Compared to you we’re squeaky clean!

19 Dec

See also, Our Beautifully Democratic Wars.

Jonny Tickle, writing in RT two days ago.

‘Compared to you, we are squeaky clean’: Putin blames West for betraying promises to Moscow and launching ‘new Cold War’

In particular, Putin chided the US for pulling out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces and Open Skies treaties, which Russia is still a part of, and reeled off the names of the five countries that spend more money on their military than Moscow.

The president also noted how the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is soon to expire, due to Washington’s lack of willingness to agree to prolong it, and called the US “aggressive” for its vast numbers of military bases around the world.

“Who is the peaceful one here?” he asked rhetorically.

The comments came in response to a question from Steve Rosenberg, a correspondent from British state broadcaster the BBC, who had asked the president whether Russia was “squeaky clean,” or deserved to shoulder some responsibility for helping to ignite a new “new Cold War.” In particular, the journalist mentioned the 2018 Skripal poisoning in Salisbury.1 Putin cited NATO having broken its promise not to expand eastward as an example of what Moscow perceives as dishonest dealing by Western states.

“I believe I am personally responsible for the wellbeing of the Russian people, and I will do anything and everything in my power to protect their interests,” he said. “For example, look at what happened in Crimea. I did what I did because the Russian people decided it through democratic means.”

Putin went on to ask why Western countries had imposed sanctions on the citizens of Crimea after the “annexation,” asking how the residents themselves were responsible.

“Compared to you, yes, we are squeaky clean,” Putin remarked. “We agreed to free those countries and peoples who wanted to develop independently from Soviet dictatorship. We have heard your assurances that NATO will not expand eastward. But you didn’t keep your promises. You are smart people. Why do you think we are idiots?”

Rosenberg’s question also included a point about the investigation into the alleged poisoning of Alexey Navalny,2 ending in an uncharacteristic back-and-forth between the president and a journalist.

“Speaking about the attempt on the life of the famous blogger … we are ready to investigate,” Putin said. “No information has been given to us … why, is it [not available]?”

“Are you asking me?” replied Rosenberg, visibly taken aback. “I’m a journalist. I’m asking you a question.”

“I’m sorry, I will continue to answer your question – it just seemed that the question I asked also requires answering.”

*

  1. On Salisbury and the Skripals, see this Paul Craig Roberts piece in Foreign Policy. Roberts, a Reagan appointee but one of many former establishment figures disgusted by Western policies, is a gamekeeper turned poacher. Others are former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, the late Russia guru Stephen Cohen (also a Reagan appointee), ex CIA officer Philip Giraldi, ex UK Ambassador to Syria Peter Ford and (see footnote 2) ex UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray. This list is far from exhaustive.
  2. See Craig Murray, replicated in my October post on a Navalny narrative dutifully aided by the abandonment of all critical reasoning by Western media; conservative or liberal, tabloid or ‘quality’. Gore Vidal’s question of the middle east applies equally to intelligence-insulting narratives on Russia and China. “They long for a war with Iran. Iran is no more a threat to us than was Iraq or Afghanistan. They tell lies, lies, lies. The New York Times goes along with their lies, lies, lies. When the public is lied to thirty times a day, it is apt to believe those lies, is it not?”

6 Replies to “Compared to you we’re squeaky clean!

  1. Just the usual western media crap, in other words. Putin must have the patience of a saint. But here’s something which will eventually take the wind out of their sails (sales?).

    I might have mentioned this previously (short term memory problem) but anyway, this is a succinct Media Lens overview of western media propagandising.

    • I read the Media Lens piece, Jams – I read all their output. It’s good to have the link here though. Thanks.

      As for the New Eastern Outlook piece, that too is a welcome corrective. We don’t need to be uncritical admirers of all things Beijing to welcome Eurasia’s growing confidence in challenging the terrifying – ‘full spectrum dominance’ – unipolarity Washington/Wall Street insists on. The truth, that the USA is the most frighteningly reckless country on earth – not because Americans are ‘evil’ but because their ruling classes are (a) apex predators, (b) seeing a growing threat to dollar hegemony and (c) locked into war by the fact their military industrial complex is the biggest driver of the home economy – is still recognised by too few.

  2. “When the public is lied to thirty times a day, it is apt to believe those lies, is it not?”

    That certainly represents one particular outcome.

    However, its not the only outcome.

    There continues to exist, without a hint of irony or hubris, a great deal of gnashing and wailing of teeth from certain quarters of society – “the great and the good”/the gatekeepers/politicians/Corporate Media/Governments/Big Tech/Self Appointed Commentators (SAC’s) take your pick of whatever label suits – over the propensity of so many people to believe what such sources label as “Conspiracy Theories.”

    Such an occurrence should be of little surprise to anyone not walking around with their eyes shut. The daily bombardment of officially sanctioned lies, both circumstantial and direct, over decades from those very sources has produced an outcome in which the most rational and sane position to take is extreme cynicism towards any official line or statement.

    Little wonder that so many people prefer to create their own “truths.” A concept which has been polluted beyond recognition and saving by the very same people and their echo chamber courtiers who whinge, whine and rail against the resulting unofficial “Conspiracy Theories”* for which they are directly responsible. Whether by accident of design is another debate.

    * As compared to Official Conspiracy Theories – which, on the available evidence, are generally far more fanciful, as well a blatant, than the officially designated “unofficial” ones. In fact we seem to have reached a point where it is more rational to believe in Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy (not to mention the Soul Cake Duck and the Hogfather) than anything official.

    • As compared to Official Conspiracy Theories – which, on the available evidence, are generally far more fanciful, as well a blatant, than the officially designated “unofficial” ones.

      Another term for Official Conspiracy Theories is Coincidence Theories. Like the Skripals’ proximity to Porton Down, with the first person on the scene an army nurse. Like evidence-lite tales of Beijing and Moscow criminality (and deafening silence on the West’s ongoing crimes across the global south) coinciding with the ratcheting up of cold war on a Eurasia Washington needs for economic reasons to contain.

      And of Assad’s evil-for-evil’s sake urge to hit kids with poison gas just as UN Weapons Inspectors are due to visit and/or when the Syrian Army is gaining the upper hand over ‘moderate Islamist rebels’ who sure could use a little moral indignation – and all which that facilitates – in the West.

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