Anti-Russian rhetoric

[WaspInWales]

Is it me or has there been an escalation in the anti-Russian rhetoric from the US and their subordinates of late?

We've had accusations of war crimes in Aleppo, warnings for Russia plus investigators pinning the blame for the downing of MH17 directly at Russia.

I know these kinda claims and accusations tend to come and go and are expected to a degree, but it seems to be getting a little spicy.

It does, however, seem a bit rich that the US is accusing another nation of war crimes given their record for killing innocent people....

[morepork]

Ditto Clinton during this entire election campaign. Look for NATO to get very pushy in the near future.

[rowan]

America's designs on Syria have effectively been scuppered by the Russians. This has infuriated the world's major superpower, obviously, which is used to invading, destroying and occupying at its leisure.

[rowan]

Good article on that topic right here, in fact:

Imagine – with a little bit of empathy (not necessarily sympathy) how Washington would react if today Putin’s Russia was 12 times stronger militarily than the alliance-free US (NATO dissolved 25 years ago) and tried with his alliance of 27 other members to make Canada or Mexico the 29th member. Perhaps most people in the US and Europe would have some sympathy for the negative reaction of Washington. Rand remember, Trump wants to build a wall to Mexico…

The main reason, it is stated again and again, in the Western press, NATO and other political circles is: Ukraine and Crimea. The lie about Putin’s aggression on Ukraine is told so many times that it is becoming the truth. Just see these two recent articles by Newsweek as two of hundreds of articles.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/28/ ... rontation/

[kk67]

Good article about the politics but the guy is assuming it's about where people can park their nukes. Whereas it's clearly about the control of energy markets.
Is it just me viewing the past as a pastoral paradise or were US/Russian relations better with Reagan and Gorby ?.

Gorby,.......what a guy. Just the coolest politician ever.

[rowan]

Sure, but the Americans were lying their asses off the whole time, as we can now see.

[kk67]

Sure, but the Americans were lying their asses off the whole time, as we can now see.

Aye ,...the US won't be happy until everything belongs to them. They culturally seem to be in a tail spin of obsessive acquisition.
Not unlike a certain British Empire.

[rowan]

Sure, but the Americans were lying their asses off the whole time, as we can now see.

Aye ,...the US won't be happy until everything belongs to them. They culturally seem to be in a tail spin of obsessive acquisition.
Not unlike a certain British Empire.

Very much like the British Empire, of course. They basically inherited that empire, and when we look at some of the prominent members of the billionaires club running the show - Rothchilds, et all - it appears that more than a few of them have a foot on either side of the Atlantic. In other words, we could almost look at the American Empire as being a continuation of the British Empire, a monarchy metamorphosed into an international oligarchy, and not a separate entity at all.

[kk67]

For the real justification of conflict (sick), debt is now another level one step above the energy markets that governments are considering. China holds notes on the US and China is in trouble. Of course this problem just intensifies the lengths to which they are prepared to go to protect the energy markets which create the largest proportion of revenue.

It's actually all very simple....and totally market driven. But no one wants to say it.

[rowan]

Have you noticed all these videos doing the rounds on social media blaming Assad and Putin for the war on Syria. Amazing how these little kids apparently under siege from both ISIS and the big bad Russians and Syrian army managed to find time to get themselves filmed like this and then write in their colorful crayons in perfect English that it's all because of those evil monsters Assad and Putin who are just bombing civilians for fun.

[Sandydragon]

Of course the anti-Russian rhetoric wouldn't have anything to do with war crimes in Syria or Ukraine. An armed take over of the Crimea, followed by supporting an insurrection in Ukraine and then shooting down (the official report now blames Russia) a civilian airliner.

And as for propaganda, Russia provides more than enough of that through RT and its other state sponsored outlets.

[Digby]

Of course the anti-Russian rhetoric wouldn't have anything to do with war crimes in Syria or Ukraine. An armed take over of the Crimea, followed by supporting an insurrection in Ukraine and then shooting down (the official report now blames Russia) a civilian airliner.

And as for propaganda, Russia provides more than enough of that through RT and its other state sponsored outlets.

Then there's Chechnya, the various oliagarchs (who one week act with approaval, and the next can be stripped of 'their' companies and jailed), the rigged domestic elections, poisoning a journalist on UK soil, state sponsored hacking, state sponsored doping, the corruption, the odd claims on mineral wealth in the Arctic that rather have the look of not belonging to Russia, state sponsored homophobia and racism, needless attacks on civil liberties, their environmental policies,

All that said I wasn't delighted to hear mention of still further sanctions on the Russians over Syria. The sanctions already in place aren't making much if any difference to the current leadership, and even if the current leadership were forced out it's unlikely the next leaders would take a vastly different approach to how Russia thinks about the world.

[morepork]

They are both cunts and the civillians in the middle suffer. Rinse and repeat.

[rowan]

Of course the anti-Russian rhetoric wouldn't have anything to do with war crimes in Syria or Ukraine. An armed take over of the Crimea, followed by supporting an insurrection in Ukraine and then shooting down (the official report now blames Russia) a civilian airliner.

And as for propaganda, Russia provides more than enough of that through RT and its other state sponsored outlets.

Your anti-Russian hatred is evident yet again. None of the above actually occurred anywhere but in your own anti-Russian imagination.

[rowan]

Of course the anti-Russian rhetoric wouldn't have anything to do with war crimes in Syria or Ukraine. An armed take over of the Crimea, followed by supporting an insurrection in Ukraine and then shooting down (the official report now blames Russia) a civilian airliner.

And as for propaganda, Russia provides more than enough of that through RT and its other state sponsored outlets.

Then there's Chechnya, the various oliagarchs (who one week act with approaval, and the next can be stripped of 'their' companies and jailed), the rigged domestic elections, poisoning a journalist on UK soil, state sponsored hacking, state sponsored doping, the corruption, the odd claims on mineral wealth in the Arctic that rather have the look of not belonging to Russia, state sponsored homophobia and racism, needless attacks on civil liberties, their environmental policies,

All that said I wasn't delighted to hear mention of still further sanctions on the Russians over Syria. The sanctions already in place aren't making much if any difference to the current leadership, and even if the current leadership were forced out it's unlikely the next leaders would take a vastly different approach to how Russia thinks about the world.

Your comments also smack of anti-Russian prejudice and therefore cannot be taken seriously.

[Digby]

Of course the anti-Russian rhetoric wouldn't have anything to do with war crimes in Syria or Ukraine. An armed take over of the Crimea, followed by supporting an insurrection in Ukraine and then shooting down (the official report now blames Russia) a civilian airliner.

And as for propaganda, Russia provides more than enough of that through RT and its other state sponsored outlets.

Then there's Chechnya, the various oliagarchs (who one week act with approaval, and the next can be stripped of 'their' companies and jailed), the rigged domestic elections, poisoning a journalist on UK soil, state sponsored hacking, state sponsored doping, the corruption, the odd claims on mineral wealth in the Arctic that rather have the look of not belonging to Russia, state sponsored homophobia and racism, needless attacks on civil liberties, their environmental policies,

All that said I wasn't delighted to hear mention of still further sanctions on the Russians over Syria. The sanctions already in place aren't making much if any difference to the current leadership, and even if the current leadership were forced out it's unlikely the next leaders would take a vastly different approach to how Russia thinks about the world.

Your comments also smack of anti-Russian prejudice and therefore cannot be taken seriously.

I'd say more I dislike the ruling classes of Russia, then again typically I dislike the ruling classes in most places. And it might be it's just the lot of the ruling classes to be disliked as they struggle with an impossible job, but Russia does seem pointlessly aggressive and violent in so many instances.

There's an awful lot I like about Russia too, though I've not spent a lot of time there, and I've seen very little of the country.

[rowan]

No, that's just anti-Russian prejudice, I'm sorry. You have been brainwashed by Western propaganda, fed to you daily via education, media and the entertainment industry.

Russia is actually helping the Syrian regime try to clean up the mess NATO & Saudi, et all, created in Syria when they sent in their proxy terrorists to destabilize the country. Of course the terrorists are holed up among civilians now. That's what cowardly terrorists do. America weren't invited, they violated a truce and spend several hours bombing Syrian soldiers, thereby deliberately prolonging the conflict firstly by violating the truce and secondly by helping the terrorists to recapture lost ground. It doesn't get any more obvious than that.

In Crimea the majority of the population is ethnic Russian and voted by an overwhelming majority to return to Russia, rather than remain part of Ukraine where ethnic Russians are being slaughtered and burnt alive.

[rowan]

The day that Westerners cease blaming Russia for all the world's conflicts is the day they will have no choice but to acknowledge the ongoing imperialist designs of their own governments, the genocide, the torture, the rape and the trauma, the disenfranchisement, the theft of land and resources, the ultimate destruction of the liberties and democracy they claim to be safeguarding, and the odious by-products of terrorism and the refugee crisis. That's why Westerners feel the need to blame Russia.

[Donny osmond]

Of course the anti-Russian rhetoric wouldn't have anything to do with war crimes in Syria or Ukraine. An armed take over of the Crimea, followed by supporting an insurrection in Ukraine and then shooting down (the official report now blames Russia) a civilian airliner.

And as for propaganda, Russia provides more than enough of that through RT and its other state sponsored outlets.

Your anti-Russian hatred is evident yet again. None of the above actually occurred anywhere but in your own anti-Russian imagination.

This might be the single greatest reply in RR history.

[WaspInWales]

Of course the anti-Russian rhetoric wouldn't have anything to do with war crimes in Syria or Ukraine. An armed take over of the Crimea, followed by supporting an insurrection in Ukraine and then shooting down (the official report now blames Russia) a civilian airliner.

And as for propaganda, Russia provides more than enough of that through RT and its other state sponsored outlets.

Your anti-Russian hatred is evident yet again. None of the above actually occurred anywhere but in your own anti-Russian imagination.

This might be the single greatest reply in RR history.

Pfft...it wasn't that good ffs!

[rowan]

The anti-Russian variety of mental illness even has its own Wiki page:

Anti-Russian sentiment or Russophobia is a diverse spectrum of negative feelings, dislikes, fears, aversion, derision and/or prejudice of Russia, Russians and/or Russian culture.[1]

A wide variety of mass culture clichés about Russia and Russians exists. Many of these stereotypes were developed during the Cold War,[2][3] and were used as elements of political war against the Soviet Union. Some of these prejudices are still observed in the discussions of the relations with Russia.[4] Negative representation of Russia and Russians in modern popular culture is also often described as functional, as stereotypes about Russia may be used for framing reality, like creating an image of an enemy, or an excuse, or an explanation for compensatory reasons.[5][6][7][8] Decades after the end of the Cold War, Russians are still portrayed as "Hollywood's go-to villains".[9]

[

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Russian_sentiment

[OptimisticJock]

Of course the anti-Russian rhetoric wouldn't have anything to do with war crimes in Syria or Ukraine. An armed take over of the Crimea, followed by supporting an insurrection in Ukraine and then shooting down (the official report now blames Russia) a civilian airliner.

And as for propaganda, Russia provides more than enough of that through RT and its other state sponsored outlets.

Your anti-Russian hatred is evident yet again. None of the above actually occurred anywhere but in your own anti-Russian imagination.

I genuinely laughed at that. Thankfully the crew room is empty as it makes you look daft laughing at your phone.

[rowan]

Of course the anti-Russian rhetoric wouldn't have anything to do with war crimes in Syria or Ukraine. An armed take over of the Crimea, followed by supporting an insurrection in Ukraine and then shooting down (the official report now blames Russia) a civilian airliner.

And as for propaganda, Russia provides more than enough of that through RT and its other state sponsored outlets.

Your anti-Russian hatred is evident yet again. None of the above actually occurred anywhere but in your own anti-Russian imagination.

I genuinely laughed at that. Thankfully the crew room is empty as it makes you look daft laughing at your phone.

Don't worry. There is help available:


In some cases, prejudices can be removed with counseling, and the people who hold prejudices can be taught skills that allow them to overcome their discriminatory way of thinking. You may have heard of “sensitivity training,” which is often used in situations of outward racism or discrimination . . . Therapy sessions include activities for office workers and an open, comfortable atmosphere, which can be essential when approaching a taboo subject such as discrimination. Prejudice can also be treated one on one with a licensed therapist or counselor. The therapist will speak with the patient to try to work through feelings and fears. In some cases, prejudices are tied to other fears or conditions that need treatment and a therapist can provide this for their patients . . . Finding and discussing the problem with a licensed therapist is a great first step. Prejudice can be hard to discuss and even harder to treat in some situations, but with the right therapy and counseling, it’s a problem that can certainly be addressed.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/29/ ... nd-the-us/

[OptimisticJock]

Let us know how you get on.

[rowan]

Interesting read:

After Putin’s first few years it became obvious to Washington that the new leader had every intention of keeping Russia totally independent of the United States. Worse yet, from the White House point of view, even though he never weakened his support for capitalism, it became clear to American leaders that Putin planned to rebuild Russia into a world power, not a defeated junior state in Europe subject to Washington’s whims and NATO’s muscle. Not only that, but Moscow became a major critic of American unilateral global hegemony and its aggressive foreign/military policies. The second wave of anti-Russian/anti-Putin propaganda, building on the first, began reaching a peak several years after Putin took office, and certainly continues throughout the U.S. political system today:


http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/09/29/ ... nd-the-us/