Odessa musicians protest against neoliberal imperialism. We see your tanks, Putin, and raise you a symphony!
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Fall of the Tricolor, Rise of the Trident
Baalbek went dark. Hero Col. Mamchur gave a final speech to his troops, and allowed the Russian invaders to seize the base without bloodshed. It takes the most supreme courage for a career soldier to put down the gun. But it was the right thing to do. Not a single person deserves to die for Putinism's sordid and verminous land grab. (At another base, one soldier did die: an ethnic Russian who was loyal to Ukraine was shot in the heart by one of Putinism's snipers. What a perfect metaphor for the despicable amorality, thuggery, and gangsterism of the whole operation.)
Farewell, Russian democracy. We will not see you again for a generation or more.
Farewell, Russian developmental state. The seeds sown by Medvedev's presidency, few as they were, will now wither quietly in the darkness.
The first Russian Empire lasted three hundred years.
The second, lightly Sovietized version of this empire lasted seventy years.
The current and final one -- Russia's energy-rent empire -- will have a far briefer lifespan.
Oh, the cruel paradoxes of 21st century dialectics.
Putinism, seemingly the big winner, is in reality a massive loser. It will learn all the wrong lessons from its reckless grab and seemingly easy victory, which will incur immense current and future financial, cultural, political and economic costs, and will compound its already severe economic troubles with even more idiotic and reckless gambles, which will cement Russia's subaltern geopolitical status for decades to come.
Ukraine, seemingly the big loser, wins. It wins because it has learned the power of dignity, of restraint, and most of all, of nonviolent civility. It will now flourish, having finally freed itself from its autocratic past. How ironic that the same lands once scourged by Slavic famine and tyranny are now the heartlands of Slavic renewal and democracy.
I said just a couple weeks ago that Digital Ukraine was going to surprise the world. They already have -- but there's so much more to come. They will do more than just surprise the world. They are going to change the world. And some day, nobody can know just when, that change will come to Russia, too.
Farewell, Russian democracy. We will not see you again for a generation or more.
Farewell, Russian developmental state. The seeds sown by Medvedev's presidency, few as they were, will now wither quietly in the darkness.
The first Russian Empire lasted three hundred years.
The second, lightly Sovietized version of this empire lasted seventy years.
The current and final one -- Russia's energy-rent empire -- will have a far briefer lifespan.
Oh, the cruel paradoxes of 21st century dialectics.
Putinism, seemingly the big winner, is in reality a massive loser. It will learn all the wrong lessons from its reckless grab and seemingly easy victory, which will incur immense current and future financial, cultural, political and economic costs, and will compound its already severe economic troubles with even more idiotic and reckless gambles, which will cement Russia's subaltern geopolitical status for decades to come.
Ukraine, seemingly the big loser, wins. It wins because it has learned the power of dignity, of restraint, and most of all, of nonviolent civility. It will now flourish, having finally freed itself from its autocratic past. How ironic that the same lands once scourged by Slavic famine and tyranny are now the heartlands of Slavic renewal and democracy.
I said just a couple weeks ago that Digital Ukraine was going to surprise the world. They already have -- but there's so much more to come. They will do more than just surprise the world. They are going to change the world. And some day, nobody can know just when, that change will come to Russia, too.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
The Days Have Become Hours
Doom. It's almost unavoidable. My rational brain understands the geopolitical, historical, social necessity of it all: when banksterism runs amok in the core, gangsterism will run amok in the periphery. Putinism's tanks will roll on March 21 and then darkness will fall on Eurasia for a generation.
I knew for a long, long time that this day would come. It all goes back to the moment in 2003 when the US oiligarchy invaded Iraq. A gangster faction of the US empire, drunk on illegitimate power, had completely torn up the rules of the post-1945 world-system, the checks and balances which kept the world somewhat stable. Just as euroliberalism's eurozone was an economic disaster waiting to happen, so too was the US oiligarchy's Terror War a disaster waiting to happen.
I didn't know how or when catastrophe would strike. I just knew Bad Things (TM, Pat Pending) were going to happen.
* * * * * *
More commentary tomorrow. And yes, that Brumaire essay is almost done. It's going to be a barnburner. I do hope that, at the very least, I get put on Putinism's "banned from entry" list.
But I want to say something else.
There's a special layer of hell for those self-proclaimed Leftists, progressives and other folks -- let's call them the Leftoids -- who claim to be critical of the Wall Street plutocrats and US empire -- but who fall over themselves to defend the thuggery of smaller imperialisms.
The list includes fans of Qaddafi's rule of terror, who constantly smear ordinary Libyans as wild savages and write long screeds glorifying the Jamahiriya's public services (which were universally appalling).
Then there are the fans of Assad's ghastly fascist state, who constantly smear ordinary Syrians as takfiri brutes and caricature all Arabs as primitive tribes.
And now the fans of Putinism's Anschluss, just the first of a flood of geopolitical disasters which the demise of neoliberalism is unleashing on this unhappy world. These people cannot be bothered to watch footage, read interviews, or listen to stories of Ukraine's peaceful protest movement of ordinary citizens against plutocratic thugs. Nor can they be bothered to read the copious accounts of Putinism (the joint rule of siloviki thugs and thieving plutocrats) trampling on Russia's constitutional right to free speech, free assembly, and free political participation.
Our plutocrat-owned mass media constantly proclaims the US empire to be good, and all other empires to be bad. Leftoids reverse this and proclaim all other empires good, and the US empire bad.
Bad does not have a national flag.
Bad is just bad.
And its unthinking defense is what authorizes the still worse to come.
I knew for a long, long time that this day would come. It all goes back to the moment in 2003 when the US oiligarchy invaded Iraq. A gangster faction of the US empire, drunk on illegitimate power, had completely torn up the rules of the post-1945 world-system, the checks and balances which kept the world somewhat stable. Just as euroliberalism's eurozone was an economic disaster waiting to happen, so too was the US oiligarchy's Terror War a disaster waiting to happen.
I didn't know how or when catastrophe would strike. I just knew Bad Things (TM, Pat Pending) were going to happen.
* * * * * *
More commentary tomorrow. And yes, that Brumaire essay is almost done. It's going to be a barnburner. I do hope that, at the very least, I get put on Putinism's "banned from entry" list.
But I want to say something else.
There's a special layer of hell for those self-proclaimed Leftists, progressives and other folks -- let's call them the Leftoids -- who claim to be critical of the Wall Street plutocrats and US empire -- but who fall over themselves to defend the thuggery of smaller imperialisms.
The list includes fans of Qaddafi's rule of terror, who constantly smear ordinary Libyans as wild savages and write long screeds glorifying the Jamahiriya's public services (which were universally appalling).
Then there are the fans of Assad's ghastly fascist state, who constantly smear ordinary Syrians as takfiri brutes and caricature all Arabs as primitive tribes.
And now the fans of Putinism's Anschluss, just the first of a flood of geopolitical disasters which the demise of neoliberalism is unleashing on this unhappy world. These people cannot be bothered to watch footage, read interviews, or listen to stories of Ukraine's peaceful protest movement of ordinary citizens against plutocratic thugs. Nor can they be bothered to read the copious accounts of Putinism (the joint rule of siloviki thugs and thieving plutocrats) trampling on Russia's constitutional right to free speech, free assembly, and free political participation.
Our plutocrat-owned mass media constantly proclaims the US empire to be good, and all other empires to be bad. Leftoids reverse this and proclaim all other empires good, and the US empire bad.
Bad does not have a national flag.
Bad is just bad.
And its unthinking defense is what authorizes the still worse to come.
Friday, March 14, 2014
Darkness
Russia Today is no longer a credible outlet of anything other than whatever lies Russo-imperialism feels like telling to itself. Rosie Gray has the gory details here.
* * * * *
More on Kurchenko's crimes -- he's one of the gangsters who destroyed Ukraine's economy.
* * * * *
Olga Mikhajliuk has this excellent story from occupied Crimea.
* * * * *
The Russian protest group P-Riot were originally just anarchistic provocateurs. But even their apolitical anarchism has earned them open attacks by government thugs - the most recent is documented here. Look closely at the faces of the youths who beat up a couple of unarmed, defenseless women. Look at how they revel like the disgusting gangsters they are, and even take photos for their friends.
In my nightmares, I see them still laughing as they get into their tanks, thinking it will be a joyride to Kiev. In my nightmares, I see state-sponsored parades blessing their holy war. In my nightmares, state-appointed TV presenters will tell them they are fighting small groups of Banderites, Nazis, and CIA agents, that they'll be greeted with flowers as liberators, that everyone will live happily ever after. They will beat lots of unarmed young women and even get to wear camouflage uniforms. In my nightmares, they stop laughing after twenty-four hours. That's when their APCs and tanks start burning, as the young people of Ukraine tear them apart with sophisticated anti-tank weapons. Their laughter turns into the death-mask of millions.
There are only days to stop the nightmare.
* * * * *
More on Kurchenko's crimes -- he's one of the gangsters who destroyed Ukraine's economy.
* * * * *
Olga Mikhajliuk has this excellent story from occupied Crimea.
* * * * *
The Russian protest group P-Riot were originally just anarchistic provocateurs. But even their apolitical anarchism has earned them open attacks by government thugs - the most recent is documented here. Look closely at the faces of the youths who beat up a couple of unarmed, defenseless women. Look at how they revel like the disgusting gangsters they are, and even take photos for their friends.
In my nightmares, I see them still laughing as they get into their tanks, thinking it will be a joyride to Kiev. In my nightmares, I see state-sponsored parades blessing their holy war. In my nightmares, state-appointed TV presenters will tell them they are fighting small groups of Banderites, Nazis, and CIA agents, that they'll be greeted with flowers as liberators, that everyone will live happily ever after. They will beat lots of unarmed young women and even get to wear camouflage uniforms. In my nightmares, they stop laughing after twenty-four hours. That's when their APCs and tanks start burning, as the young people of Ukraine tear them apart with sophisticated anti-tank weapons. Their laughter turns into the death-mask of millions.
There are only days to stop the nightmare.
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Countries Which The Gods Wish To Destroy Are First Given Excessive Oil-Rents
The Russian internet is going dark. This will have indescribably bad effects.
Russia's single greatest economic asset is not its energy sector, which is burdened by legacy investments, transportation issues, and rapidly increasing production costs, and is in any case simply not big enough to drive a middle-income economy. Russia's ace card is its software sector, home to world-class firms such as Kaspersky and Yandex.
But if Russia takes over the Crimea, and all the evidence suggests this is indeed the plan -- then Russia's software sector is over. Done. Finished. No other country in the world will ever use Russia's digital services, ever.
Let me be clear.
I have enormous respect and appreciation for Russian culture, and enormous love for the long-suffering Russian people.
I am not a fan of NATO or of US imperialism.
But I'm watching a medium-sized country with smart intellectuals and pragmatic leaders commit geopolitical suicide in front of my astonished eyes. Seriously, did someone douse the Kremlin's water supply with LSD? Crimea is an economic albatross which costs the Ukrainian state $820 million in annual subsidies. It will cost Russia that much, plus billions of dollars more just to pay the pensioners. Throw in 200,000 angry Tatars, and you have a potential ethnic cauldron ten times worse than Chechnya. But wait, there's more: you'll also earn the undying hatred of every single Eastern European citizen, as well as a raft of EU sanctions.
One of the bitter jokes circulating around the Russian internet these days goes like this: "Don't exaggerate about the repression, we're not North Korea, we're only China." The punchline: "For now."
Not all is lost. Some Russian artists, writers and other luminaries are still resisting.
In 2012, Ukraine was an impoverished, failed state ruled by a crumbling autocracy, while Russia was a dynamic economy with a successful - albeit imperfect - democracy. If the annexation happens, Russia and Ukraine are going to switch places.
Russia's single greatest economic asset is not its energy sector, which is burdened by legacy investments, transportation issues, and rapidly increasing production costs, and is in any case simply not big enough to drive a middle-income economy. Russia's ace card is its software sector, home to world-class firms such as Kaspersky and Yandex.
But if Russia takes over the Crimea, and all the evidence suggests this is indeed the plan -- then Russia's software sector is over. Done. Finished. No other country in the world will ever use Russia's digital services, ever.
Let me be clear.
I have enormous respect and appreciation for Russian culture, and enormous love for the long-suffering Russian people.
I am not a fan of NATO or of US imperialism.
But I'm watching a medium-sized country with smart intellectuals and pragmatic leaders commit geopolitical suicide in front of my astonished eyes. Seriously, did someone douse the Kremlin's water supply with LSD? Crimea is an economic albatross which costs the Ukrainian state $820 million in annual subsidies. It will cost Russia that much, plus billions of dollars more just to pay the pensioners. Throw in 200,000 angry Tatars, and you have a potential ethnic cauldron ten times worse than Chechnya. But wait, there's more: you'll also earn the undying hatred of every single Eastern European citizen, as well as a raft of EU sanctions.
One of the bitter jokes circulating around the Russian internet these days goes like this: "Don't exaggerate about the repression, we're not North Korea, we're only China." The punchline: "For now."
Not all is lost. Some Russian artists, writers and other luminaries are still resisting.
In 2012, Ukraine was an impoverished, failed state ruled by a crumbling autocracy, while Russia was a dynamic economy with a successful - albeit imperfect - democracy. If the annexation happens, Russia and Ukraine are going to switch places.
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Doom, Ever Closer
The madness spreads. The longstanding and well-respected editor of Lenta.ru, one of the few remaining independent websites in Russia, has been fired effectively immediately. Her replacement is a dismal Putinist hack. This isn't my reading of the story, this is the collective judgement of Lenta.ru's editors (link currently here - when this link gets taken down, which it most surely will, I'll provide a link to a copy of the original text). Lenta.ru will now turn into a cesspool of the most vile gay-bashing, revanchist, paranoid Russo-imperialism imaginable. The remaining spaces of online dissent will be crushed and sequestered.
It will get infinitely worse. I urge any Russian readers of this blog to seriously think about personal survival strategies. The lights are going out in your country and will not be lit again for a generation or more. (There are complex geopolitical reasons for this, can't provide more detail just yet. But I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I didn't give you the warning.)
Still writing the 18th Brumaire article, but here's a hint of what's to come: Putinism was the ideology of state-security siloviks who used gangster techniques to take back Russia's energy-rents from the Yeltsin-era oligarchs. That's fine if you're trying to rebuild your own country, but not OK when you start to attack other countries. In fact, the campaign to annex the Crimea is modeled pixel for pixel on the campaign against the oligarchs: sleazy PR, bald-faced lies, rabid ultranationalism, bribes of local officials. While we won't shed any tears for the oligarchs, the annexation of the Crimea is a dreadful disaster for Russia and Ukraine.
Putinism's inability to diversify the Russian economy away from energy-rents has triggered a deep and permanent economic and political crisis. While it is the richest member of the BRICs in per capita terms, it has the least diversified economy, and is in many ways the most vulnerable to the impending end of the petrocarbon age. Thus the authoritarian hurrah-patriotism of the regime: Putinism has nothing else to sell other than faded memories of WW II. If the US invasion of Iraq was motivated by the chimera of boundless oil-rents and subservient client-states, the Russian invasion of Crimea is motivated by the chimera of boundless Slavophoria and subservient client-regions.
What the Putinites cannot understand is that the Ukraine is no longer run by gangsters like themselves. I'm 100% certain that when the siloviki look at images of Ukrainian people protesting at Maidan, they can only see foreign intelligence services and CIA agents. They genuinely think that only specially-trained troops could possibly have endured the sniper fire on the Maidan as calmly as they did.
In reality, there were no troops among the demonstrators. They were all just ordinary people (see the casualty list here). The siloviki cannot imagine that in every ordinary human being there is extraordinary potential, and that on the Maidan, ordinary Ukrainians rose up to demand accountability from their government. In short, they cannot imagine people like this (click on the English subtitles for translation).
It will get infinitely worse. I urge any Russian readers of this blog to seriously think about personal survival strategies. The lights are going out in your country and will not be lit again for a generation or more. (There are complex geopolitical reasons for this, can't provide more detail just yet. But I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I didn't give you the warning.)
Still writing the 18th Brumaire article, but here's a hint of what's to come: Putinism was the ideology of state-security siloviks who used gangster techniques to take back Russia's energy-rents from the Yeltsin-era oligarchs. That's fine if you're trying to rebuild your own country, but not OK when you start to attack other countries. In fact, the campaign to annex the Crimea is modeled pixel for pixel on the campaign against the oligarchs: sleazy PR, bald-faced lies, rabid ultranationalism, bribes of local officials. While we won't shed any tears for the oligarchs, the annexation of the Crimea is a dreadful disaster for Russia and Ukraine.
Putinism's inability to diversify the Russian economy away from energy-rents has triggered a deep and permanent economic and political crisis. While it is the richest member of the BRICs in per capita terms, it has the least diversified economy, and is in many ways the most vulnerable to the impending end of the petrocarbon age. Thus the authoritarian hurrah-patriotism of the regime: Putinism has nothing else to sell other than faded memories of WW II. If the US invasion of Iraq was motivated by the chimera of boundless oil-rents and subservient client-states, the Russian invasion of Crimea is motivated by the chimera of boundless Slavophoria and subservient client-regions.
What the Putinites cannot understand is that the Ukraine is no longer run by gangsters like themselves. I'm 100% certain that when the siloviki look at images of Ukrainian people protesting at Maidan, they can only see foreign intelligence services and CIA agents. They genuinely think that only specially-trained troops could possibly have endured the sniper fire on the Maidan as calmly as they did.
In reality, there were no troops among the demonstrators. They were all just ordinary people (see the casualty list here). The siloviki cannot imagine that in every ordinary human being there is extraordinary potential, and that on the Maidan, ordinary Ukrainians rose up to demand accountability from their government. In short, they cannot imagine people like this (click on the English subtitles for translation).
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Blessed Are the Peacemakers
The people of Ukraine have a message of peace for their Russian brothers and sisters.
And a documentary filmmaker talks to Russians at the Maidan protest (English subtitles available).
And a documentary filmmaker talks to Russians at the Maidan protest (English subtitles available).
Sunday, March 9, 2014
The People's Will
Russian imperialists -- there's no other word for them -- have been claiming that the Crimean parliament voted for Russian annexation.
Lies.
Norwegian newspaper Aftenpost did some digging, and found out the real story.
Meanwhile, Putin's thugs shut down most of Crimea's TV stations. They were replaced by Russia's state-owned media, which have been busy whipping up nationalist hatred and ethnic racism. Fortunately, most Crimeans have cellphones and access to the internet, so they won't be easily fooled.
Last but not least, an open letter from a Ukrainian officer to his Russian counterpart.
Lies.
Norwegian newspaper Aftenpost did some digging, and found out the real story.
Meanwhile, Putin's thugs shut down most of Crimea's TV stations. They were replaced by Russia's state-owned media, which have been busy whipping up nationalist hatred and ethnic racism. Fortunately, most Crimeans have cellphones and access to the internet, so they won't be easily fooled.
Last but not least, an open letter from a Ukrainian officer to his Russian counterpart.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
No To War
The voices of the next generation have something to say.
Also, good commentary by Timothy Snyder on Putin's fateful choice.
Also, good commentary by Timothy Snyder on Putin's fateful choice.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Save the Bears!
...the Bears of Kharkov, that is. After their crooked President stole billions of dollars and left Ukraine in a state of dire economic meltdown, Kharkov's wonderful zoo is in dire straits. More on this story from blogger 8 Months on Ukraine. (And check out the story of the Red Partisan Monkeys, who escaped the Nazi occupation of the 1940s. You can't make this stuff up.)
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
The Eighteenth Brumaire of Emperor Putin
Bankster neoliberalism in the core, gangster neoliberalism in the semi-peripheries:
If you're looking for grim geopolitical humor, Putin gave a press conference where he insisted there are no Russian troops in Crimea. That would be news to this guy (English translation here), as well as the fifteen thousand other Russian Federation soldiers currently occupying the Ukraine. Also, I've got a set of feeds and useful links on the crisis here.
Alas, my essay on Russian hip hop will have to wait, more important to diagnose the crisis. Russia is a key geopolitical node in the contemporary world-system, and the crisis shows that Putinism is beginning its slow but inexorable decline. The title: 18th Brumaire of Emperor Putin.
If you're looking for grim geopolitical humor, Putin gave a press conference where he insisted there are no Russian troops in Crimea. That would be news to this guy (English translation here), as well as the fifteen thousand other Russian Federation soldiers currently occupying the Ukraine. Also, I've got a set of feeds and useful links on the crisis here.
Alas, my essay on Russian hip hop will have to wait, more important to diagnose the crisis. Russia is a key geopolitical node in the contemporary world-system, and the crisis shows that Putinism is beginning its slow but inexorable decline. The title: 18th Brumaire of Emperor Putin.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
When Empires Implode
I must say, the Ukrainian people have shown amazing restraint and civic courage in the face of grotesque provocation. Instead of picking up guns, they have picked up the microphone, the pen, the cellphone and the webcam. Watch this wonderful appeal to Russian parents from Dr. Komarovsky, a pediatrician well-known to the Russian-speaking world, debunking Russia's state-media lies about Ukraine's change of government.
In other news, two leading institutions of our time have taken near-fatal hits in terms of credibility and trust. The first institution is Russia Today, a.k.a. RT (rt.com), Russia's state-owned media firm which used to deliver energetic, nervy and credible alternative journalism on some of the leading issues of our time. Since RT was a state-owned company, they tended to softpedal criticism of Russia, but they did produce top-notch and professional journalism.
Not anymore. The moment Yanukovych fell from power, RT broadcast the most disgusting lies and shameless prevarications about the Ukraine and the Ukrainian revolution. Democracy supporters were demonized as fascists, nationalists were smeared as Russophobes, and lurid fables were told about riots in the streets, mass killings, and millions of refugees.
It was all lies. There were no killings. Ethnic Russians were not being targeted. There was no wave of mass emigation. If RT was the gleaming facade of Putin's modernization project, then the facade has forever cracked. What was revealed inside is not pretty: imperial xenophobia, and oligarch-funded revanchism disguised as Great Russian militarism.
One of the peculiar features of political credibility is that it takes years and years of slow, laborious effort to acquire -- but it can all go up in smoke in a single day. Right here in the US, Secretary of State Powell's 2003 speech to the UN justifying the criminal and monstrous US invasion of Iraq destroyed the credibility of the White House for a generation. No, you cannot blame Snowden or Assange -- the national security state did itself in, by foolishly spreading obvious lies in the age of the internet.
Now the same thing has happened to RT. Over the next few weeks, we are likely to see an epic exodus from the station, as anyone with a shred of decency heads for the exits. Those who stay will become ever more shrill, intolerant and xenophobic, driving away an audience accustomed to professional journalism, and not siloviki PR stunts. In the end, RT will end up as the Slavophile version of Fox News -- all flash and no substance, and of no particular relevance to the world of journalism.
The second institution which took a fatal hit was the credibility of Vladimir Putin as a reliable, pragmatic statesperson (yes, there was a time when he was a geopolitical realist).
This particular credibility collapse requires a bit more explanation, so more on this tomorrow.
In other news, two leading institutions of our time have taken near-fatal hits in terms of credibility and trust. The first institution is Russia Today, a.k.a. RT (rt.com), Russia's state-owned media firm which used to deliver energetic, nervy and credible alternative journalism on some of the leading issues of our time. Since RT was a state-owned company, they tended to softpedal criticism of Russia, but they did produce top-notch and professional journalism.
Not anymore. The moment Yanukovych fell from power, RT broadcast the most disgusting lies and shameless prevarications about the Ukraine and the Ukrainian revolution. Democracy supporters were demonized as fascists, nationalists were smeared as Russophobes, and lurid fables were told about riots in the streets, mass killings, and millions of refugees.
It was all lies. There were no killings. Ethnic Russians were not being targeted. There was no wave of mass emigation. If RT was the gleaming facade of Putin's modernization project, then the facade has forever cracked. What was revealed inside is not pretty: imperial xenophobia, and oligarch-funded revanchism disguised as Great Russian militarism.
One of the peculiar features of political credibility is that it takes years and years of slow, laborious effort to acquire -- but it can all go up in smoke in a single day. Right here in the US, Secretary of State Powell's 2003 speech to the UN justifying the criminal and monstrous US invasion of Iraq destroyed the credibility of the White House for a generation. No, you cannot blame Snowden or Assange -- the national security state did itself in, by foolishly spreading obvious lies in the age of the internet.
Now the same thing has happened to RT. Over the next few weeks, we are likely to see an epic exodus from the station, as anyone with a shred of decency heads for the exits. Those who stay will become ever more shrill, intolerant and xenophobic, driving away an audience accustomed to professional journalism, and not siloviki PR stunts. In the end, RT will end up as the Slavophile version of Fox News -- all flash and no substance, and of no particular relevance to the world of journalism.
The second institution which took a fatal hit was the credibility of Vladimir Putin as a reliable, pragmatic statesperson (yes, there was a time when he was a geopolitical realist).
This particular credibility collapse requires a bit more explanation, so more on this tomorrow.
Monday, March 3, 2014
Dear Russia: Listen To Your Friends
To all Russian citizens:
Mark Adomanis has long been one of the most sober, thoughtful, and balanced observers of post-1998 Russia. He has always shown genuine respect for Russia's amazing achievements, as well as deep empathy for its historical tribulations. Most of all, he has long been one of the sharpest critics of the Russophobes and neo-con ideologists of US Empire who have unfairly demonized Putin and contemporary Russia in the past.
Mark Adomanis is a true friend of the Russian people.
If anyone from Russia is reading this blog, you must read Mark's post on why Russia's decision to send troops into Crimea was the worst geopolitical blunder of its modern history.
Commentators on Russia Today sneer that since the US committed the crime of violating Iraq's sovereignty in 2003, it is rankest hypocrisy to argue Russia should not intervene in the Ukraine.
Please understand that the US invasion of Iraq was a colossal disaster for us. It cost the lives of thousands of Iraqis and US citizens, it drained $2 trillion of our national wealth, it earned us the hatred and scorn of the entire world, and it left nothing behind but an endless civil war in what used to be one of the most modern, secular nation-states of the Middle East. My country has never really recovered from the debacle.
Don't make the same mistake we did.
If violence breaks out in the Crimea, the result will be a human, economic and political tragedy which will devastate both Ukraine and Russia.
There is still time to avoid an epic disaster.
Talk to the Ukrainians. Work out a peacekeeping mission in Crimea and help the EU, UN and OSCE send peacekeeping observers elsewhere, to make sure no Ukrainian suffers from any form of ethnic hatred or linguistic discrimination.
Everything Russia has achieved since 1991 is at stake.
There is still time.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Let There Be No More Battlefields
The Ukraine has become the front-line between the uprising against neoliberalism (mostly internal) and the neo-national forces of reaction (some internal, some external) trying to crush this uprising.
First things first: the Ukrainian revolution is not a Fascist putsch. It was -- and is -- a genuine popular uprising against the rule of a horribly corrupt President and his coterie of thieves. As a popular rebellion, it included all sorts of factions -- Leftists, Rightists, centrists, you name it (for the details., see Timothy Snyder's excellent summary of the Ukrainian revolution). But smearing the revolution because a few Far Right folks took part is like smearing the Occupy protests because of the presence of a few homeless squatters.
Ukraine has an acting President, legitimately appointed in accordance with Ukraine's constitution by a functioning and legal Parliament, and a vigorous free press.
Now the Putinariat -- the confederation of nationalist siloviki and raw materials billionaires who run Russia these days -- is striking back, by authorizing the deployment of Russian troops inside Ukraine's national borders and by unleashing a full-scale Murdoch-style campaign of neo-national hysteria and hate-mongering against the Ukraine. In fact, Russia Today's coverage of Ukraine has borrowed heavily from the neocon playbook of lies, spin and distortion used to justify the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.
The Putinariat is not guided by any lingering neo-Sovietism. Rather, we're dealing with plain old nationalism, as short-sighted and narrow as any other nationalism in any other country in the world.
All Leftists and progressives should understand that the comparative decline of the US Empire does not automatically erase the violence of smaller, non-US empires and imperialisms on our planet (India vis-a-vis its adivasis, China vis-a-vis Tibet, Syria's Alawites vis-a-vis Syria's Sunnis). That's why we need to struggle against the smaller imperialisms as well as against the bigger ones.
Right now, the Putinariat is whipping up a nasty and regressive neo-nationalism against its smaller, weaker neighbor, most likely because the Putinariat is afraid the uprising will spread further. It is an extremely foolish and short-sighted strategy, because the tinder is there for a regional conflagration which will benefit absolutely noone.
Ukraine has seen enough of war and has had enough of political violence.
What needs to happen is dialogue. Ethnic Russians need to talk to their ethnic Ukrainian and Tatar neighbors. Everyone must agree to respect the dignity and rights of all. Russia must move beyond the legacy of its imperial history, remove its troops from Ukrainian soil, and talk to the Ukrainian people and its new government as equals. Ukrainians need to be better than the oligarchic elites who wrecked their economy, and to refrain from petty revenge on Yanukovych's thugs or engaging in any kind of ethnic hatred.
Put the guns away, negotiate in good faith, and work out a plan to allow Ukraine's economy to recover.
If this doesn't happen, the result will be a disaster for the people of Ukraine. But the biggest losers of all, ironic as it sounds, will be the Putinariat. Overt conflict will trigger the very destabilization of their hegemony they most fear. It wouldn't be the first time a neo-imperial elite committed geopolitical suicide, but let's hope it doesn't come to this.
First things first: the Ukrainian revolution is not a Fascist putsch. It was -- and is -- a genuine popular uprising against the rule of a horribly corrupt President and his coterie of thieves. As a popular rebellion, it included all sorts of factions -- Leftists, Rightists, centrists, you name it (for the details., see Timothy Snyder's excellent summary of the Ukrainian revolution). But smearing the revolution because a few Far Right folks took part is like smearing the Occupy protests because of the presence of a few homeless squatters.
Ukraine has an acting President, legitimately appointed in accordance with Ukraine's constitution by a functioning and legal Parliament, and a vigorous free press.
Now the Putinariat -- the confederation of nationalist siloviki and raw materials billionaires who run Russia these days -- is striking back, by authorizing the deployment of Russian troops inside Ukraine's national borders and by unleashing a full-scale Murdoch-style campaign of neo-national hysteria and hate-mongering against the Ukraine. In fact, Russia Today's coverage of Ukraine has borrowed heavily from the neocon playbook of lies, spin and distortion used to justify the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.
The Putinariat is not guided by any lingering neo-Sovietism. Rather, we're dealing with plain old nationalism, as short-sighted and narrow as any other nationalism in any other country in the world.
All Leftists and progressives should understand that the comparative decline of the US Empire does not automatically erase the violence of smaller, non-US empires and imperialisms on our planet (India vis-a-vis its adivasis, China vis-a-vis Tibet, Syria's Alawites vis-a-vis Syria's Sunnis). That's why we need to struggle against the smaller imperialisms as well as against the bigger ones.
Right now, the Putinariat is whipping up a nasty and regressive neo-nationalism against its smaller, weaker neighbor, most likely because the Putinariat is afraid the uprising will spread further. It is an extremely foolish and short-sighted strategy, because the tinder is there for a regional conflagration which will benefit absolutely noone.
Ukraine has seen enough of war and has had enough of political violence.
What needs to happen is dialogue. Ethnic Russians need to talk to their ethnic Ukrainian and Tatar neighbors. Everyone must agree to respect the dignity and rights of all. Russia must move beyond the legacy of its imperial history, remove its troops from Ukrainian soil, and talk to the Ukrainian people and its new government as equals. Ukrainians need to be better than the oligarchic elites who wrecked their economy, and to refrain from petty revenge on Yanukovych's thugs or engaging in any kind of ethnic hatred.
Put the guns away, negotiate in good faith, and work out a plan to allow Ukraine's economy to recover.
If this doesn't happen, the result will be a disaster for the people of Ukraine. But the biggest losers of all, ironic as it sounds, will be the Putinariat. Overt conflict will trigger the very destabilization of their hegemony they most fear. It wouldn't be the first time a neo-imperial elite committed geopolitical suicide, but let's hope it doesn't come to this.
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