{"id":120281,"date":"2024-03-27T18:21:52","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T18:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/?p=120281"},"modified":"2024-03-29T08:42:51","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T08:42:51","slug":"maria-says-free-julian-assange-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/2024\/03\/27\/maria-says-free-julian-assange-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria Zhakarova: FREE JULIAN ASSANGE!<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When, around six-thirty pm on March 27, I posted Maria Zhakarova’s tweeted response (below) to the Julian ruling, I knew her only through her media statements as Kremlin spokeswoman – she does not care for “spokesperson”<\/em> – at the Foreign Ministry. In that capacity her forceful but never strident lucidity is impressive. But shortly after posting this I watched her give an hour long interview in a Moscow hotel with American alt-media journalist Jackson Hinkle, host of The Dive political talk show who’d already caught my attention by refusing to condemn Hamas<\/strong><\/a>. <\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Undated, other than that it took place this month – evidently before the Crocus atrocity on the 23rd, which gets no mention – it’s a fascinating sixty minutes. Impossible not to warm to this passionate, cultured, highly intelligent woman as she explores with Hinkle some of the gravest issues facing humanity –\u00a0 by way of Georgian cuisine .. John Lennon .. violent crime in Paris and Manhattan .. Crimea under the Nazis and its resonance today after Victoria Nuland’s coup and the Banderite resurgence it unleashed .. Arnold Schwarzenegger .. the fairy tale look of Moscow in white and ease of getting a Russian tourist visa. Leavened throughout by her humour, and a directness bordering at times on flirtatious, it’s rich with glimpses into a Russian soul the West has cancelled. Do watch if you can<\/strong><\/a>. <\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

But back to Julian …<\/p>\n

The High Court ruling this week, while not quite the end of the road, continues the torture of a man who, on ground of the scale and wickedness of what he exposed, can without hyperbole be deemed the greatest journalist alive. <\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Some say ever.\u00a0For which he has paid a terrible price.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to March 26, that interim ruling, and Mrs Zhakorova’s response on X-Twitter<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today, the High Court of London issued an interim decision to postpone the extradition to the United States of the founder of the WikiLeaks portal, Australian investigative journalist Julian Assange. <\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s do the maths together. <\/span><\/p>\n

In November 2010, a Swedish court, at the insistence of the United States, issued an arrest warrant for Assange. Interpol immediately put him on the wanted list. This is the starting point, the conditional “zero”. <\/span><\/p>\n