U.S. Takes Welcomed Step in Imposing Tougher Sanctions against Russia

[Jefferson23]

Washington
July 16, 2014

In response to the United States imposing new economic sanctions against Russia in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine, Freedom House issued the following statement:

“Having called on the Obama administration for several months to show leadership in pushing back against Russian President Vladimir Putin for his ongoing aggression against Ukraine, Freedom House welcomes today's announcement of new, tougher U.S. sanctions targeting Russian banks and energy companies,” said David J. Kramer, president of Freedom House. “Putin needs to know that there are real consequences for his actions. Gazprom should be added to the list of sanctioned companies since it has cut off energy supplies to Ukraine. While we welcome the EU’s decision to limit Russia’s access to EU financing, we urge the Europeans to follow the U.S. and impose sanctions on key companies.”

Russia is rated Not Free in Freedom in the World 2014 and Freedom of the Press 2014, and Partly Free in Freedom on the Net 2013.

http://freedomhouse.org/article/us-takes-welcomed-step-imposing-tougher-sanctions-against-russia#.U8chsrFA2zI

[edgineered]

1. Trying to figure out

why European countries would benefit from sanctions against Gazprom if Gazprom supplies them? Am I missing something here or am I misinformed about Gazprom supplying the Europeans?

[Jefferson23]

2. You're not missing anything, Freedom House is. The two Russian energy firms that are being

targeted are Novatek and Rosneft. This human rights group is hoping for Gazprom, but they're
not addressing why that is likely not to ever happen...they just want it.

[edgineered]

3. Many thanks. nt

[Jefferson23]

4. You're most welcome. n/t

[arendt]

5. Everyone from far right to far left thinks FH is just another CIA front.

The Financial Times has reported that Freedom House is one of several organizations selected by the State Department to receive funding for 'clandestine activities' inside Iran.[29] In a research study, with Ackerman acting as chief adviser, Freedom House sets out its conclusions: "Far more often than is generally understood, the change agent is broad-based, non-violent civic resistance - which employs tactics such as boycotts, mass protests, blockades, strikes and civil disobedience to de-legitimate authoritarian rulers and erode their sources of support, including the loyalty of their armed defenders."[29]

On June 8, 2006, the vice-chairman of Freedom House's board of trustees[30] asked the U.S. Senate to increase the share of NGO funding aimed at helping support non-violent foreign democratic activists organize for potential overthrows of their non-democratic governments. Palmer argued in favor of shifting funding away from NGOs working in already democratic nations to fund this effort.[31]

...

Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman have criticized the organization for excessively criticizing states opposed to US interests while being unduly sympathetic to regimes supportive of US interests.[36] According to Chomsky and Herman, Freedom House described the Rhodesian general election of 1979 as "fair" but found the Southern Rhodesian 1980 elections as "dubious".[36] They said that Freedom House found El Salvador's 1982 election to be "admirable".[36]

...

Craig Murray, the British ambassador to Uzbekistan from 2002 to 2004, wrote that the executive director of Freedom House told him in 2003 that the group decided to back off from its efforts to spotlight human rights abuses in Uzbekistan, because some Republican board members (in Murray’s words) "expressed concern that Freedom House was failing to keep in sight the need to promote freedom in the widest sense, by giving full support to U.S. and coalition forces". Human rights abuses in Uzbekistan at the time included treatment of prisoners who were killed by "immersion in boiling liquid," and by strapping on a gas mask and blocking the filters, Murray reported.[37]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_house

Of course they issue propaganda in support of a regime that they were instrumental in establishing by overthrowing the legitimate government.

Russia is rated Not Free in Freedom in the World 2014 and Freedom of the Press 2014, and Partly Free in Freedom on the Net 2013.

What complete hypocrisy. FWIW, Freedom House is rated as a spook-supported, US government funded destabilization operation.

[Jefferson23]

7. I know their reputation, they've been around a long time. But tell me, Freedom House was

instrumental in establishing what? You: Of course they issue propaganda in support of a regime that they were instrumental in establishing by overthrowing the legitimate government.


They were instrumental is overthrowing Ukraine?

On another note, are you aware that Russian dissenters of Putin would not agree that their freedom rating is incorrect?

I am aware that Chomsky has referred to them in the past as Horror House..lol. That was awhile ago.

[arendt]

8. FH didn't hand out cookies, like Vikki Nuland. But the FH pres is a PNACer.

As President of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, Williams has access to Council cohort — David Kramer, President of Freedom House. Officially a non-governmental organization, it has been linked with overt and covert “democracy” efforts in places where the door isn’t open to American interests — a.k.a. U.S. corporations.

Freedom House, the National Endowment for Democracy and National Democratic Institute helped fund and support the Ukrainian “Orange Revolution” in 2004. Freedom House is funded directly by the U.S. Government, the National Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Department of State.

David Kramer is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs and, according to his Freedom House bio page, formerly a “Senior Fellow at the Project for the New American Century.”

Nuland’s Role

That puts Kramer and, by one degree of separation, Big Ag fixer Morgan Williams in the company of PNAC co-founder Robert Kagan who, as coincidence would have it, is married to Victoria “F*ck the EU” Nuland, the current Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.

http://consortiumnews.com/2014/03/16/corporate-interests-behind-ukraine-putsch/

FH is just another spook shop, and spooks don't go around telling the public exactly how they hired, coached, and supported the armed Right Sector gangs that hijacked the peaceful demonstrations and turned them into a violent coup.

Its all about Plausible Deniability - to the American public. The rest of the world knows our M.O. by now.

[Jefferson23]

11. Yes, I know about Ms Nuland..thanks. n/t

[delrem]

6. I also like how Freedom House took a leading role

in pushing sanctions against the US for its 2003 war of choice in Iraq.

http://www.freedomhouse.org/article/freedom-house-statement-iraq-war#.U8c5YfldX9M

Because like you, I'm just SO sick of hypocrites and war-mongering double-talkers.

It's good to see wiki records no controversies with respect the impartiality of Freedom House. Esp. w.r.t. Ukraine. Heh, as if there could be! It's called "Freedom House" after all, not "Russian Dictatorship House"!

Also, I'm pleased to say that I've come to agree that Victoria Nuland has NO influence on US policy w.r.t. Ukraine, and she has NO connection with PNAC anyway, and everything is just fine, operating as smooth as silk. There was no viable argument sustaining that conclusion, but I concluded it anyway because I heard it on DU.

Don't worry. Be Happy.

[Jefferson23]

9. They absolutely have supported US policies like Iraq, awful stuff. They have been around

a very long time....some of their work has been excellent. I appreciate what they have done
to try and get refugees out of Syria, and they have reeled in some of their hawkish
pandering.

You and I have a disagreement regarding Ukraine..I will leave it there, delrem.

[delrem]

10. Their statement on Iraq 2003 read like a US State Dep't release.

It hit EVERY US propaganda meme.

I think it's just great stuff, so I hang on every word they have to say about upping "sanctions" on Russia because of Ukraine. They're real thinkers, they are.

[Jefferson23]

12. Tell you what, toss them out, all together. What other ranking does Russia have with human

rights groups you hold in high regard?

[delrem]

13. I read info from all sources, trying to be somewhat aware of bias.

This is esp. so w.r.t. matters of war.

I'm feeling sick, right now. Of DU. Of the USA.
Sick of the war-mongering jingoist hate hiding behind partisan bickering, always coalescing around targets of choice (Iraq, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, Syria, Venezuela, Bolivia, Palestine, .... and on and on and on).

Sorry I can't satisfy your hunger.

[Jefferson23]

14. I know you believe the US was involved in a coup and we disagree. I was trying to focus

on the human rights aspect of Russians, since you did not feel Freedom House was reliable,
I asked if you would pick a group you trust, see how they rank Russia's freedom of the press, etc.

I have no idea what hunger you imagine I have for war.

[delrem]

15. As in your reply to arendt, you are willfully blind.

You are in full scale active denial of every fact put in front of you, and you demand satisfaction from me?
You demand I pull some exhoneration/sanctification of Russia out of my ass for you, as if that were the issue, after you've acted like this in our conversations - as if that were the topic.

Fuck that, Jefferson23.

[Jefferson23]

16. No, I am full scale disagreement with you. I am not demanding anything. I asked you a question and

the previous poster dismissed or seemed to me to dismiss everything Freedom House had to say
about Russia's ranking.

There is no way to exonerate Russia on their human rights abuses, whether they ever
annexed Crimea or not..Ukraine is an issue we do not agree. I had thought we would
agree on Russia's standing..my mistake.

[delrem]

17. arendt pointed out some facts.

Facts showing a link between Freedom House and the US State Dep't, and the CIA. And not just coincidentally, with PNAC.

That's all that poster did. You dismissed it - wiped it like dandruff from your shoulders - as if inconsequential.

This is your OP, justifying and exalting US sanctions. It isn't my OP, justifying and exalting Russia. So NO SIR, I can't satisfy your hunger because it isn't me who's pretending.

There is no way to exonerate the USA on their human rights abuses, whether they destroyed Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and on and on and on, or not. So NO SIR. I don't agree with you when you stand with the the USA/PNAC in full self-righteousness mode, applauding "sanctions", pretending to be saints.

gag.

[Jefferson23]

18. That would be all fine and good, but there exists NO conclusive anything that establishes

a coup as you claim. We have been down this road before and the associations are meaningless
because they don't add up.

I did not know one should not point out another countries abuses until ours are all cleared up.
I always perceived fair criticism as standing in solidarity with those who are taken advantage of by
their state...but what do I know.

One last time on Nuland:

This is just conspiracy theory stuff. If you watch the video she doesn't say "subvert" she says the $5 billion is for pro-democracy stuff. It's totally true that "pro-democracy" funding from the US usually means something terrible in Latin America, Southeast Asia, etc., but it's just not relevant for Ukraine. These people (and Democracy Now makes the same mistake) just see US influence abroad and call it subversion even though they have no idea of the subject that they're talking about. Of course the US wants Ukraine to be a democracy but it doesn't use the same horrible tactics there like it does in Latin America. One article said "the US project to tear Ukraine away from its historic relationship with Russia and into the US sphere of interest (via “Europe”)" as if Ukraine has not been trying to do that itself. Plus the article basically takes the Russian point of view that Ukraine should continue it's historic relationship with Russia because...it's historic? What does that matter if Ukrainians are arguing they don't want it? That's why these people think that the US isn't going by what Ukrainian people want, but by what Victoria Nuland says she wants. It just feeds into their narrative that 100% of US foreign policy is bad.

[delrem]

19. So now, your fixes everything strawman.

A strawman having NOTHING to do with the ongoing discussion, but convenient to you nonetheless.

gag

PNACers! Sorry, you're going on ignore.

[Jefferson23]

20. You get so upset. A PNACer...if you stay long enough on DU I guess you can be

called anything. Alrighty then.