The new Russophobia

Sophie Shevardnadze interviews the doyen of US-Russian relations Stephen Cohen:

NATO games in Ukraine push world 5 minutes before nuclear midnight - Stephen Cohen

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While discussion ranged from Ukraine to the disgraceful state of American journalism, Cohen's overarching message was that NATO expansion to Russia's doorstep has a created a new cold war, one in which nuclear war is a very real possibility, especially if the ceasefire in Eastern Ukraine collapses.

Cohen cited the late George Kennan, "considered the wisest man in America about Russian-American relations", who once warned that NATO expansion into Eastern Europe was "a terrible, reckless, stupid decision and it will lead to a new cold war." Going even further, Cohen remarked that the eastward expansion of NATO has effectively ended constructive diplomatic relations between Eastern Europe and Russia, pointing out that former Soviet bloc nations can now "punch Russia in the nose and hide behind NATO."

The West's "new" cold war posturing and rhetoric is best exemplified by the US Senate, where "the War Party...has been drafting a very harsh, cold war law to punish Russia in many ways and moreover make it possible to send weapons to countries that are not part of NATO but were former parts of the Soviet Union."

And we have babblers who still ridicule the idea that war between the US (and its vassals like Canada) and Russia is a dangerous possibility. But then zombified Russophobia is alive and well, and not just in the War Party in the US, Canada and NATO, but also in eastern Europe and in the faux left in Western Europe and North America.

 

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There are, of course, alternate sources of information about Russia, Russian opinion-makers, and such. These include:

RT - arms-length Russian media, very good on foreign policy matters, some Russian social issues, definitely not specializing in Western-style "Kremlin watching"; best show is Peter Lavelle's "Crosstalk" although some others, including MP George Galloway's, Max Keiser, Larry King, Sophie Shevardnadze, etc, are quite good as well.

Vinyard of the Saker - blog of excellent quality, written by a Russian Orthodox Church type, with good information on Ukrainian civil war. Much more critical of Putin but not in the knee-jerk Russophobic manner typical of Western media. Absolutely excellent maps, etc,  of the conflict on the ground of military quality. Im sure NATO spies on this blog.

Russia: other points of view - Canadian, former diplomat, good on foreign policy matters relating to Russia. This is a good source when you need a quote from somewhere other than RT or Russian media (some people are so brainwashed that they are unable to process Russian media and only accept Western corporate sources, especially the faux left, etc.) . Many academic and foreign service experts here. Patrick Armstrong has a summary of events every month or so. It is absoluttely a gold mine of information, links, etc. highly recommended.

Russia Insider - brand new, seems to be a compilation of Russian media, all over the map politically.

Slavyangrad - critical novorossiyan source, less professional however.

Colonel Cassad. (in Russian) mockingly refers to itself as the bullhorn of totalitarian propaganda. lol. details about the Ukrainian civil war you will get nowhere else (other than the Saker)

Colonel Cassad in faithful translation into English

6079_Smith_W wrote:

Though that is kind of interesting - someone interviewed on RT making reference to Russia giving military help to the rebels (around 2:40), Cohen's prediction of NATO action in Ukraine is based on a reaction to that.

Cohen's prediction is something he, and other scholars like him (Mersheimer, Matlock, even H Kissenger ffs!)  have been making since the NATO barbarians have been expanding their horrific military alliance eastward. Cohen even specifically refers to the monstrous stupidity of the Clinton regime in deciding to expand NATO all the way to the Russian borders and then, like the school yard bully, saying idiotic things like, "Oh THOSE anti-missile weapons? They're aimed at ... um ... Iran! Yeah, Iran! "

Why are you supporting such despicable and obvious liars and warmongers?

The latest episode of "Crosstalk" (RT's flagship program with Peter Lavelle, guests today included Eric Kraus, Charles Bausman, and Alexander Mercouris) called Ukraine's Free Fall relates to the issues of Russophobia in the news and is worth watching for that reason.

While somewhat repetitive (useful for those exposed to a steady diet of Western fabrications) the guests make some interesting points. The matter of the survival of Ukraine as a unitary state is covered, as is the abysmal failure of Western media to provide anything more than the most superficial and wrong-headed coverage of the issues.

Ebola and ISIS and yet another financial meltdown have moved the short-attention span to other issues, yes, but it is also true that the Western regimes, and their toady mass media, (or, as one of the speakers puts it "journalists have become the union of stenographers" meaning that they simply regurgitate, unthinkingly, every bare-faced lie that their governments announce, no matter how ridiculous) are genuinely embarrassed about getting the story so wrong and creating this Russophobic narrative ... Mind you, it is very true that "No one is going to get fired for awful coverage of Ukraine." lol. No kidding.

So, somewhat repetitive, yes, but a good review of the current situation.

Is the CIA Running a Defamation Campaign Against Putin?

The story is from the Vinyard of the Saker in which the author is interviewed by the new Russia Insider. The latter is turning into something quite amazing ... a one-stop website with a wide variety of articles, stories, etc. including plenty of debunking of the endless Russophobic and Putinphobic propaganda.

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The latest hot topic in the Russian media. Russian politicians are talking about it. Historical precedent and behavior of Western media suggests that they are.

A major topic in the Russian media is mystification with how Putin is portrayed in the Western media.

Wildly popular at home, and seen as a decent, modest, an admirable person, and Russians don't understand how there can be such a disconnect with Western impressions.

Recently, leading Russian commentators and politicians have been suggesting that this can only be explained by a deliberate campaign to defame Putin, by governments or other groups.

Some of the headlines re MH17: "Putin's Looters Rob Brit Victims," "Putin's Victims", "Putin's Rebels Blew Up Plane," "Putin Killed My Son," "Russian Gangsters Killed our Loved Ones," "The Fingers Point At Putin," etc etc.

See the front page attack on multiple newspaper launch pads

But why personalize such an attack?

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The logic, they argue, is that by defaming the leader of a country, you weaken his power domestically by undermining popular support for him, and internationally, by rallying popular opinion to support policies against that country. The ultimate goal, they argue, is to weaken the country itself. They also talk about regime change....

Techniques include, for example ...

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Here are some examples they point to:

• Portraying him as a scheming dictator trying to rebuild a repressive empire.
• Claiming he personally ordered the murder of a number of journalists, and personally ordered a KGB defector to be murdered with radiation poisoning.
• Frequently citing unsubstantiated rumors he is having an affair with a famous gymnast.
• Allegations that he has stashed away billions for his personal benefit, without providing evidence.
• Recent article in newsweek claiming he leads a luxurious and lazy lifestyle, sleeping late.
• Recent article in NYT focusing on a supposed personal arrogance.
• Hillary Clinton mentioning in speech after speech that he is a bad guy, a bully, that one must confront him forcefully.
• Frequently using pejoratives to describe his person - "a jerk and a thug" (Thomas Friedman this week in the NYT)
• Mis-quoting him on his regret about the collapse of the Soviet Union.
• Articles about a supposed super-luxury villa built for him in southern Russia.
• The over-the top headlines in the western media (they were worst of all in Germany) portraying him personally responsible for murdering the victims of MH17.
• And soft stuff - magazine covers making him look sinister, monstrous, etc.

The Saker notes 2 key reasons for targetting Putin.

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1. He partially, but not fully, restored Russia's sovereignty which under Gorbachev and Yeltsin had been totally lost … Russia then was a US colony like Ukraine is today … and,

2. He dared to openly defy the USA and its civilizational model.

Russia is providing a rallying point for all those who oppose this or that policy of the Empire. Hence, on the one hand, the unending vitrol directed towards both the Russian leader and the country generally, and, on the other hand, the support, even if only quiet, that the Russians are earning for themselves ....

The Saker:  In fact, the Empire spends a lot more on information warfare then on the military hardware actually used.

In some ways Russia actually has MORE diversity than the USA, or Canada, in regard to views on foreign policy. In Canada, for example, all 3 major parties are essentially warmongers for Israel, the Ukrainian junta, and have insignificant differences on many or most other issues. In the US, naturally, everyone is for war, and continuous war at that. When it comes to views on Russia, the same predictable, warmed-over cold war propaganda (ha!) applies to both the US and Canada. It is as if Germany was still considered a Nazi regime, and policy decisions were based on that oafish view.

Anyway, all that aside, domestically in Russia you have the Atlantic Integrationists (a virtual 5th column, suggesting close relations with the very states that are promotining sanctions and preparing for war against Russia) versus the Eurasian Sovereignists. Putin has wisely refused to be stampeded into an isolationst approach, and all this blather about wanting to restore the "Soviet Empire" or characterizing him personally in all these unoriginal and odious ways is falling on critical ears outside of the brainwashed Anglosphere.

What the US [and its vassals like Canada] wants is a completely subservient Russia, run by drunks and oligarchs, completely under the thumb of the Empire. A revived and self-respecting Russia should, in the Empire's predatory view, be dismembered into a dozen harmless statelets. They don't really care if Ukraine is ripped to shreds; after all, their is a certain gleeful and ghoulish enthusiasm in seeing Slav killing Slav.There is, in this view, very little different between the plans of the Third Reich, expressed in Operation Barbarossa, and the current plans to destroy Russia. The means, and the pace, are different, that's all.

Perhaps the most self-evident stupidity of current Russophobic views is the unexamined opinion about Russia having "interests". What is accepted as "realist" about the Empire itself, and some of its noisy allies, is utterly rejected for Russia. Russia is not allowed to have interests; Russia is "accepted" only to the degree that it does what the Empire wants it to do.

A fascist regime on its borders? "None of your business!" says the NATO thugs. Deployment of anti-ballistic missiles in Europe and rejection of the ABM Treaty generally? "Oh, that! That's just aimed against "terrorists". Nothing to worry about. Our aims are peaceful." Financing of Islamic fundamentalists against the former Sov regime, then again in Chechen, then again against their Syrian ally? "Snicker snicker. There are "good" terrorists and "bad" terrorists. The ones we support are "good". And so on.

This Empire, the first truly global Empire, which has had a continuous and official first strike nuclear policy, conducts itself according to the policy of "Those who oppose the Emperor must DIE!" I don't know how the babbler Yanqui sycophants can justify the US President having the authority to kill anyone, including any "American", anywhere in the world at any time. Obama has the authority, under US law, to kill Ed Snowden while he's in Russia. No other elected leader anywhere has such an authority.

It is this Empire, and its "owned" private media, that conducts the current Russophobic campaign. As the author of the Vinyard of the Saker notes, "  In fact, the Empire spends a lot more on information warfare then on the military hardware actually used."

Russia and the West - The New Normal?

Russia Insider, a very interesting new site, has a discussion forum with the latest on the topic noted above. One comment that is very interesting comes from Alexander Mercouris. Mercouris is of the view that the Russians are far more realistic about current events than the West is, and the latter will eventually have to come around.

What is fascinating is the way he characterizes Western attitudes.

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The West by contrast saw things very differently, more ideologically.  They saw a “victory” of the west and of liberal capitalism and democracy over Russia. The Russians saw themselves as making concessions for mutual benefit.  The West saw them capitulating to its demands.

In light of these very different perceptions, it was inevitable that rapprochement would be replaced by conflict, with the Russians feeling taken advantage of, and the West angry that the Russians refuse to act as “losers”.

Refusing to act as losers. This is brilliant, and the left could learn from this.

ooh. That nasty Roosky, Vladimir Putin!

Problem is, besides the fact that the new person looking at Russia for HRW used to work ... for the State Department .... that the above photo is ... of Ukrainian police repression!

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The fact is that western human rights organizations are below contempt. Some are political tools in the hands of the Empire (Human Rights Watch), some are full of western intelligence agents (Medecins Sans Frontieres, OSCE monitors), some are lead by cynical bureaucrats who use idealistic young delegates as cannon fodder (ICRC), some are used by big business as a tool (Greenpeace) while others are quasi-official CIA tools (NED, Freedom House, Open Society Foundation, etc.).

The funny thing in this case is that the photo is not taken in Russia, but in the Ukraine, and the riot cops shown here have Ukrainian unit badges.  But then, who cares anyway?  It's not like "truth" is a topic that matters to HRW...

Good on the Russians for proceeding with their own law requiring those who work for foreign governments and corporations to have to identify their nefarious links to their masters. The US law - FARA or the Foreign Agent Registration Act is a "good" law cuz its a Yanqui law - natch! - but the Roosky equivalent law ... should be subject to a petition about "repressive domestic policies" by HRW. uh huh. Let "freedom" reign!

It's all a pack of lies: Swedish Intel Admits Russian Distress Call Never Happened as Sub Hunt Scare Story Implodes

Fake news invasion!

Apparently, the sub was actually a pensioner fishing for sea trout.  A perfectly understandable confusion! Those darn Rooskies! Dressing up as benign fish! The Russian trout! The hapless senior! A fishy story! A smelly ending! All the carp that's fit to print! And then some!

Did you want fries with your lies?

RT (the Russian TV channel with enormous recent success and currently breaking into the UK market) should be banned! They're bad for democracy! Just... because!

Why you should NOT watch RT- EVER!

more erased contributions.

Stumbling Towards Apocalypse - Russia and The New World Disorder

http://russia-insider.com/en/china_politics_ukraine_business_opinion_med...

Eric Kraus wrote:

While it has been said that in any war Truth is the first casualty, in actual fact the lying tends to reach its fever pace somewhat earlier; the run-up to wars requires that the populace be whipped into a patriotic frenzy, anxious to make the appalling sacrifices soon to be demanded of them – their livelihoods, their cities, their children, often enough their lives – all justified by the terrible threat from The Enemy.

From the Crimean war to Sarajevo, Munich to the savaging of Vietnam, It would be difficult to name a single instance when the tame press did not enthusiastically participate in the Great Undertaking.

The Ukrainian civil war now underway is certainly no exception to the rule. A 24-hour wrap-around virtual reality has been created presenting a grotesque parody of the actual nature of this conflict. Western politicians find themselves captive to a narrative they themselves invented, unable to seek reasonable compromise for fear that their allies and electorates would turn on them. Only a handful of ex-leaders dare to speak the truth.

In this regard, it is instructive to watch the increasing contortions of the Western corporate mass-media reporting on the grisly war crimes committed daily against civilian populations of Eastern Ukraine.

The NY Times baldly repeated the wildly improbable claims of the Kiev regime that the Odessa protestors set fire to their own building (apparently in a intentional auto-da-fe?) Mass graves of civilians are found as Kiev’s forces withdraw from Russian-speaking regions of Eastern Ukraine and, when the BBC finally airs the story, they haven’t a clue as to how all of those dead people got there.

Artillery shells fall onto the courtyard of a kindergarten in in Donetsk killing 10 civilians – mostly parents and grandparents waiting for their children – and the media employs the passive tense  –  “the school was bombed” – without mentioning who it was who has been lobbing artillery into Russian-speaking civilian areas. Dozens of journalists working for these media have reported on the atrocities in personal blogs and e-mails, and yet their editors do everything possible to suppress the story.

Meanwhile, the bellicose declarations from the NATO member states involve a great deal of make-believe and play-acting. While no rational person actually believes that Russia is set to invade the Baltics, neutralize Finland, occupy Stockholm or seek to recreate the USSR, to earnestly pretend to fear precisely those eventualities can be a lucrative career move.

Generals who had been shunted off onto side-tracks as NATO found itself desperately lacking in enemies suddenly find a new lease on life. Swedish politicians whose tired anti-Russia rhetoric was increasingly laughed off as quaint and irrelevant feel their vital juices surging. Parties of the right and of the left vie for the attention of an electorate misinformed by the corporate media.

A huge military-industrial complex – fearful for its future given recent deep cuts in weapons spending as part of the dread “peace dividend,” are now savouring the prospect of lucrative contracts for weapons systems to defend against an imaginary threat – systems which will doubtless never see a shot fired in anger.

3-time Academy Award winner Oliver Stone meets with ... the Russian President! Oh no!

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Stone, a three-time Academy Award winner, is currently working on a movie about intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, who fled the U.S. and is living in Moscow.

The movie, which is based on a book by former Guardian journalist Luke Harding as well as an account by Snowden's lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, is due for release at the end of 2015.

Stone plans/hopes to interview the horrible, brutal dictator and ask why the terrible traitor Ed Snowden is in Russia! ha ha! Maybe the USA should make Stone personna non grata! That'll teach him for making nice! Can't trust those Rooskies! Hey! What's that under your bed! A Roosky! Call Senator McCarthy! No wait! Call the NSA! They'll know what to do!

Will Oliver turn to Stone after meeting with "Stone Cold" Putin? Stay tuned!

Vladimir Vladimirovich keeps confounding his critics. Perhaps this is the best.

"Love is the meaning of life."

eta: what a day to choose to say such, er, revolutionary ideas.