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Saturday, February 04, 2012

Neo-con Russophobia and the murder of Alexander Litvinenko




Above you can watch me on Russia Today talking about how the 2006 murder of Alexander Litvinenko was used in the neo-con propaganda war against Russia, despite any evidence that the murder was ordered from the Kremlin. More on this story here.

We can of course expect more Russophobia now that Russia (and China) haven’t kowtowed to the The Empire at the UN.

15 comments:

Czarny Kot said...

The story which is linked to here sounds a bit dubious. The father seems to be saying either 'now I know he was working for the British so I don't care who did it' or 'some visitors came round and now I know that I should forget about it.'

Neither interpretation immmediately leads one to believe that the Kremlin must be innocent.

That is not to say that they are certainly guilty. I do not know who killed Litvinenko or why. Frankly, I don't care.

What I do care about is that dodgy Russian goons, whether pro or anti-Putin, whether oligarchs or mafiosos, were running round the capital of my country chucking Polonium all over the shop.

Irrational Russophobia is stupid (at least in the West, in some countries it is unhealthy but more understandable) but equally stupid is blind Russophilia.

Robin Carmody said...

Disliking *a country's ruling class* is not the same as disliking its people (don't you always say this re. Israel?), and should not be rendered some kind of mortal sin through the use of the term "phobia". Would you call someone who disliked post-1979 British government policy "Britophobic"? It is simplistic gesture politics, not serious debate.

Anonymous said...

"...the 2006 murder of Alexander Litvinenko was used in the neo-con propaganda war against Russia, despite any evidence that the murder was ordered from the Kremlin."

Neil, surely you meant to say: 'in spite of A LACK of any evidence'...etc?

William Dunkerley said...

The entire Litvinenko spy story was a media fabrication. My book, The Phony Litvinenko Murder thoroughly debunks what's been widely reported. It shows that Litvinenko was not a spy, he never worked for the KGB, and the claim that Vladimir Putin ordered the murder is not fact-based. It was merely an allegation made by an arch-enemy of Putin's. What's more, the London coroner hasn't ever concluded that Litvinenko was even murdered. See: http://www.omnicompress.com/plm

Neil Clark said...

Robin: The attacks go beyond the disliking the 'ruling elite'. Western Russophobia has the Russians as an 'inferior' people, less civilised than 'westerners', people who are rather brutish, who don't share our commitment and passionate belief in 'freedom'- people who go to rallies holding pictures of Stalin, or who still idolise Tsar Nicholas II. 'Backward' people who have a 'backward' religion. The same sort of attacks/prejudices as exist about the Serbs in the 1990s. Of course Russians/Serbs who support pro-western 'liberal' political movements are exempt.

William: Many thanks for that.

jack said...

Like everything regarding Russia it is their own fault for not tackling or challenging these issues every time something like this comes up which is always the same players behind the scenes, Soro's, the Oligarchs and British intelligence. They make zero effort.

They don’t provide an alternative to what the western narrative so what are people to think when a Putin critic is killed in Britain.

Neil Clark said...

Hi Jack: I don't think it's true to say that Russia does nothing about the propaganda war waged against it. RT was set up so that international viewers could have access to impartial reporting on Russia and Russian issues- (and international issues too), to balance the neocon propaganda that goes out in the west. We're seeing a new wave of Russophobia now that Russia (and China) had the temerity to say 'no' to Hillary the Hawk and her pals at the UN.

Ian said...

Czarny Kot has said everyting I wanted to say in response to this. Just wanted to say well done, yet again.

Glad to see Mr Clarke following his normal my enemy's enemy is my friend narrative.

Neil Clark said...

Ian: "Glad to see Mr Clarke following his normal my enemy's enemy is my friend narrative."

And glad to see you following your normal 'if Neil Clark takes a position I must oppose it" narrative.

Ian said...

Where have I said I opposed your view on this issue? I think you are being a bit naughty by suggesting I have.

What I am accusing you of is consistently predictable and lazy journalism.

When it comes to it, I agree with you on a fair few issues, why else would I bother reading and commenting on your pieces?

What I don't agree with is the way you present them, without properly interrogating the contradictions your narrative produces. Czarny Kot picked them up straight away on this piece.
I was surprised to see you not respond to them. But you find time to make a dig at a neo-con hawk.
I was surprised there wasn't a bit of score settling with another blogger/ journalist who has slighted you in the past.

That is why I accused you of taking a very predicable route, like you have on the majority of other issues I have read you comment upon in the last month: Havel, Belarus, Press TV, Syria.

Neil Clark said...

Ian: "When it comes to it, I agree with you on a fair few issues,"

I'd be genuinely interested to know what those issues are as we can clearly exclude Havel, Syria, Belarus, Press TV, Russia....!


"That is why I accused you of taking a very predicable route, like you have on the majority of other issues I have read you comment upon in the last month: Havel, Belarus, Press TV, Syria."

The predictable stuff on those four topics is what you get from neoliberal/neocon commentators.
ie Havel was a saint who cannot be criticised, Belarus is 'the last dictatorship in Europe' and we can't say anything good about it, Press TV 'Good riddance' and Syria 'All the violence is coming from the government'. If you're opposed to 'lazy journalism' why don't you have a pop at people who produce such 'predictable' fare?

Ian said...

Again you have either misrepressented or misunderstood what I have written.

I'm not elequent enough to express my issues with your articles. But it basically boils down to the fact that you take a contray view on most topics (fair enough) but you then don't bother to interrogate those contrary views.
Then if someone disagrees with you you call them a neo-con/ neo-liberal.

I think you are a better journalist than that. Your bit on Russia Today about Syria was very interesting and for once I thought there was a little nuance to it.
I rolled my eyes however when your first comment about it was some score settling about a peice on Belarus.

No, I didn't agree with your laying the blame of Czech econimic liberalisation at the feet of a man who had died the day before. (It was the timing along side the poor argument that first got me interested in you, perhaps over time that is not as important)

No, I don't agree that Belarus is a workers paridise and human rights issues could be dismissed because 'hey it is much worse in Burma'.

What I do think is that the life of Havel tells you an awful lot, and there were many flaws and contradictions, I don't think your piece adressed them in a thoughtful way.

Belarus, isn't some Soveit hell-hole. There are many benifits, but they come at a high price, and just because it is currently tacking in an anti-EU direction (having reversed and reversed again several times over the last 20 years) doesn't mean that authoritarian repression can just be brushed aside in a casual 'well he ain't Stalin'.

I enjoy reading your articles, I just wished you bothered to think through your anti-neo-con positions in the same way that you think through the mainstream view.

And I really wish you didn't just resort to name calling in your comments, it is not becoming.

Neil Clark said...

Hi Ian: thanks for that feedback- it's appreciated.

I don't think I have ever descrbed Belarus as a 'workers paradise', but having travelled and lived in central/ eastern europe, I'd certainly say it was more of a 'workers paradise' than Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, where conditions for ordinary working people are terrible at present.(I'm sure Czarny Kot who lives in Poland will confirm just how bad things are there for ordinary people). The lack of employment possibilities in Poland is the reason why so many Poles have come to Britain in recent years. Yet Poland gets a very favourable coverage in the west because its government has the 'right' ie pro-western foreign policy.

Re- the Havel piece, I did acknowledge his courage, pre-1989. Anyone who claims it was a 'hatchet piece' clearly hadn't read it, or else was trying to deliberately misrepresent what I said.

jack said...

@Czarny Kot

"What I do care about is that dodgy Russian goons, whether pro or anti-Putin, whether oligarchs or mafiosos, were running round the capital of my country chucking Polonium all over the shop."

Then you should be concerned what our government has been doing in and against Russia since the collapse of the USSR and these billionaire Oligarchal gangsters/terrorists like Berezovsky and his British/Israeli and US government and intelligence connections and what these people are doing.

And you would think of accusing a foreign country of murder you would have clear and open investigation and evidence or at least a coherent sequence of events before making an accusation or the media would scrutinise the story and its “Putin did it” narrative and source which initially came from Berezovsky websites in France instead of just acting as always as a government PR firm.

@Ian

With Belarus we have been trying to overthrow Luckachenko since he came to power in 94 and kicked out the IMF/World Bank advisors who tried to colonise Belarus just like Ukraine and Russia fellow states with large ethnic Russian populations and failed to collapse its economy and put it under the control of western Oligarchs and the mafia.

Since that time we have spent millions in trying to overthrow that government with skewed western media reports, illegal economic sanction and all the other typical things like financing political groups, youth movements, human rights groups, election polls, etc.

In re-arranging the post Soviet geopolitical landscape against Russia after the Cold war we use ex Soviet military personal even in Belarus who former members of the countries anti-terrorist unit work as gun traffickers and mercenaries in Chechnya.
There was a journalist that was killed in Belarus who exposed this.

jack said...

@Czarny Kot

"What I do care about is that dodgy Russian goons, whether pro or anti-Putin, whether oligarchs or mafiosos, were running round the capital of my country chucking Polonium all over the shop."

Then you should be concerned what our government has been doing in and against Russia since the collapse of the USSR and these billionaire Oligarchs like Berezovsky and his British/Israeli and US government and intelligence connections and what these people are doing.

And you would think of accusing a foreign country of murder you would have clear and open investigation and evidence or at least a coherent sequence of events before making an accusation or the media would scrutinise the story and its “Putin did it” narrative and source which initially came from Berezovsky websites in France instead of just acting as always as a government PR firm.

@Ian

With Belarus we have been trying to overthrow Luckachenko since he came to power in 94 and kicked out the IMF/World Bank advisors who tried to colonise Belarus just like Ukraine and Russia fellow states with large ethnic Russian populations and failed to collapse its economy and put it under the control of western Oligarchs and the mafia.

Since that time we have spent millions in trying to overthrow that government with skewed western media reports, illegal economic sanction and all the other typical things like financing political groups, youth movements, human rights groups, election polls, etc.

In re-arranging the post Soviet geopolitical landscape against Russia after the Cold war we use ex Soviet military personal even in Belarus who former members of the countries anti-terrorist unit work as gun traffickers and mercenaries in Chechnya.
There was a journalist that was killed in Belarus who exposed this.