Tag Archives: Russia

German TV pours cheap anti-Russian propaganda

State television in Germany continues to brainwash their fellow citizens, despite a growing resentment on the part of ordinary Germans. After all, they are the ones that have to pay for this circus from their taxes.

This time Günther Jauch and his talk show took cheap anti-Russian propaganda to new heights on March 8. The theme of the talk show – “Putin’s Russia on the road to dictatorship?” – already did not bode any meaningful discussion. The portal Propagandaschau (“Propaganda Review”) made an apt remark that one could ask any number of questions that would be equally meaningful, like: “Obama’s Presidency – on the way to the Apartheid?”, meaning, of course, the hundreds of American citizens of African descent killed by US soldiers recently in protests around the country.

One could expect that, after the popular German host Günther Jauch publicly expressed regret that “Putin will not die soon” in November last year, anything goes. And he stands up to the expectations, making new produce in the best tradition of Goebbels’s propaganda.

To create the proper atmosphere at his talk show on March 8, Jauch invited the daughter of the late Nemtsov and corresponded with Garry Kasparov in New York, who, however, did not say anything new, repeating the mantra of “the hope of internal destabilization of Russia and the Putin regime lies in falling oil prices and the collapse of the ruble.”

Fortunately, there were some guests with a mind unclouded by propaganda in the studio. To the question of whether things would get better if Putin was displaced, Chairman of the German-Russian Forum Matthias Platzeck reasonably noticed: “Let’s do some theoretical reflection and ask ourselves a  practical question – who will replace him? What will happen then? Will it be someone who meets our expectations? The answer is – no! ”

Platzeck also stressed that, with the current level of support for the opposition in Russia, the hopes for a quick displacement of Putin should be abandoned. Then, in defiance of Kasparov’s critique of the policies of the Federal Chancellor Merkel, he praised the Chancellor for leading negotiations on the settlement of the crisis in the Donbass area of Ukraine. His words were met with a thunderous applause… -->

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Russian Defense Ministry has decided to put an end to the debate about the liberators of Auschwitz

Russian Defense Ministry has posted on its website 15 unique, including secret, historical documents from World War II, concerning, in particular, the liberation of Auschwitz. This was reported on the ministry’s website.

“Publication of documents for the release of prisoners of Auschwitz concentration camp and the occupied territories of Poland by the Red Army is a continuing effort of the military history department, aimed at the preservation and protection of historical truth, prevention of tampering with the history and attempts to revise the results of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World Wars,” – Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Materials, revealing the course of military operations and the liberation of Poland in January 1945, include combat reports from the command of formations and units of the 1st Ukrainian Front, including the Journal of hostilities of the 472 th Infantry Regiment, as well as reports of chiefs of the political departments of the 100 th Infantry Division and of the 60th Army – directly involved the release of prisoners of Auschwitz concentration camp.

Issued is also a report on the socio-demographic characteristics of the troops of the 60th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front. It contains information about the soldiers of the Red Army, a total of 39 nationalities – Russian, Ukrainians, Belarussians, Armenians, Ossetians, Georgians and others.

Some of the documents were previously in a secret storage and were only available to a limited number of historians.

“In recent years there is a lot of speculation around the historical events in the West propagated by various political interests; there appear statements questioning the decisive contribution of the Red Army in the liberation of prisoners of concentration camps, attempts to erase the memory of people of the atrocities committed by the Nazis at Auschwitz and at the same time desecrate the cherished memory of the millions of human lives and fates of dozens of countries milled on the fascist conveyor of death, “- said the Ministry of Defense.

On January 21st, Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna said that Auschwitz was liberated by Ukrainian military. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the statement blasphemous.

Auschwitz concentration camp (German name Auschwitz-Birkenau)… -->

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Interim results of 2010-2014 for Russian economy

Awara Group published an interesting overview of the Russian economy for the last 14 years: “Putin 2000 – 2014, Midterm Interim Results: Diversification, Modernization and the Role of the State in Russia’s economy.” The document contains the analysis of economics and progress made demonstrated with diagrams that quickly show that there is no economic crisis in Russia and that it is not dependent on the gas and oil export. On the contrary, Russian economy made an incredible progress in these 14 years and is going strong.

This study takes aim at disapproving the continuously repeated claims that Russia has supposedly not diversified and modernized its economy. Our report shows that it is especially false to claim that the Russian government has not done anything in this vein, that it would be “relying” on oil & gas rents and lacks an understanding that more must be done. Quite the opposite, the Russian state under Putin’s leadership has devoted all its spare resources to address this problem; the early results are impressive and a lot of effort and strategic initiatives are currently being implemented.

And really, in the last 14 years the food manufacturing in Russia doubled, the industry has been fully modernized and increased output by 50%, export increased five fold while the actual share of gas and oil in the GDP of Russia shrank to only 16%.

So any claims that Russia “relies on oil and gas” for its livelihood or does not develop its economy are completely false and do not have any basis in facts.

Copy of the report: Awara-Study-Russian-Economy-2014.pdf… -->

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Media is quick to jump into Cold War

Here I am, peacefully reading this article in BusinessWeek about the recent shooting at Charlie Hebdo in Paris where criminals shot several people to death. The article is interesting as it talks about the origins of violence towards those who dare to create dissenting satire and evoke laughter at the corruption of powerful and sacred.

Suddenly, halfway through the article it turns into an unfounded rhetoric about the “iron fist of Putin” in Russia and false interpretations of the quasi-political dissent in Soviet Union in the last century. What gives?

BusinessWeek is hardly an independent magazine but it was not yellow press either, as far as I remember. Amazing to see how quickly most media joined the Cold War on Russia with all the anti-Russian hysteria building up now. I cannot name any mainstream Western or U.S. magazines or newspapers that would write anything close to the truth about Russia anymore.… -->

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The Outlook for the New Year by Paul Craig Roberts

Reprint from: The Outlook for the New Year by Paul Craig Roberts

Washington has shaped 2015 to be a year of conflict.  The conflict could be intense.

Washington is the cause of the conflict, which has been brewing for some time. Russia was too weak to do anything about it when the Clinton regime pushed NATO to Russia’s borders and illegally attacked Yugoslavia, breaking the country into small easily controlled pieces.  Russia was also too weak to do anything about it when the George W. Bush regime withdrew from the ABM treaty and undertook to locate anti-ballistic missile bases on Russia’s borders.  Washington lied to Moscow that the purpose of the ABM bases is to protect Europe from non-existent Iranian nuclear ICBMs.  However, Moscow understood that the purpose of the ABM bases was to degrade Russia’s nuclear deterrent, thereby enhancing Washington’s ability to coerce Russia into agreements that compromise Russian sovereignty.

By summer 2008 Russian power had returned.  On Washington’s orders, the US and Israeli trained and equipped Georgian army attacked the breakaway republic of South Ossetia during the early hours of August 8, killing Russian peacekeepers and civilian population. Units of the Russian military instantly responded and within a few hours the American trained and equipped Georgian army was routed and defeated.  Georgia was in Russia’s hands again, where the province had resided during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Putin should have hung Mikheil Saakashvili, the American puppet installed as president of Georgia by the Washington-instigated “Rose Revolution”, and reincorporated Georgia into the Russian Federation.  Instead, in a strategic error, Russia withdrew its forces, leaving Washington’s puppet regime in place to cause future trouble for Russia.

Washington is pushing hard to incorporate Georgia into NATO, thus adding more US military bases on Russia’s border.  However, at the time, Moscow thought Europe to be more independent of Washington than it is and relied on good relations with Europe to keep American bases out of Georgia.

Today the Russian government no longer has any illusion that Europe is capable of an independent foreign policy. Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated publicly that Russia has learned that diplomacy with Europe is pointless, because European politicians represent Washington’s… -->

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Kerry recommends to ignore Obama’s statements

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that US Secretary of State, John Kerry, advised him to pay no attention to the statements of US President Barack Obama that the threat emanating from Moscow is comparable to Ebola.

“I paid attention to here these listings of threats that President Obama has allowed himself ever since his speech at the UN General Assembly. Not so long ago, talking with John Kerry, I asked him what that meant. He said: “Do not pay attention”, “- said Lavrov.

“If situation is so serious, of course, it’s sad,” – stated the Russian minister, speaking during the “government hour” in the State Duma. According to Lavrov, Kerry said those words because at that time he wanted to discuss a coordinated approach to address Iran’s nuclear program and the situation on the Korean peninsula.

The minister noted that for such a “large, powerful, great power,” as the United States, an undignified consumer approach to its partners is unbecoming: “Where I need you, you please help me, and where I want to punish you, you listen to me.”

Barack Obama has repeatedly called Russia’s actions in respect of Ukraine a threat to the entire world. “We are leading the international community in the fight against Ebola in West Africa and countering Russian aggression in Ukraine,” – he said in November. Before that, in September, the US president said that the main threat to international security is the Ebola virus, followed by Russia and then – “Islamic state.”… -->

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Medvedev called on U.S. to improve relations with Russia

First steps for improving the relationship between U.S. and Russia belong to U.S. They must take the initiative this time, said Dmitri Medvedev.

“In order to overcome the existing problems, you just need to abandon the sanctions and put the relations on the working plane. It is necessary to return to normal calm, productive negotiations – then everything is stabilized,” – he said after the ASEAN Summit in Myanmar.

Medvedev found it difficult to say when the relationship between the two countries will be able to improve. “It does not depend on us, because we are not the ones who imposed the sanctions,” – he explained.

As usual, CNN is playing fools by trying to ridicule Medvedev in their report and comparing his quiet life style to Putin. Obviously, they have nothing better to say on the subject.

On the other hand, The Wall Street Journal reports a mounting pressure from the European businesses on the governments to lift the sanctions as the businesses suffer severe losses and have to cut jobs to survive the loss of a lucrative market.

U.S. is probably more interested in weakening Europe than taking initiative to repair the relationship with Russia. So the words of Medvedev are likely to fall on deaf ears this time. It is more reasonable to expect that Europe might take an initiative this time under the pressure of its suffering business.… -->

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Obama badly needs a lesson in European history

The Barack “Dove of Peace” Obama may need a lesson in European history, pronto. This time around he came to Tallinn to save Estonia from “Russian aggression” and made new historic blunders. The American President has the floor: “reaching back to the days of the tsars – trying to reclaim lands “lost” in the 19th century – is surely not the way to secure Russia’s greatness in the 21st century. (Applause.)”

Russia is no doubt thankful to Mr. Obama for his concern about Russia’s greatness. On the other hand, what lands did Russia lose exactly in the 19th century? Maybe the Crimea peninsula? Well, no, actually, Russia has successfully defended Crimea in bloody battles against Western countries when they tried to seize it in the 19th century. Leo Tolstoy described the Crimean War in his works.

Were there perhaps other territorial losses for Russia that the esteemed Nobel Peace Prize laureate could blather about from high tribunes? Well, no, not really. You see, in the 19th century, Russia has destroyed the Great Napoleon’s army, came to Paris and Istanbul. In general, the whole 19th century Russia was scaring the hell out of Europe and augmenting its territory, but no land has been lost.

Obama continues the tradition of proving to the world that American presidents are uneducated, ill-informed and short-sighted people. Oh, well, who needs history in geopolitics nowadays anyway? Fire away!… -->

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Fidel Castro: U.S. decided to settle scores with Russia and China

Cuba’s former president Fidel Castro compared NATO’s recent statements to that of Nazi SS and accused US and its allies of igniting conflicts abroad in an article published in Cuban media. Castro slammed John McCain for backing Israel and accused both of being involved in the creation of ISIS.

Apparently referring to the pressure the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has been trying to exert on Moscow in connection with the Ukrainian crisis, which coincides with calls for the ramping up of military budgets of NATO member countries, Cuba’s iconic leader accused Western politicians of hypocrisy and aggression.

“Many people are astonished when they hear the statements made by some European spokesmen for NATO when they speak with the style and face of the Nazi SS,” Castro wrote in a column published in Cuban state media.

The statements of the 88-year-old leader came after NATO announced it will create a 4,000-strong “spearhead” high-readiness force that can be deployed rapidly in eastern Europe and the Baltic states to help protect member nations against potential Russian aggression.

“Adolf Hitler’s greed-based empire went down in history with no more glory than the encouragement provided to NATO’s aggressive and bourgeois governments, which makes them the laughing stock of Europe and the world.”

Castro attacked the West for its “cynicism” and said that it became “a symbol of imperialist policy.”

“The world has seen no respite in recent years, particularly since the European Economic Community, under the strict and unconditional leadership of the United States, decided the time had come to settle scores with what was left of two great nations – Russia and China – that… had carried out the heroic deed of putting an end to the imperialist colonial order imposed on the world by Europe and the United States,” Castro said.

Instead of promoting conflicts, the governments should “introduce more food, build hospitals and schools for the billions of human beings who desperately need them,” the Cuban leader believes.

Castro stressed that Cuba will continue to resist the US, despite the costs to the Cuban economy due to the US embargo, saying that “there is no worse price than capitulating before an enemy who attacks you without any right to do so.”

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NATO: Ukraine is a good excuse for military bases in Eastern Europe

The Guardian reports that NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the organisations’s summit in Cardiff next week would overcome divisions within the alliance and agree to new deployments on Russia’s borders.

“We will adopt what we call a readiness action plan with the aim to be able to act swiftly in this completely new security environment in Europe. We have something already called the Nato response force, whose purpose is to be able to be deployed rapidly if needed. Now it’s our intention to develop what I would call a spearhead within that response force at very, very high readiness.

“In order to be able to provide such rapid reinforcements you also need some reception facilities in host nations. So it will involve the pre-positioning of supplies, of equipment, preparation of infrastructure, bases, headquarters. The bottom line is you will in the future see a more visible Nato presence in the east.”

NATO plans to establish a permanent network of operational military bases across Eastern Europe trampling the pledges of the West not to expand the military presence to the East. NATO continues its march towards the Russia’s borders demonstrating a total absence of free will and clearly exhibiting the intentions of escalating the military standoff with Russia.

Ironically, NATO’s latest enlargement plans are being opposed not just by Russia, but by its very members, some of whom do not see the point in aggravating tensions with Moscow. The most outspoken support for the expansion plans comes from the most distant members – U.S. and UK. Other members, like France, Spain and Italy, clearly expressed serious concerns with the military plans. Germany remains noncommittal for the moment.

Remarkably, Rasmussen asserted that Russia “does not consider NATO a partner,” when it was NATO that flat-out refused Russian participation in the controversial US missile defense system, also planned for Eastern Europe. Such cooperation could bring to end years of mutual suspicion and antagonism between the cold-war era foes. Instead, the US and NATO opted to try to keep Russia isolated, ensuring nothing less than another full-blown arms race.

Meanwhile, there is no question as to how Russia views NATO’s relentless eastward encroachment.

“No matter what our Western counterparts tell us, we can see what’s… -->

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