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.
No contradiction here, but I just wondered how you are 100pc sure who fired the missile at MH17.
Heavy duty rumours coming out of Reuters that a reliable whistleblower reported seeing US satellite photos of the BUK missile system which was used. Surrounded by military in Ukraine Army uniforms + some scattered beer-bottles. Obama has only stated that the missile came from a BUK on separatist held territory, not who was manning it. There must be photos because this happened in daylight and satellite from the US, Russia and China must be keeping an eye on Ukraine.
I am ready to accept whatever judgment comes to publication, but many in the West especially have been very quick to join the anti-Putin lunch-mob. Whether you like Putin or not it is hardly right to play ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ when the investigators have scarcely begun their work. For the Sun to say: “it was Putin what done it” may satisfy their readership and may also please the perception managers in the Pentagon, but it is not enough
Excuse me for asking, but what or who exactly, is the financial elite.? These are the ones who don’t want anything done to Putin, right?
“The immediate cause of the MH17 disaster was a missile shot by pro-Russian forces”
Evidence please.
Why did Germany back the coup by immediately recognizing the new government in Kiev? Did it not occur to Merkel that an ultra-nationalist regime that took power in a coup might piss off a lot of Ukrainians?
If Russia is so important why the EU trade association agreement?
Yes, that 1st sentence is a lot to swallow without a little something to substantiate it.
Craig; I fear your back-water sources are letting you down. First you were privy to the reason MH17 was diverted due to weather. Then in the last post you reference the Beeb, whom you are loathe to trust normally. You cryptically mention last post that the financial elites are suborning punishment for Putin, but don’t elaborate as you said you would on this post.
Is someone feeding you things you want to hear, knowing your distaste for Putin?
Some credible issues raised in the non-MSM include:
Why was the plane routed through the conflict area by Ukranian ATC, it has been shown that for ten days previously and becoming the norm, the same flight turned southwards before Eastern Ukraine?
What were the Ukranian fighter jets doing around the plane?
Any BUK missile captured by the East Ukranians from the Ukranian military would have only been one component of a functioning system, and would it -an older type BUK from the late-1980s, have had the height to reach a commercial 777’s at cruise altitude of 33,000 metres. The transport plane shootdown though could have been achieved with shoulder launched weapon, its shootdown does not imply a functioning BUK in East Ukraine’s control
Voice recordings of radio chatter have been shown to be assemblage of earlier recordings, including from the earlier transport plane shootdown.
Strelkov reputedly has not and never has had accounts on the Russian Twitter equivalent, so the boastful/celebratory tweeting seems unlikely to have originated from this individual. The suggestion too, that frontline commanders would have any use for social media at any time, especially in the midst of grave events is absurd.
I can pick up these inconsistencies in the superficial scan of non-western MSM sources such as asiatimes, I’m sure a more thorough and informed look could find dozens more.
I’ll trust the definitive Russian and East Ukranian accounts, when they come, to be better informed and closer to the truth than ‘our’ western storytellers, who can never be trusted to get the simplest matter straight.
” Highly significant is the legislation just passed to award Russian nationality to ethnic Russians in former Soviet states. That is racially based legislation.”
By the way Craig, how is the Scottish vote going? Still base on non-ethnic considerations?
And when it comes to assessing the economic imbalance in a society, it doesn’t make much sense to include far flung ‘outliers’ in the mix. The Oligarchs are best viewed as a separate species, since they are too rich to be part of the active community. A more disturbing economic asymmetry is when large portions of society are becoming the haves and have-nots, such as the stupidly growing public sector workforce versus the shrinking private sector workforce.
Very good piece of writing, very i formative, very right. I really appreciate it, Craig. Thank you.
Excellent article, Craig, thank you. We are entering very dangerous times.
Excellent article.
Good post Craig.
Sorry Craig, you forgot to suggest the US turn its Drones on itself, itself a criminal empire.
Jettison the goofy bits drafted by Dave Spart and what remains on Russia as a corrupt imperial power makes good sense. To the point of bewildering and dismaying your army of conspiracy theory experts, as we already behold
Congratulations!
Yes, don’t let pesky things like evidence spoil a good rant.
Craig, you do yourself no favours when you descend into phrases like “…self-hating fantasist…” to describe genuine people who question the barrage of increasingly obvious official lies put out by the western media. It smacks too much of the “self-hating jew” smear applied by the pro-Israel lobby to any jew who threatens the approved zionist narrative.
@Craig. Have you lost control of your senses. Nobody knows! It is the purpose of the investigation to show this, that, or something else, is the case. It certainly looks like it was shot down, but hard evidence of nothing else as far as I have seen. You were spot on with your first thread; such a shame you’ve become part of the mmedia.
@Charles: In this case, the conspiracy theory seems to have been created by the orchestrators of the mainstream media.
Agree with others that bald statement about which parties shot down plane is way premature here. Otherwise, you might wish to consider that one doesn’t have to be “pro” Putin in order not to rush to judgment on various actions he has taken versus actions taken by other nations. At least Putin doesn’t have a Tuesday list of victims waiting to be assassinated by drones. Some of us don’t subscribe to a manichean view of the world, a la George W. Bush.
Kelly: murdered? Is that hunch/supposition/allegation? or are you satisfied there is evidence (even if only eg off-record confirmation)
“Ukraine is just too big to be helped if it does not massively help itself. Perhaps if Russia sees the prospect of instability across Ukraine it will decide to throw its weight behind something more sensible? But for this purpose what or who is ‘Russia’? The situation there is no less grim according to many economic and social indicators. The decadent KGB-oligarchocracy may just prefer to plunder the whole space into the ground?
http://charlescrawford.biz/2013/12/02/ukraine-now-what/
Austeriteee! Liberteeeee1 Fraternateee !!
IMF/EU = Utopia….huzzaaahhh !
Now that’s some financial elitism.
Excellent article, indeed, Craig, except for a few tiny points. The Russian oligarchs were enabled by Yeltsin under the guidance of US Wall Street oligarchs including Rubin and Summers, and Putin has struggled since to remove/reduce their influence which was totally robbing the Russian people (much as is now occurring in Greece and elsewhere. There is a very interesting UTube piece on this from the Icelandic President for those with a wider perspective than Craig.). I reckon that you were sacked from the FO not for whistle-blowing about torture but for pure ignorance and refusal to recognise facts when they are outside of your chosen prejudice or agenda.
The MH17 incident is a horrible tragedy and the ones who have committed it should be heavily punished. However, the question that should be asked is ‘Why has this incident occurred?’. The crash is the consequence of the war between separatists and Kiev, and the reason of this war is the coup which happened after Maidan which was supported by Western powers, because Yanukovich did not sign the association agreement that is not beneficial for Ukraine – the current situation proves it. In the millennium, where ever the US is intervening, the situation is getting worse there. In Iraq and Afghanistan – people are dying everyday although the US troops have been withdrawing. In Libya – government doesn’t exist. In Syria – civil war. In Ukraine – civil war. Putin was against all these. However, situation of Ukraine is very different. Ukraine has always been the red line because Russian leaders have always viewed Ukraine as vital to Moscow’s defense. In this situation, Putin is protecting geopolitical interest of Russia by implementing heavy steps.
As long as the West does not start to respect interest of Russia, the war will not stop. It is time to say stop to the WEST, particularly US.
Interesting statistics about GDP. EU > US. Russia seems to have recovered well from the Yeltsin years… well enough to overtake Italy. And how is it that despite all the slagging off, France is doing so well? But all this has nothing to do with getting at the truth about MH17. Can we get back to that… oh yes, that has already been decided, Craig, it was in your first paragraph.
About those puny sanctions. Under UN Charter Article 41, interruption of economic relations is subject to UNSC authority. Under Chapter VII. Even the 15 March resolution invoked only Chapter VI. Sanctions are above the EU’s pay grade. Don’t take my word for it, ask UNCTAD and the G-77. A/RES/68/262, ambivalently passed though it was, stressed Ukraine’s sovereignty. If you followed that up with coercive sanctions that breach the non-intervention principle it would strike a bit of a sour note, Don’t you think?
But But But Russia will veto everything!!1 Well, that’s why great power confrontation is such a bite in the ass, Isn’t it? In fact, great power confrontation is itself a breach of the non-intervention principle. That leaves us with pacific dispute resolution.
Don’t forget the lengths Amerika will go to hide the truth in plane shoot downs.
TWA 800.
and the full truth has yet to be told about Lockerbie.
We are all being government by the morally and criminally corrupt.
I know you don’t like Putin and the Russians but can’t you wait for proof util you start to point fingers ? Our media has been doing nothing but for the last few days.
The US says it has undisputable proof and yet the only thing which has been put forward are Facebook entries which were quickly removed. Snowden told us a couple of weeks ago that ,that is daily bread for our security services.They regularly hack FB Twitter accounts, online polls, comments in newspapers etc etc etc.
I dare say that Putin would give orders for the Shaggy answer, ” it wasn’t me “, but now that they have done a bit of back checking,recordings of the radar screens from Rostov have been shown, + each false accusation has been denied with proof.
Kiev has the Air Traffic control tapes available. Where are they ? Usually that’s the first thing that’s broadcast… pilots last words or conversation. Nada !!
Biggest question of all, WTF was it flying over this area for ?
And meanwhile Kiev hammers Donetsk with no nation saying it might be inappropriate at this point.Isn’t that suspicious ?
They’ve been telling Putin to keep his nose out of East Ukraine for months now, and all of a sudden it’s, if the rebels don’t do this and that, It’s russia’s fault.It’s Putin’s civil war, weapons , delay’s which weren’t delays and no access when there was access all according to the OSCE and Malaysian and Dutch investigators.
I fully understand the Rebels holding back the Black boxes to prevent Kiev getting them , now they’ve been handed over & Malaysia happy they’ve not been tampered with.The unison of the MSM Craig,ought to raise your eyebrows as they parrot Cameron’s mood and tone.
What reasons could there be for keeping satellite imagery of the event secret ? It all smells rather like Assad’s chemical weapons.
” It all smells rather like Assad’s chemical weapons.”
A concert with Cameron and Obummer singing the high notes should be heard with a tin-ear.
Let’s hope they all do a Maxwell.
Dilbar – 110m (360.89ft) – Lürssen – 2008
Alisher Usmanov – net worth USD 18.1 billon – Russia
Metalloinvest, Kommersant – metalloinvest.com
Alisher Usmanov is one of Russia’s richest men, with a fortune estimated at USD 18.1 billion. He is shareholder of Metalloinvest, one of the largest iron ore suppliers in the world. He is also owner of Arsenal Football Club, Kommersant (a Russian newspaper) and several other media companies. Superyacht Dilbar is named after his mother
Madame Gu – 99m (325ft) – Feadship – 2013
Andrei Skoch – net worth USD 8 billion – Russia
Metallo Invest – metalloinvest.com
Madame Gu is owned by Russian billionaire Andrei Skoch. Skoch also owns the Amels yacht Lady Gulya.
Le Grand Blue – 112.8m (370.0ft) – Vulkan – 2000
Evgeny Shvidler – net worth USD 1.4 billion – Russia
Sibneft (oil), Millhouse LLC – http://www.gazprom-neft.com
Evgeny Markovich Shvidler is the owner of the yacht Le Grand Blue. Shvidler started his career in NewYork, working for Deloitte & Touche. He returned to Russia, where he started the oil trading company Runicom, together with Roman Abramovich. In 1995 they took control of Sibneft. Sibneft was Russia’s fastest growing and most profitable oil company. Evgeny Shvidler was president of the company. In 2005 state company Gazprom aquired Sibneft for USD 13 billion. Currently Shivdler still invests with Abramovich as they together own the investment and asset management company Millhouse.
Hermitage – 68.5m (225ft) – Lurssen Yachts – 2011
Anatoly Sedykh – net worth USD 1.1 billion – Russia
United Metallurgical Company – http://www.omk.ru/en/OMK
Superyacht Hermitage is rumored to be owned by Russian billionaire Anatoly Sedykh
Russian oligarchs are dwarfed by US billionaires. I think Bill Gates has more than the Russians combined, or close to it.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erincarlyle/2013/03/06/full-list-u-s-billionaires-of-2013/