Save Breedlove

The Independent has offered quite a piece of reading: "Nato commander calls for return to service of U-2 spy plane to help conduct surveillance on a resurgent Russia".

Well, I am not going to discuss the evident fact of Russia being resurgent; I'm rather into another evident fact: this is an insufferable event for some of the big guys around there, and Philip Breedlove is not an exception.

The very idea of bringing back U-2 for surveillance over Russia sounds as kind of a mental diagnosis to a formerly brave US fighter pilot and presently NATO supreme allied commander, who is to step down this spring.

56 year ago, on May 1, 1960 a U-2 did a great service in breaking US-USSR relations; Gary Powers did not commit suicide... Surely, for the US military those were good old times and bright hopes; a great war seemed to be round the corner. Luckily, then, in the sixties, big guys succeeded to overcome all crises and kept the strategic peace till now (I am not talking about local wars; those bloodsheds did not threaten the very existence of life on Earth).

Now, in 2016, the Breedlove's idea is not only desperately outdated; it puts under question the very ability of the high-ranked military to perceive reality adequately.

Mogherini’s Tear and Milica Rakić

The following text wrote recently my Facebook friend Eva Merkuryeva (link below). I couldn't write it better, so my conribution is translation.


It was exactly 17 years ago that 14 NATO countries brought democracy and freedom to the country of this little girl. 78 days of democratization…

And when splinters of a democratic shell hit the house of this girl — Milica Rakić — none of European officials in Brussels cried.

Milica Rakić (1996—1999), one of the victims of the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia.

The democratic air force included 10 planes from Belgium; 42 airplanes from Italy (the homeland of crying Federica Mogherini) brought to Yugoslavia democratic bombs as well, and the total of 559 airplanes participating in the operation “Allied Force” used Italian air bases.

To celebrate freedom and democracy, the American and European “democratizers” decided to destroy the country of this child and to kill her personally.

Fighting back tears following the Brussels terrorist attacks, Europe's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini abruptly walked out of a news conference in Jordan saying 'today is a difficult day'. Image source.

Therefore the tears of the EU High Representative for foreign affairs and a security policy are those of a crocodile. You should cry when Yugoslavia was bombed. Now, after those terroristic attacks in Brussels, Mogherini’s tears are tears for the security policy which does not exist in Europe any more. And the European officials do not see or rather pretend they do not see the direct cause-effect relationship between local wars and colour revolutions supported warmly by Europe, and the present lack of European security.

All those common people drawing hearts on asphalt of European squares are hostages of that “security policy”. Nobody guarantees them safety. The only thing guaranteed is crocodile tears.

Mogherini considers it is necessary to stop the war in Syria for security. However, she hasn’t spelled a word they shouldn’t even start “democratizing” Syria in 2011.

The terroristic attacks are a direct consequence of that “democratization”; interventions in life of other people; transformation of other countries into ruins and destruction of histories that differ.

If Yugoslavia existed today on the map, if peaceful cities of Syria shone with evening lights, the people who died in Brussels would safely reach their homes, offices, friends...

And three-year-old Milica Rakić, killed with a splinter of a NATO shell, would be twenty now.

Live twenty-year-old Milica would be a guarantee of European security policy.

But when Milica was three, Europe killed its security; and went on killing it in the following 17 years.


The original Russian text.

Will Europe Stop It? Or What?

Having read first coverages of the terroristic attack in Brussels (I love this city; I was thereto about 30 years ago, in 1985 and 1986. I undertsand the city has surely changed meanwhile, yet I do love the you know sweet remembrances of youth) in major media, I remembered an old piece from the Washington Post. It's rather small; I quote it in full.

Why Russia can't stop terrorists
Thursday, January 27, 2011; 8:04 PM
THE HORRIFIC suicide bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport on Monday underlined a couple of sad conclusions about Russia's battle against terrorism. One is that the country's security services, unlike their counterparts in Europe and North America, have failed to develop the means to uncover terrorist networks, prevent attacks or protect public spaces such as airports and subway systems. No country's police can guarantee security. But in Russia over the past decade, as Vladimir Putin has cited the threat of terrorism in consolidating a domestic police state, Moscow alone has suffered eight major attacks, along with the destruction of two airplanes that took off from Domodedovo. Casualties have been heavy: At least 35 died and more than 200 were injured in the latest strike.
Second, Mr. Putin's autocratic form of rule and imperialist policy toward non-Russian nations has made it impossible for him to resolve - or even seriously address - the underlying problem that fuels most of the attacks. That is the restiveness of the mostly Muslim republics of the North Caucasus, including Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan, which for the past two decades have been seeking more autonomy from Moscow. Russia's brutal response, including Mr. Putin's scorched-earth campaign in Chechnya, fueled the rise of Muslim extremist groups that have been growing steadily stronger despite nonstop counterterrorism operations. According to official Russian reports, the number of terrorist attacks in the Caucasus doubled in 2010 - though the bloodshed gets little attention when it occurs outside Moscow or other Russian cities.
Mr. Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev sometimes seem to recognize that sweeps by security forces will never stop the terrorists. Mr. Medvedev has blamed the "economic backwardness" of the Caucasus, and Mr. Putin has promoted a development plan under which the central government will invest $13 billion in the region over the next decade. That could do some good if the programs don't fall victim to Russia's endemic corruption. But the Kremlin leaders won't seriously address the issue of self-rule for the republics. Nor are they willing to take on the federal secret police and other security services, which are more skilled at protection rackets and the persecution of political dissidents than in detecting terrorist plots. It was telling that in the aftermath of the bombing, Mr. Medvedev blamed the management of the privately operated airport rather than federal officials responsible for counterterrorism.
What's particularly worrying about the regime's failures is that Russia is due to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, on the edge of the Caucasus. The International Olympic Committee's unwise decision to accept Russia's bid means that athletes and governments around the world have to depend on the Putin-Medvedev regime to prevent terrorist disruption of the Games. Monday's attack was a reminder of how risky a bet that is.

It's an unsigned editorial piece; I take it for, say, an official position and viewpoint of the editorial office.


Having the recent events in Brussels on mind, I dare to put up some notes and questions, going backwards through the text above.

Thinking of Responsibility

About 10 days ago, at the conclusion of the ASEAN summit in California Barack Obama said, in particular:

Russia is a major military. Obviously a bunch of rebels are not going to be able to compete with the hardware of the second-most powerful military in the world.

Surely, sounds not that bad for Russia. Furthermore, in fact, it sounds like Mr. President talks about a kind of counterweight to the first-most powerful military that helps the world to balance on a thin edge of peace (I mean the absence of a world war; unfortunately, all we know there are many local hot and bloody spots in the world).

But just 23 months ago we heard him describing Russia using quite a different wording, the US News and World Report reminded in the same publication. He said then Russia was "a regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbors, not out of strength but out of weakness".

However, Russia is simply tooooo huge to be able to change itself in the course of just two years. There were no revolutions in Moscow; the Western world conducted just the very same, old as mammoth shit, politics of trying to squeeze Russia out of her spheres of interests. Russia has been remaining just the same, and in more or less the same geopolitical circumstances that some powers always try to make unfavourable.

Thus, a question rises.

There are lots of campaigns for  responsible doing this or that: responsible driving, responsible caring of pets and bringing up children, responsible using natural resources, etc, etc.

And all that responsibility stuff is very important for human beings dwelling on our little Earth, indeed. But there are things that are even more important. Do people care of a responsible presidency in the most powerful military? Do people prefer responsible cooperation to confrontation?

And if they do, why it seems they do not?

Revolution of Looting

That's how the Daily Mail describes the ill fate of the mansion of Viktor Pshonka, the Yanukovich's time General Prosecutor of Ukraine:

Revolutionaries wasted no time, and broke into his mansion for the first time immediately after he fled in 2014.
Inside, they discovered an orgy of kitsch - velvet curtains with gilded stripes, chaise-longues in a faux aquarium, marble busts, four-poster beds and what appeared to be a Faberge egg.
What followed was a free for all, with some individuals walking out with whatever they could carry.
Activists then pleaded with new President Petro Poroshenko to seize Pshonka's opulent home and recover its valuable assets for the impoverished state.
Instead, the country's current pro-EU government did nothing to stop the thieves.
Last October plunderers were able to live for a month and half in Pshonka's luxury home while they tore apart its interior.

 

There's a whole set of such pairs of images, taken from the same spots with a two years interval between.

The DM continuously call the Maidaners 'revolutionaries', following the officially adopted by the West version of 'Revolution of Dignity'.
However, what happened in Ukraine two years ago in no case was a revolution. A revolution leads to a change of social formation: so, the Great French Revolution washed away monarchy (with a true flood of blood, I have to add); two consecutive revolutions in Russia did same things in 1917.

However, the only result of Maidan was a change of political elite; the Yanukovich-supported oligarchy (quite mistakenly considered pro-Russian) was changed with that of Poroshenko, an oligarch himself. So it was just a coup d'état, whatever the mainstream media say.

And now we come to the second part of the definition, 'dignity'. The images in the DM show the exact amount on dignity in that Ukrainian pseudo-revolution.

Just because those 'revolutionaries' the DM is speaking of, calling them also 'all', 'individuals' and 'activists', are just the very same people later called 'thieves', 'looters' and 'plunderers'.

Do you see any unmasked face in the pictures published by the DM?

True revolutionaries do not mask their faces.

Period.

True Russians Are...

Like that:

Here is, Russian police officer Maksim Yakimenko from a small settlement in Krasnoyarsk region.

The local emergency call center of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs got a message about a fire at an entrance to a five-floor apartment house in the settlement of Dubinino, on February 6 at night. The local police officer captain Maxim Yakimenko was among the first people on site. He was not a professional firefighter; but a good local takes care of everything that happens in his district.

The burning building was badly fumigated. Having estimated the situation, within just some minutes he bypassed all apartments, waking sleeping people. He personally assisted 49 dwellers, including 15 minors, to escape from the burning house.

Doing so, Maxim Yakimenko was poisoned with carbon monoxide, and later hospitalized; now his life is out of danger. This is thanks to his prompt, professional and courageous action that the fire did not turn into a tragedy and take any human life.

Source (in Russian).

Should Rhodes Stay?

The BBC informs, Oriel College at Oxford University for some reasons decided to keep the statue of Cecil Rhodes on its building.

Reuters image from the BBC publication.

This decision is strongly opposed by "Rodes Must Fall" campaigners. THis campaign succeeded in South Africa, where a Rhodes statue was removed. The idea was adopted in Oxford by activists students insisting that Rhodes' views were incompatible with the modern 'inclusive culture'.

I have no doubt his views are incompatible. How could we expect it other way, talking about a British imperialistic (and as such, surely white) politician of 19th century?

The matter is that history was just the way it was. One can remove a statue, but no one can change history. History is to be studied, its lessons are to help us here, today, avoid mistakes of the past, and find better ways to future that is supposed to be better than the present and way better than the past.

Human Odessa Cries: Set Vladimir Grubnik Free!

Address of Odessa Human Rights Activists
Concerning Surgeon Vladimir Grubnik

Arrested by the SBU on a Charge of Terrorism

Here goes the full transcript of what the girl says in Russian.

Human rights activists of the city of Odessa are pledging to spread around information on the horrible fate of an Odessa local, whose only fault is that he did not accept categorically the anti-human and lawless political regime in the territory of present Ukraine.

The matter is that Vladimir Yuriyevich Grubnik was brutally arrested in Odessa on October 19, 2015. Grubnik is a candidate of medical sciences, a professor of the Odessa National Medical University, a surgeon of the Odessa City Clinical Hospital No. 11, and a member of the European Association of Endoscopic Surgery.

The Ukrainian authorities charge him with participation in terrorist activity, though he denies this guilt completely. Being arrested, Vladimir was badly beaten; it is visible on photographs, which are attached to the published material. It was followed by methods of physical abuse, content in a punishment cell. At the same time, to the best our knowledge, Vladimir Grubnik has developing symptoms of  tuberculosis, which he suffered before.

#protectDrGrubnik

You Are Welcome to Feel Russia

For quite a while, I have never seen such nice videos about my country.

I am happy there are people able to create such decent pieces.

Here, you are welcome to follow Prof. Günter from Stuttgart, Germany. Don't be misled with the Russian title in YouTube; the video is in good English (with some German accent, so far my Russian ear can get it).

Quite a different, but also very impressive travel did Li Feng from Beijing. By the way, her English is surprisingly good.

I understand perfectly well these videos have something to do with advertising and PR.

But this is advertising I like, and the country I love and belong to wholeheartedly.

I just would like to share my feeling so that you feel Russia at least a bit better :)

What They Say Putin Said

The current year started with a prominent interview of Vladimir Putin to the German Bild. He spoke to German journalists on January 5.

Here goes the "original" German version. Why did I put the word 'original' in the quotation marks? The answer is pretty simple: it is a German text; that means, a translation of the words our president said to the interviewing staff in Russian.

For those of you, who do not speak or even understand German, the title goes: "Why Did Putin Frighten Merkel With His Dog". And the subtitle below: "Vladimir Putin explains his world: the NATO is agressive, Merkel is earnest, and the Russian Crimea is a God's justice".

You like it or not, that's what the Bild wrote in German.

Being a major German paper, they published the English translation of the interview as well. Here it is.