France - sadly not a friend of principle or truth

[Zenaan Harkness]

On 11/28/15, Endless <3ndless at riseup.net> wrote:

>>> I can only hope that future Russian presidents sustain such a level of
>>> integrity and
>>> commitment to national interests and his/her own people, as he does.
>>>
>
>> Me too, my friend. And it is very important to understand, that Putin is
>> not committed ONLY to the Russian's national interests, *but to the
>> interests of all the **(sane) people of the whole world.*
>
> Oh yes, considering that the citizens of South Ossetia, Abkhazia and
> Crimea are not Putin's own people.

"the citizens of ... Crimea are not Putin's own people" - this
position is too broad, and too unqualified to be factual or useful.

> Given Putin's partial invasion of Georgia and the Ukraine, it would be

"invasion" of Ukarine? Again, you'll need to qualify that assertion in
order to sustain it. For example, Russia protecting the safety of the
people in the running of a referendum in Crimea, without a shot fired
and without a single person killed by the so-called 'invasion', in an
area which is 80%+ Russian speaking, and where the majority of people
turned out to vote (in stressful circumstances) and where the vast
majority of those voting, voted to secede from Ukraine and reunite
with Russia - facilitating the expression of the will of the people is
an example of something we in the West might consider to be
democratic. I -wish- for such respect for the will of the people here
in Australia for example!

Yes accept that this referendum was in the economic and/ or military
interest of Russia, and that we are unlikely to see a repeat of such
an event. Still, it's a very classy thing for Russia to have done,
politically... and very far from an "invasion".

The elite in my home country Australia for example, are afraid of the
people. Last year one of our federal politicians used the
implementation of direct democracy as a threat. We have been disarmed
after Port Arthur. We are treated as sheep by our media.


> ludicrous to believe that he is acting in the interests of the Georgian
> and Ukrainian people.

It is ludicrous to conflate all Ukrainian, or all Geogian, people as
though they are homogeneous. Surely we can do better than this in our
discussion.


> Russia's actions, although in his eyes quite
> likely reflect an act of protection by Russia, are solely motivated by
> economic or military reasoning,

So we could say he is acting in the interests of Russia and the
Russian people, including certain Russians living outside of Russia
where used to be part of the USSR?


> furthering Russia's troublesome
> influence in an already unstable region.

Please. This is a generalised Western media created viewpoint. There
is no nuance, no specificity, just the steretypical "Russia bad" meme
("Russia's troublesome influence").

We can do better than this. For a start, let's not paper of Azov
battalion and the many faceted Nazi revival in what seems to be your
beloved/ beleaguered "Ukraine". For some first hand experiences, check
out the "little hiroshima" series of blog posts/ first hand eyewitness
reports from Ukraine.

Is it possible that, for a semblence of an "objective" "understanding"
of the situation in Ukraine, we might need to broaden our diet beyond
the Western media?

We can do better. For the sake of sanity, we MUST do better, or we
shall be hypocrites to our own higher ideals.


> It must be kept in mind that although Russia may have a tendency to cut
> through the grime that obscures Western policy making, Russia (and
> thereby Vladimir Putin) is not exempt from the corruption evident in
> today's world by cause of modern capitalist and nationalistic sentiment.

If you said "not exempt from the potential for corruption in his
ranks", then I could agree with you.

But when you make an allegation against an individual, in this case
Russia's president Vladimir Putin, that he is "not exempt from
corruption", then for a semblence of intellectual honesty, at least
ONE fact of his alleged corruption must be presented. Put up or shut
up!

(Note, I'm not saying he's not (I am not him, I don't know his mind
and every action), and I am saying I seriously doubt he is personally
corrupt (his words match his actions match his words), but
importantly, I am saying it is not useful to bandy around baseless
allegations - that is reducing our selves to the level of the Western
media, and not in our interest, and not in the interests of the
peoples of the world.)


> I truly hope that the belief that Putin is an "unambiguous and
> consistent friend to the truth" is but pure satire, intended to spark a
> lively debate.

Lively debate can be a good thing :)
Zenaan