W. Niederhut

It can't be said any more clearly and precisely than Dr. Fiona Hill says it here. But, as usual on this thread, the important signal is obscured by noisy non-sequiturs. Part of Ben's problem is that he never seems to discern the difference between informed scholars and noisy, marginally-educated pundits.

Highly informative discussion about Putin and the current Ukraine crisis by Russia expert and former Trump advisor, Dr. Fiona Hill. It's a lengthy interview, but very much worth reading. In addition to discussing Western illusions about Putin, Hill explains that Putin told Donald Trump that he would use nukes, if necessary, if the U.S. and NATO interfered with his plans to re-establish the Russian empire. Trump didn't seem to understand what Putin was saying. Among other subjects, Hill discusses the Chechen War, and Putin's history of readily using weapons like plutonium and Novichok to poison people-- as in the attacks on Litvinenko, Skripal, and Navalny. ‘Yes, He Would’: Fiona Hill on Putin and Nukes https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/02/28/world-war-iii-already-there-00012340?utm_source=pocket-newtab February 28, 2022 Excerpt Reynolds: So, similar to Hitler, he’s using a sense of massive historical grievance combined with a veneer of protecting Russians and a dismissal of the rights of minorities and other nations to have independent countries in order to fuel territorial ambitions? Hill: Correct. And he’s blaming others, for why this has happened, and getting us to blame ourselves. If people look back to the history of World War II, there were an awful lot of people around Europe who became N-a-z-i German sympathizers before the invasion of Poland. In the United Kingdom, there was a whole host of British politicians who admired Hitler’s strength and his power, for doing what Great Powers do, before the horrors of the Blitz and the Holocaust finally penetrated. Reynolds: And you see this now. Hill: You totally see it. Unfortunately, we have politicians and public figures in the United States and around Europe who have embraced the idea that Russia was wronged by NATO and that Putin is a strong, powerful man and has the right to do what he’s doing: Because Ukraine is somehow not worthy of independence, because it’s either Russia’s historical lands or Ukrainians are Russians, or the Ukrainian leaders are — this is what Putin says — “drug addled, fascist Nazis” or whatever labels he wants to apply here. So sadly, we are treading back through old historical patterns that we said that we would never permit to happen again.

Ron, I think Bruce Cockburn wrote If I had a Rocket Launcher while he was touring Guatemala and Nicaragua during the Reagan/Iran-Contra years. He wrote a number of songs on that album about the Mott regime and the CIA/Contra war against the Sandanistas.

Matt, I suspect that many of us have long wanted to believe that Putin is an "Enlightened Autocrat." I know that I have. And, as I gradually learned about the deceptions and dark side of our CIA/NATO/Saudi/Mossad "War on Terror," I secretly applauded Putin's intervention against Operation Timber Sycamore in Syria in 2015. Putin, essentially, saved Syria from our coalition's proxy war against the Assad regime. Even his brutal war in Chechnya seemed possibly justified, in light of our common concerns about Islamic terrorism-- although some people suspect that Putin may have used a false flag attack on Russian school children to launch that war. Most of us tended to look the other way when Putin began murdering journalists and persecuting opposition party politicians after 2000. I became suspicious of the man when I gradually began to understand his methods in seizing the ROCOR in 2007. I heard some stories that were creepy. But, now that Putin is using thermobaric and cluster bombs in Kharkiv and Kyiv, a paradigm shift is in order for all of us. The man is revealing his inner Yuri Andropov to the world. Paradigm shifts are difficult. We are all invested in our working models of reality. In fact, it would be impossible for us to function without them. I have to admire Matt Taibbi for acknowledging last week that his perceptions of Putin were flawed.

The old Russia Today paradigm of "Ukrainian Nazis" and Putin the "Enlightened Autocrat" will, no doubt, persist in some circles, but most people, including Matt Taibbi, are getting in touch with reality this week. As Taibbi admitted, he was so focused on "NATO aggression" that he failed to take Putin's critics (inside and outside of Russia) seriously. One thing I have wondered about during the past few years is why Putin and Yanukovych cheerleaders in the West have been so silent about Yanukovych's imprisonment of opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko from 2011-14. Tymoshenko was only released from prison after the corrupt Putin puppet Yanukovych was deposed by a popular uprising in 2014. And the Kremlin also, reportedly, tried to assassinate Tymoshenko.

IMO, the occupation will be brutal-- Stalin-esque. Much of it will be hidden from Western awareness, as soon as the FSB is able to crack down on communication and Western reporting from occupied Ukraine. Putin and his FSB henchmen will draw upon a century of NKVD/KGB police state experience to control Ukraine, just as they have drawn upon a century of Soviet experience with disinformazia and state-controlled mass media to manipulate public opinion at home and abroad. Recall that the West was largely unaware of what was really happening in the Soviet Union for decades -- the Stalinist purges, Holodomor, and labor camps of the Gulag-- before Solzhenitsyn's work was finally published in Paris. Even Pasternak was published in Italy before his work finally appeared in print in the USSR. Stalin once said, "Ideas are far more dangerous than guns. If we forbid people to have guns, why would we allow them to have ideas?"

Matt Taibbi apologizes for "faceplanting" on Putin's invasion of Ukraine-- i.e., being so "fixated on Western misbehavior" that he failed to take Putin's critics seriously. Sounds familiar... 🤥 Note to Readers, on the Invasion of Ukraine A faceplant of my own. Note to Readers, on the Invasion of Ukraine (substack.com) Matt Taibbi Feb 24 2,846 1,515 Part of news and even commentary is admitting mistakes, and though I always made sure when discussing the subject to note Vladimir Putin could still invade Ukraine, I have to admit, I didn’t see this happening. Some old colleagues I trust, including some Putin-critical Russians, didn’t see it, either, but in many cases they just didn’t want to believe it, for reasons that are more understandable from their perspective. My mistake was more like reverse chauvinism, being so fixated on Western misbehavior that I didn’t bother to take this possibility seriously enough. To readers who trust me not to make those misjudgments, I’m sorry. Obviously, Putin’s invasion will have horrific consequences for years to come and massively destabilize the world. I fear there will be more to say soon, but I’ll leave it at that for today. When you’re wrong, you’re wrong, and I was wrong about this.

Well, Jeff, here's strike number three for you. I posted last Thursday that, IMO, people in the West were finally seeing Putin for who he really is-- based on what I had observed in the ROCOR fifteen years ago. You dismissed my observations on the false grounds that they were based on things I had read in the M$M. Then, yesterday, Vladimir Sorokin wrote in The Guardian that Putin's mask had finally cracked. You dismissed Sorokin's observations as literary fiction and a mere personal dislike of Putin. Here comes strike #3... The Terrible Truth So Many Experts Missed About Russia The terrible truth so many experts missed about Russia before its Ukraine invasion. (slate.com) February 28, 2022

Interesting article by a history prof from the University of Michigan. Putin’s claim to rid Ukraine of Nazis is especially absurd given its history Putin's claim to rid Ukraine of Nazis is especially absurd given its history (theconversation.com) February 26, 2022 Excerpt The fact that Zelensky is the grandson of a Holocaust survivor and was raised in what he told The Times of Israel was “an ordinary Soviet Jewish family” was barely noted during the election. “Nobody cares. Nobody asks about it,” he remarked in the same interview. Nor did Ukrainians seem to mind that the prime minister at the time of Zelensky’s election, Volodymyr Groysman, also had a Jewish background. For a brief period of time, Ukraine was the only state outside of Israel to have both a Jewish head of state and a Jewish head of government. “How could I be a N-a-z-i?” Zelensky asked in a public address after the Russian invasion began. “Explain it to my grandfather.”

Putin Is Using Cluster Bombs in Kharkiv

Vladimir Sorokin's vivid, detailed description of Putin's reign of terror and the Russian Federation's descent into totalitarianism is historically accurate, literary metaphors aside. You strike out, once again. As for the history of the Russian Orthodox Church during the past century, I'm guessing that you are as clueless as most Western intellectuals. At most you have possibly read Solzhenitsyn or the Mitrokhin archival material (published at Cambridge as The Sword and the Shield) about the infiltration and control of the ROC by the NKVD/KGB after 1917. I doubt that you have read the more detailed historical writings of I.M. Andreyev on the subject. (You won't learn anything accurate on Wikipedia. It has been systematically edited since 2007.) "Partisan schisms?" As in Communist Party? Are you kidding? The exiled ROCOR heirarchs had anathematized the KGB-controlled Moscow Patriarch for nearly a century, following the murder of Moscow Patriarch Tikhon by the NKVD in 1921. There was no "schism" in the exiled ROCOR until it was seized by Putin and his FSB in 2007. I should know, because a dear friend of mine published a book on the subject many years ago. Putin's first Moscow Patriarch Alexey II (Ridiger) was a known KGB agent with the code name, "Drozhdov." The MP was a tool of the Soviet/Russian Federation state for the past century, managed by the KGB/FSB. After 2000, Putin used his FSB-controlled MP to infiltrate and seize the ROCOR in Western Europe and North America, through an internal political coup. (See Konstantin Preobrazhensky's 2009 book on that subject.) https://www.amazon.com/KGB-FSBs-New-Trojan-Horse/dp/0615249086/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2EO3WG3UXC57K&keywords=Konstantin+Preobrazhensky&qid=1646019918&sprefix=konstantin+preobrazhensky%2Caps%2C122&sr=8-1 Putin cynically viewed the (White) Russian Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) as a mere international espionage tool for his fascist, totalitarian police state. It was the same process that the NKVD/KGB/FSB had used to infiltrate and control the Russian Orthodox Church in the Soviet Union after 1917 -- a complete sacrilege. Don't be fooled by Putin making a show of lighting an occasional candle in the Orthodox Church. I've seen Russian mafia guys do that much on religious holidays. Sadly, some delusional, right wing Republicans in the U.S. currently seem to think Putin is a "Christian nationalist." It's an act. He's no Christian. He's a murderer and a thief.

P.S. I'm still waiting for Jeff Carter and the Putin apologists to tell us what they think about Vladimir Sorokin's article in The Guardian today. Why the silence? Vladimir Putin sits atop a crumbling pyramid of power | Vladimir Sorokin | The Guardian Is Sorokin's perspective on the history of Putin and the Russian Federation during the past 20 years accurate? How about Gary Kasparov's perspective, which I posted here a week or so ago? (Greeted by silence.) Is it possible that Kasparov and Sorokin know more about the modern Russian Federation than we do? 🤥

Chris, I've said as much repeatedly. To wit, I'm not an apologist for the black ops and war crimes of NATO and, as I said above, the NATO exercises with Ukraine last fall were an unnecessary, foolish provocation. That said, Putin apologists are ignoring the man-eating Russian bear in the living room, while fretting about what Putin wants in order to feel happy about his fascist police state. Who gives a flying f--- about what Vlad Putin wants? He's a dictator, a murderer, and a thief. What about what the people of Ukraine want? Why are Putin apologists dodging that question?

Honestly, I'm astonished at the naivete (or dishonesty, in Jeff's case) of the Putin apologists on the forum. Sadly, you guys seem to have no awareness of what has been happening in the Russian Federation during the past 20 years under Putin's rule. The RF became a fascist police state in the 21st century. I realized that fact 15 years ago. I've been there, studied it, and I've also fraternized with the Russian Orthodox community here in Denver for the past quarter century. I recently posted a comment with a book review I wrote in 2010 about former KGB Col. Konstantin Preobrazhensky's expose of the Putin/FSB annexation of the ROCOR in 2007. No comments from the Jeff Carter's peanut gallery, other than Jeff's erroneous comment that Putin critics are merely posting propaganda from the M$M. It's Jeff's latest absurdity, because Preobrazhensky's book and the 2007 KGB/MP/ROCOR putsch was completely ignored by the M$M. At the time, only ITASS reported Putin's cynical comment that, "Religion is one of Russia's best weapons of self defense!" In my recent post, I wrote that, "people in the West are finally seeing Putin for who he really is, a KGB apparatchik from the Yuri Andropov Red Banner Institute." Then, today, Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin wrote exactly what I posted here a few days ago-- that "Putin's mask" has cracked, exposing the Andropov-trained KGB agent inside. Obviously, Sorokin knows a great deal more about Putin and the Russian Federation than I do, but we both, independently, reached the same conclusion. I'd like to know what the Putin apologists here have to say about Sorokin's observations of Putin and the Russian Federation.

Interesting analysis of Putin published in The Guardian today by the Russian writer Vladimir Sorokin. Oliver Stone interviewed the Mask of Putin, the "enlightened autocrat," which has now been removed. Sorokin confirms my impression of Putin after I witnessed the Act of Canonical Communion in 2007 (above) but he adds a lot of historical details about Putin's transformation during the past 20 years. The underlying theme of Sorokin's analysis echoes Lord Acton's famous dictum that, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Vladimir Putin sits atop a crumbling pyramid of power | Vladimir Sorokin | The Guardian

Russia Condemned for Alleged Use of Cluster Bombs in Ukraine There must be "an immediate halt to use of the internationally banned weapon," said the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Cluster Munition Coalition. Russia Condemned for Alleged Use of Cluster Bombs in Ukraine (commondreams.org)

Mad Vlad is ramping up his shelling of civilians in Kyiv and elsewhere tonight, and possibly bringing in thermobaric bombs and flame throwers. Last time I checked it was a war crime to gratuitously murder non-combatant civilians. At what point do President Biden and NATO tell the little KGB son-of-a-bitch to knock it off, or else? It's beyond outrageous.

Russian missile strikes a residential building in Kyiv.

Jim, If I recall correctly, the principle of self-determination was promoted by FDR in the original Atlantic Charter negotiations with Winston Churchill. NATO evolved from that original Anglo-American framework. I'm not an apologist for NATO's black ops and war crimes, but who among us can deny that NATO nations are free, democratic states-- in sharp contrast to Putin's nationalist/fascist police state in the neo-Soviet Russian Federation? That was where I disagreed with Kuznick and Oliver Stone's portrayal of Soviet post-war history in The Untold History series. Did Kuznick and Stone ever study the writings of my favorite 20th century socialist, Milovan Djilas, including Djilas's Conversations With Stalin? Djilas, Tito and the Yugoslavs never had any illusions about Russian imperialism. What is missing from the Putin apologists in 2022 is any acknowledgement of Ukraine's right to self-determination. Ukrainian's don't want to be part of Putin's totalitarian police state. Why would they? Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew granted autocephaly to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in 2018 because the Ukrainians didn't want to be under the thumb of Putin's KGB Moscow Patriarchate. (Bartholomew did the same thing for the Estonian Orthodox Church in 1996.) Who could blame them? As Charles P. Pierce phrased it in Esquire this week, "When Did We Stop Caring That Ukraine Doesn't Want To Be Part Of Russia?"

Hmmm... I learn something new every day on this forum. Kaliningrad (aka Konigsburg) is the Russia Federation's only ice free port on the Baltic-- annexed by the USSR at the end of WWII, and retained as RF territory after the dissolution of the USSR. The old Prussian port was renamed for the Bolshevik Politburo member and, unlike Leningrad and Stalingrad, has retained its 20th century Bolshevik moniker.

Correct, except for Poland, which borders Belarus, Lithuania, and Ukraine. I just realized that Norway does share a border with Russia's extreme northwest corner, north of Finland. Meanwhile, Putin has, apparently, threatened to drop thermobaric bombs on Ukraine, if the Ukrainians don't surrender.

And, meanwhile, the Russian people, apparently, don't even know what's going on... ‘Pure Orwell’: how Russian state media spins invasion as liberation | Russia | The Guardian

Indeed. Mad Vlad has even engaged in nuclear sable rattling, and now this! Russia Issues Ominous Warning to Finland, Sweden Should They Join NATO www.newsweek.com/russia-threatens-finland-sweden-nato-ukraine-invasion-1682715

Joe, I just finished reading the late LA journalist Fernando Faura's 2016 book about the RFK assassination, The Polka Dot File, which contains a wealth of firsthand witness testimony about RFK's assassination from the summer of '68. Faura documents very clearly how the FBI and LAPD systematically suppressed and lied about the obvious evidence of a conspiracy. The cover up wasn't even subtle. The two lead LAPD "investigators," Pena and Hernandez, were cops who had been working for the CIA (AID program) before being recalled to LA to manage the RFK assassination cover up.

Well, folks, I'll blurt it out... Where's Operation ZR/RIFLE when we really need it?