Media disinformation and the renewed demonisation of Russia

Over the past year, the previously understated but regular drip-feed of articles in the Western media critical of the Russian establishment has become more frenzied and purposeful, reflecting an increase in the level of hostility towards Russia from the powers-that-be in the West. Of course, no state is perfect and no state should be beyond criticism, but I can’t help but wonder why Russia is the target of such much condemnation when their ‘crimes’ whereas the absolute tyranny being imposed on the people of Uzbekistan by Islam Karimov goes relatively unreported.

Behind the media disinformation - the veiled allegations that President Putin was somehow complicit in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya; the deliberate misinterpretation of a deeply ironic remark made to the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert about Israeli President Moshe Katsav; the customary wailing about the “rolling back democratic reforms” in Russia; the endless fake outrage at Russian actions in Chechnya - lie the real reasons for the renewed vigour in the campaign to demonise Russia.

What has Putin done to draw fire from assorted mouthpieces of Western governments and various hacks in the Western media? The reason for their ire is that he has established an effective and solid resistance to the rape and pillage of Russia by the globalised forces of unfettered greed. Putin has come to the conclusion that the powers that be in the West, in other words, the trans-national corporations and their ultimate owners, don’t just want access to Russian oil, nor do they want control of Russian oil, they want total control of every aspect of the Russian economy. For them, nothing short of total economic submission will do.

Putin is guilty of the ultimate sin, that of economic nationalism. The sin is that of putting the needs of your country before those of international capital. It is the real reason why Salvador Allende was ousted and replaced with the despot Pinochet. It is the true motive for the ousting of Saddam Hussein. It is the reason why Hugo Chavez is dishonestly depicted as a tyrant. It will be the actual rationale for any future war against Iran, despite claims to the contrary. In the case of Russia and the Putin administration, this 'sin' has manifested itself in number of ways, each of which is discussed in detail below.

Control of NGOs
On April 17th of this year, a law passed by the Russian Parliament, the Duma, took effect. This law, vociferously denounced as ‘controversial’ and ‘retrogressive’ by the media in the West, imposes restrictions on domestic and foreign nongovernmental organizations operating in Russia. The law puts in place strict registration requirements and imposes rigorous financial oversight on the operations of NGOs. The law also provides for the dissolution of an NGO if its activities "threaten Russia's independence or sovereignty".

The motive for this legislation is not to deny freedom of speech or to attempt undermine the rights of citizens, but to protect Russia from the insidious activities of certain foreign-funded NGOs that are established to do precisely three things:

• undermine the governments of sovereign nations and in doing so subjugate their economies
• promote the bland, insipid and ultimately impotent brand of western democracy
• press for the market liberalisation that is in reality little more than legalised plundering and wholesale racketeering

Vladimir Putin seeks to prevent a repeat of the "colour" revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia, where anti-ultra-nationalist xenophobes were funded by NGOs set up by the likes of the US National Endowment for Democracy, ostensibly to free the countries from their Soviet past and to establish them as independent democracies. The reality of these pseudo-revolutions is somewhat different, however. Their purpose was solely to move the countries out of the sphere of influence of Russia and into that of the United States. Democracy - or at least the concept of democracy unadulterated with corporatist fundamentalism, electoral fraud and the threat of tyranny - played no part in the proceedings.

In the most ironic of all ironies, the most vituperative disapproval of this move to curtail the activities of foreign NGOs came from the United States, a country that had previously put in place two versions of the freedom-busting "Patriot Act". Piling insult on top of injury, the political class and media in the United States remain fierce critics of Russia and her apparent lack of freedoms, despite having descended into a deeper dystopic state following recent the signing into law of the Military Commissions Act.

Dollar Independence
On May 10th of this year, Vladimir Putin, in his State of the Nation speech to the Russian Duma (Parliament), announced that Russia would make the rouble a convertible currency, in order that it could be used for payment in oil and natural gas transactions. At the present time, oil sales are exclusively transacted in dollars and are made solely through the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMX) and the London Petroleum Exchange (LPE), both of which are owned by American investors.

Any move away from the denomination of oil in dollars will severely impact on the demand for the greenback on the global market and would result in billions of dollars flooding back into the United States, causing at the very least a severe economic slump and potentially resulting in total economic meltdown.

Like Saddam Hussein before him, the real threat Vladimir Putin poses to the United States is his desire to free his country and the sale of its resources from the shackles of the US fiat currency. In November 2000, Saddam Hussein had started selling oil in euros, thus threatening the absolute hegemony of the dollar. Up to this point, oil had never been transacted in euros - as Britain and Norway, two major oil producers, one of which is a member of the EU and the other a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) decided to retain their own currencies and to continue denominating the sales of their oil in dollars. The result of the insolence of Saddam Hussein in threatening the hegemony of the almighty dollar was illegal invasion of Iraq. The pretext for the invasion was a lie - a smokescreen. The impending destruction of Iraq would have nothing whatsoever to do with the dictatorial nature of the Hussein regime, or his attacks on the Kurds. The true motive for the invasion was solely because he threatened US supremacy and the domination of its currency.

Similarly, the real reason for the posturing on Iran has nothing to do with alleged plans on the part of the Iranians to develop nuclear weapons. It is because the Iranians have announced plans to establish an Iranian Oil Bourse (Market) transacting oil in Euros. The exchange would be based on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf, an Iranian duty-free and tax-free zone. The launch date for the bourse has been delayed, and when and if it does go into operation it will have to overcome the major obstacle that the current amount of euro currency in circulation is insufficient. However, any moves away from the use of the dollar, however putative, can be considered a threat to the long-term viability of the greenback. Those who dismiss such suggestions as conspiracy theory may like to explain why the privately-owned U.S. Federal Reserve has cancelled the publishing of the M3 monetary aggregate, a report that details the extent dollar holdings globally.

If President Putin continues with his plans to establish the rouble as a convertible currency and to transact all sales of Russian oil in the rouble, then expect the demonisation of Russia in general and Putin in particular to increase dramatically.

Conflict with Georgia
Georgian President, Mikail Saakashvili is frequently painted as being a nationalist, but as always the reality of his presidency bears little relationship to the propaganda. Although he has fought hard to have Russian bases removed from Georgian soil, he has quickly replaced them with those of another foreign power - The United States. Since the downfall of the Soviet Union, the United States and her allies have been busy cultivating lackies and establishing bases in the former Soviet states bordering Russia.

For the authorities in Moscow, the Caucasus region and other former satellite states are their geopolitical backyard and therefore critical to their national security. The United States has bases in 130 of 160 countries in the world, and Russia has every right to be concerned about the presence of forces from an increasingly hostile nation on their borders - and have rightly used this incursion into the region as a reason to renew investment in their military.

The publicly stated rationale for Western support for Georgia in their conflict with Russia is that Saakashvili is committed to democracy and that Putin is somehow the contrary. This is undiluted nonsense.

A report by OSCE Watch concluded that the March 2004 poll effectively produced a one party state in Georgia with a small nominal and utterly ineffective opposition. Since that time, Saakashvili has busied himself with appointing close relatives to important governmental posts and despite having stated that “it was unacceptable for the Georgian president to have an inflated staff or a luxurious residence” he is now constructing a veritable palace for himself on the outskirts of Tbilisi - having demolished the police headquarters and a considerable number of neighbouring dwellings. This palace is reported by the British Helsinki Human Rights Group to be larger in scale than the White House in Washington. It is amazing that such a small country could afford such a disproportionate display of wealth and status. Despite its new status as a ‘democratic nation’ Georgia continues to be mired by outright corruption, cronyism, political racketeering and murder. Life for ordinary Georgians has not improved one iota since the colour revolution, and in many respects has worsened considerably.

A scale model of the new palace
(Photo by the British Helsinki Human Rights Group)

The fascist and totalitarian credentials of Saakashvili are close to impeccable. Constitutional amendments that were hastily pushed through parliament in February 2004, shortly after Saakashvili took power, effectively confer unlimited powers on the president. Also, in a move redolent of similar events in Nazi Germany, Saakashvili decreed that the symbol of the National Movement would become the new flag of Georgia, effectively making the symbols of the state and the party one and the same.

From the behaviour of the victor of the Rose Revolution, it is apparent that Georgia is not a democratic state, at least not by any commonly accepted definition of the word. Georgia has become a mini-dictatorship in all but name, a regime tied to and governed by the interests of the United States. Given the deep-seated connections between Saakashvili and the United States administration, the recent arrest of four Russian officials in Georgia can only be seen as deliberate action designed to provoke Russia - so that the Russian rejoinder can be dissected, analysed, criticised and demonised in the Western media.

Support for Byelorussia
Like Georgia, Byelorussia is a state sharing a border with Russia. Unlike Georgia, Byelorussia is an ally to Russia, and that - along with a shared history- is the primary reason for the close relationship between the two countries. The relationship does not imply Russian approval of the methods Lukashenko uses to remain in power, but is simply an attempt by Russia to ensure that Byelorussia does not become the 131st country in the world to host U.S. military bases.

Like Russia, Byelorussia has curtailed the activities of foreign NGOs and probably for much the same reasons. While there is an undoubted need for reform in Byelorussia, if the NGOs have their way, the reforms will be similar to those imposed on Georgia and Ukraine, and will not have the effect of improving the quality of life of Byelorussian citizens or making their government more accountable.

Any guesses as to who is sponsoring this putative "revolution"?
(photo by the British Helsinki Human Rights Group)

Alexander Lukashenko does have (as he said himself) "an authoritarian ruling style" and there is cause for concern about human rights violations and the actions of the state against independent journalists, national minorities and opposition politicians. However the true extent of such violations - when compared against those of "friendly" authoritarian regimes, such as the new Georgian administration- are exaggerated by the usual interested parties.

Ironically, Byelorusssia has been criticised by various U.S. funded NGO's for retaining the death penalty for certain crimes, despite the fact that the biggest culprit in the terminal dispatch of criminals is the chief cheerleader in anti-Lukashenko lobby. Also, in another supreme irony, in a testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice labelled Belarus, along with five other nations, as one of the United State's list of "outposts of tyranny".

The dismantling of oligarchy
Putin, much to the annoyance of the global kleptocracy, has started making moves to bring oil and gas production back under Russian control. The moves against Khodorkovsky, the ousting of Royal Dutch Shell from the Sakhalin II gas fields on the grounds of their failure to meet environmental regulations and the creation of the super corporation Gazpromneft have all contributed to the process of wrestling back control of resources that were literally given away to foreign companies and investors by the Yeltsin government. Of course, some in Russia, such as the newspaper Газета (Gazeta), will paint this as "a rather peculiar system of power where the nation’s key economic assets are run on behalf of the state by a group of close associates", but remained strangely silent while a small group of ultra-wealthy foreigners looted what they could of Russia's natural resources.

Military resurgence and Security Co-operation
The Russian army, navy and air-force are showing signs of recovering from their former dilapidated state. Despite years of economic problems, Russia has remained very much at the forefront of military technology and Vladimir Putin has made it clear in May 2003 through his annual State Of The Nation address that he would strengthen and modernise the Russian nuclear arsenal in order to “ensure the defence and capability of Russia and its allies in the long term”.

Through the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, Russia has been working together with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to bolster their collective defensive capability. On a broader front, Russia participates in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, whose members held war-games in Kazakhstan in August 2006. Russia has also signed a comprehensive military cooperation agreement with India, again in August of this year.

Conclusion
Without doubt, the rationale for the upsurge in anti-Russian propaganda in the Western media is triggered by the re-emergence of Russia as a global power and the decision of the Russian administration to put the strategic interests of Russia ahead of those of the United States. Indeed, the U.S. Council for Foreign Relations is urging George Bush to “stop regarding Russia as a strategic partner” because “Russia has become an increasingly authoritarian state with a foreign policy that is sometimes at odds with the interests of the United States and its allies”. It is true that the Russian administration is acting against the interests of the United States. After all, it is doing what any government should do… it should act in the interests of its own people. If clamping down on the Trojan Horses that are the western-funded NGOs is authoritarian, then I guess Russia is also authoritarian.

So, for once, it appears that the Council for Foreign Relations, a neocon think-tank that laughably describes itself as a “Nonpartisan Resource for Information and Analysis” has got something right.