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All posts for the day November 1st, 2023
Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil
20 years ago genius Russian politician Zhirinovsky made the following geopolitical predictions:
A nuclear conflict is inevitable in the Middle East.
Israel will use Nuclear weapons against Palestine.
War between Israel & Iran The USA will be in crisis.
Indians will control the British Parliament.
The EU will cease to exist. Israel will lose the war.
Russia will accept a mass relocation of refugees from Israel.
A huge war between China & the West will start in 2040.
India & Pakistan go to war
This week German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in a media interview that German residents must start getting used to the idea of the specter of war in Europe.
“We have to become capable of fighting,” Pistorius said.
WEDNESDAY, NOV 01, 2023
Starting last month, top Ukrainian officials began pushing an alarmist narrative that “World War 3 has already begun” – as the head Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Aleksey Danilov had claimed in early September. The words were spoken after it became clear that Ukraine’s military was losing, and now Time magazine has confirmed the military doesn’t have the manpower to fight off the Russians. Naturally, Kiev must find new ways to draw in more direct support of key European powers.
“If somebody thinks that World War III hasn’t started then it’s a huge mistake. It has already begun. It had been underway in a hybrid period for some time and has now entered an active phase,” Danilov said before the Kiev Security Forum at the time (early Sept). More than a month later, some European leaders have begun to echo the same warning.
Significantly, this week German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in a media interview that German residents must start getting used to the idea of the specter of war in Europe.
“We have to get used to the idea that there may be a threat of war in Europe,” he said in the national broadcast interview. “Germany must be able to defend itself. We must be prepared for war.”
He was responding to questions related to Germany being slow to rearmament itself in the wake of the Russian war in Ukraine, and now with the prospect of the Gaza-Israel conflict spilling over into broader Mideast regional war:
He believes that the conflict in the Middle East and Russia’s war against Ukraine shall have consequences for German society. In particular, Germany must be able to defend itself, and this applies to both the Bundeswehr and society.
“We have to become capable of fighting,” Pistorius said.
“Unfortunately, everything that has been spoiled for 30 years cannot be fixed in 19 months,” Pistorius admitted in the fresh remarks. But he still pushed back against the critics:
Pistorius rejected accusations that the federal government was too slow to react to the so-called turning point. He stressed that not only had a €100 billion special fund for the Bundeswehr been set up, but that state bodies had also been changed.
Germany has meanwhile been among those Western powers which see conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe as related, with Russia being a prime bad actor exacerbating tensions (the Kremlin has in turn said the same thing about the West, and the US in particular).
On Monday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg claimed that President Vladimir Putin is taking joy in the crisis in the Middle East. “We can see that the Russian president is certainly happy, given the situation in the Middle East. That is why we are looking at Ukraine even more closely than we have done in the past,” she said.
Zelensky too has expressed increased concern that world powers have taken their eye off the ball as they focus on events in Gaza. But Defense Minister Pistorius has along with Baerbock sought to assure the Ukrainians that Berlin will not lessen its support to Kiev based on the Israel-Gaza conflict.
A fresh segment on Russian TV wherein popular pundits threaten war on Germany:
Meanwhile, Germany’s new ‘turn’ toward rebuilding its military could help drive new populist politicians’ efforts at curtailing this new expanse of Berlin’s reviving military-industrial complex:
Wagenknecht’s politics clearly resonate with the German public. A recent survey of German voters found that 14% would vote for a Wagenknecht party, putting it just one point behind the governing Social Democrats (SPD) and two points ahead of the Green party. It speaks to the breadth of Wagenknecht’s coalition that, if initial polls are to be believed, she would take votes not only from her own former political home, but also from the centre-right CDU, the left-leaning Greens and the pro-business FDP. Most of all, though, Wagenknecht is trying to appeal to a section of AfD voters. Much of the party’s success in recent elections, she claims, comes from Germans who “don’t vote for the AfD because they’re rightwing. They vote for the AfD because they’re angry.” Wagenknecht’s attempts to siphon off the AfD’s protest voters currently seems like the only viable plan to mitigate the far-right party’s electoral success.
Far-left and far-right movements in Germany, and broadly in Europe remain distrustful of increased military spending, especially accompanied by politicians’ pleas for society to “prepare for war” – while silencing voices which seek a ceasefire and a diplomatic offramp.
Recent findings in a lengthy case have cast doubt on the very roots of the current Ukraine crisis
https://www.rt.com/russia/586192-maidan-snipers-ukraine-kiev/
Oct 31, 2023
By Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian from Germany at Koç University in Istanbul working on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory. Follow Tarik on X @tarikcyrilamar
FILE PHOTO. Anti-government protesters continue to clash with police in Independence square, despite a truce agreed between the Ukrainian president and opposition leaders on February 20, 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine. © Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Earlier this month, a district court in Kiev announced its findings in a case that had dragged on since 2015, handing down sentences to five former officers of the long-dissolved ‘Berkut’ police unit. The ex-police grouping became internationally known during the 2013/14 protests which culminated with the violent ‘Maidan.’
Charged with involvement in the shooting of anti-government protesters by snipers in the center of the Ukrainian capital on February 20, 2014, four of the accused – three of them in absentia – were found guilty and sentenced to terms between five years and life. One was acquitted.
Politically, this was, or should have been, Ukraine’s single most important trial since independence in 1991. The judges closed – at least for now as appeals have already been announced – the country’s attempt to come to terms judicially with the darkest moment of what has been called a “revolution,” as well as a “coup”: the fall of the government of former President Viktor Yanukovich under pressure from initially peaceful – then violent – street protests and Western meddling. The events producing regime change and geopolitical re-orientation unfolded over three months, but the killing of almost 50 protesters that February was a crucial tipping point.
The case quickly became known as the “snipers’ massacre” or the “Maidan massacre.” The shootings were squarely blamed on Yanukovich and his administration and seemed to rule out domestic compromise and confirm Western and Ukrainian pro-insurgent narratives, casting the crisis as a national and democratic freedom struggle against a corrupt and oppressive regime beholden to Moscow. Neither the disproportionate role of an aggressive and manipulative Ukrainian far right nor the ruthless geopolitics of the West had a place in this framing. Within days after the killings, a last attempt to stop the spiral of escalation by an internationally mediated agreement failed, Yanukovych fled to Russia, and Moscow’s troops were on the move in Crimea.
Then things got worse. Clashes between Kiev’s new government and rebels in Donbass evolved into an initially intense, then mostly slow-burn, regional civil war, including limited Russian interventions. The best chance for peace, the 2015 Minsk 2 Agreement, was sabotaged systematically by Kiev and its Western supporters, and, after February 2022, Ukraine became the theater of a proxy war of the collective West against Russia. The West and Ukraine are now likely to lose this conflict at immense cost in lives and wealth, mostly to Ukraine. International tension is extremely high, trust has evaporated, and meaningful communication is almost impossible.
Ukraine and the world could be in a much better place if the last days of February 2014 had played out differently, allowing for the compromise already negotiated between Ukraine’s government and the insurgents to take hold. The Maidan Massacre was not the only but the single most important shove toward an ever-widening conflict, especially as the dominant Western narrative about the killings has remained the same, blaming only the old regime and rejecting any challenge to the narrative as a pro-Russian “information war.” Here was the perfect story, in short, to emotionally legitimize not only support but uncritical backing for Kiev, the rejection and sabotage of any concessions to Ukraine’s domestic rebels in the East, and vilifying any effective cooperation with Moscow.
But what if we were not told the truth about the killings? That is the key claim advanced by Canadian-Ukrainian political scientist Ivan Katchanovski. Katchanovski (who also recently exposed the scandal around the honoring of a Waffen-SS veteran by the Canadian parliament) has long argued that “the Maidan massacre was a false-flag mass killing of … protestors and … police in order to seize power in Ukraine. It was conducted with the involvement of oligarchic and far-right elements of the Maidan opposition using concealed groups of Maidan snipers in Maidan-controlled buildings.”
The rich detail of Katchanovski’s findings cannot be reproduced here, but three points should be noted: Snipers belonging to the insurgents’ side started shooting at the police on the morning of February 20; key positions, such as in the Hotel Ukraina and a conservatory, from which these policemen were attacked and later Maidan protesters as well, were and remained under the control of insurgent units (not the police); and after 9.00 am, protesters, too, were shot by insurgent snipers (again: not by the police).
In sum, two things happened, according to Katchanovski’s findings: Insurgent snipers first shot at the police to provoke an escalation, and then, in addition, even killed protesters – that is, those on their own side. At the same time, Katchanovski does not rule out the possibility that the police also shot protesters. But his careful analysis of video and other evidence shows that many victims, likely the majority, were targeted by insurgent shooters.
Katchanovski has come to these conclusions through years-long, rigorous, and exhaustive forensic research, as summarized in his peer-reviewed article “The ‘Snipers’ Massacre’ on the Maidan in Ukraine” in Cogent Social Sciences, an academic journal published by Taylor and Francis. He has not been the only one reaching such or similar results, but his work is the most thorough and important independent investigation. Clearly, that is why, due to its political implications, he has had to withstand being smeared as a “conspiracy theorist” and pro-Kremlin information warrior; his work has been censored; and he has suffered severe retaliation by attempts at professional and social marginalization and the pseudo-legal confiscation of his family’s property in Ukraine.
Ukrainian courts are not politically independent. Judges, whatever their own views or professional ethics, work under the threat of ostracism and violence from Ukraine’s far right (at least). And yet, as Katchanovski has pointed out, buried in the million-word findings of the recent verdict, the court has recognized several facts that confirm his interpretation of the Maidan Massacre, including the following: four police officers were killed and 39 wounded by insurgent snipers; snipers shot from buildings under insurgent control; and it cannot be ruled out that eight victims were killed and 20 injured by “unknown” perpetrators who were not from the police.
While Katchanovski is to be admired for his research and steadfastness, what is especially important here is that the long backlash against his research is a symptom of something larger that is badly amiss in both Ukraine and the West. Even now, the Ukrainian information war outlet Euromaidan Press, for instance, still combines a personal attack on Katchanovski with disinforming its readers, claiming that the verdict somehow contradicts his findings (which are, by the way, badly misrepresented).
The opposite is the case.
This is just the latest example of a deep culture of disinformation and self-disinformation that has taken root in the West. While Western elites may well lie deliberately much of the time, substantial parts of the Western media, it seems, have come to not only believe these lies – or those of favorites, clients, and allies – but to defend them with a vigor that betrays psychological investment.
The emotionally-charged reality denial around Hillary Clinton’s richly-deserved defeat in the US election of 2016 (“Russiagate”), the bizarre doublethink regarding Western forces (and/or Ukraine) blowing up Nord Stream (thereby committing an act of war among “allies” and of eco-terrorism), Israel’s “right to defend itself” interpreted as the permission to commit crimes against humanity with Western support – all are instances of a form of collective self-indulgence. Too many people in the West still claiming to be the world’s “value” guardian practice lying and lying to themselves as if it were their special birthright.
Yet these lies and fiercely guarded illusions corrupt individuals and politics, polarize societies, disrupt international relations and, last but not least, cost lives – thousands, tens of thousands, and, in the case of Ukraine by now, hundreds of thousands. Conflict is a normal part of human life, and, to some extent, inevitable.
Driving yourself insane with dishonesty is not. And it certainly does not help keep the peace.
The new global war comes as a series of intertwined conflicts rather than a single, major one, the Russian foreign policy expert believes
The ongoing array of conflicts is effectively a new World War, which appears to significantly differ from the two global conflicts of the 20th century
https://www.rt.com/russia/586270-world-war-already-ongoing/
“The international order is breaking down. It was an unpleasant one, based on the fear of mutual destruction, but manageable. Wars in the Middle East have erupted before, but the USSR and the USA intervened and extinguished them until the next conflict. And now I don’t see even a temporary settlement mechanism,” Lukyanov said.
Oct 31, 2023
Smoke rises from explosions during rocket strikes in Gaza on October 28, 2023 as seen from Sderot, Israel. © Getty Images / Dan Kitwood
The Third World War is already underway, Fyodor Lukyanov, Russia’s leading foreign policy expert, has said. A world order that has been “unpleasant” but “manageable” is being broken down and currently, there seems to be no mechanism for the resolution of conflicts, including the ongoing escalation between Israel and Hamas, he believes.
Lukyanov, who is chairman of the presidium at the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy (SVOP) think tank and editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs magazine, made the remarks in an interview published last week by newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Of late, the world has seen old, frozen conflicts being re-ignited, Lukyanov said, citing the Nagorno-Karabakh hostilities, the Russia-Ukraine standoff and the new escalation in the Middle East as examples.
The ongoing array of conflicts is effectively a new World War, which appears to significantly differ from the two global conflicts of the 20th century, Lukyanov, who is also a research director of the Valdai International Discussion Club, suggested.
There is a chain of conflicts affecting the whole world. In fact, World War III is already underway. In this sense, it is still better than the wars that happened in the 20th century, but there is little joy.
“We instinctively expect that the war will begin just like the Great War or the [Second World War]. But such wars probably won’t happen anymore – after all, there are nuclear weapons, which are still holding back many,” the expert said.
The escalation in the Middle East is not the last conflict to come, with more hostilities expected to break out worldwide soon – and no one seems to be capable now of stopping them, he also warned.
“The international order is breaking down. It was an unpleasant one, based on the fear of mutual destruction, but manageable. Wars in the Middle East have erupted before, but the USSR and the USA intervened and extinguished them until the next conflict. And now I don’t see even a temporary settlement mechanism,” Lukyanov said.
He noted that the Palestinian militant group Hamas has apparently picked the “right” moment to strike against Israel, given that the country has experienced “permanent internal chaos” for over a year already.
Western rulers are seeking to suppress sovereign independent centers of development, which don’t let them impose their ‘rules’ and ‘pseudo-values’ on other countries and peoples.
https://tass.com/world/1699659
Oct 31, 2023
“Today, the Anglo-Saxons are trying to keep in place the neoliberal model of globalization, which is based on unequal economic and political relations and denying the interests of others,” Nikolay Patrushev stressed
TOMSK, October 31. /TASS/. Washington continues to brazenly exploit and rob other countries under the guise of fighting against terrorism and defending democratic values, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolay Patrushev said on Tuesday.
“Under the pretext of defending supposedly ‘democratic values’ and fighting against international terrorism, the United States continues to unabashedly exploit other world countries. The plunderous policy in African states and the destabilization of the situation in Libya and Syria are a vivid example of this. They used the same scheme in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said.
“The ideals of Western colonial capitalism have changed little over the past centuries,” he said. “Today, the Anglo-Saxons are trying to keep in place the neoliberal model of globalization, which is based on unequal economic and political relations and denying the interests of others. Moreover, Western rulers are seeking to suppress sovereign independent centers of development, which don’t let them impose their ‘rules’ and ‘pseudo-values’ on other countries and peoples.”
The scenario of the preliminary training reportedly included the use of a virus of high pathogen avian flu which has the potential of causing a transspecies outbreak and is highly lethal for humans
https://tass.com/world/1699465
Oct 31, 2023
MOSCOW, October 31. /TASS/. Ukrainian special services may be planning to stage false flag operations with the use of biological weapons, Chief of Russia’s Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Troops Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov warned.
According to the general, the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine (STCU), the key distributor of grants issued by the Pentagon, resumed operations in Kiev earlier this year, and training on response to biological threats was held at the Galitsky National Medical University in Lvov with financial support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and STCU mediation in August-September.
“We would like to note the presence of a representative of the Security Service of Ukraine and the National Police of Ukraine at the training,” Kirillov told a briefing. The event was held behind closed doors which could imply Ukrainian intel services potentially planning to carry out false flag operations with the use of biological weapons, he insisted.
Among other attendees, Kirillov said, Filippa Lentzos, a member of the UK Biosecurity Steering Board, participated in the training as moderator. According to him, over the past few years, Lentzos has been active in publishing materials aimed at discrediting Russia on biosecurity issues in the international arena.
Also attending was Oksana Kucheryava, Head of Communications at the Public Health Centre of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, who manages projects for governmental organizations in Ukraine and the USA and is responsible for media planning, Kirillov added.
He also mentioned the attendance of Irina Demchishina, the head of the reference laboratory for the diagnosis of viral and highly dangerous pathogens, at the event. “Earlier we noted that Demchishina acted as an intermediary in interaction with Pentagon contractors Black & Veatch and Metabiota, and supervised the implementation of DTRA projects in Ukraine,” the high-ranking Russian military official said.
The scenario of the training included the use of a virus of high pathogen avian flu which has the potential of causing a transspecies outbreak and is highly lethal for humans. According to the program of the training, Kirillov said, Ukraine’s Nikolayev Region registers cases of this infectious disease, after which samples are collected and analyzed.
“As a result, a conclusion is made that the incident was `highly likely’ caused by Russian bio-sabotage. News of an outbreak gets coverage in mass media, mostly Western media outlets,” Kirillov said. A probe may later be initiated involving the mandate of the UN Secretary General with a view to discrediting Russia and imposing additional sanctions on it, he concluded.
Oct 31, 2023
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The United States is trying to restore the technologies for large-scale production of formulations for an offensive biological program, said Commander of the Russian Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Forces Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov.
Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov stated that in March this year, Washington approved a new strategy for the production of biological weapons. According to the document, the goal of this program is to “ensure technological sovereignty in the field of bioproduction and surpass strategic competitors”.
“Such wording, along with the use of a high-performance technological infrastructure and the involvement of specialists with experience in dual-use research, may indicate that the United States is attempting to restore the technologies for large-scale production of biological formulations as part of an offensive biological program,” the general said.
US Seeks to Establish Global Biological Control – Russian Defense Ministry
He stated that the revival of the US biological program will be overseen by the Under-Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. Kirillov also noted that nine large production enterprises specializing in genome research and bioinformatics will provide the technological base for training and research.
Earlier, Sputnik reported that the United States has established biological research facilities in numerous Asian nations, showcasing a strong inclination towards conducting research in the fields of biology and microbiology across the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa.
Furthermore, Ukraine has been identified as a special area for the implementation of specific bio-programs.
Russia Wants Answers on US Biological Activities in Ukraine
19 October, 16:42 GMT
Washington used Ukraine to separate Russia and the EU and fix its own economic problems, Nikolay Patrushev has claimed
https://www.rt.com/russia/586283-us-ukraine-russia-eu/
Oct 31, 2023
FILE PHOTO. Nikolay Patrushev. © Sputnik / Viktor Tolochko
The US has used the ongoing Ukrainian crisis to drive a wedge between Russia and the EU while alleviating its own economic troubles at their expense, Nikolay Patrushev, the head of Russia’s National Security Council, has said.
The security chief made the remarks on Tuesday during an offsite meeting of the council in the Siberian city of Tomsk. Patrushev squarely assigned blame for the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines last fall to Washington, pointing out that the incident has greatly benefited the US.
“The US, using the Ukrainian crisis, managed to sever economic relations between Europe and Russia and eliminate its economic competitors. They solve their economic problems at the expense of other countries. And to make sure Europe could not receive gas from Russia, the Nord Streams were blown up,” Patrushev asserted.
READ MORE: Russia rules out ‘easy exit’ for Western firms
The US has demonstrated a similar pattern in other regions as well, the security chief suggested, stating that Washington’s efforts to link the Ukrainian crisis to the new escalation in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas were an example of such behavior. Moreover, the US itself has largely provoked the new crisis in the region, the official asserted.
“They act in exactly the same way in Ukraine, where they provoked a coup d’etat, condoned the growth of neo-Nazi ideology, turned Ukraine into a testbed for military-biological experiments, turned a blind eye to the killings of civilians in Donbass, and prepared for military action against our country,” Patrushev told the council.
Now, he added, “representatives of NATO countries are already openly saying that Russia prevented them from approaching its borders, and the Ukrainians are an instrument for the West to contain Russia.” At the same time, the double standard and belligerent actions of the US – and the collective West that it leads – have severely damaged their own credibility, which is now effectively “exhausted,” he said.