A Dialog with McFaul

I've just had in Twitter.

I find it quite exemplary. I believe it's a good approach for children or, well, private persons willing to calmly reside in their privacy.

But Michael McFaul is an academic and diplomat, ex-ambassador to Russia in 2012—2014. Now he is a Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. And I also believe that such a person cannot afford such a childish approach. Adult politicians usually know: if they close their eyes, world won't change. If they don't listen to this or that opinion, that does not mean this or that opinion doesn't exist. But to take wise, reasonable steps and measures, adult politicians should see the full picture, know the whole spectrum of opinions.

Unfortunately, for the political beau monde of the most powerful country in the world it's not the case. They prefer to hear and know only things they enjoy, things that fit their pattern of good and evil. As a result, from time to time they do wrong steps trying to take care of 'disgusting things' that do happen in the world. And it cost the world human lives.

Well, I don't know who killed Nemtsov yet. Moreover; I am not sure I shall. Shit happens; JFK was assassinated about 52 years ago, but who on Earth can say he or she knows for sure who killed him? We just know who was sentenced for that.

What I know for sure, such an approach to politics is a fault. Not only McFaul's fault, but fault of the very system based on the idea of one country's supremacy.

Big Guys Speak for Nemtsov

Many people die daily of all kinds of violent death, but not all of them deserve so a close attention from the top of the world.

Mr. Obama has immediately issued a statement (bold font is mine):

The United States condemns the brutal murder of Boris Nemtsov, and we call upon the Russian government to conduct a prompt, impartial, and transparent investigation into the circumstances of his murder and ensure that those responsible for this vicious killing are brought to justice. Nemtsov was a tireless advocate for his country, seeking for his fellow Russian citizens the rights to which all people are entitled. I admired Nemtsov’s courageous dedication to the struggle against corruption in Russia and appreciated his willingness to share his candid views with me when we met in Moscow in 2009. We offer our sincere condolences to Boris Efimovich’s family, and to the Russian people, who have lost one of the most dedicated and eloquent defenders of their rights.

Well, vast majority of Russian people does not consider Nemtsov a defender of their rights, and I am not an exclusion. So, Mr. Obama, I have an honour to reject your generous offering. His death is surely a crime to be investigated, and those guilty are to be prosecuted, but this is the only way Boris Nemtsov's death can be taken as a loss.

An old friend of Russia, Senator John McCain was way more eloquent:

I was devastated to learn of the murder in Moscow today of my friend Boris Nemtsov. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and many friends in Russia and around the world. With his death, the struggle for free speech and human rights in Russia has suffered another devastating blow.

That Boris's murder occurred in a secure part of the Russian capital raises legitimate questions about the circumstances of his killing and who was responsible. But regardless of who actually pulled the trigger, Boris is dead because of the environment of impunity that Vladimir Putin has created in Russia, where individuals are routinely persecuted and attacked for their beliefs, including by the Russian government, and no one is ever held responsible.

I had long been concerned about Boris's safety, and said so publicly. I will never forget the last meeting we had. I begged him to be careful, and Boris told me that he would never give up the fight for freedom, human rights, and rule of law for his fellow Russians, even if it cost him his life. I am heartbroken that it has come to that. There must be a full investigation of Boris's murder, and those responsible must be held accountable. The world will be watching.

He's an old soldier and evidently knows not that many English words, to be devastated to learn of another devastating blow to the struggle for free speech and human rights in Russia. His competence and expertise in conditions of life in Russia do impress: "environment of impunity" made a tear in my eyes.

As for the last paragraph, I do doubt such a warmonger as John McCain can be heartbroken because of a single human death. Especially taking into account the deceased was not an American, he was not even a EU citizen; he was just their Russian agent of influence, that is a grade C+ person, not higher. Besides, McCain's concerns resemble strangely enough with Nemtsov's own concerns he expressed in the interview I quoted in my previous post (go to the end of it).

I hope we will know whose dirty game it was.

The day before yesterday Boris Nemtsov was an ex-politician, frankly, a loser, a clown trying to play against Putin and against Russia (or, if you wish, for such Russia that would first of all please the USA and the EU). Those four bullets turned him into a fallen hero of anti-Putin resistance in a moment.

The question qui prodest remains. At present I feel our oppositioners will try to get as much benefits of it as possible; in fact, they've started. It's also good for radical (and stupid) Ukrainians, who evidently dislike their being in hell (carefully created by themselves within just a year) and would contribute everything they have to provoke a maidan in Russia.

Anyhow, we will see who will be beneficiaries of the criminal tragedy.

RIP, Boris, your game is suddenly over. The life is going on, though, for the world is hopefully without end.

Amen.

Boris Nemtsov: Qui Prodest?

Source. © RIA Novosti. Ilya Pitalev.

This night in the very centre of Moscow, in direct view of the Kremlin, Boris Nemtsov was shot dead.

Whatever attitude one could have to this politician, this is a crime, and when a crime is investigated, since the Roman Empire nothing has changed: first, one has to find answer to a simple question, qui prodest. To whose profit was the deed done.

Was it profitable for Putin, or for anybody else in power?

No, in no case at all. Boris Nemtsov was not longer an acting politician, he lead an opposiiton movement that did not enjoy somehow wide support from the Russian people.

Was it profitable for the anti-Putin opposition dreaming of pressing Putin off the Kremlin? Yes, surely, for each and every one. Especially in the eve of coming oppo's meeting on March,1, which now has chances to be way more popular.

And — Putin is always to blame, he is bad man number one on Earth, let alone Russia. So our oppo figures have immediatle started a true hysteria.

Maxim Katz, a young oppositioner, tweets:

Putin is guilty.
In case it's he who contracted, he's guilty as a contractor.
In unlikely case he didn't, then [he's guilty] as the monger of rage, hysteria and hatred in people.

Clarity in the Courtyard of Hell

I have just found quite an impressive film, created by Klagemauer TV.

The film was originally in German, but they translated it to many languages, including Russian and English. It was published in August, 2014, but, unfortunately, it is still not late to watch it now. Spend 21 minutes; the film deserves it.

Warning: some images are extremely graphic, 18+.



For those who prefer other languages, here is original German version. For your convenience, there are also versions in French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Lithuanian, and even Ukrainian.

Our words are our sword. What a pity peace still is a thing to desperately fight for.

Jen Psaki: New Position, New Situation

As we already know, the legendary charsmatic voice (and image) of the State Dept, Jen Psaki, leaves her position to become a communications director of Barack Obama.

We will surely miss her, albeit I am also sure her new position will allow her to express her personality and creativity at that high level she undoubtedly deserves.

Just one question is still bothering me. They say:

A White House official said Psaki informed Obama and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough that she is expecting a baby in July. The official said Obama and McDonough made a commitment to Psaki to find flexible ways to make her new post work.

Not that I dare to suppose something, but as we all know there is one and only man to blame in all the world's problems: Vladimir P....

But how?!

Dresden Bombing and a Sudden Discovery

I started February 15 with watching a documentary on the ill-famed bombing of Dresden, that happened 70 years ago, on February 13 to 15, 1945. Whatever they write, for me and many of my compatriots it seems that there was no direct warfare necessity in that bombing; hundreds of the RAF and USAAF heavy bombers destroyed the city by a skillfully created firestorm as a sign to Stalin showing the might of the UK and the USA joint forces. Wise guys from the West foresaw the coming cold war and prepared to it.

Anyhow, here is the film I found in a publication of The Vineyard of the Saker.

I have to note that I disagree with many statements that sound in the film. The official figure of the killed during the bombings confirmed by the German authorities in 2005 is from 22,700 up to 25,000; this is an unimaginably huge quantity of dead people and a great tragedy, but in fact it is way less than the deathcount of Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuke bombings in August that year. And it is about two times less than the number of lives taken away by the firestorm the Luftwaffe arranged in Stalingrad on August 23, 1942, mostly civilians, including refugees fleeing from the advancing German, Italian and Romanian troops (situation close to that 2.5 years later in Dresden, when the wheel of history turned in the opposite direction).

Value of Their Words

A photo to have a good start, a kind of preface.

It's a still from a Ukrainian TV report on the visit to the USA of some Ukrainian figures back in 2014. Here the old fart Senator John McCain is surrounded by three Ukrainian battalion commanders: Andriy Teteruk (battalion Mirotvorets, that is Peacemaker), Yuri Bereza (Dnipro-1),  and Semen Semenchenko (Donbas).

And now an introduction follows: a video of Senator James Inhofe presenting photographs to the Senate on Wednesday, February 11, of what he said were Russian tanks in Ukraine.


What a surprise! Who could imagine! At least some of the images the Ukrainian delegation gave to US senators as proofs of Russian invasion in Ukraine turned out to be fake. Senator Jim Inhofe decided to publish the photographs he had shown to Senate, evidently in an attempt to speed up the law on delivery to Ukraine of letal weapons. As a result, The Washington Free Beacon feels fooled now.

Well, the images are not 100% fake, because the images do depict a Russian invasion. What makes the difference is the fact the Russians are invading South Ossetia back in August 2008, to defend the region from the treacherous aggression of the ill-famed Saakashvili, then President of Georgia.

BHL in Ukraine Again: More Blood Will Follow

Bad news for Ukraine: Bernard-Henri Lévy came to accompany Poroshenko in visiting Kramatorsk, city that was shelled on February 10.

 

 Poroshenko (in military uniform) and BHL in Kramatorsk. Stills from the video above.

Let's remember his bloody footsteps.

• Way back in early 1990-s he stood for Bosnian Muslims in Yugoslavia.
• In 1999 he authored some articles calling to bomb Serbia in favour of the 'Kosovo Liberation Army'.
• During the war in South Ossetia he was with Saakashvili, then President of Georgia who unleashed the war during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing.
• In 2011 he supported his friend Sarkozy and called for military intervention in Libya (and there were delivered full loads of democracy and all possible rights and freedoms to this country).
• In 2013 he raised his voice against the 'bloody Assad's regime' in Syria, calling West to intervene.
• On February 9, 2014 he spoke at Maidan in Kiev; next day his speech was printed by Le Monde, titled "We All Are Ukrainians".

Thus, Bernard-Henri Lévy is neither French, nor Jew; he is a devil incarnate, a warmonger and blood-thirsty monster, hypocritically called a philosopher and public intellectual. Whatever intellect he has, he uses it just for approving acts of war and genocide on the worldwide scale. Death, blood and tears always follow him.

So it was, e.g., in former Yugoslavia and in Libya, so it has been in Ukraine, and now with his second visit to Ukraine things are supposed to get even worse and bloodier.

Syria and Libya are forgotten now; the next target is Russia. Here is his recent article published by a pro-Ukrainian web site. One who has eyes can see: his hatred of Putin sound just as stupid and zoologic as it can be. And stating that "the Russian nation state is no older than the Ukrainian" he just announces a total lack of knowledge in things this 'philosopher' dares to speak about.

Luckily for us, there are sober minded people that know his price. Hopefully, this picture published by some French journalists sometimes comes true. Freedom of speech is nice, but I am confident such black sheeps of human race should not have access to media.

And there will be less hatred and bloodsheds in the world.

Barack Obama Goes on Talking

Just some days ago Mr. Obama gave a considerable interview to CNN, in which he put some things pretty straight, though sometimes using kind of a diplomatic speech.

Lucky things we are: there is the freedom of speech in the world, at least somewhere and for some, and we can get more from Mr. President of the USA. From the recently published interview he gave to people from the Vox.com. They covered many, many topics in their conversation, and I am absolutely sure there is plenty of gems in his words. Yet I am interested only in the part devoted to Obama's "foreign-policy realism".

Just some extracts: if you have enough time, you can read (and/or watch) full interview: the link is just above.

... we've got to have the strongest military in the world, and we occasionally have to twist the arms of countries that wouldn't do what we need them to do if it weren't for the various economic or diplomatic or, in some cases, military leverage that we had — if we didn't have that dose of realism, we wouldn't get anything done, either.

He who is more powerful, is always right. Just because the good always wins over the evil, doesn't it?

Who Is to Get out of Ukraine?

On Saterday Mr. Joe Biden (for those who do not care, he's vice-president of the USA). Even the CNN noted that speaking at the Munich Security Conference he "served up some blunt talk".

The American diplomacy looks unbound.

Though the AP does not show his 'blunt talk', and neither does ABC, there are some sources that are not so peculiar and let people hear Biden's unmanipulated words. Listen very attentively from 0:40.

President Putin has to make a simple, stark choice. Get out of Ukraine, or face continued isolation and growing economic costs at home.

What? Who are you, Mr. Biden, to fucking tell Russia or Putin what to do?

Various Puppets, Same Master

Many things in different countries are done using apparently the same screenplay, plot, scenario.

Just have a look at some samples.

This video was uploaded to YouTube on March 7, 2014. Some actors of Ukrainian theaters address to the Russian people. Generally speaking, they say they are just like us Russians, normal people. The Russian language is not suppressed in Ukraine. They do not want war. Some elder ones became popular way back in the USSR. By the way, many of them take part in Russian performances, movies and TV series — just business, Russia pays, money doesn't smell.

Do You Know What the War Is?

I put it straighter: do you know what the WW2 was for the Soviet Union? You could hear that the war the USSR took part in was called "The Great Patriotic War", but do you know this is not a propaganda trick for a purpose, but the absolute truth?

Do you know the real meaning of the following phrase from a Soviet period history textbook:

On 6 June, 1944, the Allied forces, commanded by General Eisenhower, landed in Normandy (Northern France). The Anglo-American forces met with practically no opposition from the Hitlerites, and advanced into the heart of France.

Jan Trowbridge Dykman of the Eisenhover Institute wrote about the Soviet experience in WW2 a concise, albeit very cognitive article. Please spend some minutes to read it.

There are some points to add and correct, though.

Alexander Pushkin on Line

For us Russians Alexander Pushkin is one of the greatest authors who made Russian literature (and poetry in particular) the greatest.

I am not sure that's correct, but to the best of my knowledge, he's like Shakespeare for English. And maybe, well, definitely more.

Here is one of his poems, written way back in 1831. Close to two centuries ago.

TO THE SLANDERERS OF RUSSIA

Why rave ye, babblers, so — ye lords of popular wonder?
Why such anathemas 'gainst Russia do you thunder?
What moves your idle rage? Is't Poland's fallen pride?
'T is but Slavonic kin among themselves contending,
An ancient household strife, oft judged but still unending,
A question which, be sure, you never can decide.

They Say - 8 (Barack Obama)

On January 27 Barack Obama, the President of the USA, gave a remarkable interview to CNN's Fareed Zakaria, aired on February 1. One part of this interview was devoted to Russia, Putin and the Ukrainian crisis.



Here I go to draw your attention to some points that make the 'Russian part' of the interview that remarkable in my eyes (full transcript you can find here).

OBAMA: ... And since Mr. Putin made this decision around Crimea and Ukraine — not because of some grand strategy, but essentially because he was caught off-balance by the protests in the Maidan and Yanukovych then fleeing after we had brokered a deal to transition power in Ukraine — since that time, this improvisation that he's been doing has getting — has gotten him deeper and deeper into a situation that is a violation of international law, that violates the integrity, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine, has isolated Russia diplomatically, has made Europe wary of doing business with Russia, has allowed the imposition of sanctions that are crippling Russia's economy at a time when their oil revenues are dropping. There's no formula in which this ends up being good for Russia.
The annexation of Crimea is a cost, not a benefit, to Russia. The days in which conquest of land somehow was a formula for great nation status is over. The power of countries today is measured by your knowledge, your skills, your ability to export goods, to invent new products and new services, your influence, and…

Peculiarities of Russian National Character

Quite lengthy, yet cognitive article by Dmitry Orlov, born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in 1962 and since 1974 residing in the USA. There are some cliches and simplifications, but it really worth reading to better understand us Russians as a people and nation.

Some people have been drawing comparisons between the period we are in now and the last time oil prices dropped—all the way to $10/barrel—in some measure precipitating the Soviet collapse. But this analogy is false. At the time, the Soviet Union was economically stagnant and dependent on western credit to secure grain imports, without which it wouldn't have been able to raise enough livestock to feed its population. It was led by the feckless and malleable Gorbachev—an appeaser, a capitulator, and a world-class windbag whose wife loved to go shopping in London. The Russian people despised him and referred to him as “Mishka the Marked,” thanks to his birthmark. And now Russia is resurgent, is one of the world's largest grain exporters, and is being led by the defiant and implacable President Putin who enjoys an approval rating of over 80%. In comparing pre-collapse USSR to Russia today, commentators and analysts showcase their ignorance.

Here it is, in his blogspot blog.

They Say - 7 (Noam Chomsky)

Here are thoughts of Noam Chomsky, one of the wisest contemporary Americans I know, on Russian-Ukrainian crisis.

We can now ask a question: what was the nature of propaganda we were fed all those years? If NATO was there to defend the West from the Russians, why is it now expanding right to the borders of Russia becoming a global US intervention force?.. What it tells us is all that Cold War talk is a pure lie.

And here is the article from the Foreign Affairs Noam Chomsky is referring to: Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West's Fault by John J. Mearsheimer, published in the September/October 2014 issue of the magazine. Their web site is generous enough to allow free reading of one article a month without registration, so you are welcome to visit and read.

And try to think different.

Will the Night Fall?

A brilliant documentary has recently been released: "The Night Will Fall", directed by André Singer on the base of unfinished documentary project of Sidney Bernstein.

75 minutes that, in my sincere opinion, should be obligatory for all people on Earth.

People should be aware that hell happens on Earth from time to time, and mankind has to pay a high price each time to destroy it. Lectures of the past should never be forgotten, if we do not want the history to repeat its classes.

I have found also versions: Dutch, German, Italian, and Polish.

Why now? The Guardian says,