Uncle Volodya says, “The liar was the hottest to defend his veracity, the coward his courage, the ill-bred his gentlemanliness, and the cad his honor.”
Baby, do you understand me now?
Sometimes I feel a little mad
But don’t you know that no one alive can always be an angel
When things go wrong I feel so bad.
I’m just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood
Nina Simone
Michael McFaul wants you to know that he is hurt. The Russian outlook has not been so anti-American (and anti-EU) since before 1990 – perhaps since never (thanks for the graphic, Kirill). The United States of America is hated – hated – in Russia in a way it probably was not even during the cold war. And why? Well, because of Putin, of course. Putin the paranoid nutjob, who believes the United States government is trying to overthrow his government and replace it with some supplicant liberal who will allow America a free hand to dabble and meddle to its heart’s content. Which America could not be less interested in doing – that’s all in Putin’s head. Quoth McFaul; “But the more I listen to him directly and the more I saw the activities of his government – they have a paranoid view about American intentions. They believe that President Obama and the CIA want to overthrow Putin’s regime and want to weaken Russia and some would even say, dismember Russia. It’s totally crazy. I want to emphasize that. There is no policy of regime change in Russia. Unfortunately, however, I think that is Putin’s view.” (Thanks for the link, Peter)
A paranoid view about American intentions. There is no policy of regime change in Russia. Hmmm. Forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe.
Probably because it’s…what’s the word I’m looking for? Oh, yeah – horseshit.
Michael McFaul is an educated man, and the educated man has a weakness – he can seldom resist being seduced into showing off his worldly education, the payback for those years with his nose in the books instead of going fishing, chasing skirt or hanging out down at the pool hall. Michael McFaul is not made of wood, and when he is asked to give the folks back home in Teaneck, New Jersey or Boring, Oregon or Cranky Corner, Louisiana the benefit of his worldly experience and that fine Oxford schoolin’, why, he sings like a canary.
Such as: “And, as before, the current regime must be isolated. The strategy of seeking to change Kremlin behavior through engagement, integration and rhetoric is over for now. No more membership in the Group of 8, accession to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development or missile defense talks. Instead there must be sanctions, including against those people and entities — propagandists, state-owned enterprises, Kremlin-tied bankers — that act as instruments of Mr. Putin’s coercive power. Conversely, individuals and companies not connected to the government must be supported, including those seeking to take assets out of Russia or emigrate…Mr. Putin’s Russia has no real allies. We must keep it that way. Nurturing Chinese distance from a revisionist Russia is especially important, as is fostering the independence of states in Central Asia and the Caucasus.”
Even, some would say, dismember Russia. Wasn’t that what you just said, above, in tones of “do you believe anyone could think something so crazy?” No sanctions on individuals and companies not connected to the government, including those “seeking to take assets out of Russia, or emigrate”. Those must be supported. Meanwhile, “fostering the independence of states in Central Asia and the Caucasus” is “especially important”. Who says so? Michael McFaul, in whose innocent mouth butter would not melt, said so, not even a year ago.
The United States, Mr. McFaul will have you know, is just misunderstood. The more it tries to help people – well, certain people, anyway, such as those receptive to American global leadership – the more it is accused of low-down, sneakin’, backstabbing regime change. The injustice of it!! Why can’t the world just accept that American motives are guileless and straightforward, and that America means Russia no harm?
Gee, I don’t know…maybe because of stuff like this: “American Efforts at Promoting Regime Change in the Soviet Union and then Russia: Lessons Learned“, by Michael A. McFaul. How ’bout that, Michael? Cat got your tongue? Want to take a look inside? Oh, let’s do.
Well, we’re off to a great start. “For much longer and with much greater capacity than Saddam Hussein’s regime, the Soviet regime threatened the United States. The destruction of the Soviet regime and the construction of a pro-Western, democratic regime in its place, therefore, was a major objective of America foreign policy. Some presidents pursued this goal more vigorously than others: Nixon cared less, Reagan more. Yet, even during the height of Nixonian realism, Senator Jackson and Congressman Vanik made sure that the human rights of Soviet citizens were not ignored.”
Mmmm…interesting. The Jackson-Vanik Amendment – which was actually signed into law by President Ford, after President Nixon was taillights, so that it was never in effect during “the height of Nixonian realism” unless we presume it outlived his presidency and carried on after he was gone – pertained only to Soviet Jews. In that context, “making sure the rights of Soviet citizens were not ignored” is painting with a little bit of a broad brush, it seems to me.
At the time the whole argument – replete as usual with sound and fury – was going on about repealing the Jackson-Vanik Amendment so that Russia could join the WTO and maintain the same trading relationship with the USA it would maintain with other members, it escalated into a bitter partisan battle by groups who did not know the first thing about it, only that the honour of Old Glory was at stake. In fact the amendment was inserted into the Soviet-American Comprehensive Trade Agreement, and basically gutted it unless the Soviet Union allowed free emigration to its Jews. Among that group were many who had received a free superior education at a state school of higher learning, and who wished to take it with them to America or Israel to make a pile of money. The Soviet Union said sure, you can go – just as soon as you pay back the state for your education, which is only free if you are going to use it to benefit the state that gave it to you. Unreasonable? You tell me.
The Soviet Union sent a delegation to the USA, to explain its position to the business community; implementing the amendment, it said, would elevate anti-semitism in the Soviet Union, and the 90% of Soviet Jews who did not want to leave would suffer for American meddling, as the rest of the Soviet Union’s citizens perceived American favouritism. And it almost worked. Enter Soviet Jewish activists, like the kreakly of today, the group America has never been able to resist – they’re just so smart. And they swayed opinion back the other way, and the amendment passed. And stayed in effect until Obama repealed it in 2012, long after it had outlived its usefulness and just in time for it to be replaced by the Magnitsky Act so the United States could go on treating Russia differently than it treated every other nation on the planet, and have a law that said it could.
For the record, Nixon preferred to take the path of “quiet diplomacy” where the Jackson-Vanik Amendment was concerned, and was satisfied with Moscow’s concession that it would not implement the “diploma tax”. You could call that “Nixonian realism”, if you want, but it sounds like “we got what we asked for – why be jerks?” So more or less everything McFaul tells you there about the Jackson-Vanik Amendment is self-serving blather, bullshit and boilerplate.
As to the “capacity with which the Soviet Union threatened the United States”, a study prepared by George Washington University’s National Security Archive and released in 2009 revealed that the Pentagon and others deliberately exaggerated the Soviet threat out of all proportion, departing on wild flights of fancy to justify ever-larger defense budgets and ever-more-costly weapons systems; “as recently as 1986, the CIA reported that the per capita income of East Germany was ahead of West Germany and that the national income per capita was higher in the Soviet Union than in Italy. Several years later, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact collapsed, and former CIA director Stansfield Turner wrote that the “corporate view” at the CIA “missed by a mile.” So, less writing and more reading for you, Mr. McFaul, if you don’t mind a bit of free advice.
“Although the United States is the most powerful hegemon in recent history and maybe ever, the U.S. government has seemed ineffective, weak, and unable to foster democratic development in Russia. This apparent impotence is especially striking when one remembers the strategic importance of democratic development in this country still armed with tens of thousands of nuclear weapons. It was democratic regime change inside the Soviet Union that ended the Cold War and made the United States more secure. It will be autocratic regime change that will once again animate a more confrontational relationship between the United States and Russia. And yet, the United States government has not developed an effective strategy either to foster Russian democracy or to help it survive.”
It sure sounds to me like you are advocating regime change there, Mr. McFaul.
“What should come first, founding elections or a constitution? Which is better for Russia, presidentialism or parliamentary system? What should be the strategy for dealing with communists and their NGOs—engagement or destruction?”
Uhhhh…were you planning to ask the Russian government about any of this? Or was it just going to be between you and the excited business and cultural elitny who always thought the running of the country should have fallen to them? The elitny who, not to put too fine a point on it, would throw their shoulders against the great wheel of American global hegemony?
“At times, however, officials representing the U.S. government and representatives from the non-governmental organizations clashed regarding appropriate engagement with Russia’s “revolutionaries.” These American NGOs vigorously defended their independence from the U.S. government and occasionally engaged in domestic“meddling” inside the U.S.S.R. that contradicted Bush’s pledge of noninterference. Most of the time, under the steady stewardship of Ambassador Matlock, these nongovernmental worked closely with local U.S. officials. Matlock himself was an active promoter of engagement with Russia’s revolutionaries. He hosted dinners and discussion groups with these anti-Soviet leaders and groups at Spaso House, the ambassador’s residence in Moscow, including a luncheon with human rights activists with Ronald Reagan in May 1988. These events gave symbolic but important recognition to these new political leaders.”
Certainly must have been inspirational, because Ambassador McFaul did just the same thing as soon as he arrived in Russia in 2012 – he had barely presented his credentials before he was hobnobbing with opposition leaders, many of whom had well-documented ties to the U.S. State Department, including Evgeniya Chirikova (NED -funded “Strategy 31”), Lilia Shevtsova (NED-funded GOLOS) and Lev Ponomaryov (NED-funded Moscow-Helsinki Group). Mr McFaul was incensed at the criticism he received from the Russian government and Russian social media for it – regime change? Perish the thought – this is just a meeting of friends, and meeting with the opposition is routine, harmless. Just keep eye contact and continue talking in a soothing, low voice, and the rubes will fall for it, every time. Given the opinions expressed in the referenced text, can there be any doubt that the objective was to pave the way for revolution?
Michael McFaul is as two-faced as a halibut; when he shakes your hand, check to see if you still have your wristwatch when you get your hand back, and it might not be a bad idea to count your fingers. When he says the government he represents is not interested in regime change in your country, a wise man would inspect all the riot-control equipment and get it laid out so it is ready to hand.
The USA never speaks in a conciliatory fashion when it is winning – ever notice that? It’s too busy waving the flag and trumpeting about exceptionalism and feats of can-do. Therefore, when it does speak in a conciliatory fashion, it is possible it has realized it is losing. And it doesn’t do losing well. A word to the wise is sufficient.
The Kremlin Stooge 
Russia
It is unlikely that the Russian Federation will survive in its current form. Russia’s failure to transform its energy revenue into a self-sustaining economy makes it vulnerable to price fluctuations. It has no defense against these market forces. Given the organization of the federation, with revenue flowing to Moscow before being distributed directly or via regional governments, the flow of resources will also vary dramatically. This will lead to a repeat of the Soviet Union’s experience in the 1980s and Russia’s in the 1990s, in which Moscow’s ability to support the national infrastructure declined. In this case, it will cause regions to fend for themselves by forming informal and formal autonomous entities. The economic ties binding the Russian periphery to Moscow will fray.
Historically, the Russians solved such problems via the secret police — the KGB and its successor, the Federal Security Services (FSB). But just as in the 1980s, the secret police will not be able to contain the centrifugal forces pulling regions away from Moscow this decade. In this case, the FSB’s power is weakened by its leadership’s involvement in the national economy. As the economy falters, so does the FSB’s strength. Without the FSB inspiring genuine terror, the fragmentation of the Russian Federation will not be preventable.
To Russia’s west, Poland, Hungary and Romania will seek to recover regions lost to the Russians at various points. They will work to bring Belarus and Ukraine into this fold. In the south, the Russians’ ability to continue controlling the North Caucasus will evaporate, and Central Asia will destabilize. In the northwest, the Karelian region will seek to rejoin Finland. In the Far East, the maritime regions more closely linked to China, Japan and the United States than to Moscow will move independently. Other areas outside of Moscow will not necessarily seek autonomy but will have it thrust upon them. This is the point: There will not be an uprising against Moscow, but Moscow’s withering ability to support and control the Russian Federation will leave a vacuum. What will exist in this vacuum will be the individual fragments of the Russian Federation.
This will create the greatest crisis of the next decade. Russia is the site of a massive nuclear strike force distributed throughout the hinterlands. The decline of Moscow’s power will open the question of who controls those missiles and how their non-use can be guaranteed. This will be a major test for the United States. Washington is the only power able to address the issue, but it will not be able to seize control of the vast numbers of sites militarily and guarantee that no missile is fired in the process. The United States will either have to invent a military solution that is difficult to conceive of now, accept the threat of rogue launches, or try to create a stable and economically viable government in the regions involved to neutralize the missiles over time. It is difficult to imagine how this problem will play out. However, given our forecast on the fragmentation of Russia, it follows that this issue will have to be addressed, likely in the next decade.
The issue in the first half of the decade will be how far the alliance stretching between the Baltic and Black seas will extend. Logically, it should reach Azerbaijan and the Caspian Sea. Whether it does depends on what we have forecast for the Middle East and Turkey.
see: STRATFOR: Decade Forecast 2015-1025
Well that’s that then. I suppose ME, that you now think that it is hardly worth getting involved in the succession wars.
I’m heading for the Urals with my trusty squirrel gun and the rest of mah kinfolks!
Yessiree! No goddam empire gonna tell me how I can live!
Please don’t eat any squirrels! There’s a chance you will get Creudtzfeldt-Jakobs disease*. Eventually.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creutzfeldt%E2%80%93Jakob_disease
NYT: Kentucky Doctors Warn Against a Regional Dish: Squirrels’ Brains
They’re them there American grey tree rats that yer a-talkin’ ’bout. Them thar hills o’er yonder is full of red squirrels and other varmints.
Aren’t there some parts of Russia where the local wild rodent population – apart from rats – still harbour bubonic plague bacteria?
The same can be said of parts of the western United States (mainly in Rocky Mountains areas) where bubonic plague that reached the country from Asia through San Francisco in the 1890s escaped into local wildlife.
Well, although not now part of Russia,there was and still is a widespread population of infected with bubonic plague rodents in a former territory of the Soviet Union and, before that, of the Russian Empire: it’s called Galitsia.
Stratfor, will they make up their minds already? Just last week they published “plausible” plans for Russian expansion into Ukraine, ie grabbing land for the sake of grabbing land, with no underlying logic whatsoever.
…And now they are saying that Russia will fragment? And they claim that the Soviet Union broke apart because Moscow couldn’t support its infrastructure?! And they claim that the FSB is some kind of evil Gestapo that tours the federation 24/7 with the sole purpose of suppressing everybody’s innate desire to separate from Moscow?
Jesus, I sure hope nobody listens to these guys and shape their policies thereafter. Oh, wait, that would explain certain things.
Unfortunately – or perhaps fortunately – this so closely reflects the western dream of “Russia” reduced to a glowering Moscow surrounded by restive ethnic republics that I think it is probably just projection. When you go into a situation looking for a desired outcome, you will see no end of signs that it is indeed indicated. Western reporters and analysts can always find someone who despises Putin and forecasts his imminent doom, even Fred Weir can do that.
Let everyone remember – these types did not predict the demise of the USSR, and those of them who expected the Cold War to end at all thought it would conclude with the defeat of the United States.
Come 1989-1991, they convinced themselves that they had brought it about, and now they hope to luck into yet another victory, all without the least understanding of what happened then or what’s happening now.
That’s correct, and the McFaul paper on which I based this piece is full of such references, of Yeltsin or Gorbachev doing this or that because he wanted to curry favour with the west.
STRATFOR is just for people who like other people doing their thinking or picking up the kids after school, a kind of intel nanny. Everyone who subscribes can pretend to be Flip Flop Obama with his daily national security briefings to keep him up to speed on events. Maybe it is also a way of keeping tabs on ex-spooks who have quit their government jobs to stop them going over to the ‘other side’. The worst that can happen is that a subscription is cancelled.
РБК, 11.03.2015, 20:14:
Владимир Путин с конца прошлой недели не появлялся на публике
Владимир Путин не появлялся на публике с 6 марта….
Vladimir Putin has not appeared in public since the end of last week
Vladimir Putin has not appeared in public since March 6…
President of Russia website: Владимир Путин поздравил российских женщин с 8 Марта
Vladimir Putin gives Russian Women 8th of March congratulations
Vladimir Putin met at the Kremlin women whose children have achieved outstanding results in the arts, science and sport, or have been awarded the title Hero of Russia.
March 8, 2015
Pork Pie News.
He cancels a trip and people go bananas.
…Yesterday he spoke to the Armenian president according to the website, and the cabinet of the latter confirmed it as well.
Once again, projection – Putin’s sudden death or incapacity would resolve so many problems for the west that it is hard for them not to give voice to their dreams.
Of course we all realise that Lord Sauron has six bodyguards who have all been subjected to facial cosmetic surgery, some of their back vertebrae removed and their legs shortened to become his clones who carry out his onerous Presidential duties so the real thing can luxuriate in diabolical villainy.
With President of the Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev.
March 13, 2015
See: President of Russia
Where’s Obama?
Not seen him for a few days.
Is he dead?
President’s Schedule – March 13, 2015
He’s probably in bed because it’s only about 07:30 now in California.
That made me laugh out loud. I needed it. Thanks.
In 9 months time, they will all be making a delivery, having been touched by the hand of Putin on Women’s Day. Maybe that is why he hasn’t been around! 😉
I thought I read somewhere that that particular picture had been taken on March 5…
but the website in any case says he is due to meet with the President of Kyrgyzstan on March 16 and the President of South Ossetia on March 18
Putin could not squeeze more lunacy out of the press if his last name was “Kardashian”. Maybe posting footage of all of Russia laughing at them would dissuade them – it seems nothing tried so far works.
Ah, this is great:
http://www.svt.se/nyheter/sverige/foi-bildt-maltavla-i-ryskt-infokrig
Swedish media says that evil Russian information warfare has targeted poor defenseless Carl Bildt, according to “research” done at the Swedish military research institute.
SURELY the attention given to Bildt has zilch to do with the fact that Bildt has thrown bile at Russia non-stop for decades, both privately (blogs, Twitter, of which he is an avid user) and in public (interviews, speeches etc)? Carl Bildts information warfare targets poor Russia? Oh no, what a ludicrous thing to suggest.
Just reading the news these days makes me feel like I’m watching one of those braindead reality shows on TV where they put a bunch of double-digit IQ bimbos and guidos in a CCTV-laden hotel and hand them loads of alcohol. One minute and you want to rip your hair out because of the mindblowing stupidity you’re witnessing.
That’s the kind of show Sobchak the Snot-Eater used to host: Dom-2 it was called.
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Ha, ha!!! Yes, Bildt is a poor choice for an article laden with sympathy. Maybe he’s a secret Pole – he sounds like Tusk. The best defense against Bildt is just to ignore him. Whenever Russia responds to any of his silliness – such as was at a peak during the Swedish “Russian submarine crisis” – westerners nudge each other and say, “Aha; look there, Bildt touched a sore spot. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, you know”. Far better to just look at him steadily for a moment, and then resume the conversation as if he had never spoken or was an embarrassing loony, which is pretty close to the truth.
If he’s a Secret Pole (rather than a squirrel*), that makes Lewdcas is a flamboyant ‘stoner.
* http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090511025606/hanna-barbera/images/2/23/Secret_Squirrel.jpg
When McFaul met the kreakly in the embassy in 2012, his excuse was that it was “normal” for an incoming ambassador to meet the “opposition” or “shadow cabinet”.
Which is B.S., because the Moscow kreakly do not form a parliamentary opposition, nor a shadow cabinet. Except, only in the way that Right Sektor was the shadow cabinet in Ukraine, when Yanukovych was in power.
In fact, I am pretty certain he entertained that mob even before he had presented his credentials to the government, which is a breach of diplomatic protocol, I am sure.
And that little shit Medvedev, who was then President, let him off the hook for that, which makes me even more sure that he’s one of them.
From Wiki:
On January 17, 2012 soon after McFaul had been appointed the new United States Ambassador to Russia and had arrived in Moscow to assume his post, a number of organizers and prominent participants of the 2011 Russian protests, as well as some prominent figures of the Russian opposition parties, visited the Embassy of the United States in Moscow. At the embassy entrance they were met by TV journalists who asked them why they were visiting the new Ambassador. On the video later released on YouTube and titled “Получение инструкций в посольстве США” (Receiving instructions at the United States Embassy) opposition activists appear flustered by the unexpected media attention. Later, upon leaving the embassy and being once again encircled by journalists, the activists responded by declaring the journalists spreaders of “Surkov propaganda” and made no other statement. The visitors to Michael McFaul included: Yevgeniya Chirikova (member of Strategy-31 and Khimki Forest activist leader), Boris Nemtsov (leader of the People’s Freedom Party), Lev Ponomarev (human rights activist of the Moscow Helsinki Group), Sergey Mitrokhin (leader of Yabloko Party), Oksana Dmitriyeva (deputy head of A Just Russia), Lilia Shibanova (head of the GOLOS Association, an elections monitoring group). Two weeks later, journalist Olga Romanova who managed the financial spending of the December protests, also visited the American Embassy. She said that they discussed Russian protests and the United States Presidential election campaign with McFaul.
Reaction to the incident was mixed: President Dmitry Medvedev in his public comments at Moscow State University largely exonerated McFaul by saying that meeting opposition figures was a routine occurrence, although he warned the new U.S. ambassador to Moscow that he was on Russian soil and should respect Russian political sensibilities. The incident sparked a highly negative reaction in the Russian media and blogs but an article in the Daily Beast wrote that McFaul’s stance won plaudits from pro-democracy activists and Web-savvy Russian youth and that, “in the tight-knit world of the Moscow opposition, McFaul has become something of an Internet celebrity, making him a true 21st-century diplomat”.
[Proofread and edited as the above text was in “near English”, most likely having been posted, in my opinion, by a native Russian speaker – ME.]
I couldn’t say; references I have seen reported he had met with Russian opposition figures “within days” of his arrival in Moscow, after his straight-from-the-hip video clip to the Russian people going on about how he loved Russia and had an emotional attachment to their beautiful country. Oddly, it had changed to a “savage country” in his estimation in less than a month once he became annoyed with TV reporters following him around as he called on old friends in the opposition. He blamed that on his poor grasp of the Russian language and said then, too, that he had been misunderstood, but his Russian was actually pretty good. He appeared on talk shows and was able to follow the give and take in Russian.
He seems the soul of openness and candor in person – meaning when he’s speaking live on TV; I’ve never actually met him – but his written work prior to his appointment suggests a far different thought process.
Yes, that’s absolutely true – the west simply selects figures which it wishes to define as “opposition leaders” based on their abject toadyism to “western values” and their willingness to sell out their country and people to the regime-changers for a pat on the head and a nice write-up. Navalny was being talked up as a major opposition leader when he was not even actually in politics except for writing about it in his blog in between postings of cat pictures, and the “virtual mayor of Moscow” contest that thrust him to political prominence in western eyes was certainly not his idea. Basically it boils down to a Russian opposition figure being anyone the west believes – for whatever reason – is charismatic and might unite voters behind him or her. No political experience or ability required; he or she will be told what to do and say by his/her western groomers.
Witness Klitschko, Germany’s selection (better said: the CDU/CSU selection) for leader in the Ukraine:
Vitali Klitschko: could he be the next president of Ukraine?
What did they think they were doing when they chose that idiot?
Doesn’t Vitali have a PhD in Sports Science or something? Or am I getting him confused with his brother Wladimir?
Both Vitali Volodymyrovych Klitschko and Volodymyr Volodymyrovych Klychko have PhDs.
I think Vitali must have had a ghost-writer write his dissertation.
His defence of his dissertation must have been a sight to behold.
If Vitali succeeded in being awarded a PhD, surely “our” Frank Bruno could have got one as well, know wo’ I mean?
Klitschko’s viva voce would have been a sight to behold indeed, mind you Klitschko would not be the first prominent personality to buy a PhD.
‘arry……..
@ Moscow, Warren: Now be careful, you don’t want to give Porky Piglet any ideas about buying a PhD.
Meanwhile, in the Nemtsov case, there is a new name , that of:
Geremeev
As the investigation proceeds, the evidence is drawing more into what looks like to be betrayal at the highest levels of Kadyrov’s inner circle.
Above analysis is written by Petr Akopov. In his autobiographical blurb he writes that he completed his degree in History, just in time for the collapse of the Soviet Union. He took off for the Caucasus, became a journalist/essayist and Kremlinologist. Describes his own political views as (I think a bit jokingly):
“Extreme right-wing, monarchist views, a nationalist, imperialist, and also communalist socialist.”
Anyhow, returning to the “Caucasian connection”:
Akopov recounts how, immediately after the murder, people wanted to pin it on “nationalists” and “Putinists”; the liberals themselves complained about a “campaign of fear and hate” supposedly launched by Putin against liberals such as Nemtsov; which would have “created a climate” in which some lone nut would inevitably step up to the plate and kill him.
Next, there were a few days in which the investigation fell quiet, and the liberals were shaking their heads and saying it would never be solved, Putin ordered Nemtsov to be killed, and everything just swept under the rug.
And then – boom! all of a sudden it’s some guys in Kadyrov’s inner circle.
Akopov holds to the view that Nemtsov’s assassination was a flagrant provocation directed at the Kremlin. Which was also Putin initial, spontaneous (and emotional) reaction, when he first heard the news, even before any facts were known about the crime.
Akopov sees the provocation as serving the needs of the Atlanticists and Fifth Columnists.
However, it is too abstract to just say that, because this serves their needs, they must have done it. Instead, the Russian government has exerted every effort to get down to the actual nitty-gritty facts of how this was done, and who dunnit.
Akopov dismisses the notion, that Kadyrov, whatever his contempt for the likes of Nemtsov, would feel that he had the authority to order the latter’s assassination. Kadyrov knows his place in the scheme of things, and is the farthest thing from being some rogue element.
It is also inconceivable, according to Akopov, that Dadaev, a member of the elite Chechen army forces, would take it upon himself to just stroll out there and shoot Nemtsov. He DID shoot Nemtsov, true, but on whose orders? His excuse about “Charlie Hebdo” is simply ridiculous.
Already, the organs are operating on the theory that Dadaev was given his order by a specific man: Major Ruslan Geremeev. Who has already been interrogated in Grozny. Geremeev is highly placed in Chechen power structure: one of his uncles is a member of the Soviet from Chechnya. If Geremeev’s guilt can be proved, then that would one rung further up the ladder of this conspiracy.
The key point, according to Akopov, is that there is a traitor at the highest level in the Chechen power structure. This traitor must have convinced Dadaev/Geremeev, that there was an order coming directly from Ramzan Kadyrov, to assassinate Nemtsov. The reasonable assumption (99% probability) is that there was NO such order, but these guys didn’t know that. In which case, who put them up to it?
In short, the immediate killers were not hired by Washington, Kiev, Tbilisi, or the like, according to Akopov. They were patriotic citizens of the Russian Federation, loyal both to Kadyrov and to Putin, who were led to believe that Kadyrov wanted to them to do something, and they did it.
Under Akopov’s theory, Nemtsov was neither here nor there, just a target of convenience. Others would have served the purpose just as well. The point was to do something that would bring down Kadyrov.
Akopov speculates that the entire cunning plan might have originated with MI-6, maybe Khodorkovsky or Nevzlin. He recommends that the best way to bust this wide open is to continue to follow the chain of evidence.
Akopov’s theory does not contradict my view that the objective of Nemtsov’s murder must be to drive a wedge between Putin and Kadyrov with the ultimate aim of isolating Chechnya and setting that republic up for destabilisation, so that it becomes a point of entry into Russia from Georgia for jihadists. Ruslan Geremeyev may also prove to be a bottom-feeder taking his orders from others either within Russia or without, albeit he is one ladder rung higher than Dadayev and the others who were arrested.
Whoever is trying to destabilise Chechnya must be doing so on the assumption that most Chechens or their clan leaders and religious clergy don’t support Kadyrov and that he must be entirely reliant on Putin’s support to give his leadership legitimacy.
I suppose a plausible rationale is that a war on another border will draw Putin’s attention away from Ukraine.
Someone higher up pulling the strings indeed. That would explain the timing of this. I wonder if the British are involved?*
* I’m using the same level of analysis & fact as the British press does.
Wonder no more!
The British are DEFINITELY involved.
I know this, because I am psychic!
Psychic or psychic-pathic? A kind of passive-agressive diagnosis I have just invented. 😉
Using Chechens as hit men means that you have more chance of predicting next years Champion’s League winners than knowing who ordered the hit. Everybody has a finger in the Chechen pie ffs.
No, it’s called detective intuition. The likelihood of the usual suspects of committing a crime is higher than some other scenario. In the case of the Nemtsov murder, timing is everything. It kills off competing theories for the motive and for those responsible.
Dear Jen:
Your view is very close to Akopov’s.
For reasons of time, I omitted to translate one paragraph from Akopov’s piece, in which he went into the current political situation in Chechnya. The Chechen Republic is fairly stable and lives its own life, there is a very delicate balance there, balancing the clan system, the religious authorities, Kadyrov’s power, Chechnya’s status as an important subject of the Russian Federation, etc. For a while the right balance was found, with Russia maintaining mostly hands-off. But, as with any complex society, a few things are seething under the surface, and outside intereference definitely does not help the situation.
I think the West is mistaken, however, if they believe that the sole source of Kadyrov’s legitimacy lies with Putin’s support. His legitimacy and power have a much broader base than that, within the clan system itself. Something else must be going on. Usually these kerfuffles happen around succession struggles; but Kadyrov is too young to have to worry about that, and as far as I know he is not pushing any grown sons into powerful jobs, so I don’t think nepotism is an issue, although I could be wrong about that.
Anyhow, the going theory is that the Brits finally got smart, realized they would get nothing further from Zakaev and the “Ichkerians” still fighting in the mountains (bunch of losers), but somehow found a hook into the real elites.
Did CIA give Putin the same cancer treatment in Brisbane that they gave earlier to Chavez? Hopefully Putin did not drink or eat anything in Brisbane that his “hosts” offered him.
This is a serious question. The same scum that yap about Polonium murder are themselves who would perpetrate such acts. Putin’s early departure from Australia could be a indication that something went down.
Yes, I was being at least half-serious because I believe they (the West) would murder Putin if given a chance.
It was typical of Our Fearless Leader Tony Abbott that he fluffed his chance to shirt-front Vladimir Putin when he had it.
Putin left early because he had an 18-hour flight back to Moscow and he wanted to be up and early for work on Monday.
Further development in the case of Svetlana Davydova .
The unburied lede: Davydova today (March 13) has been cleared of all charges.
The backstory:
Davydova, along with her husband and seven children lives in Vyazma.
Which is West of Moscow, between Moscow and Smolensk; and not all that far from the Belarus border.
One day, this happened on April 14, 2014 (one day before Turchinov announced the beginning of the Anti-Terrorist Operation), Sveta happened to be riding along in a bus when she overheard the conversation of 2 soldiers, also on the bus. She overheard one of them, who was drunk, on the phone, complaining about the fact that he was being sent “on leave” to Rostov. Sveta put two and two together, along with the fact that a military unit near her home had recently gone empty.
Being a supporter of the Ukrainian side, Sveta, upon arriving home, phoned the Ukrainian Embassy and reported to them, that she believed the military units of her home town were being sent to Rostov, and thence to the borders of Ukraine, possibly to invade Ukraine.
Nine months later, in February, 2015, Sveta was arrested and charged with treason and spying.
Now, another month later, Sveta was released, and all the charges against her were dropped.
For 2 reasons:
(1) Main one: she is a mother of 7 children.
(2) Technical reason: on the day she leaked the info the Ukrainians, nor even now actually, Russia was not technically at war with Ukraine. Therefore, the treason charge is invalid, for technical reasons.
Proving, once again, that Russia is more democratic and law-abiding nation than, say, Great Britain or United States. Where the woman would have probably ended up in Gitmo, for pulling such a stunt, war or no war.
As a matter of fact, she’s not the mother of 7 children – that’s Western Pork Pie News “Human Interest” factor – but of 3, the other 4 being her sister’s, with whom she lives in a ménage à trois with the father of her three children and her legal husband, a certain Gorlov.
He is also the father of the 4 children that her sister bore off him when he was previously her husband.
He divorced her and married Svetlana.
See: Жители Вязьмы: Был бы 37-й год, у нас бы из-за этой кляузницы полгорода сидело
As far as I can remember,the three of them have always been together: Svetlana, Natalya and Gorlov.
Svetlana is a weirdo, according to her former employer and others that know her – and her sister and Svetlana’s husband Gorlov, her sister’s former husband.
I could see what sort of person she was. She found it hard to mix with folk. And all the time she was coming to us with some kind of complaint about nothing: we were not allocating tasks rightly; we were not working correctly; everything was being done wrongly; and she was writing and writing to all the controlling authorities, to technicians and to me. And she used to turn people against us …I cannot say that I was unhappy when she left. On the contrary, I was glad: she had drained all the strength out of me. I once wanted to speak to her heart to heart, to find out what she really wanted. Nothing came of it: she didn’t let anyone get close to her. Believe me, she had her own peculiar talent of seeing bad in everything.
The bleeding-heart Sobchak had to fly in, of course, by helicopter to milk the story for all it was worth.
Светлана Давыдова, возможно, станет правозащитницей
Муж Давыдовой не исключил, что они теперь станут правозащитниками.
Svetlana Davydova Might Become a Human Rights Activist
Davydova’s husband has not ruled out their becoming human-rights activists
I wonder what would happen to a US citizen and mother of several children if it were found out that she had telephoned the Russian Embassy in Washington in order to pass on information about US troop deployments in Eastern Europe that she had heard US servicemen talking about?
18th! At last!
Urrah!! Slava 18th!!
Слаба 18th Украïна!
By which I mean a weak Ukraine divided in to 18 pieces. 5 or six oblasts, the rest dividing Kiev & Lvov.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, the Reign of Terror continues , with one Party of Regions member after another “killing himself” in suspicious circumstances. Porky government making sure there will never be an opposition.
This commenter to military photos tallied up the list to date:
January 26th: Mykola Serhiyenko, former Ukrzaliznytsia boss appointed by Yanukovich’s PM Azarov. “Shot himself with a rifle”
January 29th: Oleksiy Kolesnyk, Kharkiv regional government head. “Hanged himself”
February 25th: Sergey Walter, Party of Regions mayor of Melitopol. “Hanged himself”
February 26th: Oleksandr Bordyuh, chief police deputy of Melitopol. “Hanged himself”
February 28th: Mykhaylo Chechetov, deputy chairman of Party of Regions. “Jumped from his apartment window”
March 10th: Stanislav Melnik, Party of Regions deputy. “Shot himself with a rifle”
March 12th: Oleksandr Peklushenko, former Party of Regions governor of Zaporizhia. “Shot himself with a rifle”
But Western propaganda media will never mention these suspicious deaths.
They are too focused on Politkovskaya and Nemtsov!
Actually, the BBC did run the story quite prominently yesterday: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31855700
You’re right, I didn’t see that BBC piece, I keep forgetting to check the BBC.
Actually…that’s not “prominent” at all. No western newspaper coverage…and that is just a single webpage….I would want a whole sensationilsed video report from the BBC on this.
Blacklist Putin loyalists, says Navalny
Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition leader, walks out of a detention center in Moscow this month
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has called on the west to impose travel bans and asset freezes on dozens more oligarchs and officials loyal to president Vladimir Putin — including Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea football club — as well as members of their families.
“You can draw up a blacklist of about 1,000 people who will no longer be allowed entry into western countries, and you can do it quietly, without any big announcement,” Mr Navalny told the Financial Times. “But you have to hit the propagandists of war, the ones who finance the war, the real party of war.”
His comments express frustration among the Russian opposition and some western officials at the perceived failure of sanctions to force a change in the Kremlin’s policies on Ukraine.
So far, the US and EU have imposed curbs on individuals closely connected to the Putin regime and directly involved in the annexation of Crimea and the fighting in eastern Ukraine. They have also restricted access to western financing for state-controlled banks and oil companies.
Underlining its incremental approach, the US on Wednesday slapped travel bans or asset freezes on a dozen Ukrainian separatists and their Russian backers, the most significant being Alexander Dugin, a virulent Russian nationalist ideologue.
A lawyer and anti-corruption blogger who has long been a thorn in Mr Putin’s side, Mr Navalny was released last Friday after 15 days in prison for distributing leaflets on the Moscow metro about a planned protest.
Taking stock of the grim situation in which Russia’s opposition finds itself after the murder of Boris Nemtsov on February 28, Mr Navalny said Mr Putin was bent on ruling until the end of his life, and systematically installing the younger generation of families from his inner circle in positions across Russia’s economy.
Human rights advisers threatened over Nemtsov suspects torture claims
His tone was more pessimistic than at any time since a protest movement against electoral fraud and Mr Putin’s return to the presidency crumbled under government pressure in 2012.
“A few years ago, we thought this was just nepotism, but now we realise that this is long-term planning: he is installing dynastic rule,” Mr Navalny said of Mr Putin. He said only a different set of western sanctions against all the clans that help Mr Putin control Russia’s wealth could change things.
“[Alisher] Usmanov, [Roman] Abramovich, and their families — if they can’t get to their residences in London or in Switzerland, that will make a difference,” he said, referring to two of Russia’s richest men.
Mr Navalny said Oleg Dobrodeev, general manager of the state television and radio holding, also belonged on the list, as did his son Boris. The latter was appointed chief executive of VKontakte, Russia’s largest social network, in September last year after Mr Usmanov’s internet group Mail.ru took full control of the company.
Mr Navalny also named Vladimir Soloviev, a prominent television and radio host, who is renowned for slamming the west on his shows during the week and then flying out to his residence on Lake Como on Friday nights.
The opposition politician added that instead of adding Russian fighters in the war in Ukraine to sanctions lists, the west should blacklist the families of Kremlin officials, singling out Vladislav Surkov and Vyacheslav Volodin, two of Mr Putin’s aides. “[Their] children fly to Paris for the weekend, those commanders you see fighting in Donbass don’t,” he said.
Mr Navalny’s comments echo an appeal Mr Nemtsov made in an interview with the FT last month. He said he had repeatedly lobbied western governments to put state media managers under sanctions, but to no avail.
World without Nemtsov
Three weeks ago, Mr Navalny and Boris Nemtsov were campaigning in the Moscow metro for a planned protest march against President Vladimir Putin. A day later, Mr Navalny was in prison. A week later, Nemtsov was dead, gunned down just steps away from the Kremlin.
Mr Navalny is straining to get back to work after his detention — exposing government corruption, organising opposition rallies and fighting a multitude of legal battles with the government. But without Nemtsov, his world has changed.
“He was the communicator,” Mr Navalny said. “He could bring together everyone in the opposition from liberals to the far left, but he would also talk to people inside the system, like the Communists, who did not accept his views but were open to dialogue with him.”
With Nemtsov gone, Mr Navalny now faces the uncomfortable question of how to transform an assortment of people dissatisfied with Mr Putin’s rule into a real opposition. Other opposition activists say it might be a big challenge to get Mr Navalny and Mikhail Kasyanov, a former prime minister under Mr Putin and now a leading member of Nemtsov’s RPR Parnass party, to co-operate.
There are already signs of trouble. While some activists have proposed that the opposition organise another protest march in April, Mr Navalny says this issue has yet to be decided and the opposition must not plan rallies for the sake of it.
The fragmented protest movement is further weakened by an exodus of those from Russia who used to form Mr Navalny’s support base. “Nowadays, Russia’s best university graduates go into public office and become part of the system. Another group, the tech-savvy, are leaving. That is bad for us.” He admitted that the fear instilled by Nemtsov’s murder was likely to add to this trend.
“It will not be easy,” he said. “Nemtsov was extraordinary in that he was not afraid, and, unlike other 1990s-era politicians, did not just want to be president, but was willing to do what needed to be done — campaign in the streets, run for local office.”
Mr Navalny claimed Nemtsov’s murder would help galvanise the opposition, but he quickly conceded there was little reason for hope. “In 2010, 2011, even in 2013, I would have told you that Putin’s support rating must come down, but little did we know. We did not expect him to launch a war.”
Now, even with the Russian economy expected to contract by an eye-watering 4.5 per cent this year, Mr Putin’s support rating has hit a new record high of 87 per cent. Mr Navalny claimed the government was by now studying longstanding regimes in countries with troubled economies such as Cuba, Venezuela and Uzbekistan for reference.
Opposition party barred from polls
In the office of his Anti-Corruption Fund, the group through which he has been publishing reports about the riches amassed by people connected to Mr Putin, Mr Navalny employs a group of sociological researchers who conduct phone polls day after day on a varying set of topics. On that basis, his Progress Party develops its agenda: demands for fair elections, action against the economic crisis, fighting corruption, and no war.
“Every single one of our demands has support in the population, we know that. But the people who back these demands have no political representation at all,” he said. Indeed, the Progress party remains barred from fielding candidates at polls despite getting legally registered last year.
This, opposition activists argue, is part of an all-out campaign by Mr Putin’s government to force them off the political stage altogether. Mr Navalny remembers almost nostalgically that the last protest movement in 2011 was triggered by demands for clean and fair elections. “Now the only thing that’s left for us to demand is the mere access to the polls,” he said.
The opposition politician insisted he was not despairing. But asked about how much longer he thought his struggle would last, he jumped from his chair and started pacing the small room like a caged animal.
He argued that the pendulum would swing against Mr Putin eventually, but it will take a long time. “There are many good people in government, and they all hate him, they think he is a liability, but they are cowards. The oligarchs all hate him, but they feel they can’t but remain silent.”
That’s the UK edition of FT, so why, below the picture, do they spell “centre” as “center”?
Arseholes – or “assholes”!
And if that twice convicted criminal is not a traitor, then I am the Emperor of China!
The FT says that “…Navalny was released last Friday after 15 days in prison for distributing leaflets on the Moscow metro about a planned protest” but wasn’t he imprisoned for breaking his house curfew/arrest?
Yes, of course – and not only once did he breach his parole: he has being going walkabout on a regular basis. Before this last conviction of his, for which he again received a suspended sentence, he regularly breached the conditions for his previous conviction, for which he received a suspended sentence, in that he was stopped on more than on one occasion whilst he was being driven to the Navalny family seat in the Odintsovo district of the Moscow Province and about 15 miles beyond Moscow city limits.
Maybe he is part Aborigine? I’m just goin’ walkabout!. Now that would be a turn up for the books!
Well he is part aborigine, in the sense that part of his genetic make-up is Ukrainian, and the Ukrainians are the original inhabitants of Rus’ before they were colonized by the deracinated Moskaly, weren’t they?
Tie me mammoth down, sport,
Tie me mammoth down,
Tie me mammoth down, sport,
Tie me mammoth down.
Play me didgeridoo, blue,
Play me didgeridoo,
Play me didgeridoo, blue,
Play me didgeridoo,
etc., etc.
Weren’t they?
Not allowed to post anything by Rolf Harris..
I have only just found out why, which is one of the upsides of being a voluntary exile from Misty Albion!
Still can’t believe it.
He’ll croak in nick if he’s been sent down for 5 – or more than likely someone already inside will help him on his way to the great kiddies’ playground in the sky.
Almost correct. The second verse relies on the stanzas, “Play me didgeridoo, blue and yellow”. The syncopation is off a little, but if you sing it fast it’s hardly noticeable.
Another great slice and dice article. These days assorted clowns like McFail and Yergin don’t suffer from their own incompetent records and brazen self-contradiction. Everything goes into the memory hole. I think this reflects the ADD nature of the recent generations. They can’t be bothered to keep track of developments and can’t be bothered to do background reading.
Putin’s approval rating reaches a new high of 88%: http://tass.ru/politika/1826334
And latest rumour is that his disappearing act was due to his mistress Alina Kabaeva having given birth to their child: http://www.i4u.com/2015/03/89426/putin-back-amidst-baby-rumors-alina-kabaeva-surfacing-switzerland
Every time you think a particular speculation would be too much of a cheap shot for the tabloid western media to try on, they prove you wrong. It reminds me of a phrase I once saw inscribed on the wall of a toilet cubicle in some military facility or other, at CFB Halifax. It read “I’d rather have a sister in a whorehouse than a brother in the Navy” (probably written by one of you army guys). Simply replace “the Navy” with “Journalism”, and you’d not be far wrong in today’s debauched media climate. Having squeezed all the juice out of the rumor that he was dead, they’re moving on to the next slur. What’s left – recovery from post-erectile disfunction surgery?
My Pl g/f says that he already has one kid with Kabayeva. I’ve not heard that one before. It must have been on tvn24.pl or onet.pl
Just another piece of “common wisdom”. Maybe he will leave his 75% ownership in Gunvor to his illegitimate children. I guess being suspected of knocking off a babe like Kabayeva is not the worst insult. But it is still rubbish.
Any fool knows his only bit on the side was Timoshenko.
Not now she ain’t! She might have been once, but she’s well past her sell-by date now!
Before
Phase 1 – Businesswoman:
Phase 2 – La Jeanne d”Arc de l’Ukraine, a Ukraine Nationalist Politician:
After
Time and tide waiteth for no man!
So long! Been nice knowing you:
Old bird who’s just done bird:
I still chuckle when I think about how she did the dirty with Putin during the gas negotiations and still managed to lose Ukraine’s shirt.
Viktor Yanuk got a much better deal and he didn’t even have the option of sleeping with Putin.
“and still managed to lose Ukraine’s shirt…” as well as her own…
But Yoooooolia presumably got a kick-back.
And when I say “kick-back”, I am not talking about 50 shades of grey type kick-back.
Yes; a close friend of my mother’s confided to me her lifelong best piece of advice the other day – “Don’t get old”. But Tymoshenko was a beauty once. I wonder sometimes if it is better to be plain and not especially attractive your whole life so that the way you look when you are old is not such a shock. She still has good features, but her expression is always contrived into a mask of righteous fury or beseeching for sympathy, and she’s such a schemer that it subtracts any grace she might have achieved in her dotage.
And it’s snowing again here in Ottawa. This winter just doesn’t want to let go. Must get off internet and go back to reading the Sakwa book.
You have my sincere sympathy. It has been more than two weeks since I could hardly move my arms from having held the hedge trimmer at full throttle for a couple of hours, trimming the shrubbery in front of Castle Stooge, and most of my neighbours have already mowed their lawns several times (I don’t have any grass). The magnolias downtown have just about finished blooming, and we have had a few days of T-shirt weather, although today is not one of them. I never lived in Ontario (although most of my relatives are from there, around Belleville and the Bay of Quinte), but I grew up in Nova Scotia and I well remember what real winter is.
Vinyard the Saker: Report from Peski. Sniper duel and mortar/GL fire footage
http://thesaker.is/report-from-peski-sniper-duel-and-mortargl-fire-footage/
Psaki to Peski! She could introduce her first born to truth over there…
Some of her greatest hits:
http://sputniknews.com/voiceofrussia/news/2014_06_06/Russians-miss-Jen-Psaki-and-want-her-back-5332/
I too admire the way Matt Lee spanks her – but I notice that every time he does it, it gives her an opportunity to get all of her talking points out in the form of a reproof. “As you know, Matt, bla de bla de bla….”
Russia has its fleet there too!!!!!!
Well who’d have thought!
I mean, the Russian fleet is not usually there, is it?
I mean, it’s not as though there were a Russian seaboard there, is it?
“…video shots from a Russian bomber as it’s escorted out of UK controlled airspace…this is a Portuguese fighter escorting a Russian bomber out of its airspace … this is a Norwegian fighter and this is an American fighter doing the same.”
So were the Russian aircraft in UK, Portuguese, Norwegian and US airspace? – No!
Were the Russian aircraft in international airspace? -Yes!
Most watching that TV news show would not think that this was the case, though.
I wonder if the UK, Portuguese and Norwegian fighters were all showing proper IFF transponder information so that anyone with the proper IFF receivers could track them everywhere they go. You know, so they wouldn’t be a hazard to civil aviation.
There are sites like http://www.flightradar24.com/ that track flights.
There was a story on the forums some time ago that a RC-135 (I think) flew in to Iraq or Afhanistan and was doing orbits with its IFF/id code on and fully visible to the public – i.e. they’d forgotten to turn it off (this has happened a few times). Even Swedish SIGNIT bizjets that do loops off Kaliningrad & St. Petersberg have been tracked, but that’s the swedes for you. They are nominally outside NATO.
All Russian planes have to do is keep out of known civilian flight corridors and Boris’ your uncle!
The thing with the UK is that the air traffic is particularly dense as it the biggest transatlantic corridor. None of the airlines have said that Russia’s flights were a problem, so…
No, no, it is Russia that is been aggressive and provocative. NATO is merely conducting routine exercises – Russia is behaving like a bully. Get with the programme……
Sorry!
Apology accepted, however this is your last warning…….
One more time Moscow Exile and you may have to have an unfortunate suicide on your hands, similar to those that befell so many politicians in ukraine over the past few days:)
Russia had better tread carefully! Canada will not tolerate anything that threatens its military hardware! Each frigate costs about three years’ GDP!
So Obama doesn’t use a smartphone:
http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-president-barack-obama-doesnt-text-tweet-or-have-a-smartphone-that-records-746277
…For obvious reasons, for instance it’s childsplay to spy on them.
Now, remember this:
http://time.com/35932/ukraine-russia-putin-spies-kgb/
In Putins case, the very same thing is called “technophobia” and “KGB maskirovka” and what not.
Obama uses a Blackberry made by Canada’s Research In Motion (RIM), because he knows full well that the NSA has access – via a software implant called “Dropout Jeep”, to every IPhone 5. Also, leaked documents from the NSA revealed back in 2013 that the agency was monitoring online orders for laptops, and rerouting some, perhaps all of them to have spyware installed on them prior to delivery to the customer. There is no such thing as too much information where the NSA is concerned, and it unabashedly snoops on everything.
Al Beeb GONAD (Gods Own News Agency Direct) Network: Maskirovka: Deception Russian-Style
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02kq0gq
Lucy Ash examines the Russian military strategy of deception, maskirovka, from the 14th Century to the current crisis in Ukraine.
####
If you can bear the BBC, the is a classic propaganda piece masquerading as journalism. It’s so nice how she skates over the coup right at the beginning, every meme, cliché is present! It’s a real work of art. She is one of those classes of ‘professionals’ who don’t know anything else but western exceptionalism and are incapable of seeing anything from another point of view. Brainwashed.
Lucy Ashe: “To the authorities in Moscow, Ukraine’s pro-European uprising looked like a western plot to undermine Russia’s sphere of influence. After the worst bloodshe, the Kremlin backed president fled. ”
“Whatever game Vladimir Putin is playing in the Ukraine…”
Applebum: “It reminded me of 1945” – I don’t think Applebum was around in 1945. @6:43
On the Julian Assange news that the Swedish prosecutor has changed her mind after almost three years and will send a team to interview him, because the ‘statute of limitations will expire in August’, does anyone else smell massive bs?
Not only has the new leftist Swedish government shown Saudi Arabia the finger after it blocked Margaret Wallstrom from speaking at the Arab League meeting in Cairo as Sweden is the first european country to recognize Palestine, it has cancelled any follow on military contracts with the Saudis. In that environment, and considering the timing, is it not likely that such a government would be less receptive to US pressure on Assange and told the Prosecutor to shift her ass or drop the Assange case?
Things are starting to look interesting, not to mention the US’ tantrum about the UK negotiating to join China’s Asia Development Bank. Doesn’t Washington know that P-off your allies is an extremely dumb move? They just won’t be there in future when you really need them, or will be late…
Yet again, this year 2015 is going to be massive year for history and just about everything. I’m a bit worried, but still optimistic. Hold on to your hats!
The USA could take the UK’s seat in the pub while it went to the loo, and be caught red-handed drinking its beer when it returned, without the UK saying so much as “I beg your pardon”. The UK’s shameless gobbling of the USA will continue, much as this country’s does – as well as Australia – until a compelling set of circumstances suggests the USA is not going to remain the World’s Only Remaining Superpower. The UK knows its days as Boss Of The World are long over, so it will settle for being butler to the Boss Of The World. And Canada and Australia never had a look-in of being Boss Of The world – which at least the UK once was, so some trace memory might still exist as an excuse, where the other two have none. All three want to remain close allies of the winner. It remains to be seen who that is, but the UK is beginning to hedge its bets, and if I were a part of the American regime, it would make me nervous.
Hear hear! There there!
Isn’t that guy to Paul’s left the guy who was talking about “hitting the Russians hard” a while back, sounding like a slightly dense hockey coach?
He’s former Canadian MP, Borys Wrzesnewskyj.
And don’t ask me how to pronounce that.
V-zhes-nev-sky – quite easy!
Polish spelling is actually perfectly logical, even though it looks horrendous on the surface!
Correction:
V-zhesh-nev-sky!
Something like vr-zhyes-nyevski</i. I should imagine.
The most difficult Polish word for an English speaker to say is, they reckon, the word for May Bug – chrząszcz.
Here’s a Polish tongue twister which uses that word:
I know how to pronounce Шеремьетево though!
Yulia Ioffe does an’ all!
🙂
Didn’t close the italics above – again!!!!
“chrząszcz” = “kh-rzh-ahng-shch”
“ch” = guttural velar sound much the same as the sound written “ch” in German
“rz” = “r” and “zh” (the sound in words like “pleasure” and “version”) run together
“ą” = nasal sound in French words like “enfant”
“szcz” = actually “sz” (= English “sh”) and “cz” (= English “ch”) run together
Incidentally the highest mountain in Australia is named after a famous Polish fellow (Tadeusz Kosciuszko) and that’s because the chap who scaled it (Edward Strzelecki) was a Polish-born Englishman. Most Australians say “Koz-zee-osko” and as for the pronunciation of Strzelecki, people take the path of least resistance and say “Strez-lek-kee”. (The pronunciations are actually “Koe-choosh-ko” and “Strzh-e-lets-kee”.)
I went out with a girl once whose last name was Czerbanowicz. That might be Polish, but i always thought she was a Czech. Anyway, it’s pronounced “Sa-ban-o-wich”.
Yup! Good job, Jen.
Like I said, Polish spelling is actually perfectly logical. Once you learn the alphabet and how each letter (or combination of letters) is pronounced, then you can read anything written in Polish and pronounce all the words fairly correctly, even if you have no idea what they mean!
This is what linguists call an almost perfectly “phonemic” alphabet.
It would be even better if there were just one symbol per phoneme (for example, Š instead of sz, as in Czech. But whatever, it’s still a pretty decent alphabet…
Polish already uses a lot of diacritical marks over and under letters to indicate changes in sound quality. Any more would probably confuse readers and makers of typewriter keyboards. I think also that Polish has more sounds than Czech does and the alphabet in Polish preserves a historical element that Czech no longer has; before the 1400s, Czech spelling was the same as Polish spelling. I think Jan Hus (the religious reformer) had something to do with Czech spelling reforms that introduced diacritical marks into the language.
Ah, my memory was right, I googled Jan Hus along with “Czech spelling” and a link came up straight away:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthographia_bohemica
There are also separate WIkipedia articles for Czech and Polish orthographies (systems of writing, spelling and punctuation).
Yes it’s the the same bloke.
Well said, Paul; I doubt it will make you popular with the U.S. State Department, but I admire your courage and integrity.
Shaun Walkers latest pale effort.
The Groping Man: Crimea still erasing its Ukrainian past a year after Russia’s takeover
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/13/crimea-still-erasing-its-ukrainian-past-a-year-after-russias-takeover
Little has outwardly changed in Crimea one year on from its annexation by Russia, but a harsh crackdown on voices of dissent is underway…
####
So fatty Walker finally made it over. It must make a change from reporting from the front lines in Donetsk (as if)!
This is as thin as reporting gets. Taking a minor event and stringing it out waaay beyond. Still, he’s finally faced and accepted some basic facts about the Crimea’s overwhelming support of re-joining Russia.
Its Ukrainian past? What was that? UNA-UNSO digging up the rail lines? The drug festival? The electrical infrastructure that hadn’t been improved upon since 1991?
Crackdown on voices of dissent. Puke.
Would those voices be of jihadi militants by any chance? I wonder what the US attack on Afghanistan, Iraq, and now ISIS is all about then. Truly epic crackdown on dissent following Walker’s drivel logic.
Schoolchildren must be grumbling that their homework on how their noble Ukie ancestors fought the mammoths and what spears and stone-axes were used to fight them was all for nothing, and they must re-learn what actually happened to the hairy elephants.
Fatty Crawler forgets that everyone who wished to depart Crimea for Ukraine was given an immediate opportunity to do so upon its allegiance being changed, and that very few did so.
It was also a good point that Ukraine was not a state when Taras Shevchenko was writing poetry, so display of the Ukrainian flag had nothing to do with him and was probably a pretext for what would be described as a pro-Ukrainian rally by the western media. How would they like it if I showed up in Berlin to celebrate the birthday of Rainer Rilke, carrying a Swastika?
A great idea: mock such asinine gatherings with a nearby Hitler look-alike reading out the Duino Elegies with the bombast turned up to ten somewhat in the manner of those creatively subtitled you tube clips.
Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the Angelic
Orders? And even if one were to suddenly
take me to its heart, I would vanish into its
stronger existence. For beauty is nothing but
the beginning of terror, that we are still able to bear,
and we revere it so, because it calmly disdains
to destroy us. Every Angel is terror.
Could be quite funny.
I fear they wouldn’t get the joke.
Sigh.
No mention of this off Walker:
Аксенов: 98% крымских татар получили российские паспорта
Aksenov: (98% of Crimea Tatars Have Got Russian Passports
Абсолютное большинство крымских татар получили российские паспорта, отметил глава Республики Крым Сергей Аксенов. Он пояснил, что из всего числа крымских татар только около 500 отказались от российского гражданства, что составляет примерно 2-3% от этой этнической группы. Всего же на полуострове от российских паспортов отказались около трех тысяч человек.
The vast majority of Crimean Tatars have obtained Russian passports says the head of the Republic of the Crimea, Sergey Aksenov. He explained that out of the total number of Crimean Tatars only about 500 have refused Russian citizenship, which is about 2-3% of this ethnic group. Overall, Russian passports have been refused by about three thousand people on the the peninsula.
Slightly refining my previous theory about Flip-Flop Obama letting neocons like Nuland runaround because it was easier to let them do it, maybe it is a leaf out of the British Empire playbook. Recall that Great Britain did not own India, but it was the British East India Company, a private company that did all the running but ultimately worked in British Interests. I would say that this is the same way they used the British Army where they encouraged buccaneerism when it brought riches for the Empire, but publicly disowned such soldiers if it all went Pete Tong – sic Francis Younghusband and Tibet, 1904.
Nuland and co are only useful as long as they bring results, but there is now a long thread of epic failures from US adventurism that cannot be brushed off, not to mention a point I mentioned earlier, the US voting public is finally tired of foreign wars according to the polls. That would make the neocons toxic whether to Republicans or Democrats. And let us not kid ourselves that there is a gnat’s crotchet* difference between their foreign policy objectives, apart from style and maybe emphasis.
* I learned this from the epic BBC radio show, Just a Minute.
The East India Company only ran the place until the Mutiny, after which the British government took it over. Similarly, the Hudson’s Bay Company owned all of Canada which flows into Hudson Bay (ie a large part of it) until 1868 when it sold out to the new Dominion.
Yes, thanks for adding that. In my rush to be brief, I left it out. The famous Sepoy Mutiny where (if I correctly recall) the rumor spread amongst moslem troops that pig’s fat was used to help preserve gun cartridges fidelity. I’d love to see Queen Vic’s Kooh-i-Nor! Funnily enough, it was around that time that the British and the French bailed out a bankrupt Ottoman Empire and set up the first Ottoman Bank because they were terrified of the consequences of it falling apart. Very bad news for the Armenians as it turned out…
Yes, the Sepoy Rebellion took place in 1857, a year after the Crimean War ended.
The actual underlying issues that caused the Sepoy Rebellion were about pay, pensions for retired soldiers and maintaining caste and seniority rights among Hindu and Muslim soldiers. Because the British allowed Hindu soldiers to maintain caste distinctions among themselves, and also to keep apart from Muslims, a culture was created within British Indian army ranks in which any little deviation from custom could set off a riot. Hence when the troops were issued with new rifles that required them to bite off pre-greased cartridges to get out the powder, they got upset and the rumours about the cartridges being greased with beef or pork fat began.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Rebellion_of_1857
Published on 13 Mar 2015
5 March 2015: In conversation with the Legatum Institute’s Peter Pomerantsev, Nataliya Gumenyuk shared her experience of countering Russian propaganda with her civil initiative, Hromadkse.tv, as well as its successes, ambitions and lessons learnt about social media in Ukraine. More information: http://li.com/events/battling-russian…
KREAKLYS! They are so convinced too!!
From my Yugo experience, it is like a priest preaching to the converted.
Do you think they had sex (with each other obviously) straight after? I just pick up this chemistry between them.
Pomerantsev: But do you think the Ukrainian, sort of, larger tv channels and propaganda in a good sense, is it managing to integrate those good bits of Ukraine or are they very vulnerable?“.
###
She cannot even answer the question, just one endless sentence…
& later from her “I couldn’t imagine that in Russia or somewhere else” when referring to a journalist challenging a government minister!
Any bets as to how long Pomerantsev becomes a special reporter for the Groping Man?
Fixed link: http://www.li.com/events/battling-russian-propaganda-on-the-front-line-of-ukraine-s-information-war
See also this with Pomerantsev, earning his keep with a friendly circlejerk:
http://www.li.com/events/the-menace-of-unreality-combatting-russian-disinformation-in-the-21st-century
Pomerantsev is an interesting character, his father was a Soviet dissident that fled the USSR. Pomerantsev was born in Kiev but grew up in London and he worked in Russia as producer of TV shows.
Pomerantsev ticks all the right boxes to be the perfect KREAKLY.
So many of these vermin seem to have Ukrainian ties. What an albatross that toilet is for Russia.
Curiously enough many prominent Putin critics such as Yavlinksy and Shevtsova were born in Lvov.
Was there a note of sarcasm there? 🙂
Isn’t Lvov the spiritual home of Bandera(ins)anity?
It is indeed! The folks of Lvov/Lwow/Lviv/Lemberg/Leopolis revel in bashing the Moskalis.
Vitali Klitschko erzählt über Lviv – Vitali Klitschko talks about Lviv
Here’s Vitali waxing lyrical auf deutsch for his German chums in a promotional film for the city that the locals promptly made Judenrein as soon as the Soviets had buggered off in June 1941 so as to welcome their pals from the Reich, who were going to liberate them from the Moskal Yoke.
Mein Gott Brunnhilde! Das is yust like das old Deutschland where I born und bred was! Vee must this place visit und there we of de gut old days think can!!
Alle zusamenn – eins, zwei, drei!
Die Fahne hoch, die Reihe dicht geschlossen,
SA marschiert mit ruhig festem Schritt!
Kamraden, die Rot front und Reaktion erschossen,
Marschieren im Geist in unsren reihen mit!
Here are 3 attractive Kreaklys having a laugh at The Bunker bar in Lvov.
You would think that youth especially would catch on that expressing hatred for another entire demographic that it is unlikely you – because of your tender years – actually know anything about is making your country and its people increasingly disliked. If Ukrainians believe westerners admire this sort of attitude, finding it brave and noble, they are very much mistaken. The popularity Ukraine enjoyed as “the little guy” going up against big, bad Russia has slipped considerably since the outset of the conflict, and it slides a little bit more with every revelation of fascist behaviour and exhibition of Nazi symbology and attitudes.
Russian Kreaklies are an odd bunch, the 3 attractive Kreaklies in the video are either completely ignorant of or indifferent to what the UPA and Bandera represented. Instead the 3 Kreakly girls think Banderism is cool and fashionable.
Regarding your point, I think Ukraine has lost support and sympathy non-Russophobic Westerners. Western media has tried desperately to hide and ignore the pro-Nazi, pro-Fascism aspects of Ukrainian nationalism.
interfax:
March 13, 2015 21:56
Ukraine to import lethal arms from EU – Poroshenko
KYIV. March 13 (Interfax) – Ukraine has signed contracts to import lethal weapons from the European Union, President Petro Poroshenko said in a television program on Friday evening.
“We’ve signed contracts for imports of weapons, including lethal, with 11 EU countries,” Poroshenko told the 1+1 channel without naming any of those countries.
Good enough. Get the Voentorg going with some up-to-date Russian stuff. If the name of the game is “escalate”, let us not have it one-sided. It might also be a good idea to try and ferret out which countries are supplying the equipment, so the NAF can start training in its operation.
The NAF might only need to start teaching English to its soldiers as most of those EU countries Poroshenko is signing deals with won’t be producing those weapons themselves but will be buying them from the Usual Suspects, perhaps with IMF loans, and forwarding them on to get money to pay off the interest.
Another “mysterious” death in the Ukraine:
Yanukovych ally Peklushenko in new Ukraine mystery death
‘Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action’ – “Goldfinger”, Ian Fleming.
How many times is this now?- Six in the past six weeks!
Ait me laydees! Here’s a classic piece of swedish hypocrisy.
I was listening to a BBC World Service report ten minutes ago that IKEA will no longer continue publish LB-GTI stories their IKEA catalogue in Russia because It may fall foul of Russia’s law on promoting homosexuality to under 16s. Curiously, I cannot find this on the BBC News website, but that maybe because I am a bit pissed. But…
Yahoo via AFP 20.01.2015: IKEA stands by expansion plans in crisis-hit Russia
https://news.yahoo.com/ikea-stands-expansion-plans-crisis-hit-russia-140612275.html
“…Swedish furniture giant Ikea said Tuesday it stood by its expansion plans in crisis-ridden Russia, saying it is looking to long-term, but added that it was monitoring the situation in the country closely.
The company briefly suspended kitchen furniture and appliances sales in Russia as the ruble tumbled late last year, unleashing a spending spree as consumers snapped up products before prices on imported goods so…
…”We have a long-term plan for Russia. We hope to follow it but we are monitoring the situation closely,” Ikea Group spokeswoman Martina Smedberg told AFP.
The budget home furnishings chain said it was too early to say how Russia’s turbulent economy would affect it in the long term.
The Russian market has become Ikea’s fourth largest by sales…
…is scouting locations in 25 Russian cities “with a population of over 500,000,” spokeswoman Daniela Rogosic told Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter.”
####
IKEA also removed a story about a lesbian couple from their catalogue back in 2013:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andras-simonyi/ikea-russia-magazine_b_4337223.html
I’ll add this for a good laugh:
http://www.slideshare.net/juliedemelo7/ikea-in-russia
###
So much for swedish egalitarianism. Maybe this is the first realization that the West does not own the world?
That PowerPoint presentation was so badly put together and whatever passed for market research and SWOT analysis so infantile that it’s a wonder IKEA managed to get a foothold in Russia in the first place. If the country is so corrupt as IKEA claims, then the fact that IKEA already had 3 stores in Russia as the presentation says doesn’t say much for IKEA’s business practices either.
As for statements like “You can bribe for just about everything in Russia from electoral lists to college diplomas” and “About $400 billion worth of bribes are paid to Putin’s government”, I think maybe IKEA probably got bribery mixed up with legal money-based transactions.
IKEA believes “child labor and formaldehyde problems” are a major issue in dealing with Russia but using political prisoners in its factories in East Germany and Romania, paying bribes to Securitate police in the latter country and using timber from old-growth forests in Russian Karelia were piffling trifles of no consequence by comparison.
Business Standard: EU extends Russia sanctions for six months
http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/eu-extends-russia-sanctions-for-six-months-115031400053_1.html
“…The European Union (EU) agreed on Friday to extend for a period of six months, until September 15, the sanctions imposed against 150 Russian officials and Ukrainian rebel leaders, and 37 organisations for their alleged role in destabilising Ukraine….
… “This decision gives legal effect to a political decision taken at the Foreign Affairs Council on January 29 2015,” the EU council explained in a statement.
Further details of the restrictive measures will be published on Saturday in the official EU journal.
The blacklist includes figures close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, such as Deputy Prime Minister Dimtry Rogozin, the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet Aleksandr Viktorovich, and Crimea Prime Minister Sergey Axionov.
European leaders may discuss the possibility of tightening the restrictions on Russia at their two-day meeting starting on March 19 in the Belgian capital Brussels. …”
####
Great minds…
Meanwhile, the euro fell to a low not seen in over a decade. The people who planned these sanctions couldn’tve seen this coming, could they? The Thai baht hit Asian economies extremely hard in the late 90s. We are seeing a contagion started by the attack on the ruble that is hitting economies extremely hard, and forcing many major oil producers to abandon their dollar pegs. What goes around comes around.
And just in case anyone was buying the USA’s line that it is the Ay-rabs who are causing oil prices to stay low, it’s not true. Who is at the bottom of it? As if you need to ask.
“Oil prices might have stabilized only temporarily as the global oil glut is building due to oil production in the United States showing no signs of slowing down, the International Energy Agency said on Friday.” Please note that that is at the expense of their shale industry and new exploration projects, all deemed expendable in the full-court press to wreck the Russian economy.
Anyone who still buys that look of wide-eyed innocence, let me know, please. I want to stop by your house and bend you over the arm of the sofa whilst wearing my leprechaun costume. I know I’ll never be caught.
I think the storage of oil is the fracking industry’s plan B, and there is no plan C. They may squeak by if prices at the pump go down, because prices have been rising in the United States while the refinery works have been on strike.
The article does not say where the conventional oil produced and stored in the US comes from. I assume that it is coming from the Gulf of Mexico?
Also I believe that Haiti’s oil reserves (bigger than Venezuela’s, apparently) remain undeveloped more or less due to some diktat from the US government that wants them to stay as they are until Middle Eastern reserves run out.
http://haitianboyclub.com/haiti-natural-resources/
Кремль готовит важное заявление, журналистов просят не разъезжаться на выходные
По словам источника в пресс-службе президента России на ближайшее время готовится важное заявление и по этой причине руководителей профильных СМИ попросили быть готовыми в ближайшие дни к возможной пресс-конференции.
Это косвенно подтвердил и генеральный директор Центра политической информации polit-info Алексей Мухин.
Также Мухин не опроверг информацию о том, что президент Путин в настоящий момент недееспособен. “Ребята, вы все сейчас нужны президенту, соберитесь..” – написал он в своем твиттере. На вопрос – подтверждает ли он слухи о Путине, Мухин ответил “без комментариев”. Также он попросил сотрудников на выходных находиться на местах, “будет что-то важное”, добавил он
http://vlasti.net/news/213426
I reckon the Dark Lord is going to make a formal declaration of war against the USA, just as Hitler did in 1941, because Putin is just like Hitler and full of surprises and since formal declarations of war have long been considered such old hat now it would be just like the Evil One to make one because, megalomaniac that he is, he just loves, in his own perverse way, to swim against the stream.
However, fear not! Freedom and Democracy will always prevail!
I would expect something pretty seismic.
Wild Assed Guesses:
1: Nemtsov murdrer wrapped up with some high level chechen heads on the block
2: Some form of massive new cooperation with China or BRICS.
3: A fundamental scientific breakthrough or achievement.
I can’t imagine that it would be about himself.
What say the rest of you?
Oh Bollox! It was about the Crimea documentary. OK, quite an epic event that no one (in the West) foresaw in time to do anything about, but that happened one year ago. A bit disappointed!
Russia pulling out of WTO?
Could very well be!
That would just make me laugh and laugh. After the west made them wait decades to join and then only let them do so once the United States had a policy document in place (the Magnitsky Act) which would allow it to continue to exercise random and arbitrary fuckery against Russia. Since then I couldn’t really say how much of an advantage or disadvantage it has been to Russia overall; Kovane did a good piece on it before the acceptance, and it would be interesting to see which way it went, although they haven’t been a member long enough to see any solid trends. But I would enjoy seeing them start to back out of western shared organizations instead of the west strutting around and throwing out its chest and bragging how it kicked them out, like the G8. How’d that work out, geniuses? Kicked out the only solvent member with the lowest debt. Good one.
Counterpunch has provided a excellent continuation of the Anaconda story , that was the ridiculous gaffe, in which The Grauniad attempted to convert female Nazi killers into wholesome feminist heroines for their deluded readers.
The part that was most mysterious to me at the time was:
What possible connection could there between American White Supremacist David Lane, and anybody in Ukraine? Fortunately, the author Peter Lee explains that connection:
Lane’s death touched off paeans from racists around the country and abroad. June 30 was designated a “Global Day of Remembrance,” with demonstrations held in at least five U.S. cities as well as England, Germany, Russia and the Ukraine.
In other words, this American nobody, Lane became an INTERNATIONAL martyr for the cause of white supremacy and neo-Nazis everywhere around the world.
In 2008, on the first anniversary of Lane’s death, the Ukrainian National Socialist (=Nazi) Party organized a march in Kiev. Photo shows marchers (with the emblem “1488” inscribed on their shield) clashing with police.
Lane is also said to have inspired the Svoboba Party (of Tiahnybok).
Everybody should read the quotes from Lane’s letters from prison (as given in the Counterpunch piece).
***************************
However, the Counterpunch piece goes way beyond just the Anaconda story, and involves a highly intelligent discussion of the roots of Ukrainian fascism.
On the origins of Right Sektor, from UNA-UNSO:
UNA-UNSO was formed during the turmoil of the early 1990s, largely by ethnic Ukrainian veterans of the Soviet Union’s bitter war in Afghanistan. From the first, the UNA-UNSO has shown a taste for foreign adventures, sending detachments to Moscow in 1990 to oppose the Communist coup against Yeltsin, and to Lithuania in 1991. With apparently very good reason, the Russians have also accused UNA-UNSO fighters of participating on the anti-Russian side in Georgia and Chechnya.
After formal Ukrainian independence, the militia elected Yuriy Shukhevych—the son of OUN-B commander Roman Shukhevych– as its leader and set up a political arm, which later became Pravy Sektor.
I recommend for everybody to read.
A very informative piece. A lot more detail than I’ve seen anywhere else.
Also, ugh.
I also call peak irony on this. It would be hard to come up with a better, emblematic piece of news reporting than having the Guardian – bastion of the liberal left, feminist values, multi-culturalism, the whole nine yards – whitewash this abomination.
Put another way, how on earth has Paul Goble ended up as a contributor to the Guardian?
I tend to side with Charles Bausman vs. that Ben Ariss: it all strikes me as a little sinister and managed. A bit like that queasy feeling when you watch Blair or Clinton circling the world picking up payola.
colliemum’s going to be upset about this:
Putin poisoned an Irish Red-Setter at the Crufts dog show
Putin’s Tessiner baby
It’s a GIRL!!!!
So there you have it!
Born in the SwissTessiner canton (Ticono in Italian: it’s an Italian-speaking canton, the most southern in Switzerland) – or so the Swiss gossip rag “Blick” says.
From “Blick”:
Putin made his last public appearance on 5 March, at a reception for the Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, in the Kremlin. About his whereabouts has been wildly speculated. Now this may be explained very simply: Putin had a baby break.
So who was that Putin look-alike photographed with a gang of Russian women in the Kremlin on International Women’s Day, March 8?
A lustful look off the Dark Lord if ever I saw one!
Das war 2004, lange, bevor es Gerüchte über ein Techtelmechtel gab: Putin schüttelt Kabejewa die Hand
[That was in 2004, long before rumours of hanky-panky had begun: Putin shakes Kabaeva’s hand.]
Pictures from the Swiss gossip-rag “Blick”.
British rags are a little more cautious as regards this news”:
Has Vladimir Putin’s girlfriend given birth? Gymnast Alina Kabayeva ‘had baby girl in clinic in Switzerland’
Dunno. You tell me.
If it’s true, is it illegal or what?
Considering the lifestyle of the recently-waxed prick the west is currently canonizing as the cream of the Russian opposition and an inspirational martyr to principle whose death makes Russia a poorer place, I should say not. If it were true, which I would say it is not.
Naturally Putin was there, but disguised as a curtain rod or flower vase or something, because nobody got a picture of anything that looked like Putin in the vicinity, or reported his plane seeking clearance to land or anything like that. And that’s a long drive to be making as a curtain rod.
Maskirovka!
I guess it’s just part of being Russian. They’re naturally devious and tricky.
Oh come on, Mark. As any fule no, Putin bought Switzerland some years ago. Since the amount he has pilfered amounts to ‘n’ (pick a number, any number) times Russia’s cumulative GDP during his years at the top, you still have a lot left over even after you’ve bought an expensive watch for every day of the week so buying European real-estate was the next logical step. He started small with an Alp or two, then snapped up Lichtenstein and moved on to Switzerland just so he could fly in and out without being spotted. I’m only surprised General Breedlove has not seen what comes next in the diabolical plan….snapping up Belgium…sayonara NATO.
The law of big ass numbers – where the size of a number a person thinks they heard grows exponentially when they pull it back out of their butt.
Don’t forget Putin’s vineyard in Malaga, in Spain. Only a few hundred kilometres to go and he’ll have Lisbon.
A weekend eurosplatter:
EU Observer: Why Turkey is crucial to solving Europe’s gas conundrum
https://euobserver.com/opinion/127981
Europeans are said to lack geopolitical nous. They think too narrowly, and are loath to use coercive tools to achieve strategic objectives.
The EU’s recent proposal to create an Energy Union was an opportunity for Europe to prove this sentiment wrong, and show that Brussels has ideas on how to link continental energy policy to geopolitical ends, and come up with a long-term solution to our problems caused by the heavy dependence on Russian gas.
Instead, the proposal was largely an exercise in meekness. In thinking geopolitically, Europeans could do worse than taking a cue from Cold War détente diplomacy, when Nixon and Kissinger brought a third partner into the bilateral standoff with the Soviet Union.
Today, Europe could achieve the same with Russia by bringing Turkey into the equation, and pursue a veritable policy of energy diversification….
#####
So the Russian change in strategy is good after all….
EU Observer: Iceland says final EU goodbye
https://euobserver.com/beyond-brussels/127983
celand definitively dropped its EU membership bid on Thursday (12 March), nearly six years after having made the demand.
“The government of Iceland has no intentions to resume accession talks”, country’s foreign affair minister, Gunnar Sveinsson, wrote in a letter to enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn and Latvia’s foreign affairs minister Edgars Rinkevics….
EU Observer: Sweden to spend more on military
https://euobserver.com/tickers/127982
Sweden’s defence minister Peter Hultqvist said Thursday his government will increase military spending the coming five years by 6.2 billion kronor (around €678 million), amidst increasing tension between non-Nato-member Sweden and Russia. “This security situation has worsened and we must respond”, the Wall Street Journal quoted Hultqvist as saying.
EU Observer: Hungary denies EU blocked Russian nuclear deal
https://euobserver.com/beyond-brussels/127979
Hungary denied on Thursday night (12 March) a Financial Times report that the EU has, in effect, blocked its €12 billion nuclear deal with Russia.
The FT said the EU strangled the project when the European Commission last week decided to back Euratom in its refusal to approve Hungary’s plan to import nuclear fuel exclusively from Russia.
All nuclear fuel supply contracts signed by EU member states must be approved by the European Atomic Energy Community.
Hungary appealed against the decision, but according to the FT, the commission last week rejected its case…
…”These inter-governmental agreements were presented to the relevant EU authorities who, after due and careful survey of the material provided, put forward no objections,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement….
####
Looks like Business News piece I posted earlier about the sanctions being extended another six months was premature…:
euractiv: No new EU sanctions against Russia as ceasefire holds
http://www.euractiv.com/sections/global-europe/no-new-eu-sanctions-against-russia-ceasefire-holds-312895
European Union leaders are unlikely to reach agreement at their summit next week to prolong economic sanctions on Russia that expire in July, a senior EU official said today (13 March).
New sanctions on Russia are also off the table for now because EU governments want to give the fragile ceasefire in eastern Ukraine a chance.
But some of the EU’s 28 member states had pushed for an early decision on extending sanctions on Russia’s financial, energy and defence sectors. The measures were adopted in July last year after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine….
I would not characterize European Union energy policy as “meek” in terms of geopolitical ambition, but as one of limited options (unless bluster and bullshit become viable energy alternatives) and of rating itself a great deal more important globally than it actually is. The Europeans fancy themselves the grand masters of strategy, but in fact their legislative bodies are talking-shops that prefer to wear the problem down over time until it disappears or they are overtaken by new events rather than make a decision. Unless they are obeying orders from Washington, of course, in which case decisions come quickly and without any thinking involved at all.
I wonder what Sweden’s game is now – it must know full well that there is not an increased military threat from Russia, so its bluster about increasing its military power must be based on something else. Maybe it is getting something from NATO for its exemplary commitment.
Hungary is increasingly demonized in the Anglospheric media, and it does not take much reasoning ability to see that it is owed to Orban’s support of Putin. The EU is so transparently stupid; the more it picks at Hungary, trying to piss off Hungarians so they will overthrow Orban, the more opportunity it offers to Putin and Moscow to step in and improve relations with Hungary, and make up for the EU’s cold shoulder. Did they learn nothing in Ukraine? Evidently that is the case.
The decision, if you can call it that, on sanctions is the first piece of wisdom we have seen from the EU in quite a long time, and it may already be too late because Russia has already had the lesson that it will be sanctioned regardless what it does, and that it should therefore pursue only its own interests without consideration of anyone else.
Izvestia also going with the “Ukrainian Connection ” angle in the Nemtsov murder. Basically just a repeat, and alludes to the KP piece in earlier comment. KP got the better scoop, when they were briefed by an FSB insider.
However, Izvestia reminds its readers that they first broke the Osmaev story on March 3.
According to this theory, Nemtsov’s murder was ordered by the Ukrainian secret services. Motive is obvious: to bring down Wrath of God upon Vladimir Putin’s head, while simultaneously driving a wedge between Putin and Kadyrov.
A very cunning plan!
Yeah, and they would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for those pesky kids, with their big goofy dog.
P.S. – here is summary of the March 3 Izvestia piece, which I had not read at the time, because I had stopped reading Izvestia for a while; I shouldn’t do that.
SUMMARY AND PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF THE MARCH 3 PIECE
In the Ukrainian army, there is a battalion named after Djokar Dudaev , the President of “Free Ichkeria”. Dudaev died in 1996, when Russian special forces (this was still during Yeltsin’s time) sent a laser-guided missile right up his Ichkerian ass.
Dudaev became a hero for everybody everwhere fighting against “Russian tyranny”, but especially in Gruzia and Ukraine; which is why they name whole battalions after him. (In Lithuania, they name streets after him.)
Anyhow, this “Dudaev Battalion” was founded roughly one year ago, in March 2014, by a man named Isa Munaev, who hails from the “Achkha-Martanovsky” region of Chechnya. During the First Chechen War 1994-96, Munaev commanded one of the Ichkerian militias. With the defeat of the Russian army, and the ascension to power of Aslan Maskhadov, Munaev was rewarded with the post of Commandante of the city of Grozny.
In 1999, with Russian army back on the offensive, Munaev declared himself the “Commander in Chief of the Southwest Sector of Ichkeria”. He fought a regular and guerilla war against Russian army for several years. In 2006, Munaev was wounded in battle, but managed to flee to Denmark, where he was given political asylum.
In Denmark, Munaev founded the movement “Free Caucasus”. He was mostly involved in raising money for the Chechen “militants”. Also while in Denmark, Munaev maintained close ties with Akhmed Zakaev, the political leader of Ichkeria. Zakaev currently resides in Great Britain, where he received political asylum.
In 2014, after Ukrainian junta announced the commencement of the “Anti-Terrorist Operation” against the Donbass rebels, Munaev left Denmark for Ukraine, where he created the Dudaev Battalion. Russian investigators believe that Munaev was personally invited to Ukraine by Kolomoisky, who also financed his battalion from personal funds.
The Dudaev Battalion was formed mainly from immigrant Chechens (previously residing in Denmark, like Munaev), but also citizens of several other countries, all of them with close ties to “terrorist” organizations.
Two more names of the top commanders in the Dudaev Battalion:
Так, начальником штаба батальона стал бывший заместитель министра обороны Азербайджана (1993–1995 годы) Иса Садыгов, объявленный у себя на родине в розыск, а командиром одной из рот — японский журналист Шамиль Цунеока Танака, который в 2001 году принял ислам.
-Isa Sadygov (former Deputy Minister of Defense, Azerbaijan, 1993-95)
-Japanese journalist Shamil Tsuneoka Tanaka, who converted to Islam in 2001.
To this battalion also joined a man (Chechen/Ingush combo) named Adam Osmaev, along with his wife, Amina Okuyeva. Osmaev is known for having a warrant out on his head, for a former, alleged, plot to assassinate Vladimir Putin.
The Dudaev battalion is currently very active in Donbass, fighting against DPR and LPR rebels. It is estimated the battalion consistED of 300 soldiers. That was before Ilovaisk, during which the battalion was winnowed down. A further winnowing took place in February of 2015, at the Battle of Debaltsevo, during which the commander Isa Munaev, was killed.
Okuyeva confirmed Munaev’s death and announced that the new commander of the Dudaev Battalion would be her husband, Adam Osmaev.
Nemtsov case investigators have leaked to press, that they consider both Adam and Amina to have been involved in ordering Nemtsov’s murder.
The duo would have worked through intermediaries, some of them highly placed in the Chechen security forces.
So far, we have an alleged chain of:
Osmaev – Geremeev – Dadaev (the hitman)
with possible other missing links.
[Note: for non-Russian readers, it is important not to confuse DAdaev with DUdaev, the names are very similar. DUdaev is dead, DAdaev is currently in prison, in Moscow.]
I wonder how the west would feel if the 9-11 Saudis had somehow survived and all fled to Moscow, to be given political asylum.
If it was meant to drive a wedge between Putin and Kadyrov, that was a pretty catastrophic failure. He was just decorated by Putin, in what was likely an in-your-face ceremony.
From Fort Russ, downloadable PDF file published by “The Foundation for the Study of Democracy”:
War crimes of the armed forces and security forces of Ukraine: torture of the Donbass region residents (English)
Reading that is heartbreaking and enraging.
Here’s the second part of that report:
http://cassad-eng.livejournal.com/140583.html
Yana, victim’s wife on SBU officials:
They have beaten him to death simply. When they came — they took him away to torture him. When they brought his body back — the heels were blue, the feet were blue. He’s got some traces of punctures on his hands… I don’t know… what they did to him, punctured him or drove the needles under his nails — there were holes on his hands. Each bone has a hole in it. They tortured him like… when there was a real war no one has tortured people the way they tortured him.
English version can be downloaded here:
https://yadi.sk/i/xYfcPJMHfERVJ
President Poroshenko has a right to protect his country.
Of course the Anglosphere will brush this aside as just fevered imaginings and deliberate inventions on the part of people deservedly detained for being traitors and “pro-Russian separatists”. They did a great job with that label, and now media personalities pronounce everyone in the DPR and LPR “pro-Russian separatists” as a matter of course, implying thereby that they are simultaneously traitors to their country and thieves who want to steal a part of Ukraine’s land and give it to Russia. No matter how many times it is reinforced that the great majority of eastern Ukrainians wanted a degree of autonomy while remaining within Ukraine – the federalism Putin spoke of immediately would have served them very well – the notion persists that they are all separatists.
However, anyone who complains of ill-treatment art the hands of the DPR is believed without question, just as Kiev’s lies and creations are lapped up and repeated by the western press. Journalism has been reduced to its lowest common denominator.
Too bad their lies can’t win battles.
Ukrainians know pretty damned well what their government is like. Westerners, even if they believe the party line, just do not care what is happening in eastern Europe and don’t see why they should.
That’s some cold, hard truth right there.
But these f*cking westerners support their overlords engaging in imperial adventures in all of these regions they don’t care about. So they do care, about extracting value for themselves from those regions. This is why the argument that it is only the governments that are guilty and “the people” are innocent is BS. The hate propaganda in the western media is what the westerners love to listen to. It makes them feel better about themselves.
For those who cannot read Russian there is also
http://fortruss.blogspot.ca/2015/03/nemtsovs-killer-was-hired-by-commander.html
And for those who would like to know what other experts, including the people’s favorite Stanslav Belkovsky, think, try
http://rbth.com/society/2015/03/12/new_evidence_sheds_doubt_on_islamic_motive_in_nemtsov_killing_44441.html
Is good that somebody translated the KP piece.
I highlight this paragraph, which draws a physical connection between Osmaev and Dadaev (very important, from the POV of showing a possible conspiracy being hatched):
When the journalists from the Russian TV channel “Life News” were recovered from Ukraine, Zaur Dadaev was involved in this operation. Held direct communication with Osmaev. I don’t have the right to disclose the details. The evidence is still being gathered. But I can say that today the main suspected customer of Nemtsov’s murder is Adam Osmayev.
Recall that this incident with the 2 captured reporters happened in May, 2014.
Kadyrov and other Chechens played a prominent role in the negotiations and release of these captives; and their release was a huge feather in Kadyrov’s cap.
.
P.S. – I think Belkovsky’s theories can be partially dismissed as self-serving (although there might be some grain of truth in the meme that Kadyrov is in some kind of trouble).
There is one very good point in that piece, though, which is that surveillance footage shows the killers stalking Nemtsov from an earlier time, months before Charlie Hebdo was a gleam in anyone’s eye.
Which easily discounts the religious/Hebdo motive.
Most likely, there really IS something going on within the local power elites in Chechnya.
I find it difficult to believe that the killers were stalking Nemtsov as early as last September. Why would they need to do that?
That’s for the police to figure out, but they say surveillance cameras picked up the same car used for the getaway, cruising the area where Nemtsov lived. I can’t think why, either, unless the group planned for a long time to hit him and just was waiting for the right time.
Just some wild theorizing on my part, but:
What if the plot was hatched as early as May, 2014, that’s when Osmaev re-encountered his fellow Chechens when they negotiated the journalist-hostage release.
There might have been some Chechens (on opposite sides of the war) who used to be old pals and hadn’t seen each others in years. Maybe they went out drinking, hatched the plan to kill an Oppositionist. Took 3 or 4 months to pick the target and get the plan in motion… (?)
One senses that the whole plot is likely to unravel. We might know soon enough.
The western toadies are tumbling over one another trying to determine what theory it is their string-pullers want to hear. The part about the getaway car having been seen hanging around Nemtsov’s residence as early as September of last year is a new piece of evidence to me, I had not heard that before. But it apparently is enough to move the west away from its “Putin did it” theory. Now they will pursue a “Kadyrov did it” line. For a while, anyway. That conclusively debunks the wildly stupid “Charlie Hebdo” theory.
Mark, great piece on dissecting McFaul. It’s hard to understand why these guys dig out the “hey, we’ve never been in the regime-change business’ schtick since it’s a pretty old joke that there will never be a coup in Washington because the US is the only country without an American Embassy. When your never-ending interventions, assassinations, provocations, ready-made revolutions and destabilisations are the subject of hoary old jokes, it’s way past time to give up the protestations of innocence, methinks.
Jack Teft is on record saying how ‘helpful’ Boris Nemstov, amongst others, was going to be to ‘us, in creating a new civil society in Russia’. Presumably he wasn’t talking about Nemstov’s help in setting up an amateur operatic society or in organising local fruit and vegetable growing competitions. Would it be considered within the usual gambit of an ambassador’s work if the Russian or Chinese ambassadors in the US decided to meet with leaders of the protestors in Ferguson and declare they’re likely to be ‘helpful’ to the planned goal of re-shaping civil society?
Thanks, Fern! I had never heard that American-embassy joke; it’s quite funny, not to mention accurate. But I obviously agree that McFaul’s tongue should have burst into flames when he said “there is no regime-change effort going on in Russia, that’s just something crazy Putin thinks”.
Teft is a fellow exceptionalist, and if he and McFaul agreed Nemtsov (McFaul’s dear friend, whose death caused him to shed bitter, angry tears, while the “they” he spoke of when he said “I can’t believe they have killed my friend, Boris Nemtsov” was certainly not Caucasians, extremist or otherwise) was going to be helpful to their goal of removing and replacing the Russian president, they vastly overrated his abilities and appeal. Meanwhile, I’m sure he wasn’t being helpful for nothing, and was probably glad to take their money as long as it allowed him to enjoy good food and beautiful women.
RT gives the latest on Porky’s warmongering that an Interfax bulletin announced last night:
Poroshenko: 11 EU states struck deal with Ukraine to deliver weapons, including lethal
What’s a non-lethal weapon like?
12-volt tasers? Laughing gas? An album of Max Bygraves’ Greatest Hits played full blast and incessantly along the cease-fire line …?
Now you’ve gone too far. Max Bygraves was a giant in the British entertainment world and a fellow Bournemouthian to my ex-wife, who grew up there. I want to tell you a story…
The EU is breaking new ground now, having gone far beyond parody and even incredulity. High-ranking officials regularly claim that escalation is not an option considering Russia is in a better position to out-escalate them, while the Uke army is so inept that whatever is given to them is likely to be taken from them in short order as war souvenirs. Having sagely agreed what an unattractive option escalation is, the EU then proceeds to escalate anyway. Perhaps that means they have explored their other options and found them to consist of “give” and “up”. Alternatively, Poroshenko could have completely invented it. He does that sometimes. For a man with such a huge head, he doesn’t appear to use it for anything beyond ensuring his hats do not assume a non-ovoid shape.
Ruble price tags in Donetsk:
http://cassad-eng.livejournal.com/141390.html
Another suspicious suicide in Ukraine, this time in Odessa. This one just happened today, 14 March.
The man’s name is Mel’nichuk. He is 32 years old.
He is the Senior Prosecutor in one of the Odessa regional prosecutors offices (=the Malinovsky Region).
Mel’nichuk supposedly threw himself out of a 9th-storey window of his flat.
The address of the flat is 33-B Prospekt Shevchenko.
Local police are suspicious, because the flat looked to be in disarray, like there was some kind of struggle.
CNBC via Moneysource.com: Russian economy is ready to grow
http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/world-news/russian-economy-is-ready-to-grow_1329470.html
After a year of sanctions and a contraction, the Russian economy is ready for the upside. What it needs are economic reforms and international integration – not further sanctions and geopolitical isolation. While the political impact of the opposition leader Boris Nemtsov’s killing has been limited in Russia, it has fueled demands for new sanctions against Moscow in the West. Meanwhile, Russian equity valuations suggest potential for a strong performance over the coming months.
Nevertheless, as long as sanctions prevail, the potential destabilization in the Russian economy and severe collateral damage in Europe will steadily increase. The ailing post-sanctions economy In pre-sanctions Russia, growth was expected to remain weak in 2014-2015 due to stagnant oil demand, while institutional weaknesses reflected a poor investment climate. In early 2014, markets projected growth of 1.7 percent for 2014 and 2.3 percent in 2015, with a deceleration of inflation to about 5 percent and a policy rate of 5 percent. With sanctions in place, the Russian economy wound up contracting 3.5 percent in 2014. Even in a benign scenario, Moscow can only expect flat growth in 2015. With subdued oil prices and weak ruble, only exports are driving growth. Despite the stalemate in Ukraine, the cease-fire may not last long. Brussels is not eager to extend further sanctions in the near term, nor will it readily remove them. Washington is a different story….
Where did they get -3.5 percent for last year? The preliminary data showed 0.6 percent growth then, and predictions of a 3.5 percent contraction this year. The CBR is predicting 6% growth in two years based on higher oil prices and import substitution.
There are no actual facts being conveyed by the media and analysts. Its a spew of make believe BS.
George Friedman spills the beans:
FWIW I don’t really know how much stock to place in anything he says as, years ago when I followed him more closely his analysis seemed way off. Nevertheless some of his commentary hereilluminates what the US is doing pretty well I think.
I am a huge fan of George Friedman, I purchased two of his books the Next One Hundred Years and the Next Decade. Friedman articulates and explains United States foreign policy and objectives succinctly.
Friedman, Mearsheimer and Walt are the most honest and informative of the mainstream US academics as regards what US foreign policy objectives are.
I wouldn’t say that I am a huge fan of Friedman but I agree that on some things he seems very matter of fact. (For example, 10 or so years ago, he, or his partner Kaplan(?), produced a report on the Ukraine that now appears very prescient. It made the simple point that Russia would win any “conflict” over Ukraine because, in geopolitical terms, it could not afford to lose.) My guess is that Stratfor is pretty big and that some people in the organization don’t know their base from their apex. (A few years ago the organization was hacked and the evidence suggested that some people were just making stuff up, especially on Russia, and that they had no first hand information.) I also found it puzzling last year when he was discussing his, then, coming trip to Russia. He really didn’t seem to have a clear idea of what the country was like.
“Ever since 1871 this has been the German question…”
It wasn’t for the founder of the Second Reich, Chancellor Bismarck: his policy was always to remain on friendly terms with the Russian Empire.
Friedman says Germany’s relationship with Russia has always been complex. I beg to differ: it has mostly been straightforward, in that Germany is Russia’s largest trading partner and always has been since the Peter I founded that empire. Chancellor Shröder knew that, as did Chancellors Brandt and Schmidt and, I daresay, Kohl. Merkel, however, is in the USA’s pocket – because she’s a former Stasi member and/or informer.
Friedman says that “for centuries” the USA has striven to keep Germany and Russia from becoming allies.
For centuries?
The USA only came into existence in 1783. Until 1917, the USA, following George Washington’s sound advice that he made in his farewell presidential speech, isolated itself from foreign allegiances and after the end of WWI reverted once more to isolationist policies, albeit that it attempted to intervene in the Russian Revolution.
The USA relationship with “Russia” began when the USA occupied Western Europe, starting 1944, which occupied by the US European territories have moved eastwards until they now abut the Russian “Empire”. In 1991, the “Russian Empire” withdrew from those territories that it had occupied since 1945 and the USA immediately filled the vacuum – to protect the inhabitants of the former “Soviet Bloc” from any further Russian invasions.
Interesting how Friedman makes no bones about labeling the USA as an “empire”. Time was when that word was tabu amongst US politicians and political analysts – still is amongst many.
thought this was interesting – Canada silent on alleged CSIS links to man helping girls go to Syria
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/video-shows-man-with-alleged-links-to-canada-spy-agency-help-girls-go-to-syria/article23447143/
forgot to mention as i didn’t see there was a new story on sorry ass mcfail – thanks for the post mark.. good stuff.. ”’liar, liar pants on fire”’ doesn’t do mcfail justice..
Thanks, James!
An interesting little piece slipped into the Ottawa Citizen today. http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/the-gargoyle-polls-plumbers-and-non-musical-ministers
In January the Canadian embassy in Kiev ‘reached into a little-known pot of money called the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives to help a group called Free Crimea survey Crimeans’. The results of the poll were probably not what they had hoped: ’82 per cent of the 800 respondents said they fully back Crimea joining Russia, while 11 per cent said they support the move in some form. Only four per cent said they opposed the union.’ … ‘Asked about the results, Foreign Affairs spokesman François Lasalle took a decidedly agnostic view, writing in an email: “Like all polling results, these should be read as a partial snapshot, obtained within the constraints of the Russian occupation of Crimea.” … As for the decision to commission the survey in the first place, was it money well spent? The Russians probably think so.’
“The move came after a controversial referendum – conducted with little advance warning and with Russian troops in control of the peninsula – in which the vast majority of Crimeans apparently supported becoming part of Ukraine.”
There’s something wrong with this sentence.
Not really, at least by definition:
ap·par·ent·ly
əˈperən(t)lē/
adverb
adverb: apparently
as far as one knows or can see.
“the child nodded, apparently content with the promise”
synonyms:seemingly, evidently, it seems (that), it appears (that), it would seem (that), it would appear (that), as far as one knows, by all accounts; More
ostensibly, outwardly, supposedly, on the face of it, so the story goes, so I’m told;
allegedly, reputedly
“apparently, no one had ever told him that he had a half-sister in San Diego”
used by speakers or writers to avoid committing themselves to the truth of what they are saying.
“foreign ministers met but apparently failed to make progress”
Am I being thick. I still don’t see it. They were already part of Ukraine care of Kruschev no?
If it had said: apparently remaining part of Ukraine it might work in the manner you are suggesting.
No; I meant the part in bold – where it says “used by speakers or writers to avoid committing themselves to the truth of what they are saying”. The bold function in such small letters is not really very effective; it was an attempt to be sarcastic (sorry, you probably did not expect that from me) to suggest that it is a howling, crashing, Andrei-the-Giant sized falsehood. The majority did not apparently or in any other described way vote to “become part of Ukraine”. They voted overwhelmingly to become a part of the Russian Federation. They could have voted to remain part of Ukraine and I believe it would have been respected, although Russia might have tried something to keep Sevastopol so as not to have it become a NATO base. But they had even begun planning for what might happen if they lost that, too.
Ha. No you never stoop to the lowest form of humour. That’s what we’re for. It was consequently confusing. (Can you bold that appropriately for me? I dunno how.)
I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that the “journalist” who wrote it might be so clueless as to think that somehow the “real” vote underlying the Kremlin’s falsifications expressed a will to join a country they were already a part of.
This is actually kind of quite a brilliant strategy. A kind of weaponisation – no, not of relativism (only Putin would stoop so low) – but of the the mindset of our friend from Full Metal Jacket:
All votes are votes to join the Empire by definition.
Dear Tim:
The way you add boldface to a comment as you are typing it in WordPress, is as follows:
You type a “start-bold” tag at the beginning of the text and an “end-bold” tag at the end of the text in question. These “tags” are in HTML format, which you can look-up on google.
NEVER FORGET TO END YOUR BOLD SECTION WITH THE END-BOLD TAG.
I don’t know how to actually type you an example here without having the tags rendered, so I will describe them in words:
The start-bold tag consists of the “less-than” symbol, that’s the one above the comma on the QWERTY keyboard; followed by the letter “b” for bold; followed by the “greater-than” symbol, that’s the one above the period on the QWERTY keyboard.
The end-bold tag is the same, but with a “forward slash” following the opening triangular bracket, that’s the one below the question mark.
They look something like this: only you have to replace the square brackets with the triangular ones as I described:
[b]This is my bold text[/b], now I am typing normally.
Great piece BTW. It’s incredibly satisfying to take your opponent’s logic, explain it to them and then use it to demolish the argument they thought it supported. It’s quite another to do all of this in their own words. You have a dangerous mind sir.
Ha, ha!! Reminds me of those schoolyard taunts, “If you had a brain, you’d be dangerous”, and later in life, insults like “He knows just enough to be dangerous”. But you’re right – it feels great when one of those sanctimonious Russophobes – and McFaul is doubly so for putting on the mask of the bluff, honest, wholesome straight-shooter – steps on his dick. That “What? Regime change? Us?” was just asking for it. Anyway, thanks very much – I appreciate it.
A little off-topic – although we don’t really have a topic here after the first 5 comments or so – check out Julia Ioffe’s stab at “Where’s Putin?”. I’ve seen silliness on this subject, but this is get down on the floor and smear yourself with idiocy. I suppose I should have seen that coming, because Julia is one of those Jewess-with-a-chip-on-her-shoulder types whom there is no pleasing; as Moscow Exile highlighted for us before, she flipped because her passport said “Jew” for ethnicity, because that was unconscionable labeling. Then when it didn’t say it any more, she bitched because Russia had robbed her of her cultural identity.
Once she was fancied to be quite a sharp analyst – well-written, smart, speaks fluent Russian which I believe is her mother tongue. But she worked for increasingly skeevy press outlets and now I believe she actually works for The New York Times, after a stint at the New Republic. She writes utter shit which is coloured by her bitchy personality and her loathing for Putin, while she looooves her some Khodorkovsky or Navalny, anyone who is a liberal who is willing to say that the taste of his first American hamburger caused him to throw it down because it hurt his mouth, he was not used to flavour.
“There is a sense in Moscow that the wheels are coming off. To Moscow’s chattering class, Putin’s disappearance confirms that impression.”
Pure Julia “Russia Expert” Ioffe.
Oooooo…here’s an interesting one, from Andrey “Pridurak” Illarionov – the president who has more than 85% support among the Russian electorate is going to be removed in a few days and replaced by “a group of officers and security forces led by the head of the presidential administration Sergey Ivanov.”
I checked, and that was not written by Jerry Seinfeld or Dave Chappelle, so I can’t imagine what it’s intent might have been.
“Jewess-with-a-chip-on-her-shoulder types…”
There are Jewesses who are far more fun:
Sarah Silverman: I was raped by a doctor.
[pause]
Sarah Silverman: Which is, you know, so bittersweet for a Jewish girl.
“I suppose I should have seen that coming, because Julia is one of those Jewess-with-a-chip-on-her-shoulder types whom there is no pleasing; as Moscow Exile highlighted for us before, she flipped because her passport said “Jew” for ethnicity, because that was unconscionable labeling. Then when it didn’t say it any more, she bitched because Russia had robbed her of her cultural identity.”
How can I get a job on the planet called: you are always right?
More Sarah Silverman genius:
http://www.ifc.com/fix/2013/10/10-genius-sarah-silverman-jokes
(By the time you get to the punchline, “Please let them find semen in my dead grandmother’s vagina”, you’ll forgive Sarah, because she worked her way up to that one!)
She’s not even in Moscow. She left years ago.
Yeah, I know. She was there for a year on assignment while she wrote for True/Slant, as did Mark Adomanis at the time. But she lives on that “native Russian” thing the same as Alexei Bayer does, and makes fun of westerners who disagree with her but cannot say “Shermetyevo”.
Her grandma is still here though – I think.
(She might have died since granddaughter Yulia was slumming it in Moscow.)
She must like it here in Mordor, no matter what New York Yulia says.
You know as someone pushing 50 anyone just “phoning it in” kind of gets half a vote of sympathy from me.
She’s the Russia hand. And the – surviving – US media – has been so thoroughly cleansed of intelligence it’s not like anyone who will pose a danger to her paycheck is ever gonna call her out on it.
Really, she might as well be selling a line of bed-linens.
Actually the Americans that count really do care about shit like that so scratch that last thought.
Oh, I’m sure she’s not just phoning it in – she is imbued with the missionary zeal of the true believer – she lives in New York, loves it in America and probably believes every word she writes. If Russia would just get rid of Putin and get a free press so the word of democracy could spread…if the suspicious Russians would just let America help, everyone would be so much better off and nothing bad would happen; really, it wouldn’t.
Underlying it all, though, is an ugly dislike for her countrymen and how stupid and narrow-minded they are – they keep voting for Putin, I rest my case, he doesn’t even need to rig the vote but he does anyway just from force of habit. When in Russia she only appeared comfortable with the company of the kreakly and other true believers.
Without wanting to sound tendentious about Russian Jews:
I honestly believe that Slavic Russians and Russian Jews got along perfectly well (with very little tension) right up to the late 60’s and 70’s. Which is when the Americans dipped their greasy hands into that relationship (Jackson-Vanik, 1974) and ruined it. As part of their “divide and conquer” strategy against the Soviet Union. Targeting individual ethnic groups, turning them against the government.
Oh I know, I know, people will say I am simplifying matters: That there were some ethnic tensions, and that the Brezhnev government made some mistakes in its dealings with this particular minority, etc. etc. That’s true enough, Brezhnev policies were far from perfect, but the main culprit was, as always, U.S. meddling.
The Israelis were in cahoots with American policy, obviously, not only had they become a U.S. satellite, but were also eager to receive new citizens, in their hope of ethnically cleansing the “Holy Land” of Arabs.
Although, the Israelis probably regretted it later, because most of the influx of “Soviet Jews” did not consist of brilliant scientists and mathematicianas and the like, but rather the typical “vata” type Soviet personality.
Anyhow, Julia Ioffe is 2 generations removed from that era. Her grandmother continues to live in Russia, it must have been Julia’s parents who were the emigres (not to Israel, but to New York). They obviously raised her to hate and fear Russia as some kind of totalitarian land of evil, where Jews are always persecuted.
And there you have it: Thanks to America’s “Captive Nations” campaign:
Another Russian-hating diaspora, just like the Ukrainian Banderites. Only with the Jews, at least they are more wordy, and less shooty. Somehow I can’t envision the lovely and spoiled prima donna Julia Ioffe picking up a gun and going to Donbass, to shoot Russians.
Thanks for that – a puzzle piece that had always been missing for me just fell into place: in such a tiny country, why were the Israelis always trying to get Jews from other countries to move back? Why would it be in America’s interests to facilitate that, with a law that was bound to cause controversy and anger? Now it makes sense – to outnumber and force out the Arab population. I can’t believe I never figured that out; it seems so obvious now.
Anyway, according to the reference I cited, only about 10% of Soviet Jews wanted to leave for Israel, and the Soviet Union’s resistance was limited to making them pay for their education before they left. Those who had no post-secondary education, presumably, were free to go. It reminds me, though, of a policy the Canadian Forces had a few years ago and may still have. Before operators went on the Technician’s course, they were asked to sign on for an additional 5 years, to prevent them from graduating as a technician and then parlaying that newly-acquired skill into a lucrative civilian job. If you quit before your 5 years were up, you had to pay back the military for the course. And it makes sense – why should anyone be allowed a free education which is of significant value to them, so that they can take it and get a good job somewhere else in an environment where everyone else has to pay for their education?
I don’t imagine, on reflection, that the CF is still like that, because now you join as a technician and learn it from your first trades course, whereas when I joined you were a systems operator until the Leading Seaman rating. In order to go higher you had to take and pass the technician’s course, which then would have been QL (Qualification Level) 5.
I find your perspective on Jews is affected by whether you actually know any, or whether the quality of Jewishness is just a concept you have acquired from others who hate them. My nephew, as I think I mentioned before, is Jewish. Really I just call him my nephew for convenience, because he is probably not really anything to me, we are related only by marriage – he’s my wife’s sister’s daughter’s husband. He’s a great guy; personable, smart and hard-working, a good husband and father. He’s a med school graduate who will be a good surgeon one day, perhaps a great one. Some would look at that situation and say, “The Jews have a lock on doctor and lawyer, nobody gets to be one unless they have the Jew stamp of approval”. Of course that is not true, and rather than jealousy at his chosen profession, we are proud of him because he will be a good provider for our niece, of whom we’re very fond. She’s a pharmacist, so they should do very well, and we wish them success.
And my wife’s sister’s husband is Ukrainian, so the family is quite a melting pot.
Dear Mark:
I always considered it pretty self-evident that Russian Jews were meant to be used as cannon fodder by the Israelis, against the Arabs. Not necessarily in the literal sense of the term (=putting them in the army), but in terms of demographic bulk on the illegal settlements. Israelis needed warm bodies of immigrants to match Arab birth-rate.
I remember reading about Russian Jews, especially in the 80’s, I believe, who were lured to Israel in droves, and offered crappy homes in illegal settlements on the West Bank.
Some of them went naively to Israel, expecting good jobs and a nice flat in Tel Aviv, not realizing they would end up in some dirty trailer park on land that was disputed.
I don’t have the time right now to research historical links (from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s) in order to back up my statement, maybe if there is an Israel-Palestine expert out there who has some ready references to either confirm or refute my statements?
Anyhow, I am pretty sure that it did look for a while, like the Israelis would be able to out-demograph the Palestinians via mass immigration from Russia. (They were not getting candidates from many other places.)
But later, if I am understanding correctly, the tide turned at some point, and the immigration slowed down. And many of the Russian immigrants capered out of Israel to the U.S. as soon as they had the chance. But again, I don’t have any numbers to back this up.
A quick search gave this more recent link from Al Jazeera, it speaks of settlers lured to the West Bank, and mentions some Russian examples , however I don’t know if you can trust the Qatari at Al Jazeera about anything. Well, maybe about this particular issue, they don’t toe the “Atlanticist” line.
There must have been a pile of Jews in Russia, then, because according to the Soviet delegation that went to the USA to try to avert the passing of Jackson-Vanik, somewhere around 90% of Russian Jews were not interested in leaving for Israel.
It was Gessen who was the one who whinged about “Jewess” being written in her passport under the heading “Nationality”. Under “Citizenship” she was, of course “Russian” (rossiyanka [россиянка] and not russkaya [русская], which means “ethnic Russian”).
I agree with what Yalensis says as regards Jews and ethnic Russians: I’ve worked with plenty of Russian Jews here and I’ve never heard their Russian colleagues whispering “Zhid” behind their backs or criticising Jews in general.
Of course ther are Jew-haters here, and most everywhere else wherever many Jews live. But as far as I can see, the vast majority of Jews are secular in Russia. I’ve never seen any of those fellows in frock coats and wearing big hats and their hair adorned in plaits here, though they must be somewhere.
My wife’s aunty always says that every Russian must have some “Jewish blood” in him because the Jews have been here for centuries. True, they lived in the Jewish pale during the Empire, but all that ended in 1917.
Same thing goes for “Tartar blood”, as they’ve been here for much longer than the Jews.
Furthermore, I reckon most “Jews” here are not even Semites.
Most observant Jewish men I see in Sydney usually wear the little caps called yarmulkes, over the crowns of their heads, secured with bobby pins if necessary, and maybe (but not always) a white prayer shawl with black stripes worn under a coat. The prayer shawls have white knotty strands at both ends and you may see these hanging out from under the guy’s jacket or vest.
Three actors wearing prayer shawls under coats:
Backpacker in the middle wearing a yarmulke:
Oops! My mistake.
The Ottawa Citizen also reports that the Canadian government is lying about Russian warplanes ‘buzzing’ a Canadian ship in the Black Sea – even NATO says it’s not true. http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/nato-disputes-conservative-claim-that-russians-confronted-canadian-warship
thanks paul.. if you feel like writing The Honourable Jason Kenney | Minister of National Defence and Minister for Multiculturalism, like i just did – here is his e mail address – DND_MND@forces.gc.ca
That’s not even a Canadian soldier in the photograph – it is a sailor and member of either the Boarding Party or the Force Protection Contingent. Soldiers do not wear baseball caps. To the idiot press anyone carrying a gun is a soldier if he is in uniform or a sniper if he is not.
I can’t blame Kenney – foaming Russophobia and shameless lying and fabrication about Russia’s activities are so rampant that he just wanted to get on the bandwagon like everyone else. Sure he’s a spineless shit and lazy prevaricator, but no more so than Jens Stoltenberg, who is a few notches above Kenney’s pay grade.
On the Russian cultural front:
Big huge scandal at Novosibirsk Opera House, over their new production of Wagner’s Tannhäuser .
Full disclosure: Tannhäuser is one of my favorite operas, in fact I am sort of obsessed with this particular opera.
Other disclosure: I have not seen this “scandalous” production, so maybe I really shouldn’t judge it; however, just from the description and the clips I saw on youtube, it looks really lame. God, I hate these “remakes” where the “genius” enfant terrible director oppresses us with his “visionary interpretation” instead of just delivering the artist’s material.
This Director Timofei Kul’abin, has even admitted that he went out of his way to shock people’s religious sensibilities, and god, I sure hope this doesn’t turn into another Pussy Riot. Anyhow, religious people in Novosibirsk are picketing the show , in a movement called “Show your faith”. They say they are agitated by the director’s images of Jesus Christ, wha with crosses falling down, and suchlike, and they are even planning to launch a legal action against the opera house, trying to shut the show down.
(Although I imagine there is no actual law against showing a blasphemous opera in an opera house; provided there is no actual nudity; it’s not exactly the same as Pussy Riot profaning a church.)
Also…
Just to put things in context:
When Wagner wrote Tannhäuser in 1861, he intended it to be performed in Paris. Knowing that Parisian audiences expected a lavish ballet dance and a naughty Bacchanale.
(Wagner’s major crime was that he placed the ballet number at the beginning of Act I, when Parisian audiences expected the ballet to start Act II.)
Anyhow, Act I opens in Venusberg, the realm of the Goddess Venus. Backstory:
Venus fell in love with the mortal minstrel Tannhäuser, when she heard one of the songs that he had composed about love. The song was just that good. So, she brought him up to her realm to be her boy toy forever. Now, as the curtain opens, Tannhäuser and Venus are relaxing, making out, and watching the erotic Bacchanale.
Problem: Tannhäuser soon gets bored with Venus, and wants to return to the mortal world, where he can pursue his true love, Elisabeth. Venus is furious. She warns the minstrel that if he leaves her, then some day he will come crawling back to her. (Which he does, literally, later in the opera.)
The Christian component:
When he is not dallying with pagan goddesses, Tannhäuser is dealing with devout Christian people, such as the virtuous Elisabeth, fellow minstrels, pilgrims, and even the Pope!
The Pope doesn’t like him, he tells the minstrel that the day he would forgive him, a tree will grow out of his staff. So, guess what happens at the end of the opera? You guessed it!
I don’t think Tannhäuser ever meets Jesus, though. That would be a later addition, which Kul’abin must have just thrown in there. Maybe they had extra costumes left over from “Jesus Christ Superstar”.
Anyhow, my point is, that Wagner himself went out of his way to both titillate and shock the bourgeoisie of his era.
Therefore, I suppose it’s fair game for these “visionary artists” to try to shock the good people out in Novosibirsk.
In conclusion:
Here is 2013 Albanian Opera version of the Bacchanale scene; looks like, in this production, they set Venusberg in Albanian whorehouse. So, if Albanians can be sacreligious, why not Russians?
I just fail to see why this Christianity thing caught on. Those old gods were much more fun, as I have oft times said before.
Via the Saker, Mozgovoy claims 2 rada deputies and one member of the council of ministers contacted him to enlist his support in overthrow of the Kiev regime:
Psychological warfare tactic most likely.
Even if it were genuine, it would be wrong to follow such a course. Ukraine has been sick and ruined ab initio, her only hope is to wipe the slate clean and start afresh – having expropriated, ruined and exiled Poroshenko, Pinchuk, Firtash, Akhmetov, Kolomoisky, Timoshenko and the all rest of the billionaires and their hangers-on.
Don’t forget Yatsenyuk, voted “Boy Most Unlikely To Be Arrogant” by his classmates simply because he was such a nerdy-looking knob that there seemed no possibility of him ever achieving anything to be arrogant about. Give him the ABC (Anywhere But Canada) treatment.
Oh no, it has already been decided at the highest levels that you’ll be taking on Yatsenyuk as a permanent lodger.
Part of your penance for killing John Lennon – kill the world’s coolest dude, live with the world’s lamest rat.
No kidding, that was one of those funny, “You had to be there” moments, because I was actually in England when John Lennon was killed, and I did not know about it. The NATO squadron was assembling at Portland, UK in preparation for setting out on a series of exercises, and I was there with HMCS SAGUENAY (a reef for lo these many years, poor old girl). Lying offshore was USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER with more than 1000 sailors and aircrew, it was an exciting time for a young sailor. I thought I would nip ashore and phone the missus, which at that time would still have been Number 1 of 3.
I duly hunted down a phone box and went through the procedures for an international call. No computerized robots in those days, I was speaking to a real person. When she asked me my name, I said “Mark Chapman”. She was silent for a moment, then said “I don’t think that’s very funny”, and disconnected me.
Perplexed, I went back to the ship, to be greeted with cries of “Killer!!!”, to which I replied cleverly “Wot??”. Then I learned what had happened.
Also on that same ship, but not on that deployment, a practical joke occurred which I have never forgotten. It was played by a couple of the lads against our Master Seaman (same as a Master Corporal in the army), Michael Shaun Patrick O’Reilly. The perpetrators were Tim Butcher and Barry Devlin. All these people are out of the military now and might even be dead for all I know. That’s not why I hesitated to mention it – it’s because it was quite racist.
Mike O’Reilly despised Pakistanis. I don’t know why, it seemed to be an exclusively East Coast thing, and he would not know a Pakistani from an Indian anyway – he just hated those he described as “towel heads”. So Butcher and Devlin (both attach-posted from HMCS FRASER, they did not even belong to SAGUENAY) spent considerable time and effort on drafting a fake letter from the Department of Immigration which informed Mr. Michael Shaun Patrick O’Reilly that he had been selected as the host to a Pakistani refugee family coming to live in Nova Scotia (we were based out of Halifax). This would be only temporary, the letter informed him – six months maybe, a year, tops. The family consisted of a Father and Mother, Grandmother and four children. Mr. O’Reilly was invited to apply for financial assistance, as the government did not expect him to do it off his own bat, it would help him and his family modify their accommodations and even purchase a large van for him which was his to keep.
Where they messed up was that they did not have a stamp (the letter was planned to be left where he worked as if it had arrived in a mail delivery during a port call, no email then), so they improvised by putting a nickel under the envelope and scribbling over it with a red pen to counterfeit an official-looking government stamp. I was OK to a casual glance but would not pass a detailed scrutiny. And it didn’t. I wasn’t there when Mike got the letter, but I was told it was well worth it, he really lost his mind, stamping and raging. But he quickly spotted the fake stamp and realized it was a joke.
Yats would not be very comfortable here, I am afraid. I like to think I am friendly and hospitable even to people I do not particularly like, that’s part of the Canadian genetic makeup now. But I have my limits.
Oh you navy types…
Well, you needn’t be too hospitable to Yatsie. In any event, your stipend for his upkeep probably won’t cover more than a bucket of fish heads every week.
Oh, no – he has a big grant coming from the IMF. He told me.
I believe that Yatseniuk demands to see the Burgess Shale, to see the evidence that there was life thriving happily on Earth some 500 million years ago without any traces of the Yukies dredging the Black Sea then.
That’s about the third time Jen’s mentioned the Burgess Shale. That Yat’s jumped the queue must be driving her batty.
Can’t you take the hint Mark and invite the lovely woman over to see the dig in your backyard.
Jen is assured of a seat when we eventually get together to go and see the Burgess Shale – it was originally going to be Yalensis, Peter, Alexander Mercouris and I think Giuseppe Flavio, and me as the driver. But Alex and Giuseppe kind of dropped out over the years, so we added Jen as our first female pilgrim.
If Yats wants to go, I will make the supreme sacrifice and make a special trip, just he and I, so that others do not have to be subjected to his presence.