alanjjohnstone
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AC, you earlier asked who were Putin’s supporters in government.
This BBC link will help
A commentary from Jonathan Cook
Russia-Ukraine: A different invasion, the West’s same ‘madman’ script
“How convenient for western leaders that every time another country defies the West’s projection of power, the western media can agree on one thing: that the foreign government in question is led by a madman, a psychopath or a megalomaniac.
At a drop of a hat, western leaders are absolved of guilt or even responsibility for the terrible events that unfold. The West remains virtuous, simply a victim of the world’s madmen. Nothing the West did was a provocation. Nothing they could have done would have averted the disaster.”Is it propaganda?
Anonymous reveal that they have details that the Russian intelligence agency, the FSB, warned Ukraine of an assassination plot against Zelenskyy.
Russian FSB leaked information alerted Ukraine to assassination plot against President @ZelenskyyUa. Now, we can expect an internal power struggle within the Kremlin to overthrow the Putin regime. In the meantime, let's continue with the attacks.
— Anonymous (@LatestAnonPress) March 3, 2022
Either a revelation that there exists dissent within the Russian higher echelons or disinformation to plant distrust among it.
Russian demonstrators have once again taken to the streets of St Petersburg to protest the invasion of Ukraine. As in previous days, they were met with heavy police presence – anti-riot officers violently dispersed protestors and arrested dozens.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60582327
Thousands of Russian scientists and science journalists have put their names to a statement of protest against the “unfair and senseless” invasion of Ukraine. The online statement by the news organisation TRV Science. The statement was signed by leading scientists, including about 25 members of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In Ukraine residents have also been in the streets protesting against the Russian presence
The refugee figure is up to a million now according to UN sources
From anecdotal evidence from the various media reports, the Russian military morale is at a low and disaffection is rife through its ranks.
They say some Russian troops are sabotaging their own vehicles.
If so, more power to them
We can only hope the words of the Internationale are heeded
On tyrants only we’ll make war
The soldiers too will take strike action
They’ll break ranks and fight no more
And if those cannibals keep trying
To sacrifice us to their pride
They soon shall hear the bullets flying
We’ll shoot the generals on our own side.Another view entirely – “anti-imperialism of idiots”
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/03/02/my-letter-kyiv-anti-imperialist-idiots-west
“I have written about the peace process and about civilian victims on both sides of the Donbas war. I tried to promote dialogue. But this has all gone up in smoke now. There will be no compromise. Putin can plan whatever he wants, but even if Russia seizes Kyiv and instals its occupational government, we will resist it. The struggle will last until Russia gets out of Ukraine and pays for all the victims and all the destruction.
Hence, my last words are addressed to the Russian people: hurry up and overthrow the Putin regime. It is in your interests as well as ours.”Another of Scott Ritter’s anaysis
“The pro-Ukraine crowd has put forth a narrative constructed around the self-supporting themes of irrationality on the part of a Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his post-Cold War fantasies of resurrecting the former Soviet Union.
This narrative ignores that, far from acting on a whim, the Russian president is working from a playbook that he initiated as far back as 2007, when he addressed the Munich Security Conference and warned the assembled leadership of Europe of the need for a new security framework to replace existing unitary system currently in place, built as it was around a trans-Atlantic alliance (NATO) led by the United States.
Moreover, far from seeking the reconstitution of the former Soviet Union, Putin is simply pursuing a post-Cold War system which protects the interests and security of the Russian people, including those who, through no fault of their own, found themselves residing outside the borders of Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union.”Craig Murray comments
“Initiating a war on this scale has no legal justification, and no moral justification either. Russian troops are in areas which have no wish to be ruled by Russia.
Those of us who opposed the illegal invasion of Iraq must also oppose the illegal invasion of Ukraine. Whether the Ukrainian government is obnoxious or not is as irrelevant now, as the obnoxiousness of Saddam Hussein was irrelevant then. I am as fed up now with being asked if I support Ukrainian Nazis as I was then with being asked if I supported Saddam Hussein.”“The more fundamental point is that Putin is no more a “good guy” than Western leaders. Russia is a massively kleptocratic state where the gap between the extremely wealthy and the exploited general populace is every bit as big as the gap in the West, and until recently was inarguably much bigger. The human rights situation in Russia is poor. In fact in both those respects, the West is moving increasingly to looking like Russia, which is a very bad thing.
Putin’s Russia is no kind of socialist model.
Putin’s image as the strong man of Eurasia is boosted out of all proportion by those on the right who benefit from portraying a powerful enemy: and by those on the left who yearn for a powerful friend. This is the universal boosting of Putin. But in real life he is a much smaller figure, controlling a waning power of very limited resources. He has just made his largest miscalculation.”Anti-war voices silenced
Labour backbenchers including John McDonnell and Diane Abbott have pulled out of attending a Stop the War rally in London.
As you say, ALB, praise and endorsement by the UN are selectively cited.
Likewise, the condemnation of Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch of the Russians who were just mere weeks ago unreliable sources regards apartheid Israel.
But once again with Ukraine we face the problem of being neither pro- or anti-invasion, the third-camp position. We are tarred as either apologists for Putin or imperialism and fascism.
Damned if we do and damned if we don’t
War-hawk John Bolton denies Trump was anti-Russian
John Bolton pushes back on Newsmax host: "[Trump] barely knew where Ukraine was…It's just not accurate to say that Trump's behavior somehow deterred the Russians" pic.twitter.com/ICRmmeJ8C3
— Jason S. Campbell (@JasonSCampbell) March 1, 2022
George Monbiot criticises the anti-war left
True anti-imperialism means opposing not only the west’s imperialism, essential as this is. It’s about opposing all imperialism, whether western, Russian, Chinese or other. It’s about opposing all aggressive wars, regardless of who wages them. It’s about resisting the temptation to believe that your enemy’s enemy must be your friend.
UK unions refuse to handle Russian cargo
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/02/pluto-tanker-oil-russia-uk-ban-loophole
Russian anti-war protests
Polish far-right attack non-white refugees
AC, Not so long ago, the US military command who feared that the rantings and ravings of Trump could bring about war contacted their counterparts in Russia and reassured them that if the order was given by Trump to launch a nuclear attack, the military would disobey their commander-in-chief.
Isn’t it possible within the Russian high command there are similarly reasoned and rational senior officers who would not comply?
Why the West will not intervene militarily or impose a no-fly-zone
