Tag Archives: Putin

Trump’s Orwellian “rigged” campaign is straight out of Putin’s propaganda playbook

Posted on October 27, 2016 | Leave a comment

Euromaidan Press

Donald Trump over an image he tweeted of Hillary Clinton evoking anti-Semitic stereotypes with a graphic that included dollar bills and a six-pointed star.Donald Trump over an image he tweeted of Hillary Clinton evoking anti-Semitic stereotypes with a graphic that included dollar bills and a six-pointed star. 

The U.S. 2016 presidential campaign is nothing short of Orwellian. A billionaire real estate mogul who’s lived the most privileged of American dreams, able to leverage his birthright wealth into fame and celebrity, is now using the political power of that celebrity to usher in a dark American nightmare he calls “making America great again.” The upside-down world of Donald Trump and his legions of angry supporters are trampling on every fundamental notion of what it is to be an American and indeed what values our country stands for. America’s most basic institution, its democracy, is now being questioned and assaulted by a man who talks more like an authoritarian dictator than someone running to be the Continue reading →

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Lights out for Putin regime – Foreign Affairs

Posted on January 31, 2016 | Leave a comment
Russian President Vladimir Putin used to seem invincible. Today, he and his regime look enervated, confused, and desperate. Increasingly, both Russian and Western commentators suggest that Russia may be on the verge of deep instability, possibly even collapse, Alexander J. Motyl wrote in an article titled “Lights Out for the Putin Regime” published by Foreign Affairs on January 27.
REUTERS

This perceptual shift is unsurprising. Last year, Russia was basking in the glow of its annexation of Crimea and aggression in Donbas. The economy, although stagnant, seemed stable. Putin was running circles around Western policymakers and domestic critics. His popularity was sky-high. Now it is only his popularity that remains; everything else has turned for the worse. Crimea Continue reading →

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Posted in Russia, War on Ukraine

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Russian insider says Putin openly planned invasion of Ukraine since 2003

Posted on December 6, 2015 | Leave a comment

Putin armyA former Russian insider says he was there when Putin began openly planning the present invasion of Ukraine back in 2003.

At a conference in Brussels this week, Andrey Illarionov, a Russian economist and former economic advisor to Vladimir Putin informed that the invasion of Ukraine has been in official planning since at least 2003.

“Since 2003. I can say that certain questions relating to the future war with Ukraine were discussed in my presence. I didn’t think the talks would really lead to a real war,” he said.

In an anguished response to the Orange Revolution a year later which brought about an ostensibly pro-Western government, Russian officials then began Continue reading →

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Russia’s protesting truckers and Putin

Posted on December 4, 2015 | Leave a comment

trucks2

Article by: Dmytro Homon

Russian long-distance truckers have moved to shut down access to Moscow without waiting for Vladimir Putin’s reaction to their protest demands .

On  December 3, in his address to the Federal Assembly, the Russian president did not utter a single word about the long-distance truckers outraged by new road-use levies. And for good reason. Because, in Russia, the protest of the truck drivers is unique.

Protest details

First, the protest is spontaneous and is not coordinated from a single center. For that reason, the police have been unable to shut  it down because other drivers immediately take the place of the ones detained. Continue reading →

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Kremlin’s Dubious Opinion Polls

Posted on October 31, 2015 | Leave a comment

29 October 2015

If one is to believe VTsIOM, Russia’s state-run polling agency, public support for Vladimir Putin has reached “a new record height” and currently stands at 89.9 percent—a figure obligingly trumpeted by official television channels. “I am waiting for the day when VTsIOM puts Putin’s poll standing at 101 percent, and this, I think, will happen if not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow,” remarked opposition politician Lev Shlosberg, commenting on the news.

Putin’s supposed “popularity” is the chief argument his apologists both inside and outside Russia use when responding to Kremlin critics. Too often, this “fact” is also accepted at face value—if with regret—by informed and unbiased commentators.

It should not be. Continue reading →

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Russia on the brink

Posted on August 21, 2015 | Leave a comment
20.08.2015 | 08:50

Roman Rukomeda

Russia has come close the important crossroads in history: the way it is going to move on will determine its fate in the coming decades. Russian political elite and those of the few Russian citizens, whose minds were not burned out by propaganda napalm, perceive the forthcoming resolution of the story quite differently.

For example, Russian President Vladimir Putin proves his behavior linear during his visit to the annexed Crimea by saying that the subject on Crimea is closed forever. Putin’s finale will be staged either in the Hague Tribunal, or in the Kremlin where he will fall victim to the “palace coup,” or elsewhere – due to health-related early retirement. Both Russia and its top authorities have little time left. Continue reading →

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Zhukovsky: $25 a Barrel of Oil, $1=125 Rubles and 30% Inflation in Russia by 2016

Posted on August 16, 2015 | Leave a comment

Russian economist Vladislav Zhukovsky says this situation is made worse by the fact that many at the top of the Russian economic pyramid are behaving as they did in 1998, betting on an ever weaker ruble by buying hard currency and then planning to get back into the Russian market later at fire sale prices and thus improving their position but not the country’s.

By Paul Goble* for “Window on Eurasia”:

August 14 – Vladislav Zhukovsky, an economist known for predicting disasters in the Russian economy and for then turning out to be right, says that the situation is more dire than almost anyone imagines because oil is heading to 25 US dollars a barrel, the ruble to 125 to the US dollar, and inflation to 30 percent. Continue reading →

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Putin’s ratings and Ukraine

Posted on July 31, 2015 | Leave a comment

sotnik2

Article by: Oleksandr Kurylenko

According to Russian journalist Alexander Sotnik, Putin is a professional liar who himself does not really believe that Ukrainians and Russians are “one people.” Sotnik shared these and other views on Putin and Russia with Gazeta.ua during a recent interview.

You spend a lot of time speaking with ordinary Russian citizens. How do you explain what appear to be Putin’s sky-high ratings by European standards?

In authoritarian countries opinion polls are the first to disappear. Then the opposition media goes away. The opinion polls are conducted according to orders, to support those in power. This does not mean that Putin does not have support. But it is different. Putin is supported by those who are fortunate. These are very different kinds of people — starting with officials and oligarchs and ending with law enforcement and FSB people. They represent about 34%. Those who simply don’t care are at 45%. These people are silent. And then there are up to 20% of those who under certain circumstances would be ready to protest in Continue reading →

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Analyst: The Methods Moscow has Chosen to Fight Economic Crisis Will Only Deepen It

Posted on July 29, 2015 | Leave a comment
2015/7/29 11:39:44

The Russian government’s decision to try to balance the budget on the backs of the population by cutting pensions and reducing social spending has had the effect of cutting consumer demand at precisely the time when such demand could play a positive role in getting the Russian economy out of its slump.

By Paul Goble* for “Windows on Eurasia”:

July 28 – Because Moscow cannot cut spending on oil and gas as that sector is too closely tied to Putin, cannot cut spending on defense because of the military buildup, and cannot attract outside investment because of sanctions, the Kremlin is putting all the burden on the population, reducing effective demand, and making the situation even worse. Continue reading →

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Understanding the Ukrainians in WWII Part 3. Of German plans and German collaborators.

Posted on July 26, 2015 | Leave a comment

ukrainians

Article by: James Oliver
This is Part 3 in a series. Prior articles:
– Understanding the Ukrainians in WWII. Part 1
– Understanding the Ukrainians in WWII. Part 2. Stories of Ukrainians in the Red Army

On May 22 Volodymyr Katriuk, a Ukrainian World War II veteran and a suspected participant in the massacre of the 186 inhabitants of the Belarusian village of Khatyn [1] passed away in Canada. For years his name had been at the center of a diplomatic row between Russia and Canada over Russian plans to extradite him to Moscow in order to stand trial for his role in the massacre. In 1999 a Canadian court had cleared Katriuk of war crimes, finding him guilty only of falsifying his name in 1951 to obtain Canadian citizenship. Later in 2008 NKVD documents surfaced further indicting Katriuk of having been complicit in the massacre. At the time of his death he remained no.2 on the Simon Wiesenthal Center‘s “List of Most Wanted Nazi War Criminals.”

It sometimes happens that Westerners know little about Ukrainians and Lithuanians except their reputation as anti-Semites and willing collaborators in the Holocaust Continue reading →

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Posted in History of Ukraine, Russia, USSR, WW II

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