The downing of MH17

Germany, regarded as the powerful economic pivot upon which the Euro zone of the EU rotates, has finally exposed itself as purely "self-interested" when it comes to Putin, Russia, and Ukraine. Angela Merkel, a child of East Germany who was awarded prizes for her proficiency in Russian, and who is now the Chancellor of a unified Germany, is the ace that Putin has up his sleeve. She represents, more than anything else, a continuation of the Ostpolitik started by Willy Brandt in the 1970's.

As Sumi Somaskanda so perceptively wrote on May 26, 2014 in the Washington Times,

"Chancellor Angela Merkel’s predecessors worked steadily to build trust with Moscow since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Those efforts, said Stefan Meister, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, stemmed from a sense of guilt for World War II and a sense of gratitude after German reunification. Now, 25 years later, both sides recognize the geopolitical importance of maintaining what they have built."

Here we see Willy Brandt with Willi Stoph  (Prime Minister of East Germany from 1964 to 1973) in 1970. And Today?

Here is Angela and her friend Putin, recently together in Brazil enjoying the 2014 World Cup football .

However, in light of the disastrous downing of Malaysian Flight MH17, how will the cosy relationship between Angela Merkel and Putin be affected? Just a few hours ago we learn that Putin's proxies in Eastern Ukraine, the so-called Pro-Russian rebels, are now desperately trying to remove or contaminate the evidence that this plane was shot down by a Russian Missile given to the pro-Russian terrorists in Eastern Ukraine.

The Putin propaganda machine has pulled out all the stops to blame the Ukrainians for what can only be described as an act of evil. Even the International and YouTube propaganda machine of Putin viz. RT, is actually claiming that this was an assassination attempt against Putin, orchestrated by the Ukrainians. And today, 27th July, Obama and the US are blamed for the downing of MH17!

"Russia reacted angrily on Saturday to additional sanctions imposed by the European Union over Moscow's role in the Ukraine crisis, saying they would hamper cooperation on security issues and undermine the fight against terrorism and organized crime.
Russia's Foreign Ministry also accused the United States, which has already imposed its own sanctions against Moscow, of contributing to the conflict in Ukraine through its support for the pro-Western government in Kiev."

 Apparently the Ukrainians thought this plane contained Putin on his way back from Brazil. To what depths will the propaganda machine of Putin sink to save him from the stench now emanating from the Kremlin?

Does Putin even care what the world thinks of him? Is it finally emerging that he has "lost the plot", as Merkel has suggested?

More importantly,  as Tom Nichols so eloquently points out,

"Now that a civilian airliner has been blown out of the sky by a Russian missile, however, there can be no further denial that Russia is actively pursuing a major proxy war against its neighbor in the center of Europe, and with a brutality that would make the now-departed marshals of the old Soviet high command smile with approval. This is no longer a war on Ukraine, but a war on the entire post-Cold War international order."

Even in light of this disastrous event, that has the fingerprints of Putin and the Kremlin all over it; Merkel simply continues to wring her hands in anguish, whilst assuring German businessmen that it is still "business as usual" with Putin and his kleptocratic FSB Mafia clan. So while the UN Security Council calls for a "full, thorough and independent international investigation [into the downing of MH17], Merkel rather weakly calls for a "ceasefire" whilst German businessmen continue to stride with their jackboots over the Ukrainian peoples to suck at the teats of the corrupt Russian economic cow!

And not only Merkel! Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany stated in an interview on 25th July that:

"We remain true to our course: cleverly calibrated and mutually agreed measures to raise the pressure and toward a willingness to have serious talks with Russia" But, unfortunately, this change of heart on the part of  Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is as weak as Angela Merkel wringing her hands at the criminal behaviour of Putin. As the Economist stated on 26th July,

"Germany for its part would be expected to contribute by restricting Russia’s access to high technology, especially in the energy sector.
That is more conceivable than it was; German opinion seems to be turning. “Nobody can blame Germany for not having taken efforts to talk,” says the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. “But Russia did not stick to the agreements to the necessary extent.” The day after the foreign ministers’ meeting Germany’s mass-circulation Bild, unimpressed, ran a headline mocking the EU for its Empoerend Untaetig—outrageous inactivity. But if this signals a new German toughness, it is a stance that will build up over months or years, not in weeks."

 It would seem that only David Cameron, out of the many EU leaders, is willing to publicly stand up to Vladimir Putin over this isuue.

(to be continued ...)

Putin and Ukraine

 It is always easy to start a story with, “It happened when” …. or “It was a sunny day” … or any of the myriad opening lines that authors are so fond of using. But how do you begin a story that is simply a part of your life. If you believe in coincidences you simply hang the beginning of your story on a coincidence. But that is cheating. There are really no coincidences in life. Life is not simply a series of random coincidences. If that were the case there would be no history, no choices, no free will, just a series of random coincidences. The invasion by Putin of Crimea, and its absorption into “mother” Russia, would merely be a random coincidence in space and time. But we all know that this is not the case. Putin, the central actor in this dangerous tragedy, did not wake up one morning and coincidentally decide to bring the world to the brink of World War III through his invasion of Crimea. He planned it and executed it. To understand it one has to try and understand the man. But who, exactly, is Vladimir Putin? If we are to believe Angela Merkel, Putin has somewhat lost the plot, so to speak. The word “mad” is now bandied about him. But can we say that Putin is mad? 

 

The lanes of history are littered with men who have behaved as Putin currently does over Crimea and the Ukraine. Nowadays there are many who are likening him to Hitler or Stalin. If we go further back in history the name of Napoleon springs to mind. Still further, during the heyday of the Roman Empire, the image of Nero looms large. 

But Putin is Putin, living today with his peculiar demons and not with those of others. 

Putin steals, but he is not a common or garden thief. Putin steals in public. It is universally known that he stole the ring of Robert Kraft in the full glare of public view! And then, to add insult to injury, alleged a lapse of memory 

“You know, I do not remember either Mr. Kraft or the ring," Putin said, as reported by AFP. What thief, in the history of thievery, consciously committed a public act of thievery and afterwards claimed a lapse of memory of even meeting the person from whom he stole? To allegedly prevent a diplomatic scene, Robert Kraft then publicly stated that, yes, he did give the ring to President Putin. But, the plot thickens. Later Putin, rather nonchalantly, offered Mr. Kraft another ring in recompense, also suddenly claiming that the stolen ring was originally given to him by Mr. Kraft. Amazing how Putin emerges from a total lapse of memory to total recall.

One of the hallmarks in the field of espionage is training in the ability of concealment. Indeed, the devious art of concealment can be said to be somewhat central to the persona of a spy. I might add that this art is also practised by politicians, amongst others. It is the pivot upon which the world of diplomacy rotates. That Putin is a rather poor practitioner of this art could be explained by the fact that during his years in the KGB he only attained the somewhat lowly rank of lieutenant colonel, подполковник. Thus, when he first became President of Russia and, a few days later, addressed a meeting of 800 of the FSB (formerly the KGB) top brass at the Dherzinsky Club, he smilingly and proudly pronounced, “The FSB wanted to return to power. I am pleased to announce that we have succeeded.!”

 He made public what, in the world of espionage, should have been concealed! No doubt many officers in the audience winced inwardly at this pronouncement. Is this the devious KGB mind of Putin that New York historian Nina Krushcheva, the grand-daughter of Nikita Khrushchev, so admiringly speaks of? Thus there was only a ripple of polite applause from the audience. And today? As reported in the Russian press, during a session of the board of the FSB security service in Moscow on April 7, 2014, Putin urged that,

“We [the FSB] must clearly differentiate between legal opposition activity, as is in every democratic country, and extremism, which is built on hatred, inciting national and international discord, and defying the law and the constitution [of Russia]”.

These words ring hollow in international ears when currently applied to Ukraine because his Russian groups of provocateurs that have currently infiltrated Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv are actively inciting national discord, hatred, and defying the law and the constitution of Ukraine in an attempt to dismember Ukraine before the impending presidential elections on May 25^th 2014. More than anything else, what those words underline is that Putin's real inner circle is nothing more nor less than a committee of the FSB, the Russian doll concealed within the Russian doll concealed within the Russian doll concealed within the Russian doll. 

Unlike George Bush, who saw a sort of kindred soul when looking into Putin's eyes; Colin Powell was correct when he remarked that when he sees Putin he sees KGB. Yet it is the tiny concealed Russian doll that Putin himself is unaware of that should give us real cause for concern. Was it not Disraeli who candidly stated that, “ … the world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes ...”. Putin should be under no illusions. He is basking in the shadow of Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow, 

seeking from it the comforting solace that his 'New Russia' illusion is real. But in whose shadow is Patriarch Kirill basking?

Meanwhile, as the tense situation in East Ukraine continues to escalate, history is blindingly repeating itself. On 16 April, 1922 the Treaty of Rapallo was signed at the Hotel Imperiale in the Italian town of Santa Margherita Ligure between Germany and Russia under which each renounced all territorial and financial claims against the other following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and World War 1. The two governments also agreed to normalise their diplomatic relations and to "co-operate in a spirit of mutual goodwill in meeting the economic needs of both countries". It is the ghost of this treaty that hovered over the deal struck between Putin and the German banks and businessmen in 1992. This deal involved the export of $100m worth of raw materials in exchange for food for the citizens of St Petersburg. The materials were exported, but the food never arrived, as Marine Salye, 

who was put in charge of a city council investigation into the deal, and who fastidiously kept the documents from that time, identified Putin's fingerprints all over it. This deal opened the floodgates for German businessmen to "co-operate in a spirit of mutual goodwill in meeting the economic needs of both countries". And to-day, twelve years later? 

Angela Merkel, the scientist Chancellor of Germany, is coldly and dispassionately upholding the ghost of the Treaty of Rapallo, wringing her hands in anguish while Putin tramples over the rights of the Ukrainian people. Is it any wonder that Gerhard Schroeder, the Chancellor of Germany when that export deal was struck in 1992, fondly embraced Putin at his recent 70^th birthday party bash?

But what about the other members of the EU? Cyprus is like a cat on a hot tin roof, not knowing what it will do if all that stolen Russian money wings its way out of her banks. Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, on the other hand, must be sighing with relief whilst carrying out the community service he was sentenced to for his fraudulent tax scams. 

The hot potato of Putin's imperial adventurism has fallen into the hands of Matteo Renzi, Italy's youngest ever Prime Minister. Italy, soon to become the rotating Head of the EU, has oodles of money invested in Russia, of which Putin is well aware. That is why Putin has said that he has “... high hopes that Italy will give a new impetus to the development of relations between Russia and the European Union”, as reported in Ria Novosti on the 17^th April 2014. Have events in Ukraine, since then, put something of a damper on Italian-Russian relations?

Can the young Matteo Renzi face up to the howling of Italian businessmen not to jeopardize their sucking at the teats of the corrupt Russian cow? 

Can the country that gave us the Italian Mafia stand up against one of its most ardent emulators, Putin's Russian (FSB) Mafia clan?

Click and choose English captions

Time is rather running out for Matteo Renzi.

If the political leaders in Germany and Italy have their businessmen to contend with, the British Prime minister, David Cameron, has to contend with the trembling 'stiff upper lip' in the boardrooms of the City of London. Unlike the gas and oil pipelines that connects Germany and Russia like an umbilical cord, 

an invisible 'money' pipeline links Moscow and the City of London. So much so that Putin can demand that all street signs in Knightsbridge be written in Cyrillic script. Bear in mind that David Cameron comes from a stockbroking family whilst his sidekick, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, comes from a banking family. So they are, so to speak, children of the City of London. The problem that thus confronts David Cameron is somewhat different from that which confronts Angela Merkel and Matteo Renzi. We are here talking about the precarious nature of the flow of digits through the ether, digits which represent the billions upon billions of dollars that have been blatantly stolen from the Russian and Ukrainian people and that, until recently, nestled safely in numerous financial institutions in the West.

 But completely staunching the flow of these digits will have a negative rippling effects on those financial institutions of the City of London who, like the Italians and the Germans, are sucking on the teats of the corrupt Russian cow. But, unlike Germany and Italy in particular, the City of London was not privy to that deal that Putin struck with Germany, in particular, when he suckered the people of St. Petersburg out of $100 million. 

However, British companies such as BP saw a most profitable opening as Russian oilfields began to shed the shackles of the old Soviet system and beckon, rather seductively, for them to join the new Russian-oil gold rush. And as these companies ran into the embrace of the budding Russian oil oligarchs and the vodka-soaked Yeltsin, then president of Russia, little did they know that the then KGB was smarting in the background, licking the wounds they were sustaining during this cataclysmic change that Yeltsin was ushering in. For the City of London the 'good times' beckoned. 'Greed is good', as Michael Douglas in the movie 'Wall Street' so aptly pronounced.

Unfortunately, down the road, the Russian cow reverted to type under Putin and turned back into a growling Russian bear, 

 

BP Suckered by Putin Clan

 as BP and the City of London have discovered to their dismay. And the current events in Crimea and in the East of Ukraine has caught many in the financial boardrooms of the City of London with their pants around their ankles. So, just like Angela Merkel, they too are wringing their hands in despair in the face of Putin's growling Russian bear. But, unlike Angela Merkel, the City of London can simply pull up its trousers by the braces of financial control that it exerts over the value of those Russian digits rushing through the 'money pipeline' to all those financial institutions that the City of London controls.

But, and here comes the rub, Angela Merkel will simply precipitate a rapid growth in German unemployment figures if she stems the flow of money between Germany and Russia, whereas what the City of London does to Russian moneyed digits could precipitate a financial meltdown in Russia. And you do not want to aggravate a growling Russian bear, bearing in mind that Putin displayed utter contempt for Russian lives when he blew up Russian flats in 1999 and blamed it on the Chechens. This 'false flag' tactic of his came to light on the 22^nd September, 1999, with the failed Ryazan bomb that was planted in a block of flats and that blatantly exposed the role of the FSB in planting this bomb in the first place

 Ironically, it was the late Boris Berezovsky who exposed those 1999 killings in Moscow flats as having the fingerprints of Putin and the FSB all over it. 

 

Thus Putin has shown by his actions against the Russian people in 1999, and now in Ukraine, that he can cock a snook at the West because the West does not want to precipitate a fighting war with the current Russian leader. So Putin surrounds Ukraine with a readied army and blatantly foments and stokes dangerous unrest, especially in Eastern Ukraine. After all, if he could cynically kill Russian men, women, and children to bolster his image, why not dismember Ukraine to do exactly the same, irrespective of the consequences? Is it not Patriarch Kirill who has recently and publicly placed upon Putin's shoulders the warm cloak of the saviour of Mother Russia? 

The question is," Who started this St. George Ribbon Campaign in 2010?"

If Patriarch Kirill could raise Putin's status to sainthood, as Pope Francis recently did with John Paul II, he would do so gladly, and with all the pomp and splendour at his command. And if, in the process, the Russian people are once again reduced to serfdom, then so be it. Was it not during the era of the Czars, when the vast majority of Russians were serfs, that the Russian Orthodox Church was at its zenith? Ironically, the utter failure of the Bolsheviks to excise the power of the Russian Orthodox Church from the heart of the Russian people has given Putin the perfect vehicle with which to emulate St. George, with the active help and support of Patriarch Kirill. 

One can only wonder at what is currently being disseminated amongst the people of Russia by the footsoldiers of the Russian Orthodox Church. The deafening silence of the Russian pulpits about the evil been done by Putin in Ukraine has, after all, its historical counterpart in Germany under Hitler. There is, truly, nothing new under the sun.

Let us now take a slight detour to examine the possible origin of some of the fears of Putin and the kleptocratic FSB clique, this den of thieves, that he has surrounded himself with.

When, in 2004, Yuschenko defeated Putin's candidate, Yanukovich, in the Ukrainian Presidential elections one could almost say that Putin was, somewhat, apopletic with rage. 

 But his rage was a controlled rage; a rage that only he understood. Those around him did, indeed, witness this rage, but could not quite fathom its meaning. Yet now, in June of 2014, as is always the case with hindsight, we have 20-20 vision. 

There is a strange question mark that hangs over the jailing of the braided Yulia Tymoshenko by Yanukovich. Why is this so? Yushenko was poisoned, but this rather backfired on Putin. In any event, Yushenko was weak, an 'intellectual' who became a banker and who tended to see events through a bankers spectacles. Yulia, on the other hand, was a child of the Soviet educational and, more importantly, cultural system. As a Ukrainian from her mother's side, she has the blood of Scythian women flowing through her veins. 

Now Scythian women are really not to be messed with.  As Hippocrates warned, “They [Sarmatian (or Scythian) women] have no right breasts…for while they are yet babies their mothers make red-hot a bronze instrument constructed for this very purpose and apply it to the right breast and cauterize it, so that its growth is arrested, and all its strength and bulk are diverted to the right shoulder and right arm.”

The whole Pussy Riot thing of those Russian girls highlights the difference between Ukrainian Scythian women as opposed to Rossiya i.e Russian, women.  Rus as opposed to Ros.

Personally I think that Putin, the Russian wife-beater, rather admired Yulia. In her he thought he saw a kindred spirit. 

(to be continued ...)