Unsealed Documents Show FBI Blindly Hacked Computers in Russia, China and Iran

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Dateline: November 9th, 2017

The Daily Beast reported on newly unsealed documents that show the FBI blindly hacked into computers in Russia, China and Iran during a wide-ranging investigation that led to the bust of a global child pornography operation and the liberation of sexual abuse victims.

As the Daily Beast explains:

During a hacking operation in which U.S. authorities broke into thousands of computers around the world to investigate child pornography, the FBI hacked a number of targets in Russia, China, and Iran, The Daily Beast has learned.

The news signals the bold future of policing on the so-called dark web, where investigators are increasingly deploying malware without first knowing which country their suspect is located in. Legal experts and commentators say the approach of blindly kicking down digital doors in countries not allied with the U.S. could lead to geopolitical fallout.

The case centers around the FBI’s 2015 Operation Pacifier investigation into a website called Playpen. Playpen was a site on the dark web where pedophiles could share child pornography. So, when a foreign law-enforcement agency found Playpen’s administrators were running the site from the US, the FBI seized Playpen’s server. Instead of shutting the site down straight away, however, the FBI moved it to a government facility and kept Playpen operational for 13 days.

Court records show that the FBI repeatedly hacked into overseas computers as part of a domestic criminal investigation, including into countries often accused of launching cyberattacks against the US.

During this time, the Bureau deployed what it describes as a network investigative technique – a computer exploit and a piece of malware — to break into Playpen users’ computers and grab identifying information; most importantly, their IP address.

Armed with this, the FBI could subpoena internet service providers to reveal who had accessed Playpen. It’s a digital equivalent of an FBI squad picking the lock of a private residence, collecting evidence, and taking it back to headquarters.

In all, the FBI hacked over 8,000 computers in 120 countries, including across South America, Europe, and in the U.S. too. The operation led to hundreds of arrests, as well as the identification and rescue of hundreds of victims of child abuse, according to the FBI’s own figures.

However, something the FBI has kept quiet and has not previously been reported, is the Bureau also hacked computers in countries that have a particularly volatile relationship with the U.S, especially around issues of malicious hacking, “including Russia, Iran, and China,” according to a recently filed court record.

The FBI justifies these types of intrusions as necessary when foreign law enforcement is slow to cooperate or not receptive to the intelligence presented.

“Some foreign countries are very slow to act on the information that they receive because it has to go through official diplomatic channels,” FBI Special Agent Daniel Alfin said during testimony in a related case, without specifying the countries.

However, it’s unlikely Germany or the UK – let alone Russia or Iran – would readily excuse evidence of cyber intrusions by the US, should they discover it.

Top photo | A sign outside of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) offices in
Washington, DC.

In all, the FBI hacked over 8,000 computers in 120 countries, including across South America, Europe, and in the U.S. too. The operation led to hundreds of arrests, as well as the identification and rescue of hundreds of victims of child abuse, according to the FBI’s own figures. However, something the FBI has kept quiet and has not previously been reported, is the Bureau also hacked computers in countries that have a particularly volatile relationship with the U.S, especially around issues of malicious hacking, “including Russia, Iran, and China,” according to a recently filed court record.

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The Best Definition of Donald Trump We Have Found

In his zeal to prove to his antagonists in the War Party that he is as bloodthirsty as their champion, Hillary Clinton, and more manly than Barack Obama, Trump seems to have gone “play-crazy” -- acting like an unpredictable maniac in order to terrorize the Russians into forcing some kind of dramatic concessions from their Syrian allies, or risk Armageddon.However, the “play-crazy” gambit can only work when the leader is, in real life, a disciplined and intelligent actor, who knows precisely what actual boundaries must not be crossed. That ain’t Donald Trump -- a pitifully shallow and ill-disciplined man, emotionally handicapped by obscene privilege and cognitively crippled by white American chauvinism. By pushing Trump into a corner and demanding that he display his most bellicose self, or be ceaselessly mocked as a “puppet” and minion of Russia, a lesser power, the War Party and its media and clandestine services have created a perfect storm of mayhem that may consume us all.— Glen Ford, Editor in Chief, Black Agenda Report

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China and the US: Rational Planning and ‘Lumpen’ Capitalism1

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Introduction

US JOURNALISTS and commentators, politicians and Sinologists spend considerable time and space speculating on the personality of China’s President Xi Jinping and his appointments to the leading bodies of the Chinese government, as if these were the most important aspects of the entire 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (October 18-24, 2017)2.

Mired down in gossip, idle speculation and petty denigration of its leaders, the Western press has once again failed to take account of the world-historical changes which are currently taking place in China and throughout the world.

World historical changes, as articulated by Chinese President Xi Jinping, are present in the vision, strategy and program of the Congress. These are based on a rigorous survey of China’s past, present and future accomplishments.

Shamelessly and insanely, the US press pursues the expanding stories of raging Hollywood rapists like the powerful movie mogul, Harvey Weinstein, and the hundreds of victims, while ignoring the world historic news of China’s rapid economic advances. The US business elites are busy pushing their President and the US Congress to lower taxes for the billionaire elite, while 100 million US citizens remain without health care and register decreased life expectancy!

The serious purpose, projections and the presence of China’s President stand in stark contrast to the chaos, rabble-rousing demagogy and slanders characterizing the multi-billion dollar US Presidential campaign and its shameful aftermath.

The clarity and coherence of a deep strategic thinker like President Xi Jinping contrasts to the improvised, contradictory and incoherent utterances from the US President and Congress. This is not a matter of mere style but of substantive content.

We will proceed in the essay by contrasting the context, content and direction of the two political systems.

China: Strategic Thinking and Positive Outcomes

China, first and foremost, has established well-defined strategic guidelines that emphasize macro-socio-economic and military priorities over the next five, ten and twenty years.

China is committed to reducing pollution in all of its manifestations via the transformation of the economy from heavy industry to a high-tech service economy, moving from quantitative to qualitative indicators.

Secondly, China will increase the relative importance of the domestic market and reduce its dependence on exports. China will increase investments in health, education, public services, pensions and family allowances.

Thirdly, China plans to invest heavily in ten economic priority sectors. These include computerized machinery, robotics, energy saving vehicles, medical devices, aerospace technology, and maritime and rail transport. It targets three billion (US) dollars to upgrade technology in key industries, including electrical vehicles, energy saving technology, numerical control (digitalization) and several other areas. China plans to increase investment in research and development from .95% to 2% of GDP.

Moreover, China has already taken steps to launch the ‘petro-Yuan’, and end US global financial dominance.

China's modern cities have sprung up in less than a generation, announcing the arrival of a far more rational and vibrant socioeconomic system. (View of Tianjin).

China has emerged as the world’s leader in advancing global infrastructure networks with its One Belt One Road (Silk Road) across Eurasia. Chinese-built ports, airports and railroads already connect twenty Chinese cities to Central Asia, West Asia, South-East Asia, Africa and Europe. China has established a multi-lateral Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (with over 60 member nations) contributing 100 billion dollars for initial financing.

China has combined its revolution in data collection and analysis with central planning to conquer corruption and improve the efficiency in credit allocation. Beijing’s digital economy is now at the center of the global digital economy. According to one expert, “China is the world leader in payments made by mobile devices”, (11 times the US). One in three of the world’s start-ups, valued at more than $1 billion, take place in China (FT 10/28/17, p. 7). Digital technology has been harnessed to state-owned banks in order to evaluate credit risks and sharply reduce bad debt. This will ensure that financing is creating a new dynamic flexible model combining rational planning with entrepreneurial vigor (ibid).

As a result, the US/EU-controlled World Bank has lost its centrality in global financing. China is already Germany’s largest trading partner and is on its way to becoming Russia’s leading trade partner and sanctions-busting ally.

China has widened and expanded its trade missions throughout the globe, replacing the role of the US in Iran, Venezuela and Russia and wherever Washington has imposed belligerent sanctions.

While China has modernized its military defense programs and increased military spending, almost all of the focus is on ‘home defense’ and protection of maritime trade routes. China has not engaged in a single war in decades.

China’s system of central planning allows the government to allocate resources to the productive economy and to its high priority sectors. Under President Xi Jinping, China has created an investigation and judicial system leading to the arrest and prosecution of over a million corrupt officials in the public and private sector. High status is no protection from the government’s anti-corruption campaign: Over 150 Central Committee members and billionaire plutocrats have fallen. Equally important, China’s central control over capital flows (outward and inward) allows for the allocation of financial resources to high tech productive sectors while limiting the flight of capital or its diversion into the speculative economy.

As a result, China’s GNP has been growing between 6.5% - 6.9% a year - four times the rate of the EU and three times the US.

As far as demand is concerned, China is the world’s biggest market and growing. Income is growing - especially for wage and salaried workers. President Xi Jinping has identified social inequalities as a major area to rectify over the next five years.

The US: Chaos, Retreat and Reaction

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n contrast, the United States President and Congress have not fashioned a strategic vision for the country, least of all one linked to concrete proposals and socio-economic priorities, which might benefit the citizenry.

The US has 240,000 active and reserve armed forces stationed in 172 countries. China has less than 5,000 in one country – Djibouti. The US stations 40,000 troops in Japan, 23,000 in South Korea, 36,000 in Germany, 8,000 in the UK and over 1,000 in Turkey. What China has is an equivalent number of highly skilled civilian personnel engaged in productive activity around the world. China’s overseas missions and its experts have worked to benefit both global and Chinese economic growth.

The United States’ open-ended, multiple military conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Niger, Somalia, Jordan and elsewhere have absorbed and diverted hundreds of billions of dollars away from productive investments in the domestic economy. In only a few cases, military spending has built useful roads and infrastructure, which could be counted a ‘dual use’, but overwhelmingly US military activities abroad have been brutally destructive, as shown by the deliberate dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya.

The US lacks the coherence of China’s policy making and strategic leadership. While chaos has been inherent in the politics of the US ‘free market’ financial system, it is especially widespread and dangerous during the Trump regime.

Congressional Democrats and Republicans, united and divided, actively confront President Trump on every issue no matter how important or petty. Trump improvises and alters his policies by the hour or, at most, by the day. The US possesses a party system where one party officially rules in the Administration with two militarist big business wings.

US has been spending over 700 billion dollars a year to pursue seven wars and foment ‘regime changes’ or coups d’état on four continents and eight regions over the past two decades. This has only caused disinvestment in the domestic economy with deterioration of critical infrastructure, loss of markets, widespread socioeconomic decline and a reduction of spending on research and development for goods and services.

The top 500 US corporations invest overseas, mainly to take advantage of low tax region and sources of cheap labor, while shunning American workers and avoiding US taxes. At the same time, these corporations share US technology and markets with the Chinese.

Today, US capitalism is largely directed by and for financial institutions, which absorb and divert capital from productive investments, generating an unbalanced crisis-prone economy. In contrast, China determines the timing and location of investments as well as bank interest rates, targeting priority investments, especially in advanced high-tech sectors.

Washington has spent billions on costly and unproductive military-centered infrastructure (military bases, naval ports, air stations etc.) in order to buttress stagnant and corrupt allied regimes. As a result, the US has nothing comparable to China’s hundred- billion-dollar ‘One Belt-One Road’ (Silk Road) infrastructure project linking continents and major regional markets and generating millions of productive jobs.

The US has broken global linkages with dynamic growth centers. Washington resorts to self-defecating, mindless chauvinistic rhetoric to impose trade policy, while China promotes global networks via joint ventures. China incorporates international supply linkages by securing high tech in the West and low cost labor in the East.

Big US industrial groups’ earnings and rising stock in construction and aerospace are products of their strong ties with China. Caterpillar, United Technologies 3M and US car companies reported double-digit growth on sales to China.

In contrast, the Trump regime has allocated (and spent) billions in military procurement to threaten wars against China’s peripheral neighbors and interfere with its maritime commerce.

US Decline and Media Frenzy

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he retreat and decline of US economic power has driven the mass media into a frenzy of idiotic ad hominem assaults on China’s political leader President Xi Jinping. Among the nose pickers in print, the scribes of the Financial Times take the prize for mindless vitriol. Mercenaries and holy men in Tibet are described as paragons of democracy and ‘victims’ of a ...flourishing modernizing Chinese state lacking the ‘western values’ (sic) of floundering Anglo-American warmongers!

To denigrate China’s system of national planning and its consequential efforts to link its high tech economy with improving the standard of living for the population, the FT journalists castigate President Xi Jinping for the following faults:

1.) For not being as dedicated a Communist as Mao Zedong or Deng Xiaopeng

2.) For being too ‘authoritarian’ (or too successful) in his campaign to root out corrupt officials.

3.) For setting serious long-term goals while confronting and overcoming economic problems by addressing the ‘dangerous’ level of debt.

While China has broadened its cultural horizon, the Anglo-Saxon global elite increases the possibility of nuclear warfare. China’s cultural and economic outreach throughout the world is dismissed by the Financial Times as ‘subversive soft power’. Police-state minds and media in the West see China’s outreach as a plot or conspiracy. Any serious writer, thinker or policymaker who has studied and praised China’s success is dismissed as a dupe or agent of the sly President Xi Jinping. Without substance or reflection, the FT (10/27/17) warns its readers and police officials to be vigilant and avoid being seduced by China’s success stories!

China’s growing leadership in automobile production is evident in its advance towards dominating the market for electric vehicles. Every major US and EU auto company has ignored the warnings of the Western media ideologues and rushed to form joint ventures with China.

China has an industrial policy. The US has a war policy. China plans to surpass the US and Germany in artificial intelligence, robotics, semi-conductors and electric vehicles by 2025. And it will ---because those are its carefully pronounced scientific and economic priorities.

The US business elites are busy pushing their President and the US Congress to lower taxes for the billionaire elite, while 100 million US citizens remain without health care and register decreased life expectancy! Washington seems committed to in State-planned regression.

As US bombs fall on Yemen and the American taxpayers finance the giant Israeli concentration camp once known as ‘Palestine’, while China builds systems of roads and rail linking the Himalayas and Central Asia with Europe.

While Sherlock Holmes applies the science of observation and deduction, the US media and politicians perfect the art of obfuscation and deception.

In China, scientists and innovators play a central role in producing and increasing goods and services for the burgeoning middle and working class. In the US, the economic elite play the central role in exacerbating inequalities, increasing profits by lowering taxes and transforming the American worker into poorly-paid temp-labor – destined to die prematurely of preventable conditions.

While Chinese President Xi Jinping works in concert with the nation’s best technocrats to subordinate the military to civilian goals, President Trump and his Administration subordinate their economic decisions to a military-industrial-financial-Israeli complex.

Beijing invests in global networks of scientists, researchers and scholars. The US ‘opposition’ Democrats and disgruntled Republicans work with the giant corporate media (including the respectable Financial Times) to fund and fabricate conspiracies and plots under Trump’s Presidential bed.

Conclusion

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]hina fires and prosecutes corrupt officials while supporting innovators. Its economy grows through investments, joint ventures and a great capacity to learn from experience and powerful data collection. The US squanders its domestic resources in pursuing multiple wars, financial speculation and rampant Wall Street corruption.

Amazon's ruthless tycoon Bezos—the media thinks he can walk on water. (He also owns the media.)

China investigates and punishes its corrupt business and public officials while corruption seems to be the primary criteria for election or appointment to high office in the US. The US media worships its tax-dodging billionaires and thinks it can mesmerize the public with a dazzling display of bluster, incompetence and arrogance.

China directs its planned economy to address domestic priorities. It uses its financial resources to pursue historic global infrastructure programs, which will enhance global partnerships in mutually beneficial projects.

It is no wonder that China is seen as moving toward the future with great advances while the US is seen as a chaotic frightening threat to world peace and its publicists as willing accomplices.

China is not without shortcomings in the spheres of political expression and civil rights. Failure to rectify social inequalities and failure to stop the outflow of billions of dollars of illicit wealth, and the unresolved problems with regime corruption will continue to generate class conflicts.

But the important point to note is the direction China has chosen to take and its capacity and commitment to identify and correct the major problems it faces.

The US has abdicated its responsibilities. It is unwilling or unable to harness its banks to invest in domestic production to expand the domestic market. It is completely unwilling to identify and purge the manifestly incompetent and to incarcerate the grossly corrupt officials and politicians of both parties and the elites.

Today overwhelming majorities of US citizens despise, distrust and reject the political elite. Over 70% think that the inane factional political divisions are at their greatest level in over 50 years and have paralyzed the government.

80% recognize that the Congress is dysfunctional and 86% believe that Washington is dishonest.

Never has an empire of such limitless power crumbled and declined with so few accomplishments.

China is a rising economic empire, but it advances through its active engagement in the market of ideas and not through futile wars against successful competitors and adversaries.

As the US declines, its publicists degenerate.

The media’s ceaseless denigration of China’s challenges and its accomplishments is a poor substitute for analysis. The flawed political and policy making structures in the US and its incompetent free-market political leaders lacking any strategic vision crumble in contrast to China’s advances.

About the Author

JAMES PETRAS is a retired Bartle Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York and adjunct professor at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who has published on political issues with particular focus on Latin America and the Middle East, imperialism, globalization, and leftist social movements.

JAMES PETRAS—The US has abdicated its responsibilities. It is unwilling or unable to harness its banks to invest in domestic production to expand the domestic market. It is completely unwilling to identify and purge the manifestly incompetent and to incarcerate the grossly corrupt officials and politicians of both parties and the elites.
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The Best Definition of Donald Trump We Have Found

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Russian Fleet PART 1: Towards a ‘frigate-centric’ navy

by LeDahu

After a brief interlude due to professional reasons, please find below the first part of an article on the Russian Navy, on the latest generation of frigates and the technological advances that has enabled Russian sea power to be noticed globally.

This is article is partly in response to the original article, “New, Blue-Water Frigates to Become Main Surface Vessels of the Russian Navy”, back in the summer, written by an Ukrainian naval officer for the Jamestown Foundation and widely circulated on social media. To save the readers too much trouble, the Russian naval capabilities are mostly presented in a negative light, and yet at the same time the author over exaggerates the Russian Navy’s overall ambitions. [NB Typical Western commentator framing of Russian military].

The author devotes a chunk of the article to the woes of operating the “Admiral Kuznetsov” aircraft carrier. The author also slants his article towards a perception of Russia’s naval ambitions being blunted by financial woes. (Russia Insider 15 May 2017). What the Jamestown author does show is the fact that the Russian Navy is concentrating its efforts on frigate-type ships rather than carriers or Mistral type Amphibious Helicopter ships. Given the need of reconciling divergent interests, 1. Geopolitical necessities, 2. financial restrictions and 3. actual/projected naval operational capabilities, all of which requires careful consideration when designing a surface warship.

The Admiral Grigorovich frigate will be the first in a series of six frigates of the Project 11356 being built for the Black Sea Fleet to join the Russian Navy.

What does it all mean in real terms, and what is a frigate anyway? And how does modern technology blur this definition beyond the traditional concepts of the last 50 years? Going back to basics:

Definition & role of frigate is:

“a warship with a mixed armament, generally lighter than a destroyer (in the US navy, heavier) and of a kind originally introduced for convoy escort work.” And post-war: “also adopted an antiaircraft role.”

In other words, a multi-tasking warship, between approximately 3000-7000 tonnes, with various types of missiles, guns, air defence systems/radars & ASW sensors, designed to either operate autonomously, or as part of a task group, with also the ability to escort merchant ships. A complex naval platform, with multilayered and overlapping systems onboard.

Thus, by their very nature, frigates tend to be the mainstay combat ship of most navies. China has 24 Type 054A frigates in service for example,(with 46 overall), compared to 35 destroyers, whereas India has 11 frigates & 11 destroyers. The number & use of frigates does vary from navy to navy, depending on its naval doctrine. The designation of ‘frigate’ to ships can be misleading, take for instance, at the moment, the US Navy also has only 1 frigate in commission, the “USS Constitution”.

The US Navy retired its Oliver Hazard Perry frigate class and its intended replacement is the Littoral Combat Ship, (LCS), (8 currently in service) which for a long time has been riddled with technical glitches & ‘issues’.(Wikipedia 2017). Not quite a frigate but a glorified expensive oversized patrol boat, judging by the comments made in various US reports. (Bloomberg May 2013) (DefenceWorld Net April 2013)

A little bit about shipping and technology in general for context. At a time when shipyards are building bigger and bigger, with container ships of 21,000+ TEU, this shows well how important parts of merchant shipping is increasing vastly in size, and rapidly too. Now compare this to the military, where downsizing and automating systems is becoming increasingly the norm and extremely vital for improving combat effectiveness.

The space once filled by battleships, followed by large missile cruisers taking the limelight, is now filled primarily by frigates. Big gun ships became obsolete with improved air power & long-range coastal defences. Not quite the same story with large missile cruisers, as this is largely based on impressive changes in missile technology as well as electronics, computing, engineering miniaturisation & nanotechnology.

Another aspect to consider is flexibility, in other words multi-tasking roles. The US Navy initially took the route of using modular units, (using ISO containers), for its LCS class ships, the idea of being able to change the mission roles of a ship in matter of weeks. This trailblazing concept has hit a few snags along the way, and as a result it has been reconsidered. (US Navy April 2017)^. Yet they certainly don’t have the same firepower as a much smaller Russian navy Buyan-M class corvette! [More on that in Part 2].

This nevertheless shows the huge innovative & ambitious design concept that continued expansion of high-tech technology has offered in the naval field in a few decades. Add in, the increased use of unmanned vehicles in a combat role is also a significant step forward. Interestingly, the US Navy is now reconfiguring the LCS into a frigate class. [NB The keywords to retain are flexibility and multi-tasking.]

A comprehensive technical rundown of the top 10 modern frigates from around the world is covered in this article. (Defencyclopedia 2 Jan 2016)^. Surprisingly the number one spot is a Russian frigate that has not yet entered service.

Background- Russian navy

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]ack in April 2017, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, said that in the near future the main combat ships of the Navy frigates will be like “Admiral Gorshkov”. He stated that: “Such multi-purpose frigates, equipped with long-range precision weapons, should become the Navy’s main combat ships in the near future,” (TASS 21 April 2017).He continued by adding “Their commissioning for service will help ensure the smooth renewal of the fleets’ surface forces and raise their combat potential by 30%”.

Several days later, President Putin stated in a defence meeting that “by 2020, the share of modern weapons and equipment both in the Army and Navy should rise to 70%.” (Kremlin.ru 25 April 2017). At the end of 2016, it stood at 47%.

Taking a strictly conservative outlook, yes, the Russian navy has downsized considerably, it is a shadow of what the Soviet Navy was and hadn’t had the opportunity to modernise itself effectively until fairly recently. President Putin termed it this week as : …”navy reboot program…” (TASS 16 May 2017)

The underpinning defence doctrine is largely based on the perception of making Russia secure, as part of “Eurasia” as an entity. Broadly similar to what China is doing. In other words, ensuring a robust defensive posture of what is regarded as being on “home turf”. When there is news that construction of a an aircraft carrier is being touted in Russia, it is because some defence contractors are trying to position themselves for future potential bids. Yet, the shipyards are busy with mostly submarine or small combatant ship building.

The Russian & Chinese military doctrines are poles apart with that of the US, with its aggressively militarized global ‘exceptionalism’ doctrine, with its 10+ “carriers which are the centerpiece of America’s naval fleet.” (The National Interest 15 May 2017) They are substantially different in approach, methodology and expectations.

The main focus of attention of the Russian Navy is on green-water operations, defending its coastline, close to home first and foremost. Even the US Navy saw the large destroyers would not be effective in shallow waters, hence the introduction of the LCS. However, Russia took out one element out of the US navy convoluted thought process, and went straight for a versatile frigate class warship, ideal for a green water environment, but also having the capability to carry out long-range blue-water missions as necessary. Quite a challenging portfolio for naval designers.

The Jamestown author, however does not mention the obvious fact that there has been a gaping ‘hole’ in the combat capabilities of the Russian navy for several decades. That hole needed to be filled by a dedicated frigate class warship, comparable to the range of sophisticated NATO frigates. The last time there was a frigate class was with the Soviet-era Burevestnik Class frigates (Project 1135).

What does Russia have on the table that makes a shift towards a ‘frigate-centric’ navy purposeful?

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]asically, Russia had almost a clean slate when designing its new frigates, taking into consideration the capabilities of its ‘competitors’ but also its domestic defence needs & power projection. But having a clean slate also means encountering problems along the way. The US Navy too has experienced that quite clearly & persistently with its LCS program. However, undertaking such a design also meant halting & reversing significant long-term decline in Russian naval research and development. Despite having limited access to Western naval shipbuilders know-how, (mostly through the Mistral class contract), Russian naval constructors still lag behind their Western & Asian counterparts.

Which Russian Navy fleets will get the modern frigates first designed back in 1997 and 2003 respectively? One, the Admiral Essen, has its permanent home port as part of the Black Sea Fleet, joining the Admiral Grigorovich, (TASS 5 May 2017).”By the end of the year the Black Sea fleet will receive two new frigates”.

The ‘Grigorovich class’ (Project 11356Р/М), it is a multi-purpose frigate: Role: AD- ASW- Escort. Full displacement: 4,035 tons. Length:124.8m and 60,900 shp

The successor to the Burevestnik class, based on a proven design originating in the proven Indian Talwar class, the “Admiral Grigorovich” class is an alternative to the “Admiral Gorshkov” class. This particular class were constructed as a stop-gap measure, largely due to the ongoing problems with construction of the “Admiral Gorshkov”. Not as powerful, but still with a good overall capability as a frigate.

The “Admiral Grigorovich” itself has already gained some ‘notoriety’, judging by the hype of the MSM articles written about it so far. This now famous frigate initially earned its reputation for taking part in Syrian operations back in 2015, with a series of Kalibr launches against terrorists targets. US naval expert, J. Harley remarked that the Russian Navy was a key factor in the Syrian campaign, something that was inconceivable 15 years previously. [Harley, Jeffrey A. “Meeting operational needs. President’s forum.” Naval War College Review, Winter 2017, p. 7+. Academic OneFile]

Not taking MSM articles at face value, but the latest missile technology suite presented onboard a frigate such as the “Admiral Essen”, has twice the main weapons capacity of a Sovremmeny class destroyer with 8 Moskits. Another example of the technological leap would be the Soviet Kynda class cruiser with the SSN3 missile unit onboard. It was so bulky that reloads were limited to 16 missiles in total capacity. Now compare its size and capacity with that of the “Admiral Grigorovich” class.

Interestingly, the Black Sea Fleet is earmarked to have all 4 of this class. So the Northern Sea and Pacific Sea Fleets aren’t expected to have this warship class at all. The last 2 of this class are earmarked to be sold to India, as announced by the USC shipyard in August 2017.

‘Admiral Gorshkov-class’ frigates- (Project 22350): Role: AD-ASW- escort.

A Project 22350 frigate has a displacement of 4,550 tons, with a length of 135m. The capacity of its diesel-gas-turbine power plant is 65,000 hp.

As exemplified in this video:

Project 22350 ‘Admiral Gorshkov’ frigate was earmarked to be a jewel in the Russian Navy’s combat inventory. Beset by a long-running series of technical problems since the start, it is intended as the successor to the ‘Krivak’ class.

Although it was originally planned to have 6 built by 2020, (Lenta 5 May 16), only two more Admiral Gorshkov-class frigates are expected to be commissioned into the Russian Navy by 2020. (TASS 5 March 2017) and with another 2 anticipated by 2025. (RIA 16 May 2017)

This is largely due to the non-availability of appropriate marine turbines. However, the start of a domestic serial production of such turbines planned for next year, should help to clear up the hold-up in construction programs at a later date (RIA Novosti Dec 2016). This is so significant that President Putin opened a production line for marine gas turbines at the Saturn, (NPO), company earlier in the year.

The “Admiral Makarov”, (on sea missile trials, see below) is also in its final stages of operational acceptance, as of late April, as shown on Russian TV (April 2017). The Northern Sea Fleet is the intended recipient for all of these frigates.

SEE MORE: “Admiral Makarov” photo gallery

Video of trials in Russian

Video of trials “Shtil-1” on “Admiral Makarov”

https://youtu.be/y0ioOPtX5MQ

Significantly, the head of Naval Shipbuilding, Vladimir Trapeznikov, said that “after the Navy receives four project 22350 frigates, the project will be upgraded.” (RIA 16 May 2017). Notice ‘upgrade’, not new blue-sky new off-the-wall design, well meant design concept similar to what the US Navy envisaged with the LCS program but instead ended up in a mess. [Which is probably why the Russian Navy ‘Lider-Class’ has not gone ahead as originally scheduled].

Limitations in physical numbers of frigates have been offset by a versatile missile technology, which allows a small ship to have a formidable missile capability. Probably what Defence Minister Shoigu’s quote of raising combat potential by 30% was referring to.

Missiles are the post WW2 naval game changers, take for example: the destruction of the ‘Eilat’ and the sinking of HMS ‘Sheffield’. Both changed the naval dimension of conflict and subsequently redefined the types & roles of warships, in response to the missile threat.

At the heart of the Russian navy modernisation program is the Kalibr cruise missile, first in service in 2012. It is a tremendous potent force multiplier for the Russian military overall and makes the Russian Navy significantly more powerful & with greater range, proportionally to its overall tonnage.

A self-contained, compact, multi-purpose frigate is extremely useful for general high-end naval missions. This is what we are seeing (as a microcosm) in Syria of late, more so that there the “Admiral Essen” & “Admiral Grigorovich” have been together as part of the Mediterranean Squadron. (TASS 5 May 2017)

The predominant use of frigates and corvettes, (which I will cover in Part II) are sufficient to give Russia an effective security/defence buffer zone, with the added benefit of a long-range strike capacity. As testified in this US navy document “The new technologically advanced Russian Navy, increasingly armed with the Kalibr family of weapons, will be able to more capably defend the maritime approaches to the Russian Federation and exert significant influence in adjacent seas”.

[NB: Yeah – those ‘adjacent areas’ so coveted by NATO as sole property, is being slowly contested by Russian sea power.]

Quickly outlining the types of Kalibrs in naval use on warships:

SURFACE SHIP		SUBMARINE
Anti-ship variant	Land-attack Variant	Anti-ship variant	Land-attack Variant
3M54T	3M14T	3M54K	3M14K
VLS	VLS	_	_
Thrust Vectoring boosters	Thrust Vectoring boosters	_	_
440-660km range	1.500-2.500km range	440-660km range	1.500-2.500km range

The Kalibr is designated the SS-N-27 Sizzler by NATO and LACM has NATO designation of SS-N-30A. The Russian cruise missile counterpart to the well-known U.S Navy Tomahawk, made its world combat debut on 7 October 2015, launched from Mediterranean and Caspian Sea based Buyan-class corvettes.

The ship-based Kalibr cruise missile is deployed from a VLS (Vertical Launch System: a ‘cell’, part of the UKSK module), based on 2x 4-missile tubular configuration. The advantage of this, is that missiles can clear the hull of the ship before igniting. Thus a ship can launch a series of high-precision strikes on shore targets from a distance of thousands of kilometers. Another variant is the 3C-14 box missile launcher unit, (more rectangular at deck level).

Russia continues to use Kalibrs against terrorist infrastructures in Syria, in which both the ‘Admiral Essen” and “Admiral Grigorovich” have played a significant role so far and likely to continue to do so for the time being. The use of ship-borne missile strikes during the Syrian campaign is a classic example of what is cited as being “liquid warfare”, liquid warfare being “a way of war that shuns the direct control of territory, focusing instead on the destruction of enemy forces and/or infrastructure.”[Mutschler, Max M. “Liquid warfare as a challenge to international order.”]

In other words, something that had been the exclusive domain of the US and NATO, has also been harnessed by Russia.

The small numbers of current & planned Russian Navy frigates have been largely offset by the combat proven versatile Kalibr missile and other advanced electronic technology. It was probably hoped that the Russian Navy in the next decade would have shifted towards a ‘frigate- centric’ navy, but this in fact hasn’t happened, due to the small numbers and limitations on power plants, shipbuilding and design parameters. Yet at the same time, focus has also been geared towards a ‘corvette-centric’ navy, which will be covered more in Part 2.

BONUS VIDEO
Russia produces simpler but resilient and versatile weapons, its warplanes are celebrated for those qualities. Here’s the story of the famed SU 25, Russia’s answer to the American A-10.

ABOUT THE SAKER

Like The Greanville Post, with which it is now allied in his war against official disinformation, the Saker's site, VINEYARD OF THE SAKER, is the hub of an international network of sites devoted to fighting the "billion-dollar deception machinery" supporting the empire's wars against Russia, China, Iran, Syria, Venezuela and any other independent nation opposing or standing in the way of Washington's drive for global hegemony. The Saker is published in more than half a dozen languages. A Saker is a very large falcon, native to Europe and Asia.

Two part MUST SEE interview of Margarita Simonyan on Russian TV (UPDATED WITH TRANSCRIPT)

HELP ENLIGHTEN YOUR FELLOWS. BE SURE TO PASS THIS ON. SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON IT.

Again, words fail me to adequately express my gratitude to Eugenia for translating, subtitling and uploading these videos!

—The Saker

Original links:

Part I: https://rutube.ru/video/35f47363af9ce3fd35be7126d3e225ee/
Part II: https://rutube.ru/video/cefd5544d2b1c9e10c2b6ea57a0f3878/

Note: these videos often load slowly, but then play well.

PART I

THE RIGHT TO KNOW!

00:00:15,560 –> 00:00:20,639

DK. Good evening. This is the show “The right to know!” on the TV Center channel and I am its host Dmitrii Koulikov.

My guest today is the Chief Editor of the television channel RT Margarita Simonyan. Good evening, Margarita.

MS. Hello.

00:00:26,759 –> 00:00:35,039

DK. Today, I will have help in hosting this show from Maxim Yusin, Alexander Sosnovsky, Kristina Juliano, and Pshemislav Maschetz. Margarita, I want to start right away with a tough question, as journalists say, right in your face. I am warning you – I won’t let you avoid the answer.

00:00:44,680 –> 00:00:45,920

MS.When will I stop beating my wife?

00:00:45,920 –> 00:00:54,479

DK. This, Margarita, is from the American “9 days” – they discuss things like that. I am talking about serious matters. Although this was also suggested by the Americans. Explain to us what relations you have with Pokemons? No, do not laugh. Just confess – were Pokemons one of your tricks? Do you control them?

00:01:08,200 –> 00:01:09,839

MS. I feed them.

00:01:09,839 –> 00:01:13,920

DK. You feed Pokemons? I will explain for the viewers who aren’t aware. The formidable American channel CNN yesterday produced an investigation that Russia, as it turned out, exerted significant influence on the American politics using the game Pokemon-Go. In particular, it stirred up the national and racial hatred. Have they already discovered your traces in this?

00:01:32,119 –> 00:01:37,800

MS. No, fortunately our traces haven’t been discovered in this, although CNN is clearly hinting at our involvement. Similarly, all mainstream American media are trying to find our marks everywhere.

00:01:45,920 –> 00:01:58,239

DK. CNN said that a certain company was celling clothes for blacks, which, by the order of Russia, inflamed racial hatred. Did you have your finger in that, too? The viewers are laughing. What are you laughing at? These are mainstream reports at CNN, the largest news channel in the USA.

00:02:06,920 –> 00:02:12,680

MS. CNN – do you know what the President of the United States calls CNN? – fake news channel. CNN has only one purpose: interfere with Trump, achieve his removal or completely destroy his reputation. It is well know that they have been at war for a long, long time. As the experts say, Trump intended and could have closed them – CNN is in some difficulties. So, they are fighting with Trump. The fact that for that purpose they are using completely insane wild ideas . . .

00:02:45,800 –> 00:02:47,239

DK. Are they fighting with Trump or with us, Margarita?

00:02:47,239 –> 00:02:49,119

MS. They are fighting with Trump through us. They would have not fought with us that actively – they always disliked us – but they would have not fought with us if they haven’t had a goal to somehow squeeze and damage Trump.They aren’t that much interest in us as such; they are now simply whipping up this hysterics because of Trump. This is quite obvious. However, the arguments they use to achieve this goal are beyond any measure of good or evil.

Margarita SImonyan: "They are fighting with Trump through us. They would have not fought with us that actively – they always disliked us – but they would have not fought with us if they haven’t had a goal to somehow squeeze and damage Trump.They aren’t that much interest in us as such; they are now simply whipping up this hysterics because of Trump. This is quite obvious. However, the arguments they use to achieve this goal are beyond any measure of good or evil..."

Yesterday, the major resource Yahoo News sends us a question: “We have spoken with a former White House employee, and a former White House employee believes that you are connected with the Russian intelligence services”. We responded to them: “Listen, according to the survey of an organization working in the US milk industry, 7% of the American public believes that chocolate milk comes from brown cows. So what?” People could hold various beliefs.

A question like this resembles the one they taught us in the School of Journalisms at the University, a question that puts a person in an awkward position: when will you stop beating your wife? No matter how you answer, you will be in the wrong. I do not know . . .

00:04:01,519 –> 00:04:03,600

DK. I think CNN outdid that question.

00:04:03,600 –> 00:04:13,439

MS. I do not know what to say. A year ago, a report was released from CIA and other intelligence agencies of the USA, half of which was about us. My name in that report was mention 27 times. Russia Today was mentioned dozens of times. What they accuse us of – some show I was hosting on RenTV 5 years ago and somehow by so doing interfered with the American elections; other nonsense like that – there is not a single fact that we indeed are engaged in illegal, unprofessional, clandestine, or unethical activities.

00:04:40,800 –> 00:04:45,680

DK.I have an impression that you are in partnership with Twitter. I am serious.

00:04:45,680 –> 00:04:49,560

MS. I will tell you about Twitter in a moment. We are not engaged in any untoward activities. They in Congress summon Twitter and say: What was the deal between Twitter and RT? RT spent $275,000 in Twitter. For $275,000, we elected the President of the United States! Hillary spent a billion dollars, but we did that for $275,000.

They try to present this for the general public that does not know the details as some sort of covert fishy practice. Listen.Twitter came to us before the elections with beautiful presentation – Twitter came to us – and said: “Guys, we are approaching all media outlets suggesting they buy ads during the election campaign to increase visibility”. Great. Of course, we do advertisement; we have had ads every year on Twitter, Facebook, on CNN and NBC, for goodness’s sake. We have ads on billboards; we have just started terrific ads at airports. This is normal activity of any self-respecting media organization. For example, Kommersant periodically makes great ads on billboards; I always see them with pleasure. Just recently heard their ads on the radio.

But the Americans present this activity in a special way – sort of, slander away and something will stick.

00:06:06,879 –> 00:06:19,000

DK. Their approach is quite nuanced – the last news on Twitter. The charge was refined: Twitter deliberately deleted the traces of your activity on Twitter.

00:06:19,000 –> 00:06:19,759

MS. So, we broke Twitter?

00:06:19,759 –> 00:06:20,159

DK. Yes.

00:06:20,159 –> 00:06:24,239

MS. Well . .

00:06:24,239 –> 00:06:27,039

DK. This is in all seriousness. A Congressman said that just yesterday.

00:06:27,039 –> 00:06:37,000

MS. I know we aren’t conducting any shady activity that they are trying to find. They search and search but find nothing. Then they target perfectly normal, established, common things we do. Tomorrow, they will accuse us of using telephones and computers. We pay salaries to our staff – I have to confess right now before I am accused of doing that by the CIA and Congress! Yes, we do pay salaries to our employees.

00:06:53,839 –> 00:06:58,400

DK. This is a crime. How could you do such a thing?

00:06:58,400 –> 00:07:02,439

MS. I not only use telephone, but have Blackberry, and American telephone.

00:07:02,439 –> 00:07:03,600

DK. Horrible.

00:07:03,600 –> 00:07:06,159

MS. Those in the know will understand.

00:07:06,159 –> 00:07:16,800

DK. Speaking seriously, Margarita, the US wants to declare you a foreign agent, which amounts to sanctions against the channel. At the end of the next week some decisions will be made. What are we to expect? I understand you may not be able to speak about everything, but . . .

00:07:24,439 –> 00:07:32,239

MS. We don’t know what to expect. Dementia has developed to the point it is impossible to figure out what to expect. If they in all seriousness accuse us that Twitter for our sake deleted some traces somewhere – we are nothing for Twitter. Our $200,000 for Twitter that earns billions!

00:07:40,439 –> 00:07:41,360

DK. This is a microbe, yes.

00:07:41,360 –> 00:07:44,079

MS. This is hilarious! But they are not laughing. It is a mystery to me why this does not seem ridiculous to them. Is it because their level of education and understanding of the world is so low they really don’t see how farcical the whole thing is?

Or they do find this funny, but they go out there, pretend and pronounce from the high podiums that this is serious in order to influence the uninformed populace.

This I still haven’t figured out. But expect we should just about anything, absolutely anything. I will not be surprised if tomorrow we will be accused, and, perhaps, even criminally prosecuted, for the use of telephones, cars, or something else like that my eyes are blue.

00:08:20,720 –> 00:08:25,560

DK. The announced position of our government that we will respond in a reciprocal manner. Possibly, many American publications and journalist working in Russia will feel that response. Where is the limit of such a war?

We have a diplomatic war going, an informational war; we have a hybrid war, although no one quite knows what that is, but we do have it. How we are about to have a media war, which is different from the informational war, because this one is in the legal sphere, right? Let us say we will have a legal media war from now on.

00:08:57,119 –> 00:09:05,119

MS. Most important question of all: who needs any of this? Who needs these wars, and what are they trying to accomplish?

Obviously, no real war will happen. How could two nuclear powers go to war? They will destroy the whole planet in three days that is all. Then why? What is the idea? Clearly, Trump, who is supposed to be the President of the United States, does not need this.

When Congress started that so called investigation against us, he himself wrote in Twitter – as we know he loves to rule the country via Twitter (by the way, this is one more question for Twitter) – that it would be better if Congress took an interest in fake news produced by the American media, and they produce a huge amount of them.

00:09:44,400 –> 00:09:50,600

DK. Yesterday, in Trump’s twitter NBC overtook CNN as the premier fake new outlet. Trump wrote: “I thoughts the biggest fake news channel was CNN but now I think it is NBC”. So, the competition continues.

00:09:59,560 –> 00:10:02,159

MS. I don’t understand what this is all for.

00:10:02,159 –> 00:10:14,639

DK. Many guests of this program ask the same question: Why? Many political analysts, our colleagues ask this question and are unable to finding a logical explanation.

Margarita, you know America well – to imagine 2-3 years ago that the President of the United States would publicly suggest to his Head of the Department of State to compare IQs was impossible. I certainly could not have. Perhaps, you know them better than I . . .

00:10:32,079 –> 00:10:39,639

MS. That I could easily have imagined. The American political culture is no different form the culture of the show business. It has BEEN show business for a long time now. A person who presents a better show gets elected. That is why, to a large measure, BTW Clinton lost – she is simply a bad showman. That is all; the Democrats bet on the wrong person. I do not see anything strange in that.

But how the quality of expertise has declined, how the level of education and professionalism has deteriorated – this is impossible to believe. I am stupefied as to how this could have happened. I mean many people in the establishment.

00:11:13,800 –> 00:11:18,159

DK. Do you have a hypothesis why they are doing all this? Your own hypothesis?

00:11:18,159 –> 00:11:27,639

MS. What is this all for? My only hypothesis is the internal political struggle, which we are the accidental victims of. I do not see any other cause.

Just a year ago, representatives of the American Department of State, with whom I occasionally meet, used to tell me:“You see, in Europe in some countries you have had problems like losing accreditation or having your bank account closed, whereas in American you do not have problems and will not”.

“We are a democratic country and respect freedom of speech; we have the First Amendment; so, you must admit that the US is the beacon and does hold to its own principles”. I always recognized that. I also said so on different shows and in many other places publicly that that country should be respected. Although the US often spreads chaos and mayhem all over the world but at home they do keep to their principles – they do not ban us from broadcasting.

But the same people from the Department of State also used to tell me: “If we ever see that the American media and American journalists have difficulties in Russia, we will respond accordingly”. The American media and American journalists so far have had no difficulties but we are already seeing a response.

00:12:29,439 –> 00:12:35,639

DK. Thank you, Margarita. We will have a short commercial break and then continue our interesting discussion with our guests.

00:12:50,920 –> 00:12:56,639

DK. This is the show “The Right to Know!” on the channel TVCenter. We are continuing our discussing with Margarita Simonyan. Maxim, please, go ahead.

00:12:56,639 –> 00:13:02,239

Maxim Yucin, International Analyst, Kommercant. Right before the commercial break you, Margarita, said with a smile: “Mirror response”. Now it has been discussed quite seriously what kind of response there will be – obviously, there has to be some reaction to

the way your company is being treated.

There are two options. Many members of the Parliament, Senators favor one option, a tough one: to create maximal discomfort to the American journalists working in Russia in response to what is being done to you and your colleagues. This means adopting the American way.

The second option is not to emulate the Trump administration or those that urge it to act in such an unseemly way; not to emulate them and not do to anything similar to what they are doing; not to copy the actions that we ourselves do not like. If we chose this option, we, on the one hand, give our right to an effective response and some kind of satisfaction. But, perhaps, in contrast to that pandemonium created by the Americans, we in the eyes of the rest of the world will look adequate, normal, civilized. Perhaps, this would be a more long-term and rewarding investment into the Russia’s image.

Which option would you prefer?

00:14:12,039 –> 00:14:20,079

MS. First of all, please, believe me, the rest of the world will know nothing about this if the media will not tell it – we cannot tell all the stories singlehandedly. Look, I am a journalist. I am not a senator, congressman, official, or diplomat. The subject we are discussing, what you brought up in your question has to do with the international relations. I have nothing to do with the international relations and do not want to have anything to do with them. At some point in my life when I had to choose, I made a choice not to enter politics and not to become a government official. I remain a journalist.

From that standpoint, I want that journalists could work freely everywhere, in Russia, in America, everywhere. At the same time, as the head of my organization, I would welcome any measures that would force them to leave us alone and to let us continue doing our journalist job. Any measures, you understand, that would serve that purpose – if something can be done to get them off our backs, let’s do it. If nothing can be done, then let us look for other ways to survive in this situation.

I do not a war for its own sake. I want everyone to live in peace, to broadcast normally and tell people the truth the feel they need to tell.

00:15:26,519 –> 00:15:34,119

DK. Margarita, Maxim asked a good question but it has a secondary meaning: the rest of the world and such. You said that the rest of the world might never know about this if the mainstream media does not tell.

But there are supposedly civilized parts of that world like France, for example, and yet, as far as I know, restrictions against Sputnik are still in place in France. You are not accredited in the Elysee palace or in the French State department – so they are ignoring you, to put it mildly.

00:15:58,720 –> 00:16:06,119

MS. We have had problems in France right from the beginning of the Presidential campaign and later when Macron was elected President. Nevertheless, we are working there – no one so far has banned us from broadcasting.

The problems remain, though: they have run their election campaign using this antagonism – look, the Russian news channel fights against us, so you have to resist Russia and vote for us. Of course, there was not a modicum of truth in it. Nobody can offer us an example of any wrong we have done, anything specific.

00:16:34,759 –> 00:16:39,280

DK. I can. It is very simple. Remember Le Mond a day before the elections in France? “Vote for Macron!” – the leading French newspaper shows the headline like that a day before the voting. But you, Margarita, do not do things like that.

00:16:46,759 –> 00:16:53,759

MS. True. In America, the establishment accuses us of not supporting Clinton – indeed, we did not.

In France, they reproach us for not supporting Macron – indeed, we did not. We supported no one.

00:16:58,720 –> 00:17:00,319

AS. And Merkel?

00:17:00,319 –> 00:17:02,680

MS. We did not support Merkel, either.

They write in the CIA report: “They have broadcasted debates of the independent candidates”, – that is, not the main two supported by the establishment. Yes, we did. But this is our job! This is the very essence of the journalist profession – to give voice to those denied the voice in other places.

If this is looked upon as a crime committed by a journalist, then let us honestly say that the Western world as we have known it and LOVED, with its Western values as we have known them and LOVED, no longer exists. There are no values; there is no Western world. That is left is authoritarian regimes simply painted in the colors of their national flags. This would be honest, and I am prepared to accept that from now on we live like that, and let us take this new reality into account.

But no, we are continuously told: “Of course, we do have values; it is you who have nothing to do with these values because you are not with us”. But wait a minute, your values are such that those not with you also have a voice – “Oh, no, not you.” Why not us? – “Because you re not with us”. And we keep going in circles like that.

00:18:04,720 –> 00:18:06,439

DK. Please, Pshemislav.

00:18:06,439 –> 00:18:15,560

Pshemislav Maschetz, Chief correspondent at the radio RMF

FM” (Poland). First, I would like to thank you for wearing a cross, thank you very much.

00:18:17,759 –> 00:18:21,879

MS. I am pleased but it has nothing to do with you.

00:18:21,879 –> 00:18:30,280

PM. Naturally. Second, if you are talking about the European values, there is no such thing. What values? Who created them? Which philosopher? Who? There is a left-liberal movement, which is dominant in Europe. For example, in Poland the majority of the population does not support these ideas, most Czechs do not, most Croats also, or Serbs, and so on.

I want to ask you about something else. You are a very experienced leader of a significant media outlet. You know that you are supporting the Russia’s interests; you are not working simply as a journalist who does what he/she wants. You are bound; you have personally met more than once with the President of the Russian Federation. . .

00:19:32,000 –> 00:19:33,079

DK. How horrible!

00:19:33,079 –> 00:19:35,639

PM. Why horrible?

00:19:35,639 –> 00:19:40,039

DK. You said it in such a voice: “YOU MET MORE THAT ONCE . . . ” – is that a crime?

00:19:40,039 –> 00:19:51,720

PM. I want to say that you are representing the interests of the Russian Federation as Russia Today. You think this is objective journalism or not?

00:19:51,720 –> 00:20:02,759

MS. My answer to your question. There are dozens, thousands of media outlets representing the interests of countries from which they broadcast. There can be no doubt that CNN represents the interests of the USA and will not in its programming deviate from the US interests. On the site of the BBC World Service several years ago (I don’t know about today), there was a statement that they EXIST in order to bring the British values into the world. When France was creating France24, the President openly stated that he was creating that TV channel to help the world to learn the French position and hear the voice of France. Deutsche Welle exists on the same basis. Not to mention such well known Arabic media as Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya.

Every country has the right to have media that would tell the world the views of that country. We are honest people – twelve years ago, when Russia Today was in the process of being created, I organized a press conference and said: “Friend and colleagues. We are creating a TV channel that will be paid for from the government funds of Russia and will exist for the purpose of broadcasting the Russia’s views about the world as well as tell the world what is happening in Russia.We said it openly 12 years ago.

There is a huge number of media outlets that receive, in a roundabout way, financing from governments, from intelligence services – the American ones, for example. Not to mention huge corporation owning the media that also have their own specific and quite obvious interests, including political ones. The difference is these media do not speak about these things; they pretend that they do not represent anybody’s interests. They are so wonderfully objective; they work exclusively for the sake of the illustrious principles of journalism, and they do not have any position.

The illustrious principles of journalism and a position are not mutually exclusive. We just need to speak about this honestly. What sets us apart from those media is that we never made a secret of it. We are a Russian TV channel; all people working for us know full well that they are working for a Russian media outlet. Our viewers that watch and listen to us also know that. But to pretend that you are not representing, say, a British TV channel, but some sort of general world – this is stupid, dishonest, and mean. Because it can never be like that; every person is . .

00:22:20,159 –> 00:22:20,920

PM. Surely not mean?

00:22:20,920 –> 00:22:23,439

MS. .Do you know why it is mean? Because. . .

00:22:23,439 –> 00:22:25,720

DK. You are lying to your viewers.

00:22:25,720 –> 00:22:33,079

MS. Of course. It is misleading. Every person always has a special background – speaking of objectivity. For example, a person who grew up in a strict Muslim country where the Muslim values are highly respected is sent to report on a gay parade. Can you imaging what position he would display in that reportage? If a person who grew up with liberal values in a small Western European country reports on the same gay parade, he would display a totally different attitude towards the event. Both would insist that they are totally objective, but it is impossible.

00:23:03,479 –> 00:23:10,200

PM. When I studied in the School of Journalism, I was taught that – it was the end of socialism in Poland – I was taught that there is journalism where you tell the facts first and then comment on them. But this type no longer exists.

00:23:21,239 –> 00:23:28,119

MS. This does not exist and has not existed for a long time. I must tell you that in the US this type of journalism never existed. In Europe in some places – perhaps, or at least, there were attempts. But in the US everyone knows which TV channel supports which party; who they support during the elections – they always tell whom they support – and work on the basis of that support.

The American audience does not feel there is anything strange or wrong in such a situation. They know that New York Times supported the Democrats and the Democratic candidate.

It is all very clear; no questions need to be asked. Otherwise, people would have to figure out what the journalists mean and come to conclusions on their own. But here everything is explained to you – just go and vote.

00:24:00,720 –> 00:24:09,439

DK. It is a shame that we do not have any disagreements. First, Pan Pshemislav said that there were no European values – you heard that, Margarita?

00:24:09,439 –> 00:24:11,959

PM. I said that they are undefined.

00:24:11,959 –> 00:24:20,680

DK. If they are undefined it means they do not exist. Then he said that there is no journalism based on facts, either.

00:24:20,680 –> 00:24:26,239

MS. I made a point at the beginning when speaking of the European values, that this are the values as we understood and LOVED them. Indeed, they are not defined in writing anywhere – this is not a Bible, where everything is written and, for a believer, a literal truth. But here it is mostly in the air.

As I understood the European values, they included respect for the rights of minorities, any minorities, not necessarily sexual, but political as well, geopolitical, geographical, national; respect for the rights of a minority to have a voice, a media outlet . .

00:24:58,319 –> 00:25:05,039

PM. The most important value is to avoid another war; it was invented to avoid a war in Europe. It was in the foundation of the European Union – in order to prevent wars. Two the most horrid wars happened in Europe.

00:25:12,400 –> 00:25:18,119

DK. I believe our country has a lot to do with the creation of that value.

00:25:18,119 –> 00:25:26,039

MS. You know full well that in that horrid war in Europe our country lost the largest number of people. And, of course, to avoid a war . .

00:25:26,039 –> 00:25:36,200

PM. I can argue with that. Poland lost 6 million out of 38 million – this is a huge number.

00:25:36,200 –> 00:25:46,839

MS. Nobody is denigrating huge and terrible losses of life by Poland. Here you and I are on the same side of the moral barricades if they do exist. That was a tragedy for our people, for our SOVIET PEOPLES, as well as for your people.

OK, “anything but a war” – that is what I have been hearing since I started differentiate sounds been born in the Soviet Union. That was an uncontested, unquestioned Soviet value. That does not mean it could not be at the same time a European value, since many millions have perished in Europe as well.

00:26:10,000 –> 00:26:10,959

DK. Please, Kristina.

00:26:10,959 –> 00:26:21,839

Kristina Juliano, Chief Correspondent at the Information Agency Askanews (Italy). I wanted to continue your discussion, because recently I received a small gift from a Catholic priest. A writing on it in Latin says: “Give a voice to a minority”, i.e. let speak the people that normally are silent.

I believe you have one big problem – you do you job too well – and this is truly a huge problem.If we continue to cite, we could cite Nietzsche who said: Whatever doe not kill you, makes you stronger”. Possibly, you have just grown too strong lately.

My question is like that: if you had an offer from CNN to work for them, how would you have responded?

00:27:23,039 –> 00:27:28,519

MS. How would I have responded to CNN? Never. Absolutely out of the question.

You know I went to school in the United States. When I was about to go there – it was in mid-1990s, and we all remember what was going on in our country at the time; I was 15 years-old – I was moving there with a thought to remain there permanently. Pretty much all my contemporaries I have known wanted the same in the mid-1990s in a small town of Krasnodar – perhaps, not so small but rather hopeless in 1995. My family dreamed of me staying there, and I had every opportunity to settle in the US.

I returned, because I realized that I could not live anywhere but here. I simply cannot, you understand? And I also realized that “motherland” is not just what we read about in the Soviet textbooks, which we got disillusioned about later; the word at some point felt for us covered with something hypocritical-like.

You remember – of course, you do not, you are a foreigner, but many remember our state of mind in the mid-1990s. We wanted to keep away from that all. But when you do go away . . .

00:28:37,400 –> 00:28:40,879

DK. It is interesting, Margo, the fate of the generation, that of our as well as your – yours is younger than mine. I think that within the Soviet project the generation of the 1980s, the one that went to school in the 1880s . . .

00:28:49,600 –> 00:28:51,519

AS. And in the 1970s.

00:28:51,519 –> 00:29:04,959

DK. Generally speaking, those were well-prepared people; they grew up without a war, in human conditions, with normal food, with excellent education, with good medical care – this was the first generation of the Soviet people that could have upgraded that project. But everything crushed. I believe you talk about this a lot.

00:29:19,239 –> 00:29:25,639

MS. We can talk about this, yes, because I represent the last generation of the Soviet people. Well, as far as food is concerned, we did have difficulties. I remember in my childhood in 1980s mile-long lines, and my mother that woke us at 4 am to wait in line to buy butter, since we could only buy two packs of butter per person, and with all of us we made a crown of 6.

00:29:46,000 –> 00:29:49,239

DK. Yes, but our parents had not seen that butter at all, that’s what I am talking about.

00:29:49,239 –> 00:29:59,959

MS. You know my mother says that in 1960s and 1970s (I do not have personal knowledge of that, naturally, since that was before I was born) the conditions were better than in 1980s.

00:29:59,959 –> 00:30:10,239

DK. I was growing up in 1970s. In reality, the time when everything started to disappear was at the end of 1980s.

00:30:10,239 –> 00:30:12,319

MS. That is was I am saying – that was the time of my childhood.

240

00:30:12,319 –> 00:30:15,639

DK. What was your imprinting? The last years of 1980s.

00:30:15,639 –> 00:30:17,079

MS. The second part of the 1980s.

00:30:17,079 –> 00:30:25,839

DK. You said: “I realized that I could not live anywhere but here”. There is an important distinction: you could not live anywhere but here of your could not live there?

00:30:25,839 –> 00:30:27,959

MS. No, I cannot live anywhere but in in Russia. Nowhere. I would be very unhappy.

00:30:27,959 –> 00:30:30,000

DK. Just in Russia?

00:30:30,000 –> 00:30:41,680

MS. I understand very well the entire Russia emigration literature, which to a large extent is about how those people were unhappy. I realized that when I left. This is impossible to understand until you have the experience. Otherwise, it seems a little silly: such nonsense; there are people everywhere; if you have a good job, if you can have your relative come and join you, everything should be fine.

I am sure there are people that can adapt easily, but there are also rigid people like myself, for whom it is all but impossible to adapt anywhere else. I could leave Russia only if I was expelled, God forbid. This is the answer to you question if I could work for CNN – no, I could not.

However, I do not see anything wrong if some people can. Please, be my guest, if this agrees with your values, your state of mind and your soul – this is a large open world where everyone could find a place. But you asked ME – I most certainly could not.

00:31:21,800 –> 00:31:25,439

DK. Now we will select for ourselves a commercial beak, but right after that – Alexander Sosnovsky.

PART II

00:31:40,360 –> 00:31:45,400

DK. This is “The right to Know!” on the TVCenter channel. We are continuing our discussion with Margarita Simonyan. Alexander, please.

00:31:45,400 –> 00:31:48,680

Alexander Sosnovsky, The Chief Editor of the Internet publication “World Economy” (Germany). Margarita, I have a problem – as a German, I have my text prepared, by out host Dmitrii stole my first question about Pokemons.

00:31:54,680 –> 00:31:55,959

DK. I did not know.

00:31:55,959 –> 00:32:03,280

AS. I very much wanted to know how many Pokemons have you managed to catch today but I am withdrawing my question.

I have a remark about the brown cows BTW. In Germany it sounds differently: “Brown butter comes from cows of company “Roshen” (chocolate company owned by the Ukrainian President Poroshenko)”.

I have a few questions. You must know that the Germans treat the media from Russia very seriously, and Germany has one thing, which we know well ever since Cold War: witch hunt. I can state very cynically that right now in Germany there are all the signs of that witch hunt. Some journalists, one of whom you know well, but I won’t say his name, so that he does not suffer because I said it, feel it. You sure know a Russian journalist and political analyst who a few years ago in an interview he gave to a German newspaper, I don’t remember which one, said that the Americans cut out the Germans’ brains, and that is why Germans do what they do to Germany. Then in Germany this journalist was destroyed. He lost access to all mass media; he is not allowed to speak anywhere; he has all venues closed; but this is considered pretty normal in a country proud of the Article 5 of its Constitution that declares freedom of speech and opinions. There are other examples.

There is another journalist whose name I will disclose with pleasure – Boris Rightschuster, who worked many years in the German publishing house Focus first in Moscow and then in Germany. He denigrates all Russian media, Russian journalists, including me, even though I am not a Russian, but a German journalist. There are other people in Germany spreading lies, to put it mildly. For example, they say that Russian Germans (although I don’t quite understand what is meant by Russian Germans – people can be either Russians or Germans) susceptible to RT propaganda create militant groups, which will affect the forthcoming elections, and other BS on these lines…

00:34:31,119 –> 00:34:33,920

MS. And Pokemons are in the avant guard of these militant groups.

272

00:34:33,920 –> 00:34:41,720

AS. Exactly. Pokemons who you personally catch in the morning.

00:34:41,720 –> 00:34:42,519

MS. Yes, I give them instructions.

00:34:42,519 –> 00:34:51,439

AS. Yes, you give them marching orders. First, I want to congratulate you: any German journalist would be happy if someone puts on him the pressure they put on RT and you personally, which shows that you are strong in Germany.

Here is my question: do you plan to defend dissident journalism in Germany? If the answer is yes, do you have methods to do that? As you know, we are developing in Germany. I hope very much (cross my fingers) that next year or a bit later we will launch a TV channel in German.

00:35:31,879 –> 00:35:41,920

MS. This is my answer to you. Then dissident German journalists will know where to go. Even now we are developing out resources in Germany: we have German-language website, which is, BTW, very popular in German social media, according to stats we get from Germany. So, anyone blocked from mainstream media is welcome, you have an outlet, if you act within law and do not express extremists opinions.

00:36:12,959 –> 00:36:19,319

AS. Then teach Pokemons to speak German. It’s high time.

00:36:19,319 –> 00:36:23,639

MS. You might be amused, I never saw a Pokemon.

00:36:23,639 –> 00:36:32,079

DK. Don’t you deny it, serious forces are investigating in Congress, so you can’t wiggle out of it.

Alexander touched upon this, so I’ll try to move forward about the future of journalism. I fully agree that it’s high time to bury the myth of independent journalism, because it is nothing but a myth.

00:36:51,720 –> 00:36:52,959

AS. Yes, I agree.

00:36:52,959 –> 00:36:58,119

DK. We agreed with Pshemislav that things that seemed carved in stone …

00:36:58,119 –> 00:36:59,159

PM. It does not exist.

00:36:59,159 –> 00:37:04,720

DK. So, the basic principles of the profession are essentially forgotten. What remains?

There will be “songs for the street and songs for the kitchens” (allusion to a Russian rock song of the late eighties), like in the Soviet Union.

00:37:15,519 –> 00:37:19,920

MS. “One set of words for kitchens, another for the streets, and I line up even while kissing” (an allusion to the same song).

00:37:23,159 –> 00:37:27,039

DK. “Where the eagles are overthrown for the sake of broiler chicken” (they are trying to recall the exact lyrics of the song).

Well, this is our past, but for the world that proudly calls itself “civilized”, is this the future?

00:37:35,720 –> 00:37:50,400

MS. Looks like it. I can’t give a different answer. I don’t see any tendencies towards survival of the kind of journalism we were taught in the School of Journalism at the University. I was in college in post-Soviet times, in the late 1990s, and we were taught according to the Western standards. The journalism we dreamed about does not exist anywhere, I don’t see it. I don’t even see the conditions for its existence.

00:38:10,439 –> 00:38:20,959

DK. So, what’s in store for us? They used to threaten us with totalitarianism. Nobody could think that real, global totalitarianism will come from the West.

00:38:20,959 –> 00:38:32,360

MS. Nobody could think that it’s not the volcano inside that would blow up and cover us all; we always tried to learn from the mistakes of our past; we have always been feeling like on top of a volcano, which is about to explode and cover us with totalitarianism. But the molten rock is coming from the outside. That is truly shocking. That has been a great surprise of last few years.

Like someone said that everything we were told about communism turned out to be untrue, but everything we were told about capitalism turned out to be true.

00:38:54,239 –> 00:39:04,879

DK. That’s a joke that contains a grain of a joke. BTW, what do you think about the US leaving UNESCO? This is the area of science, education, culture, media…

00:39:04,879 –> 00:39:06,479

MS. What was wrong with UNESCO, of all things?

00:39:06,479 –> 00:39:10,200

DK. What’s wrong? Well, it did not obey the US.

00:39:10,600 –> 00:39:25,319

AS. Any German journalist who voices his opinion that does not coincide with mainstream opinions will be labeled as “one who understands Putin”. Today in Germany this is an insult. This is horrible. The person is branded, and that’s the end.

00:39:28,800 –> 00:39:41,159

MS. It’s the same in the States. If you dare to express even a neutral position about Russia and Putin, you are branded “Putin’s useful idiot”, and that’s the end. You won’t have access to anything; many experts who contact us and talk with us are hounded. This is like that in all Western countries.

A couple of days ago “The Times” published an editorial saying that all MPs who have talked to RT must be punished. By Pokemons shooting them or Twitter quartering them, perhaps? This is crazy pressure on people to prevent them from working with us and from saying anything different from the “choir song” of the mainstream media.

If this is not totalitarianism, I don’t know what is.

00:40:26,439 –> 00:40:27,200

DK. Please, Maxim.

00:40:27,200 –> 00:40:36,239

MY. Dmitry mentioned the French theme I love, so I will also turn to it. I must say that while asking this question I do not mean your media. I did not see, maybe because I don’t need to listen to English-language news, so I don’t know whether Russia Today twisted something, so the question is not about you. It’s about our colleagues, who while reporting pre-election situation in France did too much propaganda and misreported the real picture.

We all remember what was said about then candidate Macron – like anti-Russian, US agent vying for power. Well, he came to power, and nothing bad happened, on the contrary, the relations with Russia improved. To the surprise and possibly disappointment of many, he quickly invited Putin to the Versailles, which goes against the talk about blockade or isolation of Russia in Europe. Now, as we found out recently, Macron plans to go to St.Petersburg to the Economic Forum as one of the two main guests. In the Minsk-Normandy format, he showed himself as an adequate, understanding, even comfortable partner for Putin.

Do you think this situation with France would teach something our colleagues, who have become too beholden to propaganda and are trying to push wrong impressions upon their audience? That is to say, they push their idiosyncrasies, their phobias onto the audience, which have little to do with the reality, whereas the reality is not all that scary?

00:42:17,800 –> 00:42:31,360

MS. I think you offend our colleagues for nothing. They don’t push their own phobias or opinions – they are just reporters. You are a columnist and analysts; your job is different. You carefully read, analyze, plan ahead, draw your conclusions. Reporters have a more immediate high-speed job. They report what is happening here and now.

People who said that Macron was very negative on Russia were just listening to what he was saying at that moment. He did say that. His chief of electoral staff built his whole campaign on fighting Russia and Russian media. That was the main theme of their election campaign.

It’s the same situation as with Trump, only the reverse. Trump before the elections was saying that he will have good relations with Putin, but as soon as he was elected, started offering us his “gifts” in Syria, confiscating embassies, and so on.

One needs to have either your vast experience in analysis, or totally perverted mentality to think that someone, like Macron, for a few months during his campaign repeatedly declares one thing, bit as soon as he is elected, he is going to do the exact opposite. This tells us once again that journalism . .

00:43:50,319 –> 00:43:52,360

DK. This tells us a lot about the values of democracy.

00:43:52,360 –> 00:44:06,239

MS. Journalism, in my mind, is a lot more straightforward, open, and honest profession than politics. Someone said that Russia is bad and Putin is bad, one thinks that would be his policy. To imagine that he will build all his campaign on this, and right after the elections become almost our best friend, by today’s standards, you have to be not a reporter, but someone else.

00:44:17,000 –> 00:44:29,519

MS. You mentioned embassies and the latest story with flags over our consulate buildings in the States: they took them down, or, as we sometimes say, tore hem down…

00:44:29,519 –> 00:44:31,159

MS. They promised to return them to us.

00:44:31,159 –> 00:44:41,479

DK. They said that they took them down with all due respect, carefully folded, maybe even ironed, as every American respects the national flag. What is this: cynicism, hypocrisy, what word should I use?

00:44:48,280 –> 00:44:57,319

MS. This is it. Every American respects the AMERICAN flag. All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. The same applies to flags.

Aren’t you annoyed as much as I am when the Americans talk internally about wars they lead, and they always say: “this many American lives were lost”? Only the life of an American matters, because nobody dives a damn how many non-American lives were lost.

00:45:20,600 –> 00:45:22,400

DK. They were never interested in the Indians, that is true.

00:45:22,400 –> 00:45:26,680

MS. I mean current wars, Iraq, Syria…

00:45:26,680 –> 00:45:29,680

DK. I’d like to point out the origins of this cultural archetype…

00:45:29,680 –> 00:45:41,079

MS. The others are disposable: the loss of American lives is a tragedy, whereas the lives of others aren’t that valuable. This is part of the mentality, or, more like, political culture. That is the kind of political culture they have.

00:45:50,319 –> 00:45:57,280

DK. This is the exceptionalism they are proud of. This is just the other side of the same coin.

00:45:57,280 –> 00:46:10,839

MS. Absolutely, this is the dough that the ideas of exceptionalism are made of. And it could no be any other way. Let me tell you how American schools function.

First, in every room of every American school there is an American flag, in EVERY room. In the morning children come to school, and every morning in any American school starts with children standing up, putting their hand on their hearts and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. I still know it by heart; I was allowed not to say it, because I went to the administration and said that I could not pledge allegiance to the American flag, as I was a Russian citizen. They said it was a tradition – I am glad that this is a tradition, but I won’t do that. Out of politeness and respect I stood up, but silently.

Here is the pledge of allegiance to the American flag: “I pledge allegiance to the flag and great Republic that stands behind it. One nation under God with freedom and justice for all”.

From the time when you are 6 years-old all every day you say this mantra. Any psychiatrist would tell you that this becomes ingrained in your blood, cells, bone marrow, that you live in a great country with freedom and justice for all.

00:47:19,800 –> 00:47:24,119

DK. But Octyabrists and Pioneers (Soviet youth organizations) represent reprehensible totalitarianism.

00:47:26,239 –> 00:47:37,319

MS. When you grow up, who would doubts that he lives in a country with freedom and justice for all? But we do have some doubt that the country that has more prisoners per capita than any other might not quite represent freedom and justice for all. You are not supposed to doubt that because . . .

00:47:46,759 –> 00:47:48,879

DK. That ruins the faith…

00:47:48,879 –> 00:47:58,759

MS. This is indoctrination. You live with that faith from the age of six, you are repeatedly told this, so what’s the difference from what we just talked about?

00:47:58,759 –> 00:48:07,560

DK. There is no difference. They built it following our example. In the Soviet Union, the first thing you were supposed to say when you joined the children of October was that you believe in communism.

00:48:07,560 –> 00:48:08,959

MS. I think they did that before the Soviet Union.

00:48:08,959 –> 00:48:10,200

DK. If you do not say that you believe . . .

00:48:10,200 –> 00:48:12,000

MS. They started before us.

00:48:12,000 –> 00:48:13,519

DK. Surely not?

00:48:13,519 –> 00:48:15,639

MY. Children were admitted to Octyabrists automatically.

00:48:15,639 –> 00:48:28,079

DK. Margarita, they did this in the fifties. Pshemislav mentioned philosophy, and here it is: some American philosophers and looking at the Soviet project ecided that if they didn’t achieve non-reflexive belief in their democracy as the basis of American greatness, they would lose to the Soviet Union. It was clearly stated in the early fifties.

00:48:45,959 –> 00:48:59,119

PM. Sorry, I would like to interrupt you. This happened in the US after the Civil War. They needed unity of the people. That is why the flag came to be.

00:48:59,119 –> 00:49:10,600

MS. The Civil war in the US ended in 1865, 50 years before Russian revolution, in 1885, in the middle of the 19th century. That’s when it started, but the conditions for it …

00:49:10,600 –> 00:49:18,280

PM. It was necessary to create a nation. The US is not a nation; it consists of migrants. They wanted to create a nation. And they did that.

00:49:18,280 –> 00:49:31,920

MS. This is understandable. It is nice when the country loves itself so much and is so saturated with patriotism. It did not start only after the Civil war. After the Civil war they started to think about it more, but as early as in 1776, in 18th century, when the Declaration of Independence was published, in that Declaration there are elements of it: an appeal to God, a statement of pre-determination of the American greatness and its values. This is very good for them, but too bad for us.

00:50:05,039 –> 00:50:07,479

PM. That’s true. They think they are the best in the world. 00:50:09,079 –> 00:50:13,119

DK. Let’s make a commercial break, and then Christina will continue.

00:50:26,400 –> 00:50:32,319

DK. This is the program “The Right to Know!” On the TV Center channel. We continue our discussion with Margarita Simonyan. Christina, please.

00:50:32,319 –> 00:50:46,360

KJ. Margarita, I know that before you were a war reporter, at least I read about it, although I might be wrong. Don’t you think that war is your destiny?

00:50:46,360 –> 00:50:59,839

MS. No. First, before taking over RT I was a reporter in different areas, and did not have trips to war zones too often. Yes, they were, but they weren’t too numerous.

I HATE war. Those war trips are one of the reasons for that. I hate war and try to do everything in my power to, at least, try to prevent wars. Listen, I am a woman and a mother; I have two kids. No normal woman who has children can enjoy war or think that the war is her destiny. God forbid.

I believe that a one-sided view of the world, which existed and was considered self-evident in the media before we and others like us appeared, leads to wars. Look what was done to Iraq. There was not a single voice in the media that would say: wait a minute. With the jubilant support of practically all Western media the country was essentially destroyed, and then it became apparent that there was no reason for that – there were no WMDs.

I don’t have any illusions that many other wars would’ve started and ended, without anyone being the wiser if the journalists who happen to be on the other side of these insane barricades did not try to oppose it.

00:52:34,360 –> 00:52:54,119

DK. There is also our policy. Our decisions in Ukraine and Syria clearly drew the red line that we won’t back beyond. I think it made some people pause.

00:52:54,119 –> 00:53:15,879

KJ. I wanted to add that what’s happening in the media feels like a war, a war that goes on all the time. It impedes understanding, as our readers and your viewers…

Well, maybe you’re your viewers understand better, as you still have investigations, documentary materials. Unfortunately, most viewers and readers do not read much, mostly via Internet, and essentially does not understand anything. he only understands that there is a war, don’t you think? Wouldn’t the war prevent people from understanding?

00:53:55,920 –> 00:54:05,639

MS. I am not sure I quite understand your question. That most readers/ viewers are not much interested in politics and don’t understand much is a fact. In a way, it is good.

People get really interested in politics when they feel cornered. Because until they are cornered, they are interested in their family, their children, their gardens and houses. Not everyone should be involved in politics or journalism. People have a right for a private life. I can tell you that when I leave my job, I am going to be more than happy not to read any news and not to be interested in anything except my house and garden, and my children, unless they will be retired by then.

00:54:41,839 –> 00:54:57,720

DK. I think that in Christina’s question implied that formally a lot of people consume news. Everything is designed for it. You can’t live alone your phone even here. Me too.

00:54:57,720 –> 00:54:58,680

MS. This is my job.

00:54:58,680 –> 00:55:05,560

DK. I understand. But those who have no job are even less inclined to let go of their phones, even though they don’t work.

00:55:05,560 –> 00:55:09,920

MS. I do not understand those people.

00:55:09,920 –> 00:55:20,560

DK. They read it from daybreak to the night, social media, news outlets, receive messages. There is an avalanche of news delivered to you.

Question is, there is an abundance of news, but do the people understand what they read, and whether this pluralism (as Gorbachev would have said) leads to understanding. Basically, a person who understands is what we should be aiming at, as understanding person comes first, intelligent person comes second, and not the other way around.

00:55:47,159 –> 00:55:56,680

MS. It is a great mistake to think that others are dumber than you are. And to believe that people are dumber than they are. To believe that people understand less than you do.

People do understand. But there are people who are interested in it, and people who aren’t. I live in the same house with my mom and my mother-in-law. On weekends we all meet. My mother-in-law is my most eager viewer. She is going to watch your program and then tell me what was right and what was wrong, etc. She watches it all. Any time I knock on her door, she is watching your show, or Soloviev’s, or Russia-24, or something else on these lines. My mom, on the other hand, does not watch anything ever, I don’t even know why she keeps a TV.

These are two extremes: people, who are following everything, like my mother-in-law, or those who are only interested in grandchildren, garden, orchard, etc, like my mom. I can’t say that one of them understands less than the other. The only difference is, one is interested, and the other isn’t. People who are interested, let them watch, they will figure it out.

00:57:09,079 –> 00:57:14,039

DK. That’s what I am saying: consumption of the news does not lead to better understanding – this is an objective fact.

Not to mention that there is another aspect: if you watch a Western channel, you hear that Russians are fighting in Ukraine; Russians occupied Donbass; it’s full of Buryat regiments. But nobody makes an effort to find out whether they are really fighting there, or not.

00:57:32,360 –> 00:57:50,879

KJ. An example: there is room to tell that it’s a war, but not to see whether Russia is involved, what is really happening. Nobody in the West is telling how much Moscow has changed. The reason is this continuing war.

00:58:00,159 –> 00:58:02,439

MS. Why don’t you tell this at your agency.

00:58:02,439 –> 00:58:04,280

KJ. I am trying.

00:58:04,280 –> 00:58:06,519

DK. We don’t have much time, so let’s be brief.

00:58:06,519 –> 00:58:09,479

KJ. This does not help my career, by the way.

00:58:09,479 –> 00:58:12,879

DK. Please, ask one quick question.

00:58:12,879 –> 00:58:21,319

PM. I have a simple provocative question: is RT a weapon of the Russian Federation or not?

00:58:21,319 –> 00:58:27,479

MS. RT is not a weapon of anyone, the Russian Federation or anybody else. RT is not a weapon. It is a TV channel, a few websites, social media that connect super-professional people, many of whom risk their lives daily in Syria and other “pleasant” places in order to tell…

00:58:42,639 –> 00:58:47,959

PM. Question: can you talk to the president of the Russian Federation? On the phone?

00:58:47,959 –> 00:59:00,280

MS. Me? Of course not. You mean to call Putin? No, I can’t. That would be nice. I think if I could do that, I wouldn’t be sitting here.

00:59:00,280 –> 00:59:01,159

PM. To ask questions?

00:59:01,159 –> 00:59:02,400

MS. No, of course not.

00:59:02,400 –> 00:59:18,039

AS. The issue of understanding is very important. A few years ago one of Russian leaders said something about Kiev and Ukraine: “We could have reached Kiev in three days”. Virtually in all German media this phrase was changed to “we will reach Kiev in three days”, so “could have” was omitted.

00:59:28,479 –> 00:59:30,280

MS. Sure, such a minor detail.

00:59:30,280 –> 00:59:39,119

AS. Of course, these are minor things. I had to explain at some talk shows the specifics of the Russian language.

What I want to say is that despite the strictness, punctuality, and reserve of the Germans, their mentality is similar to the Russian. I believe that RT does not make a full use of such a thing as the sense of humor that you demonstrate. It’s a pleasure to talk to you, you are funny, you react quickly. I think that RT should use this quality, which is present in the German mentality as well, and not just limit yourself to dry information.

01:00:11,159 –> 01:00:14,200

DK. Have you seen the video Margarita produced about RT?

01:00:14,200 –> 01:00:16,600

AS. I have seen it, but the Germans need to see it, too.

01:00:16,600 –> 01:00:30,360

MS. I can assure you, we are the most sarcastic, full of irony, and funny TV channel among all information outlets. Right now in Europe we use our ad, which is very funny…

01:00:30,360 –> 01:00:31,959

AS. I know.

01:00:31,959 –> 01:00:42,600

MS. You saw it? It is really funny and full of irony: “CIA calls are propaganda outlet; Do you want to know what we call CIA? Watch RT”. We run many ads like that. If we open a TV channel in German, we will use our sense of humor there, as well.

01:00:52,680 –> 01:00:54,159

DK. Christina, do you have a question?

01:00:54,159 –> 01:01:00,439

KJ. Yes. What does Putin mean for you?

01:01:00,439 –> 01:01:01,560

MS. Putin? Perhaps, not “what” but “who”? Putin is the president of the Russian Federation. No more, no less.

01:01:08,079 –> 01:01:17,280

KJ. How much does the image of Russia as a victor help you?

01:01:17,280 –> 01:01:18,800

MS. Russia as a victor?

01:01:18,800 –> 01:01:36,079

KJ. Yes, I think the Putin’s image is the image of a victor. Thanks to Putin, we also perceive Russia as a victor. Don’t you feel that?

01:01:36,079 –> 01:01:43,759

MS. You know, in contrast to the Western media, I do not equate Putin and Russia. Putin is the president of the Russian Federation. I worked in the Kremlin pool from the age of 20, since 2000, when he became the President. Still, my country is not Putin, with all due respect to the President elected by the whole population, to what he is doing.

I support many aspects of his policy, first of all his foreign policy, but my country is Russia. It appeared before Putin and will end after him. These are two different things.

01:02:15,680 –> 01:02:17,879

DK. Let me correct you: it will NOT end after him.

01:02:17,879 –> 01:02:18,759

MS. That’s what I said.

01:02:18,759 –> 01:02:20,159

DK. Will NOT end.

01:02:23,079 –> 01:02:34,239

MS. I believe he understands this perfectly well and feels the same way about it. The Western media believes Putin and Russia to be one and the same, but this is an oversimplification, usual for journalism in all countries. Our journalism also simplifies. For a person, who grew up here and keenly feels that this is his Motherland, things are more complicated.

01:02:49,639 –> 01:02:51,319

DK. Maxim, please.

01:02:51,319 –> 01:02:58,800

MY. My question is to you as a person familiar with the US. You know it professionally and you lived there as a teenager, so you feel it.

Here is my question, about a different President, not Putin, but the President of another superpower, Mr. Trump. The things he is doing now create an impression of not just an elephant, but a herd of elephants in a china shop. He destroyed everything he could, abandoned lots of agreements, I don’t even want to list them all, you know them all. He brought us all to the brink of war with North Korea; I am not even going to discuss what he did with regard to Russia. He quarreled with the media, with the elite of his own party, and competes in terms of IQ (good thing this is just IQ!) with his own Secretary of State.

So, the question: will he last until the end of his first term, or American elites will find a way to get rid of him?

01:03:45,800 –> 01:03:58,280

MS. I don’t like to prognosticate, so I have no idea whether he will last. I think it’s even money. Clearly,American elite is doing everything to get rid of him. Blaming us for connections with Pokemons is a link in that very chain. Another thing is more interesting. We don’t know what awaits us, but we can analyze what happened literally yesterday.

What Trump is was known for a long time to all Americans. Trump was not launched by the Russians as a Russian rocket to land in Washington and become a President. He is a well-known persona, has been for years, a TV presenter, and many other things, and a billionaire, too. The whole country knew what he is like.

Now, can you imagine how sick and tired the country and its people were of its own establishment, including all media (all US media were against Trump), everything that is covered by the word “establishment”. They elected Trump just to spite this establishment.

01:04:56,519 –> 01:05:14,079

DK. Well. I will continue the line that Maxim started, about predictions. Here is a test situation: Ukraine adopted a law about teaching exclusively in Ukrainian, their law of education. Civilized Europe was outraged. Hungary was outraged, Romania, even Poles.

01:05:22,920 –> 01:05:24,479

PM. The Poles did not, not quite.

01:05:24,479 –> 01:05:32,959

DK. Perhaps, but they did a little. They threaten to create problems with Euro-association, voiced their outrage at the European Parliamentary Assembly.

Just yesterday Mr. Klimkin, Ukrainian Foreign Minister, said: “No need to get so excited; we will exclude from this law the languages of countries that are the EU members”. I have a question for you: they will exclude Hungarian, Romanian from this discriminatory law, but Russian will remain. Do you think Europe will shut up?

01:06:03,800 –> 01:06:07,959

MS. I am sure Europe would not just shut up – Europe will applaud.

01:06:08,959 –> 01:06:10,000

DK. The will be glad?

01:06:10,000 –> 01:06:11,079

MS. Of course. They will give a standing ovation.

01:06:11,079 –> 01:06:13,200

DK. You mean they will be happy that their problem is solved.

01:06:13,200 –> 01:06:22,759

PM. Let me jump in. Please tell me, in Russian schools in every part of Russia students are taught in what language? In Russian? Right or not? Tatars learn in Russian, is that right? Everybody is taught in Russian, true?

01:06:39,839 –> 01:06:43,600

DK. No, there are national schools in the Russian Federation.

01:06:43,600 –> 01:06:45,239

PM. Perhaps, I do not know everything.

01:06:45,239 –> 01:06:55,560

MS. Of course not. My sister, who went to school in Adler, where half of the students were taught in Armenian, even though Armenian is not even a language of the Russian Federation: Armenians have their own country, Armenia.

01:07:01,079 –> 01:07:12,039

PM. You mean to say that what Ukraine is doing is wrong. But they have an identity problem in their nation.

01:07:12,039 –> 01:07:19,039

DK. This way you can easily come to justify any racism.

01:07:19,039 –> 01:07:22,119

PM. I don’t want to justify racism.

01:07:22,119 –> 01:07:37,759

DK. The logic is, I have a problem, therefore, I am a racist. The Ukrainian education minister said that this is the kind of law we have. But you understand, Crimea left because they did not study Ukrainian there. First of all, this is a lie. They did study Ukrainian in all schools in Crimea, all student. But she lies publicly, and it is accepted.

The reaction to that law of the “civilized” Europe, those “enlightened” elves, will be as you say, Margarita, unfortunately.

01:08:01,920 –> 01:08:04,519

PM. There is declaration of the European Parliamentary Assembly saying that this law is wrong.

01:08:04,519 –> 01:08:05,839

AS. This is just a declaration.

01:08:05,839 –> 01:08:13,000

DK.Thing is, when they remove Hungarian, Romanian, and Polish from that law, it will immediately become “right”. That is what Margarita and I believe.

Thanks to everyone for this interesting discussion! I will see you in a week as usual.

About the Author

MARGARITA SIMONYAN—“They are fighting with Trump through us. They would have not fought with us that actively – they always disliked us – but they would have not fought with us if they haven’t had a goal to somehow squeeze and damage Trump.They aren’t that much interest in us as such; they are now simply whipping up this hysterics because of Trump. This is quite obvious. However, the arguments they use to achieve this goal are beyond any measure of good or evil…”

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Washington orders RT America to register as foreign agent by Monday

HELP ENLIGHTEN YOUR FELLOWS. BE SURE TO PASS THIS ON. SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON IT.

A dispatch from RT.com
Published time: 9 Nov, 2017

Government censorship in action: Welcome to the land of the free...

Washington will apply its Foreign Agents Registration Act to RT America, the channel has announced. The Department of Justice has given the broadcaster until Monday to register as a foreign agent, otherwise the channel’s head faces arrest and its accounts could be frozen.

The piece of legislation was adopted in the US in 1938 to counter pro-Nazi agitation on US soil. Washington has made the decision to apply the act towards the company that supplies all services for RT America on its territory, including TV production and operations. Just over 400 entities are currently registered under the legislation, but it does not include a single media outlet.

US DOJ uses WWII-era legislation to demand that RT supplier register as a ‘foreign agent’

In September, the DOJ sent a letter to the company, claiming it is obligated to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) due to the work it does for RT. The law demands the disclosure of the channel's confidential data, including the personal data of its staff. The move "will have serious legal consequences" and "compromise the safety of [RT] employees," the Russian Foreign Ministry previously explained.

RT's editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, said on Thursday that the timeframe provided for the company by the DoJ is a "cannibalistic deadline." She previously said that the channel was being forced into "conditions in which we cannot work" in the US, and called Washington's demand an attempt to "drive [RT] out of the country."

Simonyan had said the decision put freedom of speech in the US under question. RT has been under pressure for showing the American audience "a different point of view," the editor-in-chief added.

The Department of Justice’s decision is “a dirty political game,” the chair of Russia’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Senator Konstantin Kosachev told journalists on Thursday. Saying that particular Russian media has been “selected” by US lawmakers, the senator called the move “an obviously discriminatory measure.” He went on to point out that there are “dozens and even hundreds” of foreign media operating in the US, including TV channels financed by foreign states, but none of those have been targeted.

RT

✔@RT_com

‘If RT leaves the US, American media might stop broadcasting in Russia’ – RT editor-in-chief https://on.rt.com/8oo2

6:50 AM - Oct 1, 2017

‘If RT leaves the US, American media might stop broadcasting in Russia’ – RT editor-in-chief — RT...

Owing to the US campaign to have RT registered as a foreign agent, the channel will “in the worst-case scenario” be forced to stop broadcasting in America, which will trigger reciprocal measures...

The decision has nothing to do with setting up due process, Kosachev said. It is rather aimed at media which broadcast content “inconvenient” for US authorities. This means sharing information on its foreign and domestic policies, he explained, calling the decision an “infringement of freedom of speech.”

Moscow earlier warned that the US move towards the Russian channel would trigger reciprocal measures in regards to American media working in Russia. "If someone starts to fight dirty, perverting the law by using it as a tool to eradicate the TV station, every move aimed against the Russian media outlet would be repaid in kind," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

APPENDIX
Video materials

‘Unprecedented pressure’ on RT in America, we’re being forced out – Editor-in-Chief

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How Big is My Tribe? The Crisis in Catalonia

HELP ENLIGHTEN YOUR FELLOWS. BE SURE TO PASS THIS ON. SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON IT.

by JOHN K. WHITE

If my tribe is the world, I am concerned about nuclear proliferation, global warming, and the plight of refugees, some of whom are still fleeing war-torn countries and conflicts started in my name to protect our fossil-fuel burning past. If my tribe is my nation, I may want to discourage others enlisting and using my resources for free, unless I need them for cheap work as in the US and Canada, or to take care of me in my old age since fertility rates in Europe have fallen below the essential “replacement level” of 2.1 (Portugal, Spain, and Greece 1.3, France and Ireland 1.9, the EU average 1.6).

Indeed, there is much wrangling these days over what is yours and what is mine, though perhaps it has ever been thus. The UK (majority only in England and Wales) wants out of Europe to be separated by more than just the English Channel (a.k.a. La Manche on the French side), the red rural and blue urban American states are in a permanent state of bicker, while Catalonia (Cataluña/Catalunya) is split in half, unable to muster any call to common cause. Hopefully, we can agree on something to unite us within our narrow worlds without resorting to schoolyard name calling. Honestly, Pocahontas – is that the level of discourse President Punk has stooped to?

Part of the problem is a loss of identity in our new-world melange of everything. Am I Irish because of birth, Canadian because of upbringing, or a long hyphenated list of this and that because of a mixed genetic past? Is anyone a purebred? What exactly is that today? Barack Obama is part English, German, Irish, Scottish, Swiss, Welsh, Kenyan, and American. Perhaps that’s the real story in Trump’s misty-eyed MAGA white world.

In Cataluña/Catalunya, the elephant in the room is the extent of “popular” support for independence from Spain. As everyone knows the 90% number is not real, fashioned by a quick-trigger premier wanting to show his overlords the extent of his meaning and the 10% in his coalition his resolve. Fifty-fifty is more like it, a coin flip at best, and not the stuff to step unguided into the unknown, with or without the law. If 90% of all Catalans actually wanted to split from a centuries-old Spanish hold, few of us would be able to deny that right, automatic entry into the European Union and further border disputes notwithstanding. But be careful of push-button democracy, with or without a functioning populist Twitter account, the minorities among us all have rights. And that minority is larger than you think. In fact, the minority is as large as you want it to be, a line at which I stand at the front.

The law is our guide, though of course any law can be changed. Even the U.S. Constitution can be changed, most recently in 1992 to codify congressional pay raises and in 1971 to set the voting age at 18. No women’s suffrage (1920), no alcohol (1919, repealed in 1933), and slavery (1865) were all deemed laws of the land at one time until deemed unlawful at another. Mutable laws are always up for discussion, though hopefully not after each election as the new bums throw out the old bums, having previously thrown out the older bums.

Immutable laws are much harder to etch in stone, though presumably a central sun, gravity, and heat-absorbing atmospheric gases (CO₂ and CH₄) are not open for too much time-wasting discussion. Alas, everything seems up for debate now, including whether to trust the solid no-pass line in the middle of the road, considered law by some or just a suggestion drawn up by an overpaid, soon-to-be-pensioned, government lackey by others.

To be sure, realpolitik is more nuanced. Spain and Catalonia are suffering the gamesmanship of its leaders, the right-wing Partido Popular (PP) leader, Mariano Rajoy, choosing a no-negotiation, the-law-is-the-law (fair or not) “indissoluble union of the Spanish nation,” borders-are-immutable route, while Carles Puigdemont of the Partit Demòcrata Europeu Català (PDeCAT) continues cart-wheeling off the high board based on a slim parliamentary majority and a highly irregular October 1 poll (1-O in Spanish-styled dating). Not what one usually hears on Ellen, Conan, or the Jimmies, or indeed from el Gran Wyoming, the host of El Intermedio, Spain’s most popular political satire show.

Indeed the 1-0 Puigdemont poll was unlike earlier referenda in Quebec in 1980 and 1995, Scotland in 2014, or the UK in 2016, which were sanctioned by all parties. In 1980 in Quebec, 60% voted no to negotiating “sovereignty association” on a turnout of 86%, while in 1995 51% voted no to independence on a 94% turnout. In 1979 and 1997, Scotland was asked to vote on devolution (approved the second time by 74% of voters on a 60% turnout), and then on independence in 2014 when 55% voted no to the question “Should Scotland be an independent country?” on a turnout of 85%.

In each case, separatist parties held majorities in their parliaments, but only in Catalonia did a majority not vote in the independence poll. Separatism requires unimpeachable numbers, no matter the sweat required to get there. Even the question asked has to be approved down to the final punctuation mark to avoid favouring one side over the other. One can also ask about Spanish electoral practice that weights rural votes more than urban votes, as noxious to some as the American Electoral College electing Donald Trump president 304-227 when Hillary Clinton polled almost 3 million more votes. Or indeed the fairness of filling a 100-strong American senate in lots of 2 that gives Wyoming (pop. 590,000) as many senators as California (pop. 39 million).

One can also ask who gets the children after a divorce. What happens if smaller regions of Catalunya want to break away from their newly crowned masters as some have already indicated in the event of secession? Or if the Catalan parts of France and the Valencian Community want to join the most modern of Club Meds? The borders can become messier than a Brady Bunch family reunion. Where will Barça FC play, no small detail in any settlement?

Indeed, borders are never simple. In the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, Ireland was partitioned into the nine counties of Northern Ireland and the twenty-three counties of the Irish Free State, although Northern Ireland soon became six counties after three chose to join the South as prescribed in the Treaty’s Boundary Commission (Note, Ulster is thus not synonymous with Northern Ireland). I suppose, we can keep pulling parts of the North into the South to cement our differences, although had all of Ulster remained part of the North a united all-Ireland republic might be closer to reality today, that is, assuming a unity vote greater than 50% could more easily be achieved in a nine-county North. No doubt, the north of the North would object to any such proclamation….

Devolved local power is good, doubling up on essential services everywhere not so good, standing armies on every border a throwback to city-state empires of the Middle Ages. Isn’t the smallest government that ensures equal rights for all the best, satisfying both libertarians and socialists? Yes, not easily got, but sadly the goal of today’s political puppeteers is to keep the important issues off the front pages – inequality, climate change, deregulation – to discuss instead the personalities of the players, a 24/7 megaphone circus full of repeated “breaking news” sound bites. What about the millions who don’t want independence? Who demands their voices to be heard?

Yes, elections is the way to go Senyor Puigdemont as you build your case for change, but one builds from the foundation up, brick by brick. One doesn’t build a house of straw and ask the world to admire it. Democracy is not dead (even amid European administration or the constitutional quagmire of Spain), it’s just very hard. Knock on doors, send letters/emails/tweets, hold town-hall meetings, bang on pots and pans, anything to build support. There is a case for Catalan independence if that’s what a majority of Catalans want.

It is true that money corrupts more today than ever and that electoral machines have a powerful hold on our media and our choices. Citizens United is anything but and indeed the DNC is its own modern-day Tammany Hall, while fake news lurks on social media. But despite the fears of a vanishing past, voters can see the truth in front of them. We just need confidence in the product.

We get the word “revolution” from Nicolaus Copernicus, the Polish astronomer who changed the way we think about the heavens with the publication of his 1543 book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), which spawned the use of revolution to mean radical change. When the time comes for an incontrovertible idea to flower, we will all carry it. Now is not the time to rip ourselves apart because of our differences, but to unite over how much we have in common.

Want to dump Trump? Want to be independent from or stay a part of Europe, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Spain? Get out and vote. Check your anger at the door and talk back with a loud X. Everyone, everywhere, tell the world your mind. We should all be fighting against inequality, influence peddling, offshore tax havens, sexual harassment, profit-only deregulation, dwindling rights, …, not each other. There are bigger issues at stake than the size of our individual differences.

Most importantly, do not demand only your rights, but those of everyone. That is the spirit of all revolutions, yours and mine. Onwards from D-21 to beyond.

About the Author

John K. White, an adjunct lecturer in the School of Physics, University College Dublin, and author of Do The Math!: On Growth, Greed, and Strategic Thinking(Sage, 2013). Do The Math! is also available in a Kindle edition. He can be reached at: john.white@ucd.ie.

JOHN K WHITE—The former Catalan leader Artur Mas, however, has stated Catalunya is not ready, while Santi Vila, one of the gang of 14 charged by the Spanish court, has already broken from the main, preferring constitutional reform to a unilateral declaration of independence. Tolstoy wrote that “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Perhaps every unhappy rebel is also unhappy in his or her own way.

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Washington orders RT America to register as foreign agent by Monday

A dispatch from RT.com Published time: 9 Nov, 2017

Government censorship in action: Welcome to the land of the free...

‘If RT leaves the US, American media might stop broadcasting in Russia’ – RT editor-in-chief — RT...

‘Unprecedented pressure’ on RT in America, we’re being forced out – Editor-in-Chief

How Big is My Tribe? The Crisis in Catalonia

A dispatch from RT.com
Published time: 9 Nov, 2017