The bellicose Conservative PM of Canada practices it. All the larger political parties in Parliament practice it. The Master, that is, the US Empire, practices it.
What is the new Russophobia? What is its purpose? Who does it serve? Is there any real merit to this new Cold War 2? Did the old Cold War really end?
Let's start with Stephen Cohen, a long-time expert on Russia since before the Gorbachev era.The following is from MARCH 2014. I would venture to say that Russophobia has only increased, especially from the militarist, sabre-rattling, Harper regime. But let's start somewhere.
The degradation of mainstream American press coverage of Russia, a country still vital to US national security, has been under way for many years. If the recent tsunami of shamefully unprofessional and politically inflammatory articles in leading newspapers and magazines—particularly about the Sochi Olympics, Ukraine and, unfailingly, President Vladimir Putin—is an indication, this media malpractice is now pervasive and the new norm.
Cohen points out a few characteristics ...
- often failing to provide essential facts and context;
- to make a clear distinction between reporting and analysis;
- to require at least two different political or “expert” views on major developments;
- or to publish opposing opinions on their op-ed pages.
The origin of this new Russophobia comes after the vodka-soaked bull in a China shop of Boris Yeltsin. Everything that Yeltsin did that dismembered Russia was good. Austerity and a catastrophic loss of population (deaths) was good. But now, with a leader that does not follow the masters in Washington, all bets are off ...
It began in the early 1990s, following the end of the Soviet Union, when the US media adopted Washington’s narrative that almost everything President Boris Yeltsin did was a “transition from communism to democracy” and thus in America’s best interests. This included his economic “shock therapy” and oligarchic looting of essential state assets, which destroyed tens of millions of Russian lives; armed destruction of a popularly elected Parliament ...
And now ...
Since the early 2000s, the media have followed a different leader-centric narrative, also consistent with US policy, that devalues multifaceted analysis for a relentless demonization of Putin, with little regard for facts. (Was any Soviet Communist leader after Stalin ever so personally villainized?) If Russia under Yeltsin was presented as having legitimate politics and national interests, we are now made to believe that Putin’s Russia has none at all, at home or abroad—even on its own borders, as in Ukraine.
The last point is super-critical. Russia under Putin is not allowed to have interests. They must obey the Empire. If they do not, then they must be exterminated. Literally. This is the new narrative.
The following is from last week.
Russians at the Gate: The Barbarians Are Coming
If in the past, white European countries had looming fears of barbarians invading at twilight and sacking their cities, today Western governments and media portray Russia in a similar way in an intention to awaken pristine fears. As in other irrational sentiments, such fears are being evoked despite the lack of substantial evidence. The headline of Huffington Post a week ago titled "Panic: Russia Invades" based on the account that 9 Russian soldiers were found somewhere across the border reveals the degree to which the US media, even that professing to be an alternative one, is engaging in stirring hidden fears and anxieties with weak evidence or none at all.
Invasions that never happened ...
"The hysteria with which the mainstream media covers the supposed "invasion" of Ukraine cannot be decoupled from the way in which Russians have been portrayed at large. When one seeks to understand the mindset by which many in the Western media and governments view not only Russians in Russia but also ethnic Russians who are citizens of Ukraine, one may gain the impression they are being seen as nothing short of barbarians."
Humanitarian aid? Can't trust the Roooooooooooooooooooooskies!
When Russia sought to transfer to East Ukraine humanitarian convoys that were badly needed, this possibility was met with alarm by the West and deemed an "invasion". Apparently, the possibility that Russians would engage in a humanitarian supply seemed too far-fetched. As "barbarians", Russians cannot be trusted to have humanitarian wishes and must have sinister reasons lurking behind their actions. After all, what else can be expected from those who according to German President Angela Merkel practice "the law of the jungle" in the Crimea? The so-called "anti-terrorism operation" by the Kiev government against residents of East Ukraine that resulted in over 2,600 dead was not condemned by Merkel but Russia’s humanitarian aid was criticized as a "provocation". The bloodless annexation of Crimea was seen as more of a savage act than the shelling of civilians by Kiev’s forces.
It may therefore not be too far fetched to say that the supposed Russian military buildup across the border is being perceived by the Western media with a dreadful fear of barbarians entering fortress Europe from Asia while the existence of fascist military units on Ukrainian soil is being overlooked even though its members adhere to white supremacy. Ukraine is depicted as being European and Russia as part of Eurasia while the killing of civilians in East Ukraine by the current Kiev regime is apparently accepted as part of the normative order of things. Cultivating hysterical and irrational fears and reinforcing prejudice against Russians has little to do with evidence nor reason, and in this way the Western media has been erring twice. It has not only failed to provide a balanced account of the conflict, but has malignly stirred nascent fears regarding the looming barbarian invasion.
More to follow. Two key ideas here are worth mentioning.
The Wolfowitz Doctrine: doctrine announces the U.S’s status as the world’s only remaining superpower following the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War and proclaims its main objective to be retaining that status.
the Brzezinski doctrine says that in order to remain the unipower,
Washington must control the Eurasian land mass. Brzezinski is willing for this to occur peacefully by suborning the Russian government into Washington’s empire. ”A loosely confederated Russia . . . a decentralized Russia would be less susceptible to imperial mobilization.” In other words, break up Russia into associations of semi-autonomous states whose politicians can be suborned by Washington’s money.
These two ideas are key, I think. They make clear that the Cold War never really ended and that the Russophobia has as its basis the determination of this (evil) Empire to dominate the Globe ... forever. And a lot of things make sense when the conduct of the USA, and its client states like Canada, are seen in this light.
But what do I know? Have at it!!
babble blogger Roger Annis on NATO’s new Cold War redraws left, liberal views on imperialism and war
Just under 25 years ago, the Cold War ended with a capitalist triumph. The nationalized economies and political structures of the Soviet Union and eastern Europe collapsed and a transition to a harsh, anti-social capitalism began.In the years that followed, an eastward expansion was undertaken by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the military alliance of the imperialist countries of Europe and North America. Many of the countries of eastern Europe joined the alliance, in explicit defiance of agreements by NATO with post-Soviet Russia not to expand in this way.
A generation later, the world finds itself at the outset of a new Cold War. It is directed by the same, NATO military powers and its aim is similar -- to stop any advance of anti-capitalist social revolution and to constrict and contain Russia.
What could Russia do to ingratiate themselves with the endless NATO demands to capitulate?
The imperialists expect Russia's leaders to act in the fashion of Egypt's military rulers, who faithfully police the Palestinian rebellion. But Russian leaders are cut from different cloth and are prepared to stand up for the country's capitalist interests and elite. They do not control the rebellion in eastern Ukraine. While they are willing to keep it in check, as evidenced by the recent ceasefire agreement that robbed rebels of a better outcome, they are not prepared to stand by while the rebellion goes down to bloody defeat.
This last is a good point; it's not clear whether the DNR and LPR will become a solid de facto state or be swallowed up by the monster from Kiev ....
What I've highlighted is also important. While Putin took decisive steps against the oligarchs in his own country - somethign the Western capitalist interests will never forgive him for - he is hardly some socialist whether of a Stalinist variety or some other. In the context of a virulent enemy that wishes to finish what the Nazis started, Putin is understandably determined to stand up for Russia's national interests, even if they are seen in a capitalist perspective. The Empire cannot abide socialism, yes, but the Empire cannot abide even regional capitalist rivals, which is more to the point today .....
CrossTalk: The Russia Story (and vid)
http://rt.com/shows/crosstalk/189468-russia-negative-image-abroad/
"Who is ultimately responsible for Russia's negative image abroad? Why is there a single narrative in the West where Russia is the ubiquitous enemy?
Is it really in the West's interest to have a weak Russia? CrossTalking with Charles Bausman, Elena Branson and Richard Krickus
I saw the first few minutes of that show but it would be helpful if anyone, having seen it, has anything to add that might shed some more light on the current pathological Russophobia by Western governments and their captive mass media.
Of all the questions that are most telling, I think asking the question: Do the Russians have a right to their own view on international and domestic affairs?- is perhaps critical.
Or, is it in fact that the only question of important to Western governments is whether the Russians do what is assigned to them by the citadels of imperialism, primarily, of course, the USA? I mean, other than roll over and drop dead?
What I see is that the Russians have had quite enough of Western hypocrisy, frothing hatred, zombified Russophobia, and so on. They are giving up on the West, having transfformed their society from the Soviet regime.. since it is clear that nothing is good enough for the West. They will look east, to China, and to the BRICS countries, and the vast majority of the world outside the Sauron-like lidless eye of the Five Eyes (that includes Canada, natch). They will insist on trade wrt their natural gas, oil and other commodities in their own currency, or a basket of BRICS currencies, and the West, instead, can drop dead. Once the US petrodollar is set adrift the whole monstrous ediface of Barad-dur - that is Washington - will unravel.
What is the new Russophobia?
The fear is that Russia, like China, like Brazil, like other large emerging economies are successful. Canada, UK, US are less relevent and that is the fear. The "Russo" part is merely that Russia isn't going along with the old empire: from Snowden to Libya to Syria. A few former US news anchors have moved their work to Russia. http://rt.com/ I am not saying that Russia is a bed of roses. There are lots of the same old problems in Russia as in the old empire. And, you should take what you read in the English-Russian press, all press for that matter, with a grain of salt. When it comes right down to it, Russia doesn't need us.
What is its purpose?
To try to hold on to the past.
Who does it serve
The falling empire.
Is there any real merit to this new Cold War 2?
"Cold War 2" is only a recent manuafactured news item. I don't really get it. Merit? It shows how ridiculous the old empire has become. The emporer really is wearing no clothes.
Did the old Cold War really end?
Yes, of course -- it's been 25 years, a quarter of a century. We are now seeing the collapse of the other side of the cold war.
I do, however, understand the fear of Soviet tanks coming again to former communist countries -- these are old fears. The oligarchs are using this fear but it is unfounded. The cold war really is over.
Russia, China Wonder When America Will Attack Them: US Journalist Don Debar (and vid)
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/09/22/379651/russia-china-wait-americ...
"Don Debar, an anti-war activist and radio host in New York, made the remarks in a phone interview with Press TV on Monday while commenting on a retired US Navy admiral's assertion that the US should keep its nuclear weapons in European countries in the wake of Russian activities in Ukraine.
Debar said the US is playing a very dangerous game with Russia, and with China, by the way, but particularly with Russia..."
The Russian government has decided to increase, in a very big way, funding for State Media aimed at foreign audiences. Given the enormous resources put into the information war and propaganda campaigns by Western governments and the (captive) mass media, this should not come as a surprise.
I've already noticed that some very interesting, and critical, statements, documents, press conferences, etc. from the Russian point of view have already been made available. Slavygrad.org and the blog of The Vinyard of the Saker are two worth looking at. The former is a good source for news from Novorossiya and the latter is of more general interest. The Saker did a great job of debunking the fraudulent maps that the BBC and other Western media outlets were using to outline the civil war conflict in Ukraine. So there will be more for those who wish to actually investigate alternative sources of information.
You can read about this at a newly developed website called Russia Insider. I don't expect this to be a source for your typical limousine liberal commentary, but I don't expect just straight Russian government perspective either.
Steep Increase in Funding for Russian State Media Aimed at Foreign Audiences
Hey! Here's a fun exercise!
Parse the lies of the US President. How many can you find?
(...) Russia’s actions in Ukraine challenge this post-war order. Here are the facts. After the people of Ukraine mobilized popular protests and calls for reform, their corrupt President fled. Against the will of the government in Kiev, Crimea was annexed. Russia poured arms into Eastern Ukraine, fueling violent separatists and a conflict that has killed thousands. When a civilian airliner was shot down from areas that these proxies controlled, they refused to allow access to the crash for days. When Ukraine started to reassert control over its territory, Russia gave up the pretense of merely supporting the separatists, and moved troops across the border.This is a vision of the world in which might makes right – a world in which one nation’s borders can be redrawn by another, and civilized people are not allowed to recover the remains of their loved ones because of the truth that might be revealed. America stands for something different. We believe that right makes might – that bigger nations should not be able to bully smaller ones; that people should be able to choose their own future.
These are simple truths, but they must be defended. America and our allies will support the people of Ukraine as they develop their democracy and economy. We will reinforce our NATO allies, and uphold our commitment to collective defense. We will impose a cost on Russia for aggression, and counter falsehoods with the truth. We call upon others to join us on the right side of history – for while small gains can be won at the barrel of a gun, they will ultimately be turned back if enough voices support the freedom of nations and peoples to make their own decisions.
Moreover, a different path is available – the path of diplomacy and peace and the ideals this institution is designed to uphold. The recent cease-fire agreement in Ukraine offers an opening to achieve that objective. If Russia takes that path – a path that for stretches of the post-Cold War period resulted in prosperity for the Russian people – then we will lift our sanctions and welcome Russia’s role in addressing common challenges. That’s what the United States and Russia have been able to do in past years – from reducing our nuclear stockpiles to meet our obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to cooperating to remove and destroy Syria’s declared chemical weapons. And that’s the kind of cooperation we are prepared to pursue again—if Russia changes course. (...)
What Russophobia? Obama places Russia between the Ebola virus and international terrorism.
Sadly, I'm not kidding.
and here's the reply from the Russian foreign minister...
“As for the U.S. President’s speech, we earned the second place among the threats to international peace and stability: number one is the Ebola virus, number two is the so-called Russian aggression in Europe and ISIL and other terrorists who are now taking hold of the Middle East and primarily of the countries, which have evidenced U.S. interventions, are ranked as number three.”
You can't make this sh*t up.
USA! USA! How many kids did you kill today?!
USA! USA! How many kids did you kill today?!
You can read about this at a newly developed website called Russia Insider. I don't expect this to be a source for your typical limousine liberal commentary
Apparently not.
http://russia-insider.com/en/religion_ukraine/2014/09/04/02_40_32/ukrain...
http://russia-insider.com/en/tv_culture_society/2014/09/15/05_17_43/elit...
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics_culture_christianity_society/2014/...
If you don't agree with the following, does that make one a Russophobe?
http://russia-insider.com/en/religion_ukraine/2014/09/04/02_40_32/ukrain...
Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and Russia are expressing their shock at how America has now become the New Evil Empire, promoting abortion and privileges for perverts, with their aggressive pro-homosexual agenda, bullying African governments to legalize abortion and homosexuality, and sending generous aid to radical Middle Eastern governments which severely persecute the Christian Church.
There are people in the West that want to remove everything related to Christ from public view, just as the communists did during the Soviet enslavement of Russia.
In September 2013 Putin took part in the final plenary meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club. On this occasion the president also mentioned the spiritual conflict between East and West:
“We can see how many of the Euro-Atlantic countries are actually rejecting their roots, including the Christian values that constitute the basis of Western civilization. They are denying moral principles and all traditional identities: national, cultural, religious and even sexual. They are implementing policies that equate large families with same-sex partnerships, and belief in God with the belief in Satan.”
Perhaps you should actually read some of the contributions on this thread other than your own. Russophobia includes refusing to accept that the Russians have their own views that differ from the US views, etc. If you think that they are NOT allowed to have views different from your own, then yes, you're probably a Russophobe.
One other thing as well; the current Russophobia, far from undermining the conservative aspects of the Putin regime, is a gift for Putin who has never been so popular, thanks to the stream of apoplectic venom directed his way. If this Russophobia continues, he will be President of Russia as long as FDR was President of the USA.
The Ukraine crisis in a single photo, - or just more Russophobia?
Perhaps you should actually read some of the contributions on this thread other than your own
I read all the links, including the article by Paul Craig Roberts where he tries to defend the Confederacy, Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany all in one paragraph. (Apparently, the doctrine of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" is also retroactive.)
Hey Sherpa, go you one better!
Ukrainian oligarchs ... winning hearts and minds in Eastern Ukraine by
bombing their own citizens!
Christiane Amanpour has a recent article in which she outlines how the Malaysian PM, Najib Razak, had to, ON HIS OWN, seek out the resistance fighters and negotiate the release of the MH17 bodies and the black boxes. Meanwhile, the Western countries were more interested in their foul Russophobic narrative and, seemingly, indifferent to the concerns of the families of the victims.
Can you say "Western scum bags" ? HTFG.
“Normally as a government, you’d only deal with another government. But here is a movement, a separatist movement, and there was this impasse.”
“We couldn't retrieve the bodies; we couldn't get our hands on the black boxes; we couldn't have access to the crash site.”
“Dealing with the separatists was something just unprecedented.”
There were many even in his own government who didn’t know what he was doing.
“I'm afraid I had to act alone, because it was very, very sensitive. I had to press the buttons, I had to work the back channels. I had to even conduct the operation itself.”
“I was doing it myself, I was literally guiding our team from one checkpoint to another.
RT correspondent Paula Slier faced strong anti-Russian bias during an OSCE panel on the freedom of journalism. She was invited to speak about her experience as a reporter while covering the situation in the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine....
“I mentioned that I receive death threats on Facebook and Twitter for my reports on RT, that my colleagues have been – and continue to be – denied entry into Ukraine,” Slier said ... [/quote]
Death threats for challenging the hegemonic Western narrative.
From Bekayne's first link:
Ukraine is a physical, visible battlefield in a spiritual struggle between a debauched, apostate, West led by the United States and a traditionalist Christian Russia
I am thrilled that Russia is funding its own answer to The Onion.
;)
Meh. I dont' agree with that crap any more than you do. But it's clear that such conservative views find more and more support when the frothing vilification goes on or even intensifies, when the entire country is targetted for dismemberment and destruction, when rejuvenated Nazis are given a green light to physically exterminate ethnic Russians in east Ukraine, etc, etc. etc.
Sergei Glaziev, advisor to Russian President Putin, even talks about developing a "social-conservative" synthesis and seems to share much of the neo-liberal wet dreams of the neo cons and their useful idiots in the West. Well, almost. Glaziev sees the necessity of currency and capital flight controls and doesn't make everything subservient to market idolatry and fantasies of everlasting Empires. The fact is, such views are much better than the Western blood lust and Russophobic hate propaganda which may very well start World War IV. (Glaziev says WW III was the Cold War). If you can't see that then, in my opinion, you aren't thinking well or deeply enough about these important issues. Preventing war is still the most sacred responsibility of any political doctrine.
The Ukraine crisis in a single photo, - or just more Russophobia?
good one, the crisis in one image;
as for Russophobia, an imaginary state of mind, after 15 years of regular study of Russian, a very hard row to hoe, I have done as much work as I can to understand our Russian friends;
but when they attack and subjugate parts of a neighbouring country, I say Do sviydanye tovarichie, this is indefensible
good one, the crisis in one image;as for Russophobia, an imaginary state of mind, after 15 years of regular study of Russian, a very hard row to hoe, I have done as much work as I can to understand our Russian friends;
but when they attack and subjugate parts of a neighbouring country, I say Do sviydanye tovarichie, this is indefensible
As Peter Lavelle says, which I will repeat, when did this "invasion" take place? What day? Lavelle very wisely points out that no one who makes this bogus claim can actually answer this question. Since you are willing to refer to this, let's see some evidence.
And no, grainy photos of Loch Ness monster quality don't count. lol.
Further comic relief:
Russian ship Akademik Sergey Vavilov had role in recent Franklin ship discovery
All that obsession by the militarist Harper regime in Ottawa over the Franklin expedition, Canadian "sovereignty" in the Arctic, and.... turns out the Rooooooooooooskies played an important role in the recent discovery.
You cannot make this sh*t up.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announces that one of the ships from Sir John Franklin's doomed 1845-46 expedition through the last stretch of the Northwest Passage has been found as Parks Canada's Ryan Harris looks on Sept. 9. At the time, Harper billed the search for the ship as an assertion of Canada's sovereignty in the Arctic, but it has since come to light that a Russian vessel played a key role in the endeavour....A Russian-owned ship became part of the multi-partner Victoria Strait Expedition after it became apparent that the Canadian alternative, a former coast guard icebreaker, couldn't carry the private financial donors underwriting part of the search....
When the Franklin ship was discovered earlier this month by coast guard icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Akademik Sergey Vavilov was 17 km away helping facilitate the government's sonar work. In addition to housing a federal underwater sonar vehicle, it also helped transport another survey boat to the Laurier.
And another thing. Just as a reminder, Russia is the only country in the world that treats their so-called NorthEast Passage as an internal waterway, just as Canada views the NorthWest Passage as an internal Canadian Waterway. Even the US Empire opposes Canada on this issue. But the bumbling Conservatives in Ottawa don't seem to be able to distinguish those who agree with us from those who disagree. They're too busy making Cold War speeches that are less than useless.
Which all goes to show that the Russophobia of the Harper regime - a Russophobia that the Opposition Parties parrot like the trained seals they are - does Canada no good at all.
-------------------------------------------------------
Addition: Sergey Vavilov, whom the ship is named after, was the brother of the great, anti-Stalinist hero Nikolai Vavilov. May his name live forever.
... a most interesting interview of Dmitri Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Head of the Military-Industrial Commission, Special Envoy of the President and one of the most interesting and influential representatives of the "Eurasian Sovereignists" and the man who, one day, could succeed Vladimir Putin. Rogozin is absolutely hated by the Atlantic Sovereignists and by the AngloZionist Empire.This interview is important because it shows what Russia is really doing while keeping up the pretense of "partnership" with the AngloZionist Empire: preparing for war while hoping that it can be avoided. In this interview, Rogozin speaks to a domestic audience in one of the most popular shows on Russian TV. Thanks to the Saker Community you will now see the Russia which the MSM never shows you and the one which frightens the Empire so much.
Deputy Defence Minister of Russia - interview on Russian TV - preparing for a NATO attack.
As the Saker points out, this is a perspective that you do not get in the zombified Russophobic Western media. But what is perhaps even more striking, is that a politician can talk, extemporaneously, about policy and matters of state for such a long time without a teleprompter or commercial breaks. When we look at the idiots that we are saddled with as politicians in our own country, aside from their monstrous neo-liberal views, we see shallow morons who care barely construct a sentence. The video is of interest for a number of reasons.
click on the CC and you will get English in closed captioning. This guy really is quite different from the vast majority of our own politicians. This guy is really quite funny. At one point, after commenting that the USA (and its vassals like Canada) cannot send astronauts to the International Space Station without Russian rockets, he suggested the following ...
"the USA should send their astronauts to the international space station with a trampoline".
aha ha ha ha ha. Let's see Jon Stewart put that on the air. lol.
Blackmailing the authorities, and "morally humiliating" ethnic Russians by driving around their homeland with a flag.
Obviously they need to be deported:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/crimean-leader-vows-to-addres...
Meanwhile, in Kharkiv, here's another one for the white paper on human rights violations. Genocide, obviously:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29405392
From what I just learned in the other place, it is apparently an anti-Semitic attack too, although Lenin probably never knew that his great grandfather was Jewish. His sister only learned in the 30s, and the KGB kept it a secret until the 90s.
Rogozin makes Gorbachev look like a lightweight. Multi-talented, funny, an easily-recognizable patriot, etc, etc. Compared to Canadian politicians he's like ... a Martian. He's like the late Jack Layton as a high-ranking Minister in a government that really gives a sh*t about Canada and her people. Jaw-dropping. Inspiring. Truly.
If Vladimir Putin has the confidence to surround himself with such bright lights then one thing should be clear even to the Russophobic stooges we get here; behind the current Russian President there are even more skilled public figures that must restore some national dignity for the public in that country. It is a shame that Canadians of so many political stripes allow themselves to be led around by the nose by that venomous regime in Ottawa, and its mostly captive mass media, and wind up forgetting that polticians should serve the country and not the other way around.
@ikosmos
Indeed. I agree, 'shallow morons' - with a media and increasingly, alas, a citizenry, to match. No wonder Canada's puppet pols fell so head over heels for Ukraine's visiting billionaire oligarch President Poroshenko, who aptly observed 'Canada is the most Ukrainian country outside Ukraine.' Unfortunately he probably meant Western Ukraine..
Indeed. I agree, 'shallow morons' - with a media and increasingly, alas, a citizenry, to match. No wonder Canada's puppet pols fell so head over heels for Ukraine's visiting billionaire oligarch President Poroshenko, who aptly observed 'Canada is the most Ukrainian country outside Ukraine.' Unfortunately he probably meant Western Ukraine..
The Saker actually refers to the Zombified part of the Ukrainian population ... transformed by decades of cultural and educational Russophobia since the destruction of the Soviet Union and turned into extras in a Hollywood movie. The recent destruction of a Lenin statue in Kharkov is a case in point. It looks like a zombie movie. Literally.
The Liberals and NDP (and Greens, I dunno) are unwilling to challenge the repulsive hate propaganda from the Harper jackboot regime on this topic, looking only in terms of short term votes and the 2015 election, and fail to see, or care, that such hate-filled politics shifts politics generally in the direction of the Conservatives anyway.
This is also how wars get started. But the Opposition are simply too cowardly to care.
Actually I think it had more to do with the fact they barely escaped what happened to the south of them (and who knows what is up the road).
After all, they had their administration building overrun too. And when their mayor, who initially opposed the Maidan protests, came out in favour of the interim government and a united Ukraine, he wound up being mysteriously shot in the back.
More immediately, the tearing down of the statue probably had to do with a rally that almost happened the day before:
http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/kharkiv-police-foils-communist-p...
Do I support Ukraine's actions against the communists? No, I think it is pretty reactionary. But I can see, given the threat to the east of them, and that a lot of the rebels are pining for the old glory days, that they would resort to that sort of a response.
ah. So you're agnostic about banning the opposition Communists? Gosh, what a concession.
I suppose the next thing we'll be hearing is that ballistic missiles, phosphorus incendiaries, and roving mortar fire on the Novorossiyan civilian population is ... "unpleasant" and you don't support it. Especially now that it's been stopped at the cost of hundreds or thousands of lives, half a billion in damage to the infrastructure, a million refugees, [800,000 of which fled to Russia "the aggressor"] and Ukraine turned into a failed state.
No. I oppose it. Can you read?
And by the way, the phosphorous was a myth cooked up by the rebels or the Russians (though there is a claim that they tried to buy some).
Don't hold your breath on that 'unpleasant'. A perusal of posts made by the resident Russophobes indicate little or no concern, empathy or regret. Only denial, evasion or cold hard indifference.
Yes, NDPP.
Obviously I think you strangle kittens for fun in your spare time too. But if you think anyone really cares, you might want to remember that there are only half a dozen of us talking about the actual subject at hand (or posting endless links, as it were).
not to mention + 32,000 views. Obviously some do...
Many babblers may not be aware that Russophobic media is also awash ... in Russia, thanks to a great deal of foreign-owned media that regularly sprays things like "Kiev Man Finds Dog that looks like Putin" (Moscow Times - no, really!) all over their pages.
As a backlash, there is now legislation limiting foreign ownership of Russian media. See ...
How the Foreign-Owned Media in Russia Provoked the Current Backlash
Imagine a foreign owned newspaper in India carrying headlines like “New Delhi is Unlovable or Unlivable”; or in China claiming “the Government is Committing Crimes without Punishment”; In “authoritarian”, “neo-Stalinist” Russia (labels it freely uses), The Moscow Times does precisely that.
Or take the Times’ regular columnist Masha Gessen. Over 10 years she has written hundreds of pieces, one telling readers things like: they live “in a country where secular and religious authorities openly encourage fascist violence”. This is the same “persecuted” Masha Gessen who has published several books in Russia and has sacked hundreds of people whilst heading important Russian media outlets despite her US passport (as an example of her writing read this.)
Or take Alexei Yablokov, a reporter for Vedomosti (a Russian project of The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal) who wrote last summer whilst standing in line for a patriotic exhibition how he felt “an irresistible desire” to “warm his feet” in the Eternal Flame of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier – the country’s most sacred monument to the 27 million Soviet citizens who died fighting fascism in World War II.
I don't have to imagine that kind of a headline about India or any other place where there is a free press. You see it all the time.
Never mind that RT has bureaux in the U.S. and Britain (and they'd rightly scream bloody murder if those states tried to shut them down), It is pretty common for the media to be critical when warranted; whether it is foreign or domestic isn't really the issue.
For that matter, foreign ownership doesn't really have anything to do with this crackdown either.THe Russian government has gone after independent media in exactly the same way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dozhd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenta.ru
http://mic.com/articles/88095/putin-s-allies-just-completed-a-hostile-ta...
Now if you're not too busy with this stream of whatever it is you are posting, ikosmos, you might notice some actual examples of discrimination happening in the world:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/russia-upset-over-canadian-visa-...
The stupidity of this move is unbelievable, and not just because of its implications for international cooperation. Do they not realize who has the only taxi to get up there?
Canada has previously taken a hard line against Russia space-wise. In April, the government called off the launch of a Canadian communications satellite on a Russian rocket citing "current events in the Ukraine." Ottawa has yet to say when it might approve the launch, a spokesman for the satellite company said Tuesday.
Ignorant Harper Conserva-zombies. Maybe they can use a trampoline to get the astronauts up to the International Space Station, (a joke from Russian Deputy PM the other day) given that they have to rely on Russian rockets for a number of years.
Surely ikosmos, you cannot use the phrase "failed state" and Novorissiya in the same sentence without a deep sense of irony. As a quick and dirty check on wikipedia will tell you:
"The self-declared Federal State of Novorossiya is a proposed confederation between the Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic, two, internationally unrecognized, breakaway states claiming independence from Ukraine. The area is internationally considered as sovereign territory of the Ukrainian state. No country has recognized their claim to independence other than South Ossetia, a breakaway part of Georgia and which, itself, has very limited, and disputed, recognition. The Lugansk People's Republic has asked to be recognized by Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, Serbia, Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. The Donetsk People's Republic has asked to be recognized by Transnistria and Abkhazia. None of these countries have responded to their requests."
Talk about failed states .... Perhaps you could usefully open a parallel thread on "The New Russophilia"?
Transniztria and Abkhazia haven't responded?
It is kind of bad when you aren't even recognized by members of the Commonwealth of Unrecognized States.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_for_Democracy_and_Rights_of_Nations
On the other hand, they do have one major patron pretending to work behind the scenes that I think trumps all that, even if its illegitimate step-siblings are giving it the cold shoulder.
You're grasping at straws Smith, although I must thank you for providing ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF CURRENT RUSSOPHOBIA. lol.
Amusing examples, really. Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia are in no danger of falling apart, etc. More to the point, what alternative do you outline for the resistance, anyway? Take their chances with the Ukrainian fascist militias and the Poroshenko regime?
To be honest, it hardly seems worthwhile to reply to such silliness. By the way, this sort of conduct is exactly how Clayton Ruby describes PM Stephen Harper.
“Harper seems credible until you confront him. He hates evidence and when you confront him with it, he falls apart and his positions often become positively silly. Harper wants a world in which independent voices don’t exist.”
Smith, you're not Stephen Harper in disguise, are you?
While delayed for 3 months, Germany's public broadcaster has admitted to anti-Russian bias in its coverage of the Ukrainian civil conflict.
The chief director of ARD, Germany's largest public TV broadcaster, responded to viewers' criticism and the supervisory committee over its coverage of the Ukraine crisis. He said it conveyed Russian interests “too little” and could question NATO more.
The belated admission came out months after the Advisory Council made its initial complaint when the leaked document was made public by online magazine Telepolis.
Confessions of bias (in German) from the blog of the public broadcaster
Among the accusations against the channel ...
1. Passing over in silence NATO's aggressive expansion to the east;
2. Failing to question the legitimacy of the Maidan/coup imposed authorities in Kiev;
3. Ignoring the lawfulness of the Crimean Referendum, having never investigated it, or its history;
4. Gross under-reporting of the mass protests of Russian-speaking minorities in eastern Ukraine against the coup-imposed government;
5. Misrepresenting the death of 2 residents of Krasnoarmeysk as the result of DNR authorities (resistance) when it was the military volunteers of the Kiev regime that killed them;
and so on.
Amusing examples, really. Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia are in no danger of falling apart, etc. More to the point, what alternative do you outline for the resistance, anyway? Take their chances with the Ukrainian fascist militias and the Poroshenko regime?
No alternative. They have an agreement for three years of limited self rule as part of Ukraine, no?
And who said anything about those illegitimate children falling apart? My point is what does it say if they don't recognize the rebels yet. My guess is, considering that most of the protesters at the Odessa last spring came from Transnistria is that Putin hasn't told them to recognize them yet.
Preaching to the choir, ikosmos. Here at Babble we are contrarian by nature and pretty much all know and recognize the assorted biases of western media, both public and private. And so delight in regularly calling them to account, and revel in their occasional acknowledgements of shortcomings.
What we really pine for (particularly in a thread on Russophobia) is some simple acknowledgement of frailty from the RTs of this world. But no, all we are met with is the certainty of the single-minded. (Until a journalist suddenly goes AWOL and denounces it all as a charade.)
No alternative. They have an agreement for three years of limited self rule as part of Ukraine, no?
Keep beating that dead horse. I guess you enjoy it or something. The fact is, the Novorossiyan authorities have so much contempt for the junta in Kiev that they have set their own dates for local elections, completely outside and before the date ordered by Kiev.
A ceasefire is on and the Ukrainian authorities drop bombs on schools on the first day of school anyway. A biology teacher and two others get blown to bits. All this blather about self-rule within Ukraine is idiotic. At best, it is face-saving nonsense for US/NATO and its puppet regime.
Novorossiya, or the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics, will never forgive what Kiev has done.
Be that as it may, it is what they signed onto in Minsk, and what they are breaking by continuing to attack the airport in Donetsk.
But what I am also wondering is, can you talk in a normal voice and have a simple conversation, or are you completely incapable of responding in anything other than slogans and insults? I'm not going to call you a Nazi or anything, but I am frankly wondering what it is like to hang out with you at parties.
It was Kuchma, a former President of Ukraine, and not the Poroshenko regime that signed the agreement. Plus, the fascist or pro-Nazi miltias like Azov are not bound by the agreement in their view. Then there are the private armies of the oligarchs. And so on. These out of control groups - and babblers like yourself have used this "out of control" attribute to give the Ukrainian regime a pass when it comes to the atrocities of the former - will keep attacking, whatever the agreement. Think zombies.
You seem to have a conveniently short memory ... the Ukrainian regime and its miltias were taking a drubbing militarily and, after boasting of marching down the main street in Donetsk, had to settle for a ceasefire. Now the regime is re-arming, digging in their position, to change the "facts on the ground". This is the Israeli-style of warfare. Both sides accuse each other of breaking the ceasefire ... but only one of them is using civilian targets rountinely to get their way.
Schools. Red Cross. What next?
supplement: we probably don't go to the same social gatherings. If we do, then rum is my drink. We can agree on other issues, no doubt.
You can buy your own damned drinks, but since you mention it, I could care less, so long as I don't have to put up with you breathlessly whispering this crap in my ear while we are necking in the corner.
A top German news editor notes that the CIA is bribing journalists to write the latest Russophobia.
Members of the German media are paid by the CIA in return for spinning the news in a way that support US interests, and some German outlets are nothing more than PR appendages of NATO, according to a new book by Udo Ulfkotte, a former editor of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, one of Germany's largest newspapers.
The story also provides a very brief synopsys on some of the many nefarious activities of the CIA in its ugly history.
Russophobia in The Guardian is critiqued by the new Russia Insider ...
... reinforcing Russophobia and a negative characterization of ethnic Russians as somehow different from others who do not possess legitimate interests and who must be viewed with suspicion.It is quite unfortunate that while one can and should criticise any government, including the Russian government, when necessary, one’s ethnicity is raised as a legitimate concern by a progressive newspaper.
Russophobia has become mainstream in the west, with Russians serving as the new Jews or Muslims, due to the unproven assumption that their loyality is always questionable, that they may be serving other countries' interests and that they may be operating in the shadows.
