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February 7, 2014
Against Anti-Sochi Propaganda

A few links with regard to the Sochi Olympics and the ridiculous U.S. propaganda campaign to denigrate Russia and the games there:

Western journalists have been in the business of dismissing Russian achievements and magnifying Russian failures ever since Putin drove them into a collective derangement syndrome – he even haunts their dreams, as recently revealed by the Guardian’s Shaun Walker – so the preemptive besmirching of the Sochi Olympics can’t have surprised anyone.

What is startling, though, is the unusually low competence of the effort, even by the standards of these people that are sarcastically referred to as ”democratic journalists” in Russia. (read on)

Good luck to all the athletes and good luck to Russia.

Posted by b on February 7, 2014 at 16:32 UTC | Permalink
Comments

thanks for this b. it is disturbing to think of all the knee jerk hostility towards the spirit of this.. unfortunately world athletic events always come with an attachment to nationality. if people could figure out how to rise above their limited nationalistic position, the world would be a better place.

Posted by: james | Feb 7 2014 16:57 utc | 1

Meh. Whichever country it’s in, it’s still the Hunger Games.

Posted by: Pine | Feb 7 2014 17:01 utc | 2

That NBC story 100% fraudulent

Yesterday (Feb 5 2014) NBC News ran a story claiming that if you bring your mobile phone or laptop to the Sochi Olympics, it’ll immediately be hacked the moment you turn it on. The story was fabricated. The technical details relate to going to the Olympics in cyberspace (visiting websites), not going to there in person and using their local WiFi.

Posted by: Frank | Feb 7 2014 17:02 utc | 3

And western leaders claim that we have no propaganda in our society?!
I am disgusted by this hate against Russia.

Posted by: Anonymous_test | Feb 7 2014 17:40 utc | 4

Doku Unarov has become a sort of unadmitted, alternative underground folk hero in the addled brains of the almost schizophrenic mass media hacks:

Doku Umarov: Winner of the 2014 Winter Olympics (extract)
Yuval Mond, Times of Israel, Feb 5 2014
Umarov and his militias are now eying the Sochi Olympics. In a video speech posted by the group’s media arm on YouTube early in July 2013, the Emir threatened that the Caucasus Emirate would stage bloody attacks and invest every effort possible into preventing the peaceful progression of the games, in revenge for Russia’s atrocities against the inhabitants of the Caucasus….

Posted by: Rowan Berkeley | Feb 7 2014 18:07 utc | 5

Communism was such a good idea
that the Russians decided that somebody else should have it
perhaps the EU

Posted by: chris m | Feb 7 2014 18:42 utc | 6

the western far left, even more than the western liberal class, is being the most bigoted toward russia and the games right now.
it seems to me that russia probably released the phone hack to warn the US against any provocations in the Ukraine (or even in Russia) during the Games, basically saying that, “we know what you’re up to and will expose any shenanigans.”
the US must be irate; russia has said to the world that it can hack back with superb skill.
we should also expect that russia has real evidence of responsibility for the chemical attack in syria. if it could grab this phone call between US diplomats, it can grab anything in syria.

Posted by: hanges | Feb 7 2014 18:51 utc | 7

Russia is looking more and more like the USA. After the games (like our general election) the real games will begin. I wonder how the winter games will play out in Tehran in the future, using Russian snow, of course.

Posted by: Michael Lee Shirey | Feb 7 2014 21:16 utc | 8

hanges
Western left is a joke today, they warmonger just like the liberals and right-wing parties on syria, libya, iran, ukraine even Iraqwar.

Posted by: Anonymous_test | Feb 7 2014 22:17 utc | 9

not only did 65 leaders visit?
the most countries ever participated- 90 countries in total
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-digregorio/why-sochi-will-be-the-gre_b_4610882.html
“Sochi expects over 2,500 athletes representing 90 different countries. Vancouver and Torino hosted only 82 and 80”
But then there was the distraction hijacking to take away from the stunning opening show

Posted by: Penny | Feb 7 2014 22:30 utc | 10

Putin Sent a Syria Apologist to Carry the Olympic Flag
After Putin stepped to the microphone to declare that the Winter Olympics had begun, eight famous Russians carried the Olympic flag into the stadium. Most of them were well-known figures: There was the soprano singer Anna Netrebko, for example, and Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. But there was one surprise: Journalist Anastasia Popova, who made her name cheerleading for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. (She’s the third woman from the front in the photo above.)
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/02/07/putin_sent_a_syria_apologist_to_carry_the_olympic_flag

Posted by: Virgile | Feb 7 2014 22:34 utc | 11

This smear media campaign shows clearly how the USA feels threatened by Russia’s growth, both politically and economically. Point.

Posted by: Virgile | Feb 7 2014 22:36 utc | 12

Virgile
foreignpolicyblog, another neocons. site whining about russia, apologist? nonsense, besides better to be an apologist for a legitimate state (syria) than do as david kenner, obama etc that are apologists for al qaeda terorrists.

Posted by: Anonymous_test | Feb 7 2014 23:05 utc | 13

“the western far left, even more than the western liberal class, is being the most bigoted toward russia and the games right now.”
Name 1

Posted by: ruralito | Feb 7 2014 23:07 utc | 14

“Russia is looking more and more like the USA.”
Get back to us when Amb Lavrov declares, “Russia stands with the Mexican people”

Posted by: ruralito | Feb 7 2014 23:09 utc | 15

Oh yes, it’s the “Western Far Left” (as if such a thing actually exists) that’s the problem!
What a bunch of garbage. Is the Western “far left” NBC? Is the Western “far left” Foreign Policy Magazine? NPR Radio?
Its a good trick by the same rightists who always pop up here – blame the people you hate for all the attacks on the people you hate even more.

Posted by: guest77 | Feb 8 2014 1:06 utc | 16

Media spectacle. I feel even more confident that we won’t see any sort of terror attack – unless someone truly gets out of line – but we will see tons and tons and TONS of this crap.
It’s funny, I work with people whom US media propaganda goes through like shit through a goose, and the “problems in Sochi” is all they were talking about all day. It is truly bizarre, I don’t even have to read the news, I just listen to conversation at lunch and the propaganda is related verbatim.
It’s astonishing really. Human media mimeograph machines.
Not a second thought. Not a bump in the road.
Into their ears and out their mouth – apparently bypassing brain completely.

Posted by: guest77 | Feb 8 2014 1:36 utc | 17

And of course Google in the US has a “gay olympics” theme.
I don’t recall if they had a “gay america” theme when Rick Santorum was riding high in the US polls.

Posted by: guest77 | Feb 8 2014 1:38 utc | 18

Yup, no matter how much death, destruction and all-around behavior detrimental/antithetical to the lives of earth’s denizens the fascist corporate f*cks dish out, if they green/gay wash themselves with a few well-placed ads all is expected to be forgiven in the land of neoliberal Moronica.
Well, Google supports gay america, I guess I shouldn’t be concerned with how much of our data they collect and share with the government. They’re clever AND good!!! USA USA!!!!
Oh, I almost forgot: PUTIN BOO HISSSSSS!!!!

Posted by: JSorrentine | Feb 8 2014 1:49 utc | 19

“It is truly bizarre, I don’t even have to read the news, I just listen to conversation at lunch and the propaganda is related verbatim.
It’s astonishing really. Human media mimeograph machines.
Not a second thought. Not a bump in the road.”

What a good observation! And people were going all out of their way to prove me wrong and that the over 1 million demonstrators in Spain (the very same people who right before the Madrid bombings were ready to give Mr. Aznar’s party another term in the office) and London were doing anti-regime demonstrations and spoke as if che guevara was about to liberate western europe coming down out of “Sierra Alps” with his revolutionary army!!

Posted by: Pirouz_2 | Feb 8 2014 3:54 utc | 20

For all the rabid denigration of Russia, the former Soviet Empire fed, clothed and housed all of its citizens, had 100% employment, never experienced USs orchestrated successive economic collapses feeding All Wealth to the 1%, USSR kept the size of its military within reasonable bounds, and didn’t end up (-)$18 TRILLION in perpetual deficit debt, even after the IMF-WB betrayed Gorbachev’s Perestroika, and the Old Guard shelled him out of office.
Read ‘The Conquest of Bread’ by Kropotkin, then ask yourself how a nation like US, founded on one of the richest continents in the world, settled, farmed and industrialized, now has one of the worst economic disparities in the world, has the greatest debt of all time, and 10,000,000s of its citizens are perpetually unemployed, underfed or homeless, while Ol’ Ba Baoro’m keeps the ignorant and stupid American masses in his power.
Then watch ‘Argentina’s Economic Collapse (Memoria Del Saqueo 2004)’ on YouTube for the prequel to the NeoLiberal Third Way transformation of America into another IMF-WB banana republic of Corporate business and resource privatization of now sharecropper zeks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CzS6eHqtnQ
Big fish eat little fish, but the farmer feeds them all.

Posted by: Chip Nikh | Feb 8 2014 6:44 utc | 21

time to send HRW to the dustbin of history, and ken roth out to get an honest job!
‘So why has Human Rights Watch (HRW)—despite proclaiming itself “one of the world’s leading independent organizations” on human rights—so consistently paralleled U.S. positions and policies? This affinity for the U.S. government agenda is not limited to Latin America. In the summer of 2013, for example, when the prospect of a unilateral U.S. missile strike on Syria—a clear violation of the UN Charter—loomed large, HRW’s executive director Kenneth Roth speculated as to whether a simply “symbolic” bombing would be sufficient. “If Obama decides to strike Syria, will he settle for symbolism or do something that will help protect civilians?” he asked on Twitter. Executive director of MIT’s Center for International Studies John Tirman swiftly denounced the tweet as “possibly the most ignorant and irresponsible statement ever by a major human-rights advocate.”1
etc
http://nacla.org/news/2014/2/4/hypocrisy-human-rights-watch

Posted by: brian | Feb 8 2014 9:27 utc | 22

forget the gay olympics?
will Billy Jean King be sent as gay Ambassassdor to QATAR?
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/10/08/peter-tatchell-fifa-has-no-option-but-to-cancel-qatar-world-cup-over-tests-to-detect-gays/

Posted by: brian | Feb 8 2014 9:33 utc | 23

Michael Riseup Stowell The recent legislation that is referred to came from a committee in the lower Duma, a committee that is charged with finding solutions to Russia’s demographic problems. Russia’s population is aging quickly and they are trying to remedy the situation by encouraging stable families. Most of the committee’s focus has been on revising laws concerning drug and alcohol addiction, they are developing restorative justice linked to recovery programs. The recent clarification came up through the lower Duma and was unanimously passed by the upper Duma to Putin for his signature, it is supported by more than 80% of the Russian people. The revision makes it a misdemeanor to distribute homosexual literature to minors, no one has been charged thus far. Homosexuality was a crime in the entire former Soviet Union, which collapsed in 1991. It was decriminalized in Russia in 1993.

Posted by: brian | Feb 8 2014 13:55 utc | 24

“Russia’s population is aging quickly and they are trying to remedy the situation by encouraging stable families.”
And they’re succeeding. According to the US Census bureau projections as recently as 2010, Ruussia’s population was to decline by 500k-700k per year pretty much forever. That’s where all the ‘Russia’s population is gonna drop to 125m by 2030, and it’s all Putin’s fault!’ stuff comes from. In 2011 Nicholas Eberstat wrote a whole article on “The Dying Bear” in Foreign Affairs.
Well in 2013, for the first time since 1991, births in Russia exceeded deaths, and there is some prospect of this continuing. Russia’s population is growing by ~250k/year, due mostly to immigration.
Dying Bear… Ha!

Posted by: rkka | Feb 8 2014 14:30 utc | 25

The recovery of the Russian economy has made it possible for young people to establish households and have children. Moscow is obviously not representative, but I was astounded at the number of young people pushing baby carriages in the dead of winter last January. Things are looking up.

Posted by: Knut | Feb 8 2014 15:32 utc | 26

Chip @21, terrific video, thanks.

Posted by: okie farmer | Feb 8 2014 15:43 utc | 27

brian @22 Thanks, amazing article from a great organization. A real left organization.

Posted by: guest77 | Feb 8 2014 22:44 utc | 28

the russian ‘antigay’ law
russia so called antigay law: here it is in translation and analysed by a gay man Brian Heiss whose work is in Diversity issues
http://www.infowars.com/the-truth-about-russias-anti-gay-law/
http://static.prisonplanet.com/p/images/february2014/white_paper.pdf

Posted by: brian | Feb 9 2014 8:47 utc | 29

I support the left,but am leaning to the right,do doot,di doot,doody doody do doot.I guess that makes me confused?Really,isn’t intelligence about different answers for different problems?
And of course they are trying to denigrate Putin and Russia.They’ve denigrated America by supporting destructive trade policies,and Putin is a boulder in their neolibcon Zionist way,as they try to make the world their personal oyster.It’s historical hatred that drives these psychos,as all goyim,and humanist Jews, are suspects.
Now they are claiming BDS is supported by antisemitism,and that antisemites hate the fact of Israel.Wouldn’t actual antisemites like Israel,as it would remove Jews from their nations,if it was a safe a secure place?But of course this type of reasoning is taboo in delite circles.

Posted by: dahoit | Feb 10 2014 18:18 utc | 30

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