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.
Still no response from Craig on who these financial elites are. ‘Natch.
@Ben-American Fascist Flechette: “Do you think the US should back up their allegations with some concrete evidence?” Don’t be silly.
….and where is The Federation’s “We didn’t see anything launch at all” statement ?
Oh, I forgot, they weren’t looking in that direction ! Bollocks .
The Russians are not denying the aircraft was shot down.
They say it was nothing to do with them.
So……they have something to prove here.
There was no US citizen involved here.
I am awaiting proof Putin was not involved.
Surely he has that ???
James; You have the skills of an engineer, but you want Putin to prove a negative? I suspect this is a battle over secrets both states don’t wish to divulge. (Merkel et al)
I thought James was being sarcastic, Ben.
Oh well, seems logic isn’t his forte…
Does anyone know what Russia sent to Mali in the way of “light weaponry”?
http://www.ibtimes.com/russia-sending-arms-conflict-ridden-syria-mali-1082984
They denied sending Iskander medium-range ballistic missiles and MiGs to Syria, but admitted to sending Yaks. What about Mali, in the interim between this article and the downing of AH5017?
Beware the skies of nations supplied by Russia’s military manufacturers.
Ben
The Federation do not deny the a/c was shot down.
They have indeed pointed out those who they feel have done this.
They just “have a feeling” who did this ?
The fact that the Russians would have had “eyes on” that area seems to have been missed by you.
Maybe the ole Tinfoil Hat is getting a tad too tight these days.
MH17 black box data tells of explosion
http://www.smh.com.au/world/mh17-black-box-data-tells-of-explosion-20140727-zxc9g.html
Data retrieved from the the ill-fated MH17 flight black box shows the plane was hit multiple times by shrapnel from a missile explosion.
————–
The black box data is never going to tell us by whom, though.
Every time you comment about Russia, it seems to me to be a description of Britain.
Sikorski’s rhetoric in response to the downing of MH17 is wholly unacceptable. He is the foreign minister of a government that has resolutely rejected calls for an independent inquiry into the Smolensk disaster of 2010 and which has sided with an entirely flawed Russian investigation – the results of which were deliberately concocted.
In the immediate aftermath, the behaviour of the Russians at the crash site precisely mirrored the obstruction and deceit now being encountered at the MH17 debris field in the Ukraine. Subsequently, the wreckage was cut up with chain saws and transported to an open-air site in Russia. Exposed to the elements for many months, critical forensic evidence subsequently degraded. In many cases, the bodies that were returned to families were not those of their missing relatives.
In a BBC interview the day after Smolensk, Sikorski stated “Russia’s behaviour is exemplary.”
Key independent experts and scientists, including a leading figure at NASA, have concluded that an explosion was the likely cause and not pilot error. Local eye witnesses at Smolensk have substantiated this finding and many other relevant factors. Yet four years on, the bereaved still have no answers and their attempts to discover the truth continue to be denounced or ignored by the Polish government.
My partner is the grandson of a senior Polish army officer who was murdered at Katyn. He is simply appalled by Sikorski.
The Ukrainian government has been trying to pass laws enabling the sale of gas infrastructure (to the Yanks presumably) but the Communist party and others opposed it. The Parliament was dissolved to allow new elections, the Communist party has been outlawed and after the elections, the vote will be rerun until the desired result is achieved. Fracking has already started in the areas around Slavyansk, with commercial operators being protected by the Ukrainian military. The owners of the resource leases are Burima (sp?)(with Biden’s son now an executive) and Shell.
Early in July, Mike Whitney wrote an article, Pushing Ukraine to the Brink, in Counterpunch about the US and its wars for control of resources, focusing on Afghanistan and Ukraine. In Ukraine, US is doing a classic divide and conquer trying to split Russia and its trading partner the EU. it also wants the Ukrainian government to privatize the national gas distribution network, so hopefully US corporations can get control of the pipelines between Russia and the EU. It also wants to lure Russia into a war with Ukraine.
Regarding MH-17, the relevant part of the article is:
“But here’s the odd part: Washington doesn’t have a back-up plan. It’s obvious by the way Poroshenko keeps doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. That demonstrates that there’s no Plan B. Either Poroshenko lures Putin across the border and into the conflict, or the neocon plan falls apart, which it will if they can’t demonize Putin as a “dangerous aggressor” who can’t be trusted as a business partner.
So all Putin has to do is sit-tight and he wins, mainly because the EU needs Moscow’s gas. If energy supplies are terminated or drastically reduced, prices will rise, the EU will slide back into recession, and Washington will take the blame. So Washington has a very small window to draw Putin into the fray, which is why we should expect another false flag incident on a much larger scale than the fire in Odessa. Washington is going to have to do something really big and make it look like it was Moscow’s doing. Otherwise, their pivot plan is going to hit a brick wall.”
Written on 9 July 2014.
That’s interesting, Yonatan. I think you’ve expressed the views of some Russian citizens living abroad.
Polarization happening:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/25/russians-living-london-backlash-flight-mh17-blame
Storyful’s role in MH17 reporting:
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jul/27/mh17-storyful-social-media-twitter-youtube
http://rt.com/news/177296-ukraine-mh17-satellite-images/
Two images. One Russian. One Ukrainian. Both different.
Prove one is “right”…..and the provider of the other one, did the firing.
But which one is “right” ?
The “Putin’s plane” theory is good.
But if the Ukraine hit that, they would be squashed.
Maybe it is “Rus Vs Rus” and it went wrong.
Evidence is mounting the Malaysian plane downed in Ukraine was fired upon by two Ukranian su25M fighters using anti-tank penetrative and incendiary weapons, at close range into the cockpit from each side and slightly below the plane. This is a theory which can from the available evidence be determined conclusively or not, without room for doubt.
http://www.anderweltonline.com/wissenschaft-und-technik/luftfahrt-2014/shocking-analysis-of-the-shooting-down-of-malaysian-mh17/
Craig really does not want to mention the humanitarian cost of a fascist-led government in Ukraine. He has just removed the following comment from the Hadley Freeman thread.
“Hadley Freeman chooses not to draw attention to the slaughter of civilians in Gaza and she is no different from most other people in the UK regarding what is happening in Ukraine. Still no reporting in the west of the ongoing civil war. No mention that people have taken to the square in Kiev again. No mention of the constant shelling of civilians in Donetsk and Lugansk. No mention of the deaths in one day of some 250 Ukrainian troops near the Russian border.”
http://rushor.su/news/18942
Putin is a great man.
Firing from below in that manner reduces the likelihood of either Ukranian plane hitting the other Ukranian plane, one of the pair may just have been backup, though there were confused reports of a Ukranian plane also downed at the same time and a pilot baling out, so one might just have hit the other, accidentally, it could just have been parts or a body from the passenger plane seen falling. There would be wreckage of the Ukranian plane within 10-15 miles of the incident, but not necessarily near the site where most of the Boeing landed. What happened to the wing sections of the Boeing wreckage, the strongest part, none of the wreckage scene pictures seem to show these, nor any large crater similar to that the wing section created at Lockerbie. With the nose of the plane effectively turned into a colander at speed, the destructive breakup in the air would have been instantaneous, first de-pressuring and then re-pressurising way beyond structural joints and weaknesses endurance, tearing, breaking the plane into its component parts.
http://ronaldthomaswest.com/2014/07/19/black-boxes-dark-arts-geopolitics/
“Colonel W. Patrick Lang is a retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces (The Green Berets). He served in the Department of Defense both as a serving officer and then as a member of the Defense Senior Executive Service”
“Habakkuk on ‘truth and honor’, the MH17 shootdown, and the centenary of World War I”
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2014/08/on-truth-and-honor-the-mh17-shootdown-and-the-centenary-of-world-war-i-.html