Tariq Ali: How Vladimir Putin became evil. The US & UK condemn him for Crimea but supported him...

[nationalize the fed]

How Vladimir Putin became evil

The US and UK condemn him for Crimea but supported him over the war in Chechnya. Why? Because now he refuses to play ball

Tariq Ali The Guardian, Friday 28 March 2014


Vladimir Putin. Photograph: Ria Novosti/Reuters

Once again, it seems that Russia and the United States are finding it difficult to agree on how to deal with their respective ambitions. This clash of interests is highlighted by the Ukrainian crisis. The provocation in this particular instance, as the leaked recording of a US diplomat, Victoria Nuland, saying "Fuck the EU" suggests, came from Washington.

Several decades ago, at the height of the cold war, George Kennan, a leading American foreign policy strategist invited to give the Reith Lectures, informed his audience: "There is, let me assure you, nothing in nature more egocentric than embattled democracy. It soon becomes the victim of its own propaganda. It then tends to attach to its own cause an absolute value which distorts its own vision … Its enemy becomes the embodiment of all evil. Its own side is the centre of all virtue."

And so it continues. Washington knows that Ukraine has always been a delicate issue for Moscow. The ultra-nationalists who fought with the Third Reich during the second world war killed 30,000 Russian soldiers and communists. They were still conducting a covert war with CIA backing as late as 1951. Pavel Sudoplatov, a Soviet intelligence chief, wrote in 1994: "The origins of the cold war are closely interwoven with western support for nationalist unrest in the Baltic areas and western Ukraine."

When Gorbachev agreed the deal on German reunification, the cornerstone of which was that united Germany could remain in Nato, US secretary of state Baker assured him that "there would be no extension of Nato's jurisdiction one inch to the east". Gorbachev repeated: "Any extension of the zone of Nato is unacceptable." Baker's response: "I agree." One reason Gorbachev has publicly supported Putin on the Crimea is that his trust in the west was so cruelly betrayed...more

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/28/why-putin-crimea-strategy-west-villain



Tariq Ali has been a leading figure of the international left since the 60s. He has been writing for the Guardian since the 70s. He is a long-standing editor of the New Left Review and a political commentator published on every continent. His books include The Duel: Pakistan on the Flightpath of American Power, and The Obama Syndrome

[cheapdate]

1. Tariq Ali may occasionally have an interesting perspective

and some unique insights and observations but more often than not his claims and analysis are wildly overblown and his arguments absurdly distorted. Vladimir Putin himself is primarily responsible for his own personality, character, and decisions. Ali's attempt to absolve Putin of any personal responsibility for his actions or to pretend as though Putin is a powerless actor without any agency of his own is unrealistic and really an insult to Putin.

[nationalize the fed]

3. "wildly overblown and his arguments absurdly distorted."

Wildly...Absurdly. Well that's one opinion.

Many of the comments at the Guardian -at least on world affairs- are more sophisticated and knowledgeable than those usually found on US Centric websites. Just an observation. Perhaps it's the UK School system. Or the mass transit. Who knows.

For example:

He Cheats? Let's not forget that the Russian economy is the way it is because of Ronald Reagan, Goldman Saches and the IMF not supporting the measures that Gorbachev asked for so there could be a smoother transition from the centralised communist system to a freer market.

What they did instead was try to implement milton friedman deeply flawed free market ideology which resulted in a massive un controlled free for all that produced all these oligarchs we love to talk about.

So once again gross hypocrisy and a white wash of the truth, a bit like Obama's comments about the referendum in Kosovo that never happened
AvidMerion

[cheapdate]

8. Yes, "wildly overblown" and "absurdly distorted"

Last edited Sat Mar 29, 2014, 08:13 PM - Edit history (1)

are indeed opinions like any other. I'm sure at the least we could agree that Ali typically writes from a singular editorial perspective.

I'm an avid of Noam Chomsky (a product of the U.S. school system). He writes from a similar perspective with equal passion and tenacity. My enjoyment of his writing and perspective doesn't mean that I always follow his arguments for the malfeasance and perfidy of the United States government to their each and every sinister and sordid conclusion.

Now, AvidMerion presents another argument that places no blame or responsibility for the reckless and dysfunctional state of the Russian economy on any person or institution inside Russia, but rather places all of the blame and responsibility on outsiders.

Listen, fuck Ronald Reagan and Goldman Sachs and the IMF. But lets not forget a big "fuck you" for Vladimir Putin. He richly deserves it.

[MADem]

6. What a polite argument. Right on the mark about VP, too.

He's about as "powerless" as any old dictator-President for life-strongman.

It's not even the image he aggressively projects, as we've seen down the years.

[Catherina]

2. Thanks for sharing that excellent article

"The Crimean affair led to barely any loss of life, and the population clearly wanted to be part of Russia. The White House's reaction has been the opposite of its reaction to Chechnya. Why? Because Putin, unlike Yeltsin, is refusing to play ball any more on the things that matter such as Nato expansion, sanctions on Iran, Syria etc. As a result, he has become evil incarnate."

^^ This ^^ Tariq Ali can always be counted on to point to the truth of the matter clearly.


"War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."
~ General Smedley Butler

[DavidDvorkin]

4. Putin has been evil from the start

He didn't need any help from the US and UK.

[malaise]

5. Too many folks don't even know the promises made to Gorbachev

Good read.

[snappyturtle]

9. If you're interested, I posted just below you, here's an article on

how the whole 'promise' that NATO wouldn't expand after the German reunification.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nato-s-eastward-expansion-did-the-west-break-its-promise-to-moscow-a-663315.html

[malaise]

11. Thanks snappyturtle

[snappyturtle]

14. Oh you're so welcome malaise!

[snappyturtle]

7. Thank you, thank you! Excellent article. I used to see Tariq Ali on the tube

occassionally when I was still watching it. Always so informative. He's a voice to listen to....very wise in my book. K&R

If the US insists on using the Nato magnet to attract the Ukraine, it is likely that Moscow will detach the eastern part of the country. Those who really value Ukrainian sovereignty should opt for real independence and a positive neutrality: neither a plaything of the west nor Moscow.

Also was happy to read about James Baker's part in the NATO 'talks' during the German reunification. I posted it earlier from a der Speigel online article.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nato-s-eastward-expansion-did-the-west-break-its-promise-to-moscow-a-663315.html

[Doctor_J]

10. Noriega, Saddam, Vlad

lather, rinse, repeat

[malaise]

12. Ask Mugabe about the promises made to him by the British and Americans

Moral of the story - imperialists are imperialists

[leftstreet]

13. DURec

Thanks for posting this