How Russia Subverts The West

Posted: 8/28/2017

From The CIA To The KGB

Always keep in mind Vladimir Putin is a former KGB officer and former director of the successor organisation of the KGB, i.e. the FSB.

A systematic imbalance: Thanks to freedom of speech and democracy, we have learnt much more about the activities and operations of Western foreign intelligence services like the CIA or the British MI6 (now SIS), then we have learnt about the foreign intelligence services of closed dictatorships like former USSR or today’s Russia, China, or Iran.

Or has the West learnt more about its own foreign intelligence services because of deliberate operations of the intelligence services of those dictatorships to undermine the West?

Anyway, whatever covert operations or activities the CIA or other Western intelligence services were able to undertake, we can safely assume that the KGB or other intelligence services run by dictatorships are very comparable if not worse, because they do not have to fear much scrutiny by political parties or opponents.

The Extent Of Subversion In The West

Perpetrated By Dictatorial Foreign Intelligence Services

Is Probably Largely Underestimated

There are a number of reasons for this systematic underestimation:

1. Open societies allow foreign intelligence services to operate much easier and in many different ways
2. For instance, financial support by foreign intelligence services to groups or individuals to to foment public discord is often very difficult to uncover
3. Foreign intelligence services are much more ruthless when it comes to cover up (including murder, harm to family members) etc.
4. Defectors of these foreign intelligence services are fairly rare, or are eliminated, or they need so much protection that the public in the West will not learn about their disclosures for long times (decades)
5. The hands of Western counterintelligence services are for good reasons severely tied behind their backs when it comes to investigate, prevent, or uncover operations or activities by foreign intelligence services directed at political activists or activist groups. Not to mention that Western counterintelligence services are already quite busy to prevent espionage and potential sabotage operations

Two Recent Articles About Russia’s Involvement With U.S. Environmentalist Groups

For sake of brevity, I will not discuss these two articles here.

Lawmakers Cite Evidence Russia ‘Colludes’ With US Green Groups to Block Fracking

CIA Veteran Sees Russian Connection to 2 Groups Opposing Fracking, Pipelines

Will Syria Become Putin's Nemesis?

Posted: 11/3/2015 Updated: 12/10/2015, 12/1/2015

Update Of 12/10/2015

Here is another update article on the trucker strike in Russia.

Update Of 12/1/2015

Today, I read Has Putin Met His Match In Russia's Truck Drivers? We read: “Russia’s long-haul truck drivers have disrupted the country’s federal highways for more than two weeks to protest a new road tax (platon in Russian) collected (with a 20% commission) by the Putin-associated Rotenberg oligarchs. The protesters threatened a full blockade of Moscow today unless their demands for a radical restructuring of the government are met. Russia’s riot and traffic police have not been able to halt the convoys, and the Russian government has refused good-faith talks. Putin’s propaganda machine cannot brand three million ordinary citizens as traitors and CIA agents. ... Russia’s long-distance truck drivers use social media to thwart the Kremlin’s security countermeasures. Unless their demands are met–lifting of the platon, firing those responsible including the transport minister and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, and a half billion dollar fine for the Rotenbergs–the truck drivers intend to paralyze the traffic of the nation’s capital.”

I support the truck drivers of Russia protesting against Putin the Terrible!

Original Post (Plus Any Revisions)

After all the previous criminal and hegemonic acts and acts of war, Vladimir Putin the Terrible may have finally overreached with his intervention in Syria.

If it turns out to be true that e.g. the Russian civilian plane that crashed on 10/31/2015 over Egyptian Sinai peninsula killing all 224 passengers (mostly Russian tourists) over Egypt was a deliberate attack by e.g. Isis, I would bet that Russian public opinion may turn on Putin.

I am pretty sure, the former KGB officer remembers what was like the Vietnam War for the former USSR.

Putin's Massive Global Disinformation Campaign

Posted:

Trigger

Just read Putinformation  Russian propaganda in the age of postmodernism.

Here are some salient excerpts (emphasis added):

1. “The Russian propaganda machine is being credited with almost magical powers of penetration and persuasion. NATO’s military commander, General Philip Breedlove, has called it “the most amazing information warfare blitzkrieg we have ever seen.” David Remnick, editor of the New Yorker, who covered the last years of the Soviet Union for the Washington Post, calls RT “darkly, nastily brilliant, so much more sophisticated than Soviet propaganda.””
2. “Indeed, the global reach of Russian propaganda is impressive. RT, the flagship operation, broadcasts news and talk shows in five major languages with a potential audience of over 700 million people in 100 countries. It also garners a significant following on YouTube.”
3. “Then there is the shadow army of Kremlin-paid Internet “trolls” who closely monitor social media as well as major Western news sites, ready to pounce on critics of the Kremlin. The aim of the Kremlin’s messaging, as one expert put it, is “not to persuade (as in classic public diplomacy) or earn credibility but to sow confusion via conspiracy theories and proliferate falsehoods.””
4. “This effort is generously funded. This year the Kremlin bankrolled RT to the tune of $400 million, while the global news agency Rossiya Segodnya (Russia Today) received $170 million. For comparison, Voice of America’s budget this year is $212 million and that of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty $104 million—in a country whose GDP is nine times Russia’s.”

From Soviet Global Disinformation To Putin’s Global Disinformation

I have no doubts that the former KGB officer Vladimir Putin the Terrible is behind a lot of disinformation strategically and tactically disseminated through western media to sow discontent and discord.

There have been a number of reports that Russia is behind significant funding of some of the best known environmentalist groups in the West like Sierra Club or Greenpeace. Who has the most to gain e.g. when the Keystone XL Pipeline is not built?

Personally, I have noticed that some of the remarks posted in Internet forums or reader comments on Western media sites could have been written by Putin’s henchmen.

Appeasement Lausanne 2015

Posted: 3/30/15 Updated: 3/31/15

Trigger

Today, I say the following headline “U.S. and European officials are seeking Russian backing to reinstate Iran sanctions ....” on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

Deja Vu All Over

What has this desperate attempt by the Obama administration come to? A nuclear deal with Iran, a fanatical dictatorship ruling already over about three or four Middle Eastern countries, at any price? To involve Putin the Terrible is almost comical if it were not so serious.

Reminiscent of the failed appeasement policy by Chamberlain at Munich in 1938.

Reminiscent of the way to cozy negotiations between the terminally ill, socialist U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt and Stalin in Yalta over post war Europe.

Good, common sense political leadership in democratic Western countries has been rare!

A Conditio Sine Qua Non

Iran has been deceptive about its nuclear ambitions for about two decades. Would it not make sense to require Iran to sign a peace treaty with Israel first and to have Iran abandon any terrorist support before allowing Iran to continue its “peaceful” use of nuclear energy?

Putin The Terrible

Posted: 8/27/2014

I think, Vladimir Putin is a sort of 21th century reincarnation of the infamous czar Ivan the Terrible!

Russia’s Putin Pleas For Caution

An Op-Ed In The New York Times

On 9/11/2012 (a date that lives in infamy), Russia’s President Vladimir Putin saw it opportune to address the readers of this famous newspaper with an op-ed titled “A Plea for Caution From Russia/What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria”

Salient Excerpts & Comment

In bullet points (emphasis added):

1.       “Relations between us have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the cold war. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together.”
[I don’t think we were ever allies with Stalin. Or if it appeared that way, then FDR is to blame.]

2.       “The United Nations’ founders understood that decisions affecting war and peace should happen only by consensus, and with America’s consent the veto by Security Council permanent members was enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The profound wisdom of this has underpinned the stability of international relations for decades.”
[If Putin means by that that a third World War was prevented until today, he might be right. However, the period since 1945 was anything but peaceful. That the U.S. consented to this veto was probably a major mistake of historical proportions.]

3.       “The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries [China & Russia] and major political and religious leaders, including the pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syria’s borders. A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism.”
[Is this some kind of a threat? What does this man want? If he wants to keep the Russian naval base in Syria, there is probably a solution to this. Is this former KGB man even behind some of the global terrorism we experienced in the past 20 years or so?]

4.       “Syria is not witnessing a battle for democracy, but an armed conflict between government and opposition in a multireligious country. There are few champions of democracy in Syria. But there are more than enough Qaeda fighters and extremists of all stripes battling the government.”
[Orwellian speak! Is it not rather a conflict between a Stalinist, murderous dictator and the citizens of Syria, plus foreign militants? He knows better who is behind the extremists, other Arab countries or Iran. Did not the former Soviet Union help the Baath party to come to power in Syria or Iraq?]

5.       “We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today’s complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos.”
[A very pretentious man.]

6.       “But force has proved ineffective and pointless. Afghanistan is reeling, and no one can say what will happen after international forces withdraw. Libya is divided into tribes and clans. In Iraq the civil war continues, with dozens killed each day. In the United States, many draw an analogy between Iraq and Syria, and ask why their government would want to repeat recent mistakes.”
[Is it not also Putin’s fault that these outcomes as he describes them have happened? So why did Putin use force against Georgia or Chechnya? Had the U.S. (a weakness of President Bush Jr.) prevented Syria from being a porous border for militants who then killed U.S. soldiers in Iraq, perhaps the world would be a different place.]

7.       “No matter how targeted the strikes or how sophisticated the weapons, civilian casualties are inevitable, including the elderly and children, whom the strikes are meant to protect.”
[Putin is the right man to lecture the world about moral values!]

8.       “The United States, Russia and all members of the international community must take advantage of the Syrian government’s willingness to place its chemical arsenal under international control for subsequent destruction.”
[This is about as good as had the Allies of World War II convinced Hitler to close all the concentration camps. This a red herring or a delaying plot.]

9.       “And I would rather disagree with a case he [President Obama during his recent address to the nation.] made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.”
[This is from Putin’s epilogue. God did not only create us all equal, but also mandated that we oppose leaders like you and President Obama in the cause of humanity and individual freedom.]

Plea To The Russian People

Would you finally rid yourselves from pathetic leaders like this one! The world will be very thankful! I have faith in the Russian people to do much better than that.

President Obama Is An Embarrassment

History Will Be The Judge

For me, he is already the worst President since FDR, who presumably surpassed President Wilson and President Teddy Roosevelt. He is the greatest flip-flopper known to this generation.

President Obama To Assad In 2011: Step Aside

In mid August 2011 President Obama declared in a statement (emphasis added):

“The future of Syria must be determined by its people, but President Bashar al-Assad is standing in their way. His calls for dialogue and reform have rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing, and slaughtering his own people, …We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way. … For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside."

His then Secretary of State apparently echoed this as well.

Abyss Syria

The President of the USA, the leader of the free world, did not draw a red line or did he?

The President of the USA is unwilling or incapable of deciding by himself whether to use military force in response to the heinous crimes against humanity by a bloody dictator. Thanks to international conventions to which a majority of countries or significant of world powers agreed to following the horrible poisonous gas attacks during World War I, the use of chemical weapons was until recently very infrequent and its use has been widely condemned since WW I.

The President of the USA then seeks authorization from the U.S. Congress for the use of military force. This is an act of meekness or calculation with regard to the coming mid-term election.

Then, somebody proposes to disarm the Syrian dictator and murderer of his chemical weapons. How does the POTUS respond? He asks Congress to postpone the authorization to use force. Is this man nuts? I would have continued to seek the authorization nevertheless. To try to disarm a mass murderer of one of his weapons, who even denies he used this weapon, is pointless. This is a red herring or a delaying technique.

Highly unusual, the President of Russia responds with an op-ed in the New York Times. In Putin’s op-ed we read to our surprise that that Putin criticizes President Obama for his use of American exceptionalism in his recent address to the American nation. Putin, you are a little devil! J This is more than ironic! Did not President Obama make strenuously effort to deny any American exceptionalism?