Category: PROPAGANDA, LIES AND NONSENSE

Russia the Eternal Enemy Quotations

On By Patrick ArmstrongIn PROPAGANDA, LIES AND NONSENSE, QUOTATIONS, WAR ON RUSSIA

The appointment of Yevgeniy Primakov as Russia’s Foreign Minister yesterday marks perhaps the most ominous transfer of power in Moscow since Yuri Andropov became General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party in 1982. This is not only because, like Andropov, Primakov has had powerful links to the KGB throughout his career. It is also due to the fact that the new Foreign Minister may be as cunning, ruthless and unwavering as the former General Secretary in his service to totalitarian imperialism. And, possibly most alarming of all, there is a strong possibility that Western governments will once again try to construe the new power in the Kremlin as a ‘man with whom we can do business’….The truth is, of course, that Yevgeny Primakov is a shrewd, archetypal Soviet thug and one of the most insidiously dangerous men on earth.

Restoration Watch #7: Primakov’s promotion marks major step on the road `back to the USSR’, the Center for Security Policy 10 Jan 96 (http://www.securitypolicy.org/papers/96D2.html)

How to Spin Russia

On By Patrick ArmstrongIn PROPAGANDA, LIES AND NONSENSE, WAR ON RUSSIA

This news entry from the BBC is a textbook example of how to write up a Russia news story so that the right twist is given to it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced the creation of a new National Guard, which he said would fight terrorism and organised crime. The force will be formed of interior ministry troops and led by Mr Putin’s former bodyguard, Viktor Zolotov, who will report directly to the president. Mr Putin’s spokesman said the force could be used to maintain public order.

OK, so far so good, this announced, these the reasons. But note the next sentence:

But Dmitry Peskov denied its creation was linked to September’s election. Some critics say Mr Putin fears unrest.”

You can just see the scene: boring announcement; reporter asks: “Are you just doing this so you can crack heads?”; “No” says Peskov.

And awaaaaaay we go! Throw in “some experts” and we have the twist.

Never mind that all opinion polls — Russian and foreign — show spectacular levels of support for the government; it’s time to stir up another non-story of election faking to maintain the anti-Russia line.

 

Only Liars Want to Silence the Other Guy: Silence the “Russian Information War”!!!!!

On By Patrick ArmstrongIn PROPAGANDA, LIES AND NONSENSE, WAR ON RUSSIA

Back in the Cold War the Soviets spent a lot of time and effort jamming Western radio and TV broadcasts. The West never bothered trying to block Radio Moscow and the others. Why? Well, the West was confident that it was telling the truth and Moscow knew that it wasn’t. So the West was perfectly happy to let the “marketplace” decide. And, eventually, the “marketplace” did decide.

So today a couple of Brits (but hardly disinterested ones – but then isn’t everyone trying to make a few bucks out of the anti-Russia cause?) have decided that Russia is conducting an “information war” against the West. We have Legatum, funded by all the usual suspects, and now this latest of which this extract is enough to give the flavour:

Moreover, regardless of the impact of this disinformation, the fact that a disinformation campaign is being conducted by Russian government outlets remains demonstrably the case; that case is set out below. This being so, appropriate legal and diplomatic responses should be brought to bear both on the direct actors in the disinformation campaign, and on the Russian government more broadly.

Note that the authors evidently don’t trust the “marketplace” to decide this one; no, no, they call for “appropriate legal and diplomatic responses”.

I think they’re not trying hard enough. I’ll bet some of the old Soviet jamming equipment is still around somewhere and could be purchased for a very small amount of money.

There are times when freedom of speech isn’t free and the delicate ears of our people have to be protected from the foul utterances of the Kremlin.

(Just as a little trip down Memory Lane here’s the reaction of E. Eugene Pell, president of Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe, to the end of Soviet jamming in 1988: ”The cessation of jamming represents a significant step on the part of the Soviet Government toward the free flow of information.” “Free flow of information”; Golly! What a concept!)

How stupid do these people think we are? A child could figure it out: only liars want to shut up the other guy.

MH17 For Dummies

On By Patrick ArmstrongIn ACCUSATIONS, MH17, PROPAGANDA, LIES AND NONSENSE, UKRAINE, WAR ON RUSSIA

According to this source, the US intelligence budget for 2014 was 67.9 billion US dollars. That’s about 130,000 kilometres of $100 bills laid end to end or about three times around the world at the equator. Which is quite a lot of money, even if a lot goes to administration, overhead and the like.

So, you’d think that if an airliner was shot down over an area that was being closely watched, all this money would have bought quite a lot of information.

And, US Secretary of State John Kerry said it did and here he is saying it: “we observed it” (1.15)

But, two years later we still await the US intelligence evidence.

Instead we have

Well common sense would suggest that, if we haven’t heard about the other stuff then

  • it isn’t there or
  • it contradicts what Washington has been saying.

QED. It’s not that complicated.

 

Memes Shape the Story

On By Patrick ArmstrongIn PROPAGANDA, LIES AND NONSENSE

Note February 2016: Written in 2012 as an explanation of what I meant; still relevant, I think.

Memes function as an epistemological filter determining what the facts and motives are and where to look to find them. The memes told their believers what Moscow’s motives were in the case of Georgia – Moscow’s motive and principle of its actions was an attempt to reverse the collapse of the Soviet Empire. The 2008 war was commonly fitted into the pre-existing story that Moscow was seizing its chance to defeat and humiliate Georgia and regain control over its behavior. But the adherence to the memes, together with the general ignorance of the context and Tbilisi’s ambitions, blinded their adherents to Moscow’s real concern. And that was that Moscow feared that a fire set in Georgia would spread across the mountains into the Russian Caucasus. Moscow feared this in 2008 because it had seen it happen in the 1990s. Moscow feared a repeat of what had already happened once before.

Russia the Eternal Enemy Quotations

On By Patrick ArmstrongIn PROPAGANDA, LIES AND NONSENSE, QUOTATIONS, WAR ON RUSSIA

Chernomyrdin does not hide the fact that he stands for a more assertive foreign policy…Moscow shows every sign of playing the ethnic Russian card as a way of exerting pressure on the Baltics…Russia has allowed the former 14th Soviet Army and local Russian Communists to carve out a separatist ‘Dnestr Republic’…Russia has also intervened decisively in the wars in Georgia, forcing Eduard Shevardnadze to take his country into the Commonwealth of Independent States, and in Tajikistan. The economic union with Belarus is part of the same process…But when Russia’s leaders deal with the ‘near abroad’ and Eastern Europe, they put on their flak jackets and pursue policies not far removed from those of the old Soviet Politburo. This means bringing the Baltic region, Transcaucasia and Central Asia back into Moscow’s orbit, and it means putting pressure on Eastern European counties not to join Nato. It is a policy of unspoken military intimidation….

Tony Barber, “Back to the USSR”, The Independent on Sunday, 23 Jan 94 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/back-to-the-ussr-russia-turned-a-corner-last-week-but-the-road-it-has-chosen-is-not-one-of-reform-it-1401846.html

Last Two Decades Explained in Two Quotations

On By Patrick ArmstrongIn NATO, PROPAGANDA, LIES AND NONSENSE, WAR ON RUSSIA

These two pieces, although relatively recent, have a certain timeless quality about them: they could have been written at any time in the past two decades and would be both predictive and explanatory. They succulently explain the thinking that has brought us to today’s war talk. In essence, they are different ways of saying that We, the West, can do things that others are not permitted to do. And, do it by God’s good Grace. To take offence at these claims of supremacy and superiority is, ipso facto, a proof of hostility.

The first is by the Cheneys and is a hymn to American exceptionalism. (Originally at the Wall Street Journal 28 August 2015 a version can be found here). It begins with the obligatory lament: “President Obama has dangerously surrendered the nation’s global leadership, but it can be ours again—if we choose his successor wisely.” (An interesting feature which we often find in these discombobulations and atrabiliousnesses is the fear that the USA, the greatest, the mightiest, the most wonderfullest, the bestest is in danger of losing it all in a trice. But how could that be possible?)

A few selections are enough:

America has guaranteed freedom, security and peace for a larger share of humanity than any other nation in all of history. There is no other like us. There never has been…. It [the position as “the world’s sole superpower”] is ours because of our ideals and our power, and the power of our ideals…. Our children need to know that they – the citizens of the exceptional country, the most powerful, good and noble country in the history of mankind. They need to know that they are – the heirs of a great past and a great debt.

A couple of peculiarities of this are worth mentioning. By word count, a third of the piece is a rant against the nuclear agreement with Iran which is, to them, as so many things are, “eerily reminiscent of the Munich Agreement”. Iran is their focus; Russia is mentioned once in passing in a generic list of threats. And Putin not at all. A distinction without a difference: an identical piece – including the obligatory “eerily reminiscent of the Munich Agreement” – could effortlessly be extruded by the two about Russia, China or, come to think of it, Venezuela.

Another point that it is worth noticing is that the “exceptionalism” of the USA was, using their examples, mostly manifested in the Second World War and the immediate aftermath. They do not glory that the US selflessly brought democracy to Vietnam or El Salvador, nor do they congratulate themselves on the order and peace brought to Iraq or Libya. Their examples are rather old.

Now there are many people out there who are perfectly prepared to admire the USA of seven decades years ago but who think that it has rather gone astray since then. (One might be tempted to suggest that if even these cheerleaders cannot come up with anything much later than the Marshall Plan as an example of America’s goodness and nobility they themselves are perilously close to the sin of doubt.)

The creed of American exceptionalism is here laid out. The USA is simply the best, the brightest, the noblest. What it wants is requisite for all to want and its actions are exemplary; secure against error: its opponents are ever evil, it is ever righteous. Deserving of supreme power, whatever it does is for the best; no criticism is possible, no criticism is to be tolerated.

A very dangerous mindset indeed.

The next piece for your consideration was uttered by the former Secretary General of NATO: “The Kremlin’s Tragic Miscalculation“. (By the way, Rasmussen is now working for Goldman Sachs; a perfect closing of the circle that should make any conspiracy theorist faint with joy.) Writing more than sorrow than in anger, he says that Russia’s “tragic miscalculation” was not understanding that NATO is its friend:

In short, thanks to the EU and NATO, the stability on its Western borders that Russia has sought for centuries has now been achieved. Russia should be celebrating – and it should be seizing the opportunity to deepen its ties with the West.

There’s no need to read any further and it’s instructive that most of the commenters on the piece see this for the nonsense it is. NATO is a military alliance, it’s not a glee club, and it accounts for over half the world’s expenditure on weaponry. Who would be dumb enough to think that a country that finds NATO moving ever closer to its doorstep (while, at the same time claiming that Russia is on its doorstep), that is continually demonised by a strident and united media would not be concerned? Silly Russians indeed!

So, Dear Readers, I submit these two short pieces for your consideration as a quick guide to the thinking that has brought us, and continues to bring us, ever closer to the Last World War.

First, the deeply embedded conviction in Washington that the USA is so wonderful, so noble, so pure of purpose and clean of intention that it cannot do wrong. And second that NATO is a peace alliance dedicated to bringing peace and prosperity (rather than, as Kosovo, Iraq, Libya, Ukraine et al show, the reverse).

And finally, there is the unstated, but nevertheless attendant, assumption that the Russians (and Chinese) aren’t smart enough to understand that the consequences of these two beliefs are 1) that their interests are not worthy of consideration and 2) that war is peace.

Mystery to Everybody but a Select Few Illuminati

On By Patrick ArmstrongIn PROPAGANDA, LIES AND NONSENSE, PUTIN DERANGEMENT SYNDROME

From my Sitrep 20110303

“PUTIN’S PALACE”. So-called. A medium sized flap over this monster house (“a billion dollars”) allegedly being built for Putin. Turns out it’s a hotel and conference centre and it has just been bought by a Russian plutocrat. But, no doubt, the anti-Putinites will say this is just a cover story: for them everything visible in Russia is a manipulated illusion covering what’s really happening. Oddly enough, they alone have penetrated the deception and uncovered the Truth.

Eternal Russia in the Eyes of the WMSM

On By Patrick ArmstrongIn PROPAGANDA, LIES AND NONSENSE

Something I wrote in 2011 but didn’t publish anywhere. Nonetheless there’s a certain timelessness to it, don’t you think?

Change nouns as appropriate and you could make a rubber stamp.

So, Medvedev gave a press conference, which he and Putin have done many times before, and he didn’t talk about the things that The Economist thought he should have. Which sends The Economist, and the Western MSM, into a paroxysm of speculation and minatory expostulation.

Big deal: maybe The Economist, and the rest of the Western MSM, should get a better grip on what’s happening in Russia. There are more stories in Russia than who the next President will be.