Category Archives: Russia

Russia’s Disinformation History – Elements

01 Sunday May 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Philology, Political Psychology, Russia

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Of BackChannels’ several inventions in political psychology, the “Paranoid Delusional Narcissistic Reflection of Motivation” might apply best to President Putin’s way of looking at western liberalism, developing cause to consider it threatening, and then, at last, accusing the west of possessing his own true motives as regards political control through disinformation, force, and manipulation.

For history, start with Czar Nicholas III’s “Okhrana“, the political secret police tasked with influencing and shaping the Czar’s own opposition — Ayatollah or Emperor, why not play both sides of the chessboard?  The political theater is either yours or it’s not — prove it’s yours: put on a play; give the opposition its head; slip it a script; settle back and enjoy the show.

On BackChannels, that line has been applied to “Assad or The Terrorists” AKA “Assad OR The Terrorists.

Dang if it hasn’t worked!

Of course, there’s more to the story of Russia’s romance with autocracy, state-controlled information and the perversions that are disinformation and propaganda, and secret political police.  What follows on this post is an afternoon’s brief compilation of articles pertinent to the challenge posed today by Putin’s approach to throwing the wool over so many eyes, including, possibly, his own.

In general, the Russian media portrays anything going on from the point of view of Vladimir Putin. He has unlimited access to the media and they explain everything that’s going on according to his official statement. It doesn’t really matter if it’s a war in Syria or any other topic.

Gordts, Eline.  “Putin’s Press: How Russia’s President Controls the News.”  The World Post, The Huffington Post and Berggruen Institute, October 24, 2015.

Russia today is the first intelligence dictatorship in history. It is a brand new form of totalitarianism, which we are not yet familiar with. Now the KGB, rechristened FSB, is openly running Russia.

Ion Pacepa in an interview with Blaze Books as reported by Benjamin Weingarten in The Blaze, February 10, 2014, citation included in reference.

BackChannels also possesses in its library a small “Russian Section” that boasts many volumes on the Russian experience in the 20th Century, on the Soviet, and on the transition from the Soviet to “Putin’s Kleptocracy”.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, its people had a unique opportunity to also cast off the country’s political police, that peculiarly Russian instrument of power created by the 16th century’s Ivan the Terrible, which had changed its name many times, from Okhrana to Cheka, to GPU, to OGPU, to NKVD, to NKGB, to MGB, to MVD, to KGB. Unfortunately, the Russian people were not yet ready — or able — to seize that opportunity.

Pacepa, Ion Mihai.  “Brand-New Russia, Same Old Disinformation.”  National Review, November 8, 2014.

The international community faces serious challenges arising from a new mode of information warfare, which Russia has deployed during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in 2014-2015. This ongoing “propaganda war” is the most recent and frightening example of information warfare. It reflects the wide array of non-military tools used to exert pressure and influence the behaviour of countries. When skilfully combined, disinformation, malicious attacks on large-scale information and communication systems, psychological pressure, can be even more dangerous than traditional weapon systems, since they are extremely difficult to discover and combat.

Veebel, Viljar.  “Russian Propaganda, Disinformation and Estonia’s Experience.”  Foreign Policy Research Institute, October 2015.

The Kremlin’s disinformation campaign goes far beyond controlling its own media. It is aimed at nothing less than presenting a parallel version of reality and disseminating it as if it were news. The Kremlin’s goal is to make people question the value of media at all; to reject the idea of an absolute truth; and to persuade the public that “reality” is relative.

Emerson, John B.  “Exposing Russian Disinformation.”  Atlantic Council, June 29, 2015.

If someone—some lost, ersatz-port-begotten ghost—materializing before me at that moment, had told me that, thirty years later, I would be writing about Andropov’s death in English, in America, on the week when post-Soviet Russia’s ruling class—made up, to a considerable extent, of the old K.G.B. cadre—would be celebrating the hundredth anniversary of his birth with a large exhibit dedicated to his life, at whose opening a glowing telegram from his spiritual successor, President Vladimir Putin, would be read—well, I would have known for certain that I had finally and irrevocably, once and for all, lost my mind.

Iossel, Mikhail.  “The Night Andropov Died.”  The New Yorker, June 17, 2014.

As a former KGB officer and head of the KGB’s successor agency, the FSB, Putin knows the value of information. His concept of the media, however, is a far cry from the First Amendment. For him, it’s a simple transactional equation: Whoever owns the media controls what it says.

“There should be patriotically minded people at the head of state information resources,” Putin told reporters at his 2013 annual news conference, “people who uphold the interests of the Russian Federation. These are state resources. That is the way it is going to be.”

Dougherty, Jill.  “How the Media Became One of Putin’s Most Powerful Weapons.”  The Atlantic, April 21, 2015.

Additional and Cited Reference

Applebaum, Anne and Edward Lucas.  “The danger of Russian disinformation.”  The Washington Post, May 6, 2016.

Abrams, Amanda.  “Fighting Back: New Bill Aims to Counter Russian Disinformation.”  Atlantic Council, March 17, 2016.

Bershidsky, Leonid.  “Primakov Would Have Run Russia as Putin Has.”  Bloomberg View, June 26, 2015.

Deutsche Welle.  “German media worries about Russian-led disinformation campaign.”  February 19, 2016.

Dougherty, Jill.  “How the Media Became One of Putin’s Most Powerful Weapons.”  The Atlantic, April 21, 2015.

Gilbert, Martin.  “Andropov and the Jews: The Five Blows.”  Viewed on Soviet Jews Exodus, reprinted from Jewish Chronicle, March 2, 1984.

Goble, Paul.  “15 Characteristics of Russian Propaganda.”  Stop Fake, April 18, 2016.

Goble, Paul.  “Hot Issues — Lies, Damned Lies and Russian Disinformation.”  The Jamestown Foundation, August 18, 2014:

Disinformation is always a conscious policy and part of a larger policy agenda. It is not simply dishonesty of this or that official in response to a particular event. It is implemented with a clear understanding that a combination of truth and falsehood is useful and effective. And it is pursued as long as it is effective, being sacrificed only when there are reasons to believe that either it is no longer necessary or it is no longer being accepted. All of those things have characterized Putin’s approach to information about Ukraine, a pattern that makes what Moscow is doing all the more disturbing.

Gordts, Eline.  “Putin’s Press: How Russia’s President Controls the News.”  The World Post, The Huffington Post and Berggruen Institute, October 24, 2015.

Iossel, Mikhail.  “The Night Andropov Died.”  The New Yorker, June 17, 2014.

Johnson, Alan.  “The Rehabilitation of Felix Dzerzhinsky.”  World Affairs, October 14, 2014.

Kofman, Michael.  “Russian Hybrid Warfare and Other Dark Arts.”  War on the Rocks, March 11, 2016.

Luhn, Alex.  “European Union Prepares ‘Myth-Busters’ Team to Combat Russian Disinformation.”  Vice News, April 17, 2015.

Martosko, David.  “Exclusive: New book reveals how KGB operation seeded Muslim countries with anti-American, anti-Jewish propaganda during the 1970s, laying the groundwork for Islamist terrorism against U.S. and Israel.”  Daily Mail, June 25, 2013.

Pacepa, Ion Mihai.  “Brand-New Russia, Same Old Disinformation.”  National Review, November 8, 2014.

Schumann, Efim.  “Putin’s ‘secret sleepers’ waiting for signal.”  Interview with Boris Reitschuster.  Deutsche Welle, April 18, 2016.

Stop Fake.  “Russian Propaganda”.  Compilation of articles.

Weingarten, Benjamin.  “An interview with Lt. Gen. Ion Pacepa, the highest ranking Soviet bloc intel officer to ever defect.”  The Blaze, February 10, 2014.

Wikipedia.  “Active Measures”.

Wikipedia.  “Okhrana”.  The following comes from the “Pre-1905” section of the Wikipedia entry:

While P.I. Rachkovsky, as head of the Okhrana’s Foreign Agency, had long ordered Okhrana agents to infiltrate and influence revolutionary movements abroad, Zubatov brought these tactics to a new level by creating Okhrana-controlled trade unions, the foundation of police socialism.

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Posted to YouTube March 5, 2014.

Addendum – July 11, 2016 and Forward

Applebaum, Anne and Edward Lucas.  “The danger of Russian disinformation.”  The Washington Post, May 6, 2016.

Foster, Patrick.  “Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT offers Nigel Farage his own show.”  The Telegraph, September 7, 2016.

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Moscow Misrules – Create Chaos – Promise Order – Collect!

14 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Europe, Regions, Russia

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Posted to YouTube 6/22/2016.

Can you see the tree?  The trees?  The forest?

How about the blight?

Writing about Russia can be like that: Focus on a crime, follow it into more general corruption, arrive at the “mafia state”; overview energy and economics, move on to “hybrid warfare” and other aggressive military and paramilitary activities, and it dawns that there is an imperial state at work; have a glance at history, then get the nose out of the books and have a look around at present Putin & Co. relationships, disinformation, domestic information control, and global propaganda.

What may be most dangerous about Russia today is the slowly developing surround in alliance and axis accompanied by the seduction of the popular mind (in Soviet-speak, “the masses”) by way of the promotion of confusion.

For its part, this blog has pressed the idea that defending Putinism, much less spreading it, devolves to sustaining a deeply feudal-medieval worldview that in turn undergirds the power of state elites: the “New Nobility” that is the FSB; the “Vertical of Power” that is this most singular Russian President around whom other elements revolve; the Oligarchs that produce and enjoy the state’s wealth, albeit with a nod to the permit provided by their political mastermind.

From off that magnificent hub:

  • Putin-Assad-Khamenei (Putin-Khamenei);
  • Putin-Assad-Khamenei-Baghdaddi (together representing medieval absolute power);
  • Putin-Orban.

With numerous stolons — plant-generated surface and underground runners that propagate some of the species that use them — the Moscow hub appears to support an immense array of illicit and licit relationships.

Here’s a nugget pulled from the illicit bin, which, of course, is the one that most bothers the west:

The leaked files suggest that Roldugin is not keeping this wealth for himself, but is funneling the money to Putin’s inner circle, the reports say. Although Putin is not mentioned in the documents, he appears to be at the center of a web of Russia’s most influential and powerful men who owe their posts and fortunes to nothing but their friendship and association with him.

“It’s possible Roldugin, who has publicly claimed not to be a businessman, is not the true beneficiary of these riches,” the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists wrote. “Instead, the evidence in the files suggests Roldugin is acting as a front man for a network of Putin loyalists — and perhaps for Putin himself” (Mirovalev, LAT, April 4, 2016).

How deep go these relationships?

How many are there?

Can you see the tree?  The trees?  The forest?

The blight?

The Syrian Tragedy, as BackChannels refers to that horrific process in which it appears Damascus with tacit approval from Moscow and Tehran pursued a course certain to produce “The Terrorists” by preferentially bombing more moderate Free Syrian Army forces and refraining from curbing the early development of al-Nusra and ISIL, needs no introduction: the human spillover is either encamped or migrating all over the Middle East and Europe.

Posted to YouTube April 14, 2016.

Moscow, however, has been also busy from the Baltic Sea (as depicted in the above naval incident) to the Black Sea.  Crimea and Ukraine, Lithuania, and Moldova, among others moan with the impositions or threats posed by the phantom of the Soviet alive within the Russian Federation.

A note from Moldova (Timpul.md, February 11, 2015):

Given Moldova’s limited economic potential, the country struggles to maintain its defense capabilities. It only allocates 0.3% of its GDP for military purposes, which amounts to about 25 million dollars per year. Furthermore, Moldova presents limited interest to the West. Its strategic and economic importance is negligible. To make things worse, Moldova is highly dependent on Russian energy supplies, export and labor markets. Russian media control a significant share of Moldova’s informational space. Finally, Kremlin has been instrumental in using Russian speaking minorities in Moldova to advocate interest that often go against the will of the majority of the local population.

In earlier and Soviet years, Moscow was not above playing games to irk the west and possibly draw on its coffers and patience, for whom has always to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of so much meddling?  The BBC recently ran an audio clip featuring Somalia’s General Mohamed Noor Galal recounting the machinations that went into setting the course for war in the region between Ethiopia and Somalia known as the Ogaden.  In that misery, the Soviet enticed Somalia to invade the Ogaden and seize it from Ethiopia, and when Ethiopian forces were down on luck and firepower, it intervened to arm Ethiopia, which then recovered the Ogaden.

Somalia, however, has never recovered.

Whatever the Soviet was thinking — arms sales?  Expansion of forced influence? — it sure wasn’t thinking about the lives and needs of either either Ethiopians or Somalis.  In effect, in the promotion of the Ogaden War, The Bear wrapped an arm around the Somali leadership and offered to help the same acquire a fair patch of earth as redress for earlier grievance — and then with that accomplished, it did the same on the other side.

What works, unfortunately, works.

If you now see the Ogaden in history — you have seen one tree.

Nothing has changed: now as then, one may wonder at the character and mentality of the post-Soviet neo-imperial Russian leadership, the same that has treated Russia as it has other states: create chaos and danger, drown the masses in propaganda (ah, those good old Party days are here again!), and for power — and the protection of so many money making enterprises, licit and illicit — promise the super nationalist’s version of greatness, security, and stability.

Note: Putin-Erdogan — politically opposed (there’s that Shiite vs Sunni thing + NATO) but psychologically aligned (and Erdogan has the White Palace to prove it).

Reference

Akkoc, Raziye.  “Turkey’s president is not acting like a Queen – he is acting like a sultan’: Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he isn’t a sultan – rather he wishes to be like the Queen in a constitutional monarchy – but his actions suggest otherwise.”  The Telegraph, February 2, 2015.

Anadolu Agency.  “UN: No record of Russia humanitarian aid for Syria.”  February 4, 2014.

Balazs, Edith and Zoltan Simon.  “Orban Attacks EU Energy Plan as Putin Link Nets Hungary Gas Deal.”  Bloomberg, February 17, 2015.

Blair, David.  “Russia jets make ‘simulated attack’ on US warship in ‘aggressive’ Baltic incident.”  The Telegraph, April 14, 2016.

Farkas, Evelyn.  “Putin is testing Western resolve: Russian incursions into NATO airspace are evidence of Kremlin’s growing aggressiveness.”  Politico, November 25, 2015.

Farkas, Evelyn.  “Trump and Putin: Two liars separated at birth? — No wonder they seem to like each other; they are akin in their abuse of the truth.”  Politico, April 4, 2016.

Farkas, Evelyn.  “What the next president must do about Putin: An open letter from the Pentagon’s former key Russia expert on how to contain Russia’s aggressive autocrat.”  Politico, January 25, 2016.

Grigas, Agnia.  Beyond Crimea: The New Russian Empire.  New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2016.

Harding, Luke and Matthew Weaver.  “Barack Obama calls for ‘reset’ in US-Russia relations.”  The Guardian, July 7, 2009.

Jakóbik, Wojciech.  “Peter B. Doran: Atlanticism under threat.”  Interview. Stop Fake, March 30, 2016.

Loiko, Sergei L.  “A Russian horror story: Gang sentenced for 12 murders at family home.”  Los Angeles Times, November 19, 2013.

Melvin, Don.  “Girl asks Putin: Who’d you save from drowning, Erdogan or Poroshenko?”  CNN, April 14, 2016.

Mirovalev, Mansur.  “Putin’s best friend is at the heart of Panama Papers scandal.”  Los Angeles Times, April 4, 2016.

Political Capital.  “The Kremlin Connections of the Hungarian Far-Right.”  Stratfor, April 20, 2015.

Rettman, Andrew.  “Russian propaganda wins EU hearts and minds.”  Euobserver, June 23, 2015.

Shuster, Simon.  “A Failed Russia ‘Reset’ Haunts Obama in Europe.”  Time, June 3, 2014.

Stop Fake: Struggle against fake information about events in Ukraine.  Anti-propaganda website.

Than, Krisztina.  “Special Report: Inside Hungary’s $10.8 billion nuclear deal with Russia.”  Reuters, March 30, 2015.

Timpul.md.  “Moldova’s Security Options following Russian Aggression in Ukraine.”  February 11, 2015.

Traynor, Ian and Shaun Walker.  “Russian resurgence: how the Kremlin is making its presence felt across Europe: Moscow is influencing policy and shaping opinion all over the continent, with ties to both the far right and the hard left.”  The Guardian, February 16, 2015.

Walker, Shaun.  “‘So what if Putin is corrupt?’: Russia remains unmoved by offshore revelations.”  The Guardian, April 13, 2016.

Walker, Shaun.  “The luxury hotel, the family of the top Moscow prosecutor and Russia’s most notorious gang: Video by anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny links family of general prosecutor Yuri Chaika with wife of mobster behind notorious massacre.”  The Guardian, December 12, 2015.

Wolking, Matt.  “Six Years Ago Today: President Obama’s Failed Reset with Russia.”  Speaker of the House: Paul Ryan, March 6, 2015.

Xenakis, John J.  “World View: Mass Protests Force Moldova to Choose Between Europe and Russia.”  Breitbart, January 26, 2016.

Posted to YouTube January 26, 2016 (43:54).

Posted to YouTube May 9, 2014

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FTAC — A Wrap-Up on Mentality — Malignant/Medieval and Reparative/Modern Narcissism

11 Monday Apr 2016

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

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In our common malignancy, perhaps, our narcissism lends repair to psychological damage to self concept. Life’s rough and in part insults us, less or more, but, again perhaps, the greater the insult to esteem — the heavier the hand — the more passionate the want of self-aggrandizement, security, and wealth.

In the healthy, it’s good having basic and somewhat above good circumstance in freedom, money, and general security. In the malignant, the same wants get Up There and Out There. On Back-Channels, I’ve likened such qualities to the recognized psychological pathologies that are bipolar disorder and narcissistic personality disorder. In our general political psychology and related sociology, we aspire and trade up in comfort and prestige, and we do that through laws an practices that accommodate a healthy general development with concern spanning the distance from penthouse to street.

The malignant do things quite differently.

Muammar Qaddafi’s Mullah Shweyga story (easily looked up) tells the difference. Such leaders take full advantage of the possession of the power to visit suffering on others with impunity. All of the crimes that may be visited on one may as well be extended to others: capricious “justice” or detainments, imprisonments, hangings, tortures. Each dictator asks: “who is going to stop me?” And off each goes into the high life on the backs of the hungry, the powerless, and vulnerable.

I’m always happy to share the Reuters piece on Khamenei (“Assets of the Ayatollah”), but I think it better that others embark on similar journeys as regards the entire host of figures whose power has proven malignant and resides in the brutalities and related fears and levers (e.g., bribery and patronage; intimidation and murder) known more to the medieval mind than the modern one.

Yes, this may be the only blog on earth suggesting the reader continue doing the research.

🙂

Here’s a related comment on Moscow’s role in managing conflicts in a manner fit to destroy those it manages to manipulate and prize from the same conflict-related income and, at least in its own hive-mind, power and prestige.

Moscow, representing Putin’s political police, himself, and the oligarchs, may be a greater power than Tehran. It may barely be keeping its political image clean — remember: officially, Moscow is helping Damascus fight “The Terrorists” — but it may have the habit of manipulating political situations to its advantage.

From Somali General Galal, who is still alive, here’s a densely compacted recap of the Somali vs Ethiopian war over the Ogaden: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03pk9c1

In the PROCESS of that war, Moscow apparently manipulated Somali leaders into laying claim or reclaiming the Ogaden, pitting first guerrilla then regular forces against Ethiopian control of the space. As advances pushed Ethiopia out of the contested space, Soviet Russia stepped in to arm Ethiopian forces, who then pushed back the Somalis. The Ogaden continues to host some related “low-intensity conflict”.

Who won?

Getting away from one’s own interests, in this instance Syria, and venturing to overview Moscow’s involvements in conflicts worldwide across time may help us more brightly resolve (accurately perceive) states of affairs in Syria and the Middle East Conflict.

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Links – On Russian Economic Disaffection

28 Monday Dec 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Links, Russia

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The actions of the long haul truckers show this, she says, and others may follow. “What did the government do in this situation?” It made concessions that had the effect of showing that its earlier actions were “unjust” and should not have been taken in the first place. Russians can see that.

“Now, legislation should be very carefully considered, for numerous laws that have been adopted are putting additional burdens on business and on the population. “Unfortunately, in the government, they continue to accept laws” designed to extract more resources from the population and are imposing them to try to cope with the crisis.

http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2015/12/russia-may-be-close-to-revolution-but.html – 12/28/2015

The share of poor families in Russia—those with not enough income to buy food or clothing—in the past year has almost doubled from 22 percent to 39 percent, according to the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center.

https://meduza.io/en/news/2015/12/28/the-number-of-poor-families-in-russia-almost-doubles-in-2015 – 12/28/2015

Freedom, it so happens, carries with it a great many temptations and pitfalls, and no one among Russia’s powerful and propertied today has managed to resist these temptations. Impunity has made it impossible to cure Russia’s corruption with a simple outpatient procedure.

https://meduza.io/en/feature/2015/12/25/opinion-how-russians-became-radicals – 12/25/2015.

Twenty-four years and two days ago, the Soviet Union dissolved itself, a fact of political life and history that today places Putin, the oligarchs, the Russians, and the rest of the world in the 25th year past the monumental failure of the communist experiment.  Today’s apparent “experiment” in place of the last one: feudalism in the form of a medieval revanche harking back to the days of Nicholas II and his establishment of the grandaddy of Russian political police, the Okhrana.

Same old, same old — and the Russian People will bear the costs before the “New Nobility” does (the “Oligarchs” appear to have been already politically compromised, this according to a Dec. 10, 2014 piece by Masha Gessen in The New York Times).

In a possibly Orwellian turn of events, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, so pleasingly pardoned before the Winter Olympics at Sochi has been returned (by Putin’s regime) to the status of an accused enemy of the Russian state, and “arrested in absentia” (the courts and defense are starting to kick around the absurdity — although Putin denies involvement, the state’s reputation developed under his auspices undermines claims to forthright character, i.e., too much has taken place “behind the curtains”).

Addendum

In relation to the expansion of capricious justice in Russia comes this from World Affairs’ “Spotlight on Russia” by Vladimir Kara-Murza: “Putin ‘Outlaws’ European Justice in Russia” (December 24, 2015).

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FTAC – Post-Soviet, Neo-Feudal – Related Remarks of ISIS Defectors

24 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Politics, Russia, Syndicate Red Brown Green, Syria

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The Russian power model sustained by Putin today may hearken directly back to Tsar Nicholas II’s “Okhrana” — Russia’s original “political police”. There are a few books out on the topic, but the idea of infiltrating and co-opting the opposition (to the absolute power represented by the tsar) starts early, the transformation of some police into political agents channeling, derailing, or subverting protest would seem to have become inseparable from the standard operating procedures of today’s political Russia.

This is “cutting edge” as distribution of the PDF precedes the publication of a related book:

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Many nationalities are represented among the foreign fighters. “I have seen people from the USA, the UK, Germany, France, Russia, Chechnya, China, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Palestine [limited numbers]), Lebanon, China, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan,” Abu Jamal stated. He recalled that they were suspicious of the Russians. “We would consider them as agents because they were blonde, real Russian-blooded people and we would not trust them as they would mostly claim that they had been in the Russian Army and then converted to Islam and retired from their posts and came to fight for IS. They were also mostly military strategists and were making the plans for assaults and battles. They were effective on making strategic military decisions in IS.” Some of our informants wondered whether these Russians were plants (i.e. spies or agents), coordinating things with Assad’s forces.

//

Source: Eyewitness Accounts from Recent Defectors from Islamic State: Why They Joined, What They Saw, Why They Quit by Anne Speckhard and Ahmet S. Yayla

The PDF is available online. Just search it up.

ISIS defector remarks dovetail nicely with the participation of Baathist Generals working with ISIS to plan assaults. The Soviet may have officially dissolved itself on December 26, 1991 but perhaps its methods have been sustained.

Media moves fast these days, and the sharing of information through the conflict and psychology community probably competes with the latest sports scores for rapid distribution.

The cause for ISIS suspicions regarding Russian convert-recruits certainly fits with the greater than century-long history of Russia’s political police elements.  How well present relationships may be traced is another matter, secrecy, of necessity, providing the foundations for every facet of conflict development and response (with perhaps the exception of making public the frank observations of terrorist defectors).

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FTAC – Egypt – Russian Airliner Crash

14 Monday Dec 2015

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

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The Kremlin’s cry that “the terrorists done it” has been challenged recently by Egyptian claims that no evidence of a bomb or bombing had been found in the related forensic investigation.  Says Egyptian Streets (Dec. 14, 2015), “Preliminary investigations into the Russian airplane that crashed in Egypt’s North Sinai killing all 224 passengers on board have revealed no signs of terrorism, said the Ministry of Civil Aviation.”

Oh what evil webs some may weave — one hedges where empiricism falters on ambiguous evidence or too little evidence: BackChannels would place Egyptian doubts regarding the Russian assertion of the plane’s having been sabotaged (by having a bomb put on board) before takeoff in Egypt within the following framework.

Post-Soviet, post-KGB neo-feudal now FSB Russia has developed its own “War On Terror” designed to destabilize and fracture NATO and allied or cooperative states.

Muslims may know the epigram, “All of the evil is in one room and lying is the key.”

Through the KGB, the Soviet established a reputation for deceitful and disingenuous action and speech, and in the post-Soviet environment, that nefarious spirit may be expressed, this with reference to the Moscow Apartment Bombings, through possible “false flag” operations designed to manipulate “the masses”. https://conflict-backchannels.com/library/russian-section/ Karen Dawisha’s book may be especially helpful in untangling some of the real life detective mysteries produced by the post-Soviet regime.

On rare occasion, but it happens, the fireman is the arsonist, the hero the creator the monster to be subdued. So it may go with Putin’s feudal revanche in which “Putin vs The Terrorists” — the political display of power proven effective in producing the nationalist fervor that wins elections — is an important fixture and image in Russian politics.

So the motive may be there.

Still, I and most modern observers (as opposed to medieval ones who feel their loyalties constantly tested) would rather have an empirical analysis of the crash than any useless collection of bold political assertions.

Given that all politics involves presentation, i.e., some show-and-tell business, one might ask whether any, most, or some political organizations possess more integrity than others.

The question’s fair today, for the theme most central to a spectacle in which the modern world — and the modern soul — struggles with the medieval involves the relative weight of a “loyal lie” to the possession of a possibly lonely integrity as regards an authentic and solid cognizance of the truth.

In the old biblical story in which “God proves” Abraham, the test is never defined but potentially involves either a test of absolute obedience to God or, much more interesting, a test of Abraham’s conscience and courage to speak back to God in defense of the life of the son he and Sarah had waited so long to have.  God sees to it that Isaac lives (while a ram is made to die in his place) and never again speaks directly to Abraham.

BackChannels’ preferred argument: the test of conscience, courage, and, perhaps, Abrahams integrity as a father.

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FTAC – The “Medieval Time Bubble” Mentioned

28 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Islamic Small Wars, Politics, Russia, Syndicate Red Brown Green, Syria

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Imagine such a thing as a “Medieval Time Bubble” — a place where heads of state hold “absolute power” over their plundered and subject people. It’s in that bubble, today post-Soviet and neo-feudal, that Putin, Assad, Khamenei, AND Baghdaddi need one another for keeping on display “Assad vs The Terrorists” and sustaining eadh their own portion of the medieval worldview.

I believe Daesh autonomous in its operations and spirit but manipulated to serve the ruling feudals as a foil for their militaries or their politics, to serve as leverage (“Assad OR The Terrorists” is the name of that play), and to serve as a goad to the west and related western defense spending.

The response to Daesh AND other medieval enterprises may have to come from the world that most immediately surrounds them.

Trolls online — paid? not paid?  who knows — regularly credit the United States with having developed ISIS / ISIL / Daesh.  For cause based in news, BackChannels has taken the opposite stance, and Daesh, although autonomous in its own mind and in its own workings, serves the medieval designs of Moscow, Damascus, and Tehran for the furtherance of despotism, fascism, and militarism — and endless war — far into the 21st Century.

In essence, the dissolving of the Soviet, almost 24 years ago, led not to democracy but to a feudal revanche benefiting primarily the ultra-privileged of Russia.

Today’s axis Moscow-Tehran may boast not only autocratic governance but with the help of Daesh’s presence in Iraq and Syria, a pretty good engine for the promotion of “New Nationalist” urges elsewhere and amplified and broadened divisions between people based on legacy in nationality, race, and religion, an anti-NATO strategy that appears to be working as post-KGB / KGB-Style Theater (“Assad vs The Terrorists”) proves that perception at a glance may create a useful target’s impression of reality.

Related on BackChannels

Syria – “Assad vs The Terrorists” – How ISIS Defends Assad

https://conflict-backchannels.com/syndicate-red-brown-green/

Ali Khamenei and the Letter from Near Mosul – A Speculation

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Excerpt – On Tsar Nicholas II’s Political Police

23 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Political Psychology, Politics, Russia

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Zubatov had long harboured plans for the restructuring and expansion of the political police, envisioning an elite and quasi-independent political police, acting under the direct order of its own Special Section and only indirectly under the orders of Fontanka; a truly secret police expanding and operating at the behest of the MVD‘s edicts, circulars, and regulations and not through the statutes of the Svod Zakonov (Digest of Laws).

Plehve dismissed Lopukhin’s plan and gave Zubatov’s proposals his full support.  Zubatov’s ideas on police reform fitted comfortably within Plehve’s view of traditional tsarist bureaucratic behavior, satisfying both his belief in Imperial power politics and his secretive nature.  He conceived of political police reform in the only way his experience allowed him to: not through decentralization of authority as Lopukhin believed, but through its deconcentration — the expansion of central authority in the provinces.  Indeed, this strategy would permit Plehve to swell the size of the political police to ministerial proportions.  As a result Plehve would in fact hold two very powerful ministerial portfolios: minister of internal affairs and the unofficial post of minister of internal security, enhancing his power and prestige within both ministerial circles and the court, making him the most powerful man in Russia next to the tsar.

Zuckerman, Fredric S.  The Tsarist Secret Police in Russian Society, 1880-1917.  Pp. 92-93.  Washington Square, New York: New York University Press, 1996.

“Fontanka” refers to “Fontanka 16 Quai” (St. Petersburg), the central location, evidently of minimized importance at the above passage, for Tsar Alexander II’s secret police.

Other and Related Reference and Terms

Holler, Lyman E., “They Shoot People, Don’t They?  A Look at Soviet Terrorist Mentality.”  Air University Review, September-October 1981.

Okhrana

Pyotr Rachlovsky

According to Wikipedia, “Many authors maintain that it was Rachkovsky’s agent in Paris, Matvei Golovinski, who in the early 1900s authored the first edition.[3] The text presented the impending Russian Revolution of 1905 as a part of a powerful global Jewish conspiracy and fomented anti-Semitism to deflect public attention from Russia’s growing social problems. Another Rachkovsky agent, Yuliana Glinka, is often cited as the person who brought the forgery from France to Russia.”

—The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Russian Social-Democratic Worker’s Party

The Frederic S. Zuckerman Prizes

Union of Liberation

A rabbi said to me one afternoon in relation to religious zealots, “end times”, and terrorism: “Everyone’s in too much of a hurry to get to the end of the story.”

We were then looking forward.

At the moment, BackChannels has been looking backward and would say to the rabbi, “To the contrary, everyone wants to go back to the drawing board!”

For the Islamists, the “drawing board” appears to be 7th Century Medieval Barbarism.

For the Russian President, perhaps, it may be the political police serving Tsar Nicholas II.

“Reset!” takes on new meaning.

Zuckerman’s book has been the reading on deck and under way, but there is another coming: “Fontanka 16” is not only a place but (in the wild literary ways of the west) the title of another book (and one incoming): (URL to Review of the same) Fontanka 16: The Tsars’ Secret Police, by Charles A. Ruud and Sergei A. Stepanov. Montreal, Quebec, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1999.

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