A Russian speaks out about Putin, Zelensky and the Ukraine War

By Ted Belman.

I was fortunate to get introduced to Galina who is the mother of my daughters friend. She spent her whole life in Russia and just emigrated when the war began. She is extremely knowledgeable and intelligent and I think its safe to say she hates Putin.

I shared her view point with a number of equally knowledgeable and intelligent people.  What follows is what we have each written. Her remarks are translated by Google.

Galina

Dear Ted, I am glad to meet you in absentia and I am ready to answer all your questions.

I’ll start with “The Church planted the seeds of the Holocaust”
Everything that is written there has been known for a very long time to all educated people, even to anti-Semites.
Normal people would not challenge a single postulate of this article.

This issue is considered in great detail in the Russian Wikipedia – “Antique Anti-Semitism”.

I would recommend that you read this article.

Anti-Semitism in the Middle Ages is here

You have written

Everybody hates Stalin.  But Russians like Putin now.  He is very popular.

If you knew a bit more about Zelensky and Ukraine perhaps her support would decline.

Unfortunately, even now not everyone hates Stalin. Since Stalin was not condemned publicly, like Hitler, his name and his actions are very often set as an example. Even his monuments have been preserved. A lot of people, especially the elderly, remember with nostalgia – “There was order under Stalin.”

A lot of descendants of investigators, security guards and supervisors live in Russia. We used to say: half the country sits, half the country guards.
And at the same time, not everyone loved Stalin and not everyone loves Putin. Now such people are silenced or forced to leave the country with threats (this is at best)

Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief is an Open Banderite Fascist 

LIVE: Scott Ritter on the Possibility of Peace, Kherson, Bandera, and the Operation in Belarus

How Ukraine’s Jewish President, Volodymyr Zelensky, Made Peace with Neo-Nazi Paramilitaries on Front Lines of War with Russia 

Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine 

Why are so many Idolizing Zelensky and Ukraine? 

To answer you, I need to study all this, and this is long and tedious.

And most importantly, I do not consider Zelensky a Banderaite in any way, especially now that the war is going on. There are many more Nazis and nationalists in our country than in Ukraine .. And the war showed this very clearly.

I looked at some articles and I think that they have a lot of negative opinions about Zelensky. I don’t agree with this. In times of war, this is inappropriate.
If you read our news, you will find much more anti-Semitism in the words of our high-ranking officials – Lavrov (compared Zelensky to Hitler), assistant secretary of the Security Council Patrushev (Hasidim is a sect), Sokhnut is judged and et?

Neo-Nazism in Russia

***

Galina

Freedom of speech has completely disappeared under Putin’s rule. People and opposition politicians or even ordinary people cannot express alternative opinions. Discussions are not allowed on pro-government channels, any rallies, pickets and marches are prohibited, even if they do not relate to the war. For the word “war” they are sentenced to fines (the smallest punishment) or simply to prison. We are not at war, but a “special military operation” (SVO). All alternative opinions, discussions, videos and photos of the atrocities of Russian soldiers in Ukraine are called fakes. Oppositionists are imprisoned from 7 to 25 years, as under Stalin. Political criminal cases are fabricated. For real murders they give less up to 15 years.

Opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison. This is the longest term in political affairs since the beginning of the war. “Russia will be free, tell everyone!” – Kara-Murza reacted to the sentence passed on him.

Since the beginning of the war, Russian courts have increased prison sentences in political cases.

Here are some examples (there are hundreds of them)

Ivan Safronov – 22 years in a strict regime colony. He was found guilty of “treason”. The FSB accused the journalist of passing “secret information” to foreign intelligence services.

Sergei Furgal – 22 years in prison. Furgal pleaded not guilty, linking the criminal prosecution to his political activities. He is a former governor of the Khabarovsk Territory.

Ilya Yashin – 8.5 years in prison. The ex-deputy was tried in the case of spreading fake news about the Russian army. According to investigators, Yashin spread “deliberately false information” about the events in Bucha on YouTube. The politician received almost the maximum term provided for by the article.

Alexander Nevzorov – 8 years in prison. On February 1, journalist Alexander Nevzorov was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison in the case of “fakes” about the Russian army.

Alexey Gorinov – 7 years in prison. On July 8 last year, Alexei Gorinov, a municipal deputy from Moscow, was found guilty of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army because of a speech in which he called a special operation a “war”.

Many people have already been arrested for 2 to 3 years for posters, for posts on Facebook and social networks.

This is our reality. Therefore, you will never know the truth if you watch RT, Sputnik and other state channels of Russia.

And you continue to believe Putin?

?????? ???????? (Galina)

Freedom of speech has completely disappeared under Putin’s rule. People and opposition politicians or even ordinary people cannot express alternative opinions. Discussions are not allowed on pro-government channels, any rallies, pickets and marches are prohibited, even if they do not relate to the war. For the word “war” they are sentenced to fines (the smallest punishment) or simply to prison. We are not at war, but a “special military operation” (SVO). All alternative opinions, discussions, videos and photos of the atrocities of Russian soldiers in Ukraine are called fakes. Oppositionists are imprisoned from 7 to 25 years, as under Stalin. Political criminal cases are fabricated. For real murders they give less up to 15 years.

Opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza was sentenced to 25 years in prison. This is the longest term in political affairs since the beginning of the war. “Russia will be free, tell everyone!” – Kara-Murza reacted to the sentence passed on him.

Since the beginning of the war, Russian courts have increased prison sentences in political cases.

Here are some examples (there are hundreds of them)

Ivan Safronov – 22 years in a strict regime colony. He was found guilty of “treason”. The FSB accused the journalist of passing “secret information” to foreign intelligence services.

Sergei Furgal – 22 years in prison. Furgal pleaded not guilty, linking the criminal prosecution to his political activities. He is a former governor of the Khabarovsk Territory.

Ilya Yashin – 8.5 years in prison. The ex-deputy was tried in the case of spreading fake news about the Russian army. According to investigators, Yashin spread “deliberately false information” about the events in Bucha on YouTube. The politician received almost the maximum term provided for by the article.

Alexander Nevzorov – 8 years in prison. On February 1, journalist Alexander Nevzorov was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison in the case of “fakes” about the Russian army.

Alexey Gorinov – 7 years in prison. On July 8 last year, Alexei Gorinov, a municipal deputy from Moscow, was found guilty of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army because of a speech in which he called a special operation a “war”.

Many people have already been arrested for 2 to 3 years for posters, for posts on Facebook and social networks.

This is our reality. Therefore, you will never know the truth if you watch RT, Sputnik and other state channels of Russia.

And you continue to believe Putin?

??????
+7 903 552 60 59 ?????? wats’up, Telegram???????, 15 ?????? 2023, 15:42 +02:00 ?? Ted Belman <tbelman3@gmail.com:

Ted Belman

I very much appreciate the information that you are bringing to my attention.  I am sharing it with contemporaries. I intend to share their responses with you. There are all descendants of Russian and Ukrainian Jews in the main. Two are expat Russians.

I do not defend Putin because I do not know the facts. But I do blame the US for the war. It has nothing to do with whether Putin is a good guy or not.

As I said in my article, some people think the US is doing the right thing but others don’t.

Galina 

I have lived in Russia all my life. First in the Soviet Union (USSR), then in the Russian Federation – RF (briefly Russia)

I am a mechanical engineer. I worked for a while in a factory, then taught engineering and computer graphics at the university. I have lived all my life in a totalitarian state. Now I am livin in Germany. My son hurried me out of Russia urgently last year, when this terrible war began.

A little about the country where I lived for 79 years

There were only two periods when we breathed lightly. Stalin ruled for 30 years, and now Putin has been for 23 years. The first time is the so-called “thaw” (Ottepel) and the second period is “perestroika” .

Official statistics: 1930 – 1953 – political repressions – 3,778,234 people were imprisoned and 786,098 people were shot. According to unofficial statistics, Stalin killed 20 million – dispossession, famine in the Volga region and Ukraine, deportation of peoples from the Baltic states and the North Caucasus, Bessarabia, Western Ukraine. Stalin was a zoological anti-Semite. He shot the entire Jewish anti-fascist committee. The thaw did not last long from 1957 to 1964 during Khrushchev’s rule. Perestroika also did not last long: from 1989 to 2008. And after 2011, Putin began to persecute dissidents. And now, especially during the war, people who speak out against the war are imprisoned for 7, 8, 9 years. And according to the latest sentence, Kara-Murza is given 25 years in prison. Imprisoned for words, imprisoned for expressing their opinion!

You:  As you know Putin said he wanted to denazify Ukraine.  I took him at his word.

Now about Putin. Putin already leads for 23 years. The so-called elections are rigged. In a democratic country, presidents don’t work for more than 8 years. To stay on the “throne” he changed the constitution and “nullified” the terms of government. For 23 years he lied: he said that he would never attack Ukraine – he have attacked her, never change the constitution – he changed it for himself. Violated the Budapest agreements: the inviolability of Ukrainian borders in exchange for nuclear weapons. The Ukrainians gave away nuclear weapons, Putin violated the borders of Ukraine, seizing the Donbass and Crimea.

How can you believe Putin, when he is a Chekist?

Putin is a security officer. What is a Chekist? I explain.

The structure of repressive structufas after the 2017 revolution

?? (read CheKa) Extraordinary Commission (destruction of intellectuals, execution and expulsion of entrepreneurs to Siberia) since 1924. Then the NKVD since 1934 (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs – a continuation of the Cheka), the KGB  since 1954 to 1991 (State Security Committee) and finally the FSB (Federal Security Service). Putin was a spy in socialist Germany.

What is “denazification” and “demilitarization”? Putin spoke about some neo-Nazis in Kyiv who allegedly behave “like militants” and thereby destroy the statehood of Ukraine. What kind of neonists are there in Ukraine, when the people chose the president with 70% of the votes?

I already have written you. There are more neo-Nazis in Russia than in Ukraine – 53 sects. And in Ukraine there are only 2 – Azov and the Right Sector. Feel the difference?

“Demilitarization”: “One of the key requirements is demilitarization, that is, Russia helps citizens, residents of Donbass, achieve the neutral status of Ukraine. Whether because Putin could not clearly explain what is hidden behind these two concepts, or because for some other reason, but he never used those words again.

Note: 14,400 (3,404 civilians) have died in Donbass during 8 years, since 2014, and in the first 2-3 months of the war, about 8,000

Already at the end of December, Putin announced a new reason for the invasion: it is “the unity of the Russian world”, since “nobody wants to unite and strengthen – except us, but we will do it and we will do it” (22.12). That is, now a new one has been added to the old goals – the reunification of the “Russian World”.

The result is this: Putin started a war, the reasons for which he himself cannot explain. Either he is worried about the fate of all of Ukraine, then the protection of the population of Donbass, then the “return of historical lands”, then, unexpectedly, the “Russian World”. How one is connected with the other – the president does not specify.

And where is America? Putin doesn’t say a word about America. Believe me, if America were “guilty” even for 1 percent, Putin and his propagandists would talk in all the media. And only when the whole normal world came to the defense of Ukraine, a version appeared that Russia was fighting against NATO.

My opinion (and his propagandists talk about it). Putin needs Ukraine to block and control the Azov and Black Seas.

Putin also wants to annex Moldova, northern Kazakhstan and is rushing about the Baltics.

You  The West does not allow a different narrative to their own

This is wrong. You can freely read RT websites and listen to Sputnik and watch YouTube in all European languages. I read and wath these chanals ?lso. They are prohibited only in paid cable channels. And in Russia there have never been channels from Ukraine and other countries. At all! Now there is only propaganda in zombie boxes. And no alternative opinions on the Talk Show. Now for opinions against the war they put people in prison from 5 to 25 years. People write denunciations against each other.

And I wouid recommend  alternatives for you  BBC, Voice of America, DW Deutsch channel, Meduza.

Once more about Nazism Bandera and his army

Today, the Russian world is fighting “fascists” in Ukraine, where the president is a Jew.  In Ukraine, which was supported by Israel.  One of the main myths of Russian propaganda is the general antisemitism of Bandera, participation in the Holocaust.  Well, as usual, just the facts:

In 1941, the Red Army soldier Leiba Iosifovich Dombrovsky was captured by the Nazis.  Having completely changed his full name to Leonid Panfilovich Dubrovsky, he escapes from captivity and under a new name settles in Rovno.  In 1943, he voluntarily joined the OUN and led an active ideological struggle against the red plague.

“The Jews bravely fought in the ranks of the UPA, we do not know of cases of their unworthy behavior” – historian Yaroslav Dashkevich.

“The movement of Ukrainian nationalists was not antiSemitic. Bandera’s leaders saved Jews during the Holocaust and fought alongside them in the ranks of the UPA” – historian V. Vyatrovich, based on declassified KGB archives.

“All of them honestly performed their duty, assisted not only the fighters, but the entire population, not leaving battle formations in difficult situations, even when they had the opportunity to go over to the Reds. Many of them died a military death in defense of the ideals for which they fought  “Ukrainian people. Most UPA doctors were Jews. Jewish doctors were considered equal citizens of Ukraine and commanders of the Ukrainian army.”  – OUN rebel leader Mykola Lebed

“Many fled from the ghetto in the western regions of Ukraine in 1942-43.  one way or another met with the Ukrainian rebels.  This is not an easy picture, mostly positively colored.  I personally worked with documents, I saw that many Jews themselves obtained weapons and joined the Ukrainian rebels.  However, the rebel detachments were different, the field commanders were different.”  – Dr. Felix Levitas.  Levitas has one of the largest libraries in Ukraine on the history of fascism, he defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic “The Jews of Ukraine during the Second World War.”

And this is a radiogram from the Bolshevik partisans dated October 30, 1943: “The nationalists in Dombrowice mobilized all the tailors to make warm clothes for the winter. According to the last order of the headquarters, the nationalists are now accepting everyone except the Poles. At this time [among] the nationalists there are many Jews  especially doctors.”

German propaganda accurately caught the moment of Ukrainian-Jewish accord.  Here is one of the German leaflets: “Listen, Ukrainian people! From the secret instructions that fell into our hands, it is clear that the Kremlin Jews are in close contact with the OUN, which allegedly fights against Bolshevism. The OUN leadership has agents who carry out orders  bloodthirsty Stalin and his Jewish guardsmen. Villagers, remember that the UPA robs the Ukrainian people, mugs and dishonors them. And who is the leader of this army? These are the Lvov Jews and their Kremlin assistants.”  Having occupied Lvov, the Nazis staged an unprecedented provocation.  They opened the doors of the Lvov prison, where the day before the NKVD carried out mass executions, and declared that “this is the work of the Jews.”  They say that all Jews are employees of the NKVD, who mercilessly destroyed the Ukrainian people.  From the very beginning, OUN figures, writer and publicist Yuriy Lipa, editor and economist Lev Lukashevich, and famous poet Yevhen Malanyuk spoke out against Nazi methods and provocations in the western regions of Ukraine.

In September 1942 – February 1943, Roman Shukhevych’s wife Natalya hid a neighbor’s Jewish girl, Irina Reichenberg, at her place.  Shukhevych helped with the preparation of new documents for the girl in the name of Ukrainian Irina Ryzhko, and later he sent the girl to an orphanage.

Yes, in 1941 there were separate calls to fight the Jews as accomplices of Bolshevism, indicating the inexpediency of pogroms.  Bandera himself was in a concentration camp from 1941 to 1944 and was not involved in the creation of the UPA and did not manage it.  After the release, at the very first act adopted by the OUN in 1944, it was decided to completely abandon any kind of struggle against the Jews.

All accusations that members of the OUN-UPA were involved in the genocide of Jews were rejected by the Nuremberg Tribunal, and later by the US Congress at a meeting on Nazi criminals.

Responses
Leon KUSHNER
I know a few Russians who think like this person. Of course they had shitty lives in Russia so it is quite normal to hate Russia and its current leader, Putin. I think they are letting their emotions rule what should be objective take on the war.

Is this person a male or female and what is the person’s name? Is it Galina?

In any case he/she is not telling the whole story. During the war Stalin often sent young adults into enemy territory to gather the details on as many of the SS officers that they could. The purpose was to exact justice, revenge or any other term you wish to use. I’ve said the following in my blog but I’ll repeat it here. Unlike us in the West who are so ignorant about WWII and the Holocaust it created, the Russians are not. They studied the history in detail in school. They are a hundred times tougher than we are. They went on a mission after the war to hunt down all of the nazis that they could, thanks to the intelligence gatherers efforts during the war.

Unlike the Nuremberg Trials or Simon Wiesenthal or others who hunted down nazi criminals and brought them to trial for justice, the Russians hunted them down wherever they were and killed them or sent them to Siberia. There were no trials or extraditions or any bureaucracy. That’s why they were very successful. They never advertised what they were doing. They also didn’t forget what the Nazis did to them (unlike us in the West).

Unlike Zelensky, Putin and the vast majority of Russians hate Nazis. Sorry Galina or whatever your name is. You couldn’t be more wrong. Again, trying to make a case on just pure numbers of nazis in Russia won’t cut it. That’s exactly why Putin said he plans to de-nazify Ukraine. He said it publicly and he meant it. Putin runs Russia mob style. He has a vendetta against those Nazi Ukrainians and he plans to kill them all if possible. That’s one more very good reason in my book to root for Russia in this war.  Please note though, that I stick to my original premise. Let these 2 Slavic brothers who remain dictators of their respective countries, kill each other and let us stay out of it.

No arguments about Stalin being a vile antisemite and many Russians too (then and now). No argument about Putin being a dictator and imprisoning his competition, just like Zelensky. Put Putin is not an antisemite. I’m not calling him a lover of Jews either but to be objective I’d call Zelensky a self hater due to his friendship with Ukrainian nazis.

Wrong about the available Russian message. Of course one in the West can always find Sputnik news and with effort listen to some of Putin’s speeches. But it’s certainly not mainstream. You won’t hear it here in Canada on the CBC, CTV or any other news network. You won’t hear it on CNN, MSNBC or Fox.

If one could listen to speeches by Biden, Trudeau and Putin, side by side I’m sure any non woke person would agree with and admire Putin. He rightly does not want Russia to devolve into a crazed Western style country where a man can be a woman and visa versa. Where children are being perverted at schools and leave school without an education.  Where religion is being thrown out in exchange for wokeism. Where the family unit is being demonized and greed wins the day. Where an honest day at work is scoffed at and replaced by a spoiled population that demands everything but does little.

In any case he/she is missing the point. The point being that most of the world (both on the Right and Left) piled on to the notion that we must do everything to help Ukraine because they are a descent, democratic country, innocent of any wrong doing led by a Jewish hero no less. While Russia is the ongoing bad guy, guilty of everything wrong in the world today and led by an evil man.

It is absolutely necessary for us, the small minority who are wise enough to not simply swallow the MSM on this or believe what our governments want us to believe, ignoring the future of our grandchildren. The guiltiest party here is the Biden administration. They must de-escalate this war asap! Right now they are pushing for WWIII.

***
Peloni

I have to applaud Leon for so clearly expressing my views on these many topics he addresses in Galina’s statement.  I have a few points to add, however, which address other matters raised by Galina’s comments.

The powers wrested from the Legislature and Judiciary by Yeltsin during his successful 1993 military coup led to a presidency which was quite powerful.  Sadly, this enable Yeltsin to continue to implement the West’s program of economic shock therapy on Russia, which also led to both the impoverishment of the Russian middle class and the simultaneous creation of the Oligarchic class.  The disproportionate power held by these Oligarchs over the govt was quite extreme, and they largely ruled Russia from the sidelines.  Following Yeltsin’s retirement, his successor had determined that the rule of these Oligarchs would be ended and he made this part of his election platform.  Upon being elected, however, the power which Putin came to inherit from Yeltsin lacked the agency infrastructure which could be employed to effectively mask the govt’s ability to act with impunity while seizing personal assets or imprisoning a man simply because he had been predetermined to be a public threat.  Due to a lack of imagination, or a lack of invention, or a simple desire to be seen to be this powerful, Putin used the full power of his office to end the mastery of the Oligarchs in what came to be known as the Yukos Trial.  This trial  effectively blocked Mikhail Khodorkovsky from being able to sell his oil holdings to the West, which both saved the Russian state while simultaneously opening it to a fair criticism from home and abroad.  This trial also led to the state taking control of massive private holdings in what was perhaps the greatest act of govt acquisition of personal assets in history.  The means by which Putin was able to achieve this goal was seen to have been truly inspired by soviet styled legal shenanigans, and all of this was conducted in full view of the public. The state’s trampling of personal liberties was quite disturbing to witness, but the effect of this illiberal excess of govt authority was to return the power to rule the country from the hands of the Oligarchs to the hands of the govt where it should always have been.  It should also be noted that Khodorkovsky’s attempt to sell his Russian oil fields to the West would have devastated the Russian nation, and Russia would never have recovered from allowing the loss of such priceless commodities to take place – which is why Putin went to extravagant lengths to see to it that Khodorkovsky would not be able to do so.  There was, however, a greater unspoken benefit to have been gained in this public assault on the richest man in Russia by his own govt.  What Putin did to Khodorkovsky could easily be repeated against any of the remaining Oligarchs, and this was not a mystery to anyone of them.  As noted previously, Putin had stated quite clearly that the rule of the Oligarchs was to end with his election.  Of course, as we have all come to see, Putin does not bluff, but the Oligarchs were to be among the first to appreciate this fact.  Indeed, with his election,  the era of the Oligarchic Wild West in Moscow, which began under Yeltsin and which largely compromised Yelsin into being a pawn of the Oligarchs, did come to an end.

The advantage of all of this was that Putin provided the Russian people with something they have never actually had previously, namely good governance – something which the West would be impressed with having experienced during this same time period.  With possession of the Yukos gas holdings, Russia prospered beyond anyone’s expectations , allowing Russia in just a few years to completely repay the mammoth debts caused by years of Yeltsins governing incompetence.  Indeed, the marked change from the era of Yelsin to the era of Putin could easily be described as being the age of feasts following the age of famines.  Also, it was not just a matter of public economy which changed, as Ira Strauss, who coordinated the NATO Committee on Russia, famously noted that

The shunting of the Communists and ultra-nationalists out of their formerly joint hegemony in Parliament was Putin’s proudest achievement as a centrist, making possible a working relationship with Parliament – an achievement for freedom and stability that, for a while, the democrats and the West appreciated.

The disadvantage which arose from the Yukos trial is that the contest of wills between Putin and Khodorkovsky took place before the entire Russian public.  With this in mind, Khodorkovsky made full use of his platform as the govt’s #1 target to raise serious criticisms about what the govt was able to do to him.  Upon being pardoned in 2013, Khodorkovsky continued his attacks on Russia from abroad (see below).  Of course in all of his innumberable statements before his pardon and afterwards, Khodorkovsky failed to mention that his ability to so easily and cheaply come to own the state’s oil assets which he tried to sell to the West was completely due to insider and foreign connections.

So how do we weigh the scales here?  Well, I would suggest that we should leave such a decision to the Russians to assess this best.  There has never been a sizeable opposition to Putin’s rule, and despite the awesome abiltiy of Putin to destroy Yukos and seize its assets, he has not made this a practice in his over 20yr rule, far from it actually.  Also, contrary to what Galina reports, people do protest in Russia as we saw after the war broke out and after the call for 300K additional troops was made last fall.  People can also protest with their feet and flee the country as this too occured with the troop call up.  They also speak openly in criticism of the govt on a daily basis, or there would be far fewer Russian telegram channels criticizing Putin over his efforts in the war – from both the doves and from the hawks.  In any event, I see this question about Russia’s democracy and its limits to be an inquiry best reserved for the Russians to judge their govt as being liberal enough and effective enough or seek out a better govt or at least a better leadership of their current govt.  I do, however, find it quite informative that during the whole of Yeltsin’s rule of incompetence, the only Russian to rise in revolt against the govt was actually Yeltsin, himself.  So, perhaps the Russian tolerance of their govt is part of their character and nature, but I would suggest that this choice still remains their own to make, as they are a sovereign nation, and should not be held to the so called liberal standards of the West, particularly as the West are themselves being led by the self selected illiberal govt of the US.

Another point raised by Galina is the arrest of Kara-Murza, which Galina suggests is simply related to him expressing his opinion, but there is a great deal more context than a simple opinion.  The tale of Kara-Murza was very much related to that of Khodorkovsky.  After Putin pardoned and released Khodorkovsky in 2013, he continued to lead an British NGO he previously created, called Open Russia.  This British NGO seeks to implement changes to the Russian constitution to better limit Putin’s control over the country.  Of course, for those of us in the West, such desires personal and corporate freedom from govt control seems quite a basic goal for any of us to espouse, but Open Russia was a British organization trying to implement constitutional changes in the Russian govt.  In any event, in 2015, Khodorkovsky retired and handed the operations of Open Russia to Vladamir Kara-Murza who holds dual Russian-British citizenship, and was a close ally of John McCain – yes, the same John McCain who spurred on the Maidan revolutionaries to overthrow their legitimately elected govt, the relevance of which will be seen shortly. Two years after taking control of Open Russia, the Russian parlaiment passed a law outlawing this British NGO.  Kara-Murza carried on with his protests against the Russian govt, but it was not until after war broke out between Russia and Ukraine in 2022 that Kara-Murza ran afoul of the law.  There were many issues but chief among them was related to a speech he gave before the Arizon House of Representatives protesting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  In this speech, among other things, he stated:

The only way to end these wars and this oppression and these crimes that the Putin regime is committing is to get Putin out of power…  Needless to say, only Russians can effectively change Russia.

Perhaps this statement was inspired by the memory of his good friend, ‘Regime Change McCain’ or perhaps it was a errant statement of frustration against Putin’s contiued success.  In any event, it was a call to overthrow his own govt in a time of war and this call for regime change came in concert with those of many in the US, including Biden, to achieve the same end.  Russia had recently passed a law forbidding criticism of the Russian invasion, and this would likely include calls to overthrow the govt as well.

In any event, Kara-Murza has not yet been sentenced to 25yrs, but the prosecution last week announced that it is asking for a 25yrs sentence.

Personally, I would be happy to see Israel follow Russia’s example of dealing with such dissident foreign NGO’s as Putin did with Open Russia.  I also consider Kara-Murza’s efforts to lobby the US on behalf of Ukraine against his own country to be an acceptable description of treason.  He wasn’t simply criticizing Russia, and these were not just words expressing his opinion.  He was openly and publicly calling on the US to overthrow Russia’s legitimate regime, much as they had done to Ukraine before it had become a failed state.  Indeed, such open acts of sedition should be considered to carry a far greater importance than someone simply expressing their opinion, and the penalty afforded such seditions should be properly penalizing to intimidate such statements from becoming routine.  Sorry, Galina, but I think this is a far more fair description of the case surrounding Kara-Murza.

***
Alex Maistrovoy

I do not want to go into details and enter into disputes, and I will repeat my opinion, which I have already expressed several times. This is a war in which all its participants are definitely to blame. And they all lose in the end.

The Biden administration is certainly to blame. This administration has drawn Russia and Ukraine into a bloody conflict that will last for years, and will completely exhaust them. The US goal was to weaken Russia, and they pulled it into a bloody swamp, like in Afghanistan, without bothering to think that China and the Islamic empire ultimately would be the winners. They will establish themselves in the place of the defeated Russia. It will be a huge geostrategic defeat for America.

Zelensky is definitely to blame. He allowed himself to be drawn into a murderous war as a puppet, as a result of which at least a third of Ukraine will be physically wiped off the face of the earth. It is possible that Ukraine will cease to exist as a state in general.

Russia is undoubtedly to blame, since it has long hatched a plan to annex a large part of Ukraine, and the stupidity of Biden and Zelensky untied her hands. A quarter of a century ago, I saw maps on which Russia annexed the east of Ukraine, Kherson and Odessa, cutting off Ukraine from the sea.

The immeasurable stupidity of the Russians is that they did not measure their capabilities. Russia today is a country without its own industry, without a modern professional army, without modern technologies, without allies, with extremely low motivation among the your people. Therefore, Russia is forced to ask Iran, North Korea and now Egypt to send ammunition, drones and shells. Therefore, they have been waging war for a small city for half a year now and already lost the captured  territories. This is a shame for a country that considers itself a great power. Not to mention the moral side of the matter, they turned the traditionally fraternal people against themselves, and the young men, the color of the nation, either emigrated abroad (primarily the high-techists, future of nation), or were ground up somewhere near Bakhmut. This is, in fact, a crime against their own people. Russia will be destroyed and plunged into turmoil.

As I said, in the geostrategic sense, this is a victory for China and world Islam. It will be end-game.

***

Galina

Col Douglas Macgregor  This gentleman is not interesting for me, because he supports the dictator-Chekist Putin

Russian state television channels RT and VGTRK broadcast excerpts of Macgregor’s second Carlson appearance, which included a characterization of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a “puppet,” that Russian forces had been “too gentle” in the early days of the invasion and that Russian president Vladimir Putin was being “demonized” by the United States and NATO.[55][61] U.S. representative Liz Cheney said of Macgregor “This is the Putin wing of the GOP.”

Dr Jeffrey Sachs

In 2022, he appeared twice on one of Russia government-funded top-rated shows, hosted by Vladimir Solovyov, to call for Ukraine to negotiate and step away from its “maximalist demands” of removing Russia from Ukrainian territory,[73] for which he was criticised by the Wall Street Journal.[74]

In 2023, he blamed the United States for its supposed role in the Russo-Ukrainian War, claiming it “wrongly conspired” in the “overthrow” of president Viktor Yanukovych in the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, and then pushed “NATO enlargement to encircle Russia.

Sachs has suggested that the U.S. was responsible for the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline. In February 2023, he was invited by the Russian government to address the United Nations Security Council about the topic

This man is paid for by Putin. He performed on the — show ( iSolovyov s Jews) . Solovyov is the most odious presenter on the most odious channel. Other opinions are not allowed on this channel.

At the same time, back in 2008, Solovyov said something completely different: “There will never be any war between Russia and Ukraine, because any person who tries to carry it out is a criminal.”

Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov, who has a lot of real estate in Italy, threatened Europe and said that the Russian Federation would not stop at war with Ukraine.

And on this channel Sachs performed

Prof Mearsheimer

This person looks more realistically at the war in Ukraine. Some of his conclusions are controversial, but there topics are for discussion.

I agree completely with his following statement.

After the end of the Soviet Union, the newly independent Ukraine had a large arsenal of nuclear weapons on its territory. However, in 1994, Ukraine agreed to give up nuclear arms and become a member of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty; within two years, it had removed all atomic weapons. Almost alone among observers, Mearsheimer was opposed to that decision because he saw that Ukraine without a nuclear deterrent would likely be subjected to aggression by Russia.[70] As early as 1993, he suggested that Ukraine should retain its nuclear weapons as a deterrent.[1][71]

Mearsheimer debated the Russian invasion with Polish MP Radoslaw Sikorski in May 2022. Sikorski identified Putin as the culprit in conducting the invasion of Ukraine while Mearsheimer argued that Putin is pursuing a realist geopolitical plan to secure Russian national interests in the presence of perceived threats from an expanding NATO

??? ?????? ? ?????? ???? ?????????????? ? ?????

Yes, he implements his plan, but at what cost? And was there really a danger for us Russians? No, it wasn’t. Under the guise of the danger of a hypothetical eastward expansion, Putin is trying to implement a plan to destroy Ukraine as a country, secure a land access to Crimea and control the seas.

Scott Ritter

Ritter posted a tweet claiming that the killings in Bucha were carried out by the Ukrainian police. The international human rights organization Human Rights Watch found evidence that the alleged war crimes in Bucha were committed by the Russian military[38][3].

HOW CAN HE STATE THIS WHEN LIVING IN AMERICA. HE WAS THERE? SEEN WITH YOUR EYES? This is equivalent to the alleged Israeli police destroying an Arab village and shooting civilians.

This person doesn’t exist for me!

So you haven’t provided any alternative opinion other than a partial opinion in the form of a guess Prof Mearsheimer

And there is no evidence that America is the aggressor. Only one suggestion is presented. Not a single foot of America and other NATO members has entered the territory of Ukraine. On the contrary, Putin began his takeover of Ukraine in 2014 and continued in 2022.

Putin’s key thesis, which he repeats many times and around which his entire historical concept is built, that the Ukrainian idea is promoted by external forces and that the theory of “Ukrainianism” was invented only at the end of the 19th century, is not true

Use to justify the aggression of the Russian Federation.

A 2022 article from ETH Zurich magazine (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich) analyzes the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The author, a political scientist, notes that what Putin wrote in his article means that the president himself adopted the nationalist doctrine of “Great Russia”. In his DNR-LNR recognition speech immediately preceding the invasion, Putin reiterates claims that Ukraine was “created by Russia, more specifically Bolshevik, communist Russia” by “carving” part of its integral territory from Russia. Putin constructed the historical disintegration of the Russian people as a violent process, influenced from outside, and culminating in the “genocide” of the last eight years. Thus, Putin created a justification for Russian aggression as counter-violence and retribution in response to a long history of injustices against Russia[49].

All of the above by Putin suggests that Ukraine was created artificially by Lenin and should not exist. This is equal to the fact that Israel was created artificially and, according to the Arabs, should not exist.

???????, 15 ?????? 2023, 15:42 +02:00 ?? Ted Belman <tbelman3@gmail.com>:

I haven’t shared this with you before but intend to respond to it.

Ted Belman

Regarding Bucha, Ritter is not alone in claiming that.

Was there really a massacre at Bucha? 

***

Leon KUSHNER

Thanks for that bit of a history lesson Suzanna! Especially the McCain connection.

I would also add that despite the BS that our governments and MSM here are selling us, most Russians  are in favour of the war with Ukraine. Funny how Galina fails to mention this important fact.  Many had relatives and friends who were stuck in Russian enclaves like Donbass in Ukraine who had been suffering for years at the hands of Ukrainians.

Like Suzanna mentioned, the Russians who didn’t support the war left Russia. Not sure how easy it is for a Russian to leave Russia today but we do know that for quite some time, young men In Ukraine were prohibited from leaving. Still many Ukrainians still manage to sneak thru Ukraine’s large and porous border today because the Ukrainian army is busy fighting for their lives and losing more every day. Funny I just watched CNN and MSNBC pundits repeat the lie that Ukraine is winning the war and that any day now Russia will be overrun.

One last quiz. Can you guess which state leader is building more churches than any other state leader in the world today? I’ll give you a hint: It’s not Zelensky who outlawed some churches who were pleading with him to make a peace deal with Putin.

Yes, it’s Putin! Meanwhile, here in the West, churches are disappearing in record numbers and all sanctioned by our governments who are literally ashamed to be associated with G-d or religion (except Islam of course).

***

Leon KUSHNER

Alex, I definitely agree with you. Especially with your assessment about the future being in the hands of China and Islamists.

All 3 leaders are to blame and all have blood on their hands. Add to them, the WEF, NATO, UN, EU, Soros and most other Western leaders like my idiot in Canada and all of their respective MSM who are pushing us blindly into a hot war with Russia 24/7.

Not to belabour the point though, I had mentioned in my blog that one should remember the Bay of Pigs fiasco whereby Russia installed some serious missiles in Cuba when Kennedy was the president of the US. He rightly stood up to Russia and Cuba and threatened war with them unless they removed those missiles ASAP that were just a few miles from Miami. Most Americans at the time applauded their President for having the balls to stand up to Russia. I would bet that if that happened today, the Biden administration (read the Obama administration) would cave in and let them do it.

Objectively I can see why Putin had every right to do the same with the deadly biolabs and CIA that were next door in Ukraine despite treaties with the West that promised no outside interference with Ukraine.

As I mentioned in my blog, had the US president removed the biolabs and their covert CIA and others from Ukraine and said publicly that Ukraine will never be admitted into NATO, Putin would probably not have invaded Ukraine. Not sure what would need to happen to free the Russian enclaves in Ukraine but something could have been worked out under proper US leadership (read Trump).
***
Howard Bockner

Very interesting discussion.

The issues of Russia bad guy/West and Ukraine good guys shouldn’t be conflated.

Putin is no good guy but the other choices today are equally bad or worse- China, Islam, an EU overrun with Islam and subject to WEF/US pressure or the U.S. itself.

There was a time when people wanting to be free and who were lucky enough to escape had a place to go or could find one. Now since the phoney COVID inspired lockdowns everywhere, the deliberate destruction of small businesses and merit in general and the ever increasing Chinese style surveillance, there’s no real place of freedom in the West. Israel (once a choice for Jews) has fallen prey to the globalists and their leftist enforcers (judicial reform will be violently opposed as it would take away their power).

I understand that Russia has a terrible history of bloodshed and that here in Canada and the US our standards of living and relative freedom are still better but those of us who can see all this deteriorating at a rapid speed want the “progressive” agenda halted. A good start would be a big loss for it in Ukraine with the truth about the roots of that war finally coming out.
***
Jeremy Valentine

While I agree with you Leon on all points, I simply have to ask if Western leaders are really that ignorant?  That stupid?  That gullible?  Or are they that corrupt and are actually in on it?

I see it as the latter simply because for the past 100 years the Western Socialist/Communist and Elite have been working hand in glove.  They put Lenin in power. They put Hitler and Mussolini in power.  They were handy in putting in every tin pot turd world dictator in power and they also brought Mao to power…and brought the CCP into the Western nations via the same “preferred nation trading status” that was given to Communist Romania – which also used the West to stab the West in the back…

Anyway…something to think about..

Best from Truro

ps: REading Bella Dodd’s book…  Probably similar to Whittaker Chambers or Manning Johnson’s works…..  As all being former communists that testified before Congress: HUAC and exposed numerous high ranking political advisors etc. as being Soviet Agents or CPUSA spies/traitors.

I see these examples from the 1950s as a small bit of expanded reality toward today’s subject….

***

Jeremy Valentine   16 Apr, 2023

I am writing to say that I agree with all this but wish to comment specifically on the portion:  “If one could listen to speeches by Biden, Trudeau and Putin, side by side I’m sure any non woke person would agree with and admire Putin. He rightly does not want Russia to devolve into a crazed Western style country where a man can be a woman and visa versa. Where children are being perverted at schools and leave school without an education.  Where religion is being thrown out in exchange for wokeism. Where the family unit is being demonized and greed wins the day. Where an honest day at work is scoffed at and replaced by a spoiled population that demands everything but does little.”

When one looks into those within and behind all of these “woke” – read Communist – movements they will find Socialist/Communist organizations and most are directly linked to CPUSA, CCP and/or the old Soviet CPR.

This is one very astute example outlining the Communist/Socialist dialectic “divide and conquer” by any “means” necessary to destroy Western Judeo-Christian civilization because none of this/ese agenda are forced onto any un, non or anti-Western nations.

It is very logical why those of the same revolutionary dialectical ideology as Putin or Jinping uses toward all their enemies would not want it within their own societies….   They’ve made their revolution and are heads of their Fiefdoms however it is very logical why they want to keep their ideological backed agendas being active in and tearing apart the countries/societies/civilization of their enemy…. The West.
***

Galina
Tue, 18 Apr, 2

read what Shimon Peres said – the smartest person.
Simon Peres – Putin’s prophetic dying message:

 I told him: You are 63 years old, I am 93 years old.  Tell me what you want to achieve in the next 30 years?  What are you fighting for?  Do you hope to annoy America?

He says: No

Does America want a part of Russia?  No.  Do you have problems of misunderstanding with Obama?

He says: Why do you ask?

I said: Look, I’m not a spy, you can talk to me about everything.

He says: What do you think?  And I said: America will win, no matter what you do.

Why?  – he asked.

Because they are happy and you are not.

I told him next.

When an American wakes up in the morning, what does he see?  Mexico is in the south and they accept Mexicans in their country.  Canada is in the north, they are the best friends in the world.  And to the right and to the left there are fish in the water.  What should Obama be concerned about?

You, you wake up in the morning, who do you have next door?  Japan, China, Afghanistan?  My God!  They know that you have a lot of land and you don’t give them a dime.  You have 20 percent fresh water and you give nothing.  So, when the snow melts in Siberia, the first people you will see there are the Chinese.  Because there are many Chinese in the east and not so many Russians.

The second thing I said to him was:

America has the best ratio between the size of the land and the size of the people.  Yours is the worst.  Twenty million square kilometers.  My God!  But you don’t have that many people.  Your people are dying.  Don’t be fooled by applause and what people say.  They won’t forgive you.  Why do Russians only live to 62 years while Americans will live to 82?

And then I said to him: You behave like a king.

I said: What did the kings do?  They rebuilt two cities, St. Petersburg and Moscow, as a showcase.

Whatever you desire, you will find there.  The rest of Russia is like Nigeria covered in snow.  Your people are dying.  You don’t give them life.  Do you think they will forgive you?

Why is America great?  I asked him.

Because they are givers.  Why is Europe in trouble?  Because they are takers.  America gives.  People think it’s because they are generous.  I think it’s because they are wise.  If you give, you make friends.  The best investment you can make is making friends.

America had the courage to accept the Marshall Plan, they gave a huge chunk of their GDP to this dying Europe.  And in this way, they showed that this is the best investment in the world.

There is not a single European country that was not an empire.  French and British, Portuguese, everyone.  What happened?  They were thrown out of there and left with nothing.  England, the biggest empire from sunrise to sunset, all the oceans, and the non-violent Indians kicked them out and left them with nothing but three little islands they don’t know what to do with.

Believe me, I told Putin, enemies and enmity are the biggest losses in life.

you invest in stupidity

T. Belman

Even Peres can be wrong. Look at the Oslo Accords

---