Friday 29th of November 2024
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the new happy stupid US world disorder…...

Moscow has outlined the conditions for ending its military operation in Ukraine, including guarantees of Kiev's non-bloc, non-nuclear status, plus recognition of Crimea as part of Russia and of the Donbass as independent states. On Thursday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Kiev of rolling back on agreed upon commitments at America's behest.

 

The entire “architecture of the world order” to come depends on the success of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, Director of Foreign Intelligence Sergei Naryshkin has said.

 

“The fierceness of the confrontation indicates clearly that were talking about much more than the fate of the regime in Kiev. In fact, the architecture of the entire world order is at stake. It’s rather difficult to predict its specific contours based on the current situation, but we can say with certainty that there will be no return to the old,” Naryshkin wrote in an article published in Russia’s National Defence Magazine.

 

Instead, the spy chief suggested, "the obsolete liberal universalism" of the present can and must "be replaced by a new world order - one that is just and sustainable."

Naryshkin expressed confidence that the Russian military operation in Ukraine would put an end to attempts to turn Ukraine “into a Russophobic puppet state” which builds its identity “on the basis of manic denial and demonization of everything that objectively links it to Russia.”

 

Naryshkin charged the United States with the use of “the most vile methods” to try to drag out the Russian military operation, up to including the deployment of militants in Ukraine to organize a terrorist underground. Washington, he is convinced, now has the central goal of prolonging the conflict as much as possible, to make it as costly as possible for both Moscow and Kiev.

 

“NATO, as US ‘strategists’ emphasize, should try to turn Ukraine into ‘a kind of Afghanistan’. To anyone with even the slightest familiarity with history and geography, the total inappropriateness and strategic failure of such an analogy is obvious,” the spy chief wrote. He added that such is only to be expected from Western leaders who confuse Ukrainian and Russian cities or suggest that entire Russian regions are actually part of Ukraine.

 

The Ukraine crisis serves as evidence that the United States today is an overextended global hegemon, Naryshkin suggested. “A rather interesting situation is emerging, somewhat reminiscent of the history of the late Soviet Union, in which the West, led by the United States, is trying to impose ideological guidelines on the world which it itself does not believe in and whose own actions constantly refute.”

 

According to the spy chief, the US desire to maintain its role of global hegemon is pushing the country toward dangerous military and political adventurism – something the leaders of countries around the world are following closely.

“All of them, including US allies, are not averse to testing the strength of the weakening hegemon by expanding the boundaries of what is possible in their own foreign and domestic policy,” Naryshkin suggested. As evidence, he pointed to the decision by the vast majority of Asian, African and even Latin American countries not to join the West’s anti-Russian sanctions.

Even allies which up to the present time had been loyal to the US have challenged Washington’s hegemony, Naryshkin wrote, pointing to by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s recent refusal to increase oil production at President Biden's behest, or Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s rebuttal to Western ambassadors demanding that Islamabad condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine by asking whether Pakistan was the West's "slaves."

 

"From the point of view of US politicians, the leaders of Turkey, India and the United Arab Emirates are behaving no less 'impudently'. At the same time, [US elites] bitterly admit that they can no longer afford to speak with partners 'in the spirit of the times of [George W.] Bush. Sic transit gloria mundi - thus passes the glory of the world," Naryshkin wrote.

 

Ultimately, Naryshkin suggested that "a fundamentally new stage in European and world history is unfolding before our eyes. Its essence lies in the collapse of the unipolar world and a system of international relations based on the right of the strongest, that is, the United States, to destroy other states to prevent even the slightest possibility of their transformation into alternative centers of power. These goals were pursued in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. This was also the goal of Western efforts to draw Ukraine into its sphere of influence. Today, Russia is openly challenging this system by creating a truly multipolar world that has never existed before and from which everyone, even our current adversaries, will benefit in the future."

 

The Russian spy chief went on to express his conviction that Western elites are using the Ukraine crisis to implement long-standing plans to clamp down on their own middle class. 

"Now, thanks to the 'crusade' against Russia announced by the US and its satellites, citizens of the US and the EU countries are facing an unprecedented rise in the price of fuel, electricity and food. Residents of Europe are already being prepared for the prospect of the introduction of rationing cards and the shutdowns of [heating sources], which, it turns out, can easily be compensated 'by wearing sweaters'. And all of this under the pretext of helping the Ukrainian people, even though Ukrainians themselves are neither hot nor cold from these measures," Naryshkin wrote.

 

"One gets the impression that Western elites are simply using the situation that has developed to implement long-cherished plans for the de facto liquidation of the middle class in the spirit of the well-known scenario proposed by the World Economic Forum in Davos: that by 2030, 'you will own nothing and you'll be happy'," he added.

 

READ MORE:

https://sputniknews.com/20220407/fate-of-new-world-order-depends-on-success-of-russias-ukraine-operation-foreign-intel-chief-says-1094568061.html

 

 

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non-independent independent...

KIEV, UKRAINE – As the Russian attack on Ukraine has come to dominate global news feeds, so has a previously little-known outlet called The Kyiv Independent. Since its inception in November of last year, the Independent’s profile has risen rapidly and has been promoted and endorsed by both social media giants and the corporate press.

The Kyiv Independent has become the toast of the town. It seems virtually impossible to turn on cable news without seeing its reporters on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, or other networks. Its staff has been given the opportunity to write multiple op-eds in the pages of The New York Times and The Washington Post, something considered the ultimate seal of approval by many journalists. NPR listeners might also have heard interviews with reporters from the Independent.

But, while almost universally presented as a collective of unbiased journalists producing credible content, the Independent’s history, funding sources, and the proximity of many of its key staff to Western governments suggest that the news organization is not nearly as independent as its name implies.

Since November, the outlet has amassed over two million Twitter followers, up from around just 20,000 one week before the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. Twitter also constantly promotes its content on its homepage, encouraging hundreds of millions of people to read and follow them.

The Independent has also managed to raise more than $3.2 million from two separate crowdfunding campaigns on GoFundMe and rakes in more than $72,000 per month from supporters on Patreon. This is partially down to ringing endorsements from the likes of The Washington Post, CBS News and PBS, who endorsed their funding drives as the perfect way to do something to help Ukrainians.

“Journalists with The Kyiv Independent have done tremendous work covering the war, offering the world constant updates as they fear for themselves, their families, and their homes,” the Post wrote. Meanwhile, the Times has regularly signal-boosted its coverage as well, recommending it to readers as a way to “avoid drowning in an ocean of information.”  Another article instructing teachers on how to discuss the war states that “Ukrainian sources like The Kyiv Independent” are a “good starting point” as “reliable news sources.”

In short, there has been nothing short of a ringing, wall-to-wall endorsement of the startup news organization. However, few, if any, of these reports and appearances hint at how close The Kyiv Independent and many of its staff members are to Western governmental power.

 

A newborn raised on the milk of regime change

The Kyiv Independent was born in November when dozens of staff members from The Kyiv Post clashed with ownership on that paper’s political coverage. New Post owner Adnan Kivan reportedly wished his employees to be more deferential to the administration of President Volodymyr Zelensky, leading to an acrimonious split whereby dozens of Post employees were fired and began their own outlet. While some have pointed to this as an example of the Independent’s credibility and unwillingness to be controlled, others are not so sure.

Commenting on the split, journalist Mark Ames remarked that, “​​Ukraine’s western-backed civil society (along with the hardline Ukrainian diaspora) loathed Zelensky right up to the invasion, suspecting him of being insufficiently nationalist.” Ames’ Moscow-based newspaper, The eXile, was closed down by Vladimir Putin in 2008. His analysis seems to have been proven correct by the Independent’s editor-in-chief, Olga Rudenko, who wrote in the pages of The New York Times that, “Mr. Zelensky, the showman and performer, has been unmasked by reality. And it has revealed him to be dispiritingly mediocre.”

The 30 Kyiv Post staff members were immediately able to fund their new venture, thanks to more than CA$200,000 in cash from the Canadian government, which made the donation through the European Endowment for Democracy. Outside of Russia, Canada has the largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world and has taken an active role in trying to shape the country’s political trajectory.

Established in 2013 and directly modeled after the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the European Endowment for Democracy is an EU organization that functions in much the same way as the NED does. Although it couches its actions in the language of “democracy promotion,” it exists to hand out large sums of money, support, and training to political groups, journalists, and NGOs in enemy countries with the goal of promoting EU interests, including the overthrow of hostile governments. It does not “promote democracy” inside the EU; its operations are limited to Eastern Europe and the Middle East-North Africa region. In recent years, it has backed anti-government movements in Belarus, Russia, Syria, and Lebanon.

None of this information, including any connection to Canada or the European Endowment for Democracy, is on The Kyiv Independent’s website. Indeed, the outlet presents itself as totally independent and supported by readers. In its “About” section, it proclaims that “The Kyiv Independent won’t be dependent on a rich owner or an oligarch. The publication will depend on fundraising from readers and donors and later on, commercial activities.” It does not expand on who these donors are. However, its staff presents its funding as above board: “We’re not taking dirty money,” said one reporter. MintPress asked both The Kyiv Independent and the Canadian Embassy in Ukraine for comment about their funding arrangement but has not received a response.

 

Troubling CVs

The troubling connections undermining The Kyiv Independent’s credibility do not end there, however. For example, its contributing editor, Liliane Bivings, used to work and write for the NATO think tank The Atlantic Council, specifically covering Ukraine. Producer ​​Elina-Alem Kent worked for the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv in 2017; not exactly the background one would associate with grassroots, independent media. Chief financial officer Jakub Parusinski was previously employed by the International Center for Policy Studies, a Ukraine-focused think tank sponsored by numerous Western governments. In 2020, culture reporter Artur Korniienko was awarded a fellowship to work for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, an organization that The New York Times once described as a “worldwide propaganda network built by the CIA.” Meanwhile, contributor to The Kyiv Independent Lucy Minicozzi-Wheeland previously worked for the Council on Foreign Relations, was given a scholarship by the State Department to study Ukraine, and also worked at the Ukraine Crisis Media Center, an organization directly funded by the U.S. government.

The unquestioned star of The Kyiv Independent, however, is defense reporter Illia Ponomarenko, who, in a short time, has built up a following of over 1.1 million people on Twitter. From the front lines, his tweets and videos go viral daily and provide the basis for much of the Western media’s reporting on the conflict. Yet Ponomarenko is far from a neutral actor, and spends an inordinate amount of his time embedded with the Azov Battalion, the Neo-Nazi group whom he describes as his “good friend[s]” and his “brothers in arms.”

The Azov Battalion is a Neo-Nazi paramilitary group that has been formally incorporated into the Ukrainian armed forces. Their units wear the mark of the wolfsangel on their sleeves, the symbol that the notorious Nazi 2nd SS Panzer Division – a unit infamous for overseeing the systematic extermination of Jews and Slavs in Eastern Europe – wore during the Second World War.

Azov’s first leader, parliamentarian Andriy Biletsky, said that his mission was to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade … against Semite-led Untermenschen,” the word Hitler used to describe Jews and other “subhumans,” including Ukrainians.

Ponomarenko has, on at least two separate occasions, declared himself to be “consecrated” by the Azov Battalion and has previously used language potentially hinting at his political leanings. For instance, in 2019, he tweeted that he was “absolutely devastated to learn that my good friend, Sn. Lt. Igor Prozapas, the former chief artillery officer with the Azov Battalion, has passed away. Valhalla today meets a dedicated gunman and true patriot. He was a Kyiv Postcontributor too.” Modern Nazis regularly appropriate Viking concepts such as the Valhalla afterlife for warriors killed in combat.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their contributors, neither The Kyiv Post nor The Kyiv Independent seems particularly interested in scrutinizing the Azov Battalion or the insurgent Neo-Nazi movement in Ukraine. Indeed, the latter calls Azov the “defenders of Mariupol”.

 

Independent journalism™: brought to you by the CIA

As noted previously, virtually all of The Kyiv Independent’s essential staff came from The Kyiv Post exodus. Yet the Post’s sources of income are, if possible, even more eyebrow-raising than the Independent’s, coming as they do from the CIA cutout organization National Endowment for Democracy.

At the time of the Russian invasion, the NED pulled from its website all records of its widespread project of funding a broad range of Ukrainian political parties, NGOs, media outlets, and civil-society groups. From the few, unofficial and incomplete archived records of NED grants that still exist, however, MintPress has ascertained that, through its affiliated foundations, The Kyiv Post has sought and received at least $459,000 in NED cash. A minimum of $394,000 went through the Media Development Foundation (MDF), a fundraising vehicle The Post launched in 2013 and one of its primary sources of income, according to former Editor-in-Chief Brian Bonner.

A further $65,000 went to another Post project, the Free Press Foundation (FPF), including one $35,000 grant to “support the editorial team of a leading independent newspaper to produce investigative reporting on corruption and violations of media freedoms.” That this “leading independent newspaper” was The Kyiv Post is barely in question, given that the FPF’s founder and executive director was the Post’s commercial director, and therefore responsible for fundraising. Furthermore, The Kyiv Post shares the same address as the FPF, whose website makes it clear that the two organizations are essentially one and the same.

A second, $30,000, NED project, the FPF boasts, paid for over 100 Kyiv Post articles, podcasts, and videos covering the 2019 elections, plus the establishment of a fact-checking team. In Ukraine, the U.S. Dollar evidently goes a very long way.

 

READ MORE:

https://www.mintpressnews.com/280167-2/280167/

 

 

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