All Hail the Fuhrer Vladimir Pukin
Vladimir Putin, with the aid of his vast propaganda machinery, has convinced many Russians that the interim government in Ukraine is expressly Nazi and fascist. And while there were some neo-Nazi goons among the protesters who brought down the corrupt government of Victor Yanukovich, and there are definitely ultranationalists among the coalition resisting Moscow, it’s simply a transparent lie that the current government is fascist.
That hasn’t stopped some left-wing writers and crackpots in the West from buying the Russian claim that the United States is in cahoots with a “fascist junta” in Ukraine.
This is a very old story. Josef Stalin championed the idea that all of his political opponents should be dubbed fascists, including many of his fellow Bolsheviks, such as Leon Trotsky (whom Stalin had assassinated), and much of the Red Army’s officer corps (whom he had executed) and countless Ukrainians (whom he had liquidated). Stalin insisted that even mentioning the man-made Ukrainian famine — i.e., Stalin-made — was evidence you were an agent of the Nazis.
Under Stalin’s “theory of social fascism,” any socialist, social democratic or progressive group or party not loyal to him had to be called fascist. Hence, for a while Moscow insisted that FDR and even Norman Thomas (head of the Socialist Party of America) were fascists.
Ultimately, communist propagandists and their allied intellectuals would reflexively blame fascism for everything, regardless of the facts. That’s what prompted George Orwell to remark that “the word fascism has now no meaning except in so far as it signifies ‘something not desirable.'”
It’s been fascinating to watch as Putin, an ex-KGB man, revives this trope, particularly given that his own behavior is so generically fascistic. Putin is a corporatist (the economic doctrine of fascism). He’s a dictatorial, charismatic leader who bends church, business, labor and media to the needs of a centralized state under a thoroughly nationalist banner. As Cathy Young writes for RealClearPolitics, Putin is nurturing his own cadres of ultra-right goons in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Of course, Russia’s propaganda campaign hinges on more than the use and abuse of the “F-word.” It’s been lying about all manner of things, manipulating events on the ground and doctoring images on the airwaves.
www.rightwingnews.com/column-2/putins-well-worn-fascist-lies/
Strange comment. Seeking asylum , hundreds of thousands ? Why not just buy a ticket for a plane trip. Have I missed an attempt at sarcasm or wit again ?
No, geomac, silly Solomon is still living in the past and 'thinks' (metaphor) Russia is still run by a communist form of government, instead of a DEMOCRATIC, free market regime.
Solomon's claim is merely propaganda dribble..... there are those that are fleeing from USA fascist belligerency and seeking asylum in Russia..... eeeerrrrrhhhh, the whistleblower on USA gross malfeasance, criminal activities, and international thuggery....Snowdon for one.
Mussi's fascination with Corporate owned media is really strange.
In his world media should be owned by socialist governments only.
So much for free press
We DON'T have a "free" press, right NOW!
We have a media that feeds the people propaganda that is specifically spewed in order for the people to accept CORPORATE aims and objectives (more wealth and power for their leashholders and less for the people) and to accept THEIR choice of govt. representatives, specifically so that they can implement those Corporate aims and objectives (more wealth and power for their leashholders and less for the people).
At least with the ABC, the legal and practical applications are THAT strict that they are not allowed to be biased or allow govt. interference.
So if Howard had NOT re-arranged the ABC and put in MORE management and took away the ABC's ability to fund Programmes AND there ability to obtain their own world news, we may have had one of the most independent media outlet in the world.
Unfortunately, because the ABC was hacked up this way, it is required to get its news from the USA media propaganda machine.
Even so, the small variances in the presentation of facts over bluster and bulldust, is enough however, for Abbott to jump up and down, like a clown when the marionette's puppeteer (mega foreign corporations) pulls the strings.
SO, what is preferable being fed bulldust by Corporate (foreign) owned Media, so that they can commit atrocities without an uproar, merely to fill their pockets...... OR....... have a strictly independent ABC who does NOT have an agenda that will HARM Australia, its future or its people!!!!
How you Solomon, simply rattle around gleefully selecting key words.... co-incidentally, the same buzz words as are spewed by Corporat (foreign) owned Media which makes you either quite sinister or quite stupid. Either way your promotion of USA control of Australia is SICKENING.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine aims to deny that nation a European future, partly by closing the door permanently to membership in NATO or the European Union. Putin’s aims, however, are not limited to extending a Russian sphere of influence over neighbors with Russian-speaking populations. Southeast Europe also figures in Putin’s plans to upend the post-Cold War order in Europe.
Putin is in Belgrade this week to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the city’s liberation from Nazi occupation by the Soviet army. But he is focused on the future. Russia first gained control of Serbia’s energy infrastructure. It then opened a base for emergency relief operations at the airport in Serbia’s city of Nis—a positive-sounding mission, but one run by Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situations, which fulfills paramilitary and intelligence roles for the Kremlin.
Over the past year, Brussels has accelerated Serbia’s path to the EU in recognition of Belgrade’s positive steps toward forging a politically difficult settlement with Kosovo. In response, Moscow is working to outmaneuver the EU with its own diplomacy aimed at reminding Serbs of their historic ties to Russia and disrupting Serbia’s path to the EU and, ultimately, NATO. Since the Ukraine crisis, Moscow has intensified its charm offensive, dispatching its foreign and defense ministers and intelligence chief to pave the path for Putin this week.
Russia Pressures Montenegro
Russia is also active elsewhere in the region. In late September, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov answered NATO leaders’ decision at their Wales summit to punt on any decision on membership for Montenegro until the end of 2015 by asserting that enlargement in the Balkans is a ‘provocative’ act.
Montenegro is awash with anti-NATO propaganda fueled by groups that likely trace their funding back to Moscow and the Orthodox Church. The church has become as effective a propaganda arm of the Kremlin as the state-run broadcast channel Russia Today. By undermining the Montenegrin government’s campaign to build public support for NATO membership, using corruption as a political weapon, and ensuring the Serb-dominated opposition refuses to compromise on the issue, Moscow hopes to spoil Montenegro’s candidacy.
Montenegro’s Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic has stood firm so far, rebuffing Moscow’s request to establish a Russian naval presence at its port of Bar and stepping up efforts to track former Russian intelligence officers settling along the country’s Adriatic coast. Montenegro has aligned its policies with NATO and the EU in the Ukraine crisis, agreeing to follow the sanctions regime, a step that Moscow labeled a “hostile” act. A Russian parliamentarian even suggested that Moscow target Montenegro with missiles.
Division as a Strategy
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, Russia is taking advantage of the federal governance structure created in the 1995 Dayton Accords to apply its long-used tactic of fueling separatist efforts to create permanently divided nations that are undesirable partners for NATO and the EU. With Putin’s political and financial backing, the ethnic Serb entity within Bosnia-Herzegovina, Republika Srpska, is blocking progress on Bosnia’s reforms with the aim of destroying a unitary state.
The net result is a stagnant Bosnia, sowing seeds of instability and potentially renewed violence. Russia is playing with fire, knowing that a conflagration is the best deterrent to NATO and EU enlargement.
Moscow is also fanning tensions in Kosovo as it steps up support for obstructionist, separatist Serbian groups there.
The Cold War ended badly in the Balkans, as bloody warfare marred the end of the former Yugoslavia. After great losses, the region settled into a stability premised on the vision that ultimately each nation in the Balkans could accede to NATO and the EU as it desired and when it met the standards. Slovenia joined NATO and the EU first, followed by Croatia and Albania joining NATO in 2009, and Croatia joining the EU in 2013. Today, Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania are making serious strides toward the EU, Montenegro is on the cusp of NATO membership, and Macedonia remains held up only by a dispute with Greece over its name.
Russia's Slavic Appeal
But Putin seems intent on derailing this plan. Just as Moscow is waging a campaign to ensure its neighbors remain within its orbit, Russia is stepping back into Southeast Europe, aiming to leverage its religious and cultural ties to block states in the region from joining European and transatlantic institutions. Putin is extending his “compatriots” doctrine—which declares Russia’s right to protect Russian-speakers anywhere—to other Slavs. This argument portrays Russia as the defender of traditional Orthodox values and fosters an alternative ideology to the liberal democratic European model.
Part of a strategic response to deter Putin from further aggression should be a concerted transatlantic effort to consolidate the Balkans. This means inviting Montenegro to join NATO, refocusing on Bosnia after its elections to overcome a status quo which is a pathway to instability, redoubling efforts to advance Serbia’s European aspirations, and recommitting to settle Macedonia’s name dispute.
http://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/putins-balkan-gambit
Bloody hell are you totally incapable of putting any real thoughts together. Relying on propagandised writings to fill the vacuum I see.
Russian President
Russia Pressures Montenegro
Division as a Strategy
Russia's Slavic Appeal
All of it straight from the USA's HANDBOOK on how to destabilise and interfere with other countries. But at least that seems to be ALL Russia has done.... ACCORDING to YOUR unnamed source!!
The USA does all of the things discussed in the topics shown, on a DAILY BASIS, and considers this sort of subversion, standard diplomacy!
The one thing you have totally failed to show is where Russian has:
- ILLEGALLY INVADED a middle eastern nation, murdering over 600,000 innocent civilians, on KNOWN FALSE justification, merely to steal that countries OIL and rearrange the OIL contracts into US$. Those 600,000 innocent civilians being rubber stamped as mere 'collateral damage'.
- SUPPORTED with military air cover, weapons, and funding.... Al Qaeda cells to overthrow Libya, so that Libya's GOLD could be stolen and its OIL controlled. Libya is now a basket case, overrun with warlords and Al Qaeda nutters... the warlords are winning. The effect on Libya, a virtual seccular nation where women were being treated well are now required to wear a full Burqa and more than likely be raped, at will, by those in authority.
- With Saudi Arabia (a fascist nutter regime), the USA SUPPORTED with military air cover, weapons, and funding ISIS cells (made up of mercenaries and nutters) to invade Syria because of its strategic position.
- today.....SENDING in USA military to bomb the sh*te out of Syria and all their infrastructure... to "clear a way" BEFORE ISIS has even reached that area??? The USA wants a 'no-fly' zone established, so that Syria can not fly over its own country to deal with ISIS itself AND miraculously, ISIS have, allegedly, all of a sudden got 3 fighter jets which it has flown over the Syrian airport.... so some WITNESSES have said.... we will never know who these witnesses were or how credible they are. For some really, really STRANGE reason, the USA has NO IDEA where these fighter jets are taking off and landing from!!!! Turkey is fine with ISIS and has allowed ISIS cells to set up bases on their soil.... maybe, the USA could bomb the sh*te out of those bases! Would seem entirely logical, IF, the USA's real target was ISIS and not SYRIA.
NO, RUSSIAN IS NOT involved in any of the HEINOUS and DESPICABLE acts against other sovereignties/nations. Over 1 million innocent people MURDERED so far.
RUSSIA were NOT even involved in the downing of a commercial airliner that had been accompanied by UKRAINE fighter jets and forced to deviate away from the normal commercial flight path by UKRAINE paid air controllers, into the 'separatists' held area - not forgetting that the nose of the commercial airliner showing holes in it that 'could' have been from the UKRAINE fighter jets.
What the embargoes were placed on Russia for was that at one time Russia supplied the whole of the Ukraine with their military equipment and it was thought that some of this equipment that is still in BOTH areas of the UKRAINE.... the nazi extremists held territory and the separatists held territory.... MAY have been used to down the commercial airliner.
WELL F**K me how terrible..... especially when compared to what the USA has been doing in the middle east AND in the support of the nazi extremists to conduct a BRUTAL COUP in the UKRAINE.
Russia killed....... well nobody
USA killed........ well over 1million innocent people, for person GAIN.
Unfortunaly I think Putin will win. Germany is going into recession due to its reliance on Russian trade in embargo and concerns over its energy supplies .It has no morals and will cave in . France and Italy also will follow Gemany's lead,..
The UK Under the rise of the UKIP has lost patience with an undemocratic and failed corporatist Europe and will follow an increasingly isolationist US looking after its own interests ,.,
Nylon is the future for UK ...
Pete
Most of the world wants to go with CHINA and RUSSIA and the other BRICS nations because they are economically sound.
It is the USA, the UK and the EU (if it stays with the USA) that will be in dire straites economically, if most of the other countries go with the BRICS who have even set up their own IMF and World Bank. Membership to these banks and the directions they take are more amiable and shared, rather than 'USA takes all and controls all' type of approach.
The USA, UK and the EU are NOT economically sound. If the UK jump back to the EU and the EU go with China & Russia, then it will be better for the UK & EU but the end of the USA's world economic dominance.
China alone has already surpassed the USA in most of the economic guideposts.
But wait - there's more
From Bloomberg "“It looks like it’s time for all honest and principled professionals to pack their bags. A sad outcome.”
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2013-06-05/why-smart-russians-are-leaving-their-country-behind
The regime of Vladimir Putin has always presented successful, liberal-minded Russians with a quandary: To what extent are they willing to put up with an authoritarian government in return for making a life in their native country?
Lately, a number of well-known Russians have decided that the bargain isn’t worth it.
Sergei Guriev, a highly respected Russian economist, quietly left Moscow last week to join his family in Paris, where he plans to remain. He asked to be struck off the list of candidates for the supervisory board of Russia’s largest bank, the state-controlled Sberbank. He mailed in his resignation as head of the New Economic School, a research and learning institution with the best economics faculty in Russia.
In terms of public profile, Guriev is the closest thing Russia has toPaul Krugman. He is a serious academic with more than 1,600 citations in international publications, according to Google Scholar -- about 75 times fewer than Krugman’s, but respectable for Russia. He writes a widely read newspaper column, and has advised the government on matters of public policy.
The advisory role backfired for Guriev. In 2011, then-President Dmitri Medvedev’s Human Rights Council gave Guriev and other experts a tough assignment: Analyze the verdict in the trial of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest individual and, since 2003, a prisoner convicted of economic crimes. An avowed political enemy of Putin, Khodorkovsky has stood two trials. In the most recent one, in 2011, he was convicted of stealing a vast quantity of oil from the subsidiaries of Yukos, the hydrocarbon conglomerate he controlled.
In their report, the experts ripped into the verdict, saying Khodorkovsky was convicted for what amounted to standard business practice. Guriev wrote that what the judge considered theft was merely transfer pricing, used by all holding companies to concentrate profits at the corporate center. The report provided ammunition to Khodorkovsky’s lawyers appealing to the European Court for Human Rights, and to former Yukos shareholders suing in the West for damages caused by the company’s demise. It was an embarrassment to Putin and the Russian courts.
In 2012, the Investigative Committee, Russia’s FBI, started delving into the backgrounds of the reports’ signatories, looking for Yukos funding. They found that in 2003, the New Economic School had received money from a Yukos-financed foundation. Guriev was away lecturing at Princeton at the time, and he says he had no hand in either receiving or spending the money. Nonetheless, the investigators keep looking for conflicts of interest. The digging has intensified ahead of Khodorkovsky’s scheduled release in October 2014.
In an interview with Kommersant FM radio, Guriev said that on April 25, investigators demanded access to his personal emails since 2008. “It took them two days to copy them,” he said. “I write a lot of emails, so it must have been 40 or 45 gigabytes.” According to Guriev, his interrogators hinted that he was under scrutiny because of his “political activity” and asked pointedly whether he intended to emigrate. After consulting with friends close to the ruling elite, Guriev decided that it was no longer safe to stay in Moscow. “I think my family deserves for me to stay out of prison,” he told Kommersant FM.
Guriev’s emigration caused a storm of anguished comments from other liberals, as well as dismissive ones from Putin supporters. “This is not just a big loss,” economist Irina Yasina told radio Echo Moskvy. “It’s a very bad sign for educated people in their 30s and 40s who hoped they would be needed in their country.”
Maxim Trudolyubov, opinion editor for the daily Vedomosti, which has run Guriev’s columns for the last ten years and even published them as a book, wrote that Russian authorities “will now have more time to catch real criminals. Readers will have fewer good columns to read and more time for their families. What else? Our ties with the outside world are being severed, that’s what.”
Political scientist Vladimir Guelman saw a parallel with recent reprisals against independent sociologists for receiving foreign funding. “It is hard to say how long the purge of disloyal scientists will go on and how far it will go,” he wrote on Slon.ru. “There are no objective obstacles to this purge in today’s Russia.
Yes but why should US taxpayers care ..In the end it is European security at risk . Balkanisation of Europe is Europes problem not US taxpayers or UK taxpayers .
More cut and paste articles from Solomon with UNNAMED SOURCES!!
Okay.... ALL of this is interesting BUT the key sentence is:
"They found that in 2003, the New Economic School had received money from a Yukos-financed foundation"
Yukos, is the company owned by OLIGARCH Mikhail Khodorkovsky, company.
Mickhail Khodorkovsky, the owner of Yukos, fled Russia when he was charged with criminal activities. He was tried in his absence and found guilty.... this oligarch, still has billions and is still powerful but a wanted criminal in Russia.
The New Economic School, was that which where Sergei Guriev was part of and received his remuneration
Sergei Guriev, was appointed to investigate Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the owner of Yukos.
Guriev's findings were that Khodorkovsky was not a criminal because all the dirty things he had been doing in his company was okay and that all the things done were merely 'standard business practice'. Transfer pricing was not considered theft, although this sort of thing is not allowed in other countries.... including Australia. The consequences of this report meant that Khodorkovsky would possibly be able to claw back his lost wealth. Taking the wealth that belongs to the Russian people to bolster his BILLIONS already removed from Russia.
So given the above, isn't it LOGICAL that a CONFLICT of INTEREST would be established if it was found that FUNDS from Yukos had been provided to The New Economic School. Even in the WEST, this sort of conflict of interest would have been questioned.
Hence, it is logical that an investigation of corruption into Guriev would be undertaken...... it does not really look good when Guriev, flees Russia, just as the investigation commences and joins Mickhail Khodorkovsky as an exile. Really does not look like the actions of an INNOCENT MAN.
However, all he has to do is fall back on his professional titles and call Russia a regime..... to make himself look innocent. His brilliance in his professional endeavours, is of no consequence, as he wouldn't be the first professional academic to fall into the trap of taking money from corporations who are handing it out.
You must also remember that Russia had been virtually ruled by brutal OLIGARCHS since the downfall of communism and that most of those OLIGARCHS were from the upper echelons of the old communist regime. Khodorkovsky virtually stole all this WEALTH with the "loans for shares" auctions of the mid 1990s.
So..... all this proves is that Kopernicus should look at how difficult it was and still is, to deal with ONE Oligarch and then consider the strength and belligerence of a mere 100 of these creatures when there are thousands.
Let me out of here! Enough for now. The 3 of you, if there are indeed 3 of you is toooo much for me, I'm afraid. May your happy and hapless communing by happenstance have a hummer of a hiccup. A rapid oratorius interrruptus is bloody overdue.
I am really tired of over verbiage given it doubles as over garbage.
Agree but you started it . The politics of the Balkans is boring and why should we Anglos be invoved . Not our problem ...
I am far more concerned about my bin being collected in my flat in Chelsea than Russian influence iin Moldavia where ever that is
Kopernicus....You sputter incongruously at the fact that I did NOT address each and every one of your points on the previous page (see my response) BUT then admonish me for attempting to summarise and deal with Solomons cut and paste bombardments.
Your including me with Solomon and Pete is double payback for my previous instult which I actually made recompense for (previous page). This I then considered adequate to bring us into a draw position which was satisfactory to all, I would have thought.
However, I did read further and must say that I am now a little behind with your 'verbiage doubles as garbage' statement and obviously feel it necessary to indulge in further flinging of the malign, to enable an endearing visage.
We could look at your own hapless communing by happenstance but that would be too easy and a rapid oratorius interruptus is simply not going to happen BUT we could look at the appropriateness of emotive incursions into the nether regions which make up the recessess of your mind.... on reflection!
Yeah... I think that will do...... for now!
Geeze what a wanker ...Try English Mate ...
Mussi and Koppers - pretentious wankers
Say that again again obviously not chosen people .....
Pete and Solomon.... yeah we are 'pretentious w*nkers'..... I agree!!!
Your comments brought a big smile to my face and me chuckle like hell.... needed that.... cheers you two.
I would shake your hand but like to keep my fingers intact ....
Who is the we Mussitate . I think you are alone locked into some 1950s Marxist dream ..
Cuba North Korea and ........
Oh! dear pilly Pete doesn't know when to SHTFD and just take a break.
Even Solomon appears smarter than you and can appreciate a moment of truce.... you pilly Pete seem to lack any form of finesse.... which part of pommie land are you from!
Cuba and N Korea are a bit too captalist for Mussi.
He prefers ISIS
Or maybe, not.
No wonder Hundreds of thousands of Russians are fleeing and seeking asylum in the US .