Thursday, March 3, 2022

Ukraine: Putin, the Pope, and Wayne Gretzky, by Larry Romanoff - The Unz Review

 “This is the largest, and most shocking, display of a centrally-controlled media flood of vicious invective that I have ever seen.”

I made that comment to myself after reading thousands (and I don’t exaggerate; I mean thousands) of articles in all the Western world’s media about Kamila Valieva and Russia at the Olympics. But I’d hardly gotten the words out of my mouth when Kamila fell to second place, replaced by Vladimir Putin and Russia (again).

For background, I generally peruse 30 or more publications each day, in 15 or 20 countries, to learn what different countries are saying on important topics, and I save all webpages with useful content. With these Western attacks on Russia, I stopped. I’ve been doing this for many years, but in this case I could no longer stomach the rubbish I was reading, and I quit.

The intensity of the attacks on Russia are breath-taking. The false and twisted reports are finding new highs of dishonesty, and the range of items assembled to “punish” Russia would have been beyond the limits of my imagination only a week ago. Looking at the entire landscape, it is obvious this is all being tightly orchestrated from a central source, the usual suspects who benefit most from all wars, but it is astonishing to see how wildly they are grasping and how useless many of their actions must be. There seems almost a desperation to inflict pain, no matter how trivial, and to give the impression of an international consensus of inflicting pain. Some of the Western actions are serious, some almost comical, and others absolutely ridiculous. I have attempted here to give you a small sample of what I have collected. The main thread through all of it is the intensity of the attacks and the lies being told.

On the serious side, Switzerland, of all countries, suddenly abandoned its history of neutrality to claim it will impose “EU-like” sanctions on Russia, which means freezing or seizing all Russian bank accounts in the country. That is almost unbelievable. How could such a thing happen? Who put what kind of pressure on the Swiss government to effect this?[1] Everyone is joining in. The UK now “fast-tracks law to tackle Russian ‘dirty money'”, the UK Home Secretary Priti Patel claiming, “Time is up for Putin’s cronies hiding dirty money in the UK”, and Boris Johnson stating “there will be nowhere to hide your ill-gotten gains.”[2] No evidence the gains are ill-gotten, but it seems none is necessary. The West appears unanimous in wanting to simply seize all assets owned by Russia or Russians, having convinced itself that laws no longer apply, that to punish disobedience you simply steal all of another’s property and bankrupt him.

Roman Abramovich is having to turn the Chelsea club over to a custodian for fear it will be confiscated, and the UK media are mostly screaming to have his $200 million house confiscated as well, simply for the crime of being Russian.

We have headlines telling us that all world leaders are determined to fight Russia on these (financial) fronts because, even after another wave of sanctions, many Putin associates “still remain untouched”. These people have stated a determination to find and seize all assets belonging to anyone who agrees with Putin on anything, his friends, colleagues, business associates, family, everyone. They have already seized all the assets of Russia’s Central Bank that are in the EU, which is about half of all Russia’s foreign currency and gold reserves.[3][4] There is no law to support this; sovereign funds are untouchable. Unless you are a Western fascist criminal cabal masquerading as a “democracy.”

The UK Guardian has changed character from a newspaper to a disgusting hate-mongering trash bin with sometimes as many as 20 or 25 articles on Russia in one day that are almost breath-taking in their abysmal dishonesty. I would never have imagined such a thing. “It’s stomach-turning”, the Guardian tells us,[5] of the mothers and babies taking shelter as Russian invasion claims lives of ‘up to’ ten children.” Well, where the hell was the Guardian when Madeline Albright was ‘claiming the lives’ of half a million infants in Iraq? Where was the Guardian when the photos surfaced of the tens of thousands of hideously-deformed babies born in Iraq from the depleted uranium?

Many of the Western media tried to present photo evidence of “Thousands of Ukrainians rushing towards Polish border”, and “thousands of vehicles packed with Ukrainian refugees trying to flee”. Where were they when hundreds of thousands were fleeing portions of Yugoslavia on foot, including limitless numbers of children? Where were they when millions were fleeing the genocide in Iraq? The Guardian tells us “More than 360,000 people have fled war in Ukraine”, apparently counted by the UN.[6] If this is true, why wasn’t the UN counting the refugees in all the US-instigated wars of recent past?

Ukrainian “refugees” desperately fleeing for their lives (Photo: BBC)
Ukrainian “refugees” desperately fleeing for their lives (Photo: BBC)

Then we had Reuters tearfully relating how Ukraine’s hospitals are all running out of medical oxygen,[7] a bit surprising after only two days and with the Russian military nowhere near the large cities. But where are Reuters when even today Iran has a shortage of not only medical oxygen but of almost everything medical, from no cash due to Western ‘sanctions’?

Also, courtesy of the BBC, we have “Powerful pictures of Ukrainians’ lives turned upside down by war”,[8] and photos of “Ukrainians under fire”.[9] Again, why didn’t we have pictures of lives in Iraq and Libya “turned upside down by war”? Why not for Yugoslavia and Syria and Yemen? Why not for Venezuela today? Why not some photos of the effects of 60 years of brutal sanctions on Cuba?

The BBC told us tearfully of the “miles of queues to flee the invasion” of Ukraine.[10] Well, where were the BBC and their tears to tell us of the millions (rather than hundreds) of Iraqis fleeing their country? Where was the BBC when we needed to know of the millions of refugees and the horrific ethnic cleansing that went on in what was Yugoslavia? Similarly, the BBC has a refugee “tearfully describe why she fled Ukraine”.[11] Where were the BBC reporters to interview some of the millions fleeing Iraq, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and so many others? Would the BBC, “the most trusted news source in the world”. like to shed a public tear for Julian Assange?

If that isn’t bad enough, even the Pope got into this, with a statement that “Those who wage war in Ukraine ‘forget humanity'”.[12] This is also without precedent. Who has the influence or power to instigate such a provocative claim from the Pope? Forgive my rudeness, but where the hell was this hypocritical SOB when Madeleine Albright was killing 500,000 Iraqi infants? Where was he when the US was firing millions of depleted-uranium shells into Iraq? Where was he when the US was engaged in Serbia with “the most protracted bombing campaign in the history of the world”? But Russia, wanting to prevent Ukraine from becoming a nuclear bastion for the US, ten minutes from Moscow, has no ‘humanity’.

Getting Tough With Putin the Killer

The UK Telegraph boasts that “The West has finally taken the gloves off against Putin, and redeemed our honor”.[13] Well, good for us. And the Guardian tells us “It is a matter of life and death” that we provide weapons for Ukraine[14] to make the war last as long as possible (and weaken Russia in preparation for a US declaration of war).

The London Times concurs that we must “Confront the Warmonger”, and crows that “the West is at last putting together measures to hurt Putin and punish Russian aggression.”[15] That’s nice, but why wasn’t anyone confronting the warmongers of the US and Israel? Those involved many “life and death” situations but the media were all silent.

Canada’s CTV moans that Ukraine is “a humanitarian catastrophe”, with grave concerns about capacity to replenish food and medicine.[16] The last figures I saw, indicated several hundred deaths. If this makes Ukraine “a humanitarian catastrophe”, what would CTV like to tell us about Palestine? Where was Canada’s CTV when Iran was so badly hit by US sanctions it still hasn’t the cash even to buy COVID vaccines, much less basic medical supplies? Same with Venezuela, another beneficiary of US sanctions. Those countries are genuine humanitarian catastrophes while Ukraine is nothing. Where are these people when we need them? Canada’s CTV network is deplorably dishonest, blinded by some parasitic ideology.

Canada used to be a respectable country; not too many friends, but no enemies, and a reputation for integrity. Courtesy of recent psychopathic Zionists and pedophiles in its leadership, Canada now has no friends, plenty of serious enemies, a bad and worsening reputation, and has become a directionless US puppet-state with a mouth as large as that of Australia’s and a collective brain the size of a walnut. Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, is not only painfully unintelligent but can be astonishingly stupid and gives a rather good imitation of a coward. To say nothing of beating the US at its own game of turning his country into the first genuine fascist state. It is unbelievable to me that neither Canada’s Trudeau nor Australia’s Morrison are able to look at Ukraine today and realise how dispensable they are. Both shoot off their mouths, taunting major nuclear powers – just as Ukraine did – and neither can see how freely their Washington puppet-master abandons its puppets when the going gets rough.

Canada is supporting, and even eagerly pushing, the elimination of Russia from Swift[17] – as if the powers causing all this cared what Canada thinks. Talk about a delusional intellectual midget punching above his weight while hiding behind someone he believes will protect him. But Trudeau will “punish” Russia by asking Canadian liquor stores to ban Russian vodka. A statesman, if I ever saw one. But it gets much better: Canada’s truly delusional, and almost certainly psychopathic, Foreign Affairs Minister, Melanie Joly, is a real tough chick, who says “Everything is on the table: Canada will “suffocate” “Russia.[18] Not only that, she encourages Canadians to “join the Ukrainian foreign legion to fight Russia”.[19] I want to write something here, but I can’t think of anything to say.

Trudeau and Canada pride themselves on “Demonstrations in solidarity with Ukraine”, but Trudeau had no such solidarity with the Freedom Protesters in Canada against his insane COVID policies and in fact arranged with the banks to seize the bank accounts of all the protestors.[20] It seems that protests are good only when someone else is the target.

Australia’s Morrisson is equally as stupid, promising to supply “lethal arms” for Ukraine.[21] I know this isn’t very nice, but both Canada and Australia deserve to get nuked. They really do. When you are so small and have a mouth so big, something bad will happen to you sooner or later.

There is much more that the ‘democratic’ West is doing to punish Russia. Reuters reported a new EU law that will require all firms to check suppliers for “human rights”.[22] Sorry, Russia, but you no longer qualify for anything, hence your exports will hopefully fall to zero. Natural gas supplies may be protected from this law, at least until Putin shuts the pipeline.

Then we have the Western airlines banning all Russian flights to Western countries,[23] which makes you wonder what some of these people think about, if they think at all. The perfectly predictable outcome of these bans was that Russia immediately retaliated, banning not only foreign flights but all transit over Russian air space, which means many Western flights will now be hours and potentially thousands of miles longer, and quite a bit more expensive.

The US Administration, no doubt thanks at least in part to Victoria Nuland the Cookie Monster, the White House now wants “to Make China Pay for Close Ties to Russia”. Never miss an opportunity to cause yet more trouble; never fail to pour more fuel on the fire. The WSJ tells us that “Sanctions and UN debates are aimed in part at making Beijing feel discomfort . . . and dividing the two.”[24] “One step, U.S. officials said, is making Beijing feel pain over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” Germany’s der Spiegel agrees they should do this because “Xi Is, Along with Putin, the Most Dangerous Man in the World”[25] In the middle of all this the US even found time to condemn Pyongyang’s latest missile launch, widening the Axis of Evil even further.

And we have George Soros telling us Ukraine reminds him of the Siege of Budapest.[26] It’s not clear why, because during the ‘siege of Budapest’ Soros was busy taking part in the confiscation of property from other Jews in Nazi-occupied areas, but claims he has “no sense of guilt” for what he did. Perhaps he’s planning on confiscating yet more property in Ukraine when the dust settles. In case you don’t know, Soros and Madeline Albright “took over” the communications networks of Kosovo after the US separated it from Serbia. The estimated value was $800 million.

Another bizarre feature of all this is that Israel offered its services as a “mediator” on Ukraine.[27] Until this, I thought I’d heard everything. The European Zionist financiers and industrialists who want a Third World War so badly they can taste it, and who are certainly responsible for both the geo-political events that have transpired, and for the intense media flood of Russia hatred, have the nerve to offer one of their own to screw things up even more. Not only that, Israel proclaimed to the world (not that anyone was listening) that it remained “neutral” in the Russia-Ukraine dispute (not that anyone cared). It is my opinion that if Israel has delusions of becoming a “world power” and begins to stick its neck out in areas like this, that head is begging to be chopped off.

Canada’s CTV news tells us that “Russia’s billionaires call for peace in Ukraine”.[28] Well, where were Canada’s billionaires when Iraq and Libya were being trashed? Where were America’s?

Then we have the Western governments rushing to our protection by blocking RT and Sputnik News and cancelling their licenses so they will “no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin’s war”.[29] Worse has happened with the Russian News Agencies like TASS and Ria Novosti, who have been subject to non-stop DDOS and other attacks in attempts to take them off the air permanently. I guess that’s good. Nobody wants fake news. Sadly, this news was given to us by the UK Guardian who are rapidly becoming the most rabid fake-news source of all.

This one is important, and I was surprised the article ran, even though it has its dirty side. The New York Times openly admitted that people generally are “fed up” with Google and its clever de-platforming and censoring of both any truth and any contrary narrative, and are turning to DuckDuckgo.[30] Of course, the NYT’s version is that it’s only the “conspiracy theorists” who go there because Google eliminates all those bad things from its search results. That’s an obvious lie, of course. Even Bing is infinitely better than Google; for my own writing, Google appears to have never heard of me, or at least nothing good, while Bing will produce nearly one million hits and many many pages of listings of my articles and archives. The Russian Yandex browser is also excellent for some kinds of things. I would encourage everyone to abandon Google almost entirely and go to Bing or DuckDuckGo.

Then we discover that Google has disabled live traffic data in Google Maps, ostensibly to prevent Russian tanks from navigating the streets of Kiev.[31] Google said it disabled the maps “for the safety of local communities . . . after consulting with . . . regional authorities.” However, “A professor at California’s Middlebury Institute of International Studies said Google Maps helped him track a “traffic jam” that was actually Russian movement towards the border hours before Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the attack.”

In fact, Google disabled its functions because Ukraine doesn’t want the world to see photographic evidence that its Nazi troops are embedding themselves on the streets in purely residential districts, using the civilian population as shields and hostages and refusing them permission to leave. More detail below, and there is much evidence in the Russian News Agency reports, if you care to read them.

To assist Google, we apparently have the Ukrainian government urging citizens to remove street signs so the Russian tanks won’t know where they are.[32] Can you believe this? Russia initiates a military operation in Ukraine that will involve the cities, but will depend on Google maps and Ukrainian road signs for their navigation. Small world, if true.

And yet more bitter sanctions from all over the world. Siding with Canada, US state governors want liquor stores to stop selling Russian vodka,[33] and both UPS and FedEx are halting all shipments to Russia,[34] which isn’t a bad thing. I believe UPS is famous for delivering packages, especially those containing electronics, to the CIA for “additions and amendments” prior to delivery to the now-spy-victim customer.

Further to this, Google, Facebook and Twitter have dealt a serious financial blow to the Russian state purse by blocking all ad revenue from their platforms to “state-sponsored sources”. This would almost certainly be a killer. No need to remove Russia from the SWIFT banking system when we have these US platforms seizing all Russia’s ad revenue from Facebook.

There is some good news. The sanctions appear to be having some effect. Canada’s CTV news tells us that Russians are queuing for cash “as West targets [Russian] banks over Ukraine”.[35] They provide no evidence, but fake stories haven’t any evidence.

And so much more punishment in the wings. For one thing, the International Judo Federation has suspended Vladimir Putin’s position as Honorary President.[36] That has got to hurt. And Formula One will not have a race in Sochi, even though it is claimed to be “the best track in F-1”.[37] Not only that, but FIFA has banned all matches in Russia, and there can be no flag or anthem for the Russian team.[38] Russia is quickly being banned from all international sports; the Olympics are next. Also, the Czechs will boycott all World Cup matches that involve Russia.[39] And to end with the most stupid of all, Wayne Gretzky says Russia should be barred from world junior hockey competition.[40][41] It isn’t so much a question of what this man has in his head: short answer, nothing at all, but who got to him and with what pressure to make him say something so stupid as this.

When we think of some of the nations, organisations and people who have been co-opted into this frenzied attack on Russia, it begs the question of how this happened. It surely was not an accident. Someone got to these people with an offer they couldn’t refuse. How could the Pope, of all people, have said something so stupid when Putin made so clear he was targeting only military installations and that civilians were in no danger. In my mind, when you read about the immense tragedy of the Catholic Residential Schools in Canada (and the US), and the thousands of dead children, and when you recall the vast number of pedophile claims in all countries against the Catholic church, it seems to me it is the Pope who is “lacking in humanity”, not Putin.

Don’t Believe Everything You Read

Some fantastic lies are being fabricated by someone, and then promulgated through the media. In one such, the London Times tells us:

“More than 400 Russian mercenaries are operating in Kyiv with orders from the Kremlin to assassinate President Zelensky and his government and prepare the ground for Moscow to take control, The Times has learnt.[42] The Wagner Group, a private militia run by one of President Putin’s closest allies and operating as an arm-length (sic) branch of the state, flew in mercenaries from Africa five weeks ago on a mission to decapitate Zelensky’s government in return for a handsome financial bonus.” No evidence is presented for such an astonishing assertion, but where was the Times when the US government was employing Eric Prince and his Blackwater Group to kill a great many influential people. They were silent. It seems anything is okay if I do it, but evil if you do it.

You surely have all heard about the valiant and brave Ukrainian soldiers on Snake Island. The island was approached by a Russian warship, the Ukrainian soldiers addressed by the captain to lay down their arms and prevent certain loss of life because the island would be shelled. These loyal and patriotic men, almost certainly part of the special Nuland Brigade, replied “F*** you, Russian warship.” You can’t be much braver than that. The island was shelled, all the brave men died, and we know it’s true because the BBC, “the world’s most trusted source of news”, said so.[43] And Italy’s Corriere della Sera gave us all the grim details, even telling us they could hear the sounds on the tape of the bombs that killed these brave men.[44] Ukrainian President Zelensky awarded the men post-humous gold medals for their conduct, and they surely deserved it, being almost American in their valor and patriotism.[45]

That was a good story. Too bad it never happened. In fact, the UK Guardian almost immediately published a story claiming the men “may still be alive”.[46] And then the Washington Examiner ran an article stating that Ukraine said the men were alive after all.[47]

But there was still drama to the story. Those not-so-brave-but-still-smart non-Americans came very close to dying anyway – under attack from their own Nazi compatriots who didn’t want them to surrender. According to TASS,[48] the Russian warship was attacked by “At least 16 Ukrainian naval boats . . . [when they] were evacuating the Ukrainian troops who had laid down their arms and surrendered on Snake Island, the small boats directed by US drones. Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a briefing that “some of the boats used civilian vessels as shields”.” “According to Konashenkov, the [Nazi] Ukrainian boats attacked to take revenge on those who had surrendered and to shift the blame for the prisoners’ deaths on Russia.” He added further, “As a result of the naval battles, 16 boats of the Ukrainian Navy were destroyed. None of the 82 Ukrainian troops from Snake Island were injured.” The famous audio (now viral) was apparently not genuine.

There are other rather alarming indications of the mental disposition of the Nazis in Ukraine. Putin offered amnesty to all Ukrainian soldiers agreeing to lay down their arms and avoid war and bloodshed, that they would not be harmed and would be permitted to return home to their families. It was also widely reported that any soldiers doing so were to be treated kindly by the Russian troops, that there was no animosity between them. The Nazis apparently were making deliberate efforts to identify and kill any soldiers planning to lay down their arms. There were many such reports from the Donbass areas, but none reported in the Western media.

More alarmingly, Andriy Moshkalenko, deputy mayor of the city of Lviv, denounced the Nazis, claiming they arranged “teams of saboteurs”, each around ten in number, who would paint signs on schools and hospitals, effectively marking them in Russian military code, to signal them as targets for bombing or rocket attacks.[49] This was to discourage the population from weakening. The schools and hospitals were selected as targets because these were the main locations where civilians would gather to avoid casualties, since the Russians would target only military installations.

When Putin said his intention was to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, it was these people he had in mind, the same people who had been shelling the Donbass for the past eight years, killing tens of thousands, and the reason the two areas declared independence and asked Russia for protection.

And two engaging tales of courage and wit, courtesy of typical Ukrainians. In the first, a Ukrainian woman confronts a Russian soldier and gives him a package of sunflower seeds, saying to him, “Keep these seeds in your pocket, when you die they will grow flowers”[50] The next was equally as cute. A Ukrainian motorist drove up to a Russian tank that was lost and out of gas, and said to the occupants, “If you want, I will tow you and take you back to Russia.”[51] The stories are false, courtesy of Italy’s Corriere della Sera, no lie about Russia or China too big, too small, or too ridiculous, to print. Rather like the New York Times.

On another topic, Italy’s Corriere della Sera (again) tells us, and even provides a video, purporting to show two Russian soldiers “looting” a store in Sumy, Ukraine.[52] It is by no means clear from the video that anything was actually being stolen, and the soldiers may well have been Ukrainian rather than Russian. Nevertheless, and I apologise for being repetitive, but does anyone remember Iraq? That country, between the Tigris and Euphrates, was the cradle of civilisation, or at least one of them. Iraq’s museums contained hundreds of thousands of artifacts and relics from the times of Babylon and Mesopotamia, irreplaceable treasures of a history millennia old. It is not in dispute that today all of Iraq’s museums are empty, bone-dry, stripped of every last artifact not only from museums but from private homes. The US military blamed it on “rogue soldiers” but that claim is clearly false. They would have no idea of the importance or value of anything, and my information was that many of the most valuable pieces ended up in Israel and in the homes of European Zionist financiers. I would like to know where the Corriere della Sera was when this was happening. Why is two soldiers taking a bottle of soda from a convenience store more important than the vast looting done in Iraq?

You should also know that most, if not all, of the videos being circulated about the events in Ukraine are fabricated, many being video clips or screenshots from video games. Some are photographs from unrelated events such as the chemical explosion in Tianjin, China, in 2015. But the Western media promulgated them first and checked later, after they’d been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.[53][54][55][56] According to Reuters, they were merely “mis-captioned.”

Lastly, and this is off-topic, Russia’s Maria Zakharova revealed that Italy, France, and many other countries possess US nuclear weapons but do not have access to them, that these nations do not have a nuclear arsenal of their own, but that these consist of American missiles stationed in those countries and accessible only by the Americans.[57] These countries have been made hapless targets, and with no way to escape.

Mr. Romanoff’s writing has been translated into 32 languages and his articles posted on more than 150 foreign-language news and politics websites in more than 30 countries, as well as more than 100 English language platforms. Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He is one of the contributing authors to Cynthia McKinney’s new anthology ‘When China Sneezes’. (Chapt. 2 — Dealing with Demons). http://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/politics/2187/

His full archive can be seen at https://www.moonofshanghai.com/ and http://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/

He can be contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com

https://www.unz.com/lromanoff/ukraine-putin-the-pope-and-wayne-gretzky/