^ This.
Marina Ovsyannikova: Russian journalist tells of 14-hour interrogation (BBC)
Has she got off lightly there or will she be sent to the gulag?
I find it odd that someone in the control room didn’t cut the feed as soon as she was anywhere near a camera. That she was able make the protest makes me think that at least some in the control room allowed her to.
They cut it quite quick. Today I read that now news feed is translated with 30 sec delay.I find it odd that someone in the control room didn’t cut the feed as soon as she was anywhere near a camera. That she was able make the protest makes me think that at least some in the control room allowed her to.
Demanding moral consistency and holding the US to the same standards as other nations dilutes nothing. We should defend liberal values and call out their betrayal, whenever it occurs.Fair points. And I should perhaps have stated that I am not completely convinced by his argument. I suspect his "mainstream figures" is very relative and he is talking about people like Bastani rather than Op Eds in The Times or BBC reporting. But I do agree with him to some extent that people seem so hung up on the US as The Great Evil that it dilutes their take on Russia, Putin and Ukraine.
Demanding moral consistency and holding the US to the same standards as other nations dilutes nothing. We should defend liberal values and call out their betrayal, whenever it occurs.
Absolutely. Remarkably, there has been somewhat of a resurgence of Stalinism on the British left (pejoratively referred to as ‘tankies’). These are the same people who held up Assad, Gadaffi, and even Kim Jong Un as glorious anti-imperialists standing up to US aggression. It’s the ‘my enemy’s enemy is my friend’ line. It’s complete b*llshit and anyone peddling it deserves all they get.
But the witch-hunt against those elements of the left that have been consistently critical of both Russia and NATO is quite striking. You’re immediately labelled a Putin apologist. And elements of the left are capitulating, not least the Labour signatories who all withdrew their names from the statement following Starmer’s Orwellian insistence to follow the party line. It reminds me of, for example Christopher Hitchens, dropping all criticism of US foreign policy in the wake of 9/11.
..and to show her who’s boss.I doubt the 14 hour interrogation was asking whether or not she did it, it was about who else was in on it.
You can take reassurance that the transgressions are universal. US+ U.K. invade and kill huge numbers of Iraqi civilians on a bogus pretext of self defence, in much the same way Putin is doing now.i agree but I feel that there is a time and place for critical self examination and now is not the time because it tends to cause division and loss of focus on the problem at hand.
discussions around what NATO did wrong and the historical transgressions of our own governments should be temporarily put on hold while we deal with the present situation.
Hitler used the highly ideologically committed SA to smash the left. Then, once this was achieved, he liquidated them in The Night Of The Long Knives, leaving the SS as the ideological core of Nazism and the Gestapo as its ruthless enforcer. The Gestapo and the SS were completely ideologically devoted to both the third Reich and The Fuhrer, ensuring unquestioning loyalty.
It’s going to get interesting when they meet up with comrades in arms from the Azov brigade then come face to face with the beheaders from Chechnya and the scared Syrians.If this is true then things are looking rough for Russian troops.
Demanding moral consistency and holding the US to the same standards as other nations dilutes nothing.
You’re immediately labelled a Putin apologist
We'll have to agree to disagree, Matthew. I see very little consistent condemnation of US crimes among liberal pundits. If there were, Tony Blair would have been driven from public life years ago, and we wouldn't have to watch Alistair Campbell on breakfast TV every morning. In the US, GW Bush is treated as a respectable elder statesman. These people have the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians on their hands, yet they have faced zero consequences in the long run. Meanwhile, Assange, the man who exposed US war crimes is being deported to face trial. It stinks.I agree moral consistency is the point and I don't see anyone not holding the US to the same standards, excepting those who never did anyway. Although Russia & Ukraine is not even a slightly nuanced situation and there is a very (very!) clear moral good and moral wrong and any hesitancy, qualification or whataboutism doesn't sit well with me.
The point of being an anti-fascist and anti-imperialist is to respond to the clear and present danger of a literal imperialist, fascist war not to remind everyone of the past US sins or get all "but her emails" about it. This is even more true when a lot of the criticism of, say, NATO echoes the propaganda and justification being used by the fascist imperial aggressors. There's nothing to keep one's powder dry for here, this is literally it.
Selective memory, I'm afraid, Matthew. Here's the response when I posted a perfectly reasonable (and nuanced) interview with Anatol Lieven:I don't think I have come across a single Putin apologist and not sure they exist outside of actual pro-Putin circles. His position is not exactly a popular one!
Nor, FWIW, have I come across anyone accusing people of being Putin apologists and certainly not in an unequivocal "labelled" manner. It seems to me like people fighting imaginary demons here.
We'll have to agree to disagree, Matthew. I see very little consistent condemnation of US crimes among liberal pundits. If there were, Tony Blair would have been driven from public life years ago, and we wouldn't have to watch Alistair Campbell on breakfast TV every morning. In the US, GW Bush is treated as a respectable elder statesman. These people have the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians on their hands, yet they have faced zero consequences in the long run. Meanwhile, Assange, the man who exposed US war crimes is being deported to face trial. It stinks.
As for the timing... sure, US crimes are not the immediate priority. But, unless I'm mistaken, this is a discussion forum and no-one here has any direct influence over what happens next in Ukraine. No harm in letting the discussion range far and freely in my view. It would get pretty effin' dull if every post was simply a variation on the "Putin is a murderous authoritarian shit" theme.
i agree but I feel that there is a time and place for critical self examination and now is not the time because it tends to cause division and loss of focus on the problem at hand.
discussions around what NATO did wrong and the historical transgressions of our own governments should be temporarily put on hold while we deal with the present situation.