News & Analysis.
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Our translation of an editorial from RIA Novosti, preceded by our commentary.
It is interesting to note that there is hardly anything in this Russian–language piece that has not been said already by American analysts, particularly on the conservative side of the spectrum. And yet, this piece was never translated by the Russians and was therefore not intended to influence Westerners. This shows that intelligent Russians observing the facts will come up with the same conclusions as intelligent Americans. Obviously then, publications such as RT, Sputnik and other Russian sites are not “propaganda” in the traditional sense of the word, because they are essentially facts and opinions that any intelligent person from anywhere in the world could draw if that person were free to express his opinion. Sadly, however, journalists in the Land of the Free are no longer free to express opinions that derive naturally from facts and reason. This situation creates a painful cognitive dissonance in intelligent Westerners, of the kind that Soviet citizens certainly must have experienced once upon a time. Keen observers have said that the world has turned upside down since the fall of the Soviet Union, with the US becoming less free and Russia becoming freer. Yet the Western elitist manipulators who own the presses and airwaves make it all but impossible to express such obvious truths, obfuscating them with narratives of the eternal Russian bogeyman. Re-electing a new president will not change anything substantive. The US will continue to wage useless wars around the world for obscure reasons, will spend extravagant amounts on war machines it doesn’t need, to fight an enemy of its own creation and will continue to pile debt on top of debt, while inventing new ways to report on the economy to make the bleating masses think that every day in every way they are getting better and better. And since Western man (Homo occidentalis, one could call him) is in the vice-grip of the elites, one might surmise that the only happy ending for the West will be the result of a general collapse of the kind experienced by the Soviet Union. When that happens, it will not be the Americans writing the history and there will be no one to censor the historians. 2-22-2018 Avigdor Eskin, for RIA Novosti BEGIN TRANSLATION Americans continue to attack their own political system in search of an enemy at home. As it is easy to see, all their pucks are flying into their own gates - although it seems to be about foreign policy. The ebullient political life in Washington is leading us to new delights. Opponents of Trump attempted to embrace the prophetic sphere of life - with the goal of condemning him on the basis of expectations and revelations. Outstanding in this sense was the discussion in the US Senate Intelligence Commission, where the document “Worldwide Threat Assessment, US Intelligence Community” was presented. The program text on 28 pages should be taken especially seriously. However, this time it served as a political tool for undermining the position of the current US president, Donald Trump. Speeches by the participants create a schizophrenic sensation. Democratic senator Mark Warner sounds the alarm: “We had more than a year to discuss together the threat of Russian attacks, but there is still no plan.” Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates is rigorous and convinced: “At the least we expect that Russia will continue to use propaganda, social networks, individuals under ‘alien flags’ and sympathisers with them to exert influence on social and political processes in the United States.” They were opposed by Republican senator James Risch, arguing that the Americans are up to this challenge. In other words, the threat is undeniable, but the American people are capable of resisting it. However, CIA head Michael Pompeo joined the chorus of the agitated and concerned: “According to intelligence reports, Russia is especially focused on the 2018 elections.” It is noteworthy that the Trump-appointed Pompeo completely fell into the same ideological paranoid flow that was set up by his predecessor John Brennan. The head of the FBI, Christopher Ray, was cross-examined by Trump opponents. Democrat Senator Jack Reid harangues him: did he receive from the president an order to combat Russian interference? Ray replies that there were no specific directives. A murmur arises, as if to say: Trump covers for those who try to influence the political process in the United States. And it never occurred to anyone to wonder whether Pompeo and Coates knew for sure that the Kremlin is preparing a series of ideological sabotage aimed at undermining the democratic process and the social order in the United States. And was there any interference from the Russian state in the 2016 elections? Let's imagine theoretically that the emails of the Democratic Party were actually hacked by Russian hackers. In this regard, it is worth remembering the most interesting statement of the former CIA head, Michael Hayden: "Do you really think that I would not be interested in the contents of the email of one of the largest Russian political parties if possible? But I would not turn it over to WikiLeaks later." It was quite a frank conversation. But no responsible American politician said that Moscow actually influenced the 2016 elections. They say, “tried to influence” but did not influence. If so, is not that much ado about nothing? But the forecasts for the future particularly stir the imagination. This is directly from the realm of clairvoyance. With such fears, we can and should use direct channels of communication with Russia to discuss the entire range of issues related to possible mutual interference in internal affairs. Is it not necessary to establish the rules of the game for both sides? If there is confirmed information, such talks with Moscow would be appropriate and productive. But it seems to us that Washington is guided by different goals than US security and interests. In practice, we are facing another wave of anti-Russian rhetoric on the basis of what Russia is “going to do.” One would say that such an approach has no precedent in the past - but everyone remembers the great bloody war started over phantom chemical weapons some 15 years ago. Curiously, by the way, that war was recognized – though only tacitly in part – as a mistake. Nonetheless, it is evident that the creation of false threats continues at full speed today. The simplest explanation for this may be the understandable desire of the US intelligence community to justify its $70 billion budget. Iran and North Korea are one thing but Russia is quite another. Floating the idea of a threat from the world's second most powerful military power helps get the budget passed. There is, of course, a political component - namely, the desire of a significant majority of the American elite to destroy Trump and all his business – a desire that has not died down to this day. The problem is that when the interests of the forces leading the domestic political jihad and the forces driven by banal greed coincide, together they destroy not only the edifice of American statehood, but also international stability. And since it is hardly possible to truly influence the events in the strongest country of the world from the outside, in reality, the world can only look for ways to protect itself from the consequences of intra-American quarrelling. END TRANSLATION RIA Novosti https://ria.ru/analytics/20180222/1515073451.html
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