The immediate cause of the MH17 disaster was a missile shot by pro-Russian forces who mistook it for one of the military aircraft they had been regularly shooting down. It is a terrible tragedy – and tragically not unique. There have been several such events in my lifetime, including the USS Vincennes incident and the Soviet downing of a Korean airliner.
The problem is that Vladimir Putin has revived the Soviet cult of perfectionism – the idea that the state simply cannot make a mistake. That Putin-backed forces could commit an error is therefore unthinkable, as that would imply that Putin made an error in backing and supplying them. Putin cannot make errors. We have therefore seen a stream of desperate propaganda stories emanating from the Russian media, such as the allegation that it was the government in Kiev attempting to shoot down Putin himself. These narratives are aimed at the domestic Russian nationalist audience, but are accepted by the small band of ardent Putin supporters in the West.
Many people in the West, myself included, have been shocked and alienated by the rampant and vicious immorality of Western foreign policy in what I might call the neo-con era, with the ascendancy of Bush and Blair marking a step change in the open use of military force to grab natural resources – a return to the Imperial heyday. The veneer of concern for democracy and human rights layered over Guantanamo, extraordinary rendition, the curtailment of long-cherished civil rights at home and the mass compound crimes of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, led to a visceral revulsion.
Putin’s successful opposition to western designs on Syria and Iran gave the impression, quite probably correctly, that a revived Russia was the only effective obstacle to western hegemony, China being passive. But unfortunately this led some who opposed Western neo-imperialism to join in the hero worship of Putin.
The mechanisms of this vary. In my view, the largest number are people who are not psychologically equipped to fight over-mighty power everywhere, which is a lonely path, and prefer the much easier option of joining the entourage of a big power, and convincing themselves that power is good. It is comforting to feel part of a powerful team. Some of course are paid by the Russians, and you see them turning up on Russia Today both as presenters and interviewees, but these are a small section. Some were supporters of the Soviet Union.
What is perhaps most extraordinary is that, the very things which these people criticise most about Western society, Russia and Putin do much worse. At the most fundamental level, the disparity of wealth between rich and poor in Russia is far, far worse than the still appalling level it has reached in the West.
The total Russian economy is 20% smaller than the total British economy. Yet Russia has almost three times as many billionaires as the UK, and the Russian billionaires’ combined wealth is over six times the combined wealth of British billionaires.
Go figure. Yet the delusional continue to contrive to believe that Russia is an alternative to global capitalism.
Russia is not only a much more unequal society than the West. It also much worse in the field of civil liberties and media freedom. Scores of real journalists have been killed, mostly unheard of internationally. The free media has vanished. In the West, the field of opinion reflected in the mainstream media has narrowed right down. In the UK, Andrew Gilligan was sacked for telling the truth about Iraqi WMD, while his source was murdered. But the West is moving in the direction of autocracy; Russia is already there. It in no sense represents an alternative, freer society than the West.
Nor is Russia any less imperialist. Putin is in fact an extremely aggressive nationalist imperialist, as his annexations of Abkhazia and Crimea have shown. Highly significant is the legislation just passed to award Russian nationality to ethnic Russians in former Soviet states. That is racially based legislation. It means for example that 40% of the population of Kazakhstan potentially become Russian citizens, with similar figures in the Baltic states. It is highly aggressive and designed to have destabilising potential.
One fact which has become undeniably clear in the Ukraine is that the pro-Russian insurgency in the East is commanded by members of the Russian military and security forces like Strelkov who are Russian, not Ukrainian citizens, and they are under tactical and strategic supervision from Russia. Again, the self-hating fantasist tendency in the West manage to convince themselves that what is happening in East Ukraine is massive destruction of civilian populations by NATO forces.
People who are that removed from reality cannot be helped.
Much more dangerous are those who do have a grip on reality, who understand exactly what is really happening, and who don’t care. That sums up the position of almost all western governments. The truth is that the financial interests of all those Russian billionaires are completely linked in with those of the super-rich of the West. To take only the UK as an example, these are the people Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson and Boris Johnson lunch and have holidays with. These are the people who employ Gerhard Schroeder and David Owen as lapdogs.
Nobody is more annoyed than Angela Merkel at the downing of MH17, not because she cares about those dead people, but because of the massive effort she has put into ensuring that, whatever Russia does in Ukraine, German economic interests will not be affected. Germany gets most of its electricity from Russian gas, and both Siemens and Mercedes, on a daily basis, have been lobbying Merkel to make sure that nothing is done that hurts German economic interests. Cameron has been receiving the same lobbying from his banker mates. In both these cases, the politicians are being talked to by the people who finance them.
The result is that there has been a strong diplomatic push, particularly by Germany, to divert the question of sanctions on to matters of process. The problem is not Russia trying to annex bits of Ukraine and funding, arming and staffing the destabilisation of a European state. The Germans are seeking to define the problem down to whether or not Russia cooperates in various stages of the air crash investigation.
Putin will continue his dangerous expansionist nationalism because it is a self-trapping path for a politician to take; but also he is encouraged that whatever he does, nobody makes any serious moves to stop him. The people on MH17 were killed because of the pusillanimity of Western politicians, financed and guided by the financial elite.
The pathetic “sanctions” adopted by the US and EU so far have been specifically designed to be completely toothless. They target middle and lower ranking individuals without major western links anyway. None of the top ten largest Russian billionaires has been touched.
Russia’s richest man – Alisher Usmanov – is extremely close to Putin and as chairman of Gazprominvestholdings has been directly involved for a decade in pressurising Ukraine, and was also Putin’s chosen instrument for closing down the free media. But you won’t see Usmanov on any sanctions list – he has 10% of Facebook, 29% of Arsenal FC, the most expensive mansion in Surrey and numerous other western connections, not to mention he is Gerhard Schroeder and David Owen’s direct boss.
Much has been said of the 1.2 billion dollars contract for two amphibious assault vessels Russia has ordered from France. Amphibious assault! Where?
But, actually much more interesting, 1.2 billion dollars incredibly happens to be the combined value of four of the World’s largest luxury yachts, which met together off Cap Ferrat and Antibes from 10 to 16 June this year. They are Dilbar, Madame Gu, Grand Bleu and Hermitage.
In Putin’s Russia, government, organised crime and secret services are absolutely integrated. All were well represented at the series of meetings that took place on those yachts, where deals were done on everything from metal prices to heroin – and Ukraine. If US drones had wanted to do some good in the world, there was their target, but they were too busy killing some 16 year old kid, and numerous bystanders, in Waziristan or Yemen for a dangerous interpretation of the Koran. None of the people at those meetings will appear on any sanctions list, though they are the men who rule Russia with Putin. They will all still be very welcome in boardrooms in London, Berlin and New York.
If Europe had followed from the start the excellent leadership offered by Radek Sikorski, the passengers on MH17 would not have died. I should like to think that the European Council will start to listen to Sikorski now. But I doubt it.
According to Wiki:
“According to Spiegel Online: “… [Sikorski] hopes that NATO and the EU will finally take off the kid gloves in their dealings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He wants to see the West stand up to Moscow and, if necessary, threaten the Russians militarily.”[30]”
I usually agree with Craig, but this Sikorksi guy appears to be sabre rattling. Threaten Russia militarily? Looks like a piece of idiocy straight of the neocon playbook. He was also part of a US think tank for 5 years, the American Enterprise Institute, which surprise surprise, promotes hard-right free market policies. I’m really not sure where Craig is coming from here, promoting Sikorski’s ‘excellent leadership’. Have I got the wrong guy? This clown looks like a standard-issue US stooge, the type that infests political leadership throughout Europe. I’m personally sick of these very odd people.
The rest of the article very interesting though. Most people, quite reasonably, see Russia as a mafia state, where the crooks are essentially running the show; less are willing to see the obvious corrorallary: that in a globalised capitalist world, the crooks are also hugely influential in the West. I mean actual crooks, not just dim PR knobs like Cameron, or bent politicos like … well all of them. No, an actual crook has ties to criminal gangs, and blood on their hands, he is the type who has private militias, a retinue of politicians on the payroll, and maybe even traffics in heroin and young women out of Uzbekistan. That kind of crook.
Gotta say though, whilst I think Craig’s explanation for the downed MH17 is plausible, I’m not wholly convinced yet. After all, if RT can disseminate propaganda, you can be sure as all hell Rupert Murdoch can – and will. Yesterday their was a public signing of a condolence book, all the Oz big-whigs were there. It just looked like cloying propaganda to me. It was vaguely disgusting, actually. If they want to sign the book in private with their families, fair enough. But a televised spectacle? That struck me as a case of using a tragedy for political purposes – and representative of what we are seeing everywhere from Western Governments. Hence my scepticism over the real causes of the crash. Naturally, I don’t know, I’m just a guy in a bedsit, but scepticism is generally a good play, I find.
“The prospect of Germany’s biggest bank going to the wall might snap her out of that foul mood.”
You’re assuming it’s not a bluff. They cannot afford a breech in NATO.
@Phil: Red Army Choir… (in happier times)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F832ZZNRV0
It’s not a bluff, it’s blackmail.
One of the wackiest theories I ever heard was that Angela Merkel is actually Adolf Hitler’s daughter. Problem is that now, whenever I see her, I can’t help seeing a vague resemblance.
Come on Craig why are you so sure in this instance? You don’t need to have any desire to defend Putin to ask the question are you sure Russia is responsible. Just lay out some evidence or at least some constructive analsyis as to why they are the more likely source. I no more take Russia Today at face value than I would the BBC and I haven’t had time to do more than scan the comments so far so perhaps others have laid out some more solid reasons but I’m interested in your take, as your posts and comments thus far are unusually lacking in detail to back up your position.
@ MJ
Lolz, as they say. I’d never heard that one. I just Googled Eva Braun and Merkel. Interesting …
Craig, on a point of fact:
You wrote: “Germany gets most of its electricity from Russian gas”.
Are you sure that is true? This was in the Telegraph today:
“Germany relies on Russia for 30pc of its gas, but the importance of this is often overstated. Most of its power comes from renewables, coal and, for the time being, nuclear reactors.”
If the Telegraph is right, gas accounts for a small proportion of German electricity generation, and only 30% of that small proportion is Russian gas.
O/T
Two British MPs and Liberty taking legal action against the British government over DRIP.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/james-welch/drip-tom-watson-david-davis_b_5609707.html?&ir=UK
@Fred: Excellent!
Putin did it ‘coz he’s bad and Russia’s horrid and anyone who questions the instant prepared narrative must have blind faith RT and be a loony!
Is that really it?
And there I was kidding myself that the way to find out what happened was to hold a proper independent investigation of the evidence.
MJ @11.07 Your right about the similarity. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2567570/Possibly-awkward-political-photograph-Unfortunate-image-Israeli-prime-minister-casting-Hitler-moustache-shadow-German-chancellor-goes-viral.html
“And there I was kidding myself that the way to find out what happened was to hold a proper independent investigation of the evidence.”
It’s not in vogue, sofia. Recently Dick Cheney and spawn were revisiting Iraq WMD’s and AQ’s presence in Iraq circa 2002.
They insist it’s all true, but at least Craig no longer insists neo-nazis in Ukraine is a myth.
Craig has taken a lot of incoming today. Why hasn’t he defended his position?
Yes Craig the recent words in the Kyiv Post did identify Sikorski classifying pro-Russian separatists as “terrorists”…
‘Dangerous’ is indeed a multiple key word in your latest piece Craig, not only for the fundamental NeoCon interpretation of the Koran, in it’s ‘war on Terrrror’ yet also according to ‘Spiegel Online’ in May this year, the Bullingdon club appetite of Sikorski for the West to military confront Putin’s Russia.
I myself use the word ‘dangerous’ in the treacherous war-mongering of Sikorski et al. without a doubt nourishing the inevitable nuclear moment of truth in a disordered and suffering planet earth.
Peacewisher
You do not defend the words you use. You seem to not read those written to you. You are immune to being called on embarrassing inconsistencies. You brush off mockery about confidently expressed factual nonsense with evasion. You say “I like Putin” whilst acknowledging he is a mass murderer.
Talking with you has been a frustrating experience. My mistake.
Follow the black box……
There are reports tonight that Ukraine rebels(headed by Alexander Borodai) hand over MH17 black boxes to a Malaysian delegation…
& also tonight, David Cameron tweets: “We’ve agreed Dutch request for air accident investigators at Farnborough to retrieve data from MH17 black boxes for international analysis.”
Watch this space……..
Haha peacewisher rope-a-doped Phil with the peace in his heart until the poor rightie dipshit was gonna pop a aneurysm from unrequited rage and hate.
Hi5 for PW
Phil’s home kickin his dog now KIYIYI
Now don’t anybody alleviate any suffering or the poor angry loser will drop dead
Bert; I’m not so sure that the BB’s will hold any surprises. Whether the missile was a SAM or an air-to-air, they were toasted before they knew what hit them. Even if the pilot had taken evasive action because it was visually sighted, they probably didn’t even tilt the plane 1 degree before it hit because such a large slow target with no agility.
PUTIN
Craig
I am greatly saddened and disappointed by your premature conclusion concerning Putin as it was clear to me ten minutes after the event that Osama bin Ladin must have been behind this despicable act (I really hate him for that). This sabotage of the peace process in the ME was clearly carried out to get a concession for fucking, sorry I actually meant fracking, in the Donbass region.
You may find surprising that BBC was supposed to broadcast a lengthy interview with me on this particular subject, but in their typically cowardly manner, they backed off at last minute. Has anyone on this blog got any leverage there so that the world will finally learn the truth?
& Craig, I’m a wee bit disappointed in the lack of substantiation behind your 1st sentence. Have you got any evidence for your bold statement, or is it the case of a wee nod from an insider at the FCO?
Please do tell !
The MH17 story is growing legs each day..
Tonight it was An image of what is believed to be a Buk surface-to-air missile battery near Torez last Thursday. Photograph kindly supplied by EMPR/Barcroft Media.
From some diggin on Barcroft, it appears the organisation was founded by Sam Barcroft in 2003 & they specialise in covering the amazing side of life.
more diggin required……..
Hey Phil, I just told a Mooslim “God is One” and we smiled and smiled
[Grrr grrr, Lub dup Lubdup Lubduplubduplubdup]
Namaste, my friend! (I am standing here with my head inclined to the side just so with kindness in my eyes)
[lubduplubdup-Ka-POP! BLEEDOUT BLEEDOUT CODE BLUE]
Holy shit, Bert. This is a major find. Good work.
“Major U.S. broadcast and cable news organizations all say the same thing: they don’t pay for news. But with tabloid stories—many derived from dubious and often cash-up-front sources—becoming ever more important audience drivers, those guidelines can become very hazy very quickly. And that’s where Barcroft Media comes in.
Growing out of the venerable pay-for-play world of the British media, Barcroft, which controversially brokered the story of the Texas man who lost his face to a power line is more than willing to go where the American media won’t.
“Sometimes we operate purely as a news agency and sometimes we might have [contractual] arrangements with people,” says Alex Morris, London editor at Barcroft, just a bit elliptically. “We straddle a few different lines.”
http://www.adweek.com/news/television/news-networks-pay-tabloid-gross-outs-131630
‘In Putin’s Russia, government, organised crime and secret services are absolutely integrated.’
OK but it’s exactly the same in the UK. The difference is that it’s hidden. Take for example VAT carousel fraud since the late 90s – the cases are linked to each other and to the intelligence services. The same with excise fraud which reached its peak just before the start of VAT carousel fraud. Then there’s drug importation and distribution.
I also believe the intelligence services ran the child abuse network generating millions of pounds and giving them leverage here and abroad on public figures they needed to manipulate.
Hey folks, get yer news right here. Barcroft Media is your one-stop, single-source news custom designed to your regional specifications.
Got a civil war? Step right up!
Have the reputation as a ruthless dictator? No problem.
There’s no photoshop ethics to bother with at Barcroft Media.
We’re all yours, for a price.
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=EMPR+Barcroft+media&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
“Haha peacewisher rope-a-doped Phil with the peace in his heart until the poor rightie dipshit was gonna pop a aneurysm from unrequited rage and hate. Hi5 for PW Phil’s home kickin his dog now KIYIYI Now don’t anybody alleviate any suffering or the poor angry loser will drop dead”
Ah good. The provincial middle class kids are here with their potty mouth text speak.
Jesus Christ Phil…..I’m talkin’ here. 🙂
“Straddling….” hmmm. a poor choice of words, wouldn’t one say?
David Kelly got murdered the same day Richard Dearlove of SIS was undergoing the serious indignity of giving evidence to a select committee.
OK so who chopped Berezovsky? Dead bodies can’t give evidence to inequests. He’s already whinged that the Brits and Russians seemed to be cooperating in said case, contrary to his expectations.
Berezovsky – friend of a number of British ‘royals’, by the way. Main HQ was round the back of St James’s Palace