Belarus - Opposition Call For 'Crippling General Strike' Fails To Reach Workers
On April 30 2019 some Random Guyaidó in Venezuela got snookered into a coup attempt which turned him into a laughingstock when the troops he had expected to support him failed to show up:
The whole coup attempt was run within a 500 x 200 meter corridor with nothing of significance happening outside of it. A dangerous propaganda stunt but so far nothing more than that.
This slight modification of the Guaidó/López picture above seems appropriate. These dudes are mere comic figures, wannabe fantasy heroes.
bigger
One would have thought that such a comical failure would have put an end to similar schemes of 'western' supported regime change attempts.
Unfortunately it didn't.
In June 2020 it became obvious that a U.S. directed color revolution was planned to unseat the President Lukashenko of Belarus. It happened as usual after the election results were put into doubt. But just a few days later it became obvious that the attempt had failed:
While President Alexander Lukashenko claimed to have won 80% of the votes during last Sunday's election, the 'western' candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya claimed that she had won. (While the 80% is certainly too high it is most likely that Lukashenko was the real winner.) Protests and riots ensued. On Tuesday Tikhanovskaya was told in no uncertain terms to leave the country. She ended up in Lithuania.
Lukashenko then proceeded to make a deal with Russia which promised him protection in exchange for progress in the creation of a Russian-Belarus Union State.
Even the NATO lobby-shop Atlantic Council admitted that the coup attempt had failed:
The author rightly concludes:
[T]he resistance of the Lukashenka regime is strengthening by the day. With Russia now seemingly standing firmly behind Lukashenka, photogenic rallies and patchy strike action will not be enough to bring about historic change.It is over. The 'patchy strikes' were never real industrial actions. A few journalist of the Belarus state TV went on a strike. They were unceremoniously fired and replaced with Russian journalists. A few hundred workers at the MTZ Minsk Tractor Works did a walk out. But MTZ has 17,000 employees and the 16,500+ who did not walk out know very well why they still have their jobs. Should Lukashenko fall it is highly likely that their state owned company will be sold off for pennies and immediately 'right sized' meaning that most of them would be out of work. During the last 30 years they have seen that happen in every country around Belarus. There have no urge to experience that themselves.
On Monday the leader of the earlier MTZ walk out, one Sergei Dylevsky, was arrested while he agitated for more strikes. Dylevsky is a member of the self-proclaimed Coordination Council of the opposition which demands negotiations over the presidency. Other members of the council have been called in for questioning by state investigators over a criminal case against the council.
Meanwhile the rather hapless opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who falsely claimed to have won the election, is in Lithuania. She is supposed to be an English teacher but has difficulties reading the English text begging (vid) for 'western' support. She has already met various 'western' politicians including the General Secretary of the German Christian Democratic Union party of chancellor Angela Merkel, Peter Zeimiag, and the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun. Neither will be able to help her.
Despite her obvious lack of popular support Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, like Juan Guaidó in Venezuela, was urged to make another attempt. Two weeks ago she had the chutzpah of giving Lukashenko an ultimatum to resign:
Belarus's exiled opposition leader on Tuesday gave strongman President Alexander Lukashenko a deadline of two weeks to resign, halt violence and release political prisoners, warning he would otherwise face a crippling general strike.Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who maintains she was the true winner of an August 9 election, issued what she said was a "people's ultimatum", demanding Lukashenko quit power by October 25 and halt the "state terror" unleashed by authorities against peaceful protesters.
"If our demands are not met by October 25, the whole country will peacefully take to the streets," she said in a statement released in Lithuania, where she is currently based in exile after leaving Belarus following the election.
"And on October 26 a nationwide strike will begin at all enterprises, all roads will be blocked, and sales at state stores will collapse," she said. "You have 13 days."
On October 25 there was indeed another medium sized protest in Minsk. But those who participated were again the upper middle class and better off people, not the industry workers and farmers who make up the majority of the Belarusian people.
But the general strike announced for yesterday had few if any participants:
“Today, the people’s strike begins – the next step for Belarusians towards freedom, an end to violence and new elections,” Tikhanovskaya said on Monday. “Belarusians know that the main task on 26 October is to show that nobody will work for the regime.”However, despite the sight of large columns of protesters in the streets again – and the sense that the protest has regained some of the momentum it has lost in recent weeks – there was no sign of significant numbers of workers at state-controlled plants joining the strike for any sustained length of time.
...
At the Minsk tractor factory, one of the big plants that are the pride of Lukashenko’s neo-Soviet economy, most workers appeared to be clocking on as normal for the Monday morning shift. The leader of an earlier strike at the factory in August was forced to flee the country under pressure from authorities, and many workers fear reprisals for striking. At most, some workers briefly expressed support for the protest before or after their shifts, but did not actually refuse to work.
A few hundred students at some university skipped their classes and walked in the streets. But the workers kept working. No roads were blocked. The shop traffic was normal.
The workers in the state owned industries know very well that most of them will become jobless and poor should the 'western' supported neo-liberal opposition gain power in Belarus. Everything would be privatized for pennies and 'right-sized' by mass layoffs. They have seen that happen again and again in each of their neighboring countries.
Juan Guaido declared a coup without having made sure that the soldiers he expected would show up. The soldiers knew that it was not in their interest to follow him.
Svetlana Guaidoskaya declared a general strike without understanding that the workers she called on are nor interested in her neo-liberal schemes. That she, or her handlers, even attempted to urge for a strike shows how little they understand the real concerns the workers have.
Belarus, like Venezuela, has a government and system that is supported by the majority of its people. Neither country can be regime changed without a military intervention from abroad. That will not be coming anytime soon.
Posted by b on October 27, 2020 at 14:32 UTC | Permalink
All Belorussians have to do is look over their shoulders at the nazi-infested bandit state and economic basket case that Ukraine has become. I doubt even the starry-eyed, pro-American Belorus middle classes are that stupid.
Posted by: pasha | Oct 27 2020 14:54 utc | 2
Well, well, that might all be true, but what progress is the Russian-Belarusian union state making? How does Lukashenko plan to deal with the economic problems of Belarus? Is Russia going to deliver oil and gas with a heavy discount again?
Posted by: m | Oct 27 2020 15:05 utc | 3
Wouldn't it be a lot easier for the corporate titans to just right a check for whatever resource they want? So what if they must pay some taxes or abide by a few rules. Isn't Bill Brwoder's cheapness and Mikhail Khodorkovsky's rule breaking the reason we are wasting all our resources on Eastern Europe so as to surround Russia? Guess looking at the kick back Joe Biden got thru Hunter Biden, I'm being naive. Since Lukashenko gave some of the best Covid advice about getting outside (Vitamin D), here's rooting for him.
Posted by: Old and Grumpy | Oct 27 2020 15:29 utc | 5
The Venezuelan super hero of your picture spent over a year in the Spanish embassy in Caracas, diplomatic asylum is and old tradition that the British stepped and spit upon with Assange, for years in small quarters, nothing like a tropical embassy with swimming pool and all the comforts plus Mediterranean larder and cellar. The coup inspirer is out of Venezuela as if the proud owner of a flying carpet, Arabian nights style. I was so indignant, Assange is someone who gave the world an incredible gift, true free information, treated like a pariah, and an upper crust imperial satrap risking the lives of many and causing a lot more just for power and empire is free to come and go. No MSM comments on that analogy.
The best and more concise name for the Belarus regime changer was coined by Lukashenko, Guaidikha, multiple meanings in a short word, compared with Tikhanovkaya.
Posted by: Paco | Oct 27 2020 15:36 utc | 6
A re post of what i wrote today on the open thread:
This a.m. (Oct 27) on NPR's broadcasting of the BBC World Service, there was a brief news report on matters Belarusian. The London based program person spoke with a female "reporter" in Minsk. The short discussion concerned the Strikes called for by Tikhanovskaya.
The protests not having produced the goods (removal of Lukashenko and the installation of the female NATO-western puppet Tikhanovskaya) so onto strikes especially of the state owned industries plus small businesses...This reporter said - without prodding - that the strikers will be paid - from the "Solidarity Fund." Hmmm. Interesting and fully in keeping with skeptical thinking about this whole situation. Then, to top it off and underscore one's need for the deepest skepticism about the veracity of and indigenous roots of the effort at removing Lukashenko, the London end closed with the "credentials" of the Minsk based "reporter": not only a "reporter" but a worker in the Atlantic Council....
Of course, this being a color revolution target country, any and all violent means used by the police etc to stop the protests/strikes is blared abroad on NPR/BBC. And continuing calls for Lukashenko to remove himself from the presidency - accompanied by "look at how he and his "regime" treat the population."
Now one might ask WHERE was similar outrage across the MSM and EU/UK/USA (accompanied by western calls for the removal of Macron) throughout 2019 and the extreme brutality the French Riot Police meted out on the Gilets Jaunes protestors (who weren't asking for Macron to go, just some taxes and similar social spending efforts). Those protests were by and large peaceful (there were black dressed, masked infiltrators who did damage and who gave the Gilets jaunes some bad press). The Police were anything but - numerous protestors lost eyes, hands and had serious damage to their jaws because of the stun grenades used.
Of course the aim is to scoop up the last stretch of Russia's western borderlands into NATO hands. Meanwhile some similar efforts continue along Russia's more southerly borders. Why can't we just let other countries alone? Mind our own business and take care of our own societies, peoples? (Not a serious question 'cos I know that it is all about US global dominance and $$$$$ for the western corporate-capitalist-imperialist ruling
Posted by: Anne | Oct 27 2020 16:07 utc | 7
This is so offensive to working class people. Do these middle class slimeballs in the US State Department think all they have to do is shout from a high enough soapbox and workers will obey? That's not how labor organization and strikes work! Some dilettante who has never even been in a factory before cannot bypass all of the hard work of organizing and proving herself to the workforce to command workers as if they are her personal army! The workers are not just extras in some Hollywood creation that the few in the capitalist mass media spotlight are starring in. They don't show up for your casting calls just because you want them to.
The level of ignorant delusion in these people is staggering, and the utter contempt they have for workers is infuriating.
Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 27 2020 16:24 utc | 8
A very appropriate article by B and very timely too.
As for Belarus as a projected terror territory -- be it a subject or an object:
In the 2013 atteck Friday evening blast on the Central government (Prime ministers office, Ministries of Justice, Finance and Oil) and the following massacre (probably by several gunmen) on the Summer club gathering of hundreds of members of the Lapour Party's youth ('Jugentstaffel der Arbeiter'/Arbeidernes ungdomsfylking), the official story contained a claim that ABB (Anders Behring Breivik) had honed his gunman skills at a pay-for boot camp in Bielarus. The prosecution offered photoes of his passport pages containing stamps of entries from and exits from Poland as proof.
Now, in Poland, the central camp for training North American mercanEries lies very close ti Poland's border with Bielorus. More likely he was trained, conditioned, duped and set up there, I would surmise.
Do any of Y'all in the community of followers of B's writings on this blog have any additional snippets of information about any "lóne wolves" stemming from those forested marshes?
RSVP!
Posted by: Oū Sī/區司/Tŭ Lèi'fū | Oct 27 2020 16:59 utc | 9
Sorry I forgot:
The Summer of 2013 two attacks on Labour Party Prime Minister's office and the "Fasces di junessi lavorati" happened in NORWAY whilst the current leader of low-life secretaries of NATO in Brussels, Jens Stoltenberg, was prime minister of Norway. He immediately declared (two days later" that "I personally assume responsibility for all things that went wrong two days ago".
Of course he had to relocate to Brussels.
His father, one Thorvald Stoltenberg, had been Foreign minister of Norway some years before Jens assumed the premiership. He was a snitch who during the fifties provided the US with lists of who among the members of his soscialist students' movement and amongst youths and adults in his Labour Party might have commie sumpathies and thus should not be allowed into The United States of (North) America.
Jens followed up by becoming a false hippie whilst in High School and reporting who amongst his fellow hippies dealt in and smoked hashis. Also, as leader of the Youth movement was opposed to Norwegian membership in NATO and the EU and for prohibition of nuclear weapons: "Plus ca changes, plus ce reste la meme chose" amongst the priviledged families of the labour aristocrazies.
Posted by: Oū Sī/區司/Tŭ Lèi'fū | Oct 27 2020 17:25 utc | 10
Kyrgyzstan was also omitted. The Neoliberals will try again in Moldova; their disruptive activities in Azerbaijan and Armenia are getting a lot of people killed but won't change either government's political-economy. Moon still seems secure in RoK. Thailand is having a struggle few have mentioned, but Malaysia seems to have overcome its attempted destabilization. So, it appears the Eurasian Bloc has repelled the latest concerted attempt at further destabilization by the Outlaw US Empire, but we know it will double-down since it has no other policy choices regardless the POTUS.
karlof1 | Oct 27 2020 17:30 utc | 11
I was in the capital of Moldova about 18 months ago and there were a large number of very sinister billboards standing beside many of the roads saying "FREE, EXPERT ADVICE. CONTACT THE U.S.EMBASSY." I kid not.
Posted by: foolisholdman | Oct 27 2020 17:54 utc | 12
Now the intel agencies and their plutocrat bosses are attempting a color revolution in the U.S.
Posted by: lysias | Oct 27 2020 18:26 utc | 13
let's not celebrate prematurely. The West/USA/NATO can wait a long time. Lukashenko will eventually have to go, same as Maduro and Putin. Assad too. That's what the West is counting on; in the meantime, they can groom a candidate, give them money, create him out of nothing and eventually via their influence get him into power. That is what The West for example is trying to do in Syria, they want to get a defacto leader in Eastern Syria can will eventually challenge Assad in general elections. Look what happened in Chile under Pinochet; the West had NO problem whatsoever with Pinochet being a dictator. Same as Franco in Spain. For all their blabbering about "democracy" and "freedom" the West doesnt care if THEIR people are in power without democracy and freedom. Remember what Reagan said: yeah, he is SOB but he is OUR SOB.
The ONLY way to endure fakers will not be allowed in is for a general revolution, the way Cuba did.
Posted by: Hoyeru | Oct 27 2020 18:51 utc | 14
@Lucci #1
My impression of Hong Kong is that it was students protesting, not workers.
Posted by: c1ue | Oct 27 2020 19:01 utc | 15
NATO’s stooges in Minsk could have taken the time to find a flag that wasn’t used by Nazi collaborators, too. I guess the success they had with Libya and Ukraine, they probably felt confident about showing their hand.
Thanks so much for covering this B.The only other source I have is the Atlantic Council aligned Democracy Now, which has been an R2P shill outlet since 2011.
Posted by: DougDiggler | Oct 27 2020 19:13 utc | 16
@Oū Sī/區司/Tŭ Lèi'fū | Oct 27 2020 16:59 utc | 9
You have the year wrong. It was 22. July 2011
Stoltenberg immediately promised "more democracy". I interpreted it as "more of the same", and I wasn't wrong. What happened that day was not what it seemed.
Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 27 2020 19:20 utc | 17
@Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 27 2020 19:20 utc | 17
What happened that day was not what it seemed.
Elaborate, please. What do you mean?
Posted by: H.Schmatz | Oct 27 2020 19:38 utc | 18
b, that picture sure is nice humor on comical clowns such as Guiado/Lopez. You also said:
One would have thought that such a comical failure would have put an end to similar schemes of 'western' supported regime change attempts.
Unfortunately it didn't.
It didn't, because it needn't! Shenanigans through the use of props such as Guaido/Poroshanko cost the Evil Empire practically nothing--just a few bucks into the hands of stupid puppets who happen to be effective mouthpieces in the target nations with rather low IQ and brainwashed over the years of the Empire's soft power. If they succeed, hallelujah; if they don't, how would it hurt?
This is one of the remaining advantage that the 'West' still holds due to their previous 70 years of accumulative dominance over the rest of the world. The average person in the world is, well, average and easily fooled. Easily fooled at least once or twice, that is. This advantage of the 'West' is slowly being consumed, depleted, and losing efficacy. In a year or two, after this pandemic passes and the scores on pandemic performances added up, we'll see this kind of western hat trick gone with the wind.
Posted by: Oriental Voice | Oct 27 2020 19:43 utc | 19
@Posted by: Oū Sī/區司/Tŭ Lèi'fū | Oct 27 2020 17:25 utc | 10
Well, he seems what here is known as un chivato, the lowest rank of a human kind...being a revolutionary the higuest, which awards being graduated as man/woman ( parphrasing Che )...
I did not know this dishonourable, and low amongst the possible lowest, past, of denouncing own ( alleged ) comrades, and ruining in passing the lifes of so young people, but any time I have seen this guy at G7/G-Whatever meetings he shows that expression of scared servile lap dog...
Lacking any other merits, he probably could not find other means to keep the privileges of his dinasty.
His case as a proof that anybody holding such high offices in Brusels have a complete wardrobe of corpses hided anywhere...
Those who tried to go the opposite way, and be really labor, and even human, or a bit fair, are died...prematurely...Palme, Hamarskjold, Moro, come to mind...
Posted by: H.Schmatz | Oct 27 2020 19:52 utc | 20
"What happened that day was not what it seemed.
Elaborate, please. What do you mean?"
Posted by: H.Schmatz | Oct 27 2020 19:38 utc | 18
I would venture a guess and say he meant that what really happened in Oslo and Utøya is still untold.
To many coincidences and a narrative that is not allowed to be doubted.
Why did the early messages say several shooters?
Why have NO mobile videos from Utøya been released? (NO, not privacy)
I can go on like that for ages but you get my drift i hope.
Per
Norway
Posted by: Per/Norway | Oct 27 2020 20:03 utc | 21
Guys, please, tell us more laundry from Stoltenberg so that the people in Europe, especially the young, knows...
Posted by: H.Schmatz | Oct 27 2020 20:05 utc | 22
My impression of Hong Kong is that it was students protesting, not workers.
Posted by: c1ue | Oct 27 2020 19:01 utc | 15
Your impression is correct but hardly the truth. Because students are able to produce English signs, jockey the social media and most importantly, being photogenic for western media consumption; they are just the most visible part of the campaign. You know, save the children and all that psyops bs.
An obscene amount of money were handed out to participants, be it cash or supermarket vouchers, amounts varies from 80usd a day for old folks just to show up to more than 1500usd for taking point on violence against police.
But i digress...
Posted by: A.L. | Oct 27 2020 20:22 utc | 23
lysias@13 wrote "Now the intel agencies and their plutocrat bosses are attempting a color revolution in the U.S."
One of the cardinal strategies in petty bourgeois democratic upheavals/Gene Sharp style regime change is denying the legitimacy of the election, then using the superior social resources (and/or foreign financing) to make the streets ungovernable, staying in the streets because the core support doesn't have to go to work. A swell of outrage over police violence is more or less like catching a bus, one will come along sooner or later.
The number one person talking up fraud is Donald Trump. And the hard core of his supporters are people with higher incomes. Even his militia types are property owners or have a high enough income to buy expensive weapons to play with. True popular upsurges are always hampered by the lack of arms. And of course the big media advertisers who invest in the right wing media like Fox etc. aren't the barefoot masses either.
Thus if there is a color revolution being engineered in the US, it is Trump's. Except of course cranks* who believe in the Deep State pretend black is white and it's the mythical foe of the Deep State, Trump, who is the victim, instead of the perpetrator. Calling black, white...You don't get more Trumpery than that.
*Deep State theory is fake left ideology created by people whose deep grained anticommunism drives them to forego a rational analysis of the state and class and the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie aka constintutional democracy, aka a republic not a democracy, aka limited government with a free market, aka too many stupid phrases to remember. Reality is Marxist, so denying Marxism is the True Derangement Syndrome.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Oct 27 2020 20:24 utc | 24
thanks b... good pic!
thanks also @6 paco for the comments.... and @ 7 anne.. your example of the yellow vests and how that was processed is very good.. there are a lot of double standards at work, but no where is it more clearly seen then how that was processed... the msm turned a complete blind eye to it, but we are supposed to believe all these other demonstrations are all so legitimate.. it is laughable, but it is ongoing as others note... when it ends - i have no idea... it seems like we are headed towards a world of more confusion and mayhem... that is what it looks like to me at this point...
Posted by: james | Oct 27 2020 20:46 utc | 25
the female NATO-western puppet Tikhanovskaya Posted by: Anne | Oct 27 2020 16:07 utc | 7
perhaps "the NATO-western puppetess"?
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Oct 27 2020 20:47 utc | 26
@H.Schmatz | Oct 27 2020 19:38 utc | 18
I don't want to hijack this thread, so I am going to post only these lines and leave it. I know the two areas (In particular, I knew someone who worked in the government building and I visited the exact site of the explosion many times before it happened). The government wanted to demolish and rebuild, but wasn't allowed to. There is no actual proof that Breivik was near the government buildings that day, only an extremely distorted image of someone in a police uniform and with a full helmet on.
I personally heard the explosion from 30km away. There are videos of strange people vacating the government area in Oslo just after the explosion, and also a person changing clothes right after the explosion, only 15m from the explosion site (see bottom link). Some of the victims look like actors with pieces of wood sticking out of their heads.
At the Utøya camp the labour party youth had banners advocating boycott of Israel the days before. There were several reports of multiple shooters, but these reports disappeared and somehow a single person killed 69 individuals, after single handedly demolishing several government buildings and driving for 45 minutes to Utøya. The photo of the alleged shooter taken by the police on the day does not look much like Breivik later. There was a police exercise on the day with very similar scenario to what actually happened, but the police made a spectacular mess of the actual event.
Story, images and timeline (in Norwegian): Oslo 22. Juli 2011
Stoltenberg was Prime Minister and declared July 24 2011 "Vårt svar er mer demokrati, mer åpenhet og mer humanitet" ("Our answer is more democracy, more openness and more humanity"). Still, the event was used by the media to close down public debates, the main paper Aftenposten closed the main debate forum in the country the very same day. Stoltenberg and the labour party won the election only 6 weeks later. He became head puppet of NATO 1. October 2014.
Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 27 2020 20:47 utc | 27
Posted by: H.Schmatz | Oct 27 2020 19:52 utc | 20: "Those who tried to go the opposite way, and be really labor, and even human, or a bit fair, are died...prematurely...Palme, Hamarskjold, Moro, come to mind..."
Who is Moro?
Posted by: Hope | Oct 27 2020 21:23 utc | 28
@Hope | Oct 27 2020 21:23 utc | 28
Prime Minister of Italy, murdered 1978
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldo_Moro
Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 27 2020 21:28 utc | 29
Posted by: DougDiggler | Oct 27 2020 19:13 utc | 16
I would think a lot of Belarussians are familiar with this movie. I can't see how the majority of Belarussians wanting anything to do with protests that display this rag. Only the descendants of those who supported the Nazi's would. Almost 2 million Belarussians died during the war, or about 20% of the population. Belarussians know their history. The idiots in the west don't and can't help themselves using neo-nazis in their quest to overthrow governments not just in eastern Europe, but around the world. The west didn't defeat Nazism, they became it.
https://russianfilmhub.com/movies/come-and-see-1985/
https://belarusdigest.com/story/why-belarus-is-missing-in-world-war-ii-history/
Posted by: Tom | Oct 27 2020 21:58 utc | 30
Thus if there is a color revolution being engineered in the US, it is Trump's.
by: steven t johnson @ 24 Trumpy does nothing without Netanyohu.. and Netanyohu does nothing without London.. bankers and wall street thumpers ..
Posted by: snake | Oct 27 2020 22:00 utc | 31
Thanks, Norwegian, @ 29, for the information and the link.
Posted by: Hope | Oct 27 2020 22:14 utc | 32
Oū Sī/區司/Tŭ Lèi'fū @ 9, 10:
Brendan Tarrant, the "lone wolf" shooter who (we are led to believe by the MSM) single-handedly shot worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch within 15 minutes (1:40pm - 1:52pm, Friday afternoon) in March 2019, was known to have visited Poland and Ukraine among other countries in eastern Europe.
Tarrant had contacts with far-right groups in eastern Europe. If you know something about the history of far-right extremist groups in eastern Europe going back to World War II, and the adventures of Stepan Bandera after the war, you probably can put two and two together on what and who Tarrant got up to in his own odyssey and get five as your answer.
The driving distance between the two mosques (one is in Riccarton suburb, the other in Linwood suburb) is roughly about 12 - 16 minutes.
Posted by: Jen | Oct 27 2020 22:28 utc | 33
H Schmatz @ 22:
Be careful of what you ask for! Here is Jens Stoltenberg moonlighting as a taxi driver in June 2013 ahead of Norway's general elections, to find out what ordinary people thought of his government.
Most of his passengers figured out who he was straight away and censored themselves. So much for trying to travel around Oslo incognito at the last minute when you think you might not have public support. You have to wonder what Stoltenberg had been drinking at the time to come up with such a hare-brained idea. Did he not have enough to do just before the elections?
Posted by: Jen | Oct 27 2020 22:37 utc | 34
Color revolutions are so passe with the US failing in Venezuela, Bolivia, and Belarus.
Perhaps the US should consider returning to diplomacy in its foreign policy; if the state department remembers how!
Posted by: Dick | Oct 27 2020 23:33 utc | 35
Posted by b on October 27, 2020 at 14:32 UTC | Permalink
>>In June 2020 it became obvious that a U.S. directed color revolution was planned to unseat the President Lukashenko of Belarus.
Actually the vast majority of color revolution activity in Belarus was driven from the EU, not the US.
I strongly disagree with the nice self-comforting fantasies that hostile activity towards Russia is simply "ordered" or "caused" by the US.
The EU itself is russophobic, and it will be even if the US did not exist.
European russophobia is a thousand year old affair.
Posted by: Passer by | Oct 27 2020 23:36 utc | 36
Thanks to the Norwegian comrades? fro the info, another path for reserach...
@Jen,
Always be suspicious of familiar sagas, by stadistic rules, It is no possible that, out of fair competition and equal opportunities, a father being minister is succeded by a son in a similar or even higuest office...Think of the Bushes...and attention to the Trumps...by reading the other day about the Trump dinasty it seems that Donald jr., is the new darling of the Republican Party...He just has hook with the masses with whom he mimetized better that The Donald, father... Watching images of this guy, with such a troubled background in harsh competition with the Biden jr, I got to worry that may be another will come who will make The Donald father good...His expression and eyes show great reserves of resentment, always in competition and feeling diminished by Ivanka...
Beware that this moron do not become the next Hitler even surpassing his father in rage and fury...
Stoltenberg is just a model...you could put a robot instead of him and nobody will notice..well, may be not so farfetched..and we could witness a next NATO Gen.Sec.who is a cyborg...The Great Reset will bring in many surprises...as that old commenter used to say, seatbelts may prove innefective...
Posted by: H.Schmatz | Oct 28 2020 0:12 utc | 38
"NATO’s stooges in Minsk could have taken the time to find a flag that wasn’t used by Nazi collaborators, too." DougDiggler@16
The descendants of Nazi collaborators, often expatriates brought up in North America within communities dominated by Hitler loyalists, form the core community for these colour 'revolutions.' They did so in Ukraine, they did in Yugoslavia and they do in Poland and Hungary. They did in Vietnam too, where the collaborators were armed to fight the communists, and in Korea where the collaborators were organised by the US to resist the national revolution. It was not the British Empire but that of the Axis powers that the US took over and turned into its agents.
In every country in western Europe the collaborators carried on-fighting communists for capitalism.
Posted by: bevin | Oct 28 2020 0:40 utc | 39
BTW since Bernhard mentioned El Capitan Leopoldo López, news is that López has now arrived in Madrid, leaving Guaido on his own.
How López will be able to continue pulling Guaido's strings from Madrid remains to be seen.
Posted by: Jen | Oct 28 2020 1:16 utc | 40
@Lucci #1
My impression of Hong Kong is that it was students protesting, not workers.
Posted by: c1ue | Oct 27 2020 19:01 utc | 15
Yes those are jobless students or part timers but they do get paid perhaps more than what they made in day to day basis. It's the reason why many of them can afford to protest for months (some with throwaway clothes and mask even). Workers don't make much in day wage and the younger one wouldn't feel the need to preserve for their retirement (if they even have them) if they do in fact make more money protesting than they do in working chances are they would be out protesting. Of course there's also the difference in their judicial system and law enforcement which made more fear factor in comparison to HK.
Still i think they don't spend their resources just as much as they did in HK or even Venezuela on this one.
Posted by: Lucci | Oct 28 2020 1:53 utc | 41
Posted by: c1ue | Oct 27 2020 19:01 utc | 15 -- "My impression of Hong Kong is that it was students protesting, not workers."
Wrong impression, friend.
Doesn't matter if they were students or workers. They were mainly paid rioters, not "protestors".
Still, many believe the West's MSM when they breathlessly shout "students protesting..."
Ask the other millions and millions of Hong Kong people who did not protest nor riot, and they will tell you those black-clad youth in skinny pants were plainly and simply paid cockroaches. Just like the "antifa" in the USofA.
We are talking about in the main here, so please save your time, and do not split hairs with me.
Posted by: kiwiklown | Oct 28 2020 4:08 utc | 42
Posted by: kiwiklown | Oct 28 2020 4:08 utc | 42
Actually most if not all of the real students aren't paid. They were too blind, clueless and easily led into amy movement with democracy on the box.
They were bombarded by teachers projecting their personal political views in "discussion sessions" where they were shown subjective documentaries and then pseudo close-ended anti govt questions and views were asked and "discussed", in a peer pressure echo chamber called a classroom.
This happened in classes as young as P4 or year 4, these are 10 years old children we're talking about.
For a culture that the wisdom and benevolence of a teacher is generally revered and unquestioned. This is just pure child abuse. They were grooming child soldiers.
Posted by: A.L. | Oct 28 2020 4:30 utc | 43
Guido, Tikhanovskaya, Joshua Wong.... these sad idiots -- people with more ambition than they have brains for -- find that once they enter, they can never leave the grasp of Western colour-revolution "experts".
If the colour revolution succeeds, they will be used and abused until they are no more useful, whereupon, they will be arkancided, and the blame pinned on some enemy of the West (making best use of invested resources, silencing a potential whistleblower).
If the colour revolution fails, the West waits for another better time (they regime change some other nation), or they arkancide the sad idiots to restart another colour revolution (costs them nothing to shoot an useless idiot).
Meanwhile, if the sad idiots show a change of heart, they will still be arkancided (for knowing too much by then), and the blame pinned on some enemy of the West (same idiot, same ends).
Like making a deal with Satan, they can enter, but can never leave.
Thusly the scared faces on all 3 fools.
Posted by: kiwiklown | Oct 28 2020 4:37 utc | 44
Posted by: kiwiklown | Oct 28 2020 4:08 utc | 42
Also like to add your other points are right on and this whole saga would not have happened if it wasn't for the pressitutes "confirming" and reprinting the highly inflated protest numbers and thereby indirectly supporting the colour revolution early in the piece. One can still do an aerial analysis of the pictures and can easily see the 2m protest was total horse manure.
This fact or lesson learnt is not lost on Belarus and Thailand. They are much better in controlling bs and much more effort is now paid to show and push images of how much smaller the protests are than claimed by the opposition.
Posted by: A.L. | Oct 28 2020 4:46 utc | 45
Svetlana talks like Inspector Clouseau: "I uh cull, un ull netshuns, tu respecta duh lewua!"
Posted by: groucho | Oct 28 2020 5:24 utc | 46
Here's a link I should have added to my prior comment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5eVu2qDISM
Posted by: groucho | Oct 28 2020 5:47 utc | 47
With how things are going in Bolivia and Chile vs. things going in Belarus, HK and Thailand, we can almost see that one new order is rising, and it's not the US.
We are rejecting neoliberalism, and that's good.
Posted by: Smith | Oct 28 2020 7:13 utc | 48
Just had a look at the Tikhanovskaya video you link to. It's had 3300 views. I assume 1000 are the US congressmen and senators who are going to vote her into power, and the other two thirds are readers of this blog.
Posted by: geoff chambers | Oct 28 2020 9:53 utc | 49
Posted by: geoff chambers | Oct 28 2020 9:53 utc | 49
No, Geoff, not me.
The other 1/3rd are "reliably reported" to be from the 17 US agencies who are looking for lame excuses to make up more "intelligence" to start colour revolutions.
The last third are "highly likely" to be Western MSM who need to pretend to know the bare minimum on what is going down so they they can make up more "news".
Finally, US congressmen and senators do not need facts to vote, just cash, preferably of the Basement Biden "plausibly deniable" sort, but martha's vineyard mansions might do too.
Posted by: kiwiklwon | Oct 28 2020 10:09 utc | 50
I wonder about 3 things: First, could Biden win but be delegitimized by a scandal involving China - similar to the Trump-Russia narrative?
Second, Venezuela may patch together some sort of election. Do US/vassals keep Guiado as President with no real position?
Third, Yes the West can wait for Russia/Belarus etc to fall - while their nations decay. Lithuania is a horrific example of Russophobia over everything else. They will be nursing homes surrounded by forest. And looking at US history, no amount of riots will stop foreign aggression (as with Vietnam). Even the Confederacy dreamed of conquering Cuba and South America !!
Posted by: Eighthman | Oct 28 2020 12:18 utc | 51
Kinda figured that the 'strikes' would be a flop. Good comparison to the some random guyido op, too.
Thanks again B,
Good article.
Anne @7 ,That the strikers will be paid - from the "Solidarity Fund."
That is quite the admission. How does US/NATO launder money and get it into Belarus?
Drying up that well would do wonders to stop color revolutions. Perhaps banning foreign NGO's helps do this and why Russia did this almost a decade ago.
Posted by: Christian J. Chuba | Oct 28 2020 12:59 utc | 53
-Yes, one election coming, foreign observers called in, plenty excuses for their not coming, then MSM presstitute claims of fraud and rapid street rioting - all with signs of long prepared
planning - supported by US media.
I am confident that now the Chilean new constituents in 2021 will legally block the way for this trickery and especially for any lawfare manipulations in the future.
Eighthman @51: "I wonder about 3 things: First, could Biden win but be delegitimized by a scandal involving China - similar to the Trump-Russia narrative?"
That would defeat the purpose of getting Biden elected in the first place. The empire desperately needs to reestablish its legitimacy, so the "Mighty Wurlitzer" absolutely will not go on a rampage against Biden like they did with Trump. The empire needs the global community to go back to solemnly nodding in agreement whenever the US establishment claims that America must bomb another country for its own good.
"Second, Venezuela may patch together some sort of election. Do US/vassals keep Guiado as President with no real position?"
Venezuela's electoral process is one of the very cleanest and most transparent on Earth. No "patching together" required. That said, the empire will keep Guaido around only so long as they think there is some value left in him, even if that value is only for CIA goons to murder him and crank up the "Mighty Wurlitzer" to say it was Maduro who did the deed. Of course, the word of the empire and its mass media needs to count for something again in order for that to work, and that requires Biden as president and a uniform chorus from the mass media painting him as honorable.
"Third, Yes the West can wait for Russia/Belarus etc to fall - while their nations decay..."
Well, that is why many of the western elites are desperately embracing the ridiculous fantasy of the "Great Reset" without any idea of how to make such a thing happen.
Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 28 2020 13:41 utc | 55
Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 28 2020 13:41 utc | 55
DNC or the left can sabotage Trump and his administration because they already well entrenched not because deep state favored them. Now that Trump and Republicans seems to be successful in installing their own pick at the high offices i do think Biden presidency being sabotaged back is possible.
Posted by: Lucci | Oct 28 2020 14:05 utc | 57
If Republicans see an opportunity to delegitimise Biden, I think they will take it. Of course, the Big Media will ignore corruption - until they can't. Kamala has already said Coney isn't legit. Partisanship above all else.
The funniest thing about a Biden victory will be social justice "comedians" falling over a cliff - not having a simple Trump punching bag to riff off of. What will Colbert, Samantha B. and Amber Ruffin have to bore us about? It's going to be dull, dull, dull...
Posted by: Eighthman | Oct 28 2020 14:31 utc | 58
Lucci @57
The Dims and Repugs are both on the same team. The only reason they all freaked out over Trump's win in 2016 is because Trump was clearly deliberately selected to play the foil against Clinton and make her look good in comparison. Everyone, including Republicans, and even Trump himself, expected Trump to lose. Trump's upset victory cracked the establishment's confidence in their ability to control election outcomes. It also shook their confidence in their understanding of what was going on in the heads of the American people. They couldn't accept that a political toddler could beat seasoned professionals at their own game, and they still cannot accept that the American people might have minds of their own and hate being manipulated, so much so that they will intentionally vote for a candidate that they know they are not supposed to vote for.
Biden's election will return things to predictability for the establishment, so they won't attack him.
Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 28 2020 14:47 utc | 59
@53 Christian Chuba
Yes, wasn't it? And believe me, didn't hear another word either from that "reporter" or that she was linked into the Atlantic Council nor anything more about that "Solidarity Fund" (essentially buying off those workers willing to "strike"). The Beeb probably realized they'd let a little too much out of the bag...
Posted by: Anne | Oct 28 2020 14:47 utc | 60
@karlof1:
Kyrgyzstan was not omitted as Pepe Escobar explains in his latest article, the very effective Russian counter coup immediately neutralized US's plans and NGO:s and US even admitted defeat. The western hipster revolution in Belarus will run out of steam and even Pashniyans velvet revolution in Armenia will eventually be rolled back since Armenians discovered that the only reason they still exist and are not yet fully exterminated by a Turkish final solution, is Russia, not the Kardashians and not their American puppet masters who hasn't lifted a finger for them.
Posted by: Mia | Oct 28 2020 15:21 utc | 61
Hoyeru @ 14
Remember what Reagan said: yeah, he is SOB but he is OUR SOB.
Reagan? "He [Somoza] may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." Franklin D. Roosevelt, About Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza.
Posted by: Lawrence Miller | Oct 28 2020 17:34 utc | 62
Mia #61
Armenians might consider the benefit of Lukashenko. Father Armenian. Mother Russian. Perhaps solidarity is a worthy factor to bear in mind.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Oct 28 2020 17:34 utc | 63
Sort of rich that the sort of color revolution that Poland has so gleefully inflicted upon its neighbors is now finding its way to Poland.
Posted by: Feral Finster | Oct 28 2020 18:14 utc | 65
May be the coup in Belarus has to wait a bit due the unexpected resistance by the strong man in Minsk.
Next station in Georgia where, as the party and head of government is a different one from the one selected in Washington, preparations for contesting an adverse result b ythe Saakashvilli party have been called....
This is the same who has happened to Pashynian, that the current government in Georgia, in spite of not being what anyone would call a russophile one, it seems is not russophobic enough for the current Trump adminsitration after started considering that, after all, there is not a good future prospect passing all day giving the battle to the neighbor next door, more than anything when you live mainly from imports/exports/tourism/cultural exchanges with it...
The Georgians are cultivated people very loving of their mountainous beautiful piece of land...Only apatride thug nutcases like Saakashvili would sell their ocuntry into misery and slavery to achieve a result like that in the Ukraine, where the other day a job offer was published for Ukrianians to go Poland to bury Covid-19 corpses a destajo for a ridiculous pay and in case they got contamined they will be fired...
Attention to the last day of October...it seems that the Trump administration need a new coup to present their masters so that be allowed to remain, or at least certain people in that administration ( Thinking of Pompeo here..) need a coup to gain merits for next promotion post in case Trump loses...
I hope those strong people of the mountains in Georgia do not let being stolen the democracy which allegedly they gained after they were brainwashed to blame all the violence of the mafia gangs running scot-free after the fallen of the USSR on the Russians...
This tiem, it will be obvious, even for those who were raised totally brainwashed, where the violence came, and always come from...
Liked a lot this sober and honest people...Esa resistencia Georgiana, que no se diga!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR2C9hHAVds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h64VT8sbJVw
Kavkaz rise up!...the looters are coming...again...
Posted by: H.Schmatz | Oct 28 2020 19:48 utc | 66
Spanish Ambassador to Venezuela, Jesus Silva, to be expelled from Venezuela next week
This is the right thing to do by a soveregin nation with those who, far from limiting their diplomatic role to look for Spanish comercial interest in Venezuela, dedicate themselves to participate in illegal political meddling favoring coupist opposition bought by Us interests.
Recall here that this ambassadr was appointed by former government of the PP party, of the far-right and was not changed after the coalition government of the PSOE/UP took over.
Recall also that Leopoldo Lopez´father is a deputy for the Spanish PP party in the Euroèan parliament in spite of being a Venezuelan citizen...
This organized escape of Leopoldo Lopez from the Spanish embassy in Caracas has been organized by the reactionary forces in Spain who are allied to put sticks on the weels of the current Spanish government trying to organize that spectacular socio-economic crisis originated by the pandemic which has hit Spain so hard.
This happens after the censure motion rised by extrem far-right party Vox ( which has its origins in scissions from the PP party...)failed, after it was not supported by any other formation in parliament.
The escape of Leopoldo Lopez was just another intent on distracting the government from its hard duties to aleviate the pandemic effects onm the Spanish population, and to try muddy diplomatic relations with Venezuela where Spain has a lot of interests...
These are intends by the Spanish PP party of continuing impossing the foreign policy they at their time are dictated from Washington on the current government of coalition.
The current Spanish government should have a say in all this affair.
Posted by: H.Schmatz | Oct 28 2020 20:23 utc | 67
Geoff Chambers 49
I watched the Vid and took a look at the mostly negativee opinions voiced by the commenters on Guaidoska.
Posted by: CarlD | Oct 28 2020 23:34 utc | 68
The endgame in Belarus is in view: M. K. BHADRAKUMAR
Massive protests in Minsk after lull of few weeks, Oct 25, 2020
After a lull of the past 3-4 weekends, the anti-government protests in Minsk, Belarus, roared back to life today. This comes in the wake of three things.
One, there are some incipient signs that Moscow feels frustrated with the Belarus strongman President Alexander Lukashenko for retracting on the assurances he gave to President Vladimir Putin at their meeting in Sochi on September 14 to the effect that he would initiate constitutional reform and an inclusive political process, and thereafter hold fresh elections and accept a democratic verdict.
Two, a phone call by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Lukashenka on October 23 has boosted the morale of the Belarus opposition.
Three, the opposition candidate in the last election in August and the self-proclaimed “national leader” of Belarus Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has given call for nation-wide strikes w.e.f October 26, which has introduced an air of imminent apotheosis, real or surreal.
At a public event in Moscow on October 22, Putin dwelt generally on Russia’s predicament in the “post-Soviet space” seemingly with a sense of despondency and resignation. With an eye on Belarus, he lamented that the “community of interests” that bind the former Soviet republics is not sufficiently appreciated. As he put it, “a common infrastructure, common transport and energy system and a common language that unites rather than divides us, etc., is our distinct competitive advantage.”
Putin spotlighted how the colour revolution in Ukraine destroyed a country, which used to be “perhaps the most industrialised Soviet republic, not just one of them.” Putin said, “Read the statistics published by the Ukrainian statistical services: shrinking production, as if they had more than one pandemic. Some of the local industries, ones the entire Soviet Union and Ukraine itself were proud of – the aircraft industry, shipbuilding, rocket building – developed by generations of Soviet people, from all Soviet republics, a legacy Ukraine, too, could and should be proud of – are almost gone. Ukraine is being de-industrialised.”
In direct reference to the Belarus situation, Putin signalled that Russia has no intention to interfere in that country. He suggested that the West should also allow the Belarusian people “the opportunity to calmly handle their situation and make appropriate decisions.”
“The decisions they will make could pave the way for amending the country’s Constitution or adopting a new Constitution… nothing introduced from the outside without taking into account the peculiarities, culture and history of the people will ever work for that culture, those people,” he said.
On the face of it, this may be seen as a dramatic turnaround from the earlier Russian stance signalling that Moscow was determined to keep Belarus within the Russian orbit no matter what it takes.
The Russian media reported last week that the intelligence chief Sergey Naryshkin was in Minsk on an unannounced visit. According to the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper, Lukashenka has become “too toxic” for the Kremlin, which is therefore pressing for constitutional reform and a probable successor in Minsk.
Pompeo’s call to Lukashenko the very next day suggests that Washington is testing the water. Washington is unsure sure whether: a) the Kremlin is waging a ‘psywar’ with Lukashenko to make him amenable to Russian demands; b) whether Russia could be veering round to accepting as fait accompli a regime change in Belarus and the emergence of a pro-western successor regime in Minsk; or, c) whether Moscow and Minsk are only staging an elaborate charade to hoodwink the US.
Of course, the likelihood is that all three above possibilities exist in a situation that is characterised by such abysmal lack of transparency all round. The chances of Pompeo taking up Putin’s offer to jointly promote an orderly democratic transition in Belarus must be altogether discounted in the current climate of US-Russia relations. Nor can Moscow expect a receptive European Union audience.
On the other hand, the fact that the weekend protests in Minsk have been energised would indicate that Washington is pushing ahead full-throttle with the colour revolution.
Indeed, if Tikhanovskaya’s strike call marshals significant support tomorrow from the workers in the Belarusian state-run industrial plants, it could be a turning point. The state controls 80 percent of Belarus’ command economy, and if the chain of command weakens, flood gates will be opened.
On the contrary, if the strike call flops, it will mean sudden death for the opposition protests which will be exposed as lacking mass support. The next week’s swing of the pendulum can be crucial for the endgame in Belarus. The odds appear to be still in favour of Lukashenko. Possibly, Moscow is also betting on that.
https://indianpunchline.com/the-endgame-in-belarus-is-in-view/
Posted by: daffyDuct | Oct 29 2020 1:02 utc | 69
@ 69
Putin can't keep playing both sides of the fence for much longer. He's going to have to choose and commit. He keeps up this fecklessness and his yearning to appease the US and soon it'll be time for another color revolution attempt in Russia itself.
At least the moment is not immediately at hand - contrary to the wishful thinking in that article, everything I've read says this "general strike" was a complete flop.
daffyDuct | Oct 29 2020 1:02 utc | 69: "...if the strike call flops, it will mean sudden death for the opposition protests which will be exposed as lacking mass support."
Well, the strike call flopped miserably.
As for the friction between Russia and Belarus, that is because Russia tried to go neoliberal and still holds onto the fantasy that they can make it work, while Belarus never fell for that western brainwashing. Capitalism and communism are fundamentally in conflict. One or the other must be boss, but they cannot peacefully coexist as equals. Thus Putin's frustration that Belarus refuses "an inclusive political process". This is just a euphemism for bourgeois democracy, which always massively favors the wealthy elites. Without this "inclusive political process" then Russian oligarchs would not be able to dominate Belarus politics. Of course, neither would western oligarchs, but I suspect that isn't part of Putin's present concern. Putin wants confederation with Belarus, but clearly with Belarus being the subordinate "partner".
Posted by: William Gruff | Oct 29 2020 14:42 utc | 71
Posted by: Russ | Oct 29 2020 9:12 utc | 70
Bhadrakumar has a very careful rhetoric, and it is not my impression that he "hoped" for the success of industrial actions. For all that, he observes from another subcontinent and his understanding is limited.
There exists some geo-political game there, but the idea of possible deals of superpowers is a mental construct of the author with scant support in reality. There is zero trust -- Ukrainian experience shows that trusting the West is a folly, Putin is intelligent, and Lukashenko, while not brilliant, is not stupid.
About Putin "playing both sides". There is no groundswell sentiment in Belarus to be fully joined with Russia. Neither there is a sentiment in Russia to subsidize Belarus to solve problems there. And there is some degree of dependency on EU position, with EU and NATO having something to loose if Belarus gets the same treatment as Venezuela. For all protestations, in EU and USA, status quo seems the best solution, so if Putin and Lukashenko play their respective hands carefully, it will settle on that.
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Oct 29 2020 14:46 utc | 72
Piotr Berman | Oct 29 2020 14:46 utc | 72
Bhadrakumar has a very careful rhetoric, and it is not my impression that he "hoped" for the success of industrial actions.
I'm not very familiar with him, but the more careful he's supposed to be, the more it sounds like he was touting regime change.
It's my perception that to forecast "massive protests" in one's headline which have "roared back to life" before they've even begun sure sounds like propaganda. Then there follows the depiction of Putin as basically seconding the pro-EU gilded youth "protestors" and expressing color-revolutionary rhetoric.
That Putin, it is said, "feels frustrated with the Belarus strongman President Alexander Lukashenko for retracting on the assurances he gave to President Vladimir Putin at their meeting in Sochi on September 14 to the effect that he would initiate constitutional reform and an inclusive political process, and thereafter hold fresh elections and accept a democratic verdict...Lukashenka has become “too toxic” for the Kremlin, which is therefore pressing for constitutional reform and a probable successor in Minsk" sounds like pro-regime change rigmarole.
"On the face of it, this may be seen as a dramatic turnaround from the earlier Russian stance signaling that Moscow was determined to keep Belarus within the Russian orbit no matter what it takes."
It does indeed sound like that.
Only at the very end does Bhadrakumar mention that the strikes hadn't yet begun and the possibility that they could flop.
Under these circumstances of extreme propaganda everywhere, one would need to be far more careful in their rhetoric than this piece was if one is trying not to abet the propaganda.
There is no groundswell sentiment in Belarus to be fully joined with Russia. Neither there is a sentiment in Russia to subsidize Belarus to solve problems there.
No full joining needs to happen unless the US-EU-NATO aggression makes any alternative untenable, but Russia's interest can't allow regime change. Yet according to this piece Putin's acting as if he can take Lukashenko or leave him. When one couples that with his idiotic and totally gratuitous pro-Biden remarks (appeasement never works, and if a Biden presidency were to happen, no amount of kissing his ass on Putin's part will spare Russia continued and likely stepped-up US aggression; Putin sounds as stupid and craven as Corbyn there), the picture emerges of a beta wolf exposing his throat to the alpha. I know that's always supposed to be 11-dimensional chess and all, but according to the history I've long studied, such appeasement attempts accomplish nothing but to encourage aggressors.
The comments to this entry are closed.
They can't spare some changes to entice the workers like they did in Hong Kong ?
Posted by: Lucci | Oct 27 2020 14:46 utc | 1