“George Bush's Administration is promoting interests of candidate John McCain,” said Dr. Markov. “Defeated by Barack Obama on all fronts, McCain has one last card to play yet - the creation of a virtual Cold War with Russia..."
Wild rumors somehow still make the news. The silly efforts in Moscow to link the outbreak of war in Ossetia/Georgia to the U.S. Presidential race effectively treats this whole tragedy as farce. Does this mean it also is not being taken seriously?
From The Times (London)
By Charles Bremner in Moscow
August 15, 2008
Link to the original article
Kremlin dusts off Cold War lexicon to make US villain in Georgia
Russians were told over breakfast yesterday what really happened in Georgia: the conflict in South Ossetia was part of a plot by Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, to stop Barack Obama being elected president of the United States.
The line came on the main news of Vesti FM, a state radio station that — like the Government and much of Russia's media — has reverted to the old habits of Soviet years, in which a sinister American hand was held to lie behind every conflict, especially those embarrassing to Moscow. Modern Russia may be plugged into the internet and the global marketplace but in the battle for world opinion the Kremlin is replaying the old black-and-white movie.
The Obama angle is getting wide play. It was aired on Wednesday by Sergei Markov, a senior political scientist who is close to Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister and power behind President Medvedev.
“George Bush's Administration is promoting interests of candidate John McCain,” said Dr Markov. “Defeated by Barak Obama on all fronts, McCain has one last card to play yet - the creation of a virtual Cold War with Russia . . . Bush himself did not want a war in South Ossetia but his Republican Party did not leave him any choice.” The Americans were now engineering an armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia, Dr Markov added.
The Establishment and its media supporters are dusting off favourites from the Cold War shelf. Sergei Lavrov, the Foreign Minister, accused Washington of playing dangerous games. The West was guilty of “adventurism”, supporting aggression against peace-loving Russian forces who are engaged on a humanitarian mission to protect human life. Yesterday's headline in Commersant, a generally admired newspaper, announced with old-style sarcasm the imminent American “Military Humanitarian Landing” in Georgia.
A classic of Soviet-speak also came from Vasili Lickhachev, a former Russian Ambassador to the EU. “The West has spent a lot of time, energy and money to teach Georgia the tricks of the trade . . . to make the country look like a democracy,” he said.
“We and many other nations see through this deceit. We understand that the seditious tactics of the so-called colour revolutions are a real threat to international law and the source of global legal nihilism.”
These grooves from the Cold War grave are shrugged off by many Russians but they strike a chord in a nation ready once again to see itself as the victim of outside conspiracy. Blogs everywhere attract conspiracy lovers but Russian blogs have been exceptionally rich this week in theories of Western skulduggery over Georgia.
The old thinking finds more fertile ground now because, in the view of disillusioned Russians, President Bush relaunched the ideological war through a compliant American media, especially at the time of the invasion of Iraq.
“In the old days under Soviet rule we didn't believe a word of our own propaganda but we thought that information was free in the West and we longed for it,” said Katya, a middle-aged Muscovite. “But we have learnt since that the West has its own propaganda and in some ways it is more powerful because people believe it.”
Moscow is using novel methods to spread a very unsubtle, Cold War version of the Caucasian conflict to the world. Chief among them is Russia Today, a state 24-hour news channel that is fronted much of the time by cheery British and other English-speaking television professionals.
The smiles and studio banter could come from BBC World or CNN but the story is unrelentingly the Kremlin version. Banners flash along at the bottom of the screen saying such things as “genocide” and “aggression” or “city turns into human hell, many people still trapped under rubble”. Recapping the conflict yesterday RT's presenter said that Georgia's “brutal assault” had killed 1,600 civilians in its breakaway province in a campaign that destroyed 70 per cent of the buildings in Tskhinvali, its capital. Russian forces had moved in only to bring peace as Georgian forces killed women and children who were trying to flee, it said. Throughout its rolling cover of alleged Georgian atrocities, there was no mention of the heavy Russian military offensive.
The coverage goes down well in developing countries that want an alternative to CNN and BBC World Service, a Russian official said. “We have learnt from Western TV how to simplify the narrative.”
Comments
War seems to be the only tool McCain can play... http://www.enewsreference.com/newspaper/russi.htm
Posted by: eNews Reference | August 15, 2008 2:36 PM
With nearly 20 wars under our belt in but the space of some 233 years of republic, I'm not sure we Americans are in a solid enough philosophical position today to demand a halt to Russia's protection of her borders. And neither are we in a moral position necessary to deign her "aggressive" and "a threat to international peace."
Small wonder the Russians have long distrusted the West--and particularly the U.S. Granted, the Soviet Union was indeed an aggressive bear for many decades, though the USSR collapsed nearly 20 years ago. In the ensuing breathing period, we were availed ample opportunity with which we might at last befriend Moscow and enjoin her to engage us in countering Mid-East terrorists and the ever-burgeoning threat dwelling just beyond the Ussuri River and the Tien Shan. Instead we tarried and lost a tremendously-wide window of diplomatic opportunity. With our latest promise to preclude a potential Russian entry into the G-8, we may well have tossed our last hope of enlisting Moscow as a bona fide partner in the fight against terrorism.
Chalk up a bloodless diplomatic victory for al-Qaeda this week. Someone had better put the coffee on and awaken Washington from it's drunken stupor.
Posted by: R.L. | August 19, 2008 10:08 AM
At first I thought Dr. Markov's premise a complete suspension of reality and yet another example of byzantine Kremlin intrigue; though now I'm not so sure:
CNN just twenty minutes ago aired a segment which suggested via poll that a considerable majority of Americans believe McCain "stronger" than Obama on the issue of Russia. Dr. Markov now likely makes a very salient point here, as Americans rapidly approach a very important general election.
One can almost hear the ghost of U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower clearing his throat in preparation for an affirmation of his prescient message regarding the American military-industrial complex and its infamous role in crisis-precipitation for financial gain.
Maybe our liberals were right about Rove and Cheney after all: A lifelong conservative, a flag-waver, an American military veteran and churchgoer--and a three-time Bush voter--it has taken me a long time to wake up to reality.
I hope Markov's wrong, but I've seen crazier things happen.
Posted by: R.L. | August 19, 2008 1:51 PM
A white, red and yellow ribbon flutters gently across a billboard background of blue sky and puffy white clouds, entwined in the center with a white, blue and red-striped ribbon. The billboards, representing the fraternal ties between the breakaway republic of South Ossetia and Russia, have sprung up all over Moscow in the past few days. Below the ribbons, the slogan "Tskhinvali, We're Together" is written in bold, red block letters.
It's a pretty, airbrushed image. But the reality of Moscow's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as self-governing states independent of Georgia is far messier than mere brotherly support. Ask prominent pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov, a senior deputy in Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitri Medvedev's United Russia party in the state Duma, why Russia risked such provocative action, and the answer is a mix of strategy, revenge for past Western slights and even domestic American politics.
"One of the most important reasons is that Russia must protect Abkhazia and South Ossetia against genocide by the war criminal [Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili," says Markov. "Saakashvili is totally militarized and brought in outside support. Washington gave them all of the weapons and it has started to give weapons to the war criminal again."
Second, says Markov, "Russia waited for 20 years to accept South Ossetia and Abkhazia. South Ossetia and Abkhazia never lived together with independent Georgia. Never. The question is, how many years should we wait? Russia now has to make a new course, a new policy."
And then there's Kosovo. Western recognition of the Balkan state after it declared independence from Serbia earlier this year angered Moscow, which promised that the move would have consequences. "If the U.S. and Britain think they are first-level countries and Russia a second-level country, we don't agree," says Markov. "We are the first sort. If you recognize that Kosovo is an independent country, fine. We will do the same [with other countries]."
Finally, says Markov, Russia's strong military response was a type of warning. "This is a strong message to everybody. Those who think that aggression against Russia is okay should know that there will be a strong response." That, he says, will lead to a "worsening of relations" with the West. "The West is very much afraid of the militarization of Russia. They are afraid Russia will solve its problems the way it did in South Ossetia through military strength."
But Markov says that Russia's leaders see a big distinction between the U.S. and Europe, and will be careful to make that clear. "We know there is a huge difference between the E.U. and the U.S.," he says. "We know that the Bush administration is working for the election of John McCain. The real order to kill South Ossetians came from Dick Cheney. If Obama [becomes] President and investigates how the Iraq war started, Dick Cheney would be imprisoned. The Neocons believe Obama is a weak politician and they will stop him by any means. The main idea is to create imitations of the Cold War between Russia and the West... We know that [to show Obama up] Neocons will carry out another provocation against Russia probably in Ukraine and we are ready for this.
"Russia's interests coincide closely with the E.U. The E.U. is not interested in civil war in Ukraine... Russia will be very careful and not touch the pipelines because they influence many countries. Russia will be quite moderate on this issue. The most important issue is protecting human life, not pipelines. Pipeline politics is the tactic of the Neocons."
Posted by: Markov on McCain/Neocons | August 28, 2008 9:12 AM