The Russia Dispatch #001 28-02-2022
I’m creating this series of dispatches in response to the campaign of propaganda launched against Russia in response to their military actions in the Ukraine. A propaganda campaign is one thing and wouldn’t normally provoke me to dedicate a series to the issue, but the degree of the lies and misrepresentations paired with the DDoS attacks and regional blocking of Russian websites has pushed me to do my part in presenting the alternative view.
Show Notes
As of this date, a number of cyber attacks have taken place against Russian government websites as well as news sites – including Russia Today and Pravda. Much like Russia itself is accused of doing and possibly do, the likelihood of these alleged independent hackers being NATO funded cannot be ignored. The sheer scale of these attacks and their multiple targets aren’t likely to come from the stereotypical rogue hacker groups.
Last week, Russia initiated a military operation to seize the Ukraine. The Russian side of the story is that the people of the Russian-majority region of Donbas have been persecuted since the 2019 Presidential elections, which inserted Volodymyr Zelensky – a former actor and comedian. Russia alleges this anti-Russian President was installed by election tampering by NATO powers. The military action by Russia came hours after Vladimir Putin recognised the two regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent nations. If we take for granted that the people on Donbas have been genuinely persecuted by a NATO-friendly government, are the actions of Russia justified? This is a question we’re not allowed to ask in the West, while most of us are completely blind to the possibility that Russia’s actions could have a justification.
In light of the recent attacks on Russian websites, I will read a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
Foreign Ministry statement regarding the rhetoric about Russia’s recognition of the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics
Following the criticism by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and several Western politicians of the decisions made by President of Russia Vladimir Putin to recognise the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics as independent states, we would like to state the following.
We believe that any deliberations about the alleged infringement on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and about the importance of implementing the Minsk Package of Measures, which has been approved by UN Security Council Resolution 2202, have nothing to do with reality.
This begs the question where all these people have been for the past eight years, when the Kiev regime, which came to power through a state coup, waged a punitive military operation against its own citizens, an operation that has claimed 14,000 civilian lives. Acting in gross violation of the Minsk Package of Measures, they imposed a tight transport and economic blockade against Donbass, stopped the payment of pensions and social benefits to its residents, whom Vladimir Zelensky has described as “species” and suggested that they get out of Ukraine. These actions have all the markings of genocide.
All these years, the UN Secretary-General should have demanded that Kiev implement the Minsk Agreements, primarily by developing a direct dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk, which is clearly set out in the Minsk Package of Measures and UN Security Council Resolution 2202.
As for the statement made by an official representative to the effect that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres considers Russia’s decision to recognise the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics to be “a violation of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine,” we would like to remind everyone that the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the UN Charter, which was approved in Resolution 2625 adopted by consensus at the UN General Assembly in 1970, says on the matter of the principle of sovereign and territorial integrity that it must strictly apply to “states conducting themselves in compliance with the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples (…) and thus possessed of a government representing the whole people belonging to the territory without distinction as to race, creed or colour.” The government of Ukraine obviously does not meet this description.
We strongly urge the UN Secretary-General and his personnel to strictly comply with the principles that have been unanimously approved by the UN General Assembly.
The days that followed the release of this statement, Russia had seized control of several areas in the Ukraine as well as the capital Kyiv. Western media is reporting thousands of casualties and Russian sources are reporting very few casualties – it’s clear that there are three versions of reality here: the NATO version, Russia’s version, and the actual reality. None of us are omnipresent and both sides of this conflict are definitely biased to influence public perception of events, so the truth must lie somewhere in between.
Another aspect of the propaganda efforts by the West is the appearance of several videos and images alleging to show attacks of Russian ground and air on the Ukraine. Many of these are taken from movies or conflicts in other parts of the world from years past. One fake image in particular was shown on Fox News with the title beginning to say “Ukrainian Civilians Take Up…” presumably the rest of the ticker would say something like “arms against Russia”. What’s peculiar about this footage is that it depicts two men holding cardboard cut-outs of assault rifles.
On the day of this dispatch, Western media is inciting its citizens to hysteria by claiming Putin has activated some kind of nuclear deterrent or other, but later in the day these headlines and articles have been altered to remove all mention of anything nuclear.
Given the alarming degree of censorship of people by Western social media in response to the events of the past week, this series and possibly this YouTube Channel will not be here forever. Please check the description for our specialised podcast feed to stay up to date.
