Russia’s “Fake News Psy-Op”: Why Are Media Outlets Still Citing Discredited ‘Fake News’ Blacklist?

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By Adam Johnson | Global Research, December 02, 2016 | FAIR: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting 
1 December 2016

TIn a recent article addressing this issue— when truth-telling becomes Russian Propaganda—a well known online citizen journalist and critic of the mainstream media’s complicity in the multiple crimes of the imperial state, Stephen Lendman, had this to say:

Fake news is a US government, scoundrel media specialty – proliferating managed news misinformation agitprop, truth-telling suppressed on issues mattering most. Propaganda wars precede hot ones. Deception, popular fiction and Big Lies launch them. Intense Russia bashing risks world peace, stability and security. Washington’s imperial war machine is humanity’s greatest threat. Is Trump up to taming it? Will he try once in office? 
..
Or were his campaign pledges just bluster? World peace and stability depends on which way he goes – along with whether he’ll defend waning freedoms or eliminate ones left, making America more of a police state than already. A previous article discussed House passage of the draconian US Intelligence Authorization Act, calling it a huge leap backwards, Senate passage and Obama signing it into law virtually certain. It aims to counter nonexistent “measures by Russia to exert covert influence, including exposing falsehoods, agents of influence, corruption, human rights abuses, terrorism and assassinations carried out by the security services or political elites of the Russian Federation or their proxies.”
..
It calls truth-telling by writers like myself and many others “fake news.” It threatens speech, independent media (especially online) and academic freedoms – the hallmark of a fascist dictatorship, wanting information and views contrary to official ones suppressed. Does supporting Russia’s good faith efforts to resolve conflicts in Syria and Ukraine equitably make me a Kremlin agent or propagandist? Does praising Putin for wanting peace, not war, multi-world polarity, and mutual cooperation among all nations?
..
Does opposing Washington’s imperial war machine mean I’m unpatriotic? Does patriotism require supporting lawless government policies? Does opposing might makes right make me an enemy of the state? Does wanting real democracy, not America’s fantasy version? Does believing in the inviolability of international and constitutional law principles? Does wanting peace and security, imperial wars ended? Does believing in equity and justice for everyone, not just America’s privileged few?
..
Am I and many others like me endangered if we pursue truth-telling? In 1893, Finley Peter Dunne (1867 – 1936) said “(t)he job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”
..

—P. Greanville

WaPoFakeNews

The Washington Post(11/24/16) last week published a front-page blockbuster that quickly went viral: Russia-promoted “fake news” had infiltrated the newsfeeds of 213 million Americans during the election, muddying the waters in a disinformation scheme to benefit Donald Trump. Craig Timberg’s story was based on a “report” from an anonymous group (or simply a person, it’s unclear) calling itself PropOrNot that blacklisted over 200 websites as agents or assets of the Russian state.

The obvious implication was that an elaborate Russian psyop had fooled the public into voting for Trump based on a torrent of misleading and false information posing as news. Everyone from Bloomberg’s Sahil Kupar to CNN’s to Robert Reich to Anne Navarro to MSNBC’s Joy Ann Reid tweeted out the story in breathless tones. Center for American Progress and Clinton advocate Neera Tanden even did her best Ron Paul YouTube commenter impression, exclaiming, “Wake up people.”

But the story didn’t stand up to the most basic scrutiny. Follow-up reporting cast major doubt on the Washington Post’s core claims and underlying logic, the two primary complaints being 1) the “research group” responsible for the meat of the story, PropOrNot, is an anonymous group of partisans (if more than one person is involved) who tweet like high schoolers, and 2) the list of supposed Russian media assets, because its criteria for Russian “fake news” encompasses “useful idiots,” includes entirely well-within-the-mainstream progressive and libertarian websites such as Truth-Out, Consortium News,TruthDig and Antiwar.com (several of whom are now considering lawsuitsagainst PropOrNot for libel).

PropOrNot says their criteria for “Russian propaganda” is “behavioral” and “motivation-agnostic,” so even those who publish views that simply coincide with the Russian government’s, regardless of intent or actual links to Russia, are per se Kremlin assets—an absurd metric that casts a net so wide as to render the concept meaningless.

Glenn Greenwald and Ben Norton of The Intercept (11/26/16) called PropOrNot “amateur peddlers of primitive, shallow propagandistic clichés” who were “engaging in extremely dubious McCarthyite tactics about a wide range of critics and dissenters.” Fortune magazine’s Matthew Ingram  (11/25/16) insisted the report had the “beginnings of a conspiracy theory, rather than a scientific analysis,” while AlterNet’s Max Blumenthal (11/26/16) lamented that “insiders have latched onto a McCarthyite campaign that calls for government investigations of a wide array of alternative media outlets.”

As Matt Taibbi wrote in Rolling Stone (11/28/16):

The vast majority of reporters would have needed to see something a lot more concrete than a half-assed theoretical paper from such a dicey source before denouncing 200 news organizations as traitors.

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]lmost everyone outside of  the Washington Post who critically examined the list concluded it was at best shoddy and ill-considered, and at worst a deliberate attempt to encourage a chilling effect on Russia-related reporting. That a group of Cold Warrior hacks would publish such a blacklist is not a surprise; that one of the most established names in American news would uncritically parrot it was. Its reporting, writing-up and referencing is a prime example of how fake real news on real fake news spreads without question.

USA Today (11/25/16), Gizmodo (11/25/16), PBS (11/25/16), The Daily Beast (11/25/16), Slate (11/25/16), AP (11/25/16) The Verge (11/25/16) and NPR (11/25/16) all uncritically wrote up the Post’s most incendiary claims with little or minimal pushback. Gizmodo was so giddy its original headline had to be changed from “Research Confirms That Russia Played a Major Role in Spreading Fake News” to “Research Suggests That Russia Played a Major Role in Spreading Fake News,” presumably after some polite commenters pointed out that the research “confirmed” nothing of the sort.

NYTimes Zioncon Weissman: happy to spread filthy stories when it suits the

NYTimes Weissman: happy to spread filth when it suits the paper’s warmongering class agenda.

“Um ‘stories planted or promoted by the Russian disinformation campaign were viewed 213 million times,’” New York Times deputy Washington editor Jonathan Weisman (11/24/16) tweeted out to the tune of 2,800 retweets. But the report didn’t show this at all. There was no methodology provided, nor was there any consideration by Weisman that that “213 million” figure of Russian “fake news” included, for example, the third-most popular news site in the United States, the Drudge Report.

Drudge not only has no funding or backing from Putin, but predates his administration by several years. (And so does The Greanville Post, for that matter, also on the hit list, and we have no funding worthy of the name at all, except for sweat equity.) But because Drudge occasionally publishes stories that make the US look bad in relation to Russia, and because PropOrNot’s “useful idiots” criterion is “motivation-agnostic,” its entire footprint has become a “Russian disinformation campaign.” Did Weisman know this? Did he care?

Maddow: ‘It was like Russia was running a super PAC for Trump’s campaign’

(MaddowBlog, 11/28/16). These are the liberals that supposedly stand outraged at the mere hint of a witch-hunt, or a resurrection of McCarthyism. Trust them at your own peril.

As reports debunking or discrediting The List came out, the story continued to spread. Joy Ann Reid (Daily Beast, 11/27/16) alluded to the PropOrNot story to bolster her claim that there was an “alarming consensus of experts” that Russia interfered in the US election by “pumping of fake news and propaganda into the country’s digital bloodstream,” despite no such consensus existing. On Monday, Business Insider (11/28/16) insisted that PropOrNot’s “methods uncover some connections that merit consideration,” while citing only two examples and ignoring all of the major objections advanced by Greenwald, Taibbi et al. Rachel Maddow’s popular blog (MSNBC, 11/28/16) added another breathless write-up hours later, repeating the catchy talking point that “it was like Russia was running a super PAC for Trump’s campaign.”

Despite respected media critics taking the report to task, the Post’s spurious claims are being cemented as conventional wisdom, all the while the writer of the story and his editor refuse to answer direct criticism or reveal who this anonymous person or persons is. What are their motives? Who are their funders? Why is “useful idiot” being propped up by a major news outlet as a useful distinction? Why weren’t those on the blacklist asked to comment? Despite numerous inquiries by The Intercept, Rolling Stone and The Nation (11/28/16), all these questions remain unanswered.

One would think reports on “fake news” would themselves be held to the highest possible editorial standards, if not out of some instinctual desire to avoid high doses of irony and cognitive dissonance, at least to shield against charges of blatant hypocrisy. But increasingly, as the moral panic surrounding “fake news” reaches fever pitch, the standards of skepticism and sourcing employed by some of our most [misguidedly] trusted news sources have inversely sunk to tabloid levels.

NOTE: ALL IMAGE CAPTIONS, PULL QUOTES AND COMMENTARY BY THE EDITORS, NOT THE AUTHORS • PLEASE COMMENT AND DEBATE DIRECTLY ON OUR FACEBOOK GROUP INSTALLATION

 Adam Johnson is a contributing analyst for FAIR.org. You can follow him on Twitter at @AdamJohnsonNYC. 

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Is it True That “Russia is Aggressive”? The thick cloud of Western propaganda hangs heavy on world affairs

black-horizontalTHE WEST’S GREAT WAR AGAINST RUSSIA
Syria, the Ukraine, and other battlefields are just proxy conflicts. The object is the defeat and destruction of Russia as an independent world power.

horiz grey lineby RICK STERLING
(WITH SOME SELECT COMMENTARY FROM ORIGINAL THREADS)

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Example of Western propaganda for a new Cold War. Actually this is a mild sample of the usual venomous representation of Russia’s actions and intentions.

Western propaganda portrays Russia as the aggressor and NATO as the victim, but the reality looks almost opposite from the ground level, Rick Sterling found on a recent fact-finding trip.

Recently I went on a 15-day visit to Russia organized by the Center for Citizen Initiatives. The group visited Moscow, the Crimean peninsula, Krasnodar (southern Russia) and St. Petersburg. In each location we met many locals and heard diverse viewpoints.

CCI has a long history promoting friendship and trying to overcome false assumptions between citizens of the USA and Russia. The founder Sharon Tennison has focused on making people-to-people connections including the business community, Rotary clubs, etc. This delegation was organized because of concern about escalating international tensions and the danger of a drift toward world threatening military conflict.

We were in Russia in late June as they were commemorating the 75thanniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. They call it the Great Patriotic War where 27 million Soviet citizens died. In Russia it’s a very sober occasion in which they pay tribute to the fallen, acknowledge the heroes and underscore the horrors of war. Virtually everyone in Russia lost family members in World War 2 and there seems to be a deep understanding of what war and invasion mean.

It is alarming to see the constant drumbeat in Western media that Russia is aggressive, Russia invaded Crimea, Russia is a threat. Hardly a day goes by that the NY Times does not have an editorial or news story with the assertion or insinuation that Russia is “aggressive”.

Today’s op-ed by Andrew Foxall is an example. The “thinktank “ director bemoans the British departure from the European Union and suggests that Russian President Putin may be behind it :

“Mr. Putin has spent the past 16 years trying to destabilize the West….. After Brexit, the union has lost not only one of its most capable members, but also one of its two nuclear powers and one of its two seats at the United Nations Security Council… …..Mr. Putin checked the European Union’s expansion when he invaded Ukraine in 2014. The Continent’s security order is now in a perilous plight: If Mr. Putin senses weakness, he will be tempted into further aggression.”

It is now common to hear the claim that Russia “invaded” Ukraine and is “occupying” Crimea.

The US and allies have imposed sanctions because of the Crimean decision to separate from Ukraine and rejoin Russia. Tourist cruise ships no longer stop at Crimean ports and international airlines are prohibited from flying directly to the international airport at the Crimean capital, Simferopol. Students from Crimean universities cannot transfer their academic credits to universities internationally.

It is alarming to see the constant drumbeat in Western media that Russia is aggressive, Russia invaded Crimea, Russia is a threat. Hardly a day goes by that the NY Times does not have an editorial or news story with the assertion or insinuation that Russia is “aggressive”.

Despite the sanctions and problems, Crimea appears to be doing reasonably well. In the past two years, the airport has been rebuilt and modernized. The streets of Balaclava, Sevastopol, Simferopol and Yalta are busy and bright. No doubt things could be much better and residents want the sanctions lifted, but there were no evident signs of shortages or poverty. On the contrary, kids were enjoying ice cream, parks were full and streets busy late into the night. The famous Artek Youth Camp near Yalta is being refurbished with new dormitories, state of the art swimming pool and gymnasium. Right now they are handling 3,000 youth in the camp at one time with 30,000 kids from all over Russia this year.

A 12 mile bridge connecting Crimea to southern Russia is now half complete. A impressive video showing the design is here.

After 22 years as part of independent Ukraine following the breakup of the Soviet Union, what drove the people of Crimea to overwhelmingly support a referendum calling for ‘re-unification’ with Russia? Was this the result of intimidation or an ‘occupation’ by Russia?

We received a very strong sense from talking with many different people in Crimea that they are happy with their decision. The impetus was not aggression from Russia; the impetus came from the violence and ultra-nationalism of the foreign backed coup in Ukraine.

Protests against Ukraine’s Yanukovych government began in November 2013 in the “Maidan” (central square) in Kiev. Protesters included right wing nationalist and Nazi sympathizers hostile to the Yanukovych government. A significant faction glorified the Ukrainian Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera.

The US was deeply involved in promoting the “Maidan” protests and strategizing how to bring in a new government. Assistant Secy of State Victoria Nuland demanded the Yanukovych government do nothing to stop or prevent the increasing vandalism, attacks and intimidation. With thugs in the street increasingly clashing with police, the US pressed the Ukrainian government to break economic ties with Russia as a condition for closer relations with Europe and loans from the International Monetary Fund.

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n the surface, the US was encouraging Ukraine to strengthen ties with the European Union but in reality Nuland’s goals were about the US, NATO and undermining Russia. This was dramatically revealed in a secretly recorded phone call between Nuland and the US Ambassador to the Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt. Nuland and Pyatt discussed who should and should not be in the coup government two weeks before the coup happened. As they conspired over the phone, Nuland expressed her displeasure with the EU’s reluctance to push the coup …. “Fuck the EU” said the woman who six weeks earlier spoke glowingly of Ukraine’s “European aspirations”.

Prior to the coup, Nuland spoke of the high US “investment” in promoting “democracy” in Ukraine. In a December 2013 speech she said

“Since Ukraine’s independence in 1991 the United States has supported Ukrainians as they build democratic skills and institutions, as they promote civic participation and good governance, all of which are preconditions for Ukraine to achieve its European aspirations. We have invested over $5 billion to assist Ukraine in these and other goals…” (approx 7:30 into the recording / US-Ukraine Foundation, 13 December 2013).

In mid December hundreds of Crimeans traveled to Kiev in buses to join peaceful protests in opposition to the Maidan protests seen on television. They stayed in Kiev through January and into February until the violence exploded on February 18 (2014). Altogether, 82 persons were killed including 13 police and 1100 injured. At that point, the Crimeans decided peaceful protest was useless and to return home. The bus caravan departed Kiev on Feb 20 but was stopped at night near the town of Korsun. The buses were torched and the Crimean travelers brutalized, beaten and seven killed. When news of this reached Crimea, it was yet another cause for alarm. A video titled “The Crimes of Euromaidan Nazis” documents the events and includes interviews with numerous passengers. These atrocities against unarmed Crimeans were done on a public highway with no intervention from local Ukrainian police.

On Feb 21 the existing government came to a compromise agreement. But that did not appease the most violent protesters or their supporters. A parliamentarian was beaten in broad daylight and threats issued. President Yanukovych fled for his life and a new government, led by Victoria Nuland’s choice Arseniy Yatsenyuk, took charge. The US and western allies quickly recognized the new government while Russia objected it was an illegal coup. In the first days of the new government a bill was passed to make Ukrainian the sole official language of the country.

Indeed there was aggression and violence in Ukraine but it was not from Russia. Rather, evidence indicated the violence was from the forces which led the coup. This was revealed in an intercepted phone conversation between British representative to the European Union, Catherine Ashton, and the Estonian Foreign Minister, Urmas Paet. Paet reported that he had been to Kiev and “there is a stronger and stronger understanding that behind snipers it was not Yanukovych, it was somebody from the new coalition.”   Instead of probing into the facts behind this dramatic information, Ashton said “Oh gosh …. We will need to look into that” and quickly moved on.

Crimeans we spoke with described their shock and outrage at the events. In just four months they witnessed violent Maidan protests, the overthrow of the elected government, beatings and killings of citizens returning from Kiev, and then the removal of Russian as an official language.

In response, local leaders recommended a Crimea wide referendum with the option to officially re-unite with the country that Crimea had been part of for over two centuries. A referendum was held on March 16. Turnout was 89% with 96% voting in favor of the “reunification of Crimea with Russia”.

With the violent overthrow of the Kiev government and clear proof of US involvement in the coup it seems highly inaccurate to say that Russia “invaded” or is “occupying” Crimea. On the contrary, it seems to be the USA and allies which are “aggressive”.

The same reversal of reality is going on with the expansion of NATO. In recent weeks NATO has placed armed forces in Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. NATO military expenses are already 13 times greater than that of Russia yet NATO plans to increase military spending even more. Meanwhile the US unilaterally withdrew from the Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2002 and is busy building and installing ABM sites in Alaska and now eastern Europe. With a serious face they have previously claimed these sites are being installed because of the danger of “Iranian missiles” but only a fool could take that seriously. There is the additional risk that the same sites could be converted from anti ballistic missiles to contain nuclear warheads.

Are NATO and the US preparing for war? The public should be asking hard questions to our political and military leaders as they waster our tax dollars and risk global conflagration.

When the audio recording of Nuland and Pyatt discussing how to “midwife” the Kiev coup was revealed, the State Dept spokesperson was grilled about it. She responded “That’s what diplomats do”.

Enough of the nonsense that “Russia is aggressive” when the evidence indicates it’s the USA and allies who are destabilizing other countries, escalating a new arms buildup and promoting conflict instead of diplomacy.

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About the author
 rickSterling2Rick Sterling is a co-founder of Syria Solidarity Movement. He can be contacted at rsterling1@gmail.com  

SELECTED COMMENTS

Michael Morrissey
July 14, 2016 at 12:49 pm

I am hesitating to forward this to a friend of mine because I know he will say it is “Russian propaganda.” This is a German friend, but he could just as well be an American or (other) European. “Putin is a fascist,” they will say, “who oppresses his own people, does not allow free speech, and the eastern European countries know from experience that Moscow is indeed a “bear” and cannot be trusted. They (Russians) respect only strength, and that is what exactly what NATO wants to show them. The annexation of Crimea was a violation of international law which cannot go unpunished.”

I am playing devil’s advocate here. Can you help me?

Reply
  • Ray McGovern
    July 14, 2016 at 1:08 pm

    Good piece, Rick. And, Michael, it is a REALLY thick layer of propaganda that truth-tellers must penetrate. I’ve never seen it so thick, and I’ve been around a long time.

    Scott Horton of antiwar.com gave me 25 minutes to try to spread some truth around last week. No guarantee, of course, but there is an outside chance that, if your German friend(s) can be persuaded to listen in on that, that might help.

    I refer you to my website raymcgovern.com . As of now, a link to Scott’s interview sits atop the list of new postings.

    Ray

    Reply
    • Michael Morrissey
      July 14, 2016 at 3:21 pm

      Thanks, Ray. I’m listening to it now and will refer it to my German friend. I will let you know (right here!) his reaction. But I will have to listen to it twice myself to get the info into my head. It is so much easier just to listen to the propaganda. Alles gute, Ray!

      Reply
      • Joe Tedesky
        July 14, 2016 at 4:46 pm

        Michael, and Ray, what we need is a media which would show the American people just exactly what is going on inside Ukraine, and some other places where America is engaging in. I would love to see a documentary that posed such examples, as while you Americans were being told this by the New York Times and other news outlets, this was what was really going on at the time. Most American people I know, haven’t a clue to what the truth really is. If only we had a media outlet who would only tell them. Would we see Americans grief stricken with horror, as we saw German people, when the concentration camps were open for all to see?

        Reply
        • Nancy
          July 14, 2016 at 7:29 pm

          Make short, consise documentaies 4- minutes or so. Make several that layout the issues.

          Then look to the progressive internet news sites because American’s are reading and watching.

          Look to the Green Party and those supporting it.

          Get the word out! Many American’s know that our government is hijacked by the 1%.

    • Debbie Menon
      July 15, 2016 at 5:18 am

      Ray, What is required is An Amerexit. Read Ivan Eland’s ‘Entangling Alliance’ on this site.

      https://consortiumnews.com/2016/07/11/nato-as-an-entangling-alliance/

      Revolutions may be started or planted in a day or overnight… but it takes a while for them to grow, mature and bear fruit. Usually an entire season. Go BREXIT!

      America is into its 200 something year and, although seemingly well rooted, and even putting out tentacles or dendrons to the rest of the world like crab grass, it still does not seem to have matured, blossomed, or appear to be ever going to bear fruit. Like Kudzu, growing and spreading like hell, but still a useless and strangulating, predatory weed.

      And it is. in fact, beginning to show evidence of root rot… beginning to wither dry up, and die in the soil in which it was planted. Perhaps it is time to replant and start over again. REVOLUTION BABY!

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Why War Between NATO and Russia is Inevitable in 2017!

Screen Shot 2016-01-23 at 2.38.28 PMAlexander Chopov, PhD
War in Ukraine – The Unreported Truth

NATO military facilities

The map indicates the location of NATO military facilities around Russia.

Screen Shot 2016-01-23 at 2.38.28 PMAlexander Chopov, PhD., directly confronts the clear military build up by NATO (and especially the US) to attack Russia. There is a growing narrative of war backed by placing of military assets around the borders of Russia. NATO war games with 28 countries participating with the (faux) enemy being Russia. I encourage you to visit our Russia Desk, and see the drum beat to war that it is impossible to dismiss, or we dismiss that the peril of millions of lives – including those in the US. In this edition of The Donbass Truth Channel.1 [Rowan Wolf]

1 Donbass Truth Channel is a rebranding of Dr. Chopov’s original channel named War in Ukraine – The Unreported Truth.

Please consider donating to help defray the costs of producing these videos. It is a pure volunteer effort by Alexander Chopov and his crew. You may donate via PayPal at www.paypal.me/AlexChopov .

Screen Shot 2016-01-23 at 2.38.28 PM
Alexander Chopov

Alexander Chopov, PhD.
is the Director and Producer of a new YouTube Channel – War in Ukraine – the Unreported Truth. The purpose of the channel is to give the people of Donbass an English voice so they can be heard beyond Donbass. Dr. Chopov  has a double major in International Affairs from George Washington University, and a doctorate in political science from the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. He interned in the US Congress,  and has lived in US for over 10 years studying both American mentality and politics.

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Chopov: Russian invasion, Budapest Memorandum, and Economics of Occupied Crimea

Screen Shot 2016-01-23 at 2.38.28 PMIntroduction by Rowan Wolf, PhD
Voice of Conscience

Simferpol, Crimea

Simferpol, Crimea

Screen Shot 2016-01-23 at 2.38.28 PM

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]elcome to  another installment of “War in Ukraine – The Unreported Truth” by Dr. Alexander Chopov. This is the second video in the three part Crimes sub-series focuses on Crimea’s separation from Ukraine.  Dr. Chopov clearly addresses the West’s propaganda in a point by point manner, and discusses a series of highly complex issues in an accessible and informative way. In this installment, Chopov addressees the claims of Russia “sneaking” tens of thousands of troops into Crimea; analyzes the Budapest Memorandum – the treaty that Russia has supposedly broken; and takes a quick look at the economy of Crimea before and after Crimea’s referendum to join Russia as an autonomous region.

If you did not see, or do not remember the first video on Crimea, I encourage you to take few minutes and view it [see the end of this article for a quick reference]

This second video in the series is chock full of information, and you may find yourself watching it several times. I have provided a brief guide below to some of the main points, but they definitely do not do the video justice.

Crimea 2: Russia-Ukraine War – Russian invasion, Budapest Memorandum, and Economics of Occupied Crimea

 

Short guide to items in this video

Myth: Russia invaded Crimea by sneaking tens of thousands of troops onto the peninsula.
Truth: First, Russians have been in Crimea since at least 1783, and for over the last 200 years protected local residents. THe Russian troops in Crimea were already stationed there, and their presence had been considered “legal” by all of the Ukrainian presidents who have served since Ukraine seceded from the then USSR.

Myth 2: Actions of the Crimean people in declaring a referendum and voting to separate from Ukraine and rejoin Russia was illegal.
Truth: Crimea’s rights to do this are covered under the UN Charter UN Charter, and this was an issue internal to Ukraine, and not a redrawing of the map. Which takes us to Myth 3.

Myth 3: Russia broke a treaty with Ukraine by accepting Crimea back.
Truth: This “treaty” is the “Budapest Memorandum” and is NOT a “treaty.” No legislator has ratified it. Regardless, the Budapest Memorandum was an understanding drawn up between Ukraine, the US, Britain and Russia, after Ukraine’s decision to leave Russia. The separation left Ukraine (with a foundling government, no real military, and a faltering economy in possession of a large component of Russia’s nuclear arsenal. In fact, it made Ukraine the third largest nuclear power in the world. In the memorandum, Ukraine exchanged its arsenal in return for an honoring of its integrity as a nation.

Dr. Chopov also discusses the economy of Crimea prior to 2014 and since it has rejoined Russia.

Crimea video 1:

In Russia-Ukraine war – Crimea. 2 years of “occupation” what happened, what do locals think?, Alexander Chopov gives a succinct historical recap of the region and of the post Maidan Revolution, speaks with some of the people in the area asking how they see themselves, and how they feel about rejoining Russia. This video is a critical contribution to cutting through the lies and propaganda about the events in Ukraine, and the continuing allegations of Russian overreach.

 

Alexander Chopov

Alexander Chopov, PhD

Alexander Chopov, Ph.D.  is the Director and Producer of a new YouTube Channel – War in Ukraine – the Unreported Truth. The purpose of the channel is to give the people of Donbass an English voice so they can be heard beyond Donbass. Dr. Chopov  has a double major in International Affairs from George Washington University, and a doctorate in political science from the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. He interned in the US Congress,  and has lived in US for over 10 years studying both American mentality and politics.

 

 

 

Rowan Wolf, PhD
Rowan WolfIs Managing Editor of The Greanville Post and Director of The Russian Desk. She is a sociologist, writer and activist with life long engagement in social justice, peace, environmental, and animal rights movements. Her research and writing includes issues of imperialism, oppression, global capitalism, peak resources, global warming, and environmental degradation. Rowan taught sociology for twenty-two years, was a member of the City of Portland’s Peak Oil Task Force, and maintains her own site Uncommon Thought Journal. She may be reached by email at rowanwolf@greanvillepost.com

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CHINA AND RUSSIA PREPARE FOR A HOT WAR WITH EURANGLOLAND

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jeffJBrown-small

Dispatch from Beijing

With Jeff J. Brown 

pale blue horiz

Practice makes perfect. Pictured below, Chinese and Russian military command centers, which are going to join hands later this month of May. (Images by China Defense Observation)

The Sino-Russian alliance continues to prosper and expand, even though the two countries’ governments don’t want to call it that. Since the last installment of the Moscow-Beijing Express, I could write another article about all the visits, communications, deals signed, plans made, exports and imports: Suffice it to say that Russia and China continue to be tightly wound together strategically, commercially, economically and diplomatically.

But for this dynamic duo on the world stage – the only force on Planet Earth which prevents all of humanity from kneeling down to the boot heel of Western tyranny, their surrounding skies continue to darken, and they are having to respond in kind. You have to be brainwashed by imperial propaganda to not see and admit that Eurangloland and its military phalanx, NATO, are preparing for an eventual hot war, of some shape or form, with China and Russia.

On Russia’s western flank, Sweden, always a subservient tool to colonialism, is trying to, or being brow beaten, into joining NATO. Are there any countries left concerning Russia, which have not signed up? Even if the West’s verbal promise to not expand NATO eastward had been signed in blood, it would have been flaunted. When the Western empire finds a treaty inconvenient, it just ignores it or creates a false flag to justify abrogating it. Meanwhile, colonialism’s Nazi Ukraine continues to spiral into oblivion and irrelevance, another CIA “success story”, in its pages-long list of failed states, puppet leaders, assassinations and drug running.

Syria: Wholesale destruction and rubble everywhere. The signature of Western intervention. Meantime, the hypocritical pretenses continue.

Syria: Wholesale destruction and rubble everywhere. The signature of Western intervention. Meantime, the hypocritical pretenses continue.

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n Syria, an ally of Iran, which are both allied to all things anti-West, and thus allies of Russia and China, NATO continues to create another war-crime humanitarian disaster. How many humanitarian disasters has the West caused within and without its own borders, since Alexander the Great’s scorched Earth diplomacy, in the fourth century BC? You’d need to run the calculation on one of China’s Tianhe-2 supercomputers, still the world’s fastest, because the number is so gargantuan.

Moving to the Pacific theater, both China and Russia are saying loud and clear that the US should drop its plans to install a Theater High Altitude Area Defense missile system (THAAD) in South Korea, even though they both know that Uncle Sam is going to do it anyway, regardless. It is for this reason that I think China and Russia are letting Kim Jong-un continue to launch missiles and test nuclear bombs, as an asymmetrical response to the onslaught of Western aggression.

You have to be brainwashed by imperial propaganda to not see and admit that Eurangloland and its military phalanx, NATO, are preparing for an eventual hot war, of some shape or form, with China and Russia.

Which brings us to the ever-absurd American militarization of the South China Sea (SCS). At the last ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit in Sunnylands, California, February 15-16, 2016, the members stood their ground against Obama trying to force an “ASEAN Principles” declaration against China, in its own backyard. ASEAN includes every sovereign country making a claim in the South China Sea. How did it turn out for Obama & Co.? It was a total failure. The final communiqué made no mention of, nor any threats against the People’s Republic. This colossal diplomatic humiliation was ignored behind the Great Western Firewall, for obvious reasons. But Uncle Sam continues to make these ridiculous aerial and naval intrusions in the SCS, to the irritation of everyone in the region, except maybe the Philippines and Japan.

Why did ASEAN’s leaders refuse to kowtow to American bullying? Maybe it is because they are more guilty than China in their actions in the SCS: 

[dropcap]N[/dropcap]ext of course, is the pending “ruling” by The Hague, trying China vs. the Philippines, a case which legitimately should be adjudicated by the UN’s International Tribunal for the Law of the Seas (ITLOS). Everybody and their dead dog are already saying The Hague’s ruling is going to be a foregone denunciation of China. That says all you need to know about how much this court is a finger puppet of Washington, London and Paris. Russia can only hope it doesn’t get “convicted” there too.

Moving closer inland, the CIA and its thousands of NGO store fronts keeps fomenting “separatist” groups in Hong Kong, which is historically and politically delusional.  It worked in Ukraine. It will never work in China, nor Russia, although there were near success stories in 1989, in Tiananmen Square and then the socioeconomic rape of Russia, in the 1990s. To cover their blind sides, both Russia and China have passed the badly needed legislation to prevent any further color revolutions inside their countries. 

Let’s skip all the phony ISIS crap for now, even though it is being used against Russia and China, along their borders and inside their provinces. It’s exhausting, isn’t it? ISIS really should be called “USIS,” for “United States Islamic Satraps”, including America’s royal weapons bucket brigade, in the Arab Gulf.

In sum, to see what it feels like to be Chinese, here are the tables turned on America’s brainwashed populace. Someone on The Saker should do a similar map for Russia.

So, like the ants in Aesop’s fable preparing for winter, err… war, while the profligate Eurangloland grasshoppers bankrupt themselves, in order to maintain their tottering, 500-year old global empire, China and Russia are sensibly preparing for the worst. Honestly, do they have any other choice?

Both China and Russia are ramping up testing of hypersonic and globe-spanning missile systems.

Last month, China again tested its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the DF-41, for the sixth or seventh time. It can strike anywhere in the world, dropping six to ten regional nuclear warheads. It takes a brisk 30 minutes to strike up to 12,000km away, which happens to be the diameter of Earth. 

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n April, China also tested its DF-ZF, an 11,000km per hour zinger, equipped with a nuclear warhead, that glides straight down from the edge of space. There are no known missile defense systems to protect against it, including THAAD. 

Russia is also flexing its “take your THAAD and shove it” muscles. In March, it tested the Zircon missile, which has similar, hypersonic speeds as China’s version. Russia upped the ante by testing the Zircon from a nuclear powered submarine, making THAAD and other NATO and Israeli anti-missile technology even more obsolete. 

rus-ss-19Like China, Russia is testing a similar ICBM, using the SS-19 system.

All these systems are so uncannily similar, it makes you wonder if the Chinese and Russians have not been sharing technology and advice with each other. After all, they have a mutual, arrogant, imperial enemy, Eurangloland and its NATO Wehrmacht, to worry about.

In the air and on the ground and seas: Russian and Chinese Ministers of Defense, Sergei Shoigu and Chang Wanquan, respectively, met on the sidelines of last month’s international security conference, in Moscow. These savvy military strategists know a common threat when they see one and announced that their militaries will increase air, ground and sea exercises, while strengthening security and defense cooperation. Chang and Shoigu spoke to each other’s national news agencies, obviously to send the message back to both peoples that this is the real deal.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hat didn’t take long: a week later, Russia and China announced that they will be conducting their first ever computer-assisted joint military exercise, later this month This, so that the two countries’ militaries can familiarize themselves with their respective command structures and data transmission processes. This is of course the key to winning any hot war with NATO, since in the modern era, it all depends on electronic communications.

In a sense, this is all very encouraging to Anti-West forces, since the exponentially growing Sino-Russian alliance is the only credible force that can stand up to Eurangloland, and hopefully win. But is it enough to create a new, 21st century “Mutually Assured Destruction” (MAD) deterrent for both sides?

From 1945-1978, the United States and its global client countries were ascendant against revolutionary China, where the communist government was spending its money and resources to dramatically improve the living standards of one-fourth the world’s people. But then, starting in the Eighties, the People’s Republic began its grand and history changing entrance onto the world stage.

The Soviet Union was equal to the West’s threats, 1945-1990, and humanity survived, thanks to a lot of luck and MAD. Then for a brief decade, 1990-2000, the West was ascendant to a bankrupted, boundary torn Russia. Now in the new century, like China, Russia has roared back to the world’s economic and geopolitical table.

In the meantime, since the Vietnam War, Eurangloland began and continues to show all the signs of a fading, overextended, corrupt empire. History tells us that empires, if they don’t implode quickly (like the Western Roman Empire, in 476AD) and thus not having the time to react, often resort to war with their enemies, to stave off their inevitable demise (like the Eastern Byzantine Roman Empire, in 1453 – a thousand years later).

So, in another sense, everything explained above can be downright depressing, as history and the trend line suggest that a hot war between the West and the Anti-West may be unstoppable. The Romans did not have thousands of nuclear warheads. Today the West, Russia and China do.

With war criminal Hillary Clinton in the White House, the vortex towards mutual annihilation becomes that much more plausible. If Donald Trump makes it into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, who knows? In either case, like the 20th century version of MAD, let’s hope this century’s Act II is blessed with unbelievable luck.

Like to listen on Sound Cloud (the most up to date), Stitcher Radio, iTunes or YouTube? Check out China Rising Radio Sinoland at:

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Wechat group: search the phone number +8618618144837, friend request and ask Jeff to join the China Rising Radio Sinoland Wechat group. He will add you as a member, so you can join in the ongoing discussion.

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ABOUT JEFF BROWN

jeffBusyatDesktopJeff J. Brown—TGP’s Beijing correspondent— is the author of 44 Days  (2013), Reflections in Sinoland – Musings and Anecdotes from the Belly of the New Century Beast (summer 2015), and Doctor WriteRead’s Treasure Trove to Great English (2015). He is currently writing an historical fiction, Red Letters – The Diaries of Xi Jinping, due out in 2016. Jeff is commissioned to write monthly articles for The Saker  and The Greanville Post, touching on all things China, and the international political & cultural scene

In China, he has been a speaker at TEDx, the Bookworm Literary Festival, the Capital M Literary Festival, the Hutong, as well as being featured in an 18-part series of interviews on Radio Beijing AM774, with former BBC journalist, Bruce Connolly. He has guest lectured at international schools in Beijing and Tianjin.

Jeff grew up in the heartland of the United States, Oklahoma, and graduated from Oklahoma State University. He went to Brazil while in graduate school at Purdue University, to seek his fortune, which whet his appetite for traveling the globe. This helped inspire him to be a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia in 1980 and he lived and worked in Africa, the Middle East, China and Europe for the next 21 years. All the while, he mastered Portuguese, Arabic, French and Mandarin, while traveling to over 85 countries. He then returned to America for nine years, whereupon he moved back to China in 2010. He currently lives in Beijing with his wife, where he writes, while being a school teacher in an international school. Jeff is a dual national French-American.

READ MORE ABOUT JEFF HERE

 

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