Amnesty International has come under pressure after releasing a report last week that said Ukraine’s fighting tactics are endangering civilians. The group said Sunday that it’s sorry for the “distress and anger” the release caused but said it “fully stands” behind the findings.
“Amnesty International deeply regrets the distress and anger that our press release on the Ukrainian military’s fighting tactics has caused,” Amnesty told Reuters.
“Amnesty International’s priority in this and in any conflict is ensuring that civilians are protected. Indeed, this was our sole objective when releasing this latest piece of research. While we fully stand by our findings, we regret the pain caused,” the group added.
The release from Amnesty about Ukraine’s fighting tactics said that Ukrainian troops were basing themselves in residential areas, including schools and hospitals, while there were “viable alternatives” that would not endanger civilians. Amnesty said that as a result of these tactics, Russian strikes targeted populated areas and killed civilians.
But Amnesty also criticized Russia and said these facts about Ukraine’s fighting tactics do not excuse Moscow’s “indiscriminate attacks.” But the findings from the organization still enraged officials in Ukraine. The head of Amnesty’s Ukraine office resigned after the report was issued, and accused the organization of being a tool of “Russian propaganda.”
The hypocrisy is hilarious. Amnesty has long been the darling organization of all the western governments and media (How many articles I’ve read in the NYT that cited Amnesty as the ONLY source) when it criticized all the non-western nations for their human rights records. But when it accurately criticizes Ukraine, the backlash was so immediate. Our “free” mainstream media is just a propaganda arm of the neocons at this point. And no NYT, I have not forgotten your echoing WMD lies in Iraq to push war.
Yes, yes, their great Pulitzer winner, Judith Miller! And yes, note the cringing apology to the Ukro-Nazis, ….
It does however indicate the beginning of a policy shift, …abandoning Ukraine, letting them twist slowly in the wind.
Read the book , guardians of power , the myth of the liberal media , you will never include the word FREE ever again when talking about M.S.M outleats.
Amnesty has outed itself as a Western propaganda organization.
I know people who only follow Western mainstream media and who fully believe in the narrative about “Putin’s unprovoked war of aggression”. But even they understood back in March or April that the Ukrainians were using human shields.
At this point, for Amnesty to continue turning a blind eye on Ukrainian war crimes was simply impossible.
in this situation, it is not only what Amnesty published that is interesting, but more so why they published it and why they are so persistently defending their publication.
I don’t believe for a second in the humanism of Amnesty and their actions are still a mystery to me. there is a version that the Zelensky regime is being merged on the eve of the offensive in the Kherson region, which seems to be moving towards Nikolaev. organizations that plan to stay afloat have begun preparing for a 180-degree turn.
There is the theory that the US is preparing to drop Zelensky and leave Ukraine to its fate like it left Afghanistan to its fate. That may be the case; however, the alternative explanation is also valid, according to which Amnesty simply could not continue to turn a blind eye on the gross war crimes committed by Ukraine if even ordinary citizens know that to be the case.
the situation is a little more complicated. there is no single US and no single EU. There are certain groups that have certain interests.
arms manufacturers and agricultural corporations that have bought 16 million hectares of agricultural land in Ukraine are interested in the war “to the last Ukrainian”. the military is mastering the American budget from which Biden regularly allocates money for weapons for Ukraine, the farmers will cling to the last for their property acquired not in the most honest way and which they are guaranteed to lose when Russia wins.
there are also European industrialists and financiers who are suffering losses because of this situation. in particular, the same Soros whose value of assets in the EU is falling and they need peace as soon as possible.
Yesterday a very interesting video appeared in the Russian telegram segment. claim that it is taken from the Ukrainian segment. anti-war video. I’m interested in the quality of the video. clearly a team of professionals. quality plot. those who wrote the script for the video know exactly the situation in the region and what needs to be put under pressure. The graphics quality is also at a high level. video in Ukrainian. this was definitely not done by self-taught enthusiasts, but by high-level professionals. there are doubts that this video was made in Russia. too high quality
could not turn a blind eye to war crimes? human rights organization?!? aaa ha ha ha 🤣🤣🤣 this is the best joke in the last month 😂👍 thank you friend you made my day😁
all (!!!) Western human rights organizations are made of the same dirt. all these organizations are financed from funds owned either by intelligence (CIA, MI6) or by large financiers and corporations. they will only look where they are ordered and turn away when they are ordered. if necessary, they will howl in unison over staged plots of white helmets or a fake from Bucha, if necessary, they will ask Ukraine not to publish videos of torture and murder of Russian prisoners of war on the Internet. do not stop, but do not publish. OSCE, which were supposed to prevent shelling, but instead were engaged in the supply of intelligence data to the Ukrainian Nazis. do you seriously believe that for 8 years they did not know what was happening in the Donbass? did not know about the thousands of civilians killed? did not know what was happening in Mariupol?
I don’t know about you, for me “human rights organization” = a bunch of moral freaks.
I agree. There is not a single agent directing things from behind the scenes (that’s why conspiracies are wrong). There are different groups pulling in different directions; however, the overriding concern is the defense of global US hegemony (ie. the Blob). That’s why the Maidan was staged. That’s why Pelosi went to Taiwan. They want to create (or fake) an incident, like the Bay of Tonkin, to trigger a war. All other interests (MIC, agrochemical lobby, Silicon Valley, even Soros and Wall Street) take second place.
I don’t know which video you refer to, but it is save to assume that most manipulation and disinformation campaigns are directed from the greater London area, where about 100,000 people work in the information and disinformation business, both private and public. Incidentally, the video about “Putin’s palace” Navalny allegedly made while in coma was made by a media firm in the South of Germany called BewegteBilder. The palace doesn’t actually exist. Or rather it’s a building site for a luxury hotel. The company used computer imagery to create the interior and exterior of the palace including golden toilet brushes. Millions believed the fake designed to destabilize the Russian state. It’s pure evil. People who earn a living by creating these fakes to trigger wars and social uprisings that may kill millions are worse than Nazi concentration camp guards that sent million to their death. Yet these people walk among us like respectable citizens.
Yes I know what happened in Mariupol and Odessa in 2014. I also what what happened in the Drama Theater of Mariupol in 2022. It’s one of the false flag operations that can be easily proven wrong by pictures available on the Internet.
let me express doubts about your thesis about unleashing a war for the sake of hegimony. in general he is correct, but not in the details. You know, “the devil is in the details”😉
world hegimony has a very specific goal – to maximize the income of certain interested groups. war for the sake of war is not satisfied. war is arranged for the sake of seizing resources, for the sake of arms contracts, for the sake of expanding the sphere of influence on which you can establish your own rules for doing business.
it’s good that you remembered the incident in the Gulf of Tonkin. if the western lobbies really wanted to start a war, they could just start it by telling that they “heard torpedoes” or pull out another black man with a can of cocaine who would shout about chemical weapons, or they could blow up some kind of cruiser Maine.🤷♂️ start mechanisms there are a lot of wars, but the United States clearly does not want to go to war. if the US wants to fight, then the US comes up with a pretext and attacks.
IMHO there is interest from the Wall Street lobby. hotbeds of tension and instability in the commodity and stock markets open up scope for financial fraud.😉 if you don’t see the logic in what is happening, always look for where the money is!😎
about fakes.
we live in the information age. falsification of information and recognition of falsifications of information becomes dedicated professions. Of course, they were engaged in fakes before, but now the amount of information created has increased thousands of times, as well as the number of fakes. Personally, I have long been very wary of any information, especially sensational. there is another interesting point about Putin’s palace … on YouTube, Navalny’s or Dud’s videos get up to 10 million views per day, but at the same time, all this “opposition to Putin” cannot gain even 2% of the vote in the country in the elections. statistics is also a big fake😉 Elon Musk is a high-level troll! before the deal with Meta, he demanded verification data for bot accounts. I hope he wins the trial, but I can’t believe that we will be told what percentage of Meta accounts are bots😁
about morality.
Are you sure that morality is still preserved somewhere? the head of the Japanese detachment 731 managed to escape to Japan, did not suffer any punishment and continued to work as a surgeon. I very much doubt that anyone from those whom he saved the life of in Japan, or their relatives, would have said something bad to him about the fact that this beast disembowelled living children while honing his skills as a surgeon. Politicians are by definition devoid of morality. their job is to sacrifice the interests of some for the benefit of others. in democratic countries, by the interests of the majority for the benefit of the minority. What morality can such people have?
I stand by my argument that it’s primarily about hegemony, ie. power. Power leads to all kinds of benefits, like money, beautiful girls, etc., but primarily it’s about power to dictate your will on others. All else flows from there.
To just focus on the MIC, oil, or some other sectors is far too narrow. It’s about controlling resources and markets in general. US Americans are under the illusions that if they could only cut down on the cost for maintaining the empire, they would have so much more money to spend at home. Without the Petrodollar and without corporate America’s global assets (guaranteed by the empire), the US economy would collapse and the country would descend into poverty and chaos. Perhaps the Union would even break up. That’s why American’s will always follow the line of “right or wrong, my country.”
Of course the Americans don’t want to fight wars themselves. They want others to fight their proxy wars. Fanning Ukrainian nationalism after the collapse of the Soviet Union has been a worthwhile investment. They were able to divide Russia and Europe after the Moscow-Berlin-Paris axis against the Iraq war, which must have rattled policy makers in Washington. If the EU had been allowed to accept Putin’s proposal of an economic zone from Lisbon to Vladivostok, the Americans would have become superfluous in Europe.
Thus, the primary goal is attained. The goal of “weakening Russia” (or destroying the Russian Federation) could have been attained 20 years ago, but today Russia and China have become too strong.
Yes, morality still plays a role. The Japanese have the concept of Tatemae and Honne. The latter is what one really believes, while the former is the opinion displayed in public. The two typically diverge. Staying on the Tatemae level, both sides pretend to believe in something for the sake of not upsetting social norms, while both sides know that they really believe something else. Maybe this is a thing with island nations, because with the Perfidious Albion on the other side of the Eurasian continent the role of hypocrisy in politics is also very important. That’s something hard to understand for continental people like the Russians or the Germans. That’s why they always get screwed by the Anglo-Saxons. Thus at the very least, morality is important on the Tatemae level, but to some it’s also important on the Honne level.
US regime change tactics are opportunistic. They will try to exploit popular sentiments like nationalist or sectarian hatred or try to promote opposition figures like Navalny. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But it is clear that the West was trying to promote Navalny, which is beyond cynic considering that an Islamophobic ultra-nationalist like Navalny at the Kremlin would be guaranteed to break up the Russian Federation, which includes tens of millions of Muslims.
power? money? it’s like arguing about which came first, the chicken or the egg.😉 IMHO it doesn’t matter. power breeds wealth and wealth breeds power.
yes, I agree with you that the United States is fighting for world hegimony, but the group of those who are interested in this hegimony is not homogeneous, and in order to protect hegimony, the interests of part of this group have to be sacrificed. this causes a split within the group. yes, you are right that the well-being of the United States rests on oil dollars, but it is paradoxical that the United States, in the struggle for hegimony, did everything to destroy this system. there was a well-oiled mechanism that brought a stable income, but the United States began to hammer nails with this microscope. US sanctions have made the dollar a toxic currency. now everyone knows that the dollar is not reliable, it can always be confiscated and it is not safe to use it in trade. more and more countries are switching to settlements in national currencies and this is a direct blow to the backing of the dollar. this is not a step towards collapse, this is a drag cruiser’s jerk. China and Russia are already actively working on the creation of an independent currency for international payments.
of course, the US wants to make money on the war, as it was in the first and second world wars, but not to spend their resources in the war. but now it won’t work. challenged by the US itself. what the United States staged in Ukraine is a complete failure. money was invested with the expectation of a long-term period, but now it is clear to everyone that the United States will lose all its assets in Ukraine. Now decisions are feverishly made to take out as much as possible from Ukraine. to withdraw grain (of course it will never get to countries that are starving), now a centralized export of timber is being prepared. but this does not compensate for the costs and actions in relation to Russia (seizures of property and assets) guaranteed that after the liberation of Ukraine, the United States will lose everything.
with Russia even more idiotic story. for non-violent expansion, you need to get your lobbyists into the government who will let your corporations into the country on favorable terms. after that, corporations, with the help of dumping and buying up local bankrupt industries, will completely capture the domestic market and ensure the country’s complete dependence. all this was done in Russia. BUT! in 2014 they imposed sanctions and themselves returned agriculture to the hands of the Russian state. in 2022 industry. this is how all the points of influence that the United States created in Russia were destroyed. the question arises, is the United States fighting with Russia or with its influence on Russia?😁
Tatemae and Honne? You can come up with endlessly beautiful names for this, but in modern society this is called the policy of double standards. The Japanese have interesting cultural features, such as street vending machines with dirty schoolgirl underpants, but hypocrisy and duplicity were definitely not invented by them. japan, and especially japanese politics, have long been westernized. it’s not morality, it’s immorality.
regarding regime change, it should be noted that the United States was quite deft in using this tool in the first decade of this century. everything went smoothly with the Warsaw Pact countries. at first glance.😎 the first misfire was Georgia in 2008. they lost control over the nationalists, as a result – an attack on the bases of Russian peacekeepers and a response from Russia. more failures. failure in Turkey with very unpleasant consequences. “Assad go away” did not work. failure in Venezuela. a complete failure in Belarus and the loss of all agents of influence. in Ukraine, the same failure as in Georgia, for the same reasons. the Baltic countries and Poland are in the queue for denazification, where, it would seem, everything worked out. the system collapses. and at the same time, pro-American regimes are being replaced in South America, and the US call for everyone to get together and increase oil production is no longer a friendly chorus of “yes, master!”, but a cacophony from “we will think” to “burn in hell!”.
it looks like this collapse of the empire will be cooler than Rome and the USSR.
If you are Russian, I don’t know why you have adopted a Western narrative. Perhaps you are a Westernized Russian? For continentals who haven’t had first hand experience of the Perfidious Albion, it is virtually impossible to understand just how deep-seated the hypocrisy is. Continentals are romantic dreamers.
There is nothing surprising about the self-destructive tendencies of Anglo-Saxon policies. Imperialism in itself is unsustainable. It has to expand until it collapses. If it were to stop expanding, it would cease to be an empire. Just like big corporations have to keep on making profits. The moment the balance sheet turns into the red, they collapse. Thus, it doesn’t matter that the US corporate empire loses its assets in Russia, as long as the empire is maintained. To maintain the empire, the US needs to fight, strangle, destroy, dismantle (or whatever) Russia and China. If the Russian Federation can be dissolved by hybrid warfare, the benefits for corporate America will be enormous. They’ll be able to control the resources of the Russian Federation and attack China from all sides.
You are right, most of the US’s regime change attempts and wars turn sour. In fact, the US hasn’t won a single war since WWII. And WWII was won by the Soviet Union. But that doesn’t matter as long as others have to bear the cost. The empire can only survive by “divide et impera”. The empire has to ignite hatred and wars between people: Jews against Arabs, Muslims against Hindus, Sunnis against Shias, Ukrainians against Russia, Germans against Russia … The empire always finds opportunities to foster strive. Now, the empire desperately needs a war between China and India. For China, Russia, India, Iran to end up on the same side would be fatal for the empire.
That proves my point that particular interests don’t matter to the empire as long as the empire can be maintained. The empire even invested in Nazi Germany before it decided to side with the Soviet Union against the Nazis. Thus, the empire was prepared to lose its investments in Germany. But as soon as the Soviets had defeated the Nazis, the empire again allied with the Nazis to destroy the Soviet Union. At the end of WWII, the UK/US planned operation Dropshot to destroy the Soviet Union with 300 nuclear bombs and 20,000 tons of conventional bombs before sending 300,000 Nazi troops into the radioactive ruins of your country. They specifically wanted to destroy urban centers like Moscow and St. Petersburg. Luckily, Stalin had the bomb before the UK/US was able to produce enough bombs and carrier systems. They expected to kill more than 400 million civilians.
Yes, I am Russian and pro-Russian, but why did you decide that I accepted the Western narrative? I’m just stating a fact. if they do the same to your country as they did to mine at the beginning of this century (I don’t wish you harm and I hope this doesn’t happen to you), then I’m sure you will also think about how politics works and you won’t build illusions.😉
you write “Continentals are romantic dreamers.”? funny. the same thing was written about the Germans right before the First World War. Germans are a nation of dreamers and poets… Kant, Goethe… good-natured burghers who, apart from beer and sausages, cannot be trusted with anything because it is clear that they will pass with beer and sausages… and then BOOM! shelling of England, the battle of Jutland and the Verdun meat grinder. have no illusions about others😉 yes, your social circle may be romantics and dreamers, but there are other communities in the EU that promote other views and values. you do not communicate with them, but they are.
“Imperialism, as the highest stage of capitalism” (c) V. I. Lenin.😎 The main goal of capitalism and its highest stage, imperialism, is profit maximization. as soon as the possibilities for maximizing profits are exhausted, capitalism begins to collapse. wars start when the limit of non-violent (relatively) expansion (for profit maximization) is reached. you write “it doesn’t matter that the US corporate empire is losing its assets in Russia as long as the empire persists.”, but the empire is already collapsing. It’s a headless chicken. yes, she is still running, but already dead. the limit of expansion has been reached, there are no forces for expansion in the direction of Asia or Russia. about the idea of playing off India and China – it seems that both India and China have guessed this and are already opposing it. the war in Ukraine, instead of destroying Russia, is destroying the American food base in the EU, and instead of income, losses are obtained.
China, Russia, India, Iran and Pakistan are already on the same side, but this is only part of the American problem. the countries of the Middle East, Africa and South America are already in the same alliance. all major producing nations. there is also Turkey, which is now much closer to Russia than to the United States, but is playing its own game. who is from USA? consumer countries whose public debt is higher than GDP? dubious union.
about the confrontation between the USSR and the West, you are not quite right. this is an existential confrontation at the ideological level and the level of social formations. it’s not an expansion. the West had quite close relations with the Russian Empire, but the USSR and the successes of the USSR posed a danger to the very foundation of Western society, this is an alternative to capitalism. The United States did not fight for the resources of the USSR, but against communism, which ruled out the possibility of exploitation.
PS
I wanted to ask you about the Anglo-Saxons. Angles are Germans, Saxons are also Germans. Are these Germans Germans? and why are they associated with the British? the Romans went through Britain well, followed by the Normans, then the French. At the beginning of the 100 Years War, the British Parliament spoke French and only by the end of the 100 Years War did they speak English because of the need to communicate with the local population involved in the hostilities. what about the Germans? I’m not kidding, I really don’t understand.
PS PS
if it’s not a secret, where are you from? I wonder where there are still sane people 😎
I’m from the heartland of Saxon migration to the UK, which was in the North of Germany, but I have lived abroad for over 50 years, among other places, in the UK and Japan. So I do know a thing or two about these places. If I talk about Tatemae/Honne in Japan or the role of hypocrisy in British politics, it’s from first-hand experience. I don’t judge it. I just say what is and how it works. In fact, I feel the sort of affinity for British and Japanese culture that comes from life-long intimacy. Tatemae/Honne or hypocrisy as a national trait is different from personal hypocrisy. It’s a socio-political system that makes society function. If everybody understands the role of hypocrisy, there is no problem. The problem arises in contact with the outside world in which trustworthiness and loyalty are valued.
To come back to the current crisis. The Anglo-Saxons understand full well that “human rights” and “democracy” are used as pretext for imperial expansion. That’s how the empire expands. They understand that, if they come up against resistance, they’ll forget about their moral principles and retreat. That’s different for idealists who really believe in defending human rights and democracy world-wide. They will double down to keep up the fight. For example, when the Americans wanted to get out off Afghanistan, the Germans were disappointed. The Germans didn’t want to go to Afghanistan in the first place. They were persuaded to go because they were told it was about bringing human rights and democracy to Afghanistan. Thus, since the realists in the Anglo-Saxon camp understood that the use of human rights as pretext for the military intervention was part of a hypocritical policy, they had no problem turning around, while the idealists who really believe in human rights wanted to stay.
The same is true for the Ukraine crisis. The hatred for everything Russian in Europe is because people don’t understand the background to the crisis and because they are genuinely angry because Putin allegedly started “an unprovoked war”. You and I know that it wasn’t unprovoked, but most people don’t remember Maidan or the massacre of Odessa, or if they do, they have a very distorted view of things.
Thus, I don’t judge the role of hypocrisy in politics as long as both sides understand that it is hypocrisy. Just like all Japanese understand the role of Tatemae/Honne. The problem starts when people not familiar with the system mistake Tatemae for Honne.
Gorbachev was very naïve when he believed that Russia could coexist peacefully with Anglo-Saxon imperialism. US Neocons, while they told Gorbachev what he wanted to hear 30 years ago, started to make plans for expanding the US empire, which would have to lead to the dissolution of the Russian Federation.
It’s like the fable of the scorpion and the frog. The scorpion cannot not sting, even if it means its own death by drowning. It’s in its nature.
The Angles and Saxons that colonized the British isles were of course Germanic tribes; however, the Vikings and centuries of colonial empire have left deep traces on the collective consciousness of British society. Incidentally, Russia also starts with the Viking slave traders who founded the Kiev Rus. Still, it developed differently, perhaps partially due to the Mongol conquest??
I wanted to go to Japan, but so far I can’t. Asian culture is very different from European and it’s interesting. in Britain was in 1993. three weeks in Manchester on an exchange between schools. two seemingly insignificant details convinced me that I would never live in Britain. the first is a smile. it is customary to smile. Here, in Russia, a smile is an expression of emotion. they smile at you if they are happy to see you. in Britain, those who don’t give a damn about you smile at you. smile for what it is necessary to smile. as my friend from the USA said, “friends who will not collect 2 dollars for your life, and you will not give 1 cent for their life.” the second moment is when the guy from whom I asked for a cigarette was waiting for me to give him money for a cigarette. in Russia it is not accepted. in Russia you ask for a cigarette, they give you a cigarette, you say “thank you” and that’s it. no one even thinks that you need to pay for this cigarette. I don’t want to live in such a hypocritical and materialistic community.
now about Tatemae/Honne or hypocrisy. hypocrisy is a screen behind which crimes are hidden. it does not ensure the functioning of the state. it obespechaet concealment of facts about how rotten a particular state. the fact that the educated strata of society can understand what Tatemae / Honne is does not at all justify politicians who understand all this among themselves but continue to kill millions. besides, now the political Tatemae regularly replaces the public Honne. you correctly wrote that many in Europe do not know about what happened in 2014 in Ukraine or they know it in a distorted form, but why is that? by the fact that the media broadcast only the “correct” point of view. therefore, in Europe they believe that it is necessary to fight the Jews who drink the blood of babies! and fight the worldwide Jewish conspiracy! oh. typo. of course with the Russians… hmm… it looks like all this already happened about 100 years ago😉 and in this hypocrisy there is nothing that would be necessary to rule the country. there is only a screen behind which they hide their crimes committed for the sake of increasing their own income. I don’t think there is any justification for this.
in Ukraine, the point is not that some crimes were committed, the point is that in 2014 the United States bet on the wrong horse. The US wanted to create leverage on Russia and squeeze Russian business out of Ukraine. The US looked at Ukraine, “who dislikes Russians the most there?” USA thought. “These guys hate Russians. They suit us!” and relied on Ukrainian nationalists. but the problem is that Ukrainian nationalists hate Russians. hatred of Russians is the basis of their ideology. this means that they will definitely start a war with Russia, regardless of the interests of the United States. instead of a lever for pressure, it turned out to be a bomb that exploded in 2022. and Russia has no other option but to completely destroy the Ukrainian regime. I have every reason to believe that the US was not interested in such a sophisticated way to lose its significant assets in Ukraine, but now it’s too late to think about it.
about the Anglo-Saxons. read … yes, English from the western group of the Germanic branch of languages. this clears things up a bit. about the Vikings – slave traders, this is a little different. the Vikings assimilated and became prominent representatives of the military class. in fact, Russia became their homeland. for example, many historians believe that the Rurik family has Scandinavian roots. by the way, an interesting intersection with modern events … “Rurikovichi – princely, grand ducal, later also royal (in Russia) and royal (in Galicia-Volyn land) family of Rurik’s descendants.” 😉 Regarding the Mongol conquest, things are also not quite the same as usually represent conquest. Chengiz Khan sent 1 tumen (10,000 horsemen) in order to find out what awaits him on a campaign to the last sea. Russian princes (some of whom are descendants of the Normans) were able to field 1,500 cavalry. the result of the battle is quite clear. after reconnaissance, Genghis Khan sent 4 tumens on a campaign. the princes figured that it was better to be rich and alive than dead and accepted inclusion in the Mongol empire. The Mongols brought a postal system to Russia, which made it possible to organize management over large territories. however, as part of the Mongol Empire, Russia was such a poor bearish corner that the Mongols appeared in Russia to collect tribute, in fact the state tax, and sometimes deal with those who forgot which empire Russia was in and who to pay taxes to. all self-government was carried out by Russian princes, and the Russian Orthodox Church was generally under the auspices of the Great Khan and was exempt from taxes. that is, there was no serious cultural influence of the Mongols on Russia. By the way, in the future, when the great horde broke up, some of the direct heirs of Genghis Khan served as military commanders of the Russian tsars. that is, they assimilated.
You are very much mistaken if you believe that the US picked the wrong allies in Ukraine. The choice of Ukrainian nationalists was deliberate. The US like the UK is a maritime empire. They need continental allies to fight a continental war. The Anglo-Saxons selected the Nazis to fight the Bolshevists before WWII. When Hitler wasn’t compliant enough, they allied with the Bolshevists to fight the Nazis instead. To the empire, it’s all the same. Once the Soviets had defeated the Nazis, the US/UK again allied with the Nazis in Ukraine to fight the Soviets. Thus, the use of Ukrainian Nazis has a long tradition.
As long as the Ukrainians are doing the fighting, it’s a win-win for the Americans. They can easily print more money to send to Ukraine and the weapons required for the war gives the MIC a boost. But most of all, the US prevented an alliance between Russia and Europe (I guess they were in a state of denial about the Russia/China alliance they created instead).
The Americans believed they could use Brzezinsky’s Ukraine trap to destroy the Russian Federation because they erroneously believe that they destroyed the Soviet Union with Brzezinsky’s Afghanistan trap. Brzezinsky himself realized his mistake before his death, but today’s policy makers slavishly follow a Neocon strategy developed 30 years ago because they are intellectual nitwits who don’t understand that the world has changed.
What you encountered in the UK is called “politeness”. It’s important for the frictionless functioning of society even if it involves hypocrisy. This is especially important for closed island societies like Japan. They have a very elaborate code of conduct to avoid social conflict. Without it, the Japanese would be killing each other because they live in such cramped and closed conditions. In medieval Europe, you could always move from one kingdom to another if you got into trouble with your ruler. In Japan, you might go to the mountains to live as a hermit, but aside from that, you cannot live outside of your society. The pressure to conform is enormous. The only way out is suicide.
The Mongols were brutal warriors but very tolerant rulers. They didn’t impose their belief system on people who submitted to them and their taxes were very light, which encouraged trade. I think loyalty was very important to them. Maybe that is something the Russians inherited? To the British ruling class, on the other hand, backstabbing is a national sport 😉
and good afternoon again!😊
do not confuse “everything went according to plan” and “we were able to get out.” with Hitler, everything went wrong from 1936. yes, as a result of the Second World War, the United States was able to turn the situation in their favor, but everything hung in the balance back in 1944. if the Germans had revealed the plan for the landing of the allies in Normandy and were able to repel this attack (the Germans had every chance), then the zone of Soviet influence would spread would be much further. although in this case, the United States would still rob its “allies” and take away their colonies, as they tried to do with Vietnam after the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu.
but today the situation is quite different. lend-lease will make a profit if the one to whom it is provided wins. after that, you can receive payments from the winner. but if the recipient of lend-lease does not just lose, but disappears from the geographical map, then this lend-lease becomes lost money. loans? the main thing in a loan is not to issue a loan, the main thing in a loan is to get a loan and interest on the loan. from whom will the US receive issued credits when the junta is destroyed? with the EU in which a recession is predicted by autumn and an industrial catastrophe in winter? The EU will ask for loans but not repay loans. Non-performing loans are also losses. The US could count on the preservation of its assets in Ukraine (16 million hectares of agricultural land) in the event of an unfavorable development of events by freezing the conflict, but due to the fact that the US relied on the Nazis, freezing the conflict is not possible. The United States cannot change the regime either, because the only force they can rely on in Ukraine is the Ukrainian Nazis. cosmetics like replacing Zelensky with Zaluzhny will still not allow freezing the conflict.
about “printing as much money as you need”, I beg you … you are an educated person and should understand a little about economics. it doesn’t work that way. money is valuable not because it is money, but because it is backed by something material. Yes, the US still has the petrodollar, but the main oil producers are on the same side as Putin and they really liked the idea of selling oil for their own currency. if you start printing “as many as you need” dollars in a recession and a reduction in dollar transactions for oil, this will cause the dollar to fall, the release of a large number of dollars from the financial reserves of countries into the market, because no one needs to keep reserves in a currency that is rapidly falling, and the collapse of the Fed. some believe that the United States is teetering on the brink of a financial disaster, some that this catastrophe has already happened and is not yet noticeable only because of the energy of the economy.
about “politeness” (hypocrisy). it is NOT important for the functioning of society. I live in a society where this phenomenon is considered a vice and this society functions normally. you write that this is due to island isolation, and I do not agree with you. These are remnants of the tribal system. on some island there lives a tribe of aborigines who, when they meet, can say “wah” to each other for 10 minutes, which means respect. if the society is not isolated, then there is no need for this tradition, but if this norm is preserved, then this norm does not apply to an isolated society, this norm applies to the surrounding society. you write that the Japanese live very closely and they have nowhere to go from society? but for Europeans, too, the only option to leave society is to go to the monastery. the binding to the place is determined not so much by the island as by the governance structure. you write that a European could move freely? but you do not specify which European. knight could. craftsman? no. he will never be accepted in another city because they already have their own artisans who do not need a competitor. The shop won’t allow it. peasant? he was brought to the land of his master and saw nothing but his village. do you see that only 1-2% of the population had the opportunity to move freely in Europe?
I believe that this norm is not a feature of the island states, I believe that this is the norm inherent in Western culture in general. the same thing exists in the US which is not an island and has no problems with population density.
about the mongols, yes, this word is a matter of honor. but I have doubts that Russia inherited this from the Mongols. 😉 look at the story of Ivan 4. he had to fight betrayals, betrayals and conspiracies all his life. the same with Peter 1. Pavel 1 was smashed in the head with a snuffbox. Nicholas 2 was overthrown by his entourage – officers, church and officials. they all took an oath of allegiance, but this did not stop them. in the end, he was shot by “grateful” fellow citizens. and so it was with all Russian tsars. and finally, look at the Russian opposition today😂 they are not shy to gather in the Baltic states and discuss how to disband Russia and how to divide it among European countries.
You still don’t see the bigger pictures. The empire thinks big. That’s why it is the empire. The US can print money because most USD are held by non-US citizens. In other words, while printing money the US exports inflation. In all other countries, printing money leads to domestic inflation, not in the US. That’s how the US can survive with a permanent trade deficit. The US exchanges paper money for goods and services produced by other people. As long as the empire survives, the dollar will have value. Ultimately, the value is defended by the US military. Thus today, even as US debt reaches unprecedented levels, it gains value against the Euro because the Dollar is considered a safe haven in times of crisis.
The British empire collapsed when the debt/GDP ratio approached 250%. The US still has some way to go to get there. Anyways, the British empire could have survived even at 250% debt if the US hadn’t cut the credit line. That’s how the US acquired the empire from the British after the Suez crisis.
Anyways, excessive debt isn’t unique to the US. Most Western countries have excessive debts. Thus, if there is a financial crisis, the US will drag most countries down with it. The BRICS+ still isn’t organized enough to present a real alternative. Ultimately, Putin’s idea of a world of sovereign nations is flawed. You still need to organize those sovereign nations in some sort of global system. That means globalization. In other words, the globalization we have now, except that the US won’t be able to dictate the terms. And if the SHTF, there is going to be a great reset and you and I are going to lose our savings to pay for the debts. In this game the empire (casino) always wins.
Believe me, politeness involving insincerity is an important means for keeping non-tribal societies together. Tribal societies use cronyism (ie. corruption) for social cohesion. But that doesn’t work in the empire because it’s multi-ethnic. Thus tribalism has to make way for a general system that can be applied to all.
You view Europe from a Russian or feudal point of view. Most of Europe abolished bondage centuries before Russia. Many people, including craftsmen and traders moved around freely even in the Middle Ages. In German states, craftsmen had to move from city to city to acquire skills. That’s how the cathedrals were built in the Middle Ages. Obviously farmers mostly stayed on their land. Anyways, to be a dissident meant that you were of the literate class. There were peasant revolts, but political dissidents were mostly of the literate class. They would move from one kingdom to another if they got into trouble with their local ruler. Many scientists and artists like Kepler followed that pattern. The competition in culture, science, trade, etc., between numerous small fiefdoms and kingdoms, especially in the HRE, is what led to the European Renaissance and ultimately to the European conquest of the world. Renaissance man was at home in Augsburg, Prague, Sienna just as much as in Paris or Den Haag. New ideas and inventions travelled together with goods from one end of Europe to the other in days. That’s why Europe outcompeted China, which was a closed monolithic empire, where dissension and innovation were suppressed by totalitarian rule.
I greatly admire Chinese and Japanese culture, which I have studied for almost 50 years, but as a European I feel an unbearable sense of claustrophobia when imagining living as a Japanese in Japan. Foreigners have more freedom even in Japan. Thus, I fully appreciate the system of social norms that allows Japanese society to function as a consensus-based society. Again, I don’t judge whether European or Asian society is better. I just appreciate the difference.
The British Empire did not collapse for lack of credit. The British Empire collapsed because it lost its colonies. no cheap resources from the colonies, no economy, no British Empire.
the same with the USA. yes, the structure of the empire is slightly different, but the essence is the same. there is no dollar circulation in world trade, no compensation of immissions at the expense of the world economy, no US empire.
the most interesting thing is that in pursuit of momentary profits, the US itself is destroying its food base in the EU😂 The US forbids the EU to buy gas from Russia, but sells its gas to the EU 7 times more expensive than it costs on the domestic market. thus, the US makes the European economy uncompetitive and destroys the system that compensates for inflation due to dollar immissions.
if a reboot happens now, then YOU will lose all your savings. I will not lose😉 my savings are in rubles and are kept in a bank that is disconnected from SWIFT and does not depend on the IMF and the Fed😎
By the way, BRICS just provides the possibility of an alternative system of settlements and interaction of banks without the FRS and the IMF. the prospect of not paying the US debt is very tempting and many countries are ready to take advantage of this option.😎
about Europe and enslavement. yes, in Europe bondage was abolished earlier than in Russia, but just like in Russia. those who made up the legislative basis for the abolition of bondage were vitally interested in the preservation of bondage. it’s like letting drug dealers write drug laws. the peasant ceased to be the property of the feudal lord, but became a life-long debtor of the feudal lord and still without land.
before the bourgeois revolution, the activities of artisans were completely regulated by guilds (translation difficulties. We call it a workshop, but in fact it is a guild). you will work only where the guild allows, produce only what the guild allows, the quality will be strictly what the guild requires. do you want to go to another city? in another city there is also a guild and they do not need competitors. At best, you will be kicked out; at worst, you will be killed.
who do we have left? feudal lords, knights, church, merchants. together they will make up about 2-3% of the total population. By the time of the bourgeois revolution, an intelligentsia had formed and the number of “free” citizens was about 10%. with such a ratio of free and bonded citizens, talking about freedom of movement is the same as declaring the possibility for citizens now to live in mansions and travel on luxury yachts and, as an example, show a photo of Trump’s mansion and Alisher Usmanov’s yacht😂
I want to plant a seed of doubt in you 😉 you studied the culture of Japan according to documents written by the upper strata of society. those who did not work and who had the time and education to write something. the Japanese culture that you know is 2-3% of Japan. maybe even less. what do you know about other japan? about that Japan that worked to clothe and feed all sorts of shoguns and samurai?
Are they very different from the British? in Britain there is a good museum which presents a fragment of a fishing village and recreates not only the appearance but also the smell. Not only did I feel claustrophobic, but I also felt nauseated by the stench.
if you mean the life of a samurai, then let me remind you that a samurai is a servant. such is his status despite the presence of the sword. according to his status, he is obliged to lead an ascetic image of living in a dove made of paper 4×4 meters. How is he different from a butler in England? honor and code of Bushido?
power? money? it’s like arguing about which came first, the chicken or the egg.😉 IMHO it doesn’t matter. power breeds wealth and wealth breeds power.
yes, I agree with you that the United States is fighting for world hegimony, but the group of those who are interested in this hegimony is not homogeneous, and in order to protect hegimony, the interests of part of this group have to be sacrificed. this causes a split within the group. yes, you are right that the well-being of the United States rests on oil dollars, but it is paradoxical that the United States, in the struggle for hegimony, did everything to destroy this system. there was a well-oiled mechanism that brought a stable income, but the United States began to hammer nails with this microscope. US sanctions have made the dollar a toxic currency. now everyone knows that the dollar is not reliable, it can always be confiscated and it is not safe to use it in trade. more and more countries are switching to settlements in national currencies and this is a direct blow to the backing of the dollar. this is not a step towards collapse, this is a drag cruiser’s jerk. China and Russia are already actively working on the creation of an independent currency for international payments.
of course, the US wants to make money on the war, as it was in the first and second world wars, but not to spend their resources in the war. but now it won’t work. challenged by the US itself. or rather, the United States themselves ran into the current situation with their overshoots with exclusivity. what the United States staged in Ukraine is a complete failure. money was invested with the expectation of a long-term period, but now it is clear to everyone that the United States will lose all its assets in Ukraine. Now decisions are feverishly made to take out as much as possible from Ukraine. to withdraw grain (of course it will never get to countries that are starving), now a centralized export of timber is being prepared. but this does not compensate for the costs and actions in relation to Russia (seizures of property and assets) guaranteed that after the liberation of Ukraine, the United States will lose everything. as we, in Russia, say “invested in shit.”
with Russia even more idiotic story. for non-violent expansion, you need to get your lobbyists into the government who will let your corporations into the country on favorable terms. after that, corporations, with the help of dumping and buying up local bankrupt industries, will completely capture the domestic market and ensure the country’s complete dependence. all this was done in Russia. there was a solid pro-Western lobby. there was control over industry and agriculture, but what happened? in 2014 they imposed sanctions and themselves returned agriculture to the hands of the Russian state. For 8 years, Russian agricultural producers have been praying for these sanctions and asking for more! 😂 and in 2022 their requests were heard. 😎 and not only farmers, but also industrialists. this is how all the points of influence that the United States created in Russia were destroyed. influence in agriculture is completely lost, influence in industry is completely lost, agents of influence in the media and the cultural community cannot influence anything and are forced to flee Russia. the question arises, is the United States fighting with Russia or with its influence on Russia?😁
Tatemae and Honne? You can think of infinitely beautiful names for this, even “Amaterasu’s Lush Breasts” and “Amaterasu’s Elastic Ass”, but in modern society this is called the policy of double standards. The Japanese have interesting cultural features, such as street vending machines with dirty schoolgirl underpants, but hypocrisy and duplicity were definitely not invented by them. japan, and especially japanese politics, have long been westernized. as for morality, in politics, morality is the whore that gives to the one who pays the most. what kind of morality can we talk about those who call the fascist regime, thoroughly saturated with Nazism, with political purges, death squads and all the rest of the savagery that should have remained in the last century, called democracy and legally elected power? it’s not morality, it’s immorality.
regarding regime change, it should be noted that the United States was quite deft in using this tool in the first decade of this century. everything went smoothly with the Warsaw Pact countries. at first glance.😎 the first misfire was Georgia in 2008. they lost control over the nationalists, as a result – an attack on the bases of Russian peacekeepers and a response from Russia. more failures. failure in Turkey with very unpleasant consequences. “Assad go away” did not work. failure in Venezuela. a complete failure in Belarus and the loss of all agents of influence. in Ukraine, the same failure as in Georgia, for the same reasons. the Baltic countries and Poland are in the queue for denazification, where, it would seem, everything worked out. the system collapses. and at the same time, in South America, pro-American regimes are being replaced and the US call for everyone to get together and increase oil production is no longer a friendly chorus of “yes, master!”, but a cacophony from “we will think” to “go in the ass!”.
it looks like this collapse of the empire will be cooler than Rome and the USSR.
Please elaborate. What does this mean? Are there plans to overthrow Zelensky?
there is no direct evidence, so you can only rely on indirect data, such as the rhetoric of the Western media, personnel changes, statements by Ukrainian politicians, etc.
what do we have?
Of the personnel reshuffles, Zelensky replaced almost the entire leadership of Ukraine’s intelligence. even his childhood friend, whom he himself appointed to lead intelligence.
information regularly appears about Zelensky’s tense relations with the commander of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Zaluzhny, but there is no practical expression of this confrontation yet. It is possible that this information is not reliable.
Now a lot of money is being laundered in Ukraine, and Zelensky clearly does not want to share these financial flows with his entourage. such a position may well lead Zelensky to the same end as Ngo Dinh Diem, but again, these are only assumptions.
as for the rhetoric of the Western media, there are more specifics. in the last week alone, we have two significant events at once – a CBS film about the massive theft of weapons in Ukraine (thanks for the information about the CBS connection with the CIA. this detail adds importance to this event) and the report of Amnesty International (an organization under the auspices of Soros) on the use of civilian infrastructure by the Ukrainian military and the use of civilians as human shields. in the second case, Amnesty’s reaction to Ukraine’s claims is still interesting. The amnesties stated that they are very sorry about the pain inflicted on Kyiv, but they will not correct the report and are going to continue to reveal Ukraine’s violation of the rules of war. these publications suggest that some Western stakeholders are preparing, if not directly involved in replacing Zelensky, then at least to distance themselves from him when things get really bad. The appearance of such materials in the public field also indicates that the public is preparing for the fact that “Ukraine is not so good”, and perhaps even that “the Russians were right when they said that Ukraine was captured by the Nazis”, that is, a 180 turn.
As for Russia, everything is simple and clear. back on February 24, it was stated that the purpose of the special operation is the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine. denazification implies regime change. In addition, last month Lavrov officially stated that “Russia will help the people of Ukraine get rid of the cannibalistic regime.” I don’t know how to express this idea more directly.
Was Zelensky overthrown? if his entourage does not kill him, then the Russians will get to him. I don’t know what would be worse for him.
PS
about your avatar… do you have any idea why Assange tried to hide in Britain? Snowden went to Russia and everything is fine with him.
Of Course anyone that “distresses” Ukraine, or, more importantly, the Ukraine shills in US media and government “must” be “biased” and “a tool of Russia”. Because Ukraine is a Golden Land of Happy Smiling People who only want to practice democracy.
Just…don’t look too closely behind the curtain, like Amnesty did.
In the same vein, CBS News, hardly a bastion of skeptical or original reporting, had the audacity to report that only about 30% of foreign aid is actually reaching the front in Ukraine; of course, after Ukraine expressed their “outrage” CBS was quick to retract….because, “Ukraine”.
If you go back to Bernstein’s investigative work of the 70’s, you’ll notice that CBS was tops with the CIA. I doubt much has changed even though the narrative is that is has:
After leaving The Washington Post in 1977, Carl Bernstein spent six months looking at the relationship of the CIA and the press during the Cold War years. His 25,000-word cover story, published in Rolling Stone on October 20, 1977, is reprinted below.
THE CIA AND THE MEDIA
https://www.carlbernstein.com/the-cia-and-the-media-rolling-stone-10-20-1977
How dare Amnesty go off message and tell the truth about what is going on in Ukraine backed by the US / UK .
The US has contaminated the credibility of almost every international institution like the UN, Amnesty International, and NGOs and others. The moles from CIA and other intelligence services seem to be everywhere the same as the British MI6.
Plus one for Amnesty International, for speaking truth to power. F you and your corrupt war.
Minus one for AI, for this grotesquely late and woefully inadequate CYA effort at what is still false both-siderism, at best.
And minus another one for their clearly bogus, false honor claiming, posturing as “speaking truth to power.”
F the corrupt war. F the PTB. And f “Amnesty International.”
I like this take. But, don’t forget, as a non profit organization, it doesn’t behove them to bite the hand that feeds them. Nobody wants to hear about Ukrainian corruption as we send them billions. It might cost the fools that look down upon us from their yachts to have less money they can’t spend in 10 lifetimes to count.
The propaganda in the MSM is the report is wrong. The BS gets deeper and deeper every day the war is being exposed for what it really is, but Americans are still asleep with their noses in their I Phones and Androids. Wake up time is coming sooner than we think, isn’t it?
The propaganda effort and the lies behind the Ukrainian cause are such that I have never seen before. Even after 9-11, there was more nuance and more dissent “allowed” by the MSM, the government, and the prevailing opinion generally than there is with respect to the garbage pail regime in Kiev.
Even on these pages, we have simpletons and/or bad faith trolls who seek to derail threads such as this which document slight deviations in the completely dishonest, recieved narrative, and that allow the truth to at least peak out a little bit. Even that is begrudged by everyone from Biden and Zelensky on down to the most trivial, full of it, nickel and dime stooge/troll on this little dissenting corner of the internet.
Washingis knee deep in lies about this war, it’s origins and those involved. It was avoidable and Biden/Bliken pushed to kill all peace deals in the months preceding the SMO.
Now it is going badly and the lies are slowly being revealed.
It is astonishing to watch the level of disinformation and censorship being employed to perpetuate these lies.
“Regret the pain caused”?! For telling the truth?
As a longtime member, I’m a bit miffed at AI for their mainly Ukrainazia good, Russia bad stance. Where in the hell were you guys when the former were shelling the Donbas separatists? Or don’t they count, being pro-Russian?
AI needs to rescind their “apology”.
The entire faked story of MH17 emanated from the Ukrainian Intelligence Service, of course in cooperation with the CIA and M16 funded Bellingcat. We don’t hear much lately of the “prosecution” in the Netherlands which started two years ago and seem to have come to a dead end, obviously because of lack of credible evidence.