The Atlantic Council, Western media, and the 'Big Lie' about Putin's Russia - Ennio Addams

See The Hatred For Putin

Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea. Russia shot down MH17. Russia is planning to invade the Baltics. Russia is behind the Syrian refugee crisis. Day after day, the media churns out lie after lie from the bizarro realm of unreality in which so-called 'think tanks' exist. Their utterly schizoidal insistence that everyone adopt their paranoid anti-Russian stance means that as soon as you've countered one set of lies, a new set is already making the rounds. One such screed in Newsweek recently, 'Putin's Big Lie Turns Reality on Its Head', written by Adrian Karatnycky, was reproduced from the Atlantic Council, an institution that is up there with the Brookings Institute in terms of a blood-soaked legacy from making the world safe for democracy American hegemony. Karatnycky, a Ukrainian, is a 'Senior Fellow' following a decade as President of Freedom House, a CIA front, and another 'think tank' that has been instrumental in 'exporting democracy' - to American standards, of course. 

Karatnycky's article begins:

Each summer, as part of ongoing efforts to influence their young, Russia's government leaders and propagandists head to a conference center on the Klyazma River about 130 miles northeast of Moscow to address the "Terra Scientia" Russian Youth Education Conference. Despite its lofty name, the conference bears little trace of free inquiry. Over the course of six weeklong shifts - each with around 1,000 participants representing a different sphere of endeavor - Russia's most politically reliable youth leaders are introduced to a steady stream of ideas, messages and talking points to be used over the course of the year in civic and educational work.

 It would be interesting to know how exactly Mr. Karatnycky defines "free inquiry". Given the Atlantic Council's raison d'etre, we could suppose that Karatnycky equates "free inquiry" with being on board with US/NATO political-economic goals, i.e. U.S.-directed economic subterfuge, 'color revolutions', NATO military incursions, etc. As long as you're au courant with all that, you can be said to be in a position to conduct "free inquiry". Otherwise, we can surmise that Karatnycky feels that the Russian government's efforts to strengthen the nation must be - by their very nature - something inherently sinister. The'Terra Scientia' Russian Youth Education Conference can't simply be a constructive effort by the Russian government to promote Russian values among the Russian population, but must, by default, be against America. I'm surprised Karatnycky didn't evoke the indoctrination practices of 'Hitler youth' here. Maybe he figured that would have been too strong a reminder of the influence actual Nazis have in his home country, groups like the 'Right Sector' who have been empowered by his hard work as a 'Eurasia expert' in Washington policy circles. 

Next he says:

"On August 24, it was Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's turn to regale a large audience of young students and teachers of the social sciences. His remarks included the requisite number of patriotic dithyrambs about President Vladimir Putin's achievements in foreign affairs and national security."

"The requisite number of patriotic dithyrambs"? Well, aren't we learned. Why shouldn't Lavrov regale young students and teachers of President Vladimir Putin's achievements in foreign affairs and national security? And other areas besides? To begin with, Putin's leadership heralded a major turning point in his country after the Boris Yeltsin years, and decades of Soviet mismanagement - not to mention all manner of U.S. meddling - that left Russia in near ruins. Since the beginning of his nearly fifteen years as leader, Putin and his team did the hard work of correcting and repairing an incredible amount ofsystemic corruption and neglect. In sum, the Russian President is probably not only without peer among world leaders, but continues to counter Western-backed subterfuge to give Russia and other Western-influence-weary countries a fighting chance of not going down with the sinking ship that is ponerized Western 'civilization'. When people like Mr. Karatnycky, (whose career is based on tearing apart countries like Russia), hear about President Putin's successes, they are immediately and unconsciously 'triggered'. But being the slimy, covert peddlers of paramoralisms that they are, they give vent to their infantile rage by way of all manner of insidious innuendo. Adrian Karatnycky has not only lobbied full-time for bringing former Soviet countries into Washington's sphere of influence, he has a financial interest in seeing Ukraine succeed - on Western terms.

"Lavrov blithely declared that Putin "is the world's most popular leader" and that many public opinion polls backed up his assertion. Regrettably Lavrov appeared unaware that, according to a Pew Research Center survey released August 5, Putin has a median trust rating of 24 percent and is viewed negatively throughout Europe, North America, Latin America and the Middle East".

Nedelya.ua organized a survey...

 Polls are funny things. They can be skewed and messed with to create all kinds of impressions. But it's interesting when one, otherwise unremarkable poll seems to give the lie to all the most 'respected' ones, like those from Pew Research. Perhaps Mr. Karatnycky and his asinine associates at the Atlantic Council were unaware of a poll taken in Ukraine - yes, Ukraine - where its current leaders spout anti-Russian vitriol as regularly as they eat 'Chicken Kiev' (which is every Wednesday I'm told). This poll was conducted by a right-wing patriotic website (Nedelya.ua), with the survey question: Which politician would you entrust with governing your country? 41,664 votes were cast and only 1% of those voting selected Petro Poroshenko, their sitting President. But Putin came out with a stunning 84%! Again, this was in the Ukraine; the country we're told is being invaded by Russia on an almost weekly basis. (By the way, Obama also came out with a whopping 1% of the vote). How's that for popularity and a taste for truth?

"Nor did Lavrov let his audience of youth leaders know that since Russia's takeover of Crimea—a violation of international law—and its clandestine war against Ukraine, people around the world overwhelmingly mistrust Russia these days."

If by "people around the world" the author means imperial-minded Americans and their various blackmailed and corrupt international lackeys, then yes, I suppose Russia is "mistrusted". A Gallup international poll of more than 68 countries in 2014 shows that actual people around the world overwhelmingly mistrust the US, which was voted three times more dangerous than the next country on the list. As for the facts concerning the Crimean referendum, I can only suggest that the author open a can of Schlitz beer and watch this documentary, which refutes just about every assertion made in the Western media about Crimea's decision to join the Russian Federation. Easy peasy, Karatnycky. But he wouldn't do that. Anything suggesting that Crimea made an authentic and sovereign choice to re-join Russia after the US worked so hard and spent so much to install its lackeys in power in Kiev, only to have one of Ukraine's prized regions choose to have no part in the new configuration, sticks in the craw of this Ukie Fellow at the Atlantic Council.

"But the centerpiece of Lavrov's presentation was his claim that the West was in decline and that U.S. and European efforts "to artificially preserve... domination are resulting in international chaos." The assertion of Western decline appeared particularly rickety on that particular day, when the Shanghai Composite index dropped by 7.6 percent, contributing to a 42 percent decline since June"

 A Shanghai stock-market drop somehow negates the truth of Lavrov's assessment? Are we supposed to infer that one of THE largest economies in the world, China's, even in the midst of some decidedly tough times, can somehow be compared to the Titanic disaster that is the American economy?

"Nor was Lavrov deterred by word of steep declines in the economies of the other BRIC countries (Brazil, India, China and South Africa), nor by the collapse in world commodity prices, including oil and gas—the backbone of Russia's economy. That collapse in turn had precipitated a fall in the value of the ruble to 71 to the dollar, the year's lowest level to date. Perhaps the West was in decline, but Lavrov failed to note that Russia's economy was in free-fall and that the International Monetary Fund warns that—besides losses from lower oil and gas prices—Russia stands to lose 9 percent of its gross domestic product due to sanctions imposed by the West."

The fundamentals of Russia's economy, while limited, are largely based on the export of natural resources and therefore sound, but the same can't be said for the US economy which is based on the exploitation of the resources of other nations and is therefore living waaay beyond its means and teetering so close to the edge that the Federal Reserve Board recently chickened out of raising interest rates because its Wall Street shareholders are afraid of what it might do to the US debt mountain. Everyone else is only 'in decline' to the extent that they are exposed to the flagrantly bankrupt US economy and Wall Street debt-money.

"But Lavrov's construction of his dream world is by no means complete. Representing a country that has just announced a likely ban on all Ukrainian agriculture exports in 2016, has deployed units of its armed forces in combat on Ukrainian soil, has sent as many as 30,000 of its fighters to wage war on Ukraine, and has provided hundreds of tanks and artillery pieces to support separatists it had helped organize, Lavrov declared to the assembled youth leaders that Russia "opposed the language of force and sanctions."

US-supported brutality against the civilians of Novorussia.

 Again and again, and again and again, it has been repeatedly shown that, aside from some independent Russian individuals who are in eastern Ukraine of their own volition, no Russian soldiers were sent to "wage war" on Ukraine. Karatnycky doesn't bother to link to any evidence for his "30,000 Russian fighters in Ukraine" claim because there isn't any. What there is is the repeated humiliation of the U.S. and its psychopathic stooges by the people of the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics who have made it clear that they do not want to live under the fascist thumb of a violent and totalitarian regime controlled by Washington.

"Alas, the Terra Scientia is not a place for study and reflection. It appears there are virtually no such places in official Russia. Knowledge and the open discussion of serious problems have been replaced not simply by sophistry but by the time-worn tradition of the Big Lie, a technique much admired by Putin, who last year professed to shocked rabbis his admiration for the effectiveness of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels."

This is perhaps the most pusillanimous and manipulative point made in Karatnycky's anti-Russia, anti-Putin diatribe. First, did the author think so little of his readers that he didn't consider they might click on the link, read the article, and see what was actually said, its context, and why Putin said that Goebbels was indeed 'talented'? What's left out of the above passage is that Putin was meeting with leaders of Israel's and Europe's religious Jewish community, who were acknowledging Putin for his work in combating the resurgence of Nazi ideology in the world, most noticeably in Ukraine. Here is the passage that the author so grossly distorted:

"I want to thank the Jewish community, non-governmental organizations that are both active and courageous; we see it in today's world - how a struggle is being uncompromisingly waged against all manifestations of the Nazi ideology and any attempts to revive it," said Putin. 

Putin also spoke out against Holocaust deniers, calling them "not only stupid, but also shameless." He added:"Unfortunately, just like 70 years ago, this shamelessness often achieves its purposes. After all, [Joseph] Goebbels had said, 'The more improbable the lie, the faster people believe it.' And it worked out; he was a talented man," Putin said in reference to Nazi Germany's propaganda chief.

It's perfectly clear from Putin's statement that he was acknowledging the powerful and destructive capability of effective liars like Goebbels. Being the victim of some very destructive lies himself, he would be in a position to know. How in the world Karatnycky could conflate Putin's statement to mean that he was expressing any admiration for the 'Big Lie' concept itself, and its proponent Joseph Goebbels, is beyond comprehension - until one considers that Karatnycky was himself trying to perpetuate a Big Lie about Putin and further promote among clueless Westerners the pathetically childish lie that Putin is a 'Bad Man'. 

Third, The Times of Israel certainly got the tenor of Putin's statement correct when it ran with the headline: 'Putin, highlighting shameless liars,bitterly calls Goebbels a 'talented man'.' So, one might ask, what enables Karatnycky - and those who share his evident pathology - to so twist the truth that it has absolutely no basis in reality? Indeed, there is something very revealing and incredibly ironic going on here. Publications by organs of empire like the Atlantic Council are themselves following Goebbels' technique. If there is any "admiration" going on here, it's on their part;imitation being the sincerest form of flattery.  In psychological terms, it all comes down to projection: that what exists inside of one's self is externalized or projected onto others. This phenomenon is especially virulent among those who stand to benefit from the vilification and demonization of another person or group. Of course, by now, everyone is aware that Joseph Goebbels was a Nazi and propagandist extraordinaire. He 'wrote the book', as they say, and is an easily recognized historical paragon of politically-motivated and facilitated evil. It is sickeningly easy for Karatnycky to pen this insipid article, all the while assuming that his readers would respond emotionally to his pathological suggestions, and with zero thinking faculties involved. 

What we're witnessing here is not terribly unlike Nazi propaganda films splicing shots of disheveled Jews with shots of filthy rats scurrying about. Karatnycky and his globe-spanning cadre of pro-American, pro-Western propagandists exemplify the Big Lie technique at work today. Their cynical allusions to the emotionally-charged Holocaust to project their own genocidal tendencies onto the President of Russia is despicably ironic. Can you spell p s y c h o p a t h i c ?

"For several years, Russia scholars have been documenting the country's accelerating flight from reality. While the use of such propaganda for the masses is hardly surprising, what mystifies is how little sober exchange of real information occurs within Russia's elite. Consequently, there is less and less opportunity to address the stark state of affairs and the real challenges confronting Russia. Given the dream world the Kremlin has constructed, Russia's people are in for a rude awakening. When it comes, it'll likely have dramatic consequences for the stability of the authoritarian regime Putin has built, and which Lavrov so loyally and uncritically serves."

It is the very fact that the "real challenges confronting Russia" are actually being met head on that provokes people like Karatnycky to attempt to undermine, subvert and destroy Russia's independence. It is the Karatnyckys of this world who are in for a very rude awakening, and it's coming soon. The Russians have already learned their lessons about 'free market capitalism', 'neoliberalism', interventionism, false-flags, 'color revolutions', fifth columns, economic coercion, and state-sponsored terrorism. That their analysis and strategic decisions are based on objective reality, not 'reality-creation', is what makes them such a threat to the Western-imposed status quo. And that is why we see articles like this one, completely divorced from reality yet proliferating like weapons of mass deception into the minds of gullible Westerners via the perfidious and pusillanimous Western mainstream media.

Ennio Addams : Born and raised in New York City, Ennio has led discussion groups about 'High Strangeness', taught the best stress relief techniques available to man, and annoyed just about everyone he's ever known about the virtues of eating copious amounts of butter, and smoking. He also enjoys seeing and sharing what's true on SOTT and has been an editor here since May, 2014.

The original article can be accessed here