By Alec Luhn | VICE News

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[dropcap]US[/dropcap] intelligence agencies killed opposition leader Boris Nemtsov to orchestrate a regime change in Russia, pro-Kremlin activists that include a senator and the leader of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s favorite biker gang said at a press conference in Moscow.

Referring to the pro-Western Euromaidan protests in Kiev that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, the leaders of Russia’s “Anti-Maidan” movement said Nemtsov had become the “first victim of Maidan in Russia” when he was killed by four bullets to the back in view of the Kremlin on Friday night. Pundits in state media have often argued the Kiev protests were a US-organized “coup” that brought a “fascist junta” to power.

A former prime minister, Nemtsov had written several reports on state corruption and was reportedly working on one about Russian military support for rebels in eastern Ukraine. But nationalist author Nikolai Starikov argued at the press conference that the opposition leader had actually been an asset of US intelligence who had worked against Russia’s interests throughout his career.

“To me it’s obvious that the instigators of Nemtsov’s murder were his American curators, who always use the same methods. As soon as a revolutionary becomes ineffective, as soon as his death will bring more use than his activities, they kill him, then create a big furor around it to give his death more significance,” he said.

Starikov has long been a voice of warning against “Anglo-Saxon” conspiracies and has written such books as “1917: Not a Revolution, But an Intelligence Operation” and “Russia’s Main Enemy: All Evil Comes from the West.” He was joined by Senator Dmitry Sablin, a former deputy of the ruling United Russia party in the lower house of parliament, and Alexander “Surgeon” Zaldostanov, the head of the Night Wolves biker gang who has often been photographed with the Russian president. Putin once even rode a three-wheel Harley alongside Zaldostanov during a visit to Novorossiysk in 2011.

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Sablin, Starikov and Zaldostanov had announced in January that they were creating an “Anti-Maidan” movement to fight pro-democracy protests against Putin’s government. Anti-Maidan members later shouted down peace activists at a protest against the conflict between the government and Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine.

In February, Zaldostanov and thousands others came out for an Anti-Maidan march in downtown Moscow to mark the anniversary of the “coup” against Yanukovych, carrying signs such as “We Don’t Need American Democracy,” “Putin Is Our President” and “We Don’t Need Your Western Ideology!”

Opposition leaders and political analysts have said Nemtsov’s killing was far more likely linked to an “atmosphere of hatred” toward Kremlin critics than foreign intelligence services. Patriotic paranoia had been spread by state-controlled television coverage during the Ukraine crisis and was given expression by Putin, who warned of a “fifth column” of “national traitors” during a broadcast in December. Several analysts have argued that the most likely culprit is an ultranationalist or Kremlin-linked group seeking to push Putin to continue military support for rebels in eastern Ukraine rather than work toward a peace plan agreed in Minsk, Belarus, in February.

In a suggestion that it may also secretly suspect the far right, Russia’s investigative committee appointed Igor Krasnov, a detective known for successful investigations of nationalists accused of political murders, to head the Nemtsov case.

But Starikov argued that Nemtsov’s killing was a “classic example” of the “Maidan technologies” used by US intelligence to orchestrate coups in Ukraine and other countries. He added that it was actually the “democratic opposition” (i.e., “western-style government supporter} that was promoting intolerance and unrest, reading out quotes by anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny and other prominent activists and journalists criticizing Russia and its population. [Navalny is notorious for his close ties with the CIA and State Department destabilization tools like the NED, etc.—Eds] “Who is really creating this atmosphere of hate? We need to pay attention to these people, they are indirectly responsible for the murder of Boris Nemtsov,” he said.

Zaldostanov complained that Anti-Maidan activists wearing the St. George’s ribbon, a Russian symbol for military victories widely worn by Putin supporters, had been prevented from joining Sunday’s 50,000-strong memorial march for Nemtsov. The ribbon has become an unofficial symbol of the Russia-backed rebellion in eastern Ukraine, of which Nemtsov was an outspoken opponent. [Nemtsov openly supported the Kiev regime and accused the Russian government of “aggression,” a shopworn propaganda meme disseminated by Western politicians and media.—Eds]

“When they don’t let some guys with St. George’s ribbon join the column, when some faggot in a homosexual voice says that that the ribbon is a symbol of bloodshed, I can’t understand that,” Zaldostanov said.

The Anti-Maidan leaders said that they considered themselves part of Russia’s political opposition, but the press conference took place in the headquarters of Rossiya Segodnya (“Russia Today”), the Kremlin’s media arm. Their statements also echoed official rhetoric: Both Putin’s spokesman and the investigative committee have suggested Nemtsov’s murder is a “provocation” against Russia.

Following Nemtsov’s killing, Russia will face protests and further “provocations,” including more killings, according to Starikov, as the US agents attempt to destabilize the situation in the country and overthrow the government.

“To say there is no danger and we’re fighting with phantoms is to deny reality,” he said. “The attempt to shake up the situation in Russia has started with Nemtsov’s murder…. We have seen so many successful and unsuccessful coups according to the Maidan scenario. This destabilization happens in any country where the United States is trying to achieve regime change.”

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Follow Alec Luhn on Twitter: @ASLuhn

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What is $1 a month to support one of the greatest publications on the Left?

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By Pinko the Bear

I LIKE YOU MICHELLE OBAMA. You seem like a nice lady, good wife and good mother. By the way Michelle, Happy Mother’s Day. I hope your family shows you a little love and appreciation for all you do. Go ahead and enjoy it, you most likey deserve it. That said, I am spending part of my Mother’s Day responding to your words at the commencement address you gave yesterday at the University of Northern Iowa, and I have a bone to pick with you. A couple of bones, actually. Shall the picking begin?

I think it was very nice of you to take your time to visit them, wish them well in the working world -as if they will be able to find jobs – and to offer some motherly advice. It was sweet of you to recall how you had been received in Iowa just a few years ago while on the campaign trail for you fabulously energizing, charasmatic, hopeful and sincere sounding husband.

“People didn’t know a thing about me, yet they listened. They asked questions. They gave me the benefit of the doubt and a chance to show who I was. And that’s because people here in Iowa understand that everyone has something to offer.”

Yes, we didn’t know anything about you or your husband, really, so we listened. We were interested and then inspired. We were enthralled, enchanted and energized. You say Iowan’s gave you a chance to “show” who you were. Minor point here, but you only “told” us who you were and we were sold. Which brings me to my point. The bone picking part.

You told this graduating class and the other attendees, some 16,000 strong, that the military specialists that killed OBL showed the “very essence” of public service. Hmmm. Really?

I always thought public service meant something much different. My firefighters are public servants. The parks and recreation employees are public servants. EMT’s and ambulance drivers are public servants. The city mangager, city council, the folks at the city water works are public servants. The people who make sure my traffic lights turn red, yellow and green in the correct order, thereby actually keeping us safe, are public servants.

But military folk? Public servants? Perhaps those working in the VA or the Coast Gaurd are rightfully pegged as public servants. But trained killers? Assassination squads? People who sign up to kill foriegners for a steady paycheck, a promise of higher education and lifelong healthcare benefits are public servants? I think not. The only service they are providing is private. They serve private capital only. They serve capitalists only. They serve the well born, the well bred, the well to do and the closely held aggregated wealth of the ruling class. Must we go through an exhaustive review of all the ways the hired muscle has been used? Why don’t we just take a paragraph or two from General Smedley Butler?

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

or maybe this one?

“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”

No Michelle. Hired killers for private enterprise is not the “very essence” of “public service” And before you try to make the laughable argument that these men and women in uniform overseas are “keeping us safe” – oops, you already did – you might want to consider what the internal documents say about the consequences of invading and occupying other countries. These wars do not lead to increased safety at home. These wars lead to the killing of innocent men, women and children abroad. These wars have the complete opposite effect on the aggrieved populations than that which is propagated by progandists, regularly repeated and amply amplified by the fully faithful and completly complacent corporate mega-media conglomerates. Too much alliteration? Let me retry in a pithy sort of way. Killing people abroad creates blowback at home. 9-11 ring a bell? To hear you actually say otherwise shows us who you are. You told us who you were in Iowa a few years ago. Now we see who you are when you say things like this.

“Just imagine, a small group of brave men, dropped by helicopter, half a world away in the dead of night into unknown danger inside the lair of the most wanted man in the world. They did not hesitate, risking everything for us, for our freedom and security. And they did it not just as Navy SEALs. They did it as husbands, as fathers, as sons. Their families were back here, with no idea of their mission or whether their loved one would ever come home.”

I agree they are taking risks. I agree they are husbands, fathers and sons. Wives, mothers and daughters too. Interesting that your speechwriter left them out. I agree their families were back here, with no idea of their mission or whether their loved one would ever come home. But to say that they are doing this for our “freedom and security” is a bald faced lie, propaganda, and you should be ashamed of yourself for saying such a thing.

Were the kids sent to die in Viet Nam fighting for freedom and security? Were the soldiers sent to Central and South America by Reagan securing our freedom and keeping us safe? How about the Phillipines? Cuba? Haiti? Has there ever been a time when the Commander in Chief sent US citizens to risk life and limb in the protection of our freedoms and security? Ok, maybe the War of 1812, when we were actually invaded and attacked here at home by a foreign army. But since then, Michelle? Readers? The question answers itself.

The last bone to pick is your call to the graduating class to “public service”. Yes. That sounds so very nice. Public Service. Public Servants. Very nice, indeed. Those kids, however, need to be clear on the meaning. As I pointed out above, being a warrior, a paid assasin, is not public service. It serves private corporate interests, needs and profits. Yes, public money is used to pay the troops, but that alone is not enough to qualify them as public servants. The qualifier is not who pays them, but who they are paid to serve. To implore these fresh graduates to explore public service after you had just painted public service as something it is not, is unnaceptable to me. Why didn’t you just tell it to them straight?

Our Empire is creating more and more people that need killin’ and we need your help. You are deeply in debt and have to get a job. There are no decent jobs for you since we have allowed deregulation and outsourcing to decimate the economy here at home. You should consider going to see a recruiter. We need more officers in our Empire as we have plans for even more expansion. The Empire is hiring! You are less free here at home (think Patriot Act) and certainly less secure as unemployed civillians. Well, you will be sorta’ free and sorta’ secure if you agree to work for Uncle Sam as part of the PEP or Peasent Extermination Program. Sign up now! Multi-Nationals need you and you need a job!

Michelle, that would have been the truth. What you gave those kids was pure propaganda. I will never say anything about your efforts to get kids off the couch, excercising or eating healthier foods. But I’ll be damned if I can sit by and say nothing as you prod the young into the service of the Empire. Shame on you for telling other mother’s children such rubbish. Do you not know what the Mother’s Day Proclamation of 1870 by Julia Ward Howe said?

Arise then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be of water or of tears!

“Say firmly: ‘We will not have questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience. We women of one country will be too tender to those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own, it says “Disarm! Disarm!” The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.’

“As men have forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his time the sacred impress not of Caesar, but of God.

“In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.”

With more truthfulness in the future, there will be more happy mothers on future Mother’s Days!

go here to see the original AP

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gB4NM2JBKyYu3ezrMCo0ZYlO1g6Q?docId=3e0e8a70a9d747c8925c315847c8c2b6

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