Alexei Navalny is not the pleasant liberal our mainstream media paint him to be. Before extensive grooming by the West, he was a racist populist. However, he now makes a more convincing liberal standard bearer than similar proteges like Juan Guaido and to some extent has probably changed with wider experience. He most certainly is not especially popular in Russia, outside some wealthier and younger demographics, but they are voters too, and human progress would not have been great without the much despised middle classes.
I am not in the least convinced by the ludicrous narrative that Vladimir Putin and the FSB were not competent enough to successfully assassinate Alexei Navalny in Russia, including as he lay unconscious in a Russian state hospital. I regard it as a nonsense. But neither do I necessarily suspect that the whole incident was engineered by the West or Navalny (exploited is different to engineered). Incidentally, I am perfectly prepared to accept that the security service outlet Bellingcat was right about the Russian security services following Navalny. I have no doubt whatsoever that they do follow him, and have done so for many years. So what? Western security services followed me intensely when I first became a whistleblower, and on and off ever since, most notably when I have contact with Julian or Wikileaks. The British government announced in Julian’s recent bail hearing it spent £16 million of public money on surveillance of the Ecuadorean Embassy – that’s £16 million on looking at a non-moving target! Security services follow people. There are thousands of the blighters, both in the West and in Russia, and follow people is what many of them do for a living. It is in no sense evidence of assassination. Every time my heart problem puts me in hospital, I don’t imagine it was the MI5 surveillance folks (who must, incidentally, be very bored. When I was younger they did get to look at some great parties).
Anybody who genuinely believes that Putin did not personally authorise the arrest and detention of Navalny on return does not understand Russia. Putin’s purpose is simply to show that he can – that the West cannot protect its protege, which is a good lesson for the next one, and cannot harm Russian interests abroad. In power calculations, Putin is almost always correct. I am fairly sure he is also correct in calculating that swatting Navalny will play well to his popular base, who like the macho thing.
I do not address the technicalities of whether Navalny’s suspended embezzlement sentence was legitimate, and whether he breached suspension conditions, because again if you think that has anything at all to do with what is happening, you are hopelessly naive. Navalny might very well be guilty of embezzlement, but on nothing in the same universe of scale as Putin himself and his inner circle. It is about selectivity of prosecution rather than innocence or guilt. If you have political control of the prosecutor, you hold the cards. Oh sorry, I was drifting back to Scotland.
So Putin can see Navalny jailed till 2025 on the embezzlement charge with no serious consequences and a minor stabilisation of his personal authority. But at what cost? My major criticism of Putin is that he has failed to move Russia, an absolutely vital pillar of European cultural heritage, back towards the European centre after decades of isolation. That involves development away from purely autocratic government; but there remains absolutely no sign that Putin even intends to position Russia for that move once he finally relinquishes power – which he ought to have done many years ago. Allowing Navalny to continue his campaigning will not hurt Putin and will not hurt Russia. It is a fascinating and universal fact that the longer people hold power, the more paranoid they become.
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I think Putin’s opinion on ‘moving back toward the European heartlands’ requires Europe to demonstrate to Putin’s satisfaction that it is not an obedient, servile poodle of the Russia-hating genocidal psychopaths that call themselves the US Deep State. Why on earth would he do something like that??
He doesn’t require Europe to become lapdogs to China either. He merely requires them to prove to him that the continual stationing of US missiles in Eastern Europe pointed straight at St Petersburg, Moscow and other Russian Cities west of the Urals is not going to continue. After all, getting them to tell the USA to take a hike over Nordstream II has been an ongoing challenge, hasn’t it?!
Much as you weren’t a Trump supporter and clearly aren’t a Putin supporter, it does have to be said that Putin is not continually sticking his military knob into hellholes far from Russia. Syria seems to be about as far as he has ventured in that regard and then only upon the specific request of the leader Syrians accept, even if the US don’t (and hence the lapdog European satrapies don’t either). He certainly hasn’t organised coups in Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala, El Salvador or, horror of horrors, Mexico. Yet he is expected to tolerate US coups in Ukraine, attempts to turn Sevastopol into a US navy base, attempts to organise a coup in 2020 in Belarus and never-ending virtue signalling by Poland requesting the US treat the Russian Bear as a veritable Tyrannosaurus Rex??
It simply isn’t credible to expect Putin to be a military Gandhi whilst accepting Pompeo et al, Obama et al, Dubya et al as military Hitlers.
Quite frankly, if you want Putin to return to democratic DefCon 1, you need about 20 years of the West in general and the USA in particular demonstrating a capability to keep their imperial noses out of Russia’s backyard.
If you won’t demonstrate that, don’t expect Putin to uphold your democratic ideals.
Boris Johnson certainly doesn’t, Joe Biden almost certainly won’t (I have to give him 1% wiggle room after all) and if you think folks like Verhofstadt, Barnier, Macron, van der Leyen et al give two hoots about democracy, you may need to be sent on an ‘FCO Refresher Course’ before considering yourself ‘up to speed’ to become the first President of an independent Scotland, friend….the EU doesn’t give two hoots about Scotland, all they see you lot as is one route to squeezing ‘l’Albion perfide’ until the pips squeak…
Thank you, Rhys. You’ve save me the time and trouble of writing a response to Craig’s latest. I agree 100% with your take.
Same for me. Well put, Rhys.
Rhys Jaggar – I’d say that everything you say is correct, but irrelevant for the issue of Navalny. As far as I can see, the only thing that Navalny was doing was announcing that he and Vlad weren’t the best of friends and advising people to vote for someone else. Nevertheless, they voted for Vlad anyway, so he was rather ineffective.
He shouldn’t really be banging people up for that reason – it makes Russia look almost as corrupt as the UK and USA, with Julian Assange in Belmarsh for the crime of doing good journalism.
Very true, Rhys.
“Quite frankly, if you want Putin to return to democratic DefCon 1, you need about 20 years of the West in general and the USA in particular demonstrating a capability to keep their imperial noses out of Russia’s backyard”.
I think 2,000 years would be more accurate. The Russians have not forgotten occupation by the Golden Horde; they have good memories for people who mean them harm.
Excellent points well made.
The Russians, or more specifically Lavrov said the US wasn’t “agreement capable” i.e. wasn’t capable of sticking to any agreement they made. Hence Russia’s attitude. Navalny is a pawn of the western intelligence services. And given the stick Assange is taking right now, the Russians just ignore any “human rights” because they will not take lectures from people who don’t follow the rules themselves.
To echo some of the comments below, thank you very much Rhys for saving me the time of trying to write something similar. Putin demonstrated every intent of wanting to bring Russia into the west when he first came to power. Remember the free trade zone from Lisbon to Vladivostok? The late and brilliant Russian scholar Steven Cohen referred to Putin as profoundly western oriented in his early years in the Russian presidency. Craven Russophobia in the US and supine compliance by its European allies derailed that train.
rhys… thanks also for saying all this…
what is interesting to me is that craig feels no need to reply to any of your comments… i find that especially interesting..
james, i want to be fair to craig; he does have a great, great deal on his plate at the moment. i’ve never questioned his courage or integrity, i think he has a bit of a blind spot here, as do we all unfortunately.
thanks pretzelattack… i like your position here and share in it..
The hypocrisy of the NATO nations is vomit inducing.
Navalny gets 30 days for violation of his parole conditions for a crime he was convicted of. Julien Assange gets 50 weeks for bail violation for a crime he never was even charged with.
The former gets hailed as the saviour of Russia by the massed NATO press, the latter can rot in prison with a possible extradition to the USA for his efforts of publishing US war crimes.
The moral high ground the NATO nations claim to occupy reveals itself as a bug and ‘gator infested swamp.
Democracy?
Like that we have here in Perfidious Albion at the current time?
The country of Scotland is fully entitled to it’s self determination and independence as any other.
What care we about Putin, Johnson, Biden, Macron, Barnier, or any other >come and go< mooths. Now including the mendacious Sturgeon and her lickspittle cabal.
Scotland is long scunnered to being continually squeezed by oppressive masters.
Rather on it's feet and defiant than on it's knees grovelling.
For Rhys at top.
Dear Sir,
The Americans are non-agreement capable, and Europe their collared vassals. Europe was not able to hold its part on the Minsk agreements, or on the JCPOA.
What possible move could Putin do to bring Russia closer to Europe, except bringing Russia on its knees?
He should show good faith, as Yeltsin did, by allowing the Chicago and Goldman boys to resume their rape of Russia. Are you saying the west has not earned that right?
@Jay, that’s it in a nutshell.
So I have heard allegations against Putin for embezzlement for 17 years. Nothing has been proven to date, and almost all of it comes from well established liars.
Like the 12,000 Russian troops in Ukraine, it is an allegation that relies solely on how often it is repeated.
There is a danger in trying to be seen as objective in these things. Generally stories are mostly correct or almost entirely wrong. A lot of money gets spent on these things, they are more than happy if they are half believed.
yeah this take bothers me. moving toward a europe that has been such lapdogs of the u.s. doesn’t strike me as an urgent priority for russia.
I concur both with Rhys and pretzelattack. Putin may be a gangster indeed but moving towards Europe will mean he just joins those gangsters who’ve enriched their class at the expense of the population and engage in and support US militarism wherever in the world.
I am amazed Russia spent millions on “back rent” to rejoin PACE….especially with regard to everlasting sanctions against Russia for Crimea etc. Maybe just trying to put Ukraine in its place.Then so much is invested in OSCE on a prayer and a wing…which seems so our of date and ineffective eg re Donbass Minsk etc. And both France and Germany have been proven so absolutely just verbage but completely ineffectual and double dealing re Minsk ….Belarus.But Lavrov has welcomed a new general secretary to lead the OSCE as an opportunity to kinda pull itself together…especially when Turkey kinda sabotaged it together with Azerbaijan …..so maybe there is a double rethink now. But Craig….oh boy…Putin is relentlessly just waiting for clown Navalny the joke of the west liberal idea of democracy to fully expose his backers supporters and his losers at every level as a very pathetic comedy act fully deserving of the Russian Criminal code . Just as David Steele the dossier man and colleagues are completely exposed even by his own backers . Just like OPCW is exposed from within to.nullify Assad chemical claims…whitehelmets exposed. All rhe same narrative threads…..to destroy russian culture ….Russia as the international terrorist as Ukraine has consistently tried to claim at the Hague to divert attention from its own war crimes and all events listed by Donbass and Russia in their white book ….although the very recent confirmation finding against Georgia’s claims about Russia re 2008 is step to reality. the lack of EU integrity re MH17…the trades union massacre by Kiev forces in Odessa completely forgotten by EU too…conveniently…etc. We remember. Putin remembers. Russia remembers.
“Like the 12,000 Russian troops in Ukraine, it is an allegation that relies solely on how often it is repeated”.
I especially like the photograph of a Russian tank column entering Ukraine that was put about by a US congressman.
That lasted a few days until the Israeli who took the photograph in Georgia in 2008 came forward and complained.
I remember the photo, Tom. It was of tanks going up a steep mountain road. The congressman was so stupid he didn’t even check a map to see if there were any mountains on the Russian-Ukranian border.
Yes, the reason Russia has imprisoned Mr. Two Percent Navalny cannot because of his popularity being a threat to Putin, because he has none (popularity) and he isn’t (a threat).
Despised middle classes
The Tories in power now were a working class takeover in 1979. They have still not finished despising the middle class values that motivated them to rise from their working class horizons. You are very right to point this out because freedom of speech , pontificating about right and wrong is the last thing they need to squash after they have done wealth, power and education.
No harm atcsll in pointing out to the judge that you also rose from humble origins. “You stand accused today of the despised , middle class irritation of having, propagating and nurturing the vanity of private opinions. This plebiscite court will not stand for such self-importance and giving yourself airs and graces above your station. ” ” But I’m from humble origins. ”
” Oh well that’s alright then. So sorry to bother you Mr Murray. Case dismissed. Have a good’un. “
Suffice to say that under Gorbachev and Yeltsin Russia was a pathetic mess; Putin’s presence has made quite a difference for the better – viewed from a Russian perspective.
I’d be very interested to see links to reputable sources detailing Putin’s corruption, if anyone has any.
Robyn,
To make your task far more easy and indeed comprehensive – simply obtain the records for most world leaders – 99% – and indeed there remains – in a positive way – this time – the 1%. who are actually honest.
Go to the ‘Panama papers’ for the proof.
Putin isn’t mentioned a single time in the Panama papers. He is however, named as being connected to it in the same newspapers that accused him of invading Ukraine and novichokking Mr Two-Percent-Navalny.
I wholeheartedly agree.
Putin looks after Russia with a “strong and stable” approach.
I like his marathon press conferences which although his questioners are hand picked, he does address some tough issues. he is stable in foreign affairs which surely makes for the rest of the world to be able to deal with him consistently but Why oh why hasn’t he started to set the stage in his 70s, for a gradual glidepath to more democratization?
Maybe there just isn’t anyone to match his competence and power base? Maybe he is afraid that would make Russia vulnerable to more Western meddling but time is running out and if he is not careful he will leave a post-King Lear like chaos, which would surely be far worse than a less competent/powerful successor in a more plurative system.
What is this democracy that people seem to think is so great ?
Look at the UK and the US now: corruption and incompetence is rife, the voting systems are totally biased, The Police and security services are a law unto themselves and the moneyed reign supreme.
The western definition of democracy doesn’t favour the people, certainly not something to shout about.
Good question, Stevie.
As far as I can make out, democracy as such has been vanishingly rare throughout history. The obvious examples are classical Athens and Switzerland. The Athenians celebrated their relatively pure democracy (apart from women, slaves and non-citizens) by repeated launching savage and unprovoked invasions of countries that had done nothing to deserve it. Cyprus, Egypt, various other Greek cities, and finally Syracuse – which gave them what they deserved. The parallel with the USA is amazingly close.
In post-Englightenment Europe and its colonies, “democracy” has meant a masquerade intended to persuade the masses that their interests are being taken into account when, in fact, they aren’t. Gilens and Page did a fairly thorough dissection of US “democracy”: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B
Tom Welsh, I too have long been struck by the parallels between classical Athens and contemporary USA. Both are or were wealthy societies in which there were plentiful resources to support arts and culture. Although described as democracies, both societies enabled a relatively small group of privileged citizens to make decisions on behalf of the rest. The same abundance of resources enabled both states to build up major military forces, which they then used to acquire a hegemony over other states, particularly smaller and neighbouring states such as, in the case of Athens, the members of the Delian League, and in the case of the USA, the states of Central and South America.
When states resist this hegemonic drive they can be in for a lot of trouble, as happened with the neutral island state of Melos, which, as described by Thucydides, was simply wiped off the map by Athenian forces; while the USA has repeatedly shown its intolerance for states, particularly in its backyard western hemisphere, which have shown any signs of independence. Chile under Allende and Nicaragua under the Sandinistas have suffered the brutal consequences of not kowtowing to the Americans. Athens eventually got its comeuppance as a result of trying to exert its power too far away from home, when it launched an ill-judged attack on the rich and powerful Sicilian state of Syracuse. Such a fate has not yet overtaken the USA, but it could if they over-reach themselves.
With apologies to Mr Murray and the moderators – and anyone else who is easily bored – I canot resist responding to Coldish with some further very striking passages from Thucydides, which highlight even more powerfully the similarity between the Athenians of 400 BC and the US citizens from 1776 until today.
Please delete, moderators, if they are too long.
“The Athenians are addicted to innovation, and their designs are characterized by swiftness alike in conception and execution; you [the Spartans] have a genius for keeping what you have got, accompanied by a total want of invention, and when forced to act you never go far enough. Again, they are adventurous beyond their power, and daring beyond their judgment, and in danger they are sanguine; your wont is to attempt less than is justified by your power, to mistrust even what is sanctioned by your judgment, and to fancy that from danger there is no release. Further, there is promptitude on their side against procrastination on yours; they are never at home, you are never from it: for they hope by their absence to extend their acquisitions, you fear by your advance to endanger what you have left behind. They are swift to follow up a success, and slow to recoil from a reverse. Their bodies they spend ungrudgingly in their country’s cause; their intellect they jealously husband to be employed in her service. A scheme unexecuted is with them a positive loss, a successful enterprise a comparative failure. The deficiency created by the miscarriage of an undertaking is soon filled up by fresh hopes; for they alone are enabled to call a thing hoped for a thing got, by the speed with which they act upon their resolutions. Thus they toil on in trouble and danger all the days of their life, with little opportunity for enjoying, being ever engaged in getting: their only idea of a holiday is to do what the occasion demands, and to them laborious occupation is less of a misfortune than the peace of a quiet life. To describe their character in a word, one might truly say that they were born into the world to take no rest themselves and to give none to others”.
– Speech of the Corinthian spokesman, Thucydides “Peloponnesian War”, Book III
“Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to act on any. Frantic violence became the attribute of manliness; cautious plotting, a justifiable means of self-defence. The advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his opponent a man to be suspected. To succeed in a plot was to have a shrewd head, to divine a plot a still shrewder; but to try to provide against having to do either was to break up your party and to be afraid of your adversaries”.
– Thucydides “Peloponnesian War”, Book III, 3.82-[4]
“Oaths of reconciliation, being only proffered on either side to meet an immediate difficulty, only held good so long as no other weapon was at hand; but when opportunity offered, he who first ventured to seize it and to take his enemy off his guard, thought this perfidious vengeance sweeter than an open one, since, considerations of safety apart, success by treachery won him the palm of superior intelligence. Indeed it is generally the case that men are readier to call rogues clever than simpletons honest, and are as ashamed of being the second as they are proud of being the first”.
– Thucydides “Peloponnesian War”, Book III, 3.82-[4]
The “Melian Dialogue” still seems to me to encapsulate the only unchanging laws of human relations. Nothing significant has changed in the past 2,500 years – and why should it, while human beings remain human? The only change that I can detect is that, unlike the Athenian emissary, today’s Western politicians do like to “make long speeches which are not believed”.
It is exactly because “…right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must…” that the Russians, Chinese, Iranians and others are wise to arm themselves to the teeth and not believe a single word from Washington. If the latter had no “equals in power”, it would run riot. It is only the guns levelled steadily at its head and heart that keep it even barely within the bounds of civilised behaviour.
Athenians: “For ourselves, we shall not trouble you with specious pretences – either of how we have a right to our empire because we overthrew the Mede, or are now attacking you because of wrong that you have done us –
and make a long speech which would not be believed; and in return we hope that you, instead of thinking to influence us by saying that you did not join the Lacedaemonians, although their colonists, or that you have done us no wrong, will aim at what is feasible, holding in view the real sentiments of us both; since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must…
Athenian: “Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of their nature they rule wherever they can. And it is not as if we were the first to make this law, or to act upon it when made: we found it existing before us, and shall leave it to exist forever after us; all we do is to make use of it, knowing that you and everybody else, having the same power as we have, would do the same as we do”
– The Melian Dialogue – Thucydides (“Peloponnesian War”)
The western definition does not seem to include NZ for me. Little do we ever understand what a fair and proportional vote can do, because it will never happen. Not under the Tories , nor that pretence fail safe Starmer.
This system has to fully fail and whatever is left, be smashed to smitereens. Starting at the very top.
“The western definition of democracy doesn’t favour the people, certainly not something to shout about.”
The West does not follow the western definition of democracy.
Putin will move Russia back towards the European centre if and when the European centre makes itself agreement capable and offers a reasonable deal. As for “decades of isolation” this reminds me of the Times headline “Fog in the Channel, Continent Isolated.”
Surveillance?
There’s tens of millions of the blighters if you include CCTV,phones and computers.
They’ve never had it so easy.
Jm
It’s a 2 way system, constantly surveilling and constantly bombarding us with gibberish. But what can they do? Without an empire to project malice onto outsiders, they have to project it on their own people.
The advantage empire had was lack of communications , which meant that people remained ignorant if the atrocities committed abroad. And the snag now is that for example we know from the internet that Britain is on the Saudi payroll to fight for Sunni control of Yemen, and the atrocities of this war are appalling. Truth-seeking blogs are in the cross-hairs of Empire2 Tories. It’s almost impossible for them to shoot, without scaring the pigeons.
Personally, I believe the ridiculous charade of Tory MPs castigating Russia and China , while ignoring their own war crimes, will eventually be addressed in another world forum than the UN. Our parliament will become no more than a grand club for plutocrats to posture in.
One things for sure though. Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for Scotland, an off shore capitalist mercantile state, is totally opposite to Craig Murray’s vision as an offshore alternative to criminal colonialism .
The Integrity Initiave, so called because it wants Britain to revert to being a corrupt Empire, has all the tools at its disposal. But the homeless next generation will be far less relaxed about their evil plans than our generation.
.
IMO – Navalny, Guaido and the Hong Kong crowd all have one thing in common, they are funded by the west to destabilise their countries. As such they are traitors and sympathy shouldn’t be wasted on them. Putin is very good at protecting his country from the evil forces who continually try to destroy him, he’s a good leader and Russia has progressed thanks to his efforts.
Good on him, who in their right mind would want to impose the western ways on their country ?
I was rather expecting Navalny to be put over the border quite quickly, as was done with Lukashenko’s opponents in Belarus. I reckon it is still likely, though it obviously was not instantaneous.
Evidently the accusations are not that serious. Keeping him in prison till 2025 is not justified – it sounds like a political punishment – but exiling him for what he has done and said since poison or whatever rendered him unconscious. He has been open in his accusations against Putin.
Do not worry, Navalny will be freed in about 25 days. Assange will not.
The obvious lying behind the German military’s diagnosis of Navalny’s medical condition needs to be exposed. The Russians should offer the Germans permanent custody of the man on condition that the results of the medical tests performed in the Charite Hospital be released to the Russian doctors who first examined him. It is simply bad practice to allow one side to be suggesting that Navalny was sick and the other that he was the victim of a failed assassination attempt. This is a good opportunity to put an end to the Novichok nonsense.
In volunteering to validate the Novichok story Navalny, and his entourage are guilty of something a lot more palpable than embezzlement during the looting of Moscow.
I find John Helmer’s accounts of this case to be convincing:
http://johnhelmer.net/swedish-laboratory-stockholm-court-confirm-alexei-navalny-prepared-nato-secrets-adding-evidence-for-treason-indictment-in-russian-court/
“This is a good opportunity to put an end to the Novichok nonsense”.
On the other hand, the Novichok nonsense gives us a handy way of recognising those who are beyond facts, logic and reason.
yes, but putting an end to the novichok story is a no go from the wests point of view… this is a major plank in the propaganda and can’t be removed… any alternative viewpoint from russia is automatically dismissed, so why would russia even bother?? navalny and company are stooges for the western intel agencies… they are doing their job! and i don’t think it matters a hill of beans to putin how the west wants to spin it.. he like most of us here, recognize a propaganda exercise when it is on full display..
“I am not in the least convinced by the ludicrous narrative that Vladimir Putin and the FSB were not competent enough to successfully assassinate Alexei Navalny in Russia, including as he lay unconscious in a Russian state hospital. I regard it as a nonsense. But neither do I necessarily suspect that the whole incident was engineered by the West or Navalny (exploited is different to engineered).”
How can this statement be squared with the recording between navalny and the Russian agent discussing cleaning the underpants?
The only logical implication seems to be that either navalny was poisoned by Russian agents but intentionally kept alive (in which case why and how?) – or that it wasn’t the Russians and the recording is a hoax.
Craig et al – which is it, it did I miss something?
What makes you believe the ‘Russian agent’ was an agent, and not an actor reading from a script?
“…or that it wasn’t the Russians and the recording is a hoax”.
Oh no! Please tell me the recording wasn’t a hoax!
Can they do even that nowadays?
The story seems to have disappeared as quickly as it emerged in the west. It wasn’t the slam dunk it was initially presented as.
The seams of the underpants are where any discharge due to administration of a muscle relaxant would be most highly concentrated(for obvious reasons). I’d assume it’s standard procedure to check in those locations first, among all agencies in suspected poisonings? Authorities clearly didn’t trust Navalny to begin with. Someone like Navalny will probably have atropine available with him at all times?
tom – what you miss is that this type of info can be generated by the intel agencies.. it is a game of war between them with innocent naive people getting caught inbetween who believe any of it… it is a different type of alternation of a photo like someone would do with photoshop… you need to use your imagination… no offense meant.. you asked..
Tom,
In an age dominated by establishment “perception management”, we’d be remiss in taking that recording at face value, especially coming to us from a state funded outlet proven to disseminate hoaxes designed to shore up the official narrative:
The Grayzone – Pushback with Aaron Maté: Navalny poisoning: CIA, MI6, ‘discredited’ state-funded Bellingcat play key role in accusing Russia (YouTube, 9m 40s)
> navalny was poisoned by Russian agents but intentionally kept alive
That’s not actually possible. Or at least with regards to organophosphate acetylcholinesterase inhibitors is so absurdly unlikely it may as well be impossible.
Well said Craig. Keep going and come to visit when you need a rest. I e-mailed you.
Nice change up from the more pressing matters! Momentary distraction for 1/2 the cerebrum.
I am sure you will agree that Mr. Putin has completely thought thru how the theatre production of “Mr. Navalny Returns” will play out. All is written in advance and the choreography has been fine tuned.
But lest I digress further;
” If you have political control of the prosecutor, you hold the cards. Oh sorry, I was drifting back to Scotland.” – the other 1/2 of the cerebrum……………
….below is a contact I am sure you are aware of, but keep them handy as you will want to have as many options as possible open to you!
58 Melville Street, Edinburgh, United Kingdom EH3 7HF;
Tel./ Тел.: (+44) 131 225 70 98;
Fax/Факс: (+44) 131 225 95 87;
E-mail: [email protected]
‘I am sure you will agree that Mr. Putin has completely thought thru how the theatre production of “Mr. Navalny Returns” will play out’.
I am sure Mr Putin has about 5,000 more important and pressing concerns than Mr Navalny, his underpants, the flagrant dishonesty of the German and Swedish governments, or the amazing conundrum of an advanced “military grade” nerve agent that – even when delivered by highly trained experts under ideal conditions – only kills one of four intended victims. (And that one victim, of course, was originally diagnosed and recorded by the English police as having died of a drug overdose, before they were told by higher authority to change their minds).
If I knew there was a single cockroach in my back garden it would worry me a lot more than Mr Putin is worried about Navalny.
By applying the Novichok to Mr Navalny’s underpants, they showed they were deadly serious. Instead of leaving anything to chance, they went straight for the brain.
I complete agree Tom!!!!!!!!
I thought Craig actually needed some distraction and this issue just came to mind and perhaps-just perhaps he could, maybe score some light points with Bellingcat or “The Establishment” by agreeing that Navalny is REALLY important and innocent and a hero and should be FREE and yada, yada, yada…………..and a REALLY GREAT LEADER – or did I already mention that?
A tongue-in-cheek post on why Julian should be in jail would be just a dead give-away that he was mocking them!
Craig you are in “their sights”, no matter how hard you try they will never agree that your Blog will be useful in capturing/influencing the Hearts and Minds of your readers to the causes of the greater EMPIRE.
Chin up man, stiff upper lip, march it out.
I do like reading your clever tongue and cheek thoughts thou!
Yes, when Putin eventually gives up there could well be a power vacuum which there seems to be no heir apparent to fill. By cementing his own position so firmly he is condemning the country to a problematic aftermath. That’s not to say he’d want the western-groomed candidate or that he’d be any good for Russia, as I don’t believe anyone groomed thus is ever good for their own country, how can they be when they never fully act in its own interests?
To me, Russia is at the same stage the US was at historically when it was ‘the Wild West’ Despite being nominally Communist it’s probably even more capitalist than the US but has yet to relax its authoritarianism to a ‘democratic’ level.
Russia is “nominally communist”?
How so?
“Navalny might very well be guilty of embezzlement, but on nothing in the same universe of scale as Putin himself and his inner circle”.
Is there any evidence for suggesting that Mr Putin has embezzled a single ruble?
It is true that many Russian oligarchs have embezzled maharajah’s ransomes of Russian assets, and that Mr Putin has come to arrangements with some of them to limit the damage they have done.
But that whole embezzlement begain in 1990-1 with the American “advisers” who flew in and deceived the naive Russians into believing that greedy oligarchs could snatch billions of dollars worth of Russian state property in the name of the glorious “free enterprise capitalism”. Those were Russians very much like Donald Trump – only competent.
Craig, I’m a big admirer of yours and on the same page with you 99.99% of the time, but I don’t think you understand Putin or his role in Russian history since the collapse of the USSR. Let’s start with the proposition that Russia is under constant attack from the West and Putin is playing defense against more powerful adversaries. From what I have read, he leads a Spartan lifestyle, is not on the take and is, in fact, incorruptible. Is it possible?
Navalny may be a willing pawn of western intelligence in a greater geopolitical game. But surely it’s dangerous for him personally and he’s a liability to Russia whilst in prison and their care. Were anything further to happen to him it’d be on Russia whether they were culpable or not.
His recent stunt in which he used actual serving Russian FSB officers’ mobile numbers to mask his true identity and trick FSB officer Konstantin Kudryavtsev, surely must have had western support beyond just Bellingcat? I can’t imagine western intel agencies MI6, MI5 ; FBI, CIA etc would take kindly to a similar stunt being pulled by a US or UK citizen operating out of Russia or China, with the help of their intel services? It’d be called treason by our agencies and political leaders alike. We seem to expect Russia to be more forgiving than we in the west are; just look at Assange , Manning , Snowden etc. western leaders and our highly compartmentalised (firewalled) agencies, are absolutely terrified and paranoid about leaks.
Formerly fear of the USSR(communism), now Russia(oligarchy?) has always been easy to generate. NATO-backed Operation Gladio revealed in Italy in 1990 shows just how far and into darkness certain people in western intel were willing to go. The CIA and MI6 were quote : involved in anti-communist activities including anti-democratic agitation to swing elections and false flag “terrorism” to inflict psychological stress. They were active in every western European country according to former members of the networks.
“Formerly fear of the USSR(communism), now Russia(oligarchy?) has always been easy to generate”.
Goose, it’s not a matter of “fear” at all. It’s a matter of resentment that, while the Europeans and Americans have squandered most of their natural resources and have far too many people, Russia still has most of its resources and is one of the very few major nations that is not critically overpopulated.
They want Russia opened up, the way they opened up Japan after 1854 and China soon after. And India, for that matter, in the 18th century, and Africa and South America ever since the Western exploiters set up in business.
And if “opened up” sounds rather like gang rape, that’s because it is. They will use whatever it takes: seduction, sweet talk, promises, drugs, threats or just plain old fashioned violence.
Probably because Putin isn’t part of the club that seeks to bolster western capitalism and its interests around the globe. Nor are the Chinese leadership, despite China only being nominally communist these days,… they tend shoot corrupt officials there.
“…they tend shoot corrupt officials there”.
And businessmen who harm their employees and others in pursuit of ill-gotten gains.
More strength to their arm!
“However, he now makes a more convincing liberal standard bearer than similar protégés like Juan Guaido and to some extent has probably changed with wider experience.”
Yes, and David Duke says he has changed and is no longer a racist. Right.
We know the people who are Navalny’s biggest cheerleaders in British and American media and politics. Know them well. They are some of the most disingenuous human beings on the planet.
There is never any good reason to get on board with their agenda.
One of the great problems we have in the west is in rational discussion/debate is impossible due to how so many have painted cynicism of western narratives, as support for Russia’s leader, which it most certainly is not. You should be able to question both in an open democracy.
When Corbyn merely called for more evidence over Salisbury, he was immediately called a Kremlin apologist and shouted down in the HoC. Paul Mason regularly calls anyone questioning events a ‘crank’ and apologist. And yet not one of these journos has provided a detailed explanation of the weird chronology of events that day; the very narrow window of time in which the Skripals could have touched the door – that is if they returned home at all? Or for that matter explained the weird coincidence of Colonel Alison McCourt, chief nursing officer in the British Army, passing by in the town centre, at the very moment both simultaneously Skripals fell ill, despite her reportedly living 100km away in Aldershot.
UK journos seem to hold the view Russia and China are somehow the only bad actors out there.
The guardian reported only recently(December 2020) on the case brought by a coalition of civil liberties groups including Reprieve, the Pat Finucane Centre, Privacy International and the Committee for the Administration of Justice (CAJ) in Belfast.
The case revolves around what is known as the “third direction”, guidelines permitting agents of MI5 to become involved in criminal conduct…
Ben Jaffey QC, representing the civil liberties groups, said: “Until yesterday morning we had absolutely no idea that [MI6] or GCHQ considered they have power to commit crime in the UK … It was very difficult to believe this was occurring.
“MI6 and GCHQ couldn’t possibly be conducting criminality in UK, as the third direction only refers to the Security Service [MI5]. There’s no provision for oversight of crime by [MI6] or GCHQ. I couldn’t believe the position without statutory oversight, as this is a more or less guaranteed breach of the [European convention on human rights]. More fool me.”
MI6 appears to be operating the policy despite parliament having given the spy agency powers to break the law only overseas, under section 7 of the Intelligence Services Act, the tribunal heard.
——–
That in 2021 there’s no provision for oversight of crime by [MI6] is a staggering admission. UK special forces have absolutely no democratic oversight either.
Craig, forgive a naïve question, but I was under the impression that Putin had made significant efforts to move towards Europe and had been rebuffed by European leaders acting at the dog whistle of the USA. Is there any truth in this narrative do you think?
Mr Murray, those who sincerely believe that Navalny’s family basket weaving shop was really capable of providing transport services for Yves Rocher
believing that he is detained for political reasons is actually hopelessly naïve, Mr. Murray.
The argument that Navalny has stolen less than Putin himself is also desperately naïve.
The macho thing mentioned by you made me curious, what do you mean, Mr. Murray? In my country machoism means passion for young women and alcohol, and I cannot say Putin does any of it. If you mean sports, the ability to handle weapons, or ritual diving in freezing water, then these activities are normal in my country for both men and women.
Western media love reproducing the Putin on horseback picture, reinforcing the image of Putin being some action man. He’s also frequently shown in his judo gear for the same reason. I guess it’s designed to work on a subconscious level with the UK/US public , to make him seem more threatening? Maybe I’m reading too much into it tho?
I find it silly to think of it as some kind of macho special. Just this week, I was discussing an Instagram post from a female friend of mine, they were chasing an elk, horseback, in Montana. Millions of people of both sexes know how to ride a horse. Why should it be a macho thing?
Well, sports are generally beyond my understanding, It’s an absolutely natural thing for everyone who wants to be healthy, any gender. Kids start at age of 5-6 years very often, as every school has a sport training club to attend at a very moderate fee, if any. I even don’t mention commercial gyms everywhere.
In my country, macho is a negative character, loves drinking and hunts for young women, disrespectful of his wife and contemptuous of weaker people, also greatly exaggerates his, ahem, male attractiveness.
…. well, we basically know that Navalny does not smoke, does not drink, does not let off in enclosed spaces ….. so why they should have banged him up is a total mystery.
Novichok on Navalny’s underwear – that’s what is a total mystery 🙂
I believe that Navalny himself should have been impeccable if he wants to convict Putin of corruption. But for now, I see that Navalny is using his image as an oppositionist to blame his law violations on political persecution. Very similar to Pussy Riot.
In Russia, the attitude is very straightforward – if you want to make a statement, then say it seriously and directly to my face. If you are doing a show, well great, we expect some fun.
That’s why Pussy Riot had no success, as well as the “artist” who nailed his scrotum to the pavement. The passers-by said that the police should ignore him, because the funny part begins when he wants to leave, but have no tool to pull the nail out.
“…the funny part begins when he wants to leave…”
Harsh but fair.
Tatyana – do they use Novichok in the construction of the Sputnik V vaccine?
I think here the point is that you don’t bang a gentleman up in prison just because he makes a bit of a tit of himself.
Do you think Putin’s plot is to poison the whole country? I’m worried, we start vaccination en-mass in a week.
If I go on holiday in Crimea can I get the Sputnick V vacine?
Putin has been turned into a super-villain in the west, his potency is an important part of that, think Scaramanga or Blofeld sans the white cat and wheelchair.
If Putin stood down and whoever took his place spoke fluent English – putting across Russia’s position, instead of the silence in the west from Putin. Western media and agencies would be devastated after all the hard work they’ve invested in demonising Putin personally.
“silence in the west from Putin” I think this is more about the Western media not reporting what he says.
Tatyana: thank you for emerging as usual to insert a bit of realism into the debate. Russia is lucky to have people like Putin and Lavrov at the helm. I wish we in Britain had such quality leadership.
Tatyana, since Craig’s post is a bit on the light side factually (regrettably not too unusual when the topic turns to Russia and Putin), can you explain what changed during Navalny’s stay in Germany to make him jailable now?
I mean, when he fell ill flying out of Tomsk, Navalny was involved in legal difficulties, but was not in jail. Since then he has taken a huge leap further into the welcoming arms of the Western secret services, but in the absence of new charges related to that (they’re aren’t any yet, right?), it’s not clear to me what he did in the interim that would put him in jail now on the old charges.
Do you know what the prosecutors’ and judge’s reasons are? In your view, are they convincing, or is this actually political retribution for his post-coma antics abroad?
I think what might have changed is that Navalny’s trial has taken place after he flew back. Why he would fly back to face trial is a mystery.
“It is a fascinating and universal fact that the longer people hold power, the more paranoid they become.”
Nicola Sturgeon,leader of SNP since 2014…..
Sure Putin is no angel and he could’ve had Navalny killed any time he wanted him dead, so the West bellowing its usual Russophobic nonsense, that Putin tried to kill him is comical at best.
As for Putin moving Russian towards Europe, I suppose first you need to feel welcomed by European leaders, who undoubtably feel the US dagger in the base of their spines every time they attempt to embrace Russia, why even today the new POTUS Joe Biden said that he intends to aim further sanctions towards Russia over interference of US elections and other nondescript discrepancies.
On Scotland’s comparison with Russian corruption, there was a time I would’ve disagreed with you but not now, I’d even go as far as to say that you do Russia great disservice when comparing it to Scottish corruption.
That’s what worries me about Biden’s administration. He may see Obama’s Syria fiasco as unfinished business.
The gerontocracy in the US, steeped as it is in Cold War baggage may misjudge Russia and China’s willingness to fight. Having to rely on the leadership in China and Russia to keep cool heads in the face of western provocation isn’t exactly comforting.
Goose.
There is no opposition in America; it’s an illusion, Biden on just about everything, will pick up where Obama and in many cases Trump left off. Biden is even credited with almost single-handedly writing the Patriot Act. Russia and China will be in Biden’s sights, as will Iran now that they’re enriching uranium to weapons grade, and who can blame them for doing so. America which I call the Great Satan is responsible for much of what ails the world today, Biden will only add to that misery.
Resuming such military adventurism is not without risk for Biden.
His current popularity could simply be the anti-Trump dynamic playing out and broad public relief, i.e., temporary respite.
I remember the BBC’s Newsnight team touring eastern US states in 2016 and “no more foreign wars”‘ featured heavily in the reasons potential Trump voters gave when asked why they’d been won over by him.
It may surprise some, but lots of Americans are sick of the world police act.
My theory is that, back in the halcyon days of lenin and Stalin, the US establishment were green with envy. They contemplated all the magnificant advantages of a one-party state but could not see how to bring it about when the USA was already committed to being the shining light of “democracy”.
Then some unsung genius spoke up: ‘Let’s have a one-party state, but we’ll split it down the middle and pretend there are two rival parties! Every four years (or continually) we can have partisan speeches and excitement, and all the broad masses will be whipped up into a lather supporting the “Blues” or the “Greens”. And that will prevent them from noticing that policies remain the same under whichever party is “in power”‘.
It looked bad when Stalin held elections with only one name on the ballot. But with two – that’s no longer a problem!
Gore Vidal nailed it almost 50 years ago:
“There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party… and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt – until recently… and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties”.
And, of course, whatever his other failings, Mr Trump’s key and unforgivable offence was that he did an end run right around the whole system. They took decades painstakingly arranging things so thta no one could even run for President without the support of the DNC or the RNC. Then Mr Trump took advantage of his unpopularity and obscurity to bull right through the middle, and get elected – the appalling presumptuousness of it! – with no other support than that of the voters.
The whole system is predicated on the necessity to make sure the voters play no significant part. So you can see that Mr Trump appeared to the powers that be as the very opposite of the little boy with his finger in the dyke. He was threatening to destroy the work of two centuries: a system of “democracy” in which the people have no influence at all.
Now, with the election of Mr Biden, normal service has been resumed.
Sinclair Lewis called them “two wings of the same bird of prey”
“That’s what worries me about Biden’s administration. He may see Obama’s Syria fiasco as unfinished business.”
That’s past. Syria cannot be reconquered.
Syria can be destabilised further though. Look at Iraq and all the horrific car bombs using Gulf supplied high explosives, carried out presumably generate artificial strife between the previously harmonious Sunni and Shia communities in that country because that strife suits other leaders. A new deadly blast killing 25+ reportedly just recently. Difficult to believe it isn’t a message to the new US President from the Gulf monarchies.
Why now?
The head of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff, is pressing Biden and to declassify the report’s annex on Jamal Khashoggi’s brutal slaughter. This could be the Gulf monarchies sending a message.
The people in the ME are sadly, seemingly seen as lesser human beings by some. Pawns in a great global game of hegemony and control.
The message to Biden’s administration being : A reminder – still lots of bad shit going on in the ME; you need us, don’t ruin your relationship with us over Khashoggi.
I don’t know of course, but I’d be surprised if these things aren’t related. There has been a relative peace for some time broken by this mad recent act of violence. Both communities were understandably sick of the daily slaughter and tit-for-tat violence.
“Difficult to believe it isn’t a message to the new US President from the Gulf monarchies”.
People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. Who knows when the downtrodden peoples of the Gulf monarchies might decide to overthrow the tyrants who oppress them?
And isn’t it odd that the USA, that shining light of democracy, should choose to side with a bunch of geriatric monarchs against tolerant secular democracies like Iraq and Syria?
Have there been any developments in the case of Sergei Fergal, former LDP mayor of Khabarovsk ,whose arrest last summer sparked large and repeated ‘illegal ‘ demonstrations in the Far East .Quite a few people from there who come to Seoul or work in Korea resent Putin’s perceived focus like Peter ‘s on Europe and use of their region for photo opportunities .
They are still protesting, the last meeting was on January 17. The Investigative Committee says Fergal must be trialed for 4 crimes, namely 3 murders and one attempted murder. People believe that this is a fabricated case, for political reasons.
I know the Russian Embassy would say something like this but their statement sums it up for me from what I have read about this guy and his activities.
“22.01.2021 – On the situation around Alexei Navalny
Mr Navalny was detained, in full accordance with the law, for violating the terms of probation. He was convicted for fraud back in 2014, and the European Court on Human Rights dismissed his claim that the case was politically motivated. He was released on probation, but neglected to comply with its conditions even before his alleged “poisoning” last August. He was not bothered during his hospital stay, but after the discharge he continued to break probation rules and ignored the warnings of penitentiary authorities, which led to his current detention. He is not a “political prisoner”, but a common criminal, who flaunted the law to look like a victim for political gains”.
https://www.rusemb.org.uk.
Compare and contrast the charges against Mr Navalny and those against Mr Assange.
If Assange had tricked an FBI or CIA officer into revealing classified information, by posing as a fellow officer – and with Russian or Chinese state agency technical help. As Navalny did recently to the FSB. Well, needless to say some in the west would find that problematic. I doubt the EU would be screaming for him to be released immediately, heck, they’re hardly saying anything when he hasn’t done anything like that.
Just remember that the the USA is really pissed off with Julian not for the journalistic encouragement of a third party, but for publishing a huge cache of material that CIA software development contractors freely and openly shared with each other (I think Wikileaks refer to it as year0).
None of that material could be restricted using the current classified material structure else its use in the field by CIA operatives would have been illegal. The hope was that security came fom purely an obfuscation approach and the fact that the data (programmes (aka projects), programs, databases network and OS exploits) lived inside the CIA bubble.
Nonetheless it was readily available with no classification and undoubtably shared outside the confines of the CIA. The NSA presumably working on a similar parallel programme but at this time it is not clear whether they are in a similar position where they have development programmes for use in the operations field that cannot be classified for thir use would then to be breaking US and International law. As long as the material remains unclassified potentially anyone can gain access to it.
Hence the USA are trying to cover up as much of their embarrasment as possbile and trying to prevent journalists publishing similar (and much worse) material.
As an illustration the recent Solarwinds exploit that has affected many systems in the USA (and any solarwinds users globally) probably, allegedly, maybe perhaps had roots in this type of work. The UK Police National Crime System (recently in the news) has Solarwinds at the heart of it. It is a short term embarrasmnet to admit to the loss of a few hundred thousand records (which should be in safe copies elsewhere) but it does deflect the question as to how many other key strategic systems in the UK government have been exploited by unknown third parties by this exploit.
It may be that the UK government need to get this data embarrasment into the news cycle and something like 6 weeks later when it is has been forgotten will move to reduce restrictions on Julian’s incarceration.
Julian is a focus point for all high tech whistleblowing. I can’t see the UK Establishment (or EU) being too serious about “awarding” his freedom. The Authorities have let it be known that what everything Julian does in future if allowed out of HMP Belmarsh will be subject to close surveillance.
The difference is that Navalny though seems to have been found out actually breaking a law whereas the US and UK have been trying for years to frame a law that Julian has broken.
Fr3JA
Do you understand, that you require Russian president to directly order around independent court?
To directly break law?
Do you mean that President Putin must give amnesty to Mr. Navalny? It will be stupid.