Category Archives: Russia

FTAC – Soviet / Post-Soviet ‘Active Measures’ – Elections – Terrorism

08 Tuesday Nov 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Political Psychology, Russia

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The role of the Soviet Union and KGB “Active Measures” — a term of art that may be looked up online — in the amplifying anti-western anti-Semitic animus has been far overlooked by the public focused – by related political manipulation – on Islamic Terrorism. Whether following the timeline from the establishment of the Muslim Brotherhood, the early appearance of Hitlerism, and the Stalin Era or coming forward to the Vietnam War Era or on to this day, you will find the Russian state deeply involved either with the sponsorship of terrorism (see Wikiepedia “Terrorism in the Soviet Era”) or the tolerance of it!

Today, Russia will not condemn Hamas, Hezbollah, or PFLP as terrorist organizations.

Russ-AS-04

Soviet cartoons distributed in the Middle East to leverage “the masses” into the Soviet camp.  This one may date from the early 1970s.

This piece on my blog perhaps needs an update — https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/07/15/ftac-its-not-islam-its-moscow/ — but it’s message remains factual and clear.

When the Soviet Union dissolved 25 years — December 8 (in secret), 25 (public declaration), 26 (Russian tricolor raised above the Kremlin), 1991 — the west may have been both too confident and too eager to establish business and cooperation with the new criminally wild but proto-democratic state, which unbeknownst to the west had already had in place a transition plan to attempt to maintain the architecture and privileges of the Party nomenklatura (reference _Putin’s Kleptocracy_ by Miami University scholar Karen Dawisha).

Vladimir Putin’s complete “pivot” at Syria — not to mention those “little green men” who invaded Crimea — tells of a Russian revanche this time as a feudal, neo-imperial totalitarian and ultra-nationalist state that may manipulate terrorism to suits its ends.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/09/14/isil-groomed-for-a-role-in-assad-vs-the-terrorists/

Pat Condell – what binds Putin, Assad, and Khamenei (to lesser extent Putin and Orban plus Putin and Erdogan) is the shared drive for absolute power, or medieval political absolutism, which might remind us of someone else. The malignant narcissists who become dictators — “different talks — same walk!” — appear to have an affinity for one another. As much would seem to inform the world’s code “Brown” “New Nationalism” and the familiar “Red-Green” alliance of old “comrade networks” and the strident among Muslims.

Thank Moscow for once again driving both Far Right and Far Left extremism — and with that, perhaps also our own division today in the United States. The rancor serves to weaken EU / NATO cohesion.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_measures
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_and_the_Soviet_Union

Also in Media: “Atlantic Council Blames the West’s “Islamophobia” – November 1, 2016

07 Monday Nov 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Gaza Suzerain, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Palestinia, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Politics, Russia, United States of America

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Echoing Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal scandalous post-September 11, 2001, remarks, global jihad by groups like Al Qaeda also elicited Western guilt from School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Dean Vali Nasr.  After 9/11, “Islamophobia, in a way, was a policy deliberately pushed from the very top of the U.S. administration” as indicated by President George W. Bush’s use of “Islamo-fascism,” Nasr stated.  “Islamophobia was a way of passing the blame back to the Muslims, put Islam itself on trial for its responsibility in promoting terrorism rather than put U.S. foreign policy on trial for creating some of the problems.”

Read the whole thing — Atlantic Council Blames the West’s “Islamophobia” — and then fill in the gaps: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/07/15/ftac-its-not-islam-its-moscow/ & “The KGB’s Middle East Files: Palestinians in the service of Mother Russia” by Ronen Bergman in YNet News, November 4, 2016.

FTAC -America’s Election and Putin’s Opera – ‘Phantoms of the Soviet’

04 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by in Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Russia

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For the “Kingdom”, al-Qaeda and others represent challenges to royal authority. In that too much takes place “behind the curtains” in the medieval states, it’s hard to defend the whole “family”, but certainly the official position has for some time been one of enmity toward the Brotherhood umbrella. Basically: we’re not at war with Saudi Arabia.

Another approach to the same matter would stem from my pet peeves with Soviet / post-Soviet political manipulation and Moscow’s history of encouragement for terrorism going back to the 1920s and forward to the grand old time had in the 1970s with the PFLP and so many others aligned or working with winks from the Soviet enterprise. Today, of course, Hezbollah is in Syria fighting on behalf of Moscow, Damascus, and Tehran; Hamas remains okey dokey as far as Mikhail Bogdanov is concerned, and as often noted in my tout for Back-Channels, ISIL itself may unwitting serve Moscow-Damascus-Tehran by having been less bombed and combated than western-associated rebel organizations and Syrian noncombatants throughout the earlier years of that civil war.

Given my take on Putin’s world, which is turning out fairly awful by humanist standards, much less western ones, Trump’s earlier relationship with Paul Manafort and what he has going today with Sergei Millian — http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-suffers-bout-russian-amnesia/story?id=42325517 — should be as troubling to the public as Hillary Clinton’s taking of tribute in relation shepherding law and policy.

Things are never so simple as they may look, but the public may look twice — and needs to look twice — online to better comprehend true states of affairs.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/11/04/ftac-trumps-entanglements/

The thing to really keep in mind on Trump vs Clinton | Moscow is Putin’s timing between the dissolving of the Soviet Union 25 years ago and his transforming the nascent democracy into a fascistic ultra-nationalist enterprise. Syria may be turning out one of those “hinges of history”, and the American position should be to lay to rest the barbarism and totalitarianism represented through Putin today in Syria and other phantoms associated with Soviet behavior.

Hypothesizing with a Crayon

When the Soviet dissolved, western businessmen and diplomats may have been quick to get in (early) and forgive.  The general lawlessness of the stateless state then quickly dampened that enthusiasm but not the hope for the development of a capitalist open democracy with a modern approach to law.  Blame Berezovsky — who would come to blame himself — but that’s not how things developed even though the thaw produced unprecedented cooperation in the Moscow-Washington relationship.

We are today in a different place, and Syria and Crimea may stand signal of exactly where that is in political time.

The response within the Awesome Conversation began with a rejection of official Saudi collusion in events leading to 9/11.

As the Kingdom regards itself as the truest authority on Islam and with that the imprimatur to rule by divine right, the Brotherhood organizations may be regarded primarily as challengers to the authority of the royals.  As noted, much may go on “behind the curtains” or just plain out of sight.

By far, in any case, Moscow has long developed the greater track record as regards support for terrorism on general principles, and, to this day, neutral to positive relations with Hamas, Hezbollah, and PFLP, if not others.

In reference below, the reader will find in Andrei Soldatov’s writing for Foreign Policy a recap of Putin’s most recent reconstruction of a KGB-like organization.  Add to Soldatov’s observations the demonstration of a merciless barbarism in Syria — long commented on by this blog — and an aggression, as unjustified as it has been plain sneaky, exhibited in Crimea.  Credit such handiwork to the “phantoms of the Soviet” brought back to life by none other than Putin.

Related Reference

Fox, Wesley.  “The new Russian MGB looks a lot like the KGB–coups included.”  American Enterprise Institute, October 4, 2016.

Since Peter the Great, Russia demonstrated a highly selective approach to utilizing the European experience in various fields. For more than three centuries Russian rulers from the Romanov’s dynasty to Politburo members, tried to borrow from Europe the needed technologies, experts and managerial models without importing European social and political practices. This approach produced mixed results: the Russian modernization trajectory had its historic highs and lows; it was constantly criticized from both liberal and conservative sides, but in most cases it reflected an attempt by the authorities to keep a delicate balance between the urgent economic needs and the commitment to a political and social status quo.

Kortunov, Andrey.  “Seven Phantoms of the Russia’s Policy Toward the European Union.”  Russian International Affairs Council, April 6, 2016.

The KGB, it should be remembered, was not a traditional security service in the Western sense — that is, an agency charged with protecting the interests of a country and its citizens. Its primary task was protecting the regime. Its activities included hunting down spies and dissidents and supervising media, sports, and even the church. It ran operations both inside and outside the country, but in both spheres the main task was always to protect the interests of whoever currently resided in the Kremlin. With this new agency, we’re seeing a return to form — one that’s been a long time in the making.

Soldatov, Andrei.  “Putin Has Finally Reincarnated the KGB.”  Foreign Policy, September 21, 2016.

Whitmore, Brian.  “Power Vertical Podcast: Putin’s Sword and Shield”.  RFE/RL, September 23, 2016.

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FTAC – ‘Trump’s Entanglements’

04 Friday Nov 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Politics, Russia

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https://conflict-backchannels.com/coins-and-other-terms/anthropolitical-psychology/malignant-narcissism/

The medieval way of doing business — commercial or political — may have relied on a kind of personality that we today call “authoritarian” or “autocratic” and possessed of some predictable characteristics especially when found demonstrably bullying and strutting. By contrast, the America mid-west ethic favors hard work, humility, and a quiet if firm demeanor.

Putin’s lines of power — Putin-Assad-Khamenei — and of influence — Putin-Orban, Putin-Erdogan – leverage the affinity between authoritarian leaders, who, not so surprisingly, aggrandize themselves at great cost to the finances and freedoms of their constituents.

From Washington’s standpoint, both Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump present “strong personalities”, but Trump’s earlier association with Paul Manafort, a major political consultant to the world’s dictators, and Sergei Millian, a Russian businessman — http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/russia-trump-political-conflict-zone/story?id=42263092 (“Trump, Millian” is also an easy look-up online) — signals the idea that a kind of authority may present to the public, in old socialist language, “the masses”, a public reality that masks off personal interests.

Not too long ago, the Russian state could have been described as “post-Soviet” and on its way toward democracy as known in the open societies of the west. Putin’s more evident narrative starts out that way, and in fact with the endorsement of a powerful Russian billionaire — Berezovsky. The west was back then quick to forgive and get in, but adjustments by Putin over time — this December will mark the 25th anniversary since the dissolving of the Soviet Union — have transformed the state into a familiar authoritarian system, this time ultra-nationalist and imperial in its actions and intents. Trump, hardly alone in this, may have been inveigled in the earlier “glasnost” state of affairs — the same in which the “Uranium One” deal developed — but even so soon after so much east-west cooperation, today is very different as regards Moscow’s resurgent anti-western stance and Trump’s entanglements.

The piece looks a little off-hand as to how Americans prefer themselves as personalities and, by extension, what may have been preferred in those most divisive and raucous of election seasons.  If there had been a Harry Truman in the mix (or if ever there was)  — someone who shouldered responsibility quietly and returned to a modest life — he would have been steamrolled and buried beneath the machinery of Big Politics (say, whatever happened to Rubio?).

An Aside on the Coming Election

Syndicate Red Brown Green has made a loud appearance in this election round, and BackChannels interprets the color code this way:

Brown – New Nationalists – Trump – Representative Portion of Loud Republican Moral Authoritarianism

Red–Green – Old Comrades and Neo-Islamists – Clinton’s Party and Its Portion of the Fascists on the Far Left

The extreme divisions in America’s body politic serves Moscow, and BackChannels wonders to what extent over time (decades) and today KGB-style FSB “Active Measures” (Wikipedia) have contributed to the nation’s very own mud fest of an election season.  As regards that suspicion, let it include the cultivation of the Far Left on campus and in the think-tanks across decades, as the Wikipedia page referenced asserts the following: “According to Stanislav Lunev, GRU alone spent more than $1 billion for the peace movements against Vietnam War, which was a “hugely successful campaign and well worth the cost”.[3] Lunev claimed that “the GRU and the KGB helped to fund just about every antiwar movement and organization in America and abroad”.[3]”

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UAE Sentences Hezbollah Cell – Moscow-Tehran Promote Hezbollah

02 Wednesday Nov 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Journalism, Lebanon, Middle East, Politics, Russia, United Arab Emirates

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The State Security Circuit of the Federal Supreme Court on Monday handed out varying jail terms to seven people for setting up a UAE cell of the banned Hezbollah group.

Three defendants were sentenced to life in jail, two got 15-year jail terms and two others were sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The court chaired by Judge Falah Al Hajiri also sentenced leader of Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood group Esam Al Din Al Erian to five years in jail, in absentia.

Al Zarooni, Mustafa.  “Group jailed for setting up Hezbollah branch in UAE.”  Khaleej Times, November 1, 2016.

According to political commentator with Russia’s Kommersant publishing house Sergei Strokan, there now exists a “Russia, Iran, Hezbollah military triangle” in Syria.

In a telephone interview with Al-Monitor, Strokan said, “Hezbollah can do some things that Russia can’t afford to do itself,” as putting “Russian boots on the ground [in Syria] is a subject of heated debate [within Russia].”

Rizk, Ali.  “The Russian, Iranian, Hezbollah military triangle.”  November 2, 2015.

Hezbollah can and has done more than put “boots on the ground” for Bashar al-Assad in Syria with the blessing of Moscow and Tehran.

Read the headlines (along with BackChannels):

USA Today – “Lebanon chooses a president supported by Hezbollah” – November 1, 2016.

The National Interest – “Lebanon’s New Hezbollah-Led Political Order” – October 31, 2016.

“Hezbollah-Led Political Order”?

Try again: Moscow-Tehran.

BackChannels knows the public, generally speaking, “sees” ISIL, not “Assad OR The Terrorists” AKA “Assad vs The Terrorist“.

And the public may read about Hezbollah in Lebanon with the shadow of the Ayatollah moving about in the background, but it may take more work to grasp how Moscow works with Tehran to elevate Hezbollah’s influence in Lebanon while channeling its fighters into action in Syria.

Again, on general terms, the KGB Era catch-all “Active Measures” may preoccupy wonks — enthused amateurs and professionals in intelligence and foreign affairs — while barely signaling up through the background clamor set by the entertainment and sports industries.  As much — specifically, public ignorance of the mechanisms involved in the KGB-style sustaining of “political absolutism” (try using that one down at the bar) by way of a totalitarian approach to a political theater of realpolitik —  moves this chatter into more specialized but also open circles.

Related Reference

Fadel, Leith.  “Syrian Army, Hezbollah begin counter-attack in west Aleppo”.  AMN News, November 2, 2016.

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Also in Media: “The shadowy Russian émigré touting Trump” – Financial Times, November 1, 2016

01 Tuesday Nov 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Russia

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. . . questions are mounting over whether Mr Millian was one of a number of people who could have acted as intermediaries to build ties between Moscow and Mr Trump. This comes after Paul Manafort resigned earlier this year as Mr Trump’s campaign chief after controversy over his years of consulting work for Viktor Yanukovich, the pro-Moscow former president of Ukraine.

Source: The shadowy Russian émigré touting Trump – 11/1/2016

Catherine Belton’s article goes on to explore other aspects of the Soviet / post-Soviet Russo-American relationship.

If the reader has been “paywalled” by the Financial Times piece, the Daily Beast has a related article at this address:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/08/meet-the-man-who-is-spinning-for-donald-trump-in-russia.html

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Also in Media: “Russian military intelligence and the Hungarian National Front” – Hungarian Spectrum, October 27, 2016

31 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by in Also in Media, Eastern Europe, Hungary, Russia

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Several small extremist groups are active in Hungary, but MNA is unique in that it has extensive ties with Russian military intelligence. I dealt with this extremist group only once, in September 2014. It was in connection with a lesser-known right-wing portal called Hídfő (Bridgehead), which broke the story that Hungary was secretly supplying tanks to the Ukrainian army. Soon enough the Russian foreign ministry published an official statement stating that “weapons supplied to Ukraine by the EU-member countries … violate legally binding obligations—the Arms Trade Treaty.” The Russian foreign ministry was well-informed on the details: “Hungary’s Defense Ministry is supplying Ukraine with armored vehicles, including T-72 tanks, through a ‘proxy agency.’” It turned out that Hídfő was the official website of Magyar Nemzeti Arcvonal. For some time it has served as a vehicle of Russian disinformation, a growing concern in Europe and elsewhere. In fact, by now, at least according to national security officials, Hídfő is entirely under Russian direction, either directly or indirectly. The best summary of the history of MNA and its activities can be found in an investigative piece written by András Dezső and Veronika Munk of Index.

Source: Russian military intelligence and the Hungarian National Front – Hungarian Spectrum – 10/27/2016

Related

The National Bureau of Investigation ( “National Bureau of Investigation,” the Hungarian FBI) was Supposed to search Stephen Györkös’s house Earlier this week, but When The officers Showa up at his home the 76-years-old man opened fire at THEMIS , and the 46-years-old police officer died in the shooting immediately.

Russian Diplomats and members of the Russian military intelligence, GRU have been around the the Hungarian SubCulture militant for years, albeit not only around MNA. This started well before the eruption of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The Russians Were Trying to do it in a smart, less ostentatious way.

http://index.hu/belfold/2016/10/28/russian_diplomats_exercised_with_hungarian_cop_killer_s_far-right_gang/ – 10/28/2016.

Related on BackChannels

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2013/11/14/a-note-on-hungarys-progressive-relationship-with-iran/

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FTAC -A Progressing Jerusalem

30 Sunday Oct 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Anti-Semitism, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Gaza, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Philology, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Politics, Russia, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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The other writer stated the following:

“Jews who deny Muslim and Christian attachment to Jerusalem pave the way for Muslims and Christians to deny Jewish attachment to Jerusalem.”

—

Hmm.

“Muslims who deny Jewish and Christian attachments to Jerusalem pave the way for Jews and Christians to deny Muslim attachment to Jerusalem.”

“Christians who deny Jewish and Muslim attachments to Jerusalem pave the way for Jews and Muslims to deny Christian attachment to Jerusalem.”

It’s funny how the assignment of culpability works within such a statement.

Truth to tell: in 12th Century Christian Hungary, laws devised to discriminate against Jews were upon activation applied equally to Muslims (source: Raphael Patai, _The Jews of Hungary_).

The bogey: jealousy and resentment (perhaps) and supersessionary ambition (no question).

What is it about the medieval world and worldview — apart from concentrating ill-gotten wealth in thuggish elites — that keeps so many of the Soviet / post-Soviet arc trapped within it?

Perhaps post-Holocaust, the arguments are shifting from hidden and shameful supersessionary wishes (I thought that was done with in 1964) and “recognition of ‘the other'” (who isn’t “other” for somebody?) to the differences between medieval perception and rhetoric (and absolute power) toward the modern comprehension of political conditions, greater recognition of mutual obligations, and interest in the peaceful interweaving of complex and varied cultural and economic systems.

What may the medieval world have looked like?

Crimea.

Syria.

And thank the same system of thought so slyly — ah, but obviously — singles out the Hebrews as the source of all troubles.

Leadership, cultural mentality, and political power have a relationship in which the medieval of mind invests energy in the command and control of mobs.  Frame-ups, innuendos, lies, rumors: snookering the marks is what political dishonesty has been all about.

In and around the Middle East Conflict, the Palestinians — who having suffered Arab apartheid and gross isolation and misguidance for decades — have paid the highest price for their once unwitting subordination to a mixture of Nazi- and Soviet-promoted images of the surrounding world, and that starting with the demonizing and scapegoating of the Jews.

Soviet cartoons distributed in the Middle East to leverage “the masses” into the Soviet camp.
Soviet cartoons distributed in the Middle East to leverage “the masses” into the Soviet camp.

The Soviet Era cartoons from the late 1960s and early 1970s suggest what Moscow used to inveigle the Arab World in its unholy designs, for back then, Russia was avowedly and godlessly communist as well as deeply anti-Semitic.

Related on BackChannels

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/10/03/palestinian-kgb/ – 10/3/2016

Related on the Internet

Timmerman, Kenneth R.  “Former Soviet Spy Sees the Long Arm of the KGB in Today’s Muslim Anti-Semitism.”  Tablet, August 7, 2013.

Palestinians and others — and this plainly demonstrated in Syria, and nowhere more so than with Yarmouk, the once Palestinian camp and refuge — will never know authentic freedom and self-determination while bent to the will of a still medieval and excessively controlling — and kleptocratic (and today “ultra-nationalist”) — Moscow.

Additional Reference

Corre, Addam.  “Hamas Leaders Worth Millions of Dollars from Allegedly Skimming Donations and Extortion: Is Anyone Surprised?”  Inquisitr, July 18, 2014 (updated July 22, 2014).

Danan, Deborah.  “Gaza’s Millionaires and Billionaires — How Hamas’s Leaders Got Rich Quick.”  Algemeiner, July 28, 2014.

Mitsotakis, Spyridon.  “Russia: Hamas and Hezbollah are Democratic, Not Terrorists.”  Breitbart, November 17, 2015.

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