This blog remains, as far as I am aware, blocked in Russia. (Am receiving messages it is not currently blocked, at least on several major ISPs, which is good news). It is, to the best of my knowledge, the only western political blog of wide readership which advocates stripping Russia of all the colonial possessions it obtained contemporaneously with, indeed in competition with, the growth of the British Empire. That a blog which champions Independence for, inter alia, Dagestan, Chechnya and Tatarstan, and which says Crimea should be given back to the Tatars, is condemned by the political Establishment as pro-Kremlin is, on the face of it, paradoxical.
The reason for it is, of course, that this blog also views Russia’s opposition to neo-con Western militarily enforced hegemony throughout the Middle East and developing world, as an essential though inadequate counter-balance. It also combats the rampant Russophobia of our media and political class, and the widespread, deliberate whipping up of hatred against a great culture and people, central to our European heritage. That involves exposing propaganda lies like Salisbury and Douma. The Establishment really do hate that. As neither Salisbury nor Douma, nor much else in the Western narrative, stands up to even a little intellectual scrutiny, the media and Establishment seek to demonise this blog as in some sense a Russian agency. The amusing thing is, of course, that neither this blog nor its author has ever received a penny from any Russian source, while the Establishment rolls around in oligarch cash.
There was an amusing new twist this week where the Times newspaper claimed that Russian trolls were behind the “attacks” on Nicola Sturgeon, otherwise known as telling the truth about Nicola Sturgeon’s actions. Why the Times, and most of the unionist media Establishment especially the BBC, has been so very keen to defend Nicola Sturgeon and under-report the evidence against her (and continue to make wild accusations against Alex Salmond) would be an interesting digression. Suffice it to say, that after five years with a pro-Independence majority at Holyrood, after Brexit, and with a clear mandate for a referendum on Independence, Nicola has not called one.
One of the Integrity Initiative’s on-call Russophobes, David Leask, wrote in the Times:
Mainstream Scottish nationalists have long suspected pro-Kremlin social media of targeting the first minister, particularly since her criticism of the Salisbury attacks in 2018.
However, analysts have rarely been able to draw a significant direct line between so-called troll factories and tweets aimed at Sturgeon and her party.
New data published by Twitter on hundreds of Kremlin or Iranian accounts removed for attempting to “manipulate the platform” show some activity with a Scottish flavour.
About two dozen accounts linked to the authoritarian governments tweeted or retweeted pro-independence or other Scottish messaging and have been banned.
Two accounts Twitter linked to the Iranians, each with many thousands of followers, have repeatedly retweeted Craig Murray, a blogger and former ambassador to Uzbekistan, who is one of Sturgeon’s most ferocious critics. There is no suggestion Murray, who has a substantial online presence, was aware of or sought such support.
So there we have it. It is the Russians targeting Nicola, because my 90,000 twitter followers included 2 “linked to” Iran, who retweeted some of my tweets.
Which twitter accounts were these? Which tweets did they retweet? We don’t know. One of Sturgeon’s acolytes tweeted the “evidence” for this, which was a link to a twitter statement on its website on the suspension of Russian-linked accounts. That gave a link to what it claimed as “evidence”, but that was simply a cache of 1.5 Gb worth of tweets, very many thousands of them, with no explanation as to why they were said to be Russian linked. How the “Iranian-linked” tweets involving me were pulled out of this enormous cache – and why – is a very interesting question. [I can’t actually rediscover the tweet or the report page on twitter with its unevidenced assertions. If anybody can, please post it in comments below]
The Times report is an entirely evidence-free zone, but its principal complaint appears to be that “Kremlin-linked” accounts have been tweeting material under the hashtag #dissolvetheunion. It then gives this quote:
Joanna Szostek, who teaches political communication at the University of Glasgow, described it as the latest move in a game of “whack-a-mole . . . It’s interesting that a few of these accounts are also pushing #dissolvetheunion tweets. Anything that weakens a major Nato member would presumably look good from Russia’s point of view.”
But the longest bit of the article, its substance, is the quote from the SNP’s own uber-Russophobe Stewart MacDonald who gives a disquisition on how terrible it is that the evil Russians should – advocate for Scottish Independence. MacDonald, who carries a British Army issued visitor ID in his wallet and has snaps of himself in combat fatigues observing British Army exercises, both of which he has been known to show hopefully to impressionable young people, is far better known for his enthusiasm for NATO, Israel and the corrupt government of Ukraine than he is for Scottish Independence. I suspect deep down he fantasises about going to war against the Russians with the British Army. Why he is in the SNP, nobody knows. Why anybody thinks that Russia advocating for Scotland’s Independence would make Russia Scotland’s enemy, is quite beyond me.
There is an extremely bad history of misidentification of Russian trolls by the right wing loons paid to undertake such work, particularly Leask’s old comrade-in-arms Ben Nimmo, who famously outed Ian the Russian Bot. This ought to be the most famous video of all time and be played weekly in schools to vaccinate children against government propaganda.
Unfortunately, very many governments do actively sponsor social media and mainstream media disinformation. The Integrity Initiative was one major such secret black propaganda operation, linked to the Salisbury event among other things, and it is hilarious in a dark sort of way that journalists like Leask, who took the Integrity Initiative’s shilling, get upset at alleged Russian initatives which are essentially the same thing.
Almost entirely unreported in the British media was last week’s revelation by The Grayzone of a new FCO covert propaganda operation involving (and funding) Bellingcat, the BBC and Reuters Thomson.
The UK FCO projects were carried out covertly, and in partnership with purportedly independent, high-profile online media outfits including Bellingcat, Meduza, and the Pussy Riot-founded Mediazona. Bellingcat’s participation apparently included a UK FCO intervention in North Macedonia’s 2019 elections on behalf of the pro-NATO candidate.
The intelligence contractors that oversaw that operation, the Zinc Network, boasted of establishing “a network of YouTubers in Russia and Central Asia” while “supporting participants [to] make and receive international payments without being registered as external sources of funding.” The firm also touted its ability to “activate a range of content” to support anti-government protests inside Russia.
The new documents provide critical background on the role of NATO member states like the UK in influencing the color revolution-style protests waged in Belarus in 2020, and raise unsettling questions about the intrigue and unrest surrounding jailed Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny.
Twitter not only suppressed dissemination of this information, it put a warning on those tweets it did allow into selected timelines, that information came from hacked material. It has never done that to the pro-Western outpourings of Bellingcat. But my profound congratulations to our friends at Anonymous for bringing more of this murk to light.
You might like to compare this document from an FCO-funded contractor, with Stewart MacDonald’s horror that Russia should allegedly sponsor a few tweets favouring Scottish Independence:
Or this from another FCO-funded contractor:
The FCO role in Belsat, the entirely NATO member funded “Belarussian” TV channel based in Poland, is also of great current interest,
Do read through the Grayzone article, which is excellent. Remember this: when it comes to every form of devious behaviour, it is the British state which wrote the book.
—————————————————–
Forgive me for pointing out that my ability to provide this coverage is entirely dependent on your kind voluntary subscriptions which keep this blog going. This post is free for anybody to reproduce or republish, including in translation. You are still very welcome to read without subscribing.
Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with the every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.
Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.
Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:
Paypal address for one-off donations: [email protected]
Alternatively by bank transfer or standing order:
Account name
MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
Sort code 6 0 – 4 0 – 0 5
IBAN GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address Natwest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Bitcoin: bc1q3sdm60rshynxtvfnkhhqjn83vk3e3nyw78cjx9
Ethereum/ERC-20: 0x764a6054783e86C321Cb8208442477d24834861a
Subscriptions are still preferred to donations as I can’t run the blog without some certainty of future income, but I understand why some people prefer not to commit to that.
Why are the Unionist media rushing to defend Nicola?
Why are the majority of Unionist bloggers arguing in support of Nicola?
Could it be that a Party Manager could to stroll along the tramlines of Devolution is a far better option than a vocal champion of the Independence cause.
They do not like the SNP dominating Holyrood but they fear the wider Independence movement much more.
“The Party” is now more important than Scotland. As with our Kings of the past Scots must once again remind those who would lead us that “The People” are Sovereign.
And if Russia are trying to destabilise the UK by promoting Scottish independence, why would they also be trying to weaken Sturgeon? Something we’ll never hear Leask try to explain but the clear implication is that the union is safe with Sturgeon leading the SNP.
It looks to me that Sturgeon is happy to keep kicking the referendum can down the road in exchange for the support of the unionist media. Her only priority seems to be her own position as FM.
Exactly. Talk about giving the game away about Sturgeon !
Expecting propagandists to explain such inconsistencies (or in fact anything) is completely unreasonable.
A need to think would stress them too much and is likely to make them incapable of regurgitating our government’s propaganda.
Destabilising the UK would be like trying to make the sea undrinkable by putting salt into it.
Why would Russia care?
Julia Gibb
Exactly. A small country especially needs to remember that the people are sovereign, or the people will seek help from its powerful neighbours. Iraqi Kurdistan which sought help from Israel with which it has deep historical connections produces millions of barrells of oil every year which USUKIS and Turkey pinch. USUKIS want to point rockets at Russia and Iran from their little mate’s soil, ( remind you of anything ? ) so the ruling Barzani clan recently fired some rockets At Himself in Erbil from.Iran,, to create a justification for them.
The absolute bedrock of a small independent country is to listen to people. Being listened to is much more important than a booming economy in most people’s minds.
What millions of barrels of oil in Iraqi Kurdistan? They had to surrender Kirkuk, which is not in any case part of Kurdistan. And Kurdistan is not legally independent, but an autonomous region of Iraq.
“so the ruling Barzani clan recently fired some rockets At Himself in Erbil from.Iran”. More likely discontent within Kurdistan. The rockets don’t have the range for being fired from outside.
Laguerre
Try googling Kurdistan oil production per day. I get , from 4 November 2020 450,000 barrels per day, less than half of the production when they had Kirkuk.
Oil price is $ 60 per barrel. Kurdistan on its own is on a level with Libya in oil reserves.
But no teachers , council workers , hospital workers are being paid.
450,00 x 60 = $27,000,000 .
365 x 27,000,000 = $ 9,855,000,000 per year, lovely furlough dosh for Rishi Sunak after Tony Blair and Erdogan’s cut.
Laguerre
Exactly . Barzani fired the rockets At Himself from inside the borders of the Kurdish Regional Govt.
Kurdistan is one of those regions where conspiracy theories do not apply. It is just too tangled and murky to pick one plausible conspiracy from another. For all we know, Americans could do it: they like to show their high-tech rapid retaliations, but they can also be amazingly slow, so it is a good tactic to prepared the retaliation first, and concoct a cause next (or with some synchronization).
Even when the PM is openly appointing Russian oligarchs to the House of Lords, state and corporate media try to make the public to believe it is establishment critics who are in the pocket of “the Russians.”
It’s propaganda that literally a 5-year-old could deconstruct if presented with the evidence.
It’s a testament to our system of indoctrination that you basically can’t work in ruling class mainstream media unless you buy into this fluorescent bullshit.
Anyone for Tennis?
Excellent news Craig, we must be over the target with all the flack flying.
If it wasn’t those evil Ruskies wot did it, then it likely would have been those flu infested, slitty eyed monsters. Never the glorious UK subsidiary of the US government !
> This blog remains, as far as I am aware, blocked in Russia.
Craig, it’s not true. I’m writing these words from Moscow, my ISP is rt.ru – you know – Rostelecom. One of the biggest Russian ISP.
And I wish you all the best from Russia, как у нас говорят чтобы два раза не вставать.
I don’t know why you think you are blocked.
Thanks Artem – glad to hear it.
Another commenter here is Tatyana from Krasnodar in Russia and frequent contributor.
Hi, SA 🙂 thanks for remembering me! I’m busy with my personal affairs at the moment, so I don’t show up often here. But I still find time to read new blogs.
@craig
Mr. Murray, I joined your blog since the Skripal case and have never seen your blog blocked. This was not noted by many people with whom I shared links to your articles on Twitter or Facebook or VKontakte or russian YouTube. The millionth audience of Pikabu (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan) did not notice this either, discussing my translations of your articles.
This is not the first time that I have noticed that your source on Russian affairs is misinforming you. I noticed these faint smells of lies, made in the best traditions of British manipulation – small omissions, a certain selection of facts, minor inaccuracies in translation, ignoring context and similar tricks aimed at creating a misperception.
I advise you should check your source out.
I’m sorry I know my advice sounds rude, but I hope you know I’m your devoted fan and I only wish you all good things to happen to you, and your family, and little baby Oscar *let all good powers in this world bless him* 🙂
A little heads up on “Russian censorship” from my personal experience. I’ve been living in Russia for a few years now, and since my Russian is quite a bit worse than my English, I’ve been reading mostly western news sources, of all types and political orientations. During this time, the only site that I have found to be blocked by Russia (as opposed to blocking visitors from Russia by itself) was Stormfront.
Roskomnadzor are obviously doing a rubbish job then, or maybe they are just too busy suppressing the voice of the youth. This blog should be banned if it, like is stated, advocates for the breaking up of the Russian Federation. And for publicly expressing such views Craig Murray should be denied any visa for Russia by the immigration service.
On the other hand Russia invites people to visit Crimea and I wish he would go to find out what life is like for ordinary people sanctioned by the EU…under threat from Ukraine military.and ceaseless Nato spyplanes and drones..having Nato missiles perhaps nuclear nearby in Romania….irrigation water cut off by Ukraine…he can watch Crimea the way home there in Sevastopol and Oliver Stones films about Putin there….as Mme Zakharova says
…..radio hosts accused the Russian authorities of preventing foreign officials, international observers and monitoring groups from accessing the peninsula. We call them every day, organise press tours and trips, and consult with journalists. Many of you here in the audience have taken part in such trips. Our main goal is to open Crimea to foreign visitors, official delegations, non-governmental organisations and journalists as widely as possible. And yet such total fakes appear. The situation is completely the opposite. Russia is constantly inviting foreign representatives, as I have said, including journalists. This is not just about organised tours or trips. There is every opportunity to visit Crimea independently. We are only needed when you require help or assistance in organising an interview, if you come across problems or too much red tape. If you want to go there and see everything for yourselves, there are no barriers.”
It is an interesting juxtaposition that the same man who seems to be desperate to start a war with Russia hid under a table from stephen yaxley lennon, AKA tommy robinson. A man so intimidating that my granny could kick his face in, and she’s been dead for the last 14 years.
The real question. Does MI5 have compromising pictures of him with young boys or is he doing it of his own free will?
This explains why the protests regarding Navalny’s incarceration were so well organised and attended.
The age of the internet has brought us the ability to get more news and information from around the world but it’s also brought us the need to cross check anything we see in the media as it is likely either untrue or omits the truth..
Navalny, its almost as if he never existed since his motives were exposed. Truly Cancelled !
Except, I’d suspect that more than a few will remember how western governments were geared up to use him as a demonstration of how shockingly bad the government of Russia is supposed to be. No doubt any who express such recollections going forward will also be labelled as Russian trolls and influencers 😀
It’s noteworthy that even Amnesty International recalled the “prisoner of conscience” in relation to Navalny:
“… Amnesty decided to re-examine the case and conducted a thorough review of the evidence base. After painstaking consideration, we concluded that we had made a mistake in our initial determination. In making that determination, we had focused solely on the circumstances surrounding Navalny’s unjust arrest and detention, and given insufficient weight to some of his previous comments which, as far as Amnesty is aware, have not been publicly renounced. We concluded that some of these reached the threshold of advocacy of hatred, at odds with our definition of a POC, and took an internal decision to refrain from using the term in future … “
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/02/aleksei-navalny-prisoner-of-conscience/
I respect people who recognise their mistakes. Thank you, Amnesty!
good for them! they haven’t always been so scrupulous iirc, but credit where due.
FAKE NEWS ALERT
“The fact that Amnesty International decided not to refer to Aleksei Navalny as a POC has no bearing on our insistence that Navalny has been unlawfully detained, and subjected to state-sponsored harassment and prosecution for exercising his right to freedom of expression.”
Navalniy is still being persecuited, despite some comments he might have made years ago.
So why don’t you devote some of your energy to protesting the imprisonment of Assange, who is also wrongly imprisoned, and additionally has no hate-speech attached to his history?
Navalny is in gaol for defrauding Yves Rocher, a French company. Nothing to do with alleged political persecution!
Jam
I do protest the imrpisonment of Assange. Why would you suppose I don’t, silly?
Jon
It is of course political persecution. Your belief in the Russian democratic institutions is laughable.
Ewan, that’s like saying that every convicted criminal of African origin is only in prison because of the colour of his skin.
”Despite some comments he might have made years ago”
The gravity of the comments and video’s far outweighs anything we have seen others being cancelled for ? If statements and such made decades ago have a long enough half life a they seem to have these days, the rules should be consistent for all ?
The reality is that the western opinion manufacturers have invested a deal of energy in bigging up the Navalny case into a staff with which to beat Russia. I have little doubt they feel aggrieved that their efforts have been wasted. Although I see that the Biden Administration is still using the Navalny name in its latest proposed sanctions against Russia, hardly surprising as I doubt Joe is on top of events. We can be sure however that he or Dr Jill will be aware of the need to appease those Americans who trace their ancestry back to the Black Sea Basin.
“ALEXEI NAVALNY’S WALDEINSAMKEIT – THAT’S GERMAN FOR SPIRITUAL FOREST WALKING SURROUNDED BY 100 GERMAN SECRET SERVICE AGENTS”
http://johnhelmer.net/alexei-navalnys-waldeinsamkeit-thats-german-for-spiritual-forest-walking-surrounded-by-100-german-secret-service-agents/
Apparently the German government thought Navalny worth 25 million euros in protection while he sauntered around the Black Forest and other parts.
The Germans will keep taking the gas, playing a two faced game. Their own deep state still yearns to revist taking Russia for it Companies, raw materials and energy. I think Russia should stop trying to see these Europeans as ” Partners” and walk away.
Probably a fair assessment of the risk, since Chechen dissidents have been getting assassinated in public parks in Germany by Russian agents.
Lets see some proof of that assertion.
Jam
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49483090?intlink_from_url=&
This was the second such assassination of the last few years.
You seem massively ignorant on the whole Russian issues news, I don’t think this blog is the place for me to hold your hand ad walk you throuhg it like a toddler.
The BBC is hardly an impartial source of news (on anything really, let alone Russia) and the fact that a Russian man was arrested and found to have a large sum of cash in his apartment is not itself proof of Russian government or intel agency involvement.
And you forgot to mention that the preferred method of assassination is Novichoc (trust me – I work for Integrity Initiative).
The unanswered question is; Why then has said preferred method of assassination failed miserably with regard to the elimination of Skripals and Navalny; when compared to the successful elimination of these Chechens.
I said nothing about Russian democratic institutions – you trolling is transparent.
Amnesty have outed themselves as ridiculous poseurs.
It’s possible for Navalny to be both a hateful person AND a prisoner of conscience.
If it were revealed that Assange made unpleasant statements about ethnic minorities, would that make him any less a prisoner of conscience when his imprisonment is for unrelated matters?
As it happens, I don’t think Navalny is a prisoner of conscience, but that has nothing to do with the fact he’s a racist.
” it’s also brought us the need to cross check anything we see in the media ”
Was it ever ifferent or did we just not have the means to cross check?
History is an agreed set of lies and journalism is its first draft.
Those Grayzone revelations are depressing. It is pretty astounding there should Russians who want to put their country back at the mercy of the western interests who almost destroyed it in the 1990s. That era is hardly ancient history.
So…. accept autocracy because other nations are in competition with your autocrat and if they help you oust him, they will pursue their own interests?
I get that there is murk, but does this mean that any protest against anything involving Russia is illegitimate?
I think they can seek democratic removal of their leader regardless of what foreign actors share their ambition. Just as we can in Scotland.
There is little appetite in Russia for the kind of leader craved by Bellingcat, the BBC and Reuters. They went down that road before.
There is little appetite in Scotland for the kind of leader craved by Russia, the FSB, and RT.
Those you see demonstrating are really just fools who believe foreign propaganda – they don’t really want independence.
what kind of leader do you imagine that to be?
Pretzelattack, please do not expect a coherent answer.
I love this mirror image shining a light on the ridiculousness of these Navalniy is a Conspiracy believers. This Jay guy is spouting off in ignorance about what the Russian people want.
Well, really, this is just trolling – ludicrous assertions without proof.
Unfortunately for Craig, this site seems to be infested with establishment trolls.
My comment is obviously rhetorical; the point being that just because western interests are against Putin doesn’t mean everyone who is against Putin is western-interested.
Suggesting Navalny protests are at the instigation of the FCO is equivalent to saying that pro Scottish independence marches are organized by Putin.
As far as I know the Russians have just as much self motivation as the Scots, regardless of foreign meddling.
“Suggesting Navalny protests are at the instigation of the FCO is equivalent to saying that pro Scottish independence marches are organized by Putin.”
… you mean, except the documented evidence that the FCO is sponsoring said Navalny protests?
Of course Russia would love to see the UK break up. That doesn’t ipso facto mean the breakup of the UK is not in the average UK citizen’s interests as well, though, does it?
“..does this mean that any protest against anything involving Russia is illegitimate?”
No but it does mean that HMG has no business spending millions of pounds annually to create mercenary protests against the Russian government. The Russian people are quite capable of criticising their own governments. False protests sponsored by enemies of Russia far from assisting genuine critics discredits them and undermines popular participation in politics.
It should be absolutely clear, particularly after revelations such as these published in Grayzone, that nothing that is published in the media about Russia or China should be given credence.
To put the matter into perspective HMG is spending millions sponsoring White Helmets, providing salaries for rioters in Hong Kong, and employing batteries of misinformation agents to attack Russia while the United Nations is feeding malnourished children in London.
I agree that the Russian people don’t need much help to protest. I don’t think any recent protest has occurred due to funding from spies, if there were such funds then it only helped negligibly. The easiest thing Putin could do to counter any foriegn media influence would be to make people’s lives there better. Many Russians earn £150 a month on a full time job, and product prices are much the same as in the UK. If Russia were to pay for stories that worked people up against the injustices in the UK, I would welcome it. Let’s concentrate on message and not the messenger.
Russia or anyone else hardly needs to “pay for stories that worked people up against the injustices in the UK”. You can read them free on ‘The Canary’. Some even appear on the ‘Guardian’. The messages are there – why don’t you concentrate on things nearer to home? But that wouldn’t suit you – you’d rather go trolling after Russia – I wonder why? Are MI5 giving you £150 a month?
Ewan,
You seem to be very well informed about internal Russia state of affairs. Did you see who those protesters were and how many of them do you think are making $150 on a full time job? My guess is none.
Do you think everyone who is making $150 a month blames Putin and wants to go on streets? Maybe some do but I really doubt it. Anyway last thing I want is to see is foreign money paid for riots. Unfortunately I haven’t seen any good intentions sponsored by this fundings. Thank you, we’ll sort our issues ourselves, in a way that suits us, whether somebody else likes it or not it doesn’t matter.
And lastly about prices, frankly you surprised me. Haven’t been in UK recently but it was never comparable. Do you have any figures to see?
It should be “No, and”.
Was there actually a fake protest though? Am I really to believe those people getting dragged away didn’t really care if Navalny was poisoned and imprisoned? Evidence please!
What autocrat?
A very weak effort at deflection.
I believe he is openly gay, is he not? I do not regard it as at all shameful for him to be gay – if it was young women I would say so. I shall change it to people if it makes you happy.
What is the FCO doing wrt Scottish independence? Backing up Sturgeon?
More than a touch of the Skibbereen Eagle about this post, Mr Murray
Stewart MacDonald inherited the uber-Russophobe title from Stephen Gethins.
Elected MP for North East Fife (majority 4,344) in the SNP landslide of 2015, Gethins became the first SNP, MP to be ALLOWED a position on the HoC, Foreign Affairs Select Committee in July 2015. Gethins retained his position as SNP, Foreign Affairs Spokesperson and member of the FASC following the 2017, snap election, despite having his constituency majority reduced to TWO! Gethins was an implacable Russia baiter in the HoC and spoke on very little else.
Prior to gaining a salary from UK politics, first as an advisor to Alex Salmond and then as an MP, Gethins was employed by “NGO Links”. NGO Links is based out of the University of Arizona and is funded by the US Government’s National Science Foundation (perhaps the National Endowment for Democracy is loosing its usefulness as a CIA front?). NGO Links is exclusively interested in matters on Russia’s Southern border with particular emphasis on Georgia. How you may ask did such a character pass SNP vetting?
On losing his seat in the December 2019 snap election (should have spent more time on constituency business and less time Russia baiting), Gethins quickly gained employ at the School of International Relations, University of St. Andrews (I would recommend Craig’s highly amusing assessment of the University of St. Andrews in Sikunder Burnes). The SoIR, was BBC Scotland’s go-to source for “Russia bad” commentary before they discovered swivel eyed, Prof. Anthony Glees at the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham.
Gethins is also a member of the John Smith Trust. The JST runs “intense … Fellowship Programmes … for emerging leaders from … the former Soviet Union.”
A recent edition of Private Eye claimed an affinity (on flimsy foundations) between the SNP and Tehran. Perhaps Iran functions as another proxy front for the current civil war? Former SNP, MP Michelle Thomson attended the 2018, annual conference of Mojahedin-e Khalq (Mossad’s happy little assassins cult). Thomson has been selected to represent the SNP in the (safe) Falkirk East constituency. Which side of the civil war would Thomson be on I wonder?
“This blog remains, as far as I am aware, blocked in Russia.”
I don’t know about Russia but I have just searched for you on the Russia Yandex.com and had no difficulty in receiving this post.
Craig writes:
“It is, to the best of my knowledge, the only western political blog of wide readership which advocates stripping Russia of all the colonial possessions it obtained contemporaneously with, indeed in competition with, the growth of the British Empire.”
——————
Here follows a couple of links to fascinating material related (mainly) to the Chinese Boxer Rising and concomitant global imperialist avarice (c.1900). Many superb hand-drawn news illustrations and posters. The essential dynamics don’t change so much it seems, just the technologies of propaganda…
‘CARVING UP CHINA’ –
https://visualizingcultures.mit.edu/boxer_uprising/bx_essay02.html
‘IMPERIALIST RIVALRIES’ –
https://visualizingcultures.mit.edu/boxer_uprising/bx_essay03.html
As a supporter of Independence for Scotland how could I not be sympathetic to the independence aspirations of Dagestan, Chechnya and the Tartars?
However, just how long would they be “independent” before they found themselves under an onslaught from the US and their lackeys such as the UK?
Might it be too much to ask of Russia to allow these areas on their doorstep to fall under the influence or even control of the world bully?
Dear Mr. Galt, Tartar is steak or a sauce. Tatar are people.
I know that Mr. Murray is a historian, so he probably knows, but for the rest of the blog readers, I want to clarify:
Tatarstan has been part of Russia since the 16th century, when Ivan the Terrible conquered his capital city of Kazan. That conquer was a war of liberation, which was preceded by 4 centuries of domination of the Tatars in the land of the Slavs.
I know that Mr. Murray tends to ignore the entire Russian period of history before the Tatar invasion in the 12-13 centuries. So he considers the Tatars an indigenous population.
If one goes back far enough in history, one might conclude that everyone of Anglo-Saxon (and Jutish) descent is an invader and should return to their country of origin.
Britain for the Celts!!
Oh wait a moment… that IS what Mr Murray favours!
Don’t be silly, Tatyana. It was not a land of the Slavs that far East!
Don’t be silly yourself, Mr. Murray. Neither Moscow nor Crimea was the land of the Tatars that far in the West.
And this is not the generosity of Russian hearts because of which the Slavs paid tribute to the Tatars for 400 years and supplied their fellow tribesmen as slaves to the Horde.
Er, Mr Murray, isn’t there an analogy with “The Americas are not a land of the Europeans that far West” and “Australia and New Zealand are not a land of the Europeans that far East”?
A little Rus history from someone with a curious pseudonym of Pepe Escobar via the Vineyard of the Saker:
https://thesaker.is/putin-crusaders-and-barbarians/
Look far enough back and we are all barbarians!
Craig is remarkably blithe about Russia’s earlier perfidious expansions.
Muscovy out of Pskov!
Probably no need to go back further than the events of the Great Patriotic War in order to realise the Russian attitude towards the Crimea, and surrounding areas ? I have little doubt that Russians are just as susceptible as we Brits when it comes to national perceptions regarding the war, and it was the case that much Russian blood was spilt in both defending, and re taking the Crimea.
Thank you for the correction.
Branazone, that turns out to be excessively pedantic. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatars for a start.
“Historically, the term Tatars (or Tartars) was applied to anyone originating from the vast Northern and Central Asian landmass then known as Tartary, which was dominated by various Turco-Mongol nomadic empires and kingdoms. More recently, however, the term has come to refer more narrowly to highly or lowly related ethnic groups who refer to themselves as Tatars…”
It seems clear that, while the Tatars call themselves by that name, foreigners may have mangled it into “Tartar”. Why object to that when we British call the Deutsch “German” and the Espanoles “Spanish”?
My missus is Tatar and has a very similar attitude to mine for Scottish independence, that the locals are almost certainly more corrupt than the distant Russian Federation government.
The ethnicities represented in the State Council of Dagestan are Avars, Dargins, Kumyks, Lezgins, Laks, Azerbaijanis, Tabasarans, Russians, Chechens, Nogais, Aguls, Rutuls, Tsakhurs, and Tats.
To which one do you to manage the state?
By the way, to this question – I recently commented on a film by Andzor Emkuzh.
The most popular comment says “I am a Chechen, I have always said and will continue to say, there are no bad nations, there are bad people. What prevents us from living, making friends and enjoying life? (It is so short, but we waste it on anger, hatred and all kinds of filth. Let’s live in peace, have a family, raise children and respect each other. I say this sincerely, with all my heart. I want peace! I want people to be happy! All goodness, peace and all the best from the Lord God !!!!! ”
Check it out
https://youtu.be/mhqrT-_L7rk
157 answers from russian-speaking commentors from all over the world – check it out – Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, a Tbilisi Armenian, an Ukrainian, a Czech join and support that chechen man.
—
So, when people in the West say about Chechen, Tatar, Dagestan, Ukraine etc. movement for independence, I think they should also mention that people there also want to live in peace with their Russian neighbours.
As a supporter of Independence for Scotland how could I not be sympathetic to the independence aspirations of Bute and Caithness? Not forgetting Lismore, home of my ancestors.
Not to mention Dalriada, Alba, and Fortriu…
Bute for the Brandanes!
(Bute is my Heimat as the Germans say)
Well lets break down the concept further. From where I stand my Hood goes two streets north, three streets south, three streets west, and one east to the river.
Yes. I was going to post similar sentiments buy you’ve saved me the trouble. Independence for these areas is right, but the timing is wrong. It will have to wait till the US empire is defunct and no longer able or willing to foment dissent world wide. I don’t think that should be too long, given the way China and Russia combined are progressing militarily, technologically and (China) economically.
82% of Crimea people are now ethnic Russians. Separating them from Russia would cause a problem very similar to Norther nIreland. Is this what you wish? I suggest that you focus on Scottish independence, which is a much more valid cause.
Wrong analogy. The ethnic ‘British’ population of Northern Ireland is now less than 50%.
“82% of Crimea people are now ethnic Russians. Separating them from Russia would cause a problem very similar to Norther Ireland. Is this what you wish?”
I can’t speak for Mr Murray, but that is certainly what the US and UK governments wish – most devoutly. Anything that causes pain and trouble for Russia, and the more the better. They believe in the maxim, “My enemy’s enemy is my friend”. (For the time being, at least).
Latvia announces it wants to be only for Latvians…..despite 25% of popoluation is ethnic Russian….and most of the population converses in Russian. Ethic cleansing in the air….to be truly independant….just like Ukraine eg Tymoshenko said nuke all the 8m Russians in Ukaine… and increasing government pressures still to ban the Russian language….media etc as the Baltics are carrying out?
Even though my surname is viking for fisherman….and have Scottish ancestors would I be welcome in an independant Scotland or told to go back home to Sweden or Norway….or can I get away with either a mimicked highland or lowland scotch accent to gain entry quoting Burns? Hmmm. But I do love gaelic psalm singing from Lewis. Been there. Lots hols in Scotland.
So how far will these calls for nationalistic independance go????? Not expecting an answer. Sighs.
Oh…..and should Gaelic be compulsory learning in every Scottish school?
Notice from the grayzone article that Aktis Strategy had a Gender Advisor.
Is that a tool for division?
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Aktis_Strategy
Hi Craig, I don’t have any trouble accessing your blog from Moscow. So it doesn’t appear to be blocked.
‘condemned by the political Establishment as pro-Kremlin’
It always raises the question whether politicians and their media lapdogs are extremely stupid just for being extremely stupid, or whether they are extremely stupid for assuming that their public audiences are extremely stupid. I’m never sure which.
One thing I am certain about is that I now feel very deeply sad for the human race when I hear words like ‘British’, ‘Russian’, ‘Guardian’, ‘SNP’, ‘Labour’, etc..
Wishing I could send a postcard from Cuba. Feeling a bit escapist at the moment.
Meaning… you’re already in Cuba, but they won’t let you send postcards from there? Or you’d like to go there to “escape”?
Talk about “out of the frying pan…”
Mr Murray, do you also advocate stripping the USA of all the colonial possessions it obtained contemporaneously with, indeed in competition with, the growth of the British Empire? Not to mention Canada, Australia and New Zealand, all of which are dominated and controlled by white European colonists.
If this were done, the USA would vanish from the map as all its territory consists of “colonial possessions” – as would Canada, Austrlia and New Zealand. The land would revert to its indigenous inhabitants.
Crimea has been Russian since before the USA existed as a nation.
In all these cases (Israel, USA, Cyprus, ex-Soviet Union etc) the answer is not to remove the populations who are there now – that would be ethnic cleansing. It is a right of return for original inhabitants (but not into a home somebody is occupying) and massive financial compensation. In the case of the Native Americans, that compensation should be well into the hundreds of billions.
Thank you, Mr Murray; I am glad to hear that your view is so humane. However, wouldn’t you agree that a right of return is fairly meaningless if the incomers have multiplied to such immense numbers that the indigenous inhabitants have no chance of winning a vote or promoting their interests democratically?
And how can the existence of a small minority justify independence for, say, Crimea? Most of the inhabitants of Crimea are Russians, so presumably you would give the great majority of Russians in Crimea the right to choose continued membership of the Russian Federation?
You sometimes go off the rails, Mr. Murray, this is one of such sometimes.
Where would you find the original inhabitants then? Many of these conquests occurred centuries ago, even the more recent ones (say) the cleansing carried out by the Georgian thug in the USSR happened long ago enough for the original inhabitants to be almost all no longer breathing.
And as for compensation: Would you ask the Italians to chip in for their occupation of the parts of the lands of today’s Britain, if not where do you stop, and why you stop there.
It also seems somehow unfair to give the USA any advantage due to their very effective efforts to exterminate the Native Americans, who now survive only in very small numbers.
The Russians were relatively mild in their conquest of Northern and Central Asia, perhaps because of a lack of Russian colonists – but the fact remains that, if Russia had behaved like the Great White Father in Washington, there would be few if any living Tatars, etc.
Tom, I guess the issue of colonies has nothing to do with the Tatars.
Look at the map of Tataria Minor, aka the Crimean Khanate.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/1600_rus.png
You see that the Tatars conquered not only the Crimea, but also parts of Russia, Moldova and Ukraine. Have you seen anywhere a mention that e.g. Ukraine should return Kherson, Odessa or Mariupol to the Crimean Tatars? No? Me neither.
It’s always about the Crimea alone.
From this fact, I draw certain conclusions, and the gaps in the Mr. Murray’s knowledge of geography and history become quite ‘understandable’.
I take your point, Tatyana, and I am aware that the Krim Tatars were a scourge across Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (then the largest nation in Europe apart, perhaps, from Russia).
Catherine the Great and her soldiers did right by conquering Crimea and stopping those terrible depredations.
What I was arguing was that, if Russia had treated the Tatars the way the USA treated the Native Americans at the time and for the next 250 years, there would hardly be any Tatars alive today.
Tom, I understand your point. I agree.
I only point out nobody cared of Tatars when the Crimea was with Ukraine. For 25 years of its sovereignty Ukraine could have settled the Tatars in the peninsula, if it only wished to. Or, settled them in the Ukrainian territories historically populated by Tatars, if it wished to.
It’s the fact that the Crimea is Russian today that makes everyone so much compassionate. Nobody was compassionate to that extent when the Crimea was in Ukraine.
If Russia were so minded, do you think Ukraine would respect the Tatars’ independence and sovereignty?
I still find it funny (and sad) that this blog ignores wishes of vast majority of Crimean inhabitants and instead champions the cause of small minority of recent aggressors who *colonized* it. We’re not talking about Central Asia, we’re talking about land that had Slavic (and Greek, if we’re pedantic) population for hundreds of years before any Tatars shown up anywhere nearby.
You can make the exact same argument about Scotland, by the way – maybe it should be decolonized, Scottish occupiers removed, and the land handed back to Picts. In fact, it would be much better argument because Picts were indisputably original inhabitants before what we call Scots now arrived from Ireland, not genocidal enslaving colonizers Tatars were. Was there something about mote in the title, I wonder?
Excellent points, Mr. V, seconded.
Thirded!
Except that, of course, the Picts as a culture are no longer with us,
DNA tests can answer rhat question?
I am sure that in former empires, there are always relict odd territories and peoples that have not been liberated, as you mention of Dagestan, Chechnya and Tatarstan. The decolonisation of the Soviet Union in 1991, something I never expected to see in my lifetime, was necessarily a blunt tool, given the speed it was done at. It takes time to get right afterwards. The question though, in my mind is: why is Siberia not regarded as a colonial territory? Is it because the native population has largely been exterminated? Same as the native American population in the USA.
The lies, the half-truths and the deceptions of the MSM poodles & other sources are totally transparent because there’s no mechanism for the truth to emerge, the liars can get away with it as Britain has morphed into a country not dissimilar to what the East looked like when the Red Menace was in charge when the communists lied to the people, the people knew there were lied to, the Red Menace thugs knew the people knew they were lied to.
What it did was it made people lose their dignity, they felt ashamed, their conscience was soiled, the legacy of this moral putrefaction still lingers on in all of the countries of the former USSR Empire. A time will come this country will regret this phase of her history, too.
“I suspect deep down he fantasises about going to war against the Russians with the British Army”.
In that case, he has suicidal tendencies, and should immediately be offered psychiatric treatment. If the British army were to attack Russia, it would be annihilated within minutes – unless the Russians were temporarily incapacitated by laughter.
Today’s anti-Russia/China paranoia is nothing new.
As revealed by the recent Spy Cops revelations, UK intel folk along with the Met spent decades infiltrating hundreds of left-wing groups, unions; anti-NATO and anti-nuclear campaign groups ,recruiting student activists as informants.Left-wing Labour MPs were spied upon. Hence, logically it follows that just to pass agency vetting, you have to hold right-wing views? I know they’re recruiting BAME and/or LGBT people, but it won’t fix the deep ideological bias.
Occasionally there is an issue or point I am researching and can’t find on google. So, I will look elsewhere to a few other search engines. One such being ‘dogpile’ and another being ‘yandex’. Having read the allegation of Russian blocking I then went to the Russian one, ‘yandex’ and voila – up pops Mr. Craig Murray and the article above.
I am not the best at handling modern technology and computers – I admit..But unless there is some other route or blocks effected, at a quick glance, on a common sense basis, it seems that someone seems to have made a mistake about Russian blocking.
FYI – this isn’t how IP blocking works. Nor is Yandex a state owned search engine, it is a private company. Even if it appeared on Russian search engines, that would not mean that the IP of the blog would necessarily be available. For example: you can still find Torrent aggregators on most search engines, but your internet provider will not allow you to access most of them, unless you use a proxy server located in a country not covered by the relevant copyright legislation.
J,
In all fairness – I did state that I am not a techi person.
So the real question is – can Russians still within Russia access Craig Murray blog be that via Yandex or any other provider accessible in Russia.
Need not complicate the issue unduly.
Cheers.
Courtenay
Yes ! And as the likes of Google become ever more transparent in their efforts to ‘Shield’ us, Yandex is becoming the search engine of first choice.
HMG’s disinformation in the “Skripal” and “Navalny” affairs seems to have several different aims. One that has been quite neglected is to conceal or obfuscate the fact that, according to OSCE, Russia destroyed the last of its chemical warfare agents in 2017 whereas the USA and the UK retain substantial amounts of such agents.
“OPCW Marks Completion of Destruction of Russian Chemical Weapons Stockpile”
https://www.opcw.org/media-centre/news/2017/10/opcw-marks-completion-destruction-russian-chemical-weapons-stockpile
“United States chemical weapons program”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_chemical_weapons_program
“Destruction of stockpiled chemical weapons began in 1985 and is still ongoing. The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD), at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, continues to operate”.
This from Wikipedia, which routinely favours the US government line and gives the USA and UK (along with the rest of NATO) every possible benefit of any doubt.
Wikipedia is positively evasive about UK chemical weapons, although one can glean this:
‘”An inquest was opened on 5 May 2004 into the death on 6 May 1953 of a serviceman, Ronald Maddison, during an experiment using sarin. His death had earlier been found by a private Ministry of Defence inquest to have been as a result of “misadventure” but this was quashed by the High Court in 2002. The 2004 hearing closed on 15 November, after a jury found that the cause of Maddison’s death was “application of a nerve agent in a non-therapeutic experiment”‘.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_weapons_and_the_United_Kingdom#Post-World_War_II
Search Wikipedia and the OPCW https://www.opcw.org/ and you will not find any reference to the UK having destroyed all its chemical weapons.
Hence, I believe, the Novichok masquerade. The facts appear to be that Russia undertook to destroy all its chemical weapons, and had done so three years ago. The USA made the same promise, but has not delivered yet. The UK ain’t sayin’ nuffink.
The song and dance about “Novichok” is obviously meant to persuade the gullible majority of citizens that Russia is not only still producing chemical weapons, but using them in anger. Whereas Russia is not, but the USA and probably the British are. Standard operating procedure: accuse your designated “antagonist” or “adversary” of vile and illegal acts that it has not carried out – but you have.
Incidentally, as the British and US authorities are so ready to proclaim that “Novichok” was used to kill people, but failed to do so because it was “weakened” or “diluted” or left out in the rain too long, or administered to the wrong underwear… I challenge Theresa May and any others who have said such things to have administered to them an arbitrarily small amount of good old British VX, under controlled conditions – and see what happened.
They should be perfectly safe, as we have often been told that “Novichok” is many times more deadly than VX.
As a general rule : “When someone accuses you of doing something you’re not doing, it’s usually because they are the ones doing it”
“Kremlin-linked” has become the lazy, catch-all assertion of choice for establishment MSM toadies for anyone who deviates from or questions an official narrative on social media. The few journalists that have chosen to retain their objectivity, are pilloried as useful idiots, shills for Russia and/or traitors.
I think the phrase you are looking for is: “Accuse the other side of that which you are guilty.”
[e.g. like banning Public Protest].
Self interest is a fundamental and reliable indicator of behaviour. Two nations in good faith and in self interest would be motivated to seek agreement on relations of mutual benefit. Scotland as a new nation could expect to have amicable relations with nations such as Russia, Iran, China, etc. with great opportunities for economic co-operation with significant development not just in Scotland but other nations. However if Scotland assumed the baggage of relations developed by the UK and it’s associates there would be significant hostility. Despite the geo-political interests the populations of these nations favour mutually beneficial and respectful relations rather than hostile competition or aggression. I think it would be a mistake to start anew by replicating that which has resulted in what we have now and it not being ideal.
To my mind, the Scottish political establishment is exactly like those of (other?) NATO nations in being downstream from the Niagara of money emanating from Washington.
Whatever may have been the case in the past, today money is the currency of Western politics.
The Hosie’s, the McDonald’s and the Smith’s of the SNP are now in my opinion part of the Westminster establishment, careerists, who spout Whitehall propaganda, and with the second Janus face decry Westminster is holding back Scotland. Of course on the Russophobe attitude, touted by both SNP MP’s and some MSP’s, and BritNat hacks, in part Sturgeon’s union loving allies appear to have taken a leaf out of her heroines book HIllary Clinton, and blamed Russia for anti-Sturgeon social media comments.
Of course its just another desperate attempt to decry those who know what Sturgeon has done, and what she didn’t do which was hold an indyref after Brexit in 2016. Scots aren’t enemies of Russia or Iran for that matter, dissolving this unfit for purpose union might even bring Scots closer to Russia and Iran, though the Great Satan (USA) and its NATO allies would loathe to see that day.
Spot on, lifted directly from the Hillary playbook of misdirection and berserkerism. Page 1. Confirms exactly who we are dealing with, in case there was still lingering doubt.
It’s worse than that. These people will be heavily promoted by the Integrity Initiative plants in the media as the ‘best picks’ for leadership roles. And the public will remain blissfully unaware that the journos doing the promotion, do so because they’re compromised.
We need laws against intel agencies interfering with our supposedly free press.
I do understand where you come from with “stripping colonial possessions”, if looking at the topic without nuance.
Of course Rus society expanded into territories of non Rus some centuries ago, and so became the Russian (not an ethnic term in Russian) civilisation.
But Russia has not gone Anglo and genocided the other populations. There are many languages that are spoken by large swathes of Russians that are not Russian. The cultures live together, fairly peacefully, in a civilisation (one step above nation).
And then the question – what benefit would splitting Russia into paper statelets be? You are fully aware of the power of the Anglo Empire to push colour revolutions everywhere. Heck they ransacked Russia with Yeltsin too even!
So you split Russia into a few dozen nations, not inclusive, not open to diversity – but according to ethnicity. A racialist policy at best. What would hose peoples gain? Economically or politically?
Because I imagine IMF vultures gutting their economies and resources with debt slavery, and their politicians being bought off and working against their own peoples for some silver coins.
And I agree with Chapter I, Article 1, paragraph 2 of the UN Charter. Crimea – not some historical hourglass, but the people that live there, self determined to break from the Ukraine, and then join Russia.
We can debate on the sagacity of the behaviour of the Russian state with its sly intervention, but the people there wanted that. So what, now let’s ignore democracy and force history down people’s throats?
I personally agree that were a region within Russia wanting to split, it should be granted a referendum, and the people should decide. I don’t think you’ll find many takers.
And in truth, give one a few years out in the storm that is the modern political world, and the rest would think twice.
Scotland is a bit simpler – it is in the Anglo sphere, and so as much of a darling to the London tyranny as any independent nation could ever be. It’s independence is open to much less risk from outside forces, than an independence of Dagestan, or Idlib, or whatever ‘middle of nowehere’ region – to which NATO leaders would never dream of holidaying in. The Queen has Balmoral, that is the difference.
Russia offers a more Vulcan civilisational model. It has been more consistently within international law norms since the USSR broke up (just take a body count of NATO v Russian interventions please).
Not a perfect actor of course, but eye, splinter, log. Most Russians would likely agree with much of your blog, save your take on Russia itself!
Yes. Good post
Thank you, Ilya G Poimandres. In particular your statement that “… I agree with Chapter I, Article 1, paragraph 2 of the UN Charter. Crimea – not some historical hourglass, but the people that live there, self determined to break from the Ukraine, and then join Russia.” It’s such a simple issue. The wishes of the overwhelming majority of the people actually living in Crimea were successfully acted on and democratically implemented without a shot being fired. It was an event that should have been celebrated by the rest of the world. Well done the Crimeans and well done Russia!
The irony is Putin, careful analyst that he is, warned the west about this principle being enforced during the Kosovo debacle, which had more questions of authenticity.
And of course, he was proven quite correct. Self determination is a double edged sword, for those that force it on peoples, or even for the peoples who choose themselves. But it’s hard to see where Crimea has lost out from its decision. (My grandmother and half the extended family live in Odessa, so I can only say I wish this principle worked for more, given where current Ukraine is now!)