on "paranoia phobias,
fictitious messages (and) myths."
Interviewed by Radio Sputnik in Moscow, Sergey Lavrov said Western governments want Russia
"punished both for what is happening in Belarus and for the incident with Navalny," adding:
They refuse to fulfill mandated obligations under the European Convention on Legal Aid by
not responding to official requests by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office for documented
information on Navalny's condition.
"Germany says that it cannot tell us anything. They say, go to the Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)."
"We went there several times. They say go to Berlin."
"They loudly declare that the fact of poisoning has been established. Except for Russia
nobody could have done it. Admit it."
"All this has already happened with the" fake news Skripals novichok poisoning
incident.
Russia is a valued ally of all world community countries.
Instead of fostering cooperative relations with Moscow, actions by Germany and other EU
countries risk rupturing them.
Were Khodorkovsky or Browder among people involved? To what extent Trump administration and
MI6 were involved? Looks more and more line a bad replay of Skripals poisoning
Notable quotes:
"... Germans and "the whole world", to quote Pompeo, know the truth: Russians simply deny the truth, and the more they deny, the more truthful the accusations appear. And the elephant in the room: Why isn't the poisoned by "Novichok" bullshitting bastard of a US agent dead? And the answer given by the Germans, that is ironic in the extreme: because Russian doctors saved his life in Omsk. ..."
"... There are undeniable advantages to accusations for which no substantiation is offered – as we saw with the Skripals, you can await public comment, identify where you went wrong from scornful rejections of the narrative, and then modify it so that it makes more sense. ..."
"... I hope Germany offers residency to the Navalnys, and that they accept. Russia can't really refuse to let him back in, he's a citizen. But as long as he is there he will cause trouble, and he'll be recharged with all the PR he has received from this latest caper. ..."
"... But it is suggested that Russia is bargaining for his return; the story also expands on Lavrov's recent statements, and introduces a villain in the woodpile I would not have personally suspected: Poland. ..."
"... I recall Lavrov querying the other day Pevchikh's presence in Germany, her refusal to be interviewed by investigators in Omsk and how come she managed to fly to Germany with Navalny? He also said that other supporters of Navalny had also turned up in Germany. ..."
"... I lay a pound to a pinch of shit that Pevchikh is a British agent. ..."
"... Looking good for almost a corpse. COVID-19, a flu virus, is a deadly killer, and Novichok, a deadly nerve agent, is not a killer. ..."
"... Dances with Bears: THE PEVCHIKH PLOT – NAVALNY BOTTLE, LONDON WITNESS FLEE THE SCENE OF THE CRIME, BERLIN TOO http://johnhelmer.net/the-pevchikh-plot-navalny-bottle-london-witness-flee-the-scene-of-the-crime-berlin-too/ ..."
"... I reckon Khordokovsky has a hand in this. He has the same moral compass as dead Berezovsky. None. And he has refused to stick to agreements (keep out of politics). If the British or someone else get fingered for this cunning plan , would they serve him up on a silver platter? Almost certainly so. ..."
"... We certainly did well to focus on Maria Pevchikh as soon as we discovered that in addition to being the one who evaded questioning by Russian authorities by flying out to Germany, she also had British residency. She certainly has become a "person of interest" and could well be the major individual in the plot to incapacitate Navalny and use him to pressure Germany over NSII and Russia over the Belarus unrest. ..."
"... It is still unknown whether Pevchikh is a British citizen. I think she is and probably must be, in fact, for if she is only a visa holder or an applicant for UK citizenship, she could be told by the Home Office to go take a hike if it is proven that she was instrumental in the poisoning plot. ..."
"... Ask Pevchikh! Only she is now probably undergoing debriefing in London at UK Secret Intelligence Services HQ, 85 Albert Embankment. ..."
"... There was considerable risk involved in the deception. I doubt that Navalny went into the deception willingly. There was a very real risk that he could have suffered some brain damage going into the first coma and that's sure to compromise his health in the long term in other ways. ..."
"... More likely it seems a lot of the deception was planned behind Navalny's back and people were waiting for an opportunity to carry it out. It may have been planned years ago for someone else and then switched to Navalny once he was in the Omsk hospital. Julia Navalnaya may have been pushed into demanding that Navalny be transferred to Berlin and while the Omsk hospital doctors were stabilising him for the transfer, the deception then started going into action in Germany. ..."
"... Lavrov smelt a rat several days ago -- last week, I'm sure -- when he stated that suspicions had been aroused by one of Navalny's gang refusing to answer investigators' questions in Omsk and then scarpering off to Germany. ..."
"... I'm quite sure the FSB already knew of Pevchikh's comings and goings between London and Moscow (over 60 flights there and back I read somewhere) and her activities with the Navalny organization. ..."
"... if Washington thinks it can actually halt Nord Stream II – with the understanding that the Russians would probably give up after such a stinging second rebuke – then the sky is the limit, and they will scornfully reject any other solution. The one who stands to get hurt the most is Europe. But I don't think they realize it. ..."
NYT сообщила о
планах
Навального
вернуться в
Россию
15 сентября 2020
NYT has announced Navalney's to return to Russia
15 September 2020
Founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, Alexei Navalny, who is undergoing treatment
in Germany, has discussed his poisoning with the German prosecutor and announced that he
plans to return to Russia, The New York Times has reported, citing a source in the German
security forces.
According to the source, Navalny is fully aware of his condition, of what happened and
where he is. In a conversation with the prosecutor, he refused that his case be jointly
investigated by Germany and Russia. Navalny said he planned to return to Russia immediately
after his recovery and continue his mission, the newspaper notes.
I notice that the Navalny fake story has gone off the radar in the Western MSM.
Now there just remain the lies and innuendos fixed in the minds of the sheeple.
Only an investigation by the Germans.
No investigation by the Russians.
Germans and "the whole world", to quote Pompeo, know the truth: Russians simply deny
the truth, and the more they deny, the more truthful the accusations appear. And the elephant
in the room: Why isn't the poisoned by "Novichok" bullshitting bastard of a US agent dead?
And the answer given by the Germans, that is ironic in the extreme: because Russian doctors
saved his life in Omsk.
Other elephants lurking in the shadows:
Why hadn't everyone who had been in contact with the piece of shit, including fellow
passengers on the Tomsk-Moscow flight died?
Where were the hazmat-suit-wearing specialists that should have detoxified the aeroplane
on board of which the Bullshitter threw a wobbler?
So many elephants, all ignored.
Total fabrication.
When the liar returns here, how about arresting him for breach of his bail conditions?
Not technically but absolutely legally he was not allowed to leave the country.
How about arresting him for perverting the course of justice? You can get life for doing
that in the UK!
He refuses to allow the Russian state to investigate his case but he and his controllers
and supporters maintain that the Russian state attempted to murder him with the most deadly
nerve agent known to man -- but it didn't work.
And on the plus side he can sell expensive 'blessed' trinkets to his hamsters help
subsidize his interesting lifestyle. Think holy relics, think Medjigorje, Lourdes
etc.
Навальный,
"Новичок" и
"белая коробка"
13 сентября 2020
Navalny, "Novichok" and the "White Box"
13 September 2020
Why is not a single Berlin doctor ready to personally confirm the announced poisoning
of Navalny?
A Russian patient is recovering in the "White Box" of the Charité hospital.
During the three weeks of Navalny's stay within these walls, no one shouted at the doctors
that they were murderers, no one demanded from them hourly reports on the patient's state of
health. At the beginning of the week, the hospital's press service informs the press that the
personal guest of the Federal Chancellor has been withdrawn from an artificial coma and is
reacting to other people. A couple of days later, "Spiegel" magazine publishes encouraging
information: "More progress has been made. If his health continues to improve, Navalny will
begin to receive more visitors". According to "Bellingcat" and "Der Spiegel", Navalny can
already speak and can probably recall the events that happened before he lost consciousness
on an aeroplane flying from Tomsk to Moscow.
In general, the latest Charité press releases are in clear contradiction to the
horror that the German press had been gathering all week. The already poisoned underpants
have been forgotten, the newspaper "Die Zeit" returns the reader to a famous photograph:
morning in a café at the Tomsk airport, a passenger for the flight to Moscow flight
peers into a cup that he has raised in order to drink out of it. In it,, according to a "Die
" source, is not just a chemical warfare agent from the "Novichok" group: in there is a
"Novichok" on steroids.
"Before this assassination attempt, the world did not know about this poison, which is
said to be even more deadly and dangerous than all known substances from the Novichok group.
Scientists found corresponding traces on the Navalny's hands and on the neck of a bottle from
which he had drunk. This "modified Novichok" allegedly acts more slowly than previous
versions. The Germans assume that one of the FSB agents monitoring Navalny, or an undercover
agent, added drops of poison to his tea or applied a substance to the surface of a cup.
Navalny was supposed to die on board the aircraft", writes "Die Zeit".
Everything is just fine and dandy here: for example, about agents who had to perform
the necessary manipulations with a super-poison in a crowded place. A remarkable and suddenly
appeared bottle -- no bottle was seen in Omsk at all. The story goes on about the fact that,
apart from tea, Navalny did not drink anything. It turns out that those accompanying the
blogger took the bottle out of the plane, hid it, and then transported it to Germany and
handed it to Bundeswehr chemists Concealing evidence is pure criminality. But the most
interesting thing is the super-"Novichok".
After the poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury (let us recount the usual version of
events that happened there), about 50 more people sought medical help. Houses were taken
apart, pets were destroyed. But here no one except Navalny was hurt: neither the people at
Tomsk airport, nor the fellow travellers with whom he, having the terrible poison in his
hands, took a selfie on a bus, nor the passengers on board the aircraft, and he also touched
things there. Symptoms of poisoning should have appeared amongst the passengers, but they did
not. This should raise questions from the authors of the serious newspaper "Die Zeit", but it
does not. A weapon of mass destruction by any reasoning, but the longer the German press
examines the Navalny case, the more mediaeval and grotesque it becomes. And it works -- you
can see it even from the reaction of quite moderate politicians.
Already a week and a half ago, Merkel announced the results of a toxicological
examination, allegedly carried out in a secret laboratory of the Bundeswehr (yes, Navalny was
poisoned), opponents of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline have intensified their onslaught
against the federal government in order to stop the construction, they say, this is the only
way to punish Russia. At the head of the column are the party leaders of the Greens and those
associates of Merkel who are friendly with Washington and have plans for higher party or
administrative posts after the Chancellor leaves.
These voices were at least heard. In an evening talk show on ZDF, German Foreign
Minister Heiko Maas made it clear that the shutdown of Nord Stream 2 could be one
response.
"We cannot say that since the sanctions do not work, then there is no need to introduce
any. Sometimes we have to put up with the risk of the consequences, thereby saying that we do
not want to live in a world without rules", Maas said.
Now Herr Maas, along with many members of the government and administration and the
Chancellor, lives in a world of very strange rules. Merkel's press secretary Seibert
reiterated that Germany will interact with Russia exclusively at the site of the Organization
for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), where all the documents allegedly have
already been sent.
The OPCW Technical Secretariat informed our permanent representative, Alexander
Shulgin, that Berlin had only sent a notification about Navalny's poisoning, a sheet of A4
paper, but there is still nothing that the experts could work on. But the Germans had to
formulate a response to the proposal of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office on exchange
of information: any information about the state of Navalny can be transferred to Russia only
with his permission.
This was the case in 2004. The Charité clinic then diagnosed the presidential
candidate of the Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko with dioxin poisoning -- no one ever saw
documentary evidence. Yushchenko then for 4 years, while he was of interest he was to the
public, promised to show everything, but he never did.
This trick can be repeated again, the main thing is to find the answer to an urgent
task: to inflate the level of confrontation between Russia and Germany, and therefore the
entire West, in order to force the Russian authorities to be as cautious as possible in their
domestic and foreign policy, for example, in the Belarusian direction.
However, the fact that Nord Stream 2, for which the German federal government was ready
to support unto death, suddenly became an instrument of blackmail -- admit the poisoning,
otherwise we can close it down -- openly outraged German business and regional
elites.
"It seems that the verdict has already been given -- there are demands that
construction of the pipeline be stopped. I strongly oppose such measures", said Michael
Kretschmer, Prime Minister of Saxony.
"We have had absolutely trusting cooperation with Russia in the energy sector for 50
years. And even in the most difficult political times, which were probably even more
difficult during the Cold War, we managed to maintain this trust", emphasized Michael Harms,
executive director of Eastern Committee of the German economy.
Even a true transatlantist, the president of the Munich Security Conference Wolfgang
Ischinger, stood up for Nord Stream 2 (and Denmark had joined the renewed US incitement
against it the day before).
Political games will not pass themselves of as force majeure. Investors will go to the
German government for their money. Here you need to think ten times, because along with the
demands of multibillion-dollar compensation, there will definitely be asked unpleasant
questions about the reasons that made the German authorities abandon a project that was
profitable to all sides. So you can go to Navalny's analyses. In a normal court, bureaucratic
excuses will not work. And, by the way, in Germany there are politician-lawyers who can
professionally draw up a claim and conduct a case.
"I want to investigate this. One of the developers of Novichok is in the US. It is
known that many special services have this poison. Of course, the Russian have it as well,
but if Putin did it, then why give Navalny to Germany? So that we can establish all this
here? A crime must have some logic", says Bundestag deputy Gregor Gizi.
The logic that we now see is somehow not German. One gets the impression that the
compassion and humanism of the German politician, brought up on the lessons of the past, are
now being tried out by smart and cynical people who know how to competently fabricate,
substitute and cover their tracks. And not too far away, we already had Britain.
At the end of May 2003, the BBC released material that Prime Minister Blair and his
cabinet had made a decision to enter the war in Iraq based on falsified intelligence. The
person who passed on this information to reporters was David Kelly, a leading chemical
weapons specialist at the British Department of Defence. His speech at the parliamentary
hearings threatened the prime minister, the military and the secret services with big
problems, Hiwever, on July 18, 2003, Kelly was found dead in the woods near his home.
Suicide, the investigation stated, but in 2007, a group of parliamentarians conducted an
unofficial investigation -- there were no legal consequences, but now all British people know
that Kelly was murdered in cold blood.
In 2015, Blair was forced to admit that he lied to citizens about Iraq, and escaped
trial only because no one wanted to get involved with it. Nevertheless, Blair has gone down
in history with this lie. And history is important to remember in order to do it right.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov calls on the Germans to leave emotions and turn on
their brains.
"I hope that these absurd actions will be stopped and Germany, at least for the sake of
the reputation of German punctuality, will fulfill its obligations under the agreement with
the Russian Federation. Moreover, they are demanding an investigation from us, but it turns
out that all those who accompanied Navalny are slowly moving to Germany too. this is very
unpleasant and leads to serious thoughts. Therefore, it is in the interests of our German
colleagues to protect their reputation and provide all the necessary information that would
somehow shed light on their so far absolutely unfounded accusations", Lavrov said.
Another proposal has gone from Moscow to Berlin: to send a Russian investigation team
to Germany in order to jointly study the circumstances of the case, the victim of which is a
Russian citizen. So far, there is no reason to believe that Berlin will respond with
consent.
Some German politicians and almost all the SMS likes to moralize against Russia,
periodically recalling the Stalinist repressions and the GULAG. But now Germany itself
behaves like an investigator during interrogation in the dungeons of the NKVD. Confession is
the queen of proof.*
There are undeniable advantages to accusations for which no substantiation is offered
– as we saw with the Skripals, you can await public comment, identify where you went
wrong from scornful rejections of the narrative, and then modify it so that it makes more
sense.
In this case, people wonder why such a potent nerve agent did not fell Navalny instantly
like a poleaxed ox, before he ever left the terminal, instead of 40 minutes or so into the
flight. Ahhh but this, we later learn, was a specially-modified Novichok, engineered to be
slow-acting. Just what you want in a nerve agent. Hint – no, it isn't. Just like you
don't want it specially engineered to be 'persistent', like that chemical-warfare expert tit
for Bellingcat claimed was the reason the poison daubed on Skripal's doorknob did not wash
away in the rain and was still deadly weeks afterward. You want a nerve agent to quickly and
efficiently kill enemy troops caught in the open and unprotected, and then as quickly degrade
and disperse so your own forces can move in and occupy the objective. The last thing you want
is it hanging about for weeks, or being 'slow-acting' so those troops can come in and wax
your ass and then later fall down dead. One of the first casualties of these silly stories
must be that the agent is 'military grade'. The military would say, if you want to use that
useless shite, spread it yourself – we want nothing to do with it.
navalny Hi, this is Navalny. I miss you all 😍. I still can hardly do
anything, but yesterday I was able to breathe on my own all day. Generally myself. I did not
use any outside help, not even the simplest valve in my throat. I liked it very much. An
amazing, underestimated by many thing. Would totally recommend.
What, no tracheotomy scar?
Why aren't you dead, you wanker?
Thinking about thanking the Omsk doctors who "saved your life" after you had taken a dose
of salts in the aircraft shithouse?
I take it that the kiddie Navalnyites in the above Instagram are all Russian citizens and
part of the Bullshitter's entourage that turned up in Berlin, hot on the heels of their
comatose hero.
So how did they get the documentation that enabled them to leave the Mafia State and enter
Germany, the coronavirus shamdemic notwithstanding?
Yes, they are his children. Navalnaya clearly got permission for their son to travel to
Germany. His daughter has flown in from the USA.
However, the question still remains as regards those Navalnyites who rolled up in Germany
following their leader's private flight there: how did they get the appropriate documentation
to do so at such short notice, not to mention Pevchikh, who flew with the comatose Navalny to
Berlin -- and then vanished?.
Seibert was asked about this and said he knew nothing about her.
Ah, yes; that's a good point. I just assumed the hamsters were blathering from a distance,
as in Russia. I did not realize some of them had turned up in Germany, except for the
mysterious Masha.
I hope Germany offers residency to the Navalnys, and that they accept. Russia can't
really refuse to let him back in, he's a citizen. But as long as he is there he will cause
trouble, and he'll be recharged with all the PR he has received from this latest
caper.
But it is suggested that Russia is bargaining for his return; the story also expands
on Lavrov's recent statements, and introduces a villain in the woodpile I would not have
personally suspected: Poland.
I recall Lavrov querying the other day Pevchikh's presence in Germany, her refusal to
be interviewed by investigators in Omsk and how come she managed to fly to Germany with
Navalny? He also said that other supporters of Navalny had also turned up in
Germany.
I lay a pound to a pinch of shit that Pevchikh is a British agent.
British and other international toxicological experts say that without technical
reporting by the laboratory of the spectrometric composition of the chemical, and without
identifying the compound by the international naming protocol there is no evidence at
all;..
the US Army had recently manufactured its own Novichok types: "A230, A232 and A234 A232
has a CAS number of 2308498-31-7. A230 and A234 have no known CAS numbers."
####
I reckon Khordokovsky has a hand in this. He has the same moral compass as dead
Berezovsky. None. And he has refused to stick to agreements (keep out of politics). If the
British or someone else get fingered for this cunning plan , would they serve him up
on a silver platter? Almost certainly so.
We certainly did well to focus on Maria Pevchikh as soon as we discovered that in
addition to being the one who evaded questioning by Russian authorities by flying out to
Germany, she also had British residency. She certainly has become a "person of interest" and
could well be the major individual in the plot to incapacitate Navalny and use him to
pressure Germany over NSII and Russia over the Belarus unrest.
It is still unknown whether Pevchikh is a British citizen. I think she is and probably
must be, in fact, for if she is only a visa holder or an applicant for UK citizenship, she
could be told by the Home Office to go take a hike if it is proven that she was instrumental
in the poisoning plot.
When Berezovsky got cocky in the UK after a judge there had prevented his being forced to
leave Misty Albion because Berzovsky had persuaded him that were he to return to Mordor, he
would face an unfair trial and his life would be in danger -- the erstwhile "Godfather of the
Kremlin" had arrived in the with a 6-month visitor's visa -- he started bragging to the
"Guardian" that he was organizing with his chums still in the Evil Empire the overthrow of
the tyrant Putin.
The Home Secretary at the time was none other than "Jack" Straw -- another odious pile of
ordure -- who promptly summonsed Berezovsky to the Home Office for an official bollocking. He
was told that if, while resident in the UK, he continued to engage himself with the overthrow
of a foreign head of state, he was out.
Be that as it may, I am quite sure he was working with British state security, as was his
once favoured acolyte Litvinenko.
Litvinenko was poisoned. Berezovsky committed suicide -- they say.
Россия задала
ЕС девять
вопросов об
обвинениях в
ситуации с
Навальным
Постоянное
представительство
России при
Евросоюзе
указало на
ключевые
нестыковки в
версии об
отравлении
Алексея
Навального
15 сентября 2020
Russia has asked the EU nine questions about accusations in the situation with
Navalny
The Permanent Representative of Russia to the European Union has pointed out the key
inconsistencies in the version about the poisoning of Alexei Navalny
15 September 2020
In the eighth question, Russian diplomats drew attention to a bottle of water, on
which, according to Germany, traces of poison had been found: "Not a single surveillance
camera recorded how Navalny drank from a similar bottle at the Tomsk airport [before
departure]. from this bottle earlier or on board the plane, how did this bottle get to
Berlin? "
Ask Pevchikh! Only she is now probably undergoing debriefing in London at UK Secret
Intelligence Services HQ, 85 Albert Embankment.
Navalny, if indeed he was close to death, must now realize he was set up by one of his own
benefactors. What would be his next move? Going back to Russia would make the most sense as
the Russians may actually protect him from another show-assassination and he would have
freedom to prance around to his heart's content.
I don't believe he was ever 'close to death', rather that he was an active part of the
deception. He is a grifting idiot who puffs up like a toad upon being flattered. He could
never win power in Russia legitimately, as he is mostly a figure of contempt in Russia save
for the perennially-discontented children of the liberal elite and the few Americaphiles who
don't know enough to keep their heads down. I believe he played his role by taking something
that would nauseate him but not seriously hurt him, rolling about and screaming, and that the
introduction of the phony 'poison bottle' was with his full knowledge. I wish Russia would
just disown him and tell the Germans they can have him.
However, I could be wrong. We will know from the tone of his remarks when he feels he is
strong enough to once again assume his president-in-waiting role, and starts spouting off
about what happened to him. He is the most likely candidate to be selected to get the
water-bottle narrative back on track, so if he comes out with an explanation for how he drank
from the bottle somewhere there were no surveillance cameras, and noticed a sketchy-looking
guy in a leather jacket and a "Vote For Putin!" T-shirt standing nearby just before he drank,
it will be a pretty good indication that he is as full of shit as ever.
There was considerable risk involved in the deception. I doubt that Navalny went into
the deception willingly. There was a very real risk that he could have suffered some brain
damage going into the first coma and that's sure to compromise his health in the long term in
other ways.
More likely it seems a lot of the deception was planned behind Navalny's back and
people were waiting for an opportunity to carry it out. It may have been planned years ago
for someone else and then switched to Navalny once he was in the Omsk hospital. Julia
Navalnaya may have been pushed into demanding that Navalny be transferred to Berlin and while
the Omsk hospital doctors were stabilising him for the transfer, the deception then started
going into action in Germany.
Lavrov smelt a rat several days ago -- last week, I'm sure -- when he stated that
suspicions had been aroused by one of Navalny's gang refusing to answer investigators'
questions in Omsk and then scarpering off to Germany.
I'm quite sure the FSB already knew of Pevchikh's comings and goings between London
and Moscow (over 60 flights there and back I read somewhere) and her activities with the
Navalny organization.
Perhaps they allowed Navalny to leave for Germany -- with Pevchikh flying out with him, I
may add -- because they knew what was afoot and would later expose the Germans for liars, or
if not that, then for their falling to a sucker punch off the British secret service.
They certainly allowed Pevchikh to leave Russia: she didn't sneak on board Navalny's
private flight.
Just Pevchikh, note, not Navalnaya, who is not a British agent, I'm sure.
Certainly possible – as I say, we will know more from his blabber once he starts
giving interviews, which he lives to do. His tone will have changed considerably if he
believes his erstwhile chums in politics intended to martyr him. Otherwise I read his
expressed desire to return at once to Russia as simply remaining in character – the
selfless hero risking all for freedom and democracy.
I wonder how he will thank the doctors in Omsk for saving his life, as it is generally
acknowledged they did. He cannot go into transports of admiration for their professional
skills, because they claimed to have found no trace of poisoning in his samples. He faces the
choice, then, of simply passing over it without mention, or accusing the people who saved his
life of 'being part of the machine'. Doing either will certainly not increase his popularity
in Russia. And it makes no difference at all how popular he is in the west – something
the west seemingly cannot be taught.
Die Zeit сообщила о
предложении
США от ФРГ по
"Северному
потоку -- 2"
RT на русском, 16
сентября 2020
Die Zeit announced the proposal of the USA from Germany for the "Nord Stream –
2
RT in Russian, September 16, 2020
The German government has offered the United States a deal in exchange for Washington's
waiver of sanctions against Nord Stream 2.
This is reported by the newspaper Die Zeit, citing sources
It is noted that Berlin has expressed its readiness to invest up to € 1 billion in
the construction of two terminals in Germany for receiving liquefied natural gas from the
United States.
"In response, the United States will allow the unhindered completion and operation of
Nord Stream 2", TASS quotes the text of a letter from German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz,
which was sent on August 7 to the head of the US Treasury, Stephen Mnuchin.
In early August, US senators sent a letter to the operator of the German port of
Sassnitz calling for an end to work to support the construction of Nord Stream 2.
Very true about the term "loser" being a harsh insult for Americans. The "loser" tag
starts to be applied to kids in early grade school and only intensifies from that point. The
glorification of success (defined by the level of conspicuous consumption) further sharpens
the divide between losers and winners. Our "feel-good" stories are often about individuals
who were able to transform themselves from "losers" to "winners". American culture is
one-dimensional in that way.
Building an LNG terminal is one thing, buying US LNG is another thing. In addition, I
believe that Russia could provide LNG to Germany as well and likely at a substantially lower
price.
The US may settle for this gesture as it does hold the door open, however slightly, for
future developments to be leveraged by the US to force Germany to reduce or stop gas
purchases from Russia. Having the terminal in place could make a future change in suppliers
more feasible and faster but nevertheless representing an economic disaster for Germany. Lets
call it step 1 in Plan B.
On the other hand any diplomatic/economic success plays well in this presidential erection
year. So a) is it worth it?; b) can they reverse the decision the day after? I assume they
can have their cake and eat it as Brussels is mostly spineless. Borrell can squeal about
Russia, but that's because he can do f/k all about the USA's behavior, being spokeshole and
all
That's what people seem not to get – the decision would not ever be 'reversible'
once Nord Stream II is complete. That pipeline quad alone can carry all of Europe's gas
supply that it receives from Russia. None through Ukraine, not a whiff, if that is Moscow's
will, although the Russians have agreed to transit token amounts, which the Ukrainians say
are not enough to make the system's continued operation viable – without the large
volumes they are accustomed to handling, they will have to progressively begin shutting down,
bypassing and dismantling sections they can no longer afford to maintain.
So long as the pipeline's future remains in doubt, Uncle Sam can sell the philosophical
possibility of supplying Europe with large volumes of cheap LNG via tankers, made desirable
– although it will cost a little more, no getting around that – for political
reasons. Once Nord Stream II is complete, the reality of a reliable supply of cheap pipeline
gas would have to be countered with a concrete offer from the USA; this many cubic meters
times this many Euros. Any housewife can do a cost-benefit analysis at that level. Do you
want to pay more for American gas just because it comes from America? Well, let me think
about it – what are the benefits? Well, it comes from America! What, you mean, that's
it? There would be no possibility the Americans would use their status as a major energy
supplier as leverage to bring about economic or political changes in Europe that they
desired, would there? Well I can't guarantee that.
You know what? I'm okay with Russian gas, thanks just the same. Maybe I'll use the money I
save to buy a Ford – how's that?
Pathetic. After declaring forcefully that American extraterritorial sanctions are illegal
– which, technically, they are, only America has a right to threaten to limit European
trade in America if it wishes; although that, too is illegal under WTO rules – Germany
is now cowering and trying to 'make a deal'. With Trump, in case anyone missed that, whose
'Art of the Deal' consists of destroying the opponent until he is happy to have escaped with
his life, and will never publicly complain about a 'deal' which came out very much to his
disadvantage. Put another way, offering America a 'deal' only highlights that you believe you
are in a weak position, are looking for mercy, and are ripe for the plucking. Germany was
already planning to build the heaviest concentration of LNG terminals in Europe; a far better
strategy would have been to threaten to cancel them all if Uncle Sam did not back off. The
Americans are certainly smart enough to figure out – in about 2.5 seconds – that
more LNG terminals means diddly when Russia can also supply LNG far cheaper than the USA
because it has teensy transport costs by comparison, being much closer. Two more LNG
terminals buys America precisely zero advantage, but the willingness to 'deal' reveals
vulnerability. The only American response to rolling on your back to expose your belly is to
step on your head.
I swear, it is hard to recognize Germany as the country which once frightened the
world.
A Trump counter-offer might be a commitment from Germany to buy X amount of American LNG
at a locked-in price, said amount to be sufficient that extra Nord Stream capacity would not
be utilized. It depends on whether the Americans really think they can actually stop Nord
Stream II, because even that would ultimately be a loser strategy. Unless a term far into the
future were specified, the Americans know that once the pipeline is finished, their product
is no longer competitive and cannot ever be unless it is unprofitable to themselves. They
could satisfy themselves with gutting the Germans for a year or two (if they accepted), but
it would be short-term satisfaction at best. Might be enough to win Trump the election,
though.
But if Washington thinks it can actually halt Nord Stream II – with the
understanding that the Russians would probably give up after such a stinging second rebuke
– then the sky is the limit, and they will scornfully reject any other solution. The
one who stands to get hurt the most is Europe. But I don't think they realize
it.
The Borgias are history. Well, obviously, they ARE history. But now they have been
relegated to the Second Division/Championship (football joke) of Poisoners by Sergei Lavrov
and his chef de cuisine:
Oh look! The Navalnyites have shown a video, shot in Tomsk, of Navalny drinking from the
allegedly poisoned water bottle that earlier nobody had seen or made mention of before it
turned up in Berlin and was sent to the Bundeswehr lab.
Recall that his loud-mouth spokeswoman had from the very start insisted that Navalny had
been poisoned by laced-with-poison tea that he had drunk at Tomsk airport.
Change of story line -- as persistently happened in the Skripal fake.
Video Showing Water Bottle That 'Poisoned' Alexei Navalny Shared by His Team
17 September, 2020: 10:17
That Sputnik headline should read, I think, "shared with his team".
And if that is the case, why didn't his team also start howling and screaming and rolling
around on the deck some time later on board the Tomsk-Moscow flight?
Navalny's companions have reported that they took bottles from a hotel room in
Tomsk
Alexei Navalny's companions have said that a bottle of mineral water, on which German
experts had allegedly found traces of poison from the Novichok group, had been brought from a
hotel room in Tomsk.
On an Instagram, they have posted a video in which, according to them, an hour after
news of Navalny's deteriorating condition, they examine the room and seize all the items
which he had been able to touch.
On August 20, the aeroplane in which Navalny was flying urgently landed in Omsk, from
where the blogger was taken to hospital. On August 21, doctors announced that the main
diagnosis was metabolic disorders.
At the moment, Navalny is in Germany, where he has been taken out of an artificial
coma. German doctors announced that he had been poisoned with substances from the Novichok
group, but did not provide any relevant evidence.
So why didn't the Navalny hamsters, who dutifully sought out the poison bottle and most
certainly handled it, throw wobblers as did Navalny when performing what he thought were the
effects of nerve agent poisoning?
And whom did the hamsters hand the bottle to -- Navalnaya or Pevchikh? And who handled the
bottle after its arrival in Berlin and before the obliging Bundeswehr said it had been dosed
with the most lethal nerve agent (weapons grade) known to man?
Why isn't there a trail of stiffs from Tomsk to Berlin and beyond?
Who's going to believe this shite?
"Why, the whole world knows it's true!" will Imperial Plenipotentiary Pompeus Fattus Arsus
surely say.
One of the developers of Novichok, Leonid Rink, commented on reports that a bottle in
the Tomsk hotel where Alexei Navalny had stayed could [have been] Novichok
[contaminated] .
"This is a situation where no one would have been allowed to touch the bottle -- you
would have died if you had done so. If this had really been the case, then there would have
basically been a deceased person, and everyone who had carried this bottle without gloves and
protection would also have died", he told RIA Novosti.
Ah, but . . . Rink is forgetting that it was a special, delayed action Novichok made to
take effect on "Putin's Fiercest Critic" when he was on board the Tomsk-Moscow flight.
Rink's an old Soviet has-been and knows nothing about the latest developments in
diabolical weaponry that issues forth from secret Orc laboratories.
Maybe the cunning developers have produced a Novichok variant safe to those who have
sinned but fatal (or liable, at least, to provoke a severe tummy upset, occasionally) to the
purest of heart?
I like this idea of the special edition of Novichok with the delayed kick. Maybe we could
call it Brawndo and speculate that the poison only goes into action when it does because the
added electrolytes take time to work to release the poison.
Alexei Navalny's team immediately after his departure from Tomsk airport, went to the
hotel room in that city where he had spent the night, and packed all the items (including
water bottles) so as to deliver them for analysis (of course, not in Russia). A video about
this was posted on the oppositionist's Instagram.
Everything in this story is beautiful. Navalny's supporters were collecting "evidence"
on a case that had not yet happened -- but it was already supposed to have happened? Together
with them, there went a lawyer to the hotel -- he was also at the ready. But why were none of
the "trackers" hurt if on the "evidence", as is said, they found traces of the "Novichok"
military poison? And how did the "people of Navalny" end up in a room where cleaning up
should have been done after the guest's departure? There are other questions as well. Some of
them "KP" asked FSB reserve general Alexander Mikhailov .
And the person shown handling the bottle is wearing gloves – they made sure to show
that. But as others have pointed out, this was well before anyone knew 'an attempt had been
made on the Opposition Leader's life'. What, all Lyosha's shit was still in his hotel room,
towels on the floor, the next day, after he checked out? Pretty crappy service in those
Russian hotels. He didn't even leave Russia for several days, and the first suggestions he
had been poisoned came from his 'press agent', who claimed he had been poisoned with tea at
the airport.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Sergei Yerofeyev, a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA, has spoken about
this.
According to Yerofeyev, Navalny has been nominated for the prize by "a number of
professors from recognized universities who deal with Russia". He did not give specific
names, but noted that there are "great people" amongst the scientists who have nominated
Navalny.
A professor of any university in the world can nominate a candidate for the Nobel Peace
Prize: there are no specific requirements for a candidate. In addition, members of national
governments and parliaments, heads of state and some other categories of persons can nominate
candidates.
The oppositionist will have to fight for the main prize of the planet with venerable
rivals.
This is, first of all, US President Donald Trump, who was nominated by Christian
Tubring-Jedde, a member of the Norwegian parliament from the far-right Libertarian Progress
Party. As the MP said in an interview with Fox News, Donald Trump should be awarded for his
role in concluding an agreement on the full normalization of relations between Israel and the
UAE.
And why not? O'Bummer was awarded the peace prize, wasn't he?
I wonder how the Kiev Post evaluates Navalny's position on the Crimea?
The status of the Crimea is a problem that a new democratic Russia will inherit from
its former government. The Russian position on this problem will be determined by the
recognition of the right of the citizens of the Crimea to determine their own destiny
-- Navalny
20!8
I say give it to him. Let him join the prestigious ranks of Obama, the OPCW, the EU.
I also propose starting a Nobel War Prize, to be awarded to whatever individual or
organization is responsible for the highest body count in a given year. Although that may be
redundant, considering that it would probably be given to the same people as the Peace
Prize.
Ha, ha!! And it all descends into farce, again. Navalny has arrived – he has gone
global, beyond his wildest dreams. The nothing from Wherever He Is From who could not even
break 5% in presidential election polling is now a major star, glittering in the western
firmament. As Saint Lily Tomlin once remarked, no matter how cynical you get, you can never
keep up.
All the west is going to be able to get out of this is the satisfaction of showing its ass
to the neo-Soviets, the way it does when it re-names the street the Russian Embassy is
– or was – located on after some prominent Russian dissident. Beavis and Butthead
level, at best.
That's it! This is a farewell article. A real goodbye to the topic. More precisely,
parting with Navalny as a topic. His political role has been played to the end. And even
lethal doses of Novichok have not caused a mass movement. Furgal's arrest caused an explosion
of civil consciousness in Khabarovsk. The poisoning of Navalny, sending him abroad, the
discovery of Novichok, official accusations from Germany did not cause any rally, no
procession, no movement. No excitement in civic consciousness has occurred and will never
happen.
New Documents Reveal Secret British Efforts To Arm, Assist And Propagandize 'Moderate
Rebels' In Syria
In November 2018 some anonymous people published a number of documents that had been
liberated from a clandestine British propaganda organization, the Integrity Initiative
.
The same group or person who revealed the Integrity Initiative papers has now
released several dozens of documents about another 'Strategic Communication' campaign run by
the British Foreign Office. The current release reveals a number of train and assist missions
for 'Syrian rebels' as well as propaganda operations run in Syria and globally on behalf of the
British government.
Most of the documents are detailed company responses to several solicitations from the
Foreign Office for global and local campaigns in support of the 'moderate rebels' who are
fighting against the Syrian government and people.
The documents lay out large scale campaigns which have on-the-ground elements in Syria,
training and arming efforts in neighboring countries, command and control elements in Jordan,
Turkey and Iraq, as well as global propaganda efforts. These operations were wide spread.
Most of the documents are from 2016 to 2019. They detail the organization of such operations
and also portrait persons involved in these projects. They often refer back to previous
campaigns that have been run from 2011/2012 onward. This is where the documents are probably
the most interesting. They reveal what an immense effort was and is waged to fill the
information space with pro-rebel/pro-Islamist propaganda.
The documents are not about the 'White Helmets' which were a separate British run Strategic
Communication campaign financed by various governments. While the operations described in the
new documents were coordinated with U.S. efforts they do not reference the CIA run campaigns in
Syria which included similar efforts at a cost of $1 billion per year.
The various projects and the detailed commercial offers to implement them from various
notorious companies are roughly described in the above two links. I will therefore refrain from
repeating that here. Some of the documents' content will surely be used in future Moon of
Alabama posts. But for now I will let you rummage through the stash.
Please let us know in the comments of the surprising bits that you might find.
Posted by b on September 18, 2020 at 15:51 UTC |
Permalink
Documents the "war crimes industry" of the UK, and others, as expressed in Libya and Syria.
Assad has indicated he will pursue reparations from the nations that have killed 400,000
citizens, destroyed or stolen his industrial infrastructure (whole factories broken down and
trucked into Turkey).
One reason why the US and UK and France want Assad dead is the tens of billions of dollars
they will have to pay the Syrian people for the genocidal war waged for a decade in order to
kill Assad and break Syria into pieces.
This confirms the UK has essentially kept the same military doctrine it adopted by necessity
in 1945, which is: attach itself to the USA, focus on intelligence, punch above your weight.
Ideologically, they rationalize that by attributing themselves the role of the cultured
province of the USA; "Greece to the USA's Rome".
The British were always fascinated with intelligence/paramilitary forces. In their vision,
it gives you (a nation) an air of sophistication, a civilizing aspect to the nation that
wages this kind of warfare.
After the Suez fiasco of 1956, the UK gave up direct interventions in the Middle East. It
now only intervenes there under the skirt of the USA. Of course, whenever they can, they do
that with their weapon of choice, which is intelligence. So, yeah, these documents don't
surprise me.
Maria Pevchikh was among the group of six people who accompanied opposition figure and
anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny on the trip to Siberia that ended with his poisoning .
Now, the Transit Police Department for Russia's Siberian Federal District is claiming that Maria
Pevchikh -- or as they've mistakenly called her, "Marina" Pevchikh -- is refusing to testify.
The department is carrying out a preliminary inquiry into Navalny's hospitalization in Omsk
(Russian police officials have yet to open an actual case over the attack on Navalny).
"Pevchikh, one of [the people] who were with Navalny, [who] resides permanently in Great
Britain, avoided making a statement on August 20. According to the investigation, on August 22,
the citizen in question flew to Germany, as a result it wasn't possible to get a statement from
her. Her whereabouts are currently being established," transit police officials said in a
statement.
The other five people who accompanied Navalny have been questioned. This includes Vladlen
Los, Georgy Alburnov, and Ilya Pakhomov -- employees of Navalny's non-profit, the
Anti-Corruption Foundation, -- as well as his press secretary Kira Yarmysh and cameraman Pavel
Zelensky. The transit police are also looking to establish the whereabouts of other passengers
who were on the same flight from Tomsk to Moscow as Navalny.
Pro-Kremlin media accuse
Pevchikh of 'involvement in Navalny's poisoning'
On September 7, the pro-Kremlin outlet Pravda.ru reported, citing an anonymous
source, that Pevchikh accompanied Navalny on his trip to Siberia "on the instructions of FBK
director Vladimir Ashurkov ," who allegedly came in conflict with Navalny shortly beforehand,
over his decision to
dissolve the FBK . Pravda.ru said Pevchikh was "likely Navalny's poisoner," claiming
that she stayed in the same hotel room as him, but wasn't with him on the plane from Tomsk to
Moscow; instead, she drove to Novosibirsk and then flew from there to Omsk. In addition,
Pravda.ru called Pevchikh "a woman with an opaque life story and very interesting facts
in her biography."
Kremlin-linked catering magnate Evgeny Prigozhin also made
allegations about Pevchikh's possible involvement in Navalny's poisoning via statements from
the press service of his company, Concord (however, the company also claims that Navalny's
press secretary Kira Yarmysh was involved in poisoning him). The pro-government websites
Tsarygrad TV and Putin News made similar claims .
In fact, police officials made no
attempt to contact Maria Pevchikh
According to Meduza's research, Maria Pevchikh studied sociology at Moscow State
University and political science at the London School of Economics, concurrently. She has
worked for the FBK since 2011, and now leads the foundation's research department. Pevchikh
lives in London, but she travels to Russia often. Her job includes gathering materials and
writing scripts for the FBK's investigations.
Prior to Navalny's poisoning, Pevchikh was with him in Tomsk, where his team was filming new
video investigations. According to Meduza's research, all of the group members stayed in
separate rooms at the Xander Hotel. The investigation, Meduza found out, went relatively
smoothly.
When Navalny left Tomsk, a few of the group members stayed behind, including Maria Pevchikh.
After the news broke that Navalny had been poisoned, they all went to Omsk. Meduza found out
that Maria Pevchikh was allowed to leave Russia without any difficulties. Russia's law
enforcement agencies have made no attempt to contact her over the past two weeks, even though
her Russian phone is always on. She was never called in for questioning or interrogation, and
hasn't received a summons. Pevchikh told Meduza that she will be prepared to give detailed
comments at a later date.
Transit police officials plan to seek help from Germany
The Transit Police Department for Russia's Siberian Federal District reports that in
addition to questioning Navalny's companions, the preliminary investigation has established the
route he travelled, as well as the places he visited and stayed in Tomsk and the Tomsk Region.
This includes the Xander Hotel, the restaurant Velvet, a rental apartment, where Navalny's
supporters held a working meeting, and the Vienna Cafe in the Tomsk Airport. According to
police officials, these are the places where Navalny ate and drank, "including wine and
alcoholic cocktails."
Given
medical reports that Navalny has been brought out of his coma, the investigative unit of
the transit police is preparing a request for legal assistance from Germany. The request
includes an application to involve Russia's state investigators in the German investigation of
Navalny's case -- seeking in particular "the opportunity to ask clarifying and additional
questions while retrieving statements."
Russian police say they are searching for a woman who was with Alexey Navalny in Tomsk
before his alleged poisoning, last month. They claim 'Marina Pevchikh,' who left Russia after
refusing to answer police questions.
Investigators said on Friday morning that the woman left for Germany on August 22, when
Navalny was taken to Berlin for treatment at the request of his associates.
However, later the same day, Pevchikh herself apparently spoke and insisted that Russian law
enforcement officials had not tried to contact her, even though her Russian phone is always on.
She added that she was never summoned for interrogations and questioning, nor she did not
receive any summons.
The woman also clarified that her name is Maria, not Marina. She was speaking to Meduza, a
Western state-funded Russian language news site, based in Latvia.
Russian investigators are now looking into the events surrounding Navalny's illness, which
quickly left him incapacitated. The police have researched what he did in Tomsk, including who
he met, where he stayed, and where he ate. The investigation led authorities to Pevchikh, who
they claim previously refused to answer police questions.
"To date, five out of the six citizens who accompanied Navalny during the trip have been
interviewed: Vladlen Los, Georgy Alburov, Ilya Pakhomov, Kira Yarmysh, and Pavel Zelensky,"
said the police department's statement. "Marina Pevchikh, who was with Navalny and
permanently resides in Britain, refused to give her side of the story on August 20. According
to the investigation, on August 22, she flew to Germany, and therefore it was not possible to
question her."
The police note that the investigation is ongoing, and they are also establishing the
whereabouts of passengers who flew on the plane with Navalny.
In response to the incident, officials from NATO and the European Union have demanded that
Russia conducts a "full and transparent" investigation. Despite no conclusion yet being
reached, some have called for Moscow to be sanctioned over the alleged poisoning, which the
Kremlin has called "absurd."
On Wednesday, Russia's Foreign Ministry lodged a formal protest with Germany's ambassador,
calling suggestions of state involvement "unfounded."
Speaking at a press conference in Moscow on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
noted that Navalny's associates are now "slowly beginning to move to Germany," which, in
the context of the country's accusations against the Kremlin, is "very unpleasant."
"It is still in the interests of our German colleagues to protect their reputation and
provide all the necessary information that would somehow shed light on the so-far unfounded
accusations," Lavrov said.
On August 20, Navalny was taken ill on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow. Following an emergency
landing in Omsk, a Siberian city 2,000km east of the capital, he was taken to a local hospital.
The opposition figure was flown to Berlin's Charite clinic two days later, where he is
currently being treated. According to German doctors, Navalny was poisoned with a variant of
the nerve agent family 'Novichok'.
"... Furthermore, Navalny had been in the Charité clinic for a week before it was announced that he had been poisoned by so-called Novichok, and only then after his test samples had been sent from Berlin to the Bundeswehr laboratory in Munich, which declared that "Novichok" had. been found. ..."
"... All this is being done with the objective of driving a wedge between Russia and Germany. And it is succeeding, from the tone set by Lavrov. ..."
"... I do not doubt the French and Swedish found Novichok or whatever the stuff is in Navalny's blood sample; they were meant to find it. That's quite a different thing from finding Navalny was poisoned with it. They have probably tested the bottle, and a blood sample given to them. But if Navalny was actually poisoned with a deadly nerve agent, he should be dead instead of up and about and feeling peckish. ..."
"... I would not be surprised if the Spiez laboratory that tested samples of the Skripals' blood in 2018 had not been asked to test Navalny's blood samples 'cos as any fule knows , that place's computers are chock full of Russian hackers nosing around all their databases, and Russian spies are everywhere in the building, hiding in the ceilings and cupboards and beneath the floorboards they might even be hiding in the kitchen rubbish bins or the incinerator ..."
"... Navalny drank something shitty in the Tomsk-Moscow aircraft toilet, then he performed his dramatics outside the toilet for all to behold, and the "Novichok" contaminated bottle was given to Navalnaya by Pevchikh en route to Berlin. ..."
"... The fundamental thing about this false flag is that the Doctors in Omsk saved Navalnys life. They treated him and ensured that he lived, So the samples the Russian doctors took and their analysis to find a cure for Navlany are the most important factor in all this. They found no evidence of poisoning. German doctors who came to Omsk acknowledged this at the time and discussions were held. ..."
"... Pevchikh attracted attention by the fact that she had flown to Russia from Great Britain for Navalny's "tour", and as soon as the blogger was poisoned, she immediately left the country on the same flight that took Alexey to Germany. By the way, even the blogger's wife was not allowed on board that flight, yet Pevchikh was allowed to do so. She was with him all the way. ..."
French, Swedish labs confirm Navalny poisoned with Novichok
Specialist laboratories in France and Sweden have independently confirmed findings that
Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was poisoned with a chemical agent from the Novichok group,
the German government has said.
Now how about testing the samples of Navalny's blood and tissue that were used in
Omsk?
Chain of possession of samples?
Something added to samples between Omsk and Berlin?
No samples from Russia have been tested in Europe, samples that were tested in Omsk by US
manufactured, state of the art spectroscopy apparatus.
Furthermore, Navalny had been in the Charité clinic for a week before it was
announced that he had been poisoned by so-called Novichok, and only then after his test
samples had been sent from Berlin to the Bundeswehr laboratory in Munich, which declared that
"Novichok" had. been found.
And during that long wait for the German findings, total silence from the Navalnyites,
who, when Navalny was in the Omsk hospital, were howling and screaming for an immediate
statement from doctors there about what had "poisoned" their heroic leader.
All this is being done with the objective of driving a wedge between Russia and
Germany. And it is succeeding, from the tone set by Lavrov.
I do not doubt the French and Swedish found Novichok or whatever the stuff is in
Navalny's blood sample; they were meant to find it. That's quite a different thing from
finding Navalny was poisoned with it. They have probably tested the bottle, and a blood
sample given to them. But if Navalny was actually poisoned with a deadly nerve agent, he
should be dead instead of up and about and feeling peckish.
I suppose we'll never know what these specialist labs in France and Sweden are, we'll just
have to take the German government's word that it sent samples of Navalny's blood to these
and possibly other labs to test.
I would not be surprised if the Spiez laboratory that tested samples of the Skripals'
blood in 2018 had not been asked to test Navalny's blood samples
'cos as any fule knows , that place's computers are chock full of Russian hackers nosing
around all their databases, and Russian spies are everywhere in the building, hiding in the
ceilings and cupboards and beneath the floorboards they might even be hiding in the kitchen
rubbish bins or the incinerator
Navalny drank something shitty in the Tomsk-Moscow aircraft toilet, then he performed
his dramatics outside the toilet for all to behold, and the "Novichok" contaminated bottle
was given to Navalnaya by Pevchikh en route to Berlin.
It will be interesting to learn full details of the chain of transmission of the
"deadly-ish" bottle from its last handling by an agent of the Russian state onwards. If the
bottle is to play the central role demanded by the "martyr"'s present narrative, then the
transfer of custody thereof has to be evident and indisputable. Moreover, the transmission of
the bottle to German hands needs to have a rational explanation including such minor issues
as why the Russian authorities didn't seize it as evidence or confiscate it at the security
checkpoints?
The fundamental thing about this false flag is that the Doctors in Omsk saved Navalnys
life. They treated him and ensured that he lived, So the samples the Russian doctors took and
their analysis to find a cure for Navlany are the most important factor in all this. They
found no evidence of poisoning. German doctors who came to Omsk acknowledged this at the time
and discussions were held.
Germany did not play any part in saving his life they just brought him out of the induced
coma. Whatever happened in that Clinic and after wards is all unclear and lacks transparency.
PS. France and Sweden can only say the samples they were given had "poison".
Very many people die every day of poisoning. On death certificates one often sees the term
"septicaemia" as cause of death. That's what it said on my father's death certificate.
Septicaemia is commonly called "blood poisoning".
My unfortunate father was not poisoned by anyone: his body poisoned him. He had
cancer.
And this what the the Germans etc. at first said: they found poison in body.
This has been taken as his having been poisoned by one someone using a poison and this
poison is "Novichok".
Macron has said today that somebody had attempted to murder Navalny.
Because he was a "threat" to the "Kremlin Party" and Putin in particular?
Macron and the BBC, CNN, Fox News etc. should take a look at the Russian election results
now being announced.
I think it's actually called "Chain of Custody", and refers to the traceability of every
time a piece of evidence was handled by a different person, how it was sealed against
tampering, and so forth.
"Custody" is a loaded, legal term which the supporters of the "martyr" should be wary of
using, Mark.
If the bottle was suspected by one or more of Navalny's companions when still in Russian
territory of having contained a toxic substance then it ought to have been transmitted to the
custody of the appropriate Russian authorities. Reasonable safeguards such as video recording
the handover could be taken. Thereafter a "chain of custody" of potential evidence can follow
to provide a Court – those pesky places that the shit-smearers would run a mile from
– to assess (test, prove if you prefer) the quality of the evidence and the reliability
of the chain of custody thereof.
The allegations of poisoning have been enabled by the deliberate withholding of "evidence"
from the Russian investigators. Those who did not cooperate with the Russian authorities have
been given so many free passes on the basis of their being plucky Scooby Doo style kids that
I half-expect VVP to mumble about "getting away with it except for those pesky kids". The
cartoonish level of the entire affair and the contempt this narrative displays towards media
consumers in "The West" is dangerous. When all are held to the same standards progress will
be made.
To revert to the "chain of custody" briefly: let's hold the feet of the plucky kids to the
fire of legal process and find out the truth about the "magic bottle" and its amazing journey
to the West. I read recently that in the aftermath of the fall of the Shah in 1979 many very
prosperous Iranians relocated to California. Among those were Zoroastrians who had time
enough and plenty to find digs for themselves and then to finalise the new home for the Holy
Fire which arrived by sea months later. Perhaps the Navalnyites have a similar story to
account for the miraculous appearance of The Bottle in Germany.
From the Orc Blogosphere, so it will be fake, unlike squeaky clean Western MSM and its
open sources:
Pevchikh attracted attention by the fact that she had flown to Russia from Great
Britain for Navalny's "tour", and as soon as the blogger was poisoned, she immediately left
the country on the same flight that took Alexey to Germany. By the way, even the blogger's
wife was not allowed on board that flight, yet Pevchikh was allowed to do so. She was with
him all the way.
According to statements made by German doctors, the poison was found on Navalny's
underwear and on the neck of a bottle. Maybe you are still just thinking about this bottle,
but only a few had access to Alexey's underwear, apart from people who were staying with him:
Pevchikh, for example.
She organized Navalny's meetings with politicians from other countries to discuss the
assistance that the West is ready to provide the blogger with, provided him with exclusive
information and could even play the role of Alexey's "curator" from the West.
As soon as Navalny began to lose popularity, the West could well have decided to take
extreme measures and make a "holy sacrifice" out of Alexey.
He was taken out of a coma. It seems as though he remembers something and can speak,
without suffering any consequences. But will he return to Russia? Or will we never see him
again? Good question.
But one thing is clear for sure, if he returns to the country -- it will already be a
completely different story and a completely different game.
Source:
Кажется,в "деле
Навального"
появился
подозреваемый |
Политические
заметки |
Яндекс Дзен
It seems that a suspect has appeared in the "Navalny case" | Political Notes | Yandex
Zen
In short, Lavrov has demanded that the Germans present evidence for their accusations.
There is none so far.
They have evidence they insist -- "undeniable results from the Bundeswehr -- but they
won't show the data that the Bundeswehr states has given "undeniable" confirmation that
Navalny was poisoned with something that the Western MSM and governments call "Novichok".
I mean, there is a difference between data and the interpretation thereof.
The Germans persistently refuse to present the data that they allege to have, but present
an interpretation of said data as given by the Bundeswehr laboratory.
The ancients interpreted the data of the heavens that they had in the belief that the
earth was the centre of all things and later, this interpretation was based on the belief in
what is written in "Holy Scripture", which they believed was the word of something they
called "god", which had created the All.
The Western interpretation of the data that they say they have concerning analyses of
Navalny's medical tests taken in Germany is based on the belief that the Russians are wont to
use something that the West calls "Novichok" in order to eliminate "dissidents" in the
Russian "regime" and journalists and "leaders of the opposition" there in "Putin's Mafia
State" who dare to criticize the Russian "tyrant".
'In the early stage, you're a young crusader and you write an exposé story about
the powers that be, and you bring it to your editor and the editor says: "No, kill it. We
can't touch that. Too hot."
'Stage two: You get an idea for the story, but you don't write it and you check with
the editor first and he says: "No, won't fly. No, I think the old man won't like it. Don't do
that, he has a lot of friends in there and that might get messy."
'Stage three: You get an idea for the story and you yourself dismiss it as
silly.
'Stage four: You no longer get the idea for that kind of an exposé
story.
'And I would add a stage five: You then appear on panels, with media critics like me,
and you get very angry and indignant when we say that there are biases in the media and
you're not as free and independent as you think.'
Perhaps when the BBC's John Simpson finally retires, or Channel 4's Jon Snow, or ITV's
Mark Austin, or any of the other big beasts in the media jungle, they'll be brave and honest
enough to make similar coge
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'Full & transparent' investigation: NATO & EU leaders demand Russia investigates 'attack' on opposition figure Navalny
