Ukraine II: The Fight Against Russian Aggression

[volprof]

RT knowingly using a German neo-Nazi to provide repeated on-air commentary on Ukraine, Crimea, Germany, and the West. As far as I can tell, he's still with them:

RT’s Manuel Ochsenreiter

RT has singled Manuel Ochsenreiter out as their primary on-air spokesman for the German point of view, featuring him on talk shows and extended interviews on the network scores of times over the past four years. While it may seem strange for RT to choose the editor of a neo-Nazi magazine to be their expert on German public opinion, in a way it makes perfect sense precisely because so few people know who he is. RT identifies him on air only as a German journalist. Moreover, judging by his on-air performance, he is very happy to say whatever it takes to keep his patrons at RT happy.

While they don't necessarily need a "neo-Nazi," such moves are critical for Putin's Kremlin, which is trying its best to leverage both the European far right (in particular) and the European far left as spoilers to further European cohesion. There's nothing that Putin would like more than an incohesive Europe. A) It weakens American political and economic influence in the region, and B) it enables greater Russian influence and far more versatility of Russian aims and strategies since Russia is the region's natural hegemon given that the legacy of WWII seems to have permanently decommissioned whatever German desires there existed for unfettered regional influence.

I find the European far left's fascination with Putin (I'm thinking someone like Labour's Corbyn) especially baffling, because the European New Left, which many of these leaders emerged from, is considered laughable in Russia. I think Putin and his Kremlin cohort refer to such individuals as "useful idiots."

 

[volprof]

English-language Russian state media on a roll this week.

Now Sputnik is promoting a revisionist history of the Stalinist collectivization famine, claiming it was not man-made and that the notion it was created by Stalin's policies is a Western attempt to discredit Russia and its history.

But now, Ukraine is the westward-looking enemy—and the Kremlin rolls out the big lie once again, this time for international consumption. Blinova’s article also seems to be part of a concerted campaign rather than a one-off contrarian opinion. A fairly similar piece under the same byline, “Holodomor Hoax: Joseph Stalin’s Crime That Never Took Place,” ran on Sputnik News in August (it too referenced Tottle as well as Montclair State University literature professor Grover Furr, a “revisionist” on a career-long quest to exonerate Stalin). The intent seems clear: to cast doubt, at least among the more gullible segments of the Western public, on an earlier Moscow regime’s crimes against Ukraine while also tarnishing pro-independence Ukrainians with the “Nazi” brush.

Russia Denies Stalin?s Killer Famine - The Daily Beast

Western self-loathers love stuff like this. Corbyn is probably sitting around right now in his comfortable, cushy London office, reading articles like Ekaterina's and shedding tears over all the injustices of his society while figuring out how he can one day reappropriate state funds for Middle Eastern and South Asian immigrant homeownership.

 

[Pacer92]

Again, Vice News is the only source reporting on it, and Vice News isn't "mainstream."

If, tonight on the evening news, David Muir or Anderson Cooper try to convince me that Russia's treatment of its ethnic minorities is a problem, then I'll believe it has gone "mainstream."

This isn't a new article, but it gives insight into who runs israel and their ideology..

New deputy defense minister called Palestinians 'animals' | The Times of Israel

Ben Dahan has made controversial remarks about Palestinians. While discussing the resumption of peace talks in a radio interview in 2013, Ben Dahan said that “To me, they are like animals, they aren’t human."

"A Jew always has a much higher soul than a gentile, even if he is a homosexual,” he said.

 

[volprof]

This isn't a new article, but it gives insight into who runs israel and their ideology..

New deputy defense minister called Palestinians 'animals' | The Times of Israel

I'm not under any delusions concerning Israeli leadership. There is an obnoxious bunch inside its inner circle (or at least close enough to it) that is deleterious and possesses far too much influence on American domestic and foreign policy (when coupled with America's domestic Israel/Jewish lobby).

That being said, Israel, despite its flaws (and its persistence in West Bank settlement being its biggest), is far more desirable to me than any other likely regional state. Turkey is close, although it too seems to be trending towards the authoritarian pipe hole. Iran could be if it could kick the Islamic regime. Persia has historically been the region's most enlightened "state." Even the eras of the great Arab caliphates that saw advanced mathematical, scientific, etc. studies were Persian "dominated," more closely aligned with Old Persia geographically and even culturally than the Arabian Peninsula (Medieval England's elite's obsession with France and French culture is an analogous example.) Similarly, a sovereign Kurdistan could be a nice, shiny beacon in the region.

But, none of this being the case, Israel is still the only state in the region that suggests democracy can work even in a tough neighborhood, albeit with numerous problems of its own.

 

[Pacer92]

I'm not under any delusions concerning Israeli leadership. There is an obnoxious bunch inside its inner circle (or at least close enough to it) that is deleterious and possesses far too much influence on American domestic and foreign policy (when coupled with America's domestic Israel/Jewish lobby).

That being said, Israel, despite its flaws (and its persistence in West Bank settlement being its biggest), is far more desirable to me than any other likely regional state. Turkey is close, although it too seems to be trending towards the authoritarian pipe hole. Iran could be if it could kick the Islamic regime. Persia has historically been the region's most enlightened "state." Even the eras of the great Arab caliphates that saw advanced mathematical, scientific, etc. studies were Persian "dominated," more closely aligned with Old Persia geographically and even culturally than the Arabian Peninsula (Medieval England's elite's obsession with France and French culture is an analogous example.) Similarly, a sovereign Kurdistan could be a nice, shiny beacon in the region.

But, none of this being the case, Israel is still the only state in the region that suggests democracy can work even in a tough neighborhood, albeit with numerous problems of its own.

Probably best we don't get into a long dicussion about Israel in a Russian thread. I will leave it be with this...

It's just ironic that Jews are still hunting down Germans for having this same "superior" ideology...

 

[volprof]

Probably best we don't get into a long dicussion about Israel in a Russian thread. I will leave it be with this...

It's just ironic that Jews are still hunting down Germans for having this same "superior" ideology...

Agreed. Jews are some of the most ethnocentric people on Earth. Some Jews, I should specify. Hell, the entire Old Testament and the ancient Jewish scriptures are basically just one long unashamed apology for Jewish atrocities and genocides against other peoples. The only reason why convention in our society dictates otherwise is because, well, you know, religion, as if that somehow justifies the poor behavior.

No one is immune from history. It got the best of us all from time to time. But, what we can do is see where we all currently are and go from there. Just because someone's society may have done awful things in the past (say American ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples) doesn't mean it can't be critical of current poor behavior and seek to establish global moral norms. We call this progress.

 

[Velo Vol]

RT Co-Founder Reportedly Found Dead In D.C. Hotel

A Russian media mogul who helped found the Kremlin-run news channel RT was found dead in his hotel in Washington, D.C., according to reports.

Mikhail Lesin, who was formerly the top media affairs minister for the Russian government, died of a “heart stroke,” a family member reportedly told RIA Novosti.

 

[LouderVol]

RT Co-Founder Reportedly Found Dead In D.C. Hotel

Strange

 

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Strange

Very

 

[volprof]

Not much context provided, but I assume this was a special event for this past week's Unity Day, probably meant to commemorate Stalin's initial military parade that October or early November right after the German invasion.

Russian soldiers re-enact historic military march | Watch the video - Yahoo News

You have to admire Russian pageantry, their almost primal proclivity for colors, movement, and emotion. It really is beautiful. Like Yevgraf Zhivago says, "Nobody loves poetry like a Russian."

If there's one thing I'm envious of (well, there's at least a few things) Russians as an American, it's this. They take a much more aesthetic approach to life than we Americans often tend. While possessing its own unique merits, our approach to life, in particular public life, often seems to be much more pragmatic.

EDIT: Here's the full story: https://www.rt.com/news/321185-red-square-wwii-parade/

 

[Velo Vol]

You have to admire Russian pageantry, their almost primal proclivity for colors, movement, and emotion. It really is beautiful.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR8IQ9OrzpA[/youtube]

 

[volprof]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR8IQ9OrzpA[/youtube]

I'm glad you brought that up, because it serves for an interesting comparison. If there's any American region that can make at least a claim to emulate those aesthetic values of colors, movement, coordination, etc., it's the South. Like Russia, long considered the cultural backwaters of Europe, the South is often considered the cultural backwaters of America. Despite this thinking, both demonstrate, traditionally at least, a stronger proclivity for poetry and the aestheticization of tragedy, trauma, and public life.

I contribute this to two factors that the South and Russia share in common and in which the rest of the US mostly lacks:

1. Strong agrarian/rural tradition. Whereas other regions of the country often take their cultural cues from the metropole, the South has historically taken its cues from the rural periphery. Agrarian societies, unlike industrial ones, historically demonstrate stronger connections to and dependencies upon the land, enabling a much more formidable spiritual/emotional attachment to the land and to those objects within it.

To be fair, the Midwest largely shares this tradition as well, but lacks factor 2 below, which is equally crucial.

2. History of tragedy and trauma. While every American region has experienced suffering and trauma, no where was it more deeply experienced and more deeply felt than in the South, whether from the tradition of slavery to the historical upheavals and destruction wrought by the Civil War. This, coupled with factor 1, enables a more poetic outlook and a stronger sense of history, continuity, tradition, and deep memory, all of which infuse art, music, literature, and the public space with a pageantry, gallantry, sadness, and mournfulness that cannot be found elsewhere in the US.

 

[Velo Vol]

There's no color in California?

Can city folk be poets?

 

[volprof]

There's no color in California?

Can city folk be poets?

Nope, color still hasn't been invented here. Everything is still in black-and-white.

Anyone can be a poet, but adopting it (whether literally or figuratively) into civic and public life is a stronger trait in the South than elsewhere in this nation. One need only look at the differences between a football Saturday in the South and a football Saturday elsewhere to come to this conclusion.

I know I risk making too many generalizations, but I'd say that, with the South, you can take a common public event (like a football game) and make it into a vast, sweeping cultural drama, rife with emotion and historical meanings, more often than you can elsewhere in this country.

That being said, all this is becoming less evident with each passing day, as our various regions and localities become increasingly de-regionalized and de-localized. This is nothing necessarily new nor nothing necessarily needing (how's that for alliteration, speaking of poetry?) retrenchment; rather, it's the way of the world. And we should mourn their passing with our eyes to the future.

Okay, back to Russia now. Is it just me or does it seem like, now that Putin has made his moves in Ukraine and in Syria, that he's not quite the enigma he used to be? In other words, now that we've been provided concrete evidence of his broader goals/agenda, is predicting his behavior and thinking easier?

 

[volprof]

It's the Kremlin's version of the American drone program (look for article on assassinations of Chechens in Turkey)

Domestic/Social | The Jamestown Foundation


And then there's this concerning the Russian Far East population crisis and development initiative. Those figures I pulled last week were way off; the situation is even worse than I initially thought:

By the end of 2010, the situation appeared to have stabilized, but now the outflow of the population has resumed at an even greater rate, with the total falling to six million and the share of Russians once more declining. Indeed, so many working-age Russians have left that those businesses and government agencies that want to develop the region are having to import workers either from Central Asia or from China, both of which are triggering the departure of even more ethnic Russians and lowering their share of the population still further. If the current trend continues, there will be fewer than five million residents in the Russian Far East by the end of this decade, and the share of ethnic Russians in many areas will fall to 50 percent or less, creating a situation in which both Chinese investors and non-Russian nationalists may press for more power. In either case, Moscow will certainly view these outcomes as secessionist threats (Deita.ru, October 28).

He gives three examples of such self-defeating policies: First, transportation both within the region and between it and European Russia has broken down, making it impossible for people to create businesses or expand them. Second, there are now so few workers in the region that outside investors have to bring in their own labor force. Foreign companies routinely bring in Central Asian or Chinese workers, which leads more ethnic Russians to leave.

And third, the Russian government’s support for monopolies is creating real obstacles. It is now cheaper for a Russian firm in the Far East to buy electricity in China that was originally generated in Russia and then exported than to buy power directly from the same Russian company domestically. That is typical of the kinds of bottlenecks that the center’s failure to attend to the needs of the region are creating in many sectors, Krupnov says.

Look for article on Russian flight from Far East:

Domestic/Social | The Jamestown Foundation

And still 150-200 million Chinese huddled together just right across the Ussuri and the Amur. Russia has to be the biggest small country on Earth, kind of like how Ben Carson is the smartest dumb person on Earth.

EDIT: As always, the articles refuse to link directly from this site, so you will need to find them through the Domestic/Social page if interested.

 

[Velo Vol]

Anyone can be a poet, but adopting it (whether literally or figuratively) into civic and public life is a stronger trait in the South than elsewhere in this nation. One need only look at the differences between a football Saturday in the South and a football Saturday elsewhere to come to this conclusion.

I don't know that the NFL fan culture in many Midwest/Northeast cities is all that different than football Saturday here.

 

[LouderVol]

Not much context provided, but I assume this was a special event for this past week's Unity Day, probably meant to commemorate Stalin's initial military parade that October or early November right after the German invasion.

Russian soldiers re-enact historic military march | Watch the video - Yahoo News

You have to admire Russian pageantry, their almost primal proclivity for colors, movement, and emotion. It really is beautiful. Like Yevgraf Zhivago says, "Nobody loves poetry like a Russian."

If there's one thing I'm envious of (well, there's at least a few things) Russians as an American, it's this. They take a much more aesthetic approach to life than we Americans often tend. While possessing its own unique merits, our approach to life, in particular public life, often seems to be much more pragmatic.

EDIT: Here's the full story: https://www.rt.com/news/321185-red-square-wwii-parade/

it reeks of nationalist movements. it stinks to high heaven of it.

 

[Velo Vol]

it reeks of nationalist movements. it stinks to high heaven of it.

The military parade?

 

[LouderVol]

The military parade?

Individually, absolutely not. But the proclivity of it. and just how staged they are. How some people are banned from making the parades (not this one, but in some cases its a members only crowd) or how "encouraged" you are to go to them. Its a little too much Kim Jong Un over the mantle for my liking. And they aren't celebrating the troops, but the country. Similar to them celebrating the victories in WWII after Stalin purposefully killed off successful generals, its not about the individual but the country. Its too white washed, there is almost a sense that this ambiguous "Russia" is an actual person. and that Russia has done these things, not the people. jmo, of course.

 

[volprof]

Individually, absolutely not. But the proclivity of it. and just how staged they are. How some people are banned from making the parades (not this one, but in some cases its a members only crowd) or how "encouraged" you are to go to them. Its a little too much Kim Jong Un over the mantle for my liking. And they aren't celebrating the troops, but the country. Similar to them celebrating the victories in WWII after Stalin purposefully killed off successful generals, its not about the individual but the country. Its too white washed, there is almost a sense that this ambiguous "Russia" is an actual person. and that Russia has done these things, not the people. jmo, of course.

Oh, there's not much organic about it. Don't mistake my comments. I just think there's still a flare for pageantry (that isn't kitschy consumer like our pageantry here) that Russians have which we tend to lack. Now, Kadyrov's ridiculous displays down in Grozny and Putin's hockey playing can be a little goofy at times, but, if you put that aside, they typically put on a good show, full of pomp and circumstance and typically lacking the gaudiness of kitschy consumerism.

Speaking of Russia, its track-and-field teams are possibly going to be banned from the Rio Olympics due to institutional doping. The most interesting result from all this is that the doping initiative goes all the way to the top, all the way to the Kremlin, possibly even Putin.

While its pageantry is one of the things I admire about Russia, its sometimes overwhelming inferiority complex (which is the root cause of this scandal) is the thing I least admire about it.

 

[Velo Vol]

Oh, there's not much organic about it. Don't mistake my comments. I just think there's still a flare for pageantry (that isn't kitschy consumer like our pageantry here) that Russians have which we tend to lack.

Oh yeah, well we have this:

 

[volprof]

Oh yeah, well we have this:

I actually made a reference to our big national parade balloons in that post, but decided to delete it lest I be countered with the ridiculous giant crying polar bear at Sochi. That was a gaudy thing, no doubt, but I think the US has cornered the market in big, gaudy ridiculousness nonetheless.

If big, gaudy ridiculousness were an energy source, the US alone could meet the world's energy needs for the next century or two.

 

[volprof]

I guess my main grievance with our aestheticization of the public space is that we seem to be stunted at childhood and have never quite matured into adulthood.

We seem overly fascinated with public displays that have to exhibit huge cartoon characters (whether of the balloon or of the costume variety), loud noises and booms, over-the-top cheap tricks like having a guy parachute into a ceremony or a game, bad pop music performances with ridiculous costumes and butt-shaking, etc.

It's almost like we treat the public space like we're toddlers who've just figured out how to walk and have just gained a fondness for making things go "BOOM!!!"

Okay, now I'll shut up about it.

 

[volprof]

Wow, this Russian doping scandal sounds worse and worse by the hour.

There's discussion now that the Russian Federation may be banned from the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics and even some talk that international competitive bans may even spillover into other events/sports. Sounds like it's a well-coordinated, extended campaign on the part of those in the Russian government in charge of the Federation's athletics to cheat. Currently, word is that no fewer than five Russian olympic athletes may face lifetime bans.

If this is what they're doing for the 2016 Summer Games, it makes you wonder what they were willing to do to win in Sochi, as they indeed did. Sounds like we may not see a Russian Federation Olympics team (Winter or Summer) for quite some time to come.

 

[Velo Vol]

Zlata Ohnevych resigns from the Verkhovna Rada.

She would have had my vote.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBBzyg_m4Qs[/youtube]