But my point was that we shouldn’t ignore what is happening in NATO. To give you some idea of the human-rights situation in NATO country Turkey, — Apollodorus

I agree but it's far worse in Ukraine right now than in Turkey right now. Magnitude matters.

Cromwell only did half the job, he gave us the House of Commons, but in short order that house became packed with the aristocracy and the common folk had no vote, or representation. — Punshhh

Yes, well. Revolutions are messy affairs, to state the glaringly obvious. And the prior order of things finds all sorts of ways to kick back and perdure, as shown well in Lampedusa's Gattopardo.

Let's face it: England was part of William's sphere of influence...

The Harrying of the North.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrying_of_the_North — Punshhh

"Records from the Domesday Book show that 75% of the population died or never returned."

We call it: "the Special Military Operation in the North".

You should have brought it across the channel while you were at it. — Punshhh

Oliver Cromwell did some of that beheading though, so not sure what you needed us for... :-)

cutting everybody's hands off, — frank

?

I doubt that if the Normans had lost in 1066 we would be like this. — Punshhh

You'd be worse off. The French brought you civilization.

"It is also unacceptable because it might knock our terrestrial ball flying off the orbit to who knows where," he added. — frank

Talk about escalation... of the planet's orbit!

Austria distances itself from Vladimir Putin, without renouncing its neutrality
Vienna supports Ukraine, but its desire to keep its neutral status and its heavy dependence on Russian gas prevent it from delivering weapons to Kyiv.

By Jean-Baptiste Chastand (Vienna, regional correspondent, Le Monde)
Posted today at 5:00 p.m.

The Austrian Foreign Minister, Alexander Schallenberg, receives journalists, Wednesday, May 4, in the magnificent office which overlooks the Minoriten church, at the center of Vienna; the same office as his famous predecessor's, Karin Kneissl. Minister between 2017 and 2019 during the two years when the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ, extreme right) governed with the conservative People's Party (ÖVP), this career diplomat shocked Europe by inviting Vladimir Putin to come and waltz to his wedding in the summer of 2018. She now sits on the supervisory board of the Russian oil group Rosneft, and has become the symbol of Austrian diplomatic alignment with Moscow.

“I would never be tempted to waltz with a Russian, whether it's Putin or someone else. The change is very clear”, promises, four years later, Mr. Schallenberg. With his assumed pro-Western opinions, he was appointed to this position in early 2020 by the new eco-conservative government to make people forget the awkward alliances of the past. "Faced with Russian aggression, we are clearly on Ukraine's side ," insists the minister, in the face of critical voices, particularly in Kiev, who deplore Austria's relative caution about the conflict.

Firmly attached to its neutrality, the country of 8.9 million inhabitants is one of the last in the European Union (EU) to not deliver arms to the Ukrainians, alongside Hungary led by pro-Russian Viktor Orban.

"Our Constitution prevents us from doing so, but we let other countries pass through our territory for their military transport" , defends the minister, also insisting on the "100 million euros in humanitarian aid" released by his government since the beginning of the conflict. If the war pushed countries like Sweden or Finland to debate their neutrality and consider joining NATO, this is absolutely not the case in Austria, where neutrality is legally a different matter: imposed in 1955 by the USSR in exchange for the return to independence, it is enshrined in international treaties.

"Austria was neutral, Austria is neutral, Austria will remain neutral ," Chancellor Karl Nehammer promised in early March, with the support of almost all of the country's politicians. “There has been no change in public opinion in Austria: renouncing neutrality would be extremely unpopular ,” observes Gerhard Mangott, specialist in international relations and Russia at the University of Innsbruck.

Unavowable links with Moscow

In recent weeks, the conflict has nevertheless reminded us that this neutrality has also long served as a screen for a story of unavowable links with Moscow. As a result of its proximity to Russia, Austria is dependent on Gazprom for 80% of its gas supplies, one of the highest rates in the EU. And the national energy company OMV, which was historically the first in Western Europe to import Russian gas (in 1968), is the subject of much criticism for not having prepared any diversification. Its director between 2011 and 2015, Gerhard Roiss, even claimed to have been ousted from his post for opposing "the large fraction of pro-Putin who deliberately led Austria to be dependent on Russia" .

Even after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia continued to benefit from a favorable a priori both on the left and on the right, and in Viennese economic circles; the latter receiving Mr. Putin with retrospectively awkward regard. Not to mention the infiltration of the Austrian intelligence services by the Russians, brought to light on the occasion of several scandals in recent years. "Bootlickers who rolled out the red carpet for Putin", lambasted the Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Greens, Werner Kogler. He asked for a commission of inquiry, which has little chance of succeeding given the reluctance of the political world.

The Greens are pushing for Austria to do without Russian gas completely by 2027. But a study by the Austrian energy agency estimated that this would only be possible with a reduction of one third of the gas consumption. "An incomprehensible objective ," said Andreas Rinofner, spokesman for OMV, recalling that his company signed a contract in 2018 with Gazprom, which runs until 2040. "It does not provide for a break clause" , warns- he already, also ensuring "to seek solutions in accordance with European sanctions" to meet the new requirement of the Russians to be paid in rubles. “We are a country without access to the sea, we cannot build a terminal for liquefied natural gas”, points Mr. Schallenberg.

By Chancellor Karl Nehammer's own admission, this dependency nevertheless prompted the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, to "blame him for conceding dead children for Russian gas", during his visit to Kiev in April. Mr. Nehammer then went to Moscow, where he met Mr. Putin, without result. “A perfectly useless trip, but which had above all a domestic political aim” , according to Mr. Mangott. “In diplomacy, you always have to try ,” retorts Mr. Schallenberg. The Minister also defends his reluctance regarding Ukraine's accession to the EU. By calling to be "reasonable" and "not to forget the Balkan countries", who have been waiting for their integration for years, he rather hopes for “an imaginative new model” than outright membership.

You have a problem with Zelenskyy, obviously, and while you say you want peace, you fantasize at length about the potential use of nukes against Ukraine.

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko defended Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, but he said he didn’t expect the 10-week-old conflict to “drag on this way.”

He also spoke out against the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine but wouldn’t say if Russian President Vladimir Putin had plans to launch such a strike.

Lukashenko said Moscow, which launched the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 — partly from his territory — had to act because Kyiv was “provoking Russia.”

“But I am not immersed in this problem enough to say whether it goes according to plan, like the Russians say, or like I feel it,” he said, speaking at Independence Palace in Minsk. “I want to stress one more time: I feel like this operation has dragged on.”

[...] in his comments to the AP, Lukashenko said he and his country stand for peace and repeatedly called for the end of the “war” — a term the Kremlin refuses to use, calling the invasion a “special military operation” instead.

[...] “We categorically do not accept any war. We have done and are doing everything now so that there isn’t a war. Thanks to yours truly, me that is, negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have begun,” he said.

Lukashenko said using nuclear weapons in Ukraine was “unacceptable because it’s right next to us — we are not across the ocean like the United States.”

“It is also unacceptable because it might knock our terrestrial ball flying off the orbit to who knows where,” he said. “Whether or not Russia is capable of that — is a question you need to ask the Russian leadership.”

Russia “can’t by definition lose this war,” Lukashenko said, noting that Belarus is the only country standing by Moscow, while “as many as 50 states have joined forces” on Ukraine’s side.

He added that Putin isn’t seeking a direct conflict with NATO, and the West should ensure that one doesn’t happen.

“He most likely does not want a global confrontation with NATO. Use it. Use it and do everything for that not to happen. Otherwise, even if Putin doesn’t want it, the military will react,” the Belarusian leader warned.

Lukashenko called Putin his “big brother” and said the Russian leader doesn’t have “closer, more open or friendlier relations with any of the world leaders other than the president of Belarus.”

Their relationship has been particularly close recently but was rocky in earlier years. Before a disputed 2020 election sparked mass protests and a domestic crackdown by Lukashenko, he often accused the Kremlin of trying to force him to relinquish control of prized economic assets and abandon his country’s independence.

Faced with tough economic sanctions after he brutally suppressed the protests, the Belarusian leader started emphasizing a need to jointly counter Western pressure and met with Putin regularly, stressing their close ties.

Lukashenko’s support of the invasion has stopped short of deploying his own troops there, but it still has drawn criticism from the Belarusian opposition and calls for more sanctions on him and the country. Opposition figures say ordinary Belarusians don’t support the invasion. Hundreds of them who live in Ukraine have been affected by the war, and some have become volunteers, fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.

Top Belarus opposition activist Pavel Latushka dismissed Lukashenko’s calls for peace on Thursday, saying they “look absurd after more than 600 missiles were fired from the territory of Belarus, and the country became a platform for aggression.”

He added: “Minsk deserves the harshest Western sanctions.”

Opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya echoed Latushka’s sentiment, calling Lukashenko a “co-aggressor” and saying he is “trying to change his image of an arsonist into that of a firefighter and peacekeeper.”

Lukashenko told AP that his country poses no danger to others, even as its military conducted drills this week.

“We do not threaten anyone and we are not going to threaten and will not do it. Moreover, we can’t threaten -- we know who opposes us, so to unleash some kind of a conflict, some kind of war here ... is absolutely not in the interests of the Belarusian state. So the West can sleep peacefully,” he said.

He blamed the West — especially Washington — for fueling the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

“The U.S. wants to seize the moment, tying its allies to itself, and drown Russia in the war with Ukraine. It’s their goal — to sort out Russia, and then China,” he said.

Lukashenko said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was taking orders from the United States.

“Today it’s not Zelenskyy who’s running Ukraine – no offense, that’s my point of view, maybe I’m wrong,” Lukashenko said, adding that if U.S. President Joe Biden said so, “everything will stop within a week.”

I'm just pointing at what I perceive as an important difference between other "Ukraine antagonists" here and you: they are amateurs, while you're a professional, IMO.

I haven't said anything about thresholds. Russians can be as nazi as they want to; no problem for me, as long as they don't invade their neighbours.

Acts matter more than thoughts. The Russians act like Nazis; they kill, torture and rape like Nazis. That matters to me, more than whether or not they have paid their annual subscription to the Nazi party.

I don't see the evidence for it ... — boethius

The extreme nationalism, the invention of a grand national destiny, the banalisation of violence and love of brutality verging on sadism, a hatred for representative democracy, suspicion towards Jews, extensive use of propaganda, all these are quite typical. And there's the explicitly pro-nazi Wagner group, which you keep 'forgeting'.

Where did you mention the fact that Putin is himself a Nazi?

feel free to provide the things I've omitted to make the "true picture" according to you. — boethius

I tend to feel free, generally, and do not need your authorization for it.

For instance, you've omitted the presence of a nazi-like ideology in Putin -- he's clearly a nazi himself -- and the fact that the Wagner group funded by Putin is headed by nazis.

Is reposting the Western media establishment own reporting your idea of "professional propaganda"? — boethius

Yes, it's an important part of it, of course, when carefully chosen. Reposting Kremlin lapdog media won't work quite as well.

That you are a professional propagandist.

You do realise that this is a pretty pathetic cope for someone afraid of engaging with opposing view points? — boethius

I fear not 'opposing view points', although mass murderers and their apologists are indeed creepy.

Thanks for proving my point.

I agree that this shouldn't happen in a civilized society. But the same things, or worse, are happening in NATO countries like Turkey, and in many other places like China, India, Pakistan, etc. — Apollodorus

Yes, and it happened under the USSR and in Nazi Germany too.

It's happening now in Ukraine. Torture. Rape. Murder. That's what Russians do. Violence is the only language they will understand.

Boethius is so apologetic that it's a parody, Apollodorus follows Russia's "Sweden and Finland are Nazis" narrative so he's part of that delusion, confusion or agenda as well. — Christoffer

Boethius is the right stuff, the true professional Putin-paid troll here. He does it for the money, and his version is always the official Kremlin line. He's exactly like some guy adversing for Coca Cola and bashing Pepsi Cola: nothing personal, maybe he doesn't even drink soda, it's just a job.

I suspect that Apo is an amateur: he does it for the fun of antagonizing folks.

the Putin trolls — Christoffer

There are differences between them, though. @Boethius is an FSB plant, no doubt in my mind about him, or he would not defend the bombing of civilians like he did. But @Isaac is just a confused, truth-abhorring cretin -- he is Gollum, not Sauron.

One ought to give concessions when force is threatened. — Metaphysician Undercover

But force was not threatened. Prior to Feb 24, the Russians were not threatening to attack Ukraine. On the contrary, they were saying they would NOT attack Ukraine.

Lula is gravely mistaken.

I sort of understand leftists like him, though, who feel uncomfortable with a unipolar world. They are nostalgic of the cold war, during which poor countries could play one superpower against another, and resent the resurgence of NATO and the continued dominance of the West. But Putin is never going to help poor Brazilians make ends meet. The idea that he represents a valid alternative to 'western liberalism' is simply disgusting.

No peace in Europe until Russia goes through a path of repentance
Op-Ed, Alexandre Rodnianski, Ukrainian film director and producer, Le Monde

One hundred years ago, the first of the five "philosophers' ships" left St. Petersburg for Germany, carrying hundreds of intellectuals expelled from Soviet Russia, including the famous philosophers and scientists Nikolai Berdyaev, Sergei Bulgakov, Ivan Ilyin, Vladimir Lossky and many others. This phrase -- "ship of philosophers" -- served as a metaphor for the intellectual catastrophe that Russia endured.

One hundred years later, another boat has come into focus: "Russian military ship, fuck you!" […] It has become the most popular meme of the present time. And the metaphor of the courageous resistance of Ukrainians.

Boutcha, Irpine, Hostomel... The pictures of the streets of these quiet villages that the Russian army left, as well as their names, have become synonymous with the war crimes of Putin's Russia. The atrocious images have been shown around the world: dozens of inhabitants shot in the streets in front of their houses, in the courtyards and on the sidewalks, some with their hands tied, some with a bullet in the head, others with traces of torture on their bodies, the numerous testimonies of collective rape of women...

These images made me lose the gift of speech. And I felt that I was losing the right to speak about "Russian culture". Like all those who are from this milieu. Why?

"Writing a poem after Auschwitz is barbaric," Theodor Adorno seems to have said. After Boutcha, I felt that it was unnecessary to talk about Russian culture anymore. And for the same reason: that of not having prevented the Russian from falling into barbarism, savagery, bestiality. Many people in the cultural world felt guilty as well.

I can't stop thinking about the nature of violence, about the emergence of the beast in the average human being, about what authorizes him to rape a fifteen-year-old girl with his friends, to shoot peaceful residents riding their bicycles through their town, to kill unarmed passers-by with a bullet in the back of their heads.

Why, I asked myself, did nothing prevent the transformation of ordinary people into murderers? Not the school, not the parents, not the culture? [...]

I know Russia and the people who live there.

And I will say what I have seen there in the last few years: the Russian military and police forces were behaving in Russia as the Russian soldiers behaved in Butcha...

Not long ago, the organization Gulagu.net ("No to the Gulag") started to publish video archives of torture in Russian prisons. But the torture did not take place only in these prisons. Russian police beat and abused Russian citizens for years, scalding some, raping others with broomsticks. A new word has appeared in Russian: "bottling", which means "raping with a bottle". You can imagine the level of violence in a society where this word appears.

All life in Russia was marked by this violence - just look at the epidemic of domestic violence against women that spread throughout the country.

Demonstrators were arrested, tried under false pretences, thrown into prison, tortured, forced to leave the country. The "lucky" ones were fined millions of rubles for violations of the law that they had not committed. They were threatened to take away their children, ruined their businesses and were deprived of their livelihood. Not to mention the constant insults and persecutions they were subjected to every day.

This was the famous "Russian world" that the Russians tested first. Then, in a much more tragic form, the peaceful Ukrainians of Boutcha, Irpine, Borodianka.

[...] All the fault lies with the corrupt, cynical, cruel Russian political regime. The totalitarian system that disregards human rights, flouts the law and annihilates free discussion. The responsibility lies with the country's irremovable leader, with the elite and those who benefit from the material well-being of the oil windfall, with the millions of citizens who blindly support the unjust order of things.

And yes: the responsibility also lies with Russian culture, for not having "prevented" the transformation of many human beings into creatures devoid of empathy, for not having "opposed" humanism and humanity to the descent into barbarism and savagery. That it has not "been able to do".

[But] contemporary Russian culture is extremely varied: it is in it that official imperialist resentment and the free and protesting spirit clash. All contemporary Russian culture, famous all over the world, was born under the bludgeons of the police, under the cries of disapproval of society: it was born in spite of the power and is, almost entirely, opposed to Putin.

The selections of the biggest film festivals have always included honest accounts of the current state of affairs in Russia. These were films that spoke about the real problems of the country, about the hardships of everyday Russian life, about injustice, corruption and arbitrariness, about the attempts of ordinary people to fight against the powerful inhuman system.

This is what the films of Zviaguintsev, Sokurov, Balagov or Serebrennikov were about, directors who have been spat on many times by the official Russian media and listed as "traitors and enemies of the people". Their films were released on a limited number of copies, were not shown on television and were not financed by the state.

And today there are demands to boycott these films...

But were they the ones who raised a generation of soldiers who obediently carried out cruel orders? Are these the films that the "heroes" of Boutcha and Irpine have seen over and over again? In the lives of those who committed the Boutcha massacre, the role of culture was more than minimal. They grew up in poverty, in a country where power is worshipped and the right of the "strongest" is respected, in the habit of violence.

This is also where the generation of cynical, deceitful and lying politicians, propagandists and military men came from, the generation of those they created, raised and trained: gloating punks, nostalgic for the "iron fist" and the "huge country".

And only the incisive culture has opposed the imperial matrix that has been self-replicating through the centuries. Its thousands of viewers and readers have resisted totalitarianism -- and continue to do so.

Peace in Europe will not prevail until Russia has walked the path of repentance and rebirth. Ukraine will not feel safe until then -- and neither will Russia's other neighbors.

This is the path that Germany took seventy years ago. And it was the true German culture that helped it to meet this difficult challenge. At that time, no one talked about boycotting those who fought against Nazism - such as Thomas Mann or Bertolt Brecht - or even the Nobel Prize winner for literature Gerhart Hauptmann, whom Goebbels liked so much.

And today, only the authentic Russian culture can serve as a support to help change the country. And definitely to put the imperial matrix out of action.

Today, two ships have left Russia: the "Russian military ship" and the "ship of philosophers". It is very important to shoot one of them without sinking the other.

It's just that you are a proven serial liar, and you decided to use your lying talents to defend war criminals. It's hard to understand.

Lula is out of his depth here. Russians are guilty of war crimes. They are torturing, murdering and bombing civilians every day. There is no equivalence with the Ukrainians.

Still, it's odd to be so disinterested in the truth.

It's not impossible, just not something some of us have any interest in doing. — Isaac

Why not? What do you got to lose if you say the truth?

Do you know what the word 'ought' means? — Isaac

I do. Do you?

They didn't close the accounts. In fact the issue is now solved, according to Consortium News' Twitter feed.

It's a non-issue. 'Nough said.

More interestingly, while surfing the interwaves, I stumbled (if you pardon my mixed metaphors) on this extraordinary depiction of the Spirit of America, by a certain Howard Chandler Christy. I thought you'd like it:



That's EXACTLY how I see America... Ain't she beautiful?

Key word: allegedly.
— Olivier5

Sure. — Isaac

I take that back: it's not even alledged. Editor-in-chief of Consortium News Joe Lauria writes that it’s “more than conceivable” the outlet is being punished for its Ukraine coverage.

So two fringe leftist sites lose (temporarily) access to their Paypal account, and now it is more than conceivable that it's all a blowback for their Ukraine coverage, huh?

Maybe. We live in strange times. Anyway, Paypal is like a bank, and you can't force a bank to fund your operation if they don't like it.

none of that was related to Ukraine. PayPal's actions (allegedly) were. — Isaac

Key word: allegedly.

If suppressing the free press is bad, then suppressing the free press is bad. It doesn't become not bad because someone else's methods are more extreme. — Isaac

Still, there are far worse threats to press freedom than journalists losing their Paypal accounts. In the UK, for instance, the 2022 report from RSF lists "worrisome governmental legislative proposals, extensive restrictions on freedom of information, the prolonged detention of Julian Assange, and threats to the safety of journalists in Northern Ireland" as the most significant issues.

In the US, they highlight excessive concentration, "the disappearance of local news, the polarisation of the media or the weakening of journalism and democracy caused by digital platforms and social networks", an "unprecedented climate of animosity and aggression during protests, where unprovoked physical attacks occurred on clearly identified reporters", and likewise "unprecedented levels of distrust in the American media", linked to "four years of President Trump constantly denigrating the press". No mention of Paypal.

In France, "mechanisms for combatting conflicts of interest in the media are insufficient, inappropriate and outdated. ... reporters have also been the targets of many physical attacks by demonstrators"... Nothing was said of French journalists' access to online payments options...

Someone's PayPall account was cancelled? Well, that should tell them... :gasp:

In Russia they'd just pump a bullet in the journalist's head.

their meddling in Russia's backyard with Europe as its forward pawn — Tzeentch

Russia is Europe's backyard.

France, of course, will be required to send at least half of it's GDP split proportionally among among Haiti, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Vietnam, Congo and a bunch of others for the next say, century or so. Also all the stolen colonial art in the Lourve and elsewhere is gonna have to be returned, naturally. — Streetlight

Required by whom, I wonder, in the absence of a world policeman. As for the stolen art in the Louvre, most if it comes from Italy.

I suppose the Chinese will do so, ultimately. They need space.

The slow death of Western empire - and we are living through it now - — Streetlight

I propose to decolonize Australia, free Aboriginal people and send those Westerners back to the UK where they come from.

What is the alternative? ( to US/EU hegemony). That is the question I was asking. — Punshhh

A multipolar world, where each "pole" minds its own business to a degree (hopefully). Less globalisation, more localisation.

The world is tired of us, sanctimonious yet corrupt, powerful yet degenerate Westeners. It is ready for other overloards.

Of course, we could mind our own business. There is a lot to say about fixing the place where you live, and not thousands of miles away. The famed "white man's burden" can be carried by someone else.